The Time Sink

Somedays the old weblog urge comes back and I just have to go with it...

Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney, Jr) has died. Requiem aeternam dona ets, Domine...

September is a sad month for the SF community, that's two in just under a year. Great friends with each other too. More later this month on John Ford.

...and as a counterpoint? Sure! While trolling the linkages of friends and friends of friends for the second part of that Book Fetish blog post, I came across this gem of a piece from yet another author. Do not be drinking or eating anything, especially if you've ever had an encounter with own of those small 'automatic' umbrellas...

Locally? How about ground-penetrating radar to maybe answer one of the more pressing questions about our ability to sustain growth here. The aquifer is being depleted on the valley floor, and we need to know what is happening up in the hills. Perhaps the scientists from Lawrence Berkeley can provide some answers if the money can be made available.

Oh, the weekend... Yeah, well... We did get some work done on the 'step out' we're putting in on one side of the drive way. It's not finished, but it gave Brad and me an idea of what we need to do to work on the other one (more work than I thought for both!). ...and Brad is now adept with a maul and a mattock to collapse the sides of trenches. The maul is a bit heavy for his weight class, but he works it well enough to finish up what I start.

...and we need to have most of that trench filled: there may be rain on the valley floor this weekend. That wouldn't be a show stopper as I do have the drain lines in; all I have to do is let them do their job. ...but it would slow down the leveling work since we'd have compacted soil again instead of dry dirt. ...and I would really like to get the sprinkler valves moved, and I don't want to do that in wet trenches!

Van Halen is coming to town! Okay, okay, I realize that is sooo "Aging Rockers Play Oldies for Boomers", but hey... I mean, we can sell out The Stones when they come to town (both 'back when' and 'just now'), and the kicker this time is that Diamond Dave is going to be with them. Yeah, there's a draw if you're an aging boomer who maybe saw them when they were here the first time...

Oh, not that I'm going to go or anything. Concerts here at the new venue are best likened to prying back the lid on a sardine can, and I'm not sure whether the numbing effects of the older concerts are still happening now. Still, Van Halen with David Lee Roth should be one heck of a show. Oh, and the replacement bass player? It's Eddie's kid. Yeah, at sixteen and playing with Dad and his buds. Not bad...

Hey, it might rain today! That 'low pressure cell' they said would "cool us off about ten degrees by the weekend" and that became "maybe some rain in the higher elevations" has dropped the temps at least twenty degrees already and may raise some havoc here on the valley floor.

I spent some of the evening clearing the tools away from the open storage and moving the grilling and smoking supplies under cover. Some of the trenchwork is still exposed, but Brad has everything we can cover filled in, and we'll have to rely on the incomplete drain system to take care of this first storm. Here's hoping I can get the sprinkler manifold done over the weekend so we can fill everything in before the October stuff gets here.

Photo notes: the "sisters" series was shot in a field to the side of a rural road not far from home. I may put up another shot from that plant from that shoot, but for now I'll give you an overview shot of the weed itself:

Yep, Jimson weed, one of my favorite weeds to photograph; you've seen the flowers on the photo blog in the past, and even the seed pods (last Sunday). The plant itself is all sorts of poisonous; you may know it better as "loco weed"...

...and on the photo of Fairyland: that was taken just before the sunset shot. As I walked down to the field I noticed the sunlight was coming though the fence just to the west of the fairies in such a manner as to light up their wings. It's a low light shot: the yard itself was in shadow from the fence and an overhanging tree. Sunlight through the space between another board pair can be seen on the rocks in the foreground.

...and this weekend will simply not be a repeat of last weekend, what with all the tension and rushing about and time constraints and, and, and... No "ands" today or tomorrow. Sure there are things to be done, and we'll get to them; but the emphasis for me is going to be pacing myself and working on not starting the work week at Mach 9.

...and while the rains never hit (yet!), other than some light sprinkles; the temperatures are down nearly thirty degrees from a week ago. We'll be up to near-ninety by the end of the week, but today is one nice day. ...and to take advantage of that, and to keep true to my weekend plans, I got up this morning just so I could take a nap. Yep, I opened the living room windows, grabbed a throw, and kicked back on a recliner with a cat on my legs and studied the inner workings of the universe for a time.

No post.

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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke, "Technology and the Future"

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