![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I was all excited because a couple of companies make what they call women's "plus size" chest waders. It's an illusion: the plus size waders are only like a size fourteen, tops. So I went ahead and ordered the lightest weight men's extra large breathable stockingfooot chest waders I could find. They turned out to be L L Bean's "emergent" -- not the "flyweight" which I naturally checked out, tbecause their extra large measures the same size as the "emergent" large and why the hell would they do that? It's all L.L. Bean, why wouldn't the sizing be consistent in the same category of product aimed at the same audience?
Anyway, they ship in 2-5 business days which means that even though I procrastinated as usual I might just get them in time for next Saturday's Carneros Creek trip. If not, then at least by the next one after that I will no longer be the only one in the team who can't get in the water. This means I will get to operate the flow meter!! (we take our pleasures where we find them, we do)
It's probably just as well I can't get the "flyweight" waders, anyhow. That water is nowhere near Arctic, but it's pretty cold.
I'm pretty tired of being all slow and achey from having gained so much weight this fall, though. Took the dog down the trail from Meder Street and it was really uncomfortable -- I almost said "really kind of miserable" but I had a good time in spite of being short of breath when I shouldn't be and having this particular annoying back pain I get from mere walking when I am this fat.
Tags:
I'm already sick. The usual, I won't bore you with the reiteration of upper respiratory symptoms, but damn. It's not even November. The rainy season hasn't even started (yes, it rained once, but that was about a centimeter and it didn't make it even as far south as Monterey, and it hasn't rained again in two weeks, so you can't say the season ahs begun).
The dog is not at all happy about my failure to deliver on the promise of Fun for Dogs. There was the Volunteer Appreciation Fish aco and Garden Burger Barbecue at the Coastal Watershed Council back deck overlooking the Yachjt Harbor parking lot yesterday and she wasn't fooled: it wasn't a real Fun for Dogs outing even though I gave her treats. Too much sitting around waiting for people to stop talking and get a move on.
But today -- I said I wouldn't bore you with symptoms. Suffice to say I have scrapped all my socially useful, social, and useful palns and I am sitting here in a cold house in my pajamas reading funny Sims stories and attempting to write a little.
I think I will turn up the heat. It's 17: 20's not too hot, is it?
I may also go back to bed soon.
The dog is not at all happy about my failure to deliver on the promise of Fun for Dogs. There was the Volunteer Appreciation Fish aco and Garden Burger Barbecue at the Coastal Watershed Council back deck overlooking the Yachjt Harbor parking lot yesterday and she wasn't fooled: it wasn't a real Fun for Dogs outing even though I gave her treats. Too much sitting around waiting for people to stop talking and get a move on.
But today -- I said I wouldn't bore you with symptoms. Suffice to say I have scrapped all my socially useful, social, and useful palns and I am sitting here in a cold house in my pajamas reading funny Sims stories and attempting to write a little.
I think I will turn up the heat. It's 17: 20's not too hot, is it?
I may also go back to bed soon.
Went to the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments dinner tonight. I didn't know that's what it was. I thought it was just the watershed people. I got to see John Laird, our Assemblyman, and tell him how much I adore him (he's also an old acquaintance from school days). Got to see Sam Farr say "I remember when none of the counties talked to each other -- Monterey never talked to Santa Cruz, and nobody even knew where San Luis Obispo is --" at which point a group of people in the middle of the room started cheering. He said it was the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary that made all the difference. I agree. The view from the top of the Monterey Marriott is magnificent, by the way. Also we walked around downtown Monterey looking for landmarks from when the nice fellow lived in a dolls house in Pacific Grove and cooked at a silly restaurant in Carmel (the dolls house being the first place we had sex).
This is a cheating Friday Foto -- took it last week.
( Bambi is very bold this time of year )
This is a cheating Friday Foto -- took it last week.
( Bambi is very bold this time of year )
Tags:
Okay: the "unsuitable lover" is named Skip (as in Christopher). The person he's talking to is Cary, his best friend for the last three or four years. Cary is a reference librarian: Skip is a library clerk. Other people of interest are Simon, who Skip had a disastrous affair with five years before, and Russell, who Skip meets at the baths.
There's a very complicated set of coincidences, so there needs to be some pretty delicate staging and writing.
On another front, I had to brake for a kestrel today. I don't know what it thought was so interesting in the middle of Calabasas Road. I wouldn't have been able to take advantage of it even if I had had my camera. Down the road a piece there was a harrier. I'm sure of it, I checked. Harriers are not rare here, but here lately all I've been seeing besides the kestrel have been anomalous red tails.
On still another front, tomorrow night I'm going to the volunteer appreciation dinner for coastal watershed people like me, at the Monterey Marriott hotel. I have no idea, so we're going to dress a little.
There's a very complicated set of coincidences, so there needs to be some pretty delicate staging and writing.
On another front, I had to brake for a kestrel today. I don't know what it thought was so interesting in the middle of Calabasas Road. I wouldn't have been able to take advantage of it even if I had had my camera. Down the road a piece there was a harrier. I'm sure of it, I checked. Harriers are not rare here, but here lately all I've been seeing besides the kestrel have been anomalous red tails.
On still another front, tomorrow night I'm going to the volunteer appreciation dinner for coastal watershed people like me, at the Monterey Marriott hotel. I have no idea, so we're going to dress a little.
So Sunday was my greatniece's first birthday party. Emma made her a sweater:
The party was at Lake Temescal, which is in the hills of Oakland and is one of the three places I went swimming a lot as a child (the other two were the Richmond Plunge and Stinson Beach, thus covering among them an artifical lake, an indoor swimming pool, and an ocean beach). I had not been there in more years than I like to count (since in my imagination I am twenty-six years old forever). It was almost the same. I could be a little kid on that little beach and open my eyes underwater to see -- nothing, as the water was opaque (it's clearer now but still a greenish-brown).
Monday was Emma's visit with the surgeon and he was happy with her progress and we were happy with her progress (which is not to belittle the pain, discomfort and disability of this healing period, natch) and he agreed with all the things she wanted to do. And then we went to Mitsuwa and Fry's on the other side of the hill with her fella and his mother. And we got way too many Japanese snacks which we're supposedly using some of on the plane trip. And a converter thing for foreign plugs.
Which raises the question of why don't they get an international commission together to decide once and for all which kind of plug and current is best overall and then everybody switch over? This is stupid. Brooks, what are the advantages/disadvantages of 110 vs. 120 volts? What about all those plug conformations? And is North America the only region that uses 110? Why are we out of step with the rest of the world in so many ways?
Today I took our friend Anton and Frank to Big Basin, which was nearly a two-8hour trip because on the up direction I followed Anton's directions instead of going the way I kow to be faster (not to mention safer because of there being less locals on the road). This made me later than I said I would be to arrive at the Coastal Watershed Council office to learn how to enter data from the field tests we've been doing all summer. But I did get there, and I did learn, and I did enter a bunch of data.
And the pharmacist did pack my pills in plastic bags with the labels on them, and that makes me happy. I wonder if I can get them to just slap a new label on the bags next month?
And I have my feckless young friend MC staying at the house while we're gone, so he can play with the dog and the cat and stuff. So that's all right. But I still don't have the reservations for the train from Amsterdam to Berlin, the bus and ferry from Berlin to Copenhagen, or any idea at all of how to get from Denmark to Amsterdam again.
The party was at Lake Temescal, which is in the hills of Oakland and is one of the three places I went swimming a lot as a child (the other two were the Richmond Plunge and Stinson Beach, thus covering among them an artifical lake, an indoor swimming pool, and an ocean beach). I had not been there in more years than I like to count (since in my imagination I am twenty-six years old forever). It was almost the same. I could be a little kid on that little beach and open my eyes underwater to see -- nothing, as the water was opaque (it's clearer now but still a greenish-brown).
Monday was Emma's visit with the surgeon and he was happy with her progress and we were happy with her progress (which is not to belittle the pain, discomfort and disability of this healing period, natch) and he agreed with all the things she wanted to do. And then we went to Mitsuwa and Fry's on the other side of the hill with her fella and his mother. And we got way too many Japanese snacks which we're supposedly using some of on the plane trip. And a converter thing for foreign plugs.
Which raises the question of why don't they get an international commission together to decide once and for all which kind of plug and current is best overall and then everybody switch over? This is stupid. Brooks, what are the advantages/disadvantages of 110 vs. 120 volts? What about all those plug conformations? And is North America the only region that uses 110? Why are we out of step with the rest of the world in so many ways?
Today I took our friend Anton and Frank to Big Basin, which was nearly a two-8hour trip because on the up direction I followed Anton's directions instead of going the way I kow to be faster (not to mention safer because of there being less locals on the road). This made me later than I said I would be to arrive at the Coastal Watershed Council office to learn how to enter data from the field tests we've been doing all summer. But I did get there, and I did learn, and I did enter a bunch of data.
And the pharmacist did pack my pills in plastic bags with the labels on them, and that makes me happy. I wonder if I can get them to just slap a new label on the bags next month?
And I have my feckless young friend MC staying at the house while we're gone, so he can play with the dog and the cat and stuff. So that's all right. But I still don't have the reservations for the train from Amsterdam to Berlin, the bus and ferry from Berlin to Copenhagen, or any idea at all of how to get from Denmark to Amsterdam again.
So, I had this attack story which fit no guidelines I knew about. I saw a set of guidelines which was remotely like the story, but different in significant ways (including length). Knowing this to be a longshot, I queried the length requirement and the publisher graciously invited me to send the story along. Very soon after I received a polite rejection mentioning a couple of reasons why it didn't work for them along with a little faint praise.
I wanted to argue with them and pout and stuff. I wanted to tell them they didn't know what they were talking about, that the story was perfect for anybody just as it is.
I really had no call to: the story was not really what they had asked for and the terms they used to tell me why they didn't want it were perfectly reasonable.
But the story has no home, and I'm grumpy about it because I like it.
Oh well. It's not quite true it has no home: there's a couple of nonpaying outfits that would love it. Not overlapping in any way with the paying world.
On another front, I queried Firefox News about whether they'd like any articles about water issues for the science fiction writer.
This is entirely coincidental to the fact that I spent the day learning a whole new set of water quality tests for the dry-season Urban Watch program. I am now a volunteer employee of NOAA, I signed the papers (this only entitles me to workers' comp if I break my shoulder slipping around the creeksides or something).
I wanted to argue with them and pout and stuff. I wanted to tell them they didn't know what they were talking about, that the story was perfect for anybody just as it is.
I really had no call to: the story was not really what they had asked for and the terms they used to tell me why they didn't want it were perfectly reasonable.
But the story has no home, and I'm grumpy about it because I like it.
Oh well. It's not quite true it has no home: there's a couple of nonpaying outfits that would love it. Not overlapping in any way with the paying world.
On another front, I queried Firefox News about whether they'd like any articles about water issues for the science fiction writer.
This is entirely coincidental to the fact that I spent the day learning a whole new set of water quality tests for the dry-season Urban Watch program. I am now a volunteer employee of NOAA, I signed the papers (this only entitles me to workers' comp if I break my shoulder slipping around the creeksides or something).
Tags:
Today is Snapshot Day. We go out in little teams and sample the water in creeks and culverts and sloughs up and down the coast from Pacifica to Morro Bay -- three hundred miles of the Central Coast. My team went to Corralitos Creek and Harkins Slough. It was more fun than I can say. It's like hiking and chemistry sets and girl talk all at once -- except the girl talk is about water and cameras and the whole world.
On another front, I had a dream about winged people this morning and it was all full of plotty goodness but I don't know if it is a story yet. I wrote it all down on the back of the sudoku puzzles I keep in the bedstead.
On another front, I had a dream about winged people this morning and it was all full of plotty goodness but I don't know if it is a story yet. I wrote it all down on the back of the sudoku puzzles I keep in the bedstead.
Tags:
I worked really har
d this afternoon to produce a few good pictures. But I guess I did it, even though the dogs kept walking out of the frame or looking away when I wanted to take their picture. Click the picture to find the rest of them, including the tug pictures. Meanwhile, while I was getting behind in posting pictures, LiveJournal changed how the galleries look and unilaterally changed my settings to no copies allowed. I've gone through and fixed almost all the galleries to copies allowed. Though I hope if anybody finds any of these pictures interesting enough to use for something they will let me know about it.
On another front, I have prepared five stories to take to the post office tomorrow. This is because I actually spent time looking at what's out and what's not and discovered these stories were either unsubmitted at the time or have been languishing long enough to consider them rejected.
On another front yet, I spent the morning getting trained for Snapshot Day next Saturday when volunteers up and down the coast will be testing water quality in the coastal watershed streams. I'm signed up for the Moore Creek watershed in Natural Bridges Park, but I might be reassigned since I said they could.
Dissolved Oxygen tests are amazingly complex and tedious.
By the way, if you happen to live in any of the California coastal counties, you should totally consider volunteering this Saturday: it doesn't matter if you haven't had the training, they'll find a spot for you. You can find out more here.
Other volunteer things: Santa Cruz County is short about a hundred election day workers. Here's the announcement, but it's not the current one -- it's from way last November. I heard about it on the news but since I heard late Friday I haven't called yet.
And finally: we've got Summer Pattern Weather, guys. Overcast and chilly in the morning, hot and bright in the afternoon, and windy in the evening. It's not summer yet, though, because the grass is green yet.
d this afternoon to produce a few good pictures. But I guess I did it, even though the dogs kept walking out of the frame or looking away when I wanted to take their picture. Click the picture to find the rest of them, including the tug pictures. Meanwhile, while I was getting behind in posting pictures, LiveJournal changed how the galleries look and unilaterally changed my settings to no copies allowed. I've gone through and fixed almost all the galleries to copies allowed. Though I hope if anybody finds any of these pictures interesting enough to use for something they will let me know about it.On another front, I have prepared five stories to take to the post office tomorrow. This is because I actually spent time looking at what's out and what's not and discovered these stories were either unsubmitted at the time or have been languishing long enough to consider them rejected.
On another front yet, I spent the morning getting trained for Snapshot Day next Saturday when volunteers up and down the coast will be testing water quality in the coastal watershed streams. I'm signed up for the Moore Creek watershed in Natural Bridges Park, but I might be reassigned since I said they could.
Dissolved Oxygen tests are amazingly complex and tedious.
By the way, if you happen to live in any of the California coastal counties, you should totally consider volunteering this Saturday: it doesn't matter if you haven't had the training, they'll find a spot for you. You can find out more here.
Other volunteer things: Santa Cruz County is short about a hundred election day workers. Here's the announcement, but it's not the current one -- it's from way last November. I heard about it on the news but since I heard late Friday I haven't called yet.
And finally: we've got Summer Pattern Weather, guys. Overcast and chilly in the morning, hot and bright in the afternoon, and windy in the evening. It's not summer yet, though, because the grass is green yet.
Tags: