It seems that the sycamore has been granted a reprieve. For now. The great and awful tree had been destined to attain horizontality as soon as I could find someone who would do it. That was necessary to give my cool new satellite dish a clear view of the sky. The tree is still under a death sentence, but the latest and most urgent reason for sending the thing to the wood-chip pile seems not to have existed at all.
If only I can get the dish on top of the stick!
As I wrote that I was suddenly reminded that a few decades ago it was popular for performers on variety shows to spin dishes on the tips of what looked like pool cues, the trick being to get many dishes spinning on many pool cues at once. At some point the studio audience would applaud. We were more easily pleased in those simpler times.
Okay, yes, it was my fault that the propane ran out before I ordered a refill. It was not my fault, though, that the internet went down, forcing me to watch a bit of the Olympics.
As it turns out, if it snows a lot, then rains a little on top of it, it won’t go away until things get warmer.
That’s my theory, anyway. I won’t be able to say for sure until things get warmer, if they ever do. Hope is found in it always having gotten warmer before. But we live in strange and troubling times.
So far, 2026 brings to mind Dorothy Parker’s legendary sigh, “What fresh hell is this?” It’s said to have been uttered when her doorbell rang, but it has other uses. Applied to our current year it makes Parker seem a prophet (though her politics and choices of friends tended to be terrible).
Alas, it has begun anew. It will get worse and there’s reason to believe that this time it will be more irritating than ever before.
Simba-sama made it to 2026, but just barely. It matters. His real name was just Simba, but he was wise, so it made sense to add “sama,” an honorific signifying high rank and wisdom, to that name. “Sensei” would have worked, too, because he taught the several other cats in Risa’s house how to be cats.
Just over a year ago I got my Unicomp Model M Mini, a newly manufactured version of what is in my estimation the best computer keyboard ever, the IBM Model M SSK. The Minis and the SSKs are like a regular IBM Model M, but they don’t have a number pad at the right, so I can put the trackball there and not have to reach for it.
Has there ever been a less Christmas-y Advent? I sure can’t remember one. Even during times of great sadness and crisis, we’ve always allowed — I daresay welcomed — the season to comfort and encourage us.
Time passes quickly in a busy life, so it oughtn’t surprise me that 1989 was as long ago as it is. But surprise me it does.