by CJ | Nov 30, 2015 | Journal
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,...
by CJ | Nov 29, 2015 | Journal
Yesterday we leveled the floor in Jane’s bedroom. Two 50 lb bags of Quikrete leveling underlayment, and an ordinary power drill. Because we couldn’t use a 5 gallon bucket-type mixer, we divvied it into 5 pound lots with a kitchen scales, added 2 cups...
by CJ | Nov 29, 2015 | Journal
Yesterday we leveled the floor in Jane’s bedroom. Two 50 lb bags of Quikrete leveling underlayment, and an ordinary power drill. Because we couldn’t use a 5 gallon bucket-type mixer, we divvied it into 5 pound lots with a kitchen scales, added 2 cups...
by CJ | Nov 28, 2015 | Journal
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,...
by CJ | Nov 27, 2015 | Journal
Attempts just to clear the obvious filter have succeeded. But there seems to be another filter inside, inaccessible without special tools, and that is clogged. We are not pleased. It’s a pain to service, Jane has had it, and I am putting my foot down. We are...
by CJ | Nov 25, 2015 | Journal
More later. Nastional news seems to have reported this as a 20,000 household power outage. We were hit with near hurricane force winds (71 mph) and trees went down on the power lines. ours stood, but the news services forgot a zero. It’s 200,000 people in...
by CJ | Nov 17, 2015 | Journal
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,...
by CJ | Nov 16, 2015 | Journal
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...
by CJ | Nov 11, 2015 | Journal
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...
by CJ | Nov 7, 2015 | Journal
We hate doing in mice, but we have to defend our stuff in the garage. Jane ordered some flatpack anti-mouse stuff that should have arrived by now. We think it is now mouseproofing the underside of our porch.
by CJ | Nov 4, 2015 | Journal
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...
by CJ | Nov 2, 2015 | Journal
It is in New York. I do not even want to tell you all that happened trying to get this file to New York, usually a matter of seconds. But it is done, it is in! And we did it! With Jane’s suggestions, input, spellchecking, grammar-checking, reading, critiquing,...