Ghosts

View of Pack Monadnock from Temple Mountain Summit Lift House

Ghost town. Conjures up images of tumbleweeds blowing across dusty streets. Of saloon doors banging together under the influence of a hot dry wind. Of run-down buildings bleached soft gray under the relentless sun.

But what about rusting lift towers? Old sodium lamps that once illuminated night runs? A pile of old blue double chairs with hand painted numbers?

Forgotten mountains have their ghosts too.

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Office

Ah, the home office. I dream of sun streaming in tall windows, dark wood paneled walls, and shelves stuffed with exotic leather-bound tomes.

Alas, the reality falls quite a bit short of the dream. My home office is stuffed in a windowless "slot" off of my bedroom. To make matters worse I've been lax on cleaning it for the past year and the mess situation became so dire that I had to vault over my chair to sit down as there was not room to even pull the chair out.

This morning I finally got down to business and cleaned it up:


Now it is relatively hygenic, but remains ridiculously small. And that chair! I got it for free out of an old office where I was helping my father-in-law with some electric work, unsurprisingly, the people there were quite eager to see it go. All the padding is packed out so sitting on it is quite uncomfortable, though a Klingon might find it acceptable. Fortunately some of the adjustments still work, allowing one to chose between three settings: "Crippling", "Painful", and "Debilitating".

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Atomic!

It can be awfully hard to explain to family and friends who are not programmers, exactly what it is I do. My brother works for Computer Associates so he usually can figure out what it is I'm talking about. Some college friends are engineers so they get it too. But most folks I associate with are blissfully clueless about all but the most basic aspects of software engineering (e.g. that it involves coffee and a computer). This reality was brought home once again yesterday...

I was thinking about Subversion's atomic rename (a.k.a. true renames) issue and somehow it came up in conversation with my friend Josée. She commented that it "Sounds dangerous". Does she think I'm working with plutonium? She didn't sound terribly concerned about my welfare so I suspect it was a joke. Plus English is her second language so I'll cut her some slack.

When I got home I mentioned atomic renames to my wife. Now Carol is a bright woman, a successful fine artist and accomplished graphic designer. But she is hardly a power user when it comes to computers, despite using one every day. We talked about many other things throughout the evening and went to bed.

Forward to this morning: As I got out of bed, Carol (who normally sleeps much later) leaps up and exclaims, "That problem you told me about, 'Automatic Microwave Integers', I dreamt about it all night!" Then she turns to me and with a stone cold sober expression and voice declares, "I think I solved it!".

Sigh, if only it was that easy.

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Ice

Our Spacious House (Kidding)

I was sick in bed most of this weekend and never left the house. It's been a couple of years since I've not gone outside for that long and it's decidedly bad for my mental health (and my physical health because I'm driving my wife crazy and she is probably ready to whack me upside the head at this point).

Everything is coated with ice like this

I was home sick again today, for (what I hope) is the end of the terrible cold/fever that has laid my household and many friends low. Regardless of how lousy I felt today, I couldn't face a third day without a little outdoors. So I put on clothes more suitable to skiing Wildcat on a bad winter day (relatively balmy 31 degrees outside), grabbed my digital camera, and headed out to walk around the yard a bit.

The Pond - The birch trees on the left might not survive the next couple of days

Walking across the lawn sounded akin to walking across a field of champagne flutes. Every minute or two a loud crash echoed from the woods as tree limbs came crashing down. Fortunately there was no wind to speak of, but I still decided to stay in the limited open area our yard affords. Getting brained by a falling tree limb is not the way I want to go.

All I can say to my neighbors in the Monadnock region is that if the temps stay cold and the winds pick up, we are in for a world of hurt. A good quarter inch of ice covers everthing, and a fine mist continues to fall as I write this...

...I just checked the weather, doesn't look good, sub-freezing temps and high wind forecast for my area the next two days.

Two little guys who don't mind the weather

If only this was snow :-(

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Lust

Words fail me.

I don't need one, I have a perfectly good 2004 Kawasaki Z1000.

I can't afford one.

Even if I could afford one, it's hardly practical, and I probably would buy a Multistrada 1100 S instead.

But...



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No, It's Not Nice

I like to ski. And snowshoe. And go sledding. I also like to ride around my yard on my wife's ancient Yamaha Bravo snowmobile. Oh, having my nephews over to skate on our pond, I like that too. Unfortunately none of the above has been possible this year because winter in the large parts of the United States has been cancelled.

Why? Some blame global warming. Global warming? Please! If this winter's temperatures are the result of global warming then we are in deep trouble. Now don't misundertand, I think global warming is a real threat, but it was 70 degrees in NH...in January. If this keeps up it will be about 150 this August. No, it seems El Nino and a funky jetstream are to blame.
Regardless of the reason, I hate it.

Every work day I walk to lunch. For the past seven weeks, without fail, someone has commented to me on the "lovely" and "nice" weather we are having. I suppose it is nice, if you are looking for signs of the apacolypse. Seriously, isn't anyone the least bit worried that it's rather unnatural? But I've been able to maintain my temper, I always agree with them and go about my business.

But today I was well and truly tested. It was a more appropriate 26 degrees at lunch. As I entered the office, two women, smoking outside next to the "NO SMOKING" sign and shivering in their inappropriate clothing, sarcastically comment to me, "Don't you just love this weather?!?!" I stopped in my tracks, something deep inside me threatens to crack, my mind races, I feel myself starting to say the words, "Yes, yes I do love it! It's F%&#! January, what the hell do you expect? Maybe if you stopped smoking your circulation would improve and you'd feel warmer! Put on a damned hat and maybe a jacket! Didn't your mother teach you anything!"

Fortunately I was able to stop myself at the last moment. "At least it's natural", I commented as I quickly hurried inside to warm myself and check the ski conditions at Kicking Horse.

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