2010 — 31 May: Monday
Tut, tut. I've only just noticed it's 02:25 or so. I've been busy scanning in a few newly-unearthed family photos. It's truly amazing what you can find when you start looking :-)
For example, in August 1995 Family Mounce had an enjoyable day or so with the Brum cousins, including a brief stay at their holiday cottage near Lake Bala where Ann helped teach Peter to windsurf. The older generation just kicked back and took things easy:
Christa enjoying Laka Bala, August 1995
As I reported to dear Mama at the time: We stopped/shopped in Oxford on the way up, and in Birmingham on the way back, so Christa has a respectable stack of new technical dictionaries and I have a delightful stack of reading to catch up on. I've already finished one item, however: Richard Preston's1 The Hot Zone. This outlined the full story behind all but the latest outbreaks of Ebola virus, including the (most-recent-but?)-one in Washington, DC in 1989/90. (What do you mean, you never heard about that?! No, nor did anyone else at the time... the media were spindoctored until they didn't know which way was "up" to avoid mass panic.)
And Big Bro has just admitted what Lis let slip a couple of days ago. He's finally been shamed into coughing up for broadband. About bloody time, if you ask me. Watch this space, indeed.
G'night.
Earwiggo again
Breakfasted and cuppa-ed, I now find the flat stack of foldable cartons beckons once again. It's 11:34 and rather cloudy out there. [Pause]
Taking a brief respite, I see that my server log shows that a person of good taste has been searching for "Trots and Bonnie" comics. I've actually assembled my own collection of Shary Flenniken's fine artwork (and have been gradually doing so since 1972 or thereabouts). In truth, I've ended up after more than 38 years with the Shary Flenniken collection I would have liked to buy in the first place — I just never expected to end up putting it all together for myself. I first assembled it in DTP format circa September 1995 and sent a copy over to her in Seattle for possible help in organising a "real" book. (Since she still owns the copyight to the vast majority of her exquisite work, it's up to her what she does by way of publication, obviously.)
As I mentioned, I host this minor obsession2 of mine on one of the private areas behind the firewall of this otiose little web sanctuary, but today as a Bank Holiday special (anything to avoid further carton-stuffing!) I'm offering a brief taste here.
Now, get away from those cartoons, Mounce, with your mouse in the air. Get back to the cartons. [Pause] Good grief, now it's 14:58 already. Lunch a distant memory. Is there no end to this task? How about a cuppa? Is that allowed? (You bet!)
My German mother-in-law, it...
... belatedly occurs to me, was every bit as remarkable as my German wife. On 14th July 1963 (eleven years before I knew either of these lovely women) Mutti gave a little book of Chinese "thoughts" to Christa, doubtless for her to take with her to Nebraska where she was about to spend a year in Gothenburg High School as an exchange student. It was from this book, I've just discovered, that Christa extracted and translated the advice I mentioned here. Here's a scan of the page she used, just a bit larger than the actual book:
My command of her language was never sturdy, but I could usually wriggle by. (Or smile, and disappear into a corner with a book, generally rendering me psychically invisible.)
I have to say, this is making fascinating listening. Glad to be grey, indeed. Happy Birthday, Tom!
Now here's an unlikely innovation, the pre-obituary. Source and snippet:
The beauty of obituaries for the still-extant is that they needn't be limited to those who are about to go home feet first. Preemptive necrology can be practiced on persons who are in the prime of life, especially if they've had their little turn in the limelight and will never do anything else of note if they live to be 1,000.