Here comes W day
But this time it marks just three more days to vacation. Nine whole days off that are, unfortunately, going to fly by with all the stuff I need to do. At least the weather was nicer today, though I think the thunderstorms are due back tomorrow. We have water running across the pastures again thanks to the Brit neighbor who cut down all his trees and then overgrazed the treeless area so it won't absorb water any more.
Orioles, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and cowbirds. Multiples of each today. Time to start listening for the wood thrush I usually hear in May. Our friend Susan reports that she is hearing a whippoorwill at her house, but she has a lot more land than we do. If you've never heard the distinctive sound (which makes me homesick for Michigan) there's a sample on the referenced page.
Cleaned databases at work, purging a lot of expired records. Also cleared up some longstanding bugs in the Alpha configuration there, with the result that I now get a full graphical desktop on my Linux system, even though the DS10 itself has no VMS-compatible graphics card.
I find it amusing that the swine flu panic has sent pork futures lower even though humans don't catch flu from eating pork or even from exposure to pigs. Just shows how irrational the supposed "free" market actually is. Not only that, but Jewish and Muslim complaints about the term "swine" flu being offensive to them are just over the top. Get over it, folks. The virus contains an element of DNA from a flu virus endemic to swine populations. That's the way it is, no matter what you think about pigs. It probably also contains DNA from chicken viruses if that makes you feel any more Kosher about it.
Orioles, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and cowbirds. Multiples of each today. Time to start listening for the wood thrush I usually hear in May. Our friend Susan reports that she is hearing a whippoorwill at her house, but she has a lot more land than we do. If you've never heard the distinctive sound (which makes me homesick for Michigan) there's a sample on the referenced page.
Cleaned databases at work, purging a lot of expired records. Also cleared up some longstanding bugs in the Alpha configuration there, with the result that I now get a full graphical desktop on my Linux system, even though the DS10 itself has no VMS-compatible graphics card.
I find it amusing that the swine flu panic has sent pork futures lower even though humans don't catch flu from eating pork or even from exposure to pigs. Just shows how irrational the supposed "free" market actually is. Not only that, but Jewish and Muslim complaints about the term "swine" flu being offensive to them are just over the top. Get over it, folks. The virus contains an element of DNA from a flu virus endemic to swine populations. That's the way it is, no matter what you think about pigs. It probably also contains DNA from chicken viruses if that makes you feel any more Kosher about it.