text: I was planning on calling the DSL provider and dumping them if they couldn’t restore the service to original condition on that Monday. I hope My system working again. fernglade was the only site affected. Glad to have your farm back
  It is funny that you mention the handing down of skills, but I reckon you are onto something with that and being able to play the hostess (or host) is a real skill. Due to my upbringing I was never exposed to such events and have had to learn how-to from start to finish. It is a real skill to be able to host a number of folks whilst not spending all of ones time in the kitchen. One of my good friends is exceptionally gifted in the kitchen, and so during get togethers he hides away in the kitchen doing his thing, and that is how he contributes. And the food is awesome. Other people are gifted at keeping the table talking and/or making everyone feel welcome, and to do both is a difficult art and something to be commended.
  Feel not guilty for the pub adventure! 🙂 I would do no less, and that is one of the main purposes of the dreaded mid-week hiatus. I salute you and your out-of-town friend and wish you all the best in your pub related efforts.
  Thanks for that, and now with all of this talk of rashes, I have to admit that I’m starting to feel a bit itchy. I blame the talk of musicals 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving! And I hope that you are feeling a bit better today? Was the talk around the table pleasant? Just for the record, I’d like to point out that turkey is an extraordinarily difficult bird to cook well without drying out the meat. I do hope the meat was succulent and moist? As a mostly vegetarian, my mouth is watering at the thought of tasty roast fowl. Yum!
  Well there you go, you slipped in what I believe is a bit of Latin with your use of the word: Redux. I’d be very surprised if the word was not closely related to the English word: Reduce, or Reduction if only because the definitions are very close. Yeah, parsley is a funny plant that once established just looks after itself. The crinkly variety grows here both summer and winter, although the flat leafed Italian variety is a summer only plant. On closer observation it may be that the curly leafed variety is sheltered from the worst of the winter weather by a thicket of leeks.
  Alas, I have almost reached the end of ‘The Sorcerer’. I read the book on the train into and out of Melbourne again today. You have to admit that the story could also have been told thus: What made Merlyn Mad? On the other hand, the dream state where he discussed the situation with Peter Ironhair in rational terms raised a number of very important issues like: Why did Merlyn abandon common sense and ride off with a small party at the merest mention of a threat to Camulod? Horsa and his Danes were in new territory where they’ll enjoy little plunder and no support. They have to eat, and it was wrong of Merlyn to rush off, when he could have otherwise been safe with a full compliment of infantry.
  What the…? Truly the original Mad Max film required sub-titles for me at least. Wow. OK, I’ve gotta check this out. For obvious reasons the vocals were clear to me, but far out the dubbing on the international version of the film was not good. Had they not heard of lip-synching? And some cheeky wag put together a comparison clip: Mad Max: US Dub vs Original Aussie part 1. Many years ago I actually saw the original Falcon Interceptor car which was used in the first movie in a shopping mall. I must have been pretty young, but even back then I admired the matt black paint job. The real joke is that back then I thought those cars were huge. Nowadays a current model Toyota Corolla towers over them and plenty of cars weigh much more. What we could have achieved if we’d attempted the dark path of conservation. Of course it is not lost on me that in the end it would not have mattered, but all the same the path could have been easier.
  Agreed. Your weather is worse on that front. It would be nice if people understood that climate change means more extreme weather in every direction. I see that the extreme weather has bypassed your part of the world. That’s something to be grateful for.
  How are you feeling better anyway? It is nice to read that despite your cold you’re attempting a venture out. Hope you nab a bargain (and maybe a Fenton piece – blue of course).
  Apologies, but I regularly block the ip addresses of spammers and hackers who try to force their way into the website. There are a lot of them and the war is long my friend. Anyway, the website then disappears for them. It may well be that you have been accidentally caught up in friendly cross fire in the ongoing war against hackers and spam-troll-bots? The war is progressing well brother Al!
  However, if you can now post OK, then the website may just have been going through an update process, which I keep on top of.
  Glad you’re back and enjoying the ongoing war against spam-trolls and other interweb nuisances. They mean me no good at all.
  I am about to lose my internet access for over a week for various uninteresting reasons. Have been continuing to sort out old letters for disposal of. The result has been the discovery of a gem which I shall frame. It has been entertaining everyone here so I offer it to all of you as well. The background story is that I was visiting my mother with my first child who was 8 months old at the time. I have absolutely no recollection of this letter from my stepfather or the incident involved.
  When retrieving the mirror, from under the table upstairs, where you in your damned impertinence had put it, I discovered that you had scraped some of the varnish off the top of the frame owing to your confounded clumsiness in pushing the mirror under the table with the chain beneath the top of the frame.
  The damage is not excessive, are you prepared to meet the expense of having it attended to in as cheap a manner as possible.
  Imagining Mummy to be responsible for removing the articles from the sofa, I proceeded to have a row with her, only to find that she was equally furious to find the things had been moved from the sofa; but, blaming me, she said nothing, thinking that was the sort of thing I would do.
  As you appear to imagine the sofa is there for your benefit, I should like to inform you that such is not the case, should you anticipate visiting Croydon at any future date, will you kindly refrain from interfering with things which do not concern you & put your box elsewhere.
  Yo, Chris – Oh, I didn’t get any turkey. The Ladies did their thing, but I did my usual laying low. And, I was laid low. No, Thanksgiving was pretty much a washout, for me. No harm done.
  Onto “Spear Thrower!!!” Well, I suppose Merlin magnified in his mind, the danger that Camulod … and Arthur, was in. There are a few murky things about the end of “The Sorcerer”. Fog of Battle, and all that.
  I finished “Island of the Lost”, yesterday. Well, that was a rollicking tale. The group that did well, had a lot of things going for it. All survived the shipwreck, and there were only 5. They landed on a more hospitable coast and had more of their wrecked ship, to salvage out. If you can have a “good” shipwreck, they had a good shipwreck. They also knew each other, pretty well. The other bunch, 19 survived the wreck, but only 3 managed to survive to the rescue. Class structure also led to their downfall. To quote a bit about the successful group, “Because of conscientious leadership, resourceful technology, unstinting hard work, and an outstanding spirit of camaraderie, they had survived unimaginable privations.” I mean, they build a forge, for gosh sakes.
  In the documentary, they kept calling the Falcon the “black on black.” Yup. The dubbing was pretty awful. I’m watching a series called “NOS4A2”. From a book by Stephen King’s kid, Joe Hill. The horror, the horror :-).
  It got down to 19F (-7.22C), last night. Supposed to be a balmy 27F, tonight. Possible snow still in the forecast for tomorrow morning. As a salute to our weather, today’s ear worm is Chubby Checker’s, “Limbo Rock.” How low can you go?
  Head’s pretty clear, but my lungs are still crapped up. Not to bad. No many racking coughing jags. But, I still feel pretty drug out.
  I resisted the expensive blue Fenton piece, but ended up with another (much cheaper) blue Fenton piece. I saw a little carnival glass compote in cobalt blue, with a nice berry pattern. So, I bought it. Now all the companies that made carnival had berry patterns of one kind or another. But I finally figured out it was “Blackberry Bramble”, made by Fenton in 1910. Got the pottery vase I wanted, and also the canister with the rooster head. L.E. Smith glass. Not to old, but they went out of business in 2004. I’ve got a book on the way, from the library, so maybe I’ll be able to get a more firm date. I also found a nice little piece of Deco Nippon china, that I hadn’t seen on my scouting expedition. A little plate with handle, in blues. Which you don’t see much, on Nippon. So, I spent far less than I had budgeted.
  Think I’ll go up on Tower, today, and poke about. After the postie delivers my print. Should have been here yesterday, but looking at the tracking, it’s voyage was long and strange. Lew
  It has been an intense 7 weeks with 2 funerals and a rellie in hospital. Another person we know rolled her car and died Friday night. Dunno if we’ll go to the services. We’re drained. As you said you have done, we are just working through it.
  So Lewis has us BOTH twitching now? And he dared to mention “rashes”. Hmmmmm… Although I DO enjoy twitching and have been enjoying the Oregon juncos that have been visiting. And there was DRAMA in the yard: A sharp shinned hawk was trying to catch some sparrows in the quince bushes, but the thickness of the quince hedge defeated the hawk. We also have a resident Cooper’s hawk.
  “I guess the object of the project was to keep people occupied and out of trouble.” That seems to be the purpose of a LOT of jobs, doesn’t it?
  Oh yes, the little rascal earned her name. Although it appears that the spankings rarely occurred. If ever.
  Adapting to the climate changes is important for food production. However, in a brittle society, adaptation is a rare commodity, so I fear the same may be true for planting.
  I think you’re right. The “forgive and forget” is probably an admonition to let minimize the revenge factor so that hatred doesn’t consume someone.
  Yes, the Monkey King looks like the Immortal who fights against corruption in the existing order. Hmmmm, wonder if Monkey King would like to make an appearance outside China???
  Alongside Lew’s mention of rashes, my coworker has a phobia about ticks. Whenever I really need to get her attention, aka tease her, I just whisper “tick, tick, tick” where she can hear me. She starts feeling itchy immediately. At which point she’ll tell me to “quit abusing people.” My reply is always, “You’re an engineer. Engineers aren’t people.” She has never developed a response to that in 25 years.
  Sorry to see you go for the week, and a digital detox, whether through chance happenstance or choice is always a good thing. I’m told by credible sources that people pay for such experiences nowadays.
  Oh my goodness! What were you twelve years old to be so spoken to? Hehe! Just kidding around. Your step father had a lovely way with words. I was rather hoping that at some point he mentioned how much they both enjoyed yours and their grandchild’s company during the visit? Perhaps it was too much to ask for. The tone of the letter indicates to me that well, there is a place for everything and everything should be in its place, and it is most certainly not for you to question that. Although, like you, I’d also move items around, if for no other reason than gratifying my own personal amusement. Well done you. Sometimes the nest must be kicked.
  Hopefully some of the ladies take pity on your present condition and bring you a few trifles of Thanksgiving fare? On a serious note, have you ever tasted a trifle dessert? Forget about roast turkey, a good trifle is the biz! As a bit of history relating to the dessert, it evolved from the dessert known as a ‘fool’. I can’t quite say for sure why it was called such a dubious name, but the first time I encountered a reference to it was as the Gooseberry fool dessert (we’re growing lots of gooseberries – yum!) As an amusing side note, years ago I helped out a mate in return for a trifle (talk about double entendre’s). He’d been talking the dessert up as it was apparently some sort of family heirloom recipe handed down from generations out of the past. The problem was my mate used really low quality ingredients and the result was fed to the chickens. Given the big talk about the dessert beforehand, I was sort of excited about the trade however, unfortunately my expectations exceeded reality. There is a strong argument to be made that I set high standards, but I have strong doubts that the earlier generations of my mates family had access to the sort of rubbish ingredients he used. But when I was a kid, my grandparents (the well off ones) used to make a very good trifle, with the sponge, jelly, and a touch of madeira wine (although just a touch). It was very good. Oh, I can see that in the US the dessert is described as a tipsy cake. Well there you go. And hope that you are feeling better with thoughts of such food. 🙂
  The dream state discussion between Merlyn and Peter Ironhair was a tidy way to put the matter into perspective. Ironhair was one such that clearly felt no ill will, but at the same time considered that Merlyn and Camulod was a means to an end. I was particularly interested that Carthac was considered to be a ‘client’ in the Latin meaning of that particular word dating back to the Roman Senate. The more that I read of history (and how things worked in the past), the more I can see that the current civilisation is built upon the wreckage of earlier civilisations and has adopted some of the ideas and forms from them. The social bonds were tight in those days, so little wonder people ran to the hills.
  Thomas Musgrave was an interesting bloke and I must note that he plied his trade not too far to the south and east of here. Yeah, it is a funny thing that there can be a ‘good’ ship wreck, and surviving for 18 months in such an inhospitable island before making it back to Stewart Island off the south coast of the south island of New Zealand in a Jerry-rigged dinghy is an impressive feat in anyone’s language. Auckland island would be very inhospitable and the other crew might have well as been on Mars given the rugged terrain between the two groups. I was curious to note that settlements had been attempted on the island. Mind you, Greenland is further north and Viking people settled there back in the day for a fair while (not to mention the folks living there nowadays). I enjoy a cooler climate, but Auckland island is the whole next level. The contrast between the experiences of the two groups is quite marked. Co-operation in such conditions always trumps the established hierarchy.
  The editors uncle used to own one of those two door Mad Max style Falcon’s. It was a true beast of a machine. I recall the days when they were spotted on the road. Nowadays you’d be lucky to see one. A bit of a shame as they were quite simple to work upon.
  NOS4A2, of course a clever play for the mobile phone text message addicted generation on the old story of Nosferatu. A story about a plucky vampire who enjoyed travelling along with the bubonic plague. When I was a kid my mum hired the1979 European VHS film version of the story (Nosferatu the Vampyre) and the image of the plague laden rats leaving the stricken ship was a true horror. A solid case for strong border controls if ever there was one. Are you enjoying the series?
  Despite your awful state of being under the weather, I beg to differ and feel that most certainly 27’F is hardly balmy from my perspective. Although the English language is a wonderful thing and perhaps you meant to write: Barmy? (as in Barmy Army?)
  Haha! Thanks for the catchy ear worm. Yes, I can recall the limbo. Good fun stuff. Chubby Checker seems like a pretty switched on and clever dude to me.
  Good stuff, and I’m impressed that you were up and about – and making sense – and nabbed your blue Fenton piece (although it was another item than what you were originally after). You rarely see the word ‘Nippon’ anymore. It is funny how expectations of their manufacturing quality has changed over the years.
  I went to a town north of the range to see an open garden today. The rain was almost continuous, but there were still plenty of people there. It was very cottage-y, and the house was an old 1860’s granite (blue-stone) early Victorian era house. I quite like such gardens for their sheer spectacle. Over the past two days almost an inch of rain has fallen… Before the rain fell, I took a gamble and filled up the water tanks that supply water to the terraces from water stored in the house water tanks. The gamble may have paid off given the volume of rain that fell.
  Yo, Chris – No, none of The Ladies brought me any Thanksgiving goodies. But that’s fine, as I discourage such things. Obligations, and all. There’s been some talk about banning men from any function involving food. But that’s mainly because Steve eats a lot, and contributes nothing. Or, very little. And his social graces leave a lot to be desired. :-). I’ve never had a trifle, as far as I know. Tasty, I’m sure, but sounds like Death By Sugar.
  Merlin and Ironhair’s “conversation” was interesting. I think it just goes to show, that often, people we obsess over, (for one reason or another), probably don’t give us a second thought. There used to be an old psych saying, from way back. “Who’s driving your bus?” In other words, who’s in charge of your brain?
  Yes, the settlement on Aukland was found by the group that didn’t do so well. There wasn’t much left of it, and what resources there were, weren’t utilized as they could have been. Hierarchy very much played a role in the failure of the second bunch. The two officers who survived, did so as the common seaman, who survived, knew what he was about. Once rescued, he was given no credit, and shuffled off. Got his revenge, though. When he was 85, he pounded out an account and his grand daughter got it published.
  Musgrave and Varny published accounts that were popular, went through many editions, and may still be in print. They gave full credit to the rest of their crew. One thing that did come out of it all, was that castaway depots were deposited on many islands, and (introduced species, aside) pigs and other animals were released on several islands, for the comfort of other shipwreck victims. Gardens, were also planted.
  NOS4A2 was actually a vanity license plate. I don’t think I ever saw the re-make of “Nosteratu”, but I’ve at least seen large chunks, of the 1922 version. The “look” of that film very much influenced film noir, particularly “Night of the Hunter.” Speaking of German horror films, I noticed in the library catalog a new German zombie movie. “Ever After” aka “Endzeit”. Don’t know if it will be any good, but I put it on my hold list. I watched the trailer. Seems to be a lot of two young ladies, wandering in the woods and spending a lot of time talking.
  LOL. When I said a balmy 27F, I meant to be ironic. See how important those little smiley faces, are? :-). At 1:30 am, it started to snow. I went out and watched it, awhile. Mostly gone by this morning, and no more snow in the forecast.
  Well, my package arrived, but the postie was running late. In the meantime, to be occupied, I cut up the corn stalks The Ladies had used as decor. Mulched it right into the garden. My package arrived, safely, But, by then, I decided I didn’t want to go up on Tower, and fight the punters and day trippers. I’ll go on a morning, later in the week. Besides, I think I overdid it a bit, in the garden.
  It dawned on my yesterday, that since Wednesday afternoon, nothing has gone according to plan. Partly the cold, but also the holidays. Natch. Nothing of great import, but it makes me cranky. Went to Safeway, last night, and they have “reorganized” the store. Can’t find a darn thing. And ice cream was $4 a container. Nope. Not going there. I hope they and their ice cream will be very happy, together. Lew
  
  Edmonton three-piece Black Mastiff bring their massive sound to the 2017 Massif Music Festival! Check out their website, stream their thunderous stoner rock on Bandcamp, say hi on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and get your tickets to see them at Massif!
  
  Published March 22, 2018 at 1024 × 682 in The Vinyl Flooring Outrageous Cool Groutable Vinyl Tile Flooring Photos	
  
  It would seem though that any accounts you had with lates or collections "included in the BK" would fall off the same time (or most likely earlier) than the BK, so therefore, you wouldn't have any lates or public records showing (as long as you didn't have any after the BK filing as you were rebuilding credit). So technically, your score shouldn't go down -- if you were then put on a level playing field with others with no BKs or public records or lates, right? This is assuming during the time between discharge and the BK dropping off you've re-established credit, increasing credit limits over time, keeping balances at a reasonable utilization, maybe taken out a car loan or mortgage, etc.
  My Ch. 13 BK was just discharged 2/08 (filed 10/04), but during the BK, I re-established credit with a student loan, two unsecured loans with Prosper (installment), a Dell account and an unsecured Household Bank account (revolving) that is now up to $1000 limit (started at $300). My car is paid off, so no auto loan yet, and I am looking at a mortgage hopefully in about 6 months. I also have a credit union LOC for $1000 and an Orchard Bank visa ($750 limit). I am hoping to increase the LOC and credit cards within 6 mos (hoping to have mid score over 700). I have no lates. All negative info is from BK or accounts included in BK.
  I guess my question is that once my BK falls off in 10/2011 (another long 3+ years ), if I've "kept my nose clean" from now until then, how can my score go down? I appreciate any thoughts...