Tiny Purple Fishes ...¹

Odysseus and Polyphemus
Arnold Böcklin (PD)

Ah yes, the morning ritual ...

Wait, what? What about the Revolution?

Gimme a minute, okay? I have another tale to tell, we'll get back to the Revolution soon.

Now where was I?

Yes, the morning ritual. As a retiree I pretty much stay up as late as I want and get up as late as I want. No longer does my day begin with the alarm going off and me groaning about "Fudge," or something close to that. Nope, now I get up when I stop sleeping and no longer feel the need for more.

So on St. Patrick's Day I awakened at my usual time (actual time is classified but it's later than 0600) and after performing the standard OGR² I go to the smart phone. Why? Well, to check the blog, make sure the daily post actually posted, and then post a link to the post to Facebook, in two places. One on my home page, one at the page of Neptunus Lex. It's what I do.

Anyhoo, I check the blog, latest post is live, I grab its link and head to Facebook ...

You need to log in again ... (or words to that effect)

Now I'm having a kind of "open the pod bay doors HAL" moment ...

For the page I get when I log in looks like mine, but it ain't mine. Profile picture is me (an older profile pic mind you) and apparently my cousin had fallen on hard times and I was selling his stuff to raise money. Or something, it's kind of a classic scam.

I shake my head, I get dressed, I figured that this was something I could deal with AFTER I had my coffee. As I head downstairs, The Missus Herself asks, "What happened to your cousin?" (The Missus Herself and I are, duh, friends on Facebook.) Now I'm having another moment, a Talking Heads moment ...

And you may tell yourself 

"This is not my beautiful house!"

And you may tell yourself

"This is not my beautiful wife!" 

Coffee in hand, I return to the Facebook question. Sometimes my phone will do weird shit, like log me out of things, I figure maybe it's that, so I head for the desktop.

Same thing. So I contact the Facebook folks³, first person has me try a couple of things (you know the standard, "did you try turning it off, then turning it back on again?"), none of which works. So I get handed off to an actual tech person who works for Meta.

That person, after some digging, determines that sometime in the wee hours, between midnight and oh-dark-thirty, someone had indeed managed to hijack my Facebook page. Not clone, not create a similar page, but actually take over my page. The Meta person gave me a "standby while I fix this" and after a moment or three, came back with "try it now."

I did, and my account was back. I was me again. I changed my password as recommended (and no Matt, it wasn't "navy") and said thank you very much. I logged off of Facebook and decided to return in an hour or so to see if it still worked ...

Nope. The scammer was back. I say scammer because the individual claimed to be selling his cousin's stuff because of some sob story. Sure, if that was real, you'd have your own Facebook page. Asshole. (This BTW, is a rather classic scam. You offer shit for sale, people send you money, you take the money and run. No, the people who sent money get squat. There was never a cousin, there was never stuff for sale.)

Now I figured I'd have to go through all the pain of chat with Meta again, and I did, for a while, until I noticed an email from the first Meta person who had helped me ...

So is the problem resolved? Can you log in? Are you you?

And the answers there were: No, no, and (Facebook-wise) no.

The person actually cared and asked me to give them some time to resolve the issue. After the two of us had gone through a number of things, it seems the hacker was very clever and had done some things he shouldn't have been able to (hopefully Meta fixes that hole) and I was kinda screwed, sort of.

The Meta person said she'd be in touch (by the screen name I assumed the tech was a lady) and please be patient.

Oh, did I mention one of the troubleshooting things I did was accessing Facebook using my cellphone? I didn't? Well, that was another part of the adventure. (Kinda like running into Polyphemus⁴ on that island ...).

My phone had decided at some point while trying to recover my account that the Facebook app on said phone needed updating. Sigh, I consented.

Google Play said, "Yo dude, you're unsecured, you need to have a PIN or a fingerprint." So I said, "Sure, whatever, I'll do the fingerprint thing." And I did.

The Facebook App was happy and we continued down the troubleshooting path. Then, while waiting for the tech to send another message, I was using an app on my phone which decided to freeze up, become unresponsive, you know, the software shit the bed ...

What to do, what to do? First step, get more coffee and wait.

After fifteen minutes, the app is still frozen. So next step, one I've used many times, is to restart my phone. (On most software-driven systems if you restart the system it clears out whatever made the software hang and you can continue. Until the next time.)

Phone restarts and it says ...

Because you restarted, you need to enter your PIN.

Say what? What PIN? I've never had a PIN on this phone, what the hell?

Phone is now locked, I mean locked-locked. I try my standard PINs (yes, I have standard PINs, and no Matt, one of them is not "6289" which is "navy" from a phone's key pad) to no avail, phone stays locked and the intervals between "try again" keep getting longer.

So I head off to the cell phone store for my service. Nope, they can't reset it or unlock it or do anything other than sell me a new phone. Dude suggests the Geek Squad at Best Buy.

Sigh, back in the car, drive up to Massachusetts (closest reliable Best Buy, there's a story I might tell someday ...) and arrive at Best Buy.

"Hi Sir, can I help you?" sayeth the greeter at the door

"Why yes, yes you may, I'm here to see the Geek Squad."

 

"Do you have an appointment?"

 

After telling the guy no, I'm thinking "What are they, like doctors now?" The guy says, oh, they're available go right on in."

I explain the situation, am told all about factory reset, lose all your data, blah, blah, blah, I tell them "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"

After I explain myself, them not getting the Naval reference, I say ...

Well, on behalf of my phone I said that.

Fiddle, fiddle, some explanation, then "Hhmm, I can't do a factory reset on the phone, keeps asking for the PIN. Do you know your PIN?"

This time I'm the one with the blank stare, "Uh, that's why I'm here, I don't have a pin."

So it's back home, where I explain to the Meta tech that as my phone has decided not to cooperate, we'll have to wait for the morrow, when I can go forth and buy a new phone.

She said that that was cool, to email her when when I was ready.

So the day comes, a Wednesday and I head off to purchase said phone. I explain the situation to the guy, who much like me calls a spade a spade, says, "Yeah, you're f**ked, I doubt even the factory could actually reset this guy. You've locked out the universe this time."

Grimacing I chose a new phone (a very nice one for which the list price was north of $600) and prepared myself to mortgage my home ...

"That comes to $141." (and change)

 

"Huh, seems low."

The guy assures me that that indeed is the price, as it is well less than expected, I thank him and walk out of the store. As we get in the car I look to The Missus Herself and say, "Why so cheap?"

"Maybe they're having a special. Who cares? You have your phone, let's go eat."

So we did.

Thursday morning I get up and check my email. The tech lady is back and asks if I was able to log in to Facebook yet. I said no, and she made some suggestions which resulted in "no joy," She says, "give me a minute or two, I want to try something."

Well, she got back to me in minutes and after some arcane maneuvering on the web and some creation of stuff that was new, she did her magic and said, "Try it now."

I did and lo and behold I had my Facebook account back. I changed the password, again (and no Matt, it still wasn't "navy") then proceeded to dispatch damage control parties to clean up the mess the hacker had left.

Six new "friends" who were quickly unfriended, restoring profile pictures and the like, and "Whoa! What the hell?"

I had missing friends, cherished friends one of whom was my daughter LUSH, another was my bestest buddy Liz, and the aforementioned Matt. Damn, oh damn. Then I remembered, LUSH had accosted the scammer "You ain't my Dad, yer a right bastard you are." So he unfriended and blocked her.

Same for Liz, same for Matt.

Searching for this and that I eventually unblocked and re-friended the aforementioned folks and now, as of this date, things are back to normal.

Other than having to update all of my contacts on my phone and the loss of over 600 photos from said phone because you-know-who⁵ said "I don't trust this cloud shit" at some point five years or so ago. And yes, the photos from over five years (or so) ago all showed up on the new phone once I got it all configured. (This time I'm going to trust the Cloud, offsite storage is something I always practiced professionally, gonna do it personally now.)

So yes boys and girls, it's been one hell of a week. My own little odyssey, of sorts. And yes, Ulysses and Odysseus were one and the same. (It's that whole who told the story thing, Roman or Greek. I think the Greeks did everything first, then the Romans copied them. Or something.)

Anyhoo, I'm back baby!

Tales of Brave Ulysses

Words: Martin Sharp. Music: Eric Clapton Performed by: Cream

You thought the leaden winter

Would bring you down forever

But you rode upon a steamer

To the violence of the sun

And the colours of the sea

Blind your eyes with trembling mermaids

And you touch the distant beaches

With tales of brave Ulysses

How his naked ears were tortured

By the sirens sweetly singing

For the sparkling waves are calling you

To kiss their white laced lips

And you see a girl's brown body

Dancing through the turquoise

And her footprints make you follow

Where the sky loves the sea

And when your fingers find her

She drowns you in her body

Carving deep blue ripples

In the tissues of your mind

Tiny purple fishes

Run laughing through your fingers

And you want to take her with you

To the hard land of the winter

Her name is Aphrodite

And she rides a crimson shell

And you know you cannot leave her

For you touched the distant sands

With tales of brave Ulysses

How his naked ears were tortured

By the sirens sweetly singing

Tiny purple fishes

Run laughing through your fingers

And you want to take her with you

To the hard land of the winter

Source

Okay, the song is only tangentially relevant to the post, but hey, I love that song. Besides which, it gives me a change to use "Tiny Purple Fishes" as a post title.

Yeah, like I needed an excuse ...

Sarge Note: I wanted to relate my experience with the whole hijacked Facebook account thing and I felt some lighter fare was needed after Tuna's rather grim and heavy post yesterday. Before jumping back into my murder-death-kill tale of the American Revolution. And I am effing exhausted after the week's "festivities." I lost a lot of sleep due to my "righteous" anger of someone coopting my Facebook account. It's where I keep up with my far flung legion of friends and family. Since retiring it's become my community of folks. Scoff if you will, but damn it, losing that hurt far more than I thought possible. Anyhoo, for now, all is well, at least in my little corner of the universe.

¹ From Tales of Brave Ulysses by Cream. Video and lyrics above.

² Old Guy Rituals. If you know, you know. (IYKYK for the kids in the audience.)

³ Via a chat button I'd never noticed before!

⁴ Another reference to the Odyssey the whole recovering the Facebook account was an odyssey of sorts, just didn't take as long.

⁵ Yeah, that would be me, Your Humble Scribe.

Anybody Seen Murphy Out There?

It's been that kind of week ...
Source

It's the end of January, nearly the beginning of February, so ...

At first the weather report said multiple inches of snow in the Annapolis area (I don't remember the exact amount, might have been six inches) and about the same up in Little Rhody. Perhaps more. Also high winds, 20 sustained with gusts up to fifty or sixty mph.

The Missus Herself overheard Tuttle and Your Humble Scribe discussing the weather possibilities ...

"We shall leave on Friday!"

"But honey ..."

"I have spoken."

I waited a while, then pointed out that upon arrival in Little Rhody on Friday it was forecast to be below zero. A chance of heavy snow and high winds on Sunday.

"We don't have a generator. dear."

"I know that."

"Chez Tuttle et Nuke has a generator."

"And ..."

"If we lose power ..."

"We lost power before, three days."

"The outside temperature was in the low 30s. It's going to be subzero during this storm, possibly. The indoor temperature dropped to the low 40s during that storm. Tolerable with a coat or a blanket. This time it's going to be colder if we lose power. Much colder."

"Hhmm, maybe we can stay until later then."

"Yes, like maybe Monday."

I got a dirty look, but it was followed by a thoughtful one.

Friday dawns and the weather says no snow in Annapolis, no snow to maybe an inch in our area of Little Rhody. Supposed to be a bit windy on Sunday, that's it. In other words, a normal winter day on the coast.

So yeah, we're leaving Sunday, as originally planned.

If the weather changes?

I don't care, we'll go where we need to go.

As for the knee? Still sore as hell but getting better. It doesn't ache constantly, which it did yesterday, even with Advil onboard. So things are looking up.

As my old sergeant used to say, "I wonder what will go wrong next?"

Murphy, he's out there.

Well, That Hurts ...

Source

Whilst out and about¹ to inspect the driveway I was told that one part was okay, the rest was like an ice rink.

Me, Mr. Vermonter and supposedly knowing better, decided to check the slippery bit. Long story short, body went one way, lower left leg went t'other.

While hitting the ground, no damage there, I fall gracefully, I felt a stretch in the inner ligament running beside my left knee. Stretched the hell out of it. Hurt like hell, felt nauseous for a moment.

Couldn't get up, it was that slippery. Had Tuttle drag me to the walkable part of the drive where I was able to regain my feet. Decided that "fun time outside" was now officially over and I withdrew to the house to ice that knee.

Yes, it hurts sometimes to get old.

Hurts worse when you realize that your motor skills ain't what they used to be.

I'll be offline for a few days.

The Muse saw me fall and said, "Eff that, I'm outta here."

Stay frosty my friends.

¹ Oot and aboot in Canadian parlance.

On the Road Again ...

Source

The Christmas season, for us, officially begins today as we head out to see The Nuke and her tribe. This has been a much anticipated journey as Christmas with the young'uns is always a blast. As long as I get to play with their toys! (And Lego is very much a thing with Roberto right now, Finnegan as well, but he mostly just takes things apart.)

I mean it's been two whole weeks since we've seen them! (Yes, I'm kidding, I wanted to just stay there from Thanksgiving until shortly after New Year's Day but I was overruled. The Missus Herself had things that needed doing around Chez Sarge, so home we went.)

So today is a travel day, going by automotive conveyance as air travel around the holidays, any holiday really, is something to be avoided. I've been there, done that, don't really want to do it again but probably will when I'm too damned old to drive that far.

Sigh ...

Not sure how much content is going to be posted over the next couple of weeks, so bear with me. I mean it's the holidays, I plan to do as little as possible, other than play with Legos.

If I don't post for a while, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and enjoy yourselves with family and friends.

I'm going to.

Ciao!

Note: I've been retired now for exactly a year. Just thought I'd mention that. 😎

Remembering ...

Sasha (2016)
OAFS Photo

So that photo above popped up in my Facebook memories today, which triggered a massive wave of memories and emotions. Because Sasha has been gone for over four years now, her sister Anya for over two. We don't have cats anymore for a number of reasons which I won't go into, suffice to say, I miss those days.

Sasha used to "help" with the Christmas cards, pretty near every year of her long (but not long enough) life, from 2003 to 2020. That's a lot of cards.

My Helper
OAFS Photo

She was an excellent cat, as was her sister. Man, I miss them both, a lot.

I mentioned to The Nuke the other day that an old high school friend of mine had passed away, shortly after Thanksgiving. She mentioned that she's starting to see old friends in the obituaries. I suppose it comes with the territory as you get older. Don't like it but hey, circle of life and all that.

I like this song, love it as a matter of fact. You don't have to listen to it but it sums up my life pretty well now. (Other than the "Got no money coming in" line, I do have a very nice pension. Couple of 'em as a matter of fact.)

Enjoy or not, as always, this is America, your choice.

Inside

Ian Anderson

All the places I've been make it hard to begin

To enjoy life again on the inside, but I mean to

Take a walk around the block

And be glad that I've got

Me some time to be in from the outside

And inside you

I'm sitting in the corner feeling glad

Got no money coming in but I can't be sad

That was the best cup of coffee I ever had

And I won't worry about a thing because we've got it made

Here on the inside, outside so far away

And we'll laugh and we'll sing

Get someone to bring

Our friends here for tea in the evening

Old Jeffrey makes three...

Take a walk in the park

Does the wind in the dark

Sound like music to you?

Well I'm thinking it does to me

Can you cook, can you sew?

Well, I don't want to know

That is not what you need on the inside

To make the time go

Counting lambs, counting sheep

We will fall into sleep

And awake to a new day of living

And loving you so

Source

Another day ...

Another day of living, another day of loving ...

Nice work if you can get it.

Winter hat Begonnen¹

OAFS Photo

Our first measurable snowfall here in Little Rhody occurred Sunday morning, the 14th of December. Now I know that the first day of "official" winter is Sunday the 21st of December, which means that at some point in that day the sun will be perceived to be directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, winter really starts earlier, meteorologically-speaking.

When the cold starts moving in, and staying, that's winter. It's been down in the low-20s and even the low teens over the past week or so. So it felt like winter, just didn't look like winter here in the northeastern United States. Now it looks like it and feels like it. Which, as I get older, gets wearisome. Especially when you have to heat the house and pay for that luxury. Which up here is actually a necessity.

OAFS Photo

Now I know it isn't a lot of snow and I like that. It makes things prettier than being all brown, and it doesn't impede driving and it isn't much to shovel. As Chez Sarge faces south, and the driveway slopes to the south, clearing the driveway, even when it's bitter cold out, isn't really necessary if the sun is out. Anything less than three inches will pretty much melt on its own. We (I) still have to clean the automotive conveyances off, but that doesn't require any lifting.

This isn't the first snow I've seen this year. If you remember my post from a week ago (here), we saw snow the day we left Maryland, after our Thanksgiving trip to see the lads, Roberto and Finnegan, and their sister (for whom I have yet to pick a nom du blog). It wasn't as much and it wasn't as cold, though lately Maryland has been matching Little Rhody degree for degree as regards coldness. Something I hadn't anticipated but am getting used to.

In fact over the last couple of years, they've seen more snow (and deeper to boot) than I have up here in Little Rhody. That big old ocean just out there from Chez Sarge really keeps the temperatures moderated as compared to inland. While they're within a stone's throw of Chesapeake Bay, less than ten miles, they're nearly a hundred miles from the Atlantic Ocean. If you look at a map you'll see that Chesapeake Bay is much bigger than Narragansett Bay.

Speaking of which, we're less than a mile from Narragansett Bay and we're less than 15 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. So we definitely have a maritime climate in these parts whereas in Maryland The Nuke and her tribe are further inland.

So winter, as I mentioned above, doesn't officially start until the 21st this year. But by my reckoning, winter begins at the end of November, beginning of December. Sarge-officially, I consider December, January, and February to be winter. Fall is September, October, and November, spring is March, April, and May, and summer is June, July, and August.

While May can feel like summer, as can September, I consider those transitional months containing elements of the two seasons either side of them. Same goes for March, while I consider that to be in spring, it is also a transitional month from winter to spring.

Where I grew up, Vermont, we saw elements of winter (i.e. snow) well into April. Saw the same sort of weather in Colorado as well. I once drove from San Antonio (TX) to Fort Collins (CO) starting the 1st of April, which was a bright sunny warm day in Texas, right through into the 2nd of April, where it was snowing like crazy all the way from New Mexico to Canada. I was lucky enough to follow a snow plow over the Raton Pass!

As an aside, a very dear friend of mine was born on the day I went over the Raton Pass. She asked me how I could possibly remember what I was doing as she was being born, I just looked at her and said, "Driving from southern Texas to northern Colorado in a snowstorm isn't something you forget!" (And yes, I have some young friends, besides which, she was the best boss I ever had.)

So enough about the weather, as Not Your Uncle Skip says, "when you've got nothing to really post about, there's always the weather."

Some of you are no doubt wondering when the next installment in my World War One tale is going to come out. I wish I knew. Ever since the Muse and I shared an Italian coffee Friday last, she's been missing in action. Probably on a bender again, she's been working hard and keeps complaining, "I thought we were retired!" Which we are, but ...

It's the holiday season, Christmas for some and Hannukah for others, and truth be told, I just don't feel like writing much. The news is effing depressing, politicians who control society mostly (nearly all?) suck, and I'm just waiting to go see the grandkids at Christmas. Not going to see my breakfast buddies again until January and I'm in a holding pattern of sorts. I'm kinda the electronic device sitting in the charger until I'm needed again, the tanker flying the racetrack waiting until someone needs gas. My morale is shaky and I'm playing too many games on the computer. (How many is too many? YMMV)

I've given serious thought to quitting this blogging thing, I realize that it's become too much a part of who I am to do so, but I can ease off on the throttle a bit. Being a writer is not something you can just walk away from, it's addictive in many ways. You don't even have to be good at it to be addicted to it!

So that's where we're at.

By the way, juvat's Monday post, wasn't that strange as can be, but surprisingly it worked. At least for those who've been following the "juvat saga" as I call it. Vehicle mishaps, moving to another town after years of living in the same place, getting old, and yes, I'm paying attention. That sort of thing might happen for Your Humble Scribe. Not the vehicular mishap part, but the moving somewhere else? I just don't know. Once my mother is gone, that might happen, but our roots are awfully deep in these parts.

But the damned winters, they get to me at times. (Once the summer starts then I'll bitch about how hot it is!) But you never know, man proposes, God disposes. We shall see.

Personally I'd hate to leave New England, my roots are incredibly deep here. There are many folks here that I love deeply and I would hate to not see them again. My ancestors, at least those I knew personally and those in the generation before them, are buried here.

Geez, I'm such a geezer.

OAFS Photo

I snapped the photo above on Tuesday, firstly to show that the snow which fell Sunday, as little as it was, is still here, showing just how cold it's been. But if you look closely, you might notice the little tracks all over the backyard. (See the detailed photo below.)

OAFS Photo

Rabbits, we have quite a few. They drive The Missus Herself crazy as they love to eat all of her plants. A couple of years ago they wreaked havoc on the vegetable garden so two years ago we installed a chicken wire fence around it. So now we get to eat those vegetables rather than feeding the rabbits.

We have a lot of wildlife around here, rabbits, deer, turkeys, foxes, coyotes, and the neighborhood has a resident hawk. The hawk does more to keep the rabbit population under control than the coyotes, I know this as I found a partially eaten carcass in the backyard last summer while mowing the lawn. I knew it was a bird which had done the deed due to the way the carcass had been pecked at.

Nature, red in tooth and claw, if you pay attention, you can see it in town as well as in the country.

Anyhoo, that's enough for now. Expect days with nothing and days with just a little over the rest of the month.

I might even go "on sabbatical" in January. I'm still up in the air on that.

Stay tuned.

¹ Winter has begun. While the title didn't have to be in German, I like German, so there.

New Computer Inbound ...

Source

Over the years I have owned a number of computers and it is now time to get yet another new one. Microsoft will no longer be supporting Windows 10 (i.e. they won't be patching it to fix security vulnerabilities, which they probably overlooked when they built the operating system) and my current machine is too out of date (hardware-wise) to upgrade to Windows 11.

Well, it's a bit long in the tooth anyway. Now I could just go with my Windows 11 laptop, which is fine for most things except really high-powered games, which I have quite a few of. Thing is, laptops aren't very good at staying cool. They love to overheat, the one I have now I am very disappointed with. It's good for most things, but that isn't why I bought it.

I have learned now that there really is no good way to keep a laptop cool enough to run the really hard-charging games. They use a LOT of power and laptops just absorb all that power and eventually overheat badly which damages the components, then they die. Had that happen with my last laptop.

The one I have now sits on a "cooling pad" which is just a raised platform with a big fan. This does help, somewhat. But if after 30 minutes of game time it's unpleasant to touch the keyboard? Yeah, that's a problem. If I crank the fan power way up, that helps, a lot, thing is it's like sitting next to a jet engine being run at full power. (Skip ahead to the 1:35 mark in the video.)

Now, I can put my headset on (in fact I have to if I want to actually hear the game) but to anyone sitting close by, it's not pleasant. So the new computer had to have a couple of things.

1. A very good cooling system, which ruled out any laptop which a normal person can afford. So I figured lots of fans and liquid cooling to boot,
2. Based on (1), it had to be a desktop and couldn't cost an arm and a leg.

Turning to my son (the family computer guru) I asked for recommendations. He gave me two. The less expensive of the two actually had better processor specs and more memory. The other had this cool-looking space ship kind of shape. It was cheaper the day I got The Naviguessor's recommendations, but when I pulled the trigger, it had become the more expensive choice. With a slower processor and half the memory.

There was also a review which said, "when it was on sale it was a good deal, now it's not."

I could have had fancy space-ship looking machine the next day, the better machine (in my opinion) I'd have to wait for. Waiting isn't a problem, I'm retired, time is the one thing I have to spare.

As the cost of this new machine is but a fraction of The Missus Herself's two month long sojourn in the Land of the Morning Calm, I don't think she'll be too bent out of shape. Well, she will, but my guess is that she'll get over it. Knowing her, she will.

She's pretty awesome that way. 

Grass and the Maintenance Thereof

OAFS Photo

For those of you who might have missed it, I'm sure the Badger did not, September is upon us. With September comes meteorological fall, which runs from the 1st of this month to the last day of November. Which makes perfect sense to me.

For in the northeast summer has pretty much run its course. Oh, we'll have a few more hot days before the cold north winds begin to blow, but summer has left the building. The calendar says one thing, the weather says another. Fall has a peculiar, muted light to it, and that's here.

Something else which approaches is the end of the season for mowing the lawn. It's not a task I enjoy, far from it, but it is, so to speak, a "necessary evil." I'm a big believer in quiet fields with native grasses and flowers, then again, so is the ubiquitous tick. Little bastards love that long grass.

So I put my shoulder to the grindstone and cut the damned lawn. Which has taken a bit of a beating this summer. It's crunchy in spots, and brown, while in the shade the stuff grows long and lush.

Our lawn care company, I hired one to please The Missus Herself and so that I would not have to spread chemicals myself, comes out periodically. After their last treatment they left a note saying what they did, they also suggested I water the grass occasionally. My gut reaction was, "Why do that? The crap will grow if I water it. Besides which, that's nature's job. If nature wants me to have a green lawn, then nature better pony up the water to do so."

I mean, water costs money, right? (And why oh why does the government have a monopoly on that resource? Yet another reason to despise all forms of government.)

On that note, I mowed the backyard on Thursday, the North Lawn as I call it. It needed it more than the front (the South Lawn) which I knocked back a bit last week with the weed whacker. One of The Missus Herself's last commands to me on the way to the airport was, "The lawn needs to be mowed."

She wins a prize for stating the obvious, I win the prize for ignoring the obvious.

But to keep her happy, I'll mow the grass. Even though she can't see it, she knows damn it. Somehow she knows.

Life goes on!

Oddly Enough ...

OAFS Photo

At yesterday's pity party (hey, calm down, we've all been there, amiright?) the inimitable Beans had this to say (in part, he usually has a LOT to say. Not that I have any problem with that.) -

Other than wearing a tinfoil hat, or perhaps discovering the listening devices around the house, I have to wonder how Beans is so prescient at times. Maybe's it just because he knows me so well. I'll leave that for another time ...

Anyhoo, see that opening photo, well, it's part of a game system I acquired well before I retired. I wanted to make sure I was well-stocked with things to do before the regular paycheck stopped coming in. (Okay, I still get regular paychecks, they just don't have the growth potential that a paying gig may - or may not - provide. Still, looking ahead I was.)

Now this system, Commands & Colors from GMT Games, I had first heard of from a friend of mine out Chicago way. He used to play it, sang its praises he did. After a bit of research, I decided to lay down some cash and acquire the base game.

Only to discover that there were a number of expansion sets. Being OCD and not wanting to miss anything, I got them all, with one exception which is still in the works out at GMT. I'm on the list to get one using what they call the P500 Pre-Order system. Which works like this - games which are no longer in print can be resurrected if enough people order them. Also, new ideas are proposed which will then be put into work if, again, enough people order them.

It's called P500 because to have a shot, the game has to make the "500 people have pre-ordered it" benchmark. Then the design or reprint goes ahead. Beauty of P500 is that the cost of pre-ordering is a lot less than once the game goes into production. And you don't get charged until the game is ready to go out the door.

Sweet.

Anyhoo. The system makes use of hex maps which can be configured to match the terrain of an actual battle (or you can "roll your own," so to speak). The units are colored wooden blocks upon which stickers are placed. You see, the colors match the nationality of the army and the stickers denote the troop type.

You've got your infantry, your artillery, your cavalry, and leader units. The latter provide benefits to the units they are with. (Hhmm, I wonder if any game has crappy leaders depicted which hurt they units they are with. Now THAT would be realistic as well!)

Now the stickers you have to apply yourself, which may seem like a lot of work, and it is, but it's the sort of thing I rather enjoy. (Jeebers Sarge, what's wrong with you? Nothing, I'm the McClellan sort, great organizer, crappy combat leader. DAMHIK. Okay, The Missus Herself kicks my ass in the few board games she will deign to play with me. She's bloody vicious!)

Here's a photo of the sticker application in progress for the first game module -

OAFS Photo

Note, the X-Acto knife is not for cutting the stickers from the sheet, it's for lifting the stickers cleanly from the sheet. And no, I have not cut myself yet. I am being painstakingly careful, don't want blood on the units now do I?

On the right is the British Army, the brown blocks are for their Portuguese allies, some of which have already had their stickers applied. Those somewhat ominous stacks of blue  blocks looming in the background? Why, that's the French Army waiting for their uniforms and weapons to be issued. (That is, have the stickers applied. Don't ask what goes through my head when I'm doing this, I have a very vivid imagination. And yes, Napoleonic era music may, or may not, be playing in the background. Often enough, I'm the only one who can hear it.)

First module nearly done, have these left to go -

OAFS Photo

That's the Generals, Marshals, & Tacticians module (extra bells and whistles, a couple of new units), then the Prussian, Russian, Austrian, and Spanish armies. One thing I will note, is that I was sore disappointed that there were no Scots Highland units in any of those boxes. Nope, none. Nor were there any King's German Legion.

Those are coming in that P500 module I mentioned above.

Come on GMT, I'm waiting to hear the skirl of the pipes!

So yes Beans, I have lots to keep me busy.

 En avant!