Monthly Archives: August 2007

It’s One Of Two Things

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There are certain characters in Persuasion that annoy me so greatly that I want to reach across, not just time and space, but the chasm between the real world and the fictional world, and throttle them. I’ve felt this before with some of Austen’s characters, mainly with those beholden to the idea of class and rank.

This suggests one of two things:

  1. Jane Austen was a really good writer to get me so engaged in the story and her characters.
  2. I have severe psychological problems.

Jane Austen was a really good writer.

Austentacious

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I’m about halfway through Persuasion, and of the 17 male characters introduced so far, 16 of them are named Charles. Everyone is either a sibling or cousin and yet they’re all courting or marrying or having kids.

I’m going to have to read the annotated Pride & Prejudice pretty soon just to have a clue as to what is going on in Jane Austen’s England.

Still, for a story without Wookiees, it’s been an enjoyable book so far.

The Cutest Predator Ever To Walk The Earth

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Yesterday afternoon, the cats and I were enjoying a dry spell in the weather. I brought my camera and macro lens into the backyard with the hope of photographing some of the little greenish-white spiders that live in the coneflowers. They weren’t cooperating by posing on cones at the edge of the patch, so I started puttering around the yard.

While trimming one of my favorite rose bushes, I noticed this ladybug was on the underside of one of the leaves of a stem I had just cut. I rescued it from the clippings and put it back on a rose petal. It was a real eye-opener when I looked at the pictures later. I had always assumed the black patches on the white middle section were its eyes, and was surprised to see its real eyes just below that section, two compound eyes much like a fly’s eyes.

Furthering my belief that there are no native species left in Oregon, I think this species of ladybug (lady beetles is the preferred term) is an Asian species that was introduced in the US for aphid control. We had a bunch of ladybugs last year, but I was disappointed to not see more this spring. Aphids overran our daisies, some of the roses, and some of the other plants, with my red friends nowhere in sight.

While trimming the spent daisies last weekend, I noticed a number of ladybugs on the cut stems. To their eyes, I was probably a monster coming in and clear-cutting their old growth forest. I could just hear their little screams of “Never Forget!” as the daisy stems fell to the ground. I relocated every ladybug I saw, I hope my kindness is remembered next spring when the aphids are on the prowl.

Comma, Comma, Comma, Comma, Comma Chameleon

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I complained before about Jane Austen’s generous use of commas at the start of Sense & Sensibility, but she’s really outdone herself at the start of Persuasion. There are twelve commas in the first sentence alone.

Not to mention a colon, three semi-colons, and two dashes. I’ll be generous and not include the commas in the citation that completes the sentence since some of the commas are associated with dates.

I’m not sure that such wanton use of punctuation caused global warming, but it can’t have helped.

Hurricane Boolie

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Right after I posted the picture of Scout in my previous post, I took my headphones off and headed towards the dining room to close the windows and then go to bed. I stopped in the living room when I heard the sound of rushing water. It would have been a pleasing sound to lull me off to sleep had I been camping near a mountain stream, but it’s not the kind of thing you want to hear when you are standing in your house.

I went outside and water was gushing out of the faucet in front of the house. I turned the water off but there was already a pool of water outside the basement window. I grabbed a bucket and scooped out as much water as I could, then ran down to the basement where water was everywhere. I put towels down and spent the next couple of hours soaking up water from a couple of rooms, and then the next couple of hours soaking up water from the one carpeted room. I had a couple of fans running to try and dry out what I couldn’t soak up.

I eventually was so tired I couldn’t even stand and fell asleep right on the carpet. My wife woke me a few minutes later and I went upstairs for an hour of sleep before having to get up for work. I had a conference call with one of our partners in the morning so I couldn’t come in late.

Unfortunately, this sad tale doesn’t end there. My wife discovered this morning that another section of the carpet had gotten soaked, which meant it had been wet for over three days. I blotted up as much water as I could during the day but it may be a lost cause, it may have mildewed already.

There are times I have a love-hate relationship with plumbing, but I’d have a hard timing giving it up. I enjoy my hot showers a little too much, not to mention laundry machines and dishwashers.

I suppose it’s home ownership that I really have a love-hate relationship with. The thing I hated about apartment living is hearing the TV of your neighbor because of the shared walls, hearing them walk around their apartment. Just hearing them — I like my quiet. And pet restrictions are a bother too.

On the other hand, I hate the amount of time you spend in upkeep inside and outside a house, and would much prefer to spend more time on the trails and less time on the house. It is nice to let the cats run around in the fenced backyard, and perhaps one day I’ll be able to attract a decent variety of birds, so maybe I just need to replace our living plants with carefree plastic ones ;)

As for the cause of Hurricane Boolie, it turns out when I had attempted to power wash the front steps a week or so ago, I had left the spigot turned on — it was connected to a hose and nozzle so I wasn’t too worried about it. But the hose literally just fell apart and that’s when the water started pouring out.

Lesson learned.