Job one, writing.
Job two, get the pond netting replaced. Well, we got half of it: plants had grown through the mesh, so we had to cut euphorbia (poisonous and allergenic, what a lovely plant, but pretty) with gloves and loppers, clamber around rocks, pull netting out of euphorbia, algae, and horsetail grass. We pulled out a knee-high (when wet) pile of cladella (string algae) and cleaned up, then we were exhausted and I poured black-brown sludge remover in to camouflage the fish from aerial predators because we’re just done in.
Then of course, toward late afternoon Jane tackled moving an 8 foot tall recently planted (thank God) crab apple and causing the rock dry streambed to take a major zig and zag—then using the crab apple hole to plant a new Japanese thready evergreen shrub, while the crab is about 8 feet further from the house.
At this point I went in to fix dinner, and we wolfed it down. Rabbit food. I’m getting weary of salad, but we need the weight control.
Today, replay, except the crab tree, and now we have to put the netting back. ASAP. All it takes is our eagle coming back and spotting lunch.
We did go on line for gaming last night, and funny thing, we had a curtailed session because most of the other players, mostly guys, were so sore from gardening they were done in. It seemed a nationwide malady yesterday…
And we didn’t get the netting renewed today, which makes me nervous. But I did get the front yard sprayed down with Miracle Gro. Every other week, front yard, every odd week, back yard.
We’re really, really sore and tired…and we haven’t been doing our power walk, because the chores to do have mounted up. But we are at least keeping up.
The weather is spottily cold, then warm.
This weekend is Bloomsday, when you DO NOT want to be trying to get rezzes at a Spokane restaurant. This is a 7.5 mile race (most people walk it) where people pushing prams can contend with runners from Kenya…it celebrates spring, and is a good training run for the marathon season, which is how we rate the Kenyans. I have a couple or three Bloomsday shirts (you get one for finishing) but I have quite resigned. I believe my last time was 3 hours 10 minutes. The Kenyans come in a little over half an hour. You may believe they get to start first.
It’s kind of fun, but crippling. The last race put some serious, serious blisters on, and I finished walking with one tennis shoe tied to my foot like a sandal, just because otherwise the gravel would have killed me, but the blisters had gone way deep.
People wear old clothes because it’s always chilly on start, then as you warm up, you toss your clothes into overhanging trees, and there’s a charity that comes behind the race, picks up the clothes, launders them, and gives them to the needy.
During our first race we were frozen, then overheated, then rained on, sleeted on, snowed on, rained on, and finally baked. One hill, Doomsday hill, is topped by a guy in a vulture suit, and a collection of first aid stations.
This year we are sitting it out and eating at home!
It’s 7 and a half miles—but parking is a nightmare, and you may end up hiking quite a distance to your car…https://www.bloomsdayrun.org/race-information/general-information
All that walking around the garden may have equaled your regular walk’s mileage. To better keep track of your daily walking exercise, get a pedometer. Either the fancy fitness apps for your smartphone or something simple you can put in your pocket like an Omron pedometer that uses a battery a year. After awhile you’ll be able to judge how many steps a day work for you to lose weight and how many for maintenance.
And you’ll also know where your stopping point is. Did I mention that I think Tracker is great? I can hardly wait for the next book.
Off topic request for advice about computers.
My employer is switching to BYOD (bring your own device), and so between now and september I need to buy a laptop, with the minimal requirements being Windows 7 or higher, or OS X 10.8 or higher; WiFi 5 Ghz, and HDMI connector. They also strongly recommend an SSD hard drive.
I know people here have talked about their experiences with different operating systems and different versions, and I’d like some advice.
My own experience at home is with Windows XP (which laptop worked well until all the Windows-updates overfilled my C-partition, and I couldn’t move any space from the data-partition to the C) and Windows 7 (which laptop still refuses to play nicely with my Ereader and Calibre). I don’t know Linux, and unless that’s the same as OS X 10.8 I don’t know if it would be allowed.
The recommended brands are Apple (the cheapest of which is at the upper limit of our employer’s buying-subsidy) or Lenovo; with Asus, Toshiba and MSI ranked second.
Any advice? Which Windows-version would you go for? Or is the OS X alternative better?
And would it be better to divide the new computer into a C (programs) and a data-partition again, as I am used to doing, or isn’t that a good idea anymore?
I’ld go with the largest Win 7 Professional system you can afford amongst those brands. Win 7 Pro comes with a free license for Win 10 when it becomes available. It’s hard to get Win 7 here in the US but it can be done with perseverance. I’m not an Apple person so can’t comment there. Whatever you get don’t skimp on memory. You can always add cheap external drives. And you really have to be happy with the monitor resolution. True, you can always add an external monitor but that may break your budget.
Dell offers Win 7 Pro with that license.
The Latitudes are good—with the caveat that you may need to get into the setup to enable multiple USBs to work well, and to make your keyboard light up—they can walk you through that on the phone, or just take remote control and do it for you; and the Precisions are good. Do take the service policy for an extended time: keyboards wear out and things can go wrong, but if you have the they-come-to-you policy, you won’t have downtime.
Mac OS X is not Linux, although there is a version of Unix “underneath” the Mac OS X operating system.
I recently looked at new Mac prices for systems. My budget won’t allow it yet, though I need to upgrade when I can. My computer is now older and its RAM is maxed out too often. Too slow too often. No malware or viruses, thank goodness.
The Mac Mini might be OK with one of its higher configurations. An iMac is a good system, but not so expandable, which is important as it ages out. Still, an iMac is a good purchase, if you’re going the Mac route. The Mac Pro, that big black cylinder, is one heckuva machine, expandable and powerful as it is…but too pricey for me for the foreseeable future. I was disappointed with what I saw for the current Mac Mini.
The MacBook Air and their newest laptops are quite fine little laptops, but I wish Apple would put in more expandability there too. This seems to be spreading to other computer manufacturers.
Aside: I still love my iPhone and iPad, but I dislike very much the lack of a physical keypad on the iPhone and its (stupid) insistence on power-saving mode while on the phone and in need of the keypad for phone menu input. Ugh.
If you want to learn the Mac, my recommdation is, it’s not too hard to switch, but it does take a little getting used to. The hardware prices are higher; they’re higher end systems. So you may prefer a Windows machine for work, and try a Mac meanwhile, at an Apple Store or get one for home if you find you like it that much.
One thing about Macs: They have *always* been easier for international language input, keyboard layouts, typing in accented letters and special symbols. Their keyboard system is across the entire OS, not just within, say, a word processor or office suite. So it’s much easier to type Option-u A or Option-e e, for instance, or Option-C, for common European letters. Far easier than the Windows keypad numeric codes, which are awfully arcane.
So a Windows laptop may still be your best bet, unless you can afford the cost and time learning the Mac.
One benefit: New Mac owners get about a year of free classes at any Apple Store, for individualized learning, tutoring, on what they need to learn for the OS, hardware, and software. This is a good deal.
I was an old Mac user from before the Mac OS went to a Unix base underneath, before Mac OS X. I was very surprised at how little I needed to relearn or unlearn for the current OS. This is in the Mac’s favor.
Apple is clearly moving toward some sort of melding of its Mac OS and iOS operating systems, but so far, it has been mostly sensible and usable. More so than what’s been happening with Windows. Problems and time wasted with Windows were why I made the switch back when I did. I was too tired of Windows oddness. — But others may have different opinions.
If I were going for a Windows computer, I’d likely go with Dell now. Though mindful of CJ’s recent frustration for a while, I have had, overall, good results with Dell. I’ve also been very happy with Gateway in the past, but haven’t had a Gateway PC in years now.
Windows 7 is definitely the best choice. Mac OS will be too different from what you are used to, and most people don’t like Windows 8.
Th brand doesn’t matter too much as long as you like the machine, and you have a good warranty.
CJ, could you put in the floating shade circle, to give them something to shelter under temporarily, in case the eagle or a raccoon comes by?
That sounds like something that can be done a lot easier than fixing the netting, and might buy you some time to recover before you really need to get to the netting.
If you’re working this hard, you’re definitely getting your exercise, even without the power walking. Maybe you need a bit more than the rabbit food to keep your energy up.
I was going to ask if you’d received any boxes of Tracker hardcovers, that you might wish to sell to us to help de-clutter the house 😉 – I would like to buy a signed book for my dad, sometime this summer, to take along on our holiday ; but if you’re working your backs and your legs this hard in the garden, it’s not a good time to do more (non-urgent) schlepping. By the way, is that a proper word to use for lifting and carrying boxes and taking them to the post-office etc.? I’ve seen it used in English texts but is seems a very German-looking word to me, so maybe it’s dialect or slang?
Schlepping is a very American word for trundling to the post office and lugging things around. Not so much in Australia which doesn’t have a large Yiddish speaking population.
I see, an “American” word that’s not common without Yiddish speakers?
schlep: to drag or haul (an object); to walk, esp. to make a tedious journey (from Yiddish שלעפּן shlepn; cf. German schleppen) (OED, MW) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Yiddish_origin
The circle is in place. We haven’t seen any eagles. But we’ve got so many things to do, it doesn’t seem as if the netting is going to go on today. The fish have gotten too large to tempt a heron, but I may take the simple expedient of spreading pepper about in case of raccoons.
Yes, I have Tracker hardcovers. I’m not going to put them up on CC yet because we’re just too harried to handle the shipping, but for Wave members, yes, I will. I will collect a bundle of them and do it all at once.
Good news, but please recover first!
Yes indeed. I am eyeballing a dead tree version as a Christmas present, but since that is in no way urgent, it can wait until you have slack time.
I’m reading Tracker now and enjoying it! I posted that here because I think I’m past the no spoiler period on the Foreigner thread. I’ll want to read about or post about a point or two over there when I’m finished reading. In the meantime, I wanted to say thank you, CJ.
Just finished Tracker, and must say that it was outstanding. I particularly liked the combination of anticipation for the next book, and a feeling of completion for the in-book story arc. An unusual combination, and very well done. I read it in one long session, as I’m laid up with a broken ankle, so I’m looking forward to a more leisurely re-read soon.
Can’t wait for the sequel !!!