A Long Time Without Posting
I have not written in quite awhile — since last April, apparently. Much has happened since then. Ernie came to visit in June, got a new house. Mom and Dad went away for a short trip to Pismo this December and were only gone 4 days before I called them back with the news that our neighbor Eric had died on December 6. I knew this because the police or fire dept. came to fetch me at 9 AM, looking for Mom. Then I went and sat with Eric’s wife until Mom got home. I didn’t know what to say or do. Eric was giving me tips on banjo making — though he thought I was a bit nuts in the way I make my banjos and I’m sure wondered why I didn’t do it properly. He could tune the banjo I managed to get in Reno too. He was recently teaching me how to make sourdough bread the old-fashioned way, which means I learned about the windowpane test and how to knead the bread until silky and that you can add water to the dough and not have it dry on the surface like I have it. Eric and his wife came over for Thanksgiving 2009, and I made the bread for that. The sourdough in it died, but it was still good with yeast. For some strange reason, my starter appears to be cursed with the stove being turned on, cooking nearby, pouring cold water on the yeast, etc. Something always happens to it. Around September 2009 or so, Eric lent me some of his books on historical cooking because we got into a discussion about it, as far as my project for History Club. I just returned those before Thanksgiving. It is very interesting to look at the ways of cooking that were done entirely differently historically. You wouldn’t think that baking had changed as much as it has.
I have been looking for jobs and continue to intern at the City. I recently learned how to name documents inside the scanner, which will save me a lot of time. I got an excellent letter of recommendation from my supervisor, which was kind of her.
Courtney came back from Masschusetts in September and has been great fun, especially since I now have company while working on the computer and also someone to cook with. She has showed me how to make cake, with ice cream and Kahlua for toppings, which I haven’t had before. Mmmm…
The yard has turned into a puddle the likes of which has not been seen here since the flood in 1998 (though at least these rain storms stop occasionally). Wolfie was apparently forced to swim the other day when he tried to play king of the mountain on his dirt pile and discovered he couldn’t find a way back to dry land. Wolfie has decided he wants to live in the yard — except not in the rain, so he runs out and then back in again. Walter, naturally, is the opposite and has made up his mind that he will never leave the couch or TV ever again. If found outside, he flings himself down beside the back door and complains to be let in again. Mom found out you can play with him if you roll the ball slowly where he can see it. We’ve determined that he has some visual impaired. Goes along with the arthritic and blind animals from before, I suppose.
My marvelous carniverous Shovel-Head Worm has died, as have the slugs I put in to feed him. This thing was as long as a good sized snake when Ernie found him in the front yard. He had a great stripe down his back like a garter snake (the worm, not Ernie). The internet said the worm ate other worms and animals, and since I saw no good purpose to flinging in the worm bin as I did with the developing salamander (who promptly developed more fingers and toes, better wrist and head definition in 2 days and grew remarkably — but then I removed him to the yard) — because the Shovel Head Worm would be unable to navigate with the other worms and would eat them all and be much harder to recapture. So I put him in a terraium in the back room, fed him with the slugs that had apparently found their way into the worm bin, and he appeared quite happy and wet enough. But apparently he didn’t many or any of the slugs after all, and they had nothing to eat because I don’t know what slugs eat, so they all died just the same. I’m not quite sure why, because the Shovel Head Worm should be able to live off himself for several months and as I didn’t have him for that long, I wonder what he couldn’t eat.
Kim reported tornado warnings for this area the other day, but I heard on the news that it was only the type of storm that might turn into a tornado. The weather’s funny. We had deluges for an hour, then the sky will be utterly clear and sunny, and when you look again, it has clouded over and the deluges are about to start. I have now been re-trained in lighting pilot lights, turning off gas and water, etc. in case the need arises.
i’ve been tinkering with writing ebooks and with typography and formatting. I bought a program on sale which has some interesting features and learned how to make an index on it, but beyond that it appears it may be more trouble than it’s worth. So back to the drawing board as far as that goes. I’ve also been tinkering with several stories lately — a genetically engineered children story is the newest one, followed by a historical thing which is either set in 1930’s or 1800’s, I’m not sure yet. They are going reasonably well but have no charactors so far.
I joined LinkedIn and Facebook, so am now probably more connected to the web than I ever hoped to be. My 10th high school reunion was November — good to see people again and learn what they were doing, as well as the fact that the reunion was good, easy to get to, didn’t cost much to get in, and was lit and handled in such a way that I enjoyed myself. I could actually see people enough to figure out who they were — at least, given that I hadn’t seen many high school people in a long time.
Someday I should figure out how to upload pictures to this blog. That’s all for now as I have to eat breakfast — cereal.