Part-time prevaricator
Like Vonnegut said, “So it goes.” Poo-too-weet!
Happy Hollow Bean on this 975th day of March 2020.
“They have an important celebration,” said E.T., “called Hollow Bean. Everyone carves faces in fruit squashes and dresses up in sheets.”
—William Kotzwinkle, E.T. The Book of the Green Planet
Photo by Fredrik Solli Wandem on Unsplash
Today I went a bit over 13km at an average speed of 17.9km/h. The new bike is definitely faster; I didn’t feel like I was putting in any particular effort, but on my old bike I’d have been doing about 15km/h, maybe 16 on a good day.
…not the band but the visitors eating bugs in my lawn.
After I watched the new Top Gun talkie, I checked the data in my aurora app while I was still in the parking lot. It looked good[1]The Bz reading was ‑11, where the further into the negative, the better; I usually see a decent show if it’s at ‑4 or so., so I hurried home, grabbed my gear, and went out of town.
Unfortunately it was cloudy to the north. I set up anyway, hoping the clouds would move off, and started snapping photos.
Long story short: the clouds didn’t move off. I gave it about 45 minutes, and then packed up and went home.
Here’s a timelapse of about 20 minutes’ worth of my attempts. Each frame is a 10-second exposure.
And here’s a handful of my favourites from the photos I got. (I think I caught a meteor in the first one, on the far left.)
Footnotes
| ↑1 | The Bz reading was ‑11, where the further into the negative, the better; I usually see a decent show if it’s at ‑4 or so. |
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You’d be 76 today.
I had the day off today. I took a broken chair and ottoman to the dump, I did laundry, I talked to my mom and got texts from my sisters, I wrote a few hundred words, I went for a 2‑km bike ride (first of the year!), I enjoyed the heck out of a Guinness chocolate cake my wife got for me at Chez Angela, and I taught/studied a couple foot/leg throws at judo[1]sasae-tsurikomi-ashi (lifting/pulling foot block) and hiza-guruma (knee wheel) .
I’ve had worse birthdays.
Footnotes
| ↑1 | sasae-tsurikomi-ashi (lifting/pulling foot block) and hiza-guruma (knee wheel) |
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I’m really only saving this for my own recollection. I managed to “win” Semantle on my first try (27 guesses but it’s still a victory).
| # | Guess | Similarity | Getting close? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | surgeon | 100.00 | FOUND! |
| 26 | surgery | 61.15 | 988/1000 |
| 18 | procedure | 44.05 | 890/1000 |
| 16 | proctologist | 41.20 | 844/1000 |
| 17 | proctology | 37.50 | 722/1000 |
| 15 | zoologist | 28.61 | (cold) |
| 23 | procedures | 25.75 | (cold) |
| 5 | zoology | 16.66 | (cold) |
| 12 | zoo | 14.00 | (cold) |
| 22 | procedural | 12.90 | (cold) |
| 8 | ambergris | 12.20 | (cold) |
| 13 | zoom | 10.33 | (cold) |
| 3 | [expletive deleted] | 10.31 | (cold) |
| 4 | an | 9.07 | (cold) |
| 24 | task | 8.14 | (cold) |
| 14 | zoomer | 7.36 | (cold) |
| 25 | tasks | 6.16 | (cold) |
| 6 | ontology | 5.91 | (cold) |
| 7 | zealous | 5.78 | (cold) |
| 19 | processor | 5.21 | (cold) |
| 21 | produce | 5.02 | (cold) |
| 1 | latter[1]the previous day’s word | 2.83 | (cold) |
| 11 | pork | 2.66 | (cold) |
| 20 | process | 1.95 | (cold) |
| 9 | feldspar | 1.38 | (cold) |
| 2 | sparkle | 1.35 | (cold) |
| 10 | noted | 0.32 | (cold) |
Footnotes
| ↑1 | the previous day’s word |
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I dreamed of summer last night, bike riding. When I woke up it was ‑33 before the wind chill.
Le sigh.
This weekend was, more or less, the fifth anniversary of my dad’s death. So we went to Smitty’s and had eggs Benedict, and then I bought myself a very JJ parka.
OK, it’s 10 pm and I’m turning off the light. I guess the rest of these chocolate bars are our delicious problem.
The List:
…for a total of 8, which I think is our lowest count in 22 years of living here.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I think there might be a Coffee Crisp with my name on it.