Cold, cold, cold.

Headed for 17 tonight. Not sure what we hit during the power-out, but it was 20’s-like. Thank goodness this place is insulated. And if you have windows that are a problem during winters or summer sun,...

Bit the bullet and ordered a generator.

The thought of what it would have been had this happened on the tail end of Convergence is pretty persuasive. I turned that book in literally on the deadline, with a lot riding on that date: miss your publishing ‘slot’ and a whole series can lose out,...

The pond is shivering this morning…

Strong wind from the east, unusual, on a very cold morning, makes the water surface shiver all up and down. It looks cold out there. The lotus pond had frozen yesterday morning. The large pond will lose heat fast with this wind blowing. We have, several weeks ago,...

Floor leveling 101

I swear there is nothing Jane can’t do. In this case, we decided the carpet had to go—allergies. So we took it up. The hardwood floor in Jane’s room —stopped—in favor of plywood about 10′ feet in. But not just stopped. The plywood...

3 am wakeup call…

So here I am dozing peacefully with the window open, 3 am, and Sei jumps up and runs to the window, tail bushed. Now Shu, the Night Fury, our fierce black Bengal that no stranger should try to touch, is great at attacking people IN the house, and will defend a hotel...

What else could possibly go wrong?

The postman left a large padded letter/envelope as well as a box leaning against our porch wall. Put the envelope behind the box. Picking up the box caused the envelope to drop through a crack between our concrete porch and the brickwork, clear to the ground, because...