Instead of working on a blog post, I’m trying to get a lot of other things done before the forecast tornado and large hail outbreak (1400 CDT, Tuesday May 7). Content resumes tomorrow.
Update 2130 CDT, May 7. At one point there were five tornado warnings with three on the ground. Amarillo came close, but were missed. We had minor street flooding of the usual places.
Tonight marks the beginning of Passover.
Bitter and sweet, eaten in haste with unleavened bread. Fair use under Creative Commons. Original at: https://abcnews.go.com/US/passover-/story?id=46654945 [caution: auto-play video at link.]
The United States Marine Corps began life on this date waaaaaaay back in the 1700s, in Tunn Tavern. Which seems appropriate, somehow…
I finally realized why the WIP feels like I’m pulling my own teeth, besides the recurrence of a medical thing that is annoying me. Ewoud is not a teenager. But he’s not an adult yet, at least not in his own mind. And a lot of me is saying “write him as an 18-year-old guy,” meaning modern. That would be relatively easy, given Day Job.
But that’s not Ewoud. He’s an 18-year-old medieval man with both parents still living. Very different world, and a very different character. Continue reading
Happy Canada Day to my northern readers!
We in the south sometimes forget how often Canadians have answered the call to defend freedom – WWI, WWII, Korea, and other occasions. For all her problems, Canada is still a beautiful country with a proud history.
*Raises a glass*
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
From Rudyard Kipling’s “Recessional”
2018 marks the centenary of American military cemeteries outside of the United States. Madingly, Cambridge, England is the most haunting of those I’ve visited. Perhaps because in the far distance you can see Ely Cathedral half-floating over the Fens, the great marshes of eastern England.
I should have known things were going too well…
So there I was, trying to be a good teacher and get all my copies done before Monday at 0745, or before “I have to have 60 copies on custom paper stapled on the right corner in three minutes!” I fanned the pages so they would not stick together, I selected the proper parameters, staple, collate, number of copies, and hit “Start.” Then I stepped back, checked my in-box, refilled the water in the little coffee maker, and sipped my soda pop.
The copier chirped, and I retrieved the pages. They were not stapled together. The middle page was missing.
Huh. I looked at the command screen on the copier, looked at the copies, and heard the machine giggling.
I’d forgotten that I needed to select two-side to two-side, not one-side to two-side, as I usually do. And I have no idea why it refused to staple.
Just to rub the folly in, the copier wrinkled half the middle pages that it copied, and I had to hand staple everything. And re-load the stapler.
So That’s what that Sound Was!
