Accidentally took a butter knife home from work
Mar. 14th, 2026 03:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyNot to worry, I'll return it. We have plenty enough as it is.
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conuly
Incremental Progress
Mar. 15th, 2026 09:34 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
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the second generation Moray units smelled like a Red Lobster dumpster
Rainy, blustery and cold today, here in the Milwaukee suburbs, but it could be worse. Here's pic from my sister-in-law up in Willard, taken off their back porch.and now for something completely different
Mar. 15th, 2026 05:01 pmmuccamukkThe YouTube algorithm has seen my interest in figure skating and started offering me classical ballet (I think, always difficult to tell how one gets where one ends up).
So I've been watching bits and pieces of that, as well as all of The Royal Ballet's Cinderella. I therefore offer you some fully random observations, from someone who never got into any kind of dance as a kid, and therefore knows baaaaaasically nothing about the topic. (I have been to several ballets in person, The Nutcracker of course, and the Winnipeg Ballet's Svengali..)
Which is all I have for now.
So I've been watching bits and pieces of that, as well as all of The Royal Ballet's Cinderella. I therefore offer you some fully random observations, from someone who never got into any kind of dance as a kid, and therefore knows baaaaaasically nothing about the topic. (I have been to several ballets in person, The Nutcracker of course, and the Winnipeg Ballet's Svengali..)
- I like classical ballet (I'm not really watching modern) because it's quite ridiculous, and unconnected to anything that has ever happened on the face of the Earth.
- I have learned that there's dialogue! Classical ballet has a kind of sign language, done through gestures, so that the dancers can explain plot points such as "We make evil men dance until they die!" and "This lake is made of my mother's tears!"
- There does not seem to be much point to the male principal dancers. They have thighs like birch trees, which allows them to leap impressively high in the air, but they don't spin around on nothing but their big toe, which makes them less interesting to watch. Their main purposes seems to be to move the plot along, and act as a "Ballerina holder upper."
- Maybe it's just because I'm not good enough at reading the mime, but the romantic dances are... not very romantic. They mostly seem to be the ballerina holder upper holding up the ballerina while she spins around on her big toe.
- I don't know if there's non-transphobic/misogynistic way to do the comedy roles where male dancers play female characters, but Cinderella sure didn't manage it.
- The plot of Giselle is really interesting (boy meets girl, girl dies when she finds out that boy has, girl joins chorus of vengeful ghosts, vengeful ghosts attempt to kill boy, girl saves boy), and I wonder if there have been modern retellings like there have of other old fairytales.
- I'm pretty sure the human body is not designed to do any of that.
Which is all I have for now.
Fort Bragg, garden, burning
Mar. 15th, 2026 04:19 pmranunculusThursday was dentist day. An absolutely routine cleaning.
Friday was go to Fort Bragg and see Richard day. He fixed both Donald and my backs. As usual I went in with pain and emerged an hour later pain free. Nice drive, easy and almost traffic free.
Garden. ( Cut for pics )
Friday was go to Fort Bragg and see Richard day. He fixed both Donald and my backs. As usual I went in with pain and emerged an hour later pain free. Nice drive, easy and almost traffic free.
Garden. ( Cut for pics )
There's no combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard
Mar. 15th, 2026 04:27 pmsovayThe wall-to-wall crowd of the memorial from which I have just returned testifies to the love poured out and returned by the guest of honor, but I would still rather have been in the worldline where they were present to be celebrated in more than memory.
Ballet Experience: Swan Lake
Mar. 15th, 2026 08:59 pmextrapenguinSwan Lake is, after the Nutcracker, perhaps the most basic ballet there is. It's considered the peak of classical ballet (note: in ballet, the romantic era comes before the classic, so that while Tchaikovsky is a romantic composer, he is a composer of classic ballets), but I think the part of the reason for its longevity is that it has multiple ending variants, broadly divided into "villain wins" and "lovers prevail".
Short synopsis:
[Prologue] Princess Odette gets kidnapped by an evil sorcerer, Rothbart, and cursed to become a swan who can only turn human by night. (He has a collection of women he's done this to.) Her mom turns up and cries so much her tears form the titular Swan Lake. Basically no-one performs this part anymore.
The Curse: a prince must publicly proclaim to love Odette and only Odette; if she is betrayed in love, she and all the other swan maidens are condemned to stay swans forever. Allegedly this will also happen if Rothbart dies before the curse is broken.
[Act 1 Scene 1] The production will probably start here, in a palace courtyard. Lots of partying and jolly dancing. Prince Siegfried gets gifted a crossbow. His mom tells him that tomorrow, at his 18th birthday party, he will have to pick a girl to marry.
[Act 1 Scene 2] Siegfried goes hunting! He sees a beautiful swan, who then turns into a beautiful woman. He is awed and they then fall in love. Corps de ballet is the other swan maidens, with divertissements of the four little swans and three large swans.
[Act 2 Scene 1] The birthday party. Lots of dancing in the form of divertissements. Siegfried turns down all the women his mother has thoughfully assembled, to everyone's shock. But then! The party is gatecrashed by a dude and his swan-y daughter, Odile – the black swan. The dude is none other than Rothbart, and Siegfried enspelled to see Odette when he looks at Odile. (In basically every production over, it's the same ballerina; all that changes is the color of the tutu.) Odette tries to fly in the window but is stopped. Siegfried proclaims his undying love to Odile, at which point Rothbart goes lol and draws back the curtains to reveal Odette behind the window, watching all this. Much drama ensues, Siegfried runs off, his mom faints, etc.
[Act 2 Scene 2] Back at the lake, Siegfried searches out Odette amidst the other swan maidens who have now all been condemned to an eternity as swans due to him. They meet and dance together. Then Rothbart shows up, and this is where things get interesting wrt potential ending variants. In a bunch of them, Rothbart takes Odette and she becomes a swan forever, and Siegfried tragically beseeches the audience etc (unless he's danced by Nureyev, in which case he drowns). In others, Rothbart gets defeated either by Siegfried killing him somehow, or simply by the True Love (TM) being so powerful it outpowers the curse; cue happy ending.
The Paris Ballet Theatre put on the happy ending which I believe is most popular in Russia: Siegfried steals one of Rothbart's wings (he is owl-coded), thus depriving him of his powers and defeating him. As usual, I bought the program, and this time they even had DVDs, so I bought one! Next up, buying an external DVD drive so I can rip it...
Dancing: Their principal danseur is very good at projecting this sort of naïve and innocent vibe, which fits Siegfried well. Their prima ballerina worked great as Odette, though Odile could've had a bit of extra spice. The costuming was amazing, with 109887 sequins on everyone, and I appreciated the slightly softer tutus (vs hardcore platter tutus) of the swans.
Also this is basically the Ballets Russes reborn. They dance Vaganova/Russian style, the dancers got their training in places like Armenia and the Komi Republic (in Russia), were soloists in places like the Bolshoi Theater and the Ural Opera (both in Russia), and the maîtrisse de ballet is Belarusian. Also the live music, The Orchestra of Budapest, is basically an international company formed out of almost exclusively Eastern European musicians, with a Belarusian conductor.
Note to self: rows G-P probably the best for seeing stuff, since it's far enough up that you can see the back of the stage/some of what the corps de ballet is doing formation-wise and aren't upskirting everyone nonstop, but close enough you can see expressions.
Short synopsis:
including the prologue!
[Prologue] Princess Odette gets kidnapped by an evil sorcerer, Rothbart, and cursed to become a swan who can only turn human by night. (He has a collection of women he's done this to.) Her mom turns up and cries so much her tears form the titular Swan Lake. Basically no-one performs this part anymore.
The Curse: a prince must publicly proclaim to love Odette and only Odette; if she is betrayed in love, she and all the other swan maidens are condemned to stay swans forever. Allegedly this will also happen if Rothbart dies before the curse is broken.
[Act 1 Scene 1] The production will probably start here, in a palace courtyard. Lots of partying and jolly dancing. Prince Siegfried gets gifted a crossbow. His mom tells him that tomorrow, at his 18th birthday party, he will have to pick a girl to marry.
[Act 1 Scene 2] Siegfried goes hunting! He sees a beautiful swan, who then turns into a beautiful woman. He is awed and they then fall in love. Corps de ballet is the other swan maidens, with divertissements of the four little swans and three large swans.
[Act 2 Scene 1] The birthday party. Lots of dancing in the form of divertissements. Siegfried turns down all the women his mother has thoughfully assembled, to everyone's shock. But then! The party is gatecrashed by a dude and his swan-y daughter, Odile – the black swan. The dude is none other than Rothbart, and Siegfried enspelled to see Odette when he looks at Odile. (In basically every production over, it's the same ballerina; all that changes is the color of the tutu.) Odette tries to fly in the window but is stopped. Siegfried proclaims his undying love to Odile, at which point Rothbart goes lol and draws back the curtains to reveal Odette behind the window, watching all this. Much drama ensues, Siegfried runs off, his mom faints, etc.
[Act 2 Scene 2] Back at the lake, Siegfried searches out Odette amidst the other swan maidens who have now all been condemned to an eternity as swans due to him. They meet and dance together. Then Rothbart shows up, and this is where things get interesting wrt potential ending variants. In a bunch of them, Rothbart takes Odette and she becomes a swan forever, and Siegfried tragically beseeches the audience etc (unless he's danced by Nureyev, in which case he drowns). In others, Rothbart gets defeated either by Siegfried killing him somehow, or simply by the True Love (TM) being so powerful it outpowers the curse; cue happy ending.
The Paris Ballet Theatre put on the happy ending which I believe is most popular in Russia: Siegfried steals one of Rothbart's wings (he is owl-coded), thus depriving him of his powers and defeating him. As usual, I bought the program, and this time they even had DVDs, so I bought one! Next up, buying an external DVD drive so I can rip it...
Dancing: Their principal danseur is very good at projecting this sort of naïve and innocent vibe, which fits Siegfried well. Their prima ballerina worked great as Odette, though Odile could've had a bit of extra spice. The costuming was amazing, with 109887 sequins on everyone, and I appreciated the slightly softer tutus (vs hardcore platter tutus) of the swans.
Also this is basically the Ballets Russes reborn. They dance Vaganova/Russian style, the dancers got their training in places like Armenia and the Komi Republic (in Russia), were soloists in places like the Bolshoi Theater and the Ural Opera (both in Russia), and the maîtrisse de ballet is Belarusian. Also the live music, The Orchestra of Budapest, is basically an international company formed out of almost exclusively Eastern European musicians, with a Belarusian conductor.
Note to self: rows G-P probably the best for seeing stuff, since it's far enough up that you can see the back of the stage/some of what the corps de ballet is doing formation-wise and aren't upskirting everyone nonstop, but close enough you can see expressions.
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Patrizia and Her Performing Chicken
Mar. 15th, 2026 09:03 ammallorys_cameraYesterday morning, I went off for a plot showing at the New Paltz Community Garden.
I saw several lovely plots, but in the end I chose this one becawwwwwse the gardener before me had left me her hose! Plus, it has several upraised beds:
That's one thing I don't like about the New Paltz Community Garden: They make you water your garden with your own individually purchased hose. In fact, I dislike that so much that I argued the point with Phil, the extremely nice plot coordinator who was showing me around: "Hoses are not cheap! So by making that a requirement, you're essentially eliminating low-income gardeners who might really benefit from growing their own food."
Phil made a thoughtful face. "You're not wrong."
###
Afterwards, I had an hour and a half to kill, so I hung out at the Gardiner Bakehouse:
The Gardiner Bakehouse is the café part of a complex run by a local maker's guild. Wonderful coffee & excellent food. Pastries to die for! It's the last place Brian & I hung out in together; in fact, we actually had a date to do an open mike there Saturday night of the week he died.
I was so happy sitting there! Sipping coffee, people watching, dipping into my novel from time to time to read a few paragraphs.
This is how you need to live your life! I told myself. With ample access to the Gardiner Bakehouse. You need to move to New Paltz.
New Paltz, you see, is the last hippie enclave in the entire United States.
###
At Montgomery Schlock, I took on the task of doing taxes for an adorable kid who had started his own trucking business, but who had failed to draft a business plan or keep a single record of his business expenses.
After half an hour or so, I got up from my desk & toddled off to consult with the office manager.
"You can't do it?" she asked.
"Oh, I can do it," I said. "The question is whether I should do it, given the fact that I'm a first-year associate and this is going to require some intense forensic accounting. I'm not certified to do it, and that's going to raise some liability issues if the return is audited, which it almost certainly will be."
The office manager didn't seem to understand the difference between "can" and "should," which was mildly annoying but whatevs: I do not give a shit what these people understand or think so long as I get paid.
###
Back at the casa, I hunted down Icky. "The chickens... ?"
Icky looked grim. "Something got them. I found some feathers next to the coop. They got Little Nas—"
"Little Nas" is his name for Black Chicken.
Oh, my heart was broken. Black Chicken! Whom I'd taught to jump high and walk backwards when I first moved into this place. Whom I could have taken out on the road as a circus act, Patrizia and Her Performing Chicken.
I sat in the Patrizia-torium sobbing. Black Chicken! People are dying in Gaza! I reminded myself fiercely. It doesn't take much to see that the problems of one black chicken don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.
Half an hour later, Icky began calling my name. "Patrizia! Patrizia! Patrizia!"
I ran downstairs—
He was holding Black Chicken!!!
Black Chicken had survived!!!
"Where was she?"
"She was just standing there on the back porch when I opened the door—"
Clearly, something had tried to grab her: She was missing a whole bunch of feathers under her right wing. I visualized a fox's mouth.
But she had gotten away! I pictured her pecking furiously at the fox until he dropped her and then fluttering away to hide. Nobody's getting Black Chicken without a fight! Black Chicken is a survivor!!! Descendent of the mighty dinosaurs!
There are now three chickens left.
"You've got to build them some sort of run," I told Icky. "Free ranging is a nice concept, but it's simply not safe for them."
He is leaving to go back down to the city today, but I think he will build one next time he's up.
In the meantime, the chickens must be confined to their coop.
I saw several lovely plots, but in the end I chose this one becawwwwwse the gardener before me had left me her hose! Plus, it has several upraised beds:
That's one thing I don't like about the New Paltz Community Garden: They make you water your garden with your own individually purchased hose. In fact, I dislike that so much that I argued the point with Phil, the extremely nice plot coordinator who was showing me around: "Hoses are not cheap! So by making that a requirement, you're essentially eliminating low-income gardeners who might really benefit from growing their own food."
Phil made a thoughtful face. "You're not wrong."
###
Afterwards, I had an hour and a half to kill, so I hung out at the Gardiner Bakehouse:
The Gardiner Bakehouse is the café part of a complex run by a local maker's guild. Wonderful coffee & excellent food. Pastries to die for! It's the last place Brian & I hung out in together; in fact, we actually had a date to do an open mike there Saturday night of the week he died.
I was so happy sitting there! Sipping coffee, people watching, dipping into my novel from time to time to read a few paragraphs.
This is how you need to live your life! I told myself. With ample access to the Gardiner Bakehouse. You need to move to New Paltz.
New Paltz, you see, is the last hippie enclave in the entire United States.
###
At Montgomery Schlock, I took on the task of doing taxes for an adorable kid who had started his own trucking business, but who had failed to draft a business plan or keep a single record of his business expenses.
After half an hour or so, I got up from my desk & toddled off to consult with the office manager.
"You can't do it?" she asked.
"Oh, I can do it," I said. "The question is whether I should do it, given the fact that I'm a first-year associate and this is going to require some intense forensic accounting. I'm not certified to do it, and that's going to raise some liability issues if the return is audited, which it almost certainly will be."
The office manager didn't seem to understand the difference between "can" and "should," which was mildly annoying but whatevs: I do not give a shit what these people understand or think so long as I get paid.
###
Back at the casa, I hunted down Icky. "The chickens... ?"
Icky looked grim. "Something got them. I found some feathers next to the coop. They got Little Nas—"
"Little Nas" is his name for Black Chicken.
Oh, my heart was broken. Black Chicken! Whom I'd taught to jump high and walk backwards when I first moved into this place. Whom I could have taken out on the road as a circus act, Patrizia and Her Performing Chicken.
I sat in the Patrizia-torium sobbing. Black Chicken! People are dying in Gaza! I reminded myself fiercely. It doesn't take much to see that the problems of one black chicken don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.
Half an hour later, Icky began calling my name. "Patrizia! Patrizia! Patrizia!"
I ran downstairs—
He was holding Black Chicken!!!
Black Chicken had survived!!!
"Where was she?"
"She was just standing there on the back porch when I opened the door—"
Clearly, something had tried to grab her: She was missing a whole bunch of feathers under her right wing. I visualized a fox's mouth.
But she had gotten away! I pictured her pecking furiously at the fox until he dropped her and then fluttering away to hide. Nobody's getting Black Chicken without a fight! Black Chicken is a survivor!!! Descendent of the mighty dinosaurs!
There are now three chickens left.
"You've got to build them some sort of run," I told Icky. "Free ranging is a nice concept, but it's simply not safe for them."
He is leaving to go back down to the city today, but I think he will build one next time he's up.
In the meantime, the chickens must be confined to their coop.
Episode 2752: Do You Like Scary Moves?
Mar. 15th, 2026 09:15 amdarths_and_droids_feed
Food is often a fixture at a gaming session. Some groups like to eat while they play, while others (including us, and the Darths players) prefer to take a break from the game while eating a meal. For us this is because we generally have pizza, and nobody wants greasy fingers on their dice or character sheets. It also gives a chance for a mid-game break and reflection. Sometimes we just discuss non-game stuff, while others times the players discuss strategy for whatever thing is happening in the game.
aurilee writes:
Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)
Heh. Screaming as one jumps out of a perfectly fine aircraft is expected! The tandem instructors are probably more than used to it as well. I also think that Pete might have not been entirely wanting to go skydiving if he's only just realized he'll be screaming as well. But hey! We'll find out more about how the skydiving went after a few more game sessions have gone by I bet.
Transcript
I've been so tired these past few days that I wonder if I'm actually sick
Mar. 13th, 2026 07:43 amconulySeriously, asleep more than I've been awake. And I never did manage to work out the logistics to get to the memorial, which halfway sucks but halfway is "Welp, social anxiety" so....
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Things you can see, driving through rural Wisconsin
Mar. 14th, 2026 09:03 pmoffcntrMany roadkill raccoons. Two roadkill turkeys. No deer, however. A whole flock of live turkeys, digging through the understory of a small woods. (I also saw a dead red squirrel in the middle of US 73 as I turned onto the road, but as I didn't have a plastic bag, I wasn't able to take him home to make paint brushes.)
Several redtail hawks. A kestrel. A Snowy Owl, flying across the road just beyond my mother's driveway (She says there's actually two of them). Several Canada geese, pairing off a bit early for the season (and if you're used to seeing Cackling Geese out in Oregon, the Mammoth variety is a revelation. Those guys are big. As was the bald eagle, swooping low over a creek beside the road.)
Eastern Blue Jay. Such pretty birds.
An entire woodlot festooned with a cats-cradle of sky-blue piping--collecting sap for maple syrup.
The derelict hood and windshield of a snowmobile, perched on a snowbank on the shoulder of the road.
An Amish farmer and his two sons, driving a two-horse hitch down the highway pulling a rig designed to carry a big round hay bale. The new and the old in collaboration.
Several redtail hawks. A kestrel. A Snowy Owl, flying across the road just beyond my mother's driveway (She says there's actually two of them). Several Canada geese, pairing off a bit early for the season (and if you're used to seeing Cackling Geese out in Oregon, the Mammoth variety is a revelation. Those guys are big. As was the bald eagle, swooping low over a creek beside the road.)
Eastern Blue Jay. Such pretty birds.
An entire woodlot festooned with a cats-cradle of sky-blue piping--collecting sap for maple syrup.
The derelict hood and windshield of a snowmobile, perched on a snowbank on the shoulder of the road.
An Amish farmer and his two sons, driving a two-horse hitch down the highway pulling a rig designed to carry a big round hay bale. The new and the old in collaboration.
Navigation
Mar. 14th, 2026 08:08 pmoffcntrDenise and I have a Garmin satellite navigator that we bought for shows, and I'd brought it along, because no matter how new the rental car, they never have the software installed. And more than once, Google gave me directions after the exit.
Coming from the airport yesterday, both of them let me down. At first, I couldn't find the charging plug for the Garmin (turned out it was in the central column glove box, between the seats). Fired up Google Maps, and it couldn't find GPS. Finally went on dead reckoning north up the freeway until I could find an exit, parked in a Wendy's lot and found the plug. Garmin battery was super low, but kept alive long enough to get me to the hotel. But for some reason, the battery wasn't charging, so this morning, it didn't start at all.
So I programmed the phone, hit "Start" (I think I hit "Directions" yesterday) and Google took me on a wild ride through parts of Wisconsin I'd never seen before. I-94 to Mauston, sure, familiar, but then it to me off on state road 80 through Necedah toward Marshfield, and just when I though I knew where I was, it turned off on county highway X. (County roads in Wisconsin are lettered, not numbered, which leads to some funny signs. Sadly, I reached the intersection of county H, O and G from the wrong direction; GOH isn't nearly as photo-worthy.) Finally, after some twists and turns and astonishingly bad black top, I debouched onto US 73, which was at least familiar. Gassed up in Neillsville, took US 10 to county G, at which point Google lost the signal, kept repeating Turn right on County Road G. But by then I was on home turf so finished the trip from memory.
Leaving from Willard heading back, it took me on a totally different route. Went the other direction on county G, picked H and B and BB to once again not quite go through Marshfield. Connected with US 10, which runs east across much of the state, then southeast down the Fox River valley, and somewhere beyond Steven's Point, my phone shut down. Battery was dead.
Reader, I had no idea where I was. Garmin was still dead. It was not long until dark, there was a snowstorm coming, and I was, basically, f---ked. The only good thing about the situation was that this particular part of highway 10 was a commercial strip, where I might, conceivably, find a charging cord.
I pulled off into a parking lot where stood, cheek by jowl, a Goodwill and a Harbour Freight. Mentally flipped a coin, went into Goodwill.
I used the bathroom first--I'd been on the backroads a while--then checked out the offerings. No computer section, unlike the Delta Highway Goodwill in Eugene. Lots of USB-chargeable gadgets in the appliances, but all hardwired, mostly old-style.
Went up to checkout, made sad eyes at the staffer. Do you have USB charging cables? My phone died in the middle of giving me directions to Milwaukee.
She asked me what kind--USB-C--then led me back to a display of cutesy chargers, plug decked out as a gift box, cable with a bow. Mini USB-C plugs on both ends. Bought it, took it to the car which, being new and fancy, did in fact have only mini ports. Started the car, plugged the phone in, and it immediately began to charge. So I went back in, thanked the clerk and told her it was working. Restarted the phone on 4% charge, and drove the rest of the back to the motel.
Coming from the airport yesterday, both of them let me down. At first, I couldn't find the charging plug for the Garmin (turned out it was in the central column glove box, between the seats). Fired up Google Maps, and it couldn't find GPS. Finally went on dead reckoning north up the freeway until I could find an exit, parked in a Wendy's lot and found the plug. Garmin battery was super low, but kept alive long enough to get me to the hotel. But for some reason, the battery wasn't charging, so this morning, it didn't start at all.
So I programmed the phone, hit "Start" (I think I hit "Directions" yesterday) and Google took me on a wild ride through parts of Wisconsin I'd never seen before. I-94 to Mauston, sure, familiar, but then it to me off on state road 80 through Necedah toward Marshfield, and just when I though I knew where I was, it turned off on county highway X. (County roads in Wisconsin are lettered, not numbered, which leads to some funny signs. Sadly, I reached the intersection of county H, O and G from the wrong direction; GOH isn't nearly as photo-worthy.) Finally, after some twists and turns and astonishingly bad black top, I debouched onto US 73, which was at least familiar. Gassed up in Neillsville, took US 10 to county G, at which point Google lost the signal, kept repeating Turn right on County Road G. But by then I was on home turf so finished the trip from memory.
Leaving from Willard heading back, it took me on a totally different route. Went the other direction on county G, picked H and B and BB to once again not quite go through Marshfield. Connected with US 10, which runs east across much of the state, then southeast down the Fox River valley, and somewhere beyond Steven's Point, my phone shut down. Battery was dead.
Reader, I had no idea where I was. Garmin was still dead. It was not long until dark, there was a snowstorm coming, and I was, basically, f---ked. The only good thing about the situation was that this particular part of highway 10 was a commercial strip, where I might, conceivably, find a charging cord.
I pulled off into a parking lot where stood, cheek by jowl, a Goodwill and a Harbour Freight. Mentally flipped a coin, went into Goodwill.
I used the bathroom first--I'd been on the backroads a while--then checked out the offerings. No computer section, unlike the Delta Highway Goodwill in Eugene. Lots of USB-chargeable gadgets in the appliances, but all hardwired, mostly old-style.
Went up to checkout, made sad eyes at the staffer. Do you have USB charging cables? My phone died in the middle of giving me directions to Milwaukee.
She asked me what kind--USB-C--then led me back to a display of cutesy chargers, plug decked out as a gift box, cable with a bow. Mini USB-C plugs on both ends. Bought it, took it to the car which, being new and fancy, did in fact have only mini ports. Started the car, plugged the phone in, and it immediately began to charge. So I went back in, thanked the clerk and told her it was working. Restarted the phone on 4% charge, and drove the rest of the back to the motel.
Plan B
Mar. 14th, 2026 07:50 pmoffcntr
Woke up early this morning with an inspiration. Since my nephew and his wife wouldn't be able to make it down to Brookfield, there was no compelling reason for me to walk through the house today. I still have Sunday and Monday, and even if we have snow, it's just a short trip from the motel to the house. Easy peasy.Whereas, if I got on the road early enough, I could be at the farm by lunchtime, visit with my mom for a few hours, and drive back to Milwaukee ahead of the storm.
My brain being what it is, it spun in circles while I had breakfast, still not sure it was a good idea, but I figured, What the heck? And at quarter to eight, I was in the car.
Texted my sister-in-law and called my mom from a rest area near Mauston, got there in time to have lunch with my brother--homemade smoked sausage!--spend a couple of hours visiting with Mom, go with them to 4:00 Mass, and made it back to Brookfield at about 9 pm. Caught some snow flurries around Waupaca, and a bit heavier snow below Oshkosh, but the pavement was dry and clear, visibility fine, and I just beat the storm to Brookfield.
A bunch of tennis fiction I guess
Mar. 15th, 2026 11:14 amthawreckaTV: My Prince of Tennis anime marathon continues apace. Good news: Tezuka vs Atobe is just as good as I remember! The look on Atobe's face when he realises Tezuka has accepted his challenge! Oishi asking Tezuka if he's sure! Atobe getting what he wants, but no longer wanting it! Atobe wishing the game would go on forever! When the crowd stops cheering and just looks on in shock for that endless tiebreak! The arm raise at the end! Honestly, magnificent. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding when Atobe finally won, even though I knew it was coming, it was that tense.
The Inui/Kaidoh doubles arc is also just as homoerotic as I remembered. Hunting down the place where Kaidoh trains shirtless, asking him to play doubles against a vibrant sunset, the whole 'let's mutually use each other' thing... What a good pairing. I 100% believe they hooked up between tennis practises....
Kawamura's hyper macho tennissona is so funny to me. Also, I just got to Fuji asking to use his bloody tennis racket and, wow, instantly remembered how hard I shipped that pairing back in the day. There should have been more fic about them!!!
I feel like Tezuka/Oishi is also an underrated ship; people don't do enough with that dynamic early on where Oishi is taking Tezuka to his doctor's appointments and acting like his worried wife. On the other hand, people have done much with how shippy the Golden Pair are after they break up in the arc where Inui gets back on the team, and they were right to, this bit of tension is the most shippy Oishi and Eiji have ever been, and from what I remember they get even shippier later.
I have to admit I didn't pay much attention to the (anime only) Josei Shonan arc, which was sooooooooo boring. All the characters on the opposing team have wacky hair to disguise that they don't have interesting personalities. I felt very [I have no memory of this place] so I assume I straight up skipped this arc the first time around. In theory the Inui & Momo doubles match should have been interesting, but it mostly underlined for me that they both have better chemistry with Kaidoh. It's not like I can say the storyline the manga did instead at this point was better, because I also don't remember that 🤣 The Rokkaku arc is fine, but the most striking image is the super long racket. Echizen is adorable in this arc, though.
I'm about to start the Rikkai games. The last bunch of episodes have been very Momo/Kaidoh shippy. Rescuing the kitty together ❤️
I kind of want to write Prince of Tennis fic again... in 2026... but I have genfic ideas. Where Ryoma is aroace but doesn't care because he only identifies as a tennis player. And then I guess I'd have to write a lot of tennis?
Watched two movies yesterday:
The 2006 Prince of Tennis live action movie, which is so much worse than I remembered. It's not good as an adaptation and it's not good as a film in its own right! No narrative focus! A lot of bad acting! Ryuuzaki is young and hot for some reason! They try to jam in too much stuff and too many characters and everything feels thin and underwhelming! The upside is I think Fuji is perfect in it in his approx five seconds of screen time, and the weird side is Ryoma and Tezuka are so much shippier here than I think they've been in any other version of the canon.
Challengers: the sad story of a woman who can't marry tennis, so she has to put up with men.
Could have used more tennis, though I found the tennis ball POV shots kind of funny. I mostly got the impression that Tashi found Art nice and convenient and she was attracted to Patrick but didn't want to be in a relationship with him, but she was really in love with tennis. I didn't find Zendaya convincing as a tennis player, but she is convincing as the hot woman two dudes fight over, so that was fine. The homoerotic tension was there, but by the end I think I found it the least interesting part? At the beginning I didn't like Tashi, but by the end I found her the only likeable character, weirdly enough; I think it might be because she was the best characterised of them all, and had more depth to her longings.
The ending felt great, which I think is because it gave me the impression the men were finally as in love with tennis as Tashi was. I can see why people want a threesome at the end of that film, but I mostly felt like none of those people should bone. Much like with the peach fucker film I feel that Luca Guadagnino's aesthetic sensibility and mine don't mesh very well; the film wasn't pretty enough to my tastes, but obviously worked well for other people.
The Inui/Kaidoh doubles arc is also just as homoerotic as I remembered. Hunting down the place where Kaidoh trains shirtless, asking him to play doubles against a vibrant sunset, the whole 'let's mutually use each other' thing... What a good pairing. I 100% believe they hooked up between tennis practises....
Kawamura's hyper macho tennissona is so funny to me. Also, I just got to Fuji asking to use his bloody tennis racket and, wow, instantly remembered how hard I shipped that pairing back in the day. There should have been more fic about them!!!
I feel like Tezuka/Oishi is also an underrated ship; people don't do enough with that dynamic early on where Oishi is taking Tezuka to his doctor's appointments and acting like his worried wife. On the other hand, people have done much with how shippy the Golden Pair are after they break up in the arc where Inui gets back on the team, and they were right to, this bit of tension is the most shippy Oishi and Eiji have ever been, and from what I remember they get even shippier later.
I have to admit I didn't pay much attention to the (anime only) Josei Shonan arc, which was sooooooooo boring. All the characters on the opposing team have wacky hair to disguise that they don't have interesting personalities. I felt very [I have no memory of this place] so I assume I straight up skipped this arc the first time around. In theory the Inui & Momo doubles match should have been interesting, but it mostly underlined for me that they both have better chemistry with Kaidoh. It's not like I can say the storyline the manga did instead at this point was better, because I also don't remember that 🤣 The Rokkaku arc is fine, but the most striking image is the super long racket. Echizen is adorable in this arc, though.
I'm about to start the Rikkai games. The last bunch of episodes have been very Momo/Kaidoh shippy. Rescuing the kitty together ❤️
I kind of want to write Prince of Tennis fic again... in 2026... but I have genfic ideas. Where Ryoma is aroace but doesn't care because he only identifies as a tennis player. And then I guess I'd have to write a lot of tennis?
Watched two movies yesterday:
The 2006 Prince of Tennis live action movie, which is so much worse than I remembered. It's not good as an adaptation and it's not good as a film in its own right! No narrative focus! A lot of bad acting! Ryuuzaki is young and hot for some reason! They try to jam in too much stuff and too many characters and everything feels thin and underwhelming! The upside is I think Fuji is perfect in it in his approx five seconds of screen time, and the weird side is Ryoma and Tezuka are so much shippier here than I think they've been in any other version of the canon.
Challengers: the sad story of a woman who can't marry tennis, so she has to put up with men.
Could have used more tennis, though I found the tennis ball POV shots kind of funny. I mostly got the impression that Tashi found Art nice and convenient and she was attracted to Patrick but didn't want to be in a relationship with him, but she was really in love with tennis. I didn't find Zendaya convincing as a tennis player, but she is convincing as the hot woman two dudes fight over, so that was fine. The homoerotic tension was there, but by the end I think I found it the least interesting part? At the beginning I didn't like Tashi, but by the end I found her the only likeable character, weirdly enough; I think it might be because she was the best characterised of them all, and had more depth to her longings.
The ending felt great, which I think is because it gave me the impression the men were finally as in love with tennis as Tashi was. I can see why people want a threesome at the end of that film, but I mostly felt like none of those people should bone. Much like with the peach fucker film I feel that Luca Guadagnino's aesthetic sensibility and mine don't mesh very well; the film wasn't pretty enough to my tastes, but obviously worked well for other people.