So, the company picnic was held at a place that has a very small petting zoo. The zoo population is variable, but always has a couple of llamas and a few small goats (four this year). This year, there was also a miniature horse, that looked to be maybe an inch or two shorter at the shoulder than my brother's Labradors ( Read more... )

. . . by local standards, anyway. We broke the record high for Ann Arbor yesterday, and the overnight low was about 25 degrees warmer than normal, too. In fact, yesterday's high was three degrees warmer than "normal" for New Orleans, and the overnight low was two degrees cooler than normal for NOLA ( Read more... )

Languages tend to only have words that a critical mass of their speakers have a use for. This has made my historical research more difficult than it might have been, as many culturally critical concepts were described by words that English discarded centuries ago ( Read more... )

So, it turns out the universe as we know it may be a hologram. Including, presumably, us, without knowing it.

All the world's a holodeck, and all the people merely projections?

Saturday morning, I was getting ready to brave the snow and cold for the trip to the farmer's market, and the fan for my car's defroster and heater wasn't working. This makes four weekends in a row that something major had quit working on me ( Read more... )

So, after attempts to start the furnace consumed New Year's Eve, I attempted to obtain a replacement for the flame probe on New Year's Day. The nearest thing to a useful store I could find open was Home Depot. The older and clueful guy working what passes for a heating department suggested that I try Stadium Hardware. Since they had been my first ( Read more... )

So, remember my fun and games with the furnace? Until tonight, when I needed to clean that flame probe, I'd clean it once, then it would be good for a day or three. Tonight has been different ( Read more... )

So, the furnace guy came and left. There were only a few things he did ( Read more... )

So, not quite two weeks ago, I was stepping out of my car and slipped on some ice. Faster than thought, my upper body shifted, and I kept my balance. There was a little soreness, but nothing that seemed significant at the time ( Read more... )

This is something I meant to post on Wednesday, but, well, didn't ( Read more... )