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- Thread starter Gutwrench
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I got the impression that more than one neighbor around here thinks "dinner on the hoof" whenever one of those whitetails big enough to cook ends up spending more than the time it takes to traverse a driveway on the way to water or back again. But there are laws that would prohibit taking a shot at one from the kitchen doorway, so... folks generally wait until deer season and then take their dinner shots from their woodlots. I dunno about that particular neighbor though. She really didn't like deer. I do like watching how they usually manage not to fall into a crumpled heap while dancing down icy driveways during winter. "Usually" may exclude the first time one of them experiences what means "ice underfoot". I admire their agility even if I'm not averse to venison stew should the makings of it come my way now and then.
One of my bros jokingly said hey if you ever hear her take a deer in her yard you should go over and ask if she's gonna eat it all. But in fact by then we'd both been up here more than long enough to know the locals' time honored way about things like that: "Never ask for what should be offered."
I've been thinking about how fantastically more difficult this whole "work at home" and "remote collaboration" would be with the "internet" of only a few decades ago.
Think back to when "getting on the net" meant firing up your desktop computer (with CRT display), dialing in to your service provider with a modem, and then waiting for things to load. Even at the then-blistering speed of 57.6Kbits/sec, some stuff took minutes before you saw it. Prodigy, AOL, Apple Eworld, MCI Mail, etc. were some of the big names.
The hot new connection with maybe a megabit or so per second was a cable modem, but cable companies insisted on renting them to you. You might be able to buy a modem yourself, but the cable company might not allow you to connect it.
Companies with significant out-of-office work forces would often maintain racks of dial-in modems to answer lines. Each one took a dedicated box, telephone wiring, computer port, etc. along with the staff to manage and maintain it all. And if a whole lot of co-workers dialed in at the same time, too bad for all the latecomers, even if you had a work deadline to meet.
In theory, a cell phone might support a data channel, but it was mostly like a dial-up wired land-line, with the bonus feature of frequent dropouts and radio interference to trigger random hang-ups.
Oh, and let's not forget fax. Fax was where the future of business automation had people writing out orders on pieces of paper, then carefully feeding them into a slot on a little box, and praying that the paper wouldn't jam. When you think about it, a fax is basically a machine for sending telegrams, complete with the requirement for using paper as both input and output, as if CRTs had never been invented.
Think back to when "getting on the net" meant firing up your desktop computer (with CRT display), dialing in to your service provider with a modem, and then waiting for things to load. Even at the then-blistering speed of 57.6Kbits/sec, some stuff took minutes before you saw it. Prodigy, AOL, Apple Eworld, MCI Mail, etc. were some of the big names.
The hot new connection with maybe a megabit or so per second was a cable modem, but cable companies insisted on renting them to you. You might be able to buy a modem yourself, but the cable company might not allow you to connect it.
Companies with significant out-of-office work forces would often maintain racks of dial-in modems to answer lines. Each one took a dedicated box, telephone wiring, computer port, etc. along with the staff to manage and maintain it all. And if a whole lot of co-workers dialed in at the same time, too bad for all the latecomers, even if you had a work deadline to meet.
In theory, a cell phone might support a data channel, but it was mostly like a dial-up wired land-line, with the bonus feature of frequent dropouts and radio interference to trigger random hang-ups.
Oh, and let's not forget fax. Fax was where the future of business automation had people writing out orders on pieces of paper, then carefully feeding them into a slot on a little box, and praying that the paper wouldn't jam. When you think about it, a fax is basically a machine for sending telegrams, complete with the requirement for using paper as both input and output, as if CRTs had never been invented.
Wait there’s a faster way to connect to the internet than dial up? Why did nobody telex me to let me know?
I sent a footman with a personal despatch, but he was waylaid by ruffians.
Yes, being somewhat acquainted with goats, I can easily see such terms as “repeat offenders” and “vandals” being applied.
Goats are wonderful, in their own way, but they definitely bear watching.
Several years ago, not long after my father had died, a cheesemonger who is a close friend brought me to the international cheese festival in Bra, Piedmont, to cheer me up; it was a wonderful holiday - food for the body and food for the soul and wine for the mind, amid terrific and congenial company - food, wine, cheese, culture and opera in northern Italy....
One evening, seated at dinner beside an award winning producer of cheese - goat's cheese, as it happened, - the cheese producer and I were chatting about the award winning cheese, and about the herd of goats that produced this - her - internationally recognised award winning cheese. Not only, according to her, were they mischievous marauders, but, there were also ascending degrees of mischief that were indulged in, when they embarked upon their destructive sprees, a piece of information which astonished me.
She informed me that the goats all wore these clanking bells around their necks, which normally sounded, giving advance notice of the goats' approach - but, paradoxically, their owner advised me that the bells did not necessarily sound the alarm when trouble was about to brew or mischief was in the collective mind of the herd.
"No", she said, lifting her beautiful Italian wine glass, and studying the refracting light ruminatively, with an admiring - but rueful - snort of laughter. "It is when the bells are silent - very, very silent - that you really have to watch out. That is when the real trouble happens."
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This should go without saying...
Also, just for commenting on current events with a little nod to the past...
My response?
Also, just for commenting on current events with a little nod to the past...
My response?
Do I even need the bag of Cheetos?
If my sedan travels at the speed of light, we know that time stops. Therefore, if time has stopped while I travel at light speed, will I ever get hungry?
If my sedan travels at the speed of light, we know that time stops. Therefore, if time has stopped while I travel at light speed, will I ever get hungry?
So when I see the moon at night, the photons reflecting from its surface and striking my eye haven't aged at all, no matter what path they took.
They arrive with exactly the same amount of facial hair they had when they left the sun about 8 minutes previously. Even if the moon is waxing?
They arrive with exactly the same amount of facial hair they had when they left the sun about 8 minutes previously. Even if the moon is waxing?
Again with the Cheetos. And now the moon?!
You two are taking advantage of, respectively, your emeritus and current powers to inhibit our responses.
Just so you know. 🚀🌘🔥🧀🍿
You two are taking advantage of, respectively, your emeritus and current powers to inhibit our responses.
Just so you know. 🚀🌘🔥🧀🍿
Again with the Cheetos. And now the moon?!
You two are taking advantage of, respectively, your emeritus and current powers to inhibit our responses.
Just so you know.
I don't know what they were going for but it's making me hungry. I swear I'm on my way to be a contestant on "My 600-LB Life". I can only clean so much. I should start using my elliptical more often.
Apple's campus sorta looks like a spaceship. Dunno if anybody's ever made that comparison before…
The first joint on my left index finger is hurting. I’m left handed and think it could be tapping on my iPad screen that did it, but I did not notice it until last night after I had been playing on my computer, but I use it there too. Currently to compensate I’m typing with my right index finger. 
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At one point we had 3 cats constantly trying to cuddle with us. It was a competition!
Mechanically inclined and good spacial orientation and judgement. 😁
Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?This should go without saying...
Also, just for commenting on current events with a little nod to the past...
My response?
And HECK YEA might be working from home soon so I will be in full Introvert Mode!!!
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Gyms are going to be crushed worse than Jan 1 when this is over!
I am indeed human. I guess I had a good cry coming. My life is not going so well but I'm going to get through it.
Anyone just had enough of the charlatans and armchair "experts" that have come forth since this pandemic began?
This image about sums it up:
This image about sums it up:
What's on my mind? Well, I miss my family (I live alone) but thanks to modern technology I can still speak to them daily.
After watching the news last night, this is my feelings now.
So, on one wanted to guess where my quote was from?
E.M. Forster
Thought it damn spookey when I read it.
In other news did a bad thing and bought a roll of Ovamaltine creme biscuits a couple of hours ago.
There are two left.
This is why I don't but sweets except for tablets of dark chocolate which don't last that long but are less harmful.
I did inadvertently make a new coffee, "ovamaltine dropped in Turkish style coffee". Think I can seel the idea to Starbucks?
E.M. Forster
Thought it damn spookey when I read it.
In other news did a bad thing and bought a roll of Ovamaltine creme biscuits a couple of hours ago.
There are two left.
This is why I don't but sweets except for tablets of dark chocolate which don't last that long but are less harmful.
I did inadvertently make a new coffee, "ovamaltine dropped in Turkish style coffee". Think I can seel the idea to Starbucks?