I've been getting lots of "Friends" requests of late ... not those that I've mentioned before, that are obviously "phishing" messages, but requests from people with absolutely no reason to want to be my friend ... and with no obvious reason for me to want to be theirs.
So, in order for me to avoid the trouble of "ignoring" or "blocking" these people, I have decided to post this, my "Friendship Policy":
No Photos, no Blog, no Profile ... NO THANKS!
Save you and me the trouble and don't bother to ask. No hard feelings.
I just took these a couple of days ago, and I don't have the faintest idea of what this little "fruit" is. The scale may not be apparent, so I must say that they are about ¼ inch (5 mm) in diameter ... quite small. I say this because of the resemblance of the tree bark to cherry, but these are 'way too small, and it's November ... long past the time when a cherry would be this size. The whole tree is about 10 feet tall ... but I have no idea of its state of maturity ... this might be its full-grown size, or it might get a lot bigger. Any identification of these little things will be greatly appreciated ... this is one of theose things that really bug me.
I've got a few ... these are new ones, just recent, and since everyone is posting Autumn pictures, I reckon I can show some of our colours, too. One forgets, you know, that our friends in the Tropics do not have such spectacular displays as we do, in fact, they really don't have much in the way of seasons at all. So they don't have snow, either ... and I think that the snow, or more precisely, its weight, is quite possibly the main reason for the trees' hurry to get rid of their leaves before the snow comes. Anyone who has seen an early snowstorm weight down leafy treelimbs and break them off will understand what I mean. I've chopped up enough broken limbs to really appreciate that. Although my Brasileira assures me that Brasil has snow, it is in the high Andes on the West of her country ... above the treeline. It doesn't count if you can't just look out your window and see it falling.
And now I'm talking about snow, when I meant to talk about leaves. Well, not exactly ... I meant to show pictures of our Autumn Colorfest. So, here they are ...
One of the ways we know the colour is coming is that our friends, the birds, get together to talk over the coming journey. And we begin to see big orange moonrises: Things begin to take on a general Autumn colouring: And the fields start to look rather more than ripe. And we see michaelmas daisies along the verges ... And squashes appear in the markets ... Then we notice these little chaps running about with full cheek pouches ... ... storing up food for the cold times ahead. And the weather begins to change ... Some trees, perhaps more sensitive than others, begin to change ... The hills seem to catch fire in the red afternoon sun ... The white paper birches dressed in gold ... The maples, in barbaric red gold, like the Ring of the Niebelungen ... And it is definitely time for a trip through the park! OK, OK ... so I can't resist sumac. I reckon I'd better quit, now ... for one thing, folks are yelling at me to prepare supper (one of those squashes will serve admirably), and also, I suspect this server is going to try to kill me if I give it any more work ...
... but I am quite put off by the slowness of the 'Net, which seems to be in a veritable tangle today. I've even had trouble getting the BBC to stream, to say nothing of my local NPR (National Public Radio) station. The locals screw up pretty regularly, so it was no great surprise, but the Beeb? Wow!
And speaking of the Beeb ... I'm getting all sorts of reports of demonstrations in Tehran ... with the usual atrocities being committed by the government bully boys ... is our Amir OK? Anyone heard? It is as amusing (and appalling) to see Persia as a state based upon anti-Americanism, with no positive philosophical base, as it was to realise that the US, in the Cold War days, was mainly motivated by anti-Communism. Mighty thin food for the soul, that sort of thing.
Well, I've managed to get the big ol' auxiliary drive opened safely ... the scan found only one infection, a piece of spyware. Which, of course, leaves me wondering why the whole system failed so spectacularly in the first place, but pooters are what they are, software is what it is, and Microsoft is Microsoft ... meaning, of course, that there's no way to tell. Each entity in the chain of responsibility claims that it's the other chap's fault; THEIR product is (naturally) flawless.
Any road, I've found ALL my backed-up files in the drive, but now the problem is where to put it once it's opened. The bundle is 63 Gig, and the HD in this machine is only 80 Gig, of which there is only 43 Gig of free space. In the words of Jim, the slave (Huckleberry Finn), "you can't put two gallons in a one-gallon jug. 'Twould strain de jug." I have the same problem ... unless, of course I can open and store the files in the drive in which they are now situated. I must research this before doing anything irrevocable. Any words of wisdom from members of this Community would, of course, be appreciated.
Greetings, my friends ... I seem to be beset by computer problems this year ... they are ALL down again, with no idea of a time frame for getting them up and running again. I think I know how the ancients felt when they started questioning what they had done to displease the gods. Right now the cybergods are giving me a rough time, indeed ... what did I ever do to them?
I am in the Public Library right now, using their machines; I get an absolute maximum of 2 hours a day for this, and it requires some planning, so some days I don't get here at all.
I've scanned my subscriptions and replied to a few; the rest will have to await my return to the land of Opera.
My friends, I must report that I am temporarily offline because I have THREE(!!!) computers down at the same time ... a touch weird, perhaps, but true.
I expect to get them fixed, or at least some of them, very soon.
I just picked this up off a newscast; it's already on YouTube, which is where I got it. I'm trying to embed it now, if it doesn't work, I'll go back and get the URL.
Just a little addition to the bit about the raccoon ... I have discovered that there is an entire family of these charming bandits living among the rocks ... at least two adults have been spotted, and I found this one little chap, obviously smaller than the adults, eyeball-to-eyeball with a little fuzzball of a dog. Neither of them seemed interested in pursuing the acquaintanceship, but neither of them seemed afraid, either. There must be a veritable warren of passages in and around those rocks; the place where the pup found this little guy was yards from the spot where I saw his parent enter. I was lucky that he felt so secure; it was a difficult lighting setup, but he held still while I adjusted things.
... to the last post: I went down to the same beach where the raccoon was, and I found a policeman chasing kids off and out of the rocks ... you've seen the rocks; they're in lots of my photos ... they were placed there in order to serve as a "rip-rap" to prevent the waves (they get pretty big, sometimes) from washing away the shore and messing up the carpark ... anyway, I asked a bystander what was going on, and he said there was a raccoon living in the rocks, or at least hiding in them. I had noticed that he headed for the rocks when I got too close, so I assume it was the same raccoon.
It's a bit much, I think, to expect an officer of the law to stand about waiting until a raccoon takes it into his head to emerge, and even if he were to stay, when the raccoon came out, what was he to do? Write him a ticket? Serve him with a summons? Shoot him? (Personally, even if I approved of shooting a raccoon who steals garbage, I would hesitate to do it in that environment ... too much chance of unintended consequences.)
So, I expect there will be some attempt to live-trap the beastie and release him in some more appropriate spot, if he proves healthy. They are notorious carriers of rabies, among other nasty diseases, and dangerous to humans (and to other creatures, including each other) because of it. So they'll test him before release. If he tests positive, of course, the story (for him) ends there. Poor Procyon!
WIDGETIZE