Monday, July 25, 2005

So very sore...

For those of you who have never had the joy, digging out a section of yard to build a patio is WORK! (Even more work that reading a boring rant about patios!)

This past weekend, with some help from my friends Joe and Johnny, I excavated a very small portion of the 30' by 10' section of yard that will someday become my new patio. So far, I've succeeded only in destroying that section of the lawn and making several big piles of dirt along the back fence. The hole has to be dug about 8" deep all across the area and be fairly level before the patio can be built into it.

Clearing off the sod was the easy part. Most of the grass is struggling to stay alive anyway, so it came up quickly. Underneath, however, we found the shallow roots of the maple (best guess) tree 20' away. Digging through these (and hoping it does not kill off what is left of the tree) to get at the dirt below will take forever.

Now, I am working on digging a trench around the perimeter of the hole. If I can get that to the right depth, I hope to work my way toward the middle from there and get it all level and to the proper depth. I don't want to make the same mistake as the previous occupants of the house and end up with a buckled patio in less than two years!

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Dog's warning to cosmologists

No, that's not a typo. God probably quite appreciates cosmologists. Who doesn't want to have others around them in awe of their work? When a surgeon pulls off a particularly brilliant bit of cranial surgery, does he tell the guy driving an ice cream truck or use it to go hit on nurses? I'm guessing the latter.

Most cosmologists are currently of the opinion that the Universe has eleven dimensions rather than the three we are able to perceive in day-to-day life.

At the other end of the spectrum, my dog normally lives in a two-dimensional world in which she can eat, pee, chase squirrels, smell things and beg for more food - in that order.

Last night, she suddenly experienced what many theorists dream of: a higher dimension. For whatever reason, she chose to turn her head in a new direction and look up at the perfectly clear sky. Sadly, she did not like this new world and ended up whingeing and howling at planes passing over us at tens of thousands of feet. She tracked three of them as they trailed across the sky toward the eastern horizon, sometimes barking at and sometimes cowering from them. Perhaps they were some new trick of the evil squirrels? Who can tell?

What's the lesson for cosmologists? Finding whole new dimensions may not be as fun as you thought. Moving from a limited world (in her case, that of grounded squirrels and interesting smells) to a much bigger and new one can reveal horrible things that will destroy your world.

Or maybe you'll just end up barking at higher-dimensional beings flying to Europe.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Never blog while seriously sleep-deprived

Just don't. It's stupid, it's silly, it can only end in tears.

So here I go...

I've stumbled onto an idea - no doubt already discovered but insufficiently shared elsewhere - that could save people a great deal of time and money. Sleep deprivation is the way of the future. You gain all that time by not sleeping and save all the money you'd be spending to get really stupid on drugs or alcohol. To save even more time, you have a sort of hang-over WHILE still under the influence! No more wasted time afterwards!

Between six hours of jet lag, non-drowsy allergy medications (ie: caffeine pills) and the Sun being up nearly all of the time in Berlin at this time of year, I've not had a good night's sleep in a week. This morning, I slept in: 5:30am. That's 11:30am in Berlin, so it aint bad. However, I did not get to sleep until midnight (Boston time) last night. I aint catching up.

Now, I am going home early. I will walk my dog after rescuing her from the kennel and try to keep going until we drop. I should NOT drive us anywhere!

Tomorrow is a new day. Somewhere. With luck and the expected TV line-up, I should be in bed by 9:00pm. I'd go for earlier, but I know I'll just wake up at 2:00am or something and start all over! They were thrilled to have me in two hours early today, but that is just a bad habit to get into.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

38,000 Feet

Well, now I am 3,800 storeys above Cork, Ireland. The flight was not bad! Being stuck in a tiny chair for five hours finally got me to sit and watch "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou." Loved it! This more than made up for "The Royal Tennenbaums" (same director)!

Well, not much time to write as we are zooming toward Heathrow at 576 miles per hour. Obviously, we are not taxiing to the gate yet; but they are making us turn off our electronic toys now...

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Nothing to say

Like most bloggers, I have nothing to say, really. However, I'm bored and waiting for my plane to take off for Berlin. How often does one get to blog from a 747?

The 747 has always been my favorite plane. Seeing something this big fly through the air just boggles my mind. I understand the physics and aerodynamics of it all, but this thing is freakin' huge! It's not even the biggest plane aloft, but you don't get as much chance to see military cargo planes outside of the Middle East.

Inside, unfortunately, the only sense of hugeness is the long line of people between you and the exit or - even more importantly - the loo. I'm in an aisle seat at least. The two guys in middle/middle seats (the two in the middle of the four seats between the two aisles) are looking pretty compressed right now. They're more cramped than my poor dog back at the kennel. At least they get out in a few hours. She's sentenced to a whole week. :-(

Well, we're leaving the gate now. Time to power off phones, pagers, radios and toaster ovens.

Off we go, into the wide blue yonder...

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Pointless drivel

(Transferred from my old spaces.live.com blog - substitute Google/Blogger for Microsoft)

So, Microsoft has expanded my Hotmail account to let me write meaningless drivel not just to my address book but now to no one in particular! Excellent! Is this a beta test of Microsoft Paranoid Schizophrenia 1.0?

Please enjoy the pictures of my friendly home and money- and time-consuming dog (or is that the other way around?). I know the people that come here are really just looking for Meg pictures and not anything I have to say. On the other hand, this IS the Charleyverse; so I get to do whatever I want.

On that note, I'm going to go cook a steak.

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Roaming...

Holy crap! You CAN post from a BlackBerry. This is bad news for all who don't want to read gibberish I come up with on long dog walks!

Anyway, just wanted to say hi from the West Indies. Hi. I'm down here for the week to thaw, sleep and read. Last night was a beautiful 13 hours of sleep. Next up? Breakfast and then trapeze class. Maybe I should go light on breakfast?