"Letters to Miss Emily..."

[backhoe]

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/

USING CELLPHONE SIGNALS TO FIND PEOPLE AFTER A DISASTER.http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/natural-disasters/cellphone-signals-can-find-people-scattered-by-disaster-9842813?click=pm_latest

[backhoe]

I talked to MaryAnn a couple of times and got a better idea of her situation- something is going on but we need more information. We exchanged names & numbers of people we trust- mine kinda short due to attrition. I gave her the best advice I could and she's going to chill out, help old Dr. John with some new O2 equipment, and we'll resume later.

[backhoe]

Just as a point of interest? Before "events overtook me" I was a fixture at Free Republic, every day. While The Dark Underbelly was my main interest- I cruised FR & the web every day linking to "all you ought to be thinking over" I did do standalone posts on subjects that interested me. From the frivolous to the serious.

Some called me ""The Czar of Links." Some called me other things...

One of my most read posts- topping out last time I checked at over 60,000 views-- was this one:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308759/posts

The Great Wave- Sumatra Quake and tsunami of 2004
various FR links | 12-26-04 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2004 7:09:30 PM by backhoe

This Iconic photo?



The people in the picture did survive The Great Wave.

[RedDog]

I remember the media chatter about how there were no dead animals around in a place with cows, cats, dogs and chickens in the streets on a normal day when there were human bodies stacked up like firewood. The animals headed for the hills and high ground while tourists were on the beach taking video chattering with margaritas in their hands. What can you do?

[RedDog]

There's an ice cream truck on our dead end of 9 houses by the river. I'm going out to buy on general principle. I don't even want ice cream but one has to make sacrifices for the greater community good.

[backhoe]

I remember the media chatter about how there were no dead animals around in a place with cows, cats, dogs and chickens in the streets on a normal day when there were human bodies stacked up like firewood. The animals headed for the hills and high ground while tourists were on the beach taking video chattering with margaritas in their hands. What can you do?

Well, we call them "dumb" animals because they can't speak- but there's nothing wrong with their instincts. I read reports that as soon as the sea receded ( Danger Will Robinson! ) plenty of fools walked out onto the seabed to gather pretty shells.

[backhoe]

There's an ice cream truck on our dead end of 9 houses by the river. I'm going out to buy on general principle. I don't even want ice cream but one has to make sacrifices for the greater community good.

I still haven't run the AC except for two days last month. The misty cool or misty mate or whatever the Devil it is cools the air outside the bay window I'm in enough that I haven't needed it so far.

Now that I have an actual refrigerator again ( Tips hat Islandward... ) I've thought about getting one of these things:

http://www.amazon.com/MEGA-ICE-CREAM-MAKER-BLUE/dp/B004D1AJOE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1340316953&sr=8-2&keywords=ice+cream+maker+ball

[backhoe]

In the silence of my soul... I've written a little bit about that here and there... and others have, too.

I call it 4:00 O'clock in the morning when you can't wake up but you can't go back to sleep.

It's a variant of The Dreamtime...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamtime

...or maybe it all is just a bad dream and my Mother or Father will cradle me and wake me up from it and tell me all is well...

A cold furry muzzle poked me awake at 1:30... so I let him out. Cole-boy found things to bark at, so I dragged him back in.

And hour later he wanted out again.... bark, bark, chase scents around the yard- me chasing him... drag him back and at nearly 3:00 O'clock, decide to throw in the towel, get up, and start the day again.

Aleve, for aching bones and joints. Zantac to maybe keep me from bleeding to death internally. A few vitamins just in case my abysmal diet is not supplying them.

Trudge up those long & winding stairs and fetch a few things from my bath to be washed.

While I'm there I ponder energy use and costs and money and crank on the big fan to suck some of the heat out of the upstairs. It's not furnace-like the way it was two years ago when my Emmy died, just warm-- but still, the less heat that infiltrates the downstairs the better. So I throw a switch I replaced when she was still alive and with a great roar vast columns of warm air blow by me.

Go back down to start the wash- past the middle room with all her stuff, the empty studio
( Still haven't gotten paid for all her instruments and her brother still hasn't given me a check for all the stuff of mine he sold on ebay... and a part of does not care because she is gone, forever, to the sea... ) and down those long & winding stairs...

Start the wash- hmmm... warm or cold? Low, medium, or high water levels? As the tub fills I toss in oxygen bleach, 20 mule team borax, fabric softener and scent-free soap- then the laundry. Once that is going I climb back upstairs to shut the big fan off- it's cool enough downstairs-- go back down and consult my new Acer Aspire One...

And that is when it hits me.

Not the “gone, forever to the Sea” part. I know that part all too well. Not the “Dead & Gone” part- nobody knows any better than I how dead she was when that cold muzzle poked me awake and led me to her pitiful purple corpse.

No, what really strikes me is this-

“What am I supposed to do next?”

Now that you who I pledged my life to forever has gone away, flown to the Sun, “Alice doesn't live here anymore,” slipped your cable and sailed away beyond the Sunset...

I look at the case of my new Acer Aspire ( Miss MaryAnn has her old one now ) and when I open it up and it lights up I look at my feet...
( Yeah, they hurt all the time- somehow I could never convince my Emmy of that or how much it cost me to walk all those miles for her... )
...and in that Silence of my Soul moment I wonder....

“What do I do now?” You left me. Alone on this evil old world. You promised.

You.

Promised.

Then, you went away...

“What do I do now?”

I guess I go on. Throw it in to gear and drive, another day. Without you.

-30-

[backhoe]

I talked for a while this morning with MaryAnn- that made me feel better and she's feeling better about things. We agreed to get in touch around lunchtime & I encouraged her to take her usual walk on the beach with her neighbor who is somewhat disabled.

One of the things she wants done is getting the dishwasher back in its cabinet. She pulled it out last year to replace a circuit board ( You own an electronics store, you learn stuff... ) but due to warpage of the floor & cabinet it won't go back in the hole. She says that getting the house really cold will unwarp it, but I suggested sanding clearance in the top opening. With that in mind I filled a bucket with tools and The Kid ( Who is still shedding whole dogs behind him... ) and I are standing by,

-30-

[backhoe]

Notice of termination!

You gotta love bureaucracies- today is the 22nd.
( And a minor sidenote? That “22” has been bugging me since I woke up. I finally figured it out- Em & wed Sept.22-- for some reason that number 22 is bothering me...and that must be why. )

You may recall I had a telephone interview with the food stamp office the 14th. They made a big deal about returning the forms they were going to send by the 25th. I filled 'em out and mailed them the 18th.

Today?

“Notice of Termination!” Because I didn't get the forms back by the 25th. Which hasn't happened yet.

As my brother in law noted nearly 2 years ago when I was near-destitute, “For God's sake they have aid for mothers on crack! Why can't they help you?”

And I told him the truth- “wrong sex, wrong color, Robert...”

He had no reply- because that is the truth.

Well, it's not like I ever used their $16 a month, and they will probably reinstate it and then revoke it again just like they did last time...

-30-

[backhoe]

Housekeeping notes, June 22 2012

I never heard back from MaryAnn at lunchtime so I presumed she got tied up with something-no sweat, my tools are packed and “have brown hat & Border Collie, will travel...” When the time arrives.

We screwed around the house, I went shopping, and around 4 the food stamp office called. I don't have the patience to give a blow by blow account but let's say she asked why I had not returned “the yellow form” and my reply was “I sent back what you sent me- there was no yellow form...”

She'll send me one. I'll fill it out and send it back.

I decided that jury duty annoyances or not I would vote not only in the November election but in the July 31 special. Not only do I want to strike a blow against TSPLOST there is a clerk running who filled her entire office with her whole family. She needs to go, and so do they. Nepotism's an ugly thing

If we don't roll back government it is going to eat us alive. It already is doing so and has been for some time.

I'm enjoying the beJesus out of this new Acer Aspire- it's a pleasure to use- I think when MaryAnn gets hers set up, networked, and configured the way she likes it she won't do with out it- they are so handy.

It's 85 out and 84 in but so far both Cole and I are fine with just fans & the misty mate. Old Zoey would be heaving like a bellows at those temps but she's beyond that now- I do miss the old girl. It's funny how dark and how far away that time now seems.

Long day's journey into night. Long road out. A ways to go.

-30-

[backhoe]

Sticking this here so I can find it again...



As I'd thought MaryAnn got tied up with various matters- we'll get together "when we can..."

And the Cat's in the Cradle...

[backhoe]

Inertia is a funny thing... I've written at various times about how important it was for me to make the parts of the house The Kid & I stir around in look different after Emily died- the house was 90-95% “her.” And that really bothered me- I made it different in stages and that helped a lot.

Back in August 2010 when old Zoey had the ear surgery I wrote how in the strange and Emily-less New World I found myself upon I could do what I wanted- the problem was figuring out what to do...
My first reprise to that was to return to Pennick Road to take pictures and even in the middle of all that screeching hurt I found myself liking that.

I do wish I'd had the presence of mind to take “before” pictures of our quarters- what you'd see now is shipshape, “before” it was The Wreck of the Hesperus...

I started looking around my nightstand area... except that it is much neater everything's about like it was when ole Emmy was amongst the Quick, minus her tons of junk in drawers. I guess it was back during the 2008 fundraiser here we had a storm fry some of electronics and I got a UPS for my kitchen PC and one for her laptop. It has sat on the floor since then.

I never gave it a thought- when I had the older netbook it had a line cord that plugged into the transformer halfway up the line and that is where I disconnected it to take it elsewhere- I had spare cords to go to other outlets. But the new Acer has the Xformer molded into the plug and with the UPS on the floor it is very awkward to get to...

In one of those “well, duh!” moments I realized there was so much room to spare in the table by the bed that it could go there & be far easier to reach. So I hauled it up and after cleaning 4 years of spilled drinks, ashes & dust off of it ( Jesus Christ, people are dirty pigs- me included... ) it sits on the table with monocular, camera, and ashtray.

And now the new netbook unplugs easily. Duh...

I chatted electronically earlier with MaryAnn to whom I say in case she reads this, “Yes, Ma'am I am eating those black cherries you gave me...” And she may have a point- I swear my toes hurt less after a couple of days of doing that. Maybe I do have gout in the damn things.

I've let the grass get thigh-high on the theory “maybe if it goes to seed it will spread to the bald spots,” but I really need to bush-hog it soon. Naturally it has spread everywhere I don't want it, like the flowerbeds...

And I'd better remember to feed & water the old bird soon- when her seed tray gets low she emits outraged squawks and “Burrrr!'s”

-30-

[backhoe]

Computers & things...

Curious about the internal workings & norms of this new netbook I wracked my brain for the name of some software I'd used a few PC's ago when I was having a fan problem- naturally a web search turned it up- Speedfan. After I use it over time I'll have a handle on the norms for this machine. I could glue a copper plate under it to dissipate heat as a precaution.

That PC with the fan problem was a kit of parts I got from Tiger direct and assembled while Emily was away at some convention- her BFF- Marsha, the one who's never called me since she died- went with her.

It was peddled as a “gamer's special” and was middle of the road in specs at the time- it was also the last machine I built- after 2003 refurbished computers that were business surplus became so common & cheap I went that route. The first was a Dell Optiplex 160, at the time 3 years old but like new, running Win 2000 pro. I still have it as a backup machine upstairs. It was moved up there for Emily to use in the 2008 aborted reclaim the 2nd floor project.

A few seasons before Emily died I got a used Optiplex 260 for the kitchen- that's the one that got fried right after she died and caused so much grief because that was my main contact with friends & relatives & the outside world. Remember, not a soul came to see me then. I got an overpriced used HP from Discount Computer here and after many problems & challenges got enough of my files & emails back I could work with it.

The HP dated from 2003 and was ancient in PC terms- it worked but that was about all. The first Emily-less Christmas, poor though I was, I decided to “treat” myself to a newer PC and found a refurbished Optiplex 260 on Amazon for $89. After the usual nail-biting migration using PC Mover, it worked out fine- but by then all I ever really used was her Acer netbook. I mostly fire it up to copy my personal files into for safekeeping, and backups.

I talked to MaryAnn for a while and we'll get back in touch in the morning. I'm almost on the verge of running the AC, much as I hate to close up the house- it is starting to feel sweaty-hot.

Gonna hold out as long as I can- once you get in that cold dry air, you get spoiled.

-30-

[backhoe]

For my broader audience- via:http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/

A Due Process Right To Record The Police, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2043907 which I coauthored with John Steakley, is still at #1 on SSRN. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/topten/topTenResults.cfm?groupingId=201&netorjrnl=ntwk We’re even handily ahead of Death and Taxes and Zombies, which I regard as surprising — though the piece did get a nice mention from Tim Lee on Ars Technica the other day. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/06/analysis-right-to-record-cops-extends-to-private-settings/

Glenn's a law professor- his arguments are framed inside the law. Mine are simpler- "If they have a right to record you? You have a right to record them." I don't like the Surveillance Society we have become, but if that is what our "betters" dictate?

Well & good- let's record them all.

Bonus!
HOW TO rid your yard of mosquitoes.http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/improvement/lawn-garden/how-to-rid-your-yard-of-mosquitoes?click=pp