Zuihitsu

[sasha]

Cliched truism: you can't really appreciate the ordinary until you've lost it. Or think you have.

Last night while preparing supper I turned on the tap to wash the stalk of celery I was about to dice. Instead of the comforting hiss of rushing aerated water, all I got was a miserable trickle winkling out.

What. The. Fuck.

I turned it off and back on, you know, the way you flick a light switch on & off when the power goes out, as though that would push you into the other timeline, the one where there was no problem. But I found myself rooted in the same timeline.

I went down into the cellar to check the circuit breakers and look for any obvious damage to the pump controller, the water tank, or anything else that might provide a clue. I toggled the water pump breaker, and even threw the mains for a slow 10-count, thinking that maybe the Microsoft reboot trick would work here. It didn't.

While I was perusing the yellow pages and the Interwebs for a local plumber with 24-hour emergency services, I heard a curious bubbling or gurgling from upstairs. I went upstairs to investigate and located the sound as coming from the toilet tank. I removed the lid.

The tank was empty, but trying to fill - and it suddenly flashed what the problem actually was.

When I'd had the entire water delivery system replaced back in 2014, the plumbers had shocked the well with chlorine to suppress the ferrophilic bacteria that give water a septic smell. They'd advised me to leave an outside faucet trickling overnight to flush out the chlorinated water. Which I'd done. By morning I was again without water.

You just temporarily drained the well, they told me. Shut it off and wait half an hour.

So I did. A half hour later I had water - not a lot, but enough to assure me that the problem was temporary, and the well was refilling.

It seems that the rubber seat of the toilet's flush valve was no longer sealing the exit pipe, and all day had been trickling the well dry. I closed the needle valve feeding the tank and waited.

A half hour later I had water - not a lot, but enough to assure me that the problem was temporary, and the well was refilling.

And this morning it was as though the problem had never occurred - that I'd jumped out of that timeline and into this one after all. Washing dishes never felt so good.

[judih]

what a major relief
logic and solution
life trickles on

[the mingo]

* *

[the mingo]

I woke at five, looked around didn't recognize anything. The light was on, the fire was out. I made coffee after I took a leak. Language was just as funny after I woke up as it was when I fell asleep. I fed the cat because she was whining & crying about it.
I had to build the fire from a few coals. Not easy because the wood was wet from rain. Touch & go for awhile but I got the flame to come.
Yesterday, just before sunset, blue sky appeared. First time in several days. Snow has broken in places - you can smell earth.

[WIREMAN]

....stillness of 5 am...... Train horn moans, the smell of the earth...now that's awesome.....hell yeah!!!

[sasha]

My back doesn't seem to be bothering me as much today as it has this past week. Guess it just takes longer for the machine to repair itself than it did when it was 30.

While the dog stops to pee, I gaze off into the woods, where a single spider drag line flashes into and out of the sunlight with the breeze. Was it left over from the fall, or did its weaver make it during the warm spell?

Curse you, Microsoft! I tried correcting an error I'd made in one of the Zernike polynomial expansions in the Word Document I put together for Jim, and it seems Microsoft has removed the old Equation Editor from the Office suite! The new one is practically unusable, and can't edit equations created with the old one. Looks like I may have spring for MathType after all.

Delivered mom's 1099s to H&R Block this morning. Let them deal with the ramifications of her moving from an income-taxless state (NH) to an income-taxable one (MA) halfway through the year. My brain ain't wired that way.

[sasha]

Salvation may be at hand... For the last year or so, whenever I've used Microsoft's Equation Editor, I've gotten pop-ups for an upgrade called MathType. Since Microsoft has jettisoned the plug-in (apparently a 3rd party product rife with security holes), I decided to give MT a look. So far I like what I see. It's $100, but comes with a 30-day free trial, after which I can either spring for the full monty, or accept a free downgrade to MathType Lite - which I gather is pretty much the old equation editor with all the leaks patched. I'll let you know in 29 days which way I decide to go.

Fresh bedding tonight - sheets & pillowcases drying in the sun & breeze. They're probably already dry, but I like to keep them on the line all day to absorb the essence of the forest. Tomorrow I'll do the coverlet. Then rain on Friday- more math wanking - whee!

[the mingo]

... but I like to keep them on the line all day to absorb the essence of the forest.

It's also a sign someone lives there - like the signal flags on a ship -

[the mingo]

Spring-like weather for a week - been riding my bike every day - but today? BOOM! got a nor'easter overhead snowing thick can't even see across the road
damn the fuck all to hell! boom! - NOT SURPRISED we get our worst storms during season transition - bad for the head too - mild weather shows up
then BOOM! snow up to the anus uranus - nobody got any business thinking winter's over the first week of March around here - winter come back on a full-fledged carpet bombing run - good thing I got my remaining wood in yesterday, thank God and the Apostolic Age I was so moved to activity -

NO BIKE RIDE TODAY !

[the mingo]

Nor'easter - people don't live where these things happen can't be told what it's like - here on the Plateau we being slamming in the snow games and I can't even begin to imagine what's going on further up the Hill - Sasha how you doing your way? - you must be getting hit too this fucker is two-three hundred miles wide - fuck me for a snowflake - lights just flickered - oh-oh

[sasha]

Hey Ming

So far it's just been slush & light rain here in the Monadnock region - wtf?? I've got water put up, not planning on an elaborate supper, one I can eat cold if need be - power flickered a few times earlier today, but not even enough to reboot Mr Computer - maybe we're too far inland, not high enough elevation - but unless the dragon rears up overnight, all this has done so far is make a mess of the roads (already a mess) and keep me & Dog housebound. Knock wood, and all that. Take care up there on the plateau, Sir M.

[the mingo]

seems to be slackin' now, Sasha - got a four foot drift just outside the door and that's after shoveling a path through it this afternoon so I could blow out the driveway for my Babydoll when she gets home from work - snow heavy & wet me & the snowblower was like wrestling alligators might be -

[WIREMAN]

Just hard rain down here in the land of pleasant living.....

[stilltrucking]

calendar lies
say it's march
but feels like april
always me a stranger here
my biological clock set to baltimore time
weather here so kind for geezers
light rain sixty degrees, a bitch to drive in at night for me
my night vision a victim of the forlorn rags of old age

it is saturday night and i just got laid
riding the streets of east baltimore in sammy brill's 1940 ford roadster
them was the days, why are they called salad days
I don't care
old age is wasted for the young
I am happy to be in it for the long scroll, roll, march perpetual haul
hammer hammer

[the mingo]

"my night vision a victim of the forlorn rags of old age"

Same thing happened to me, Jack.