As befits an aspiring troll, I am still using Internet Explorer, thus qualifying once again as Scum of the Earth. Bill Gates made the world's largest fortune by realizing (correctly) that the American people will naturally gravitate toward mediocrity every time, especially if it's cheaper. Then once the competition is squelched, and the market is cornered he can make it as overpriced as he wants. And so we have the bug-prone, security-challenged systems and programs that make Bubba look downright reliable. (For those who don't know, Bubba is our 4-door beater diesel crewcab one ton 4x4 that has as the repair shop put it, "been rode hard and put away wet" by the logger that originally owned it.
It sounds like Jeff has been doing an amazing amount of work on this website, although I don't have a clue as to what it all means. I'm sure I would be even more (appropriately) impressed if I knew what tag clouds were. I did notice the large print on the log-in in obvious deference to those of us who can no longer bend enough to step into our underwear. I didn't even have to put on my glasses.(or hearing aide, cane, or false teeth.)
The deck is back together, waiting to be painted if it will stay dry long enough, and the wood shed is filling rapidly. It remains to be seen whether I get another couple loads in before my body gives out entirely. (The only thing that hurts worse than my arthritic hands and wrist is my bunnion when I drop a piece of wood on it.)
Diesel is $3.49/gal here, and I still haven't had time to pursue the biodiesel. Cheapest place for diesel (if you can believe it) is the marina, where it's more like $3.10 depending on how much you buy.
Melody just had a laser procedure in Seattle for a varicose vein, so she's limping around in compression (make that COMPRESSION) stockings.
We've been working our butts off every day till virtually dark, and now that we're about ready for vacation, the straits are fogged in every day. (Melody refuses to cross in the fog -- something about oil tankers) I had forgotten how much work work is. I can remember when I'd come home at the end of the day, bruised and beaten, and I'd start to unwind and recuperate, and by the next morning, I'd be ready to do it all again. Now, by the next morning the soreness hasn't even peaked yet.
There has been much mention and frank BS about this ant/grasshopper thing. The truth is all such comments are delusional in nature. Ants and grasshoppers are simply different stages of the same delusion, much like larval forms of some metamorphosizing insect. A better term would be anthopper. What the grasshoppers fail to realize is that repairing dump trucks until 0300 is an ant trick. As is preparing a sanctuary for Y2K. What the ants fail to realize is they started life as parasitic grasshoppers with no responsibilities, and will with luck return to that stage in time to die. I suggest that all rise above this schizoid binary focus and achieve the true vision of the cricket.
Dave