May the Fourth
Be with you, always.
G'day all!
It isn't quite May the Fourth here yet but no matter.
Isn't it odd how geek things have gotten into public consciousness? Like May the Fourth. I can remember one of my uber Star Wars geek fan friends telling me all these things, and I absorbed them like any good little geek would. And now they are common place.
Star Wars made me a fortune!
Paid off the mortgage!
Bought me a car....
The internet has certainly helped. It has made it so easy to spread memes and sayings and geek culture. It has given the introverts voices and forums to chat with like minded people and really brought geekdom into being pretty much mainstream.
Weird, huh?
It is so normal for me to interact with geeks in person and online that it is a bit of a shock when I find someone who just stares at me and I realise they have no clue what I am on about and may even be a bit horrified by my expressing myself that way.
We are well into Spring now. We had a taste of summer earlier in the week - it got to 31C and I thought I was going to die of heat exhaustion. Completely pathetic but given we've only had a couple of 20C days so far this year and it's mostly been between 13-16C for the last month. It's gone back to normal again today - not cold but pretty miserable. It rained a fair bit this afternoon.
I'm sure something must've happened this week, apart from me doing a bit of quilt top making (no photos cos I'm stupid that way!) and a bit of knitting and (quite) a bit of moaning about how hot it was in the house (it turns out our house is very very good at grabbing heat and holding it!). Oh, I talked to a genetic counsellor at the cancer mob that I see and they reckon it could be worth me getting some further testing as they have heaps of newly recognised genes that they test for. My health insurer here won't pay for the 52 gene panel, mostly because many of the actions of those genes are not well described yet, but if I wanted to pay out over $6,000 I could get it done!
Oddly enough, I said no. I could do a lot of things with $6,000 and getting me tested for various oncogenes and mutation in tumour suppressor genes is not one of them. I've had some testing done that says I don't have the most well known mutations of BRCA1 and 2 and I'm not against getting further testing done (partly because I already suspect I do have one particular mutation) but paying six grand out of my own pocket... well it isn't worth it to me. Plus you need to have the money first anyway.
Speaking of money, when the garage project is done and we get past the current cash flow issues, I'm thinking of getting an electric bike. Yep, I need some help getting back on my bike. This breathing thing seems to be fairly chronic and I can't see I'll ever be riding up hills under my own steam and it is quite peeving really as I quite enjoy riding my bike (especially when I manage to conquer hills under my own steam but well beggars can't be choosers). I'm having to wait for a month to see a lung specialist - I should've booked in much earlier but all the other specialists I've seen have only had a week or two wait and I wanted to see the cancer guys and get my chest xray done there first. I might add a cardiologist to the list as well, get that over and done with. After all, my father was busy trying to pop his clogs with heart problems when he was in his (mumbl)ies. He did last another 40 years, mind, in pretty good health until dementia got him (and holy cow that was nearly ten years ago now! Surely not?).
However, for the nonce the garage project continues. The framing was signed off a couple of weeks ago, the planning for the wiring is underway, we got a new door on Wednesday (one of the hot days, poor guys doing the installation!). The shot above is from the final closing of the old door after the springs were released. About half the paint remaining on it fell off when it hit the end of its travel... Friends dug us a trench from the house to the garage so that we can lay down new wiring (the old wiring is a perfectly legal but a bit underspec bare wire!) and we put in conduit so that we can bring wired internet and other stuff as yet unknown into the garage.
I may have gotten a bit excited about the rocks that were dug up along the way.
Apparently I'm a rock nerd. I can't tell a metamorphic rock from a volcanic one, though sedimentary rocks are pretty easy usually but yeah, I just like the pretty colours that some of them come in.
Most of Seattle is situated on glacial till - all of this area has been under glaciers in the past. Some areas are on rock, some areas on alluvial soil and some sit on volcanic matter. Puget Sound, by which Seattle sits, is a fjord. The geology and hydrology of the area is pretty fascinating if you are into that sort of stuff.
Our place is on glacial till deposited about 13,500 years ago. If you dig down about hmm between 30-40cm, you dig though an layer of dark soil with pebbles in it and hit an area of reddish clay soil (with pebbles in it). I'm not completely convinced that the soil is completely native as we keep finding bits of glass and red brick in it - maybe it was trucked on site or maybe there was a house here before.
Anyway, before the trench was filled back in, I insisted on getting some hardware cloth as it is called here (wire mesh like overgrown flyscreen only made out of metal) so that I could sift through the soil and get lots of the pebbles out.
Before enthusing about the pebbles, I should've taken some pics of them, eh?
Meh, I'll enthuse anyway. Some of the pebbles are bigger than fist size! Most of them are rounded but not all. They come in different colours. I found one that almost looked like it had been deliberately shaped but it is only a flake off a bigger pebble.
I really should take pictures of them. Instead you have pictures of Spring instead. Maybe it will stop raining for long enough tomorrow for me to take pictures of pebbles - I'm sure you will be totally thrilled.
Who needs existential crises when you've got pebbles and rocks and lovely spring flowers and a quilt to make and knitting to do? (However I do keep thinking that November is only half a year away and will be on me before I know it and I will be very very sorry then because November and December in Seattle are pretty blah times of year... how pathetic is that! The best part of the year still awaits and I'm already worrying about the grotty part that follows the best part?) Plus I also have this thing called work plus a husband and a house to keep up with.
I can't be the only person in the world who would prefer to go and sift rocks out of dirt than do the vacuuming or do dishes, surely?
anon!
G'day all!
It isn't quite May the Fourth here yet but no matter.
 |
| Chives. Love the focus the poor old phone got in this pic |
Isn't it odd how geek things have gotten into public consciousness? Like May the Fourth. I can remember one of my uber Star Wars geek fan friends telling me all these things, and I absorbed them like any good little geek would. And now they are common place.
Star Wars made me a fortune!
Paid off the mortgage!
Bought me a car....
 |
| All of Mum's irises ended up looking like these. They are pretty.... |
The internet has certainly helped. It has made it so easy to spread memes and sayings and geek culture. It has given the introverts voices and forums to chat with like minded people and really brought geekdom into being pretty much mainstream.
Weird, huh?
 |
| Pretty crab apple - a double! |
It is so normal for me to interact with geeks in person and online that it is a bit of a shock when I find someone who just stares at me and I realise they have no clue what I am on about and may even be a bit horrified by my expressing myself that way.
We are well into Spring now. We had a taste of summer earlier in the week - it got to 31C and I thought I was going to die of heat exhaustion. Completely pathetic but given we've only had a couple of 20C days so far this year and it's mostly been between 13-16C for the last month. It's gone back to normal again today - not cold but pretty miserable. It rained a fair bit this afternoon.
 |
| Peas in the yard. Yay! |
I'm sure something must've happened this week, apart from me doing a bit of quilt top making (no photos cos I'm stupid that way!) and a bit of knitting and (quite) a bit of moaning about how hot it was in the house (it turns out our house is very very good at grabbing heat and holding it!). Oh, I talked to a genetic counsellor at the cancer mob that I see and they reckon it could be worth me getting some further testing as they have heaps of newly recognised genes that they test for. My health insurer here won't pay for the 52 gene panel, mostly because many of the actions of those genes are not well described yet, but if I wanted to pay out over $6,000 I could get it done!
Oddly enough, I said no. I could do a lot of things with $6,000 and getting me tested for various oncogenes and mutation in tumour suppressor genes is not one of them. I've had some testing done that says I don't have the most well known mutations of BRCA1 and 2 and I'm not against getting further testing done (partly because I already suspect I do have one particular mutation) but paying six grand out of my own pocket... well it isn't worth it to me. Plus you need to have the money first anyway.
 |
| Clematis |
Speaking of money, when the garage project is done and we get past the current cash flow issues, I'm thinking of getting an electric bike. Yep, I need some help getting back on my bike. This breathing thing seems to be fairly chronic and I can't see I'll ever be riding up hills under my own steam and it is quite peeving really as I quite enjoy riding my bike (especially when I manage to conquer hills under my own steam but well beggars can't be choosers). I'm having to wait for a month to see a lung specialist - I should've booked in much earlier but all the other specialists I've seen have only had a week or two wait and I wanted to see the cancer guys and get my chest xray done there first. I might add a cardiologist to the list as well, get that over and done with. After all, my father was busy trying to pop his clogs with heart problems when he was in his (mumbl)ies. He did last another 40 years, mind, in pretty good health until dementia got him (and holy cow that was nearly ten years ago now! Surely not?).
 |
| Old door, the door-wot-nearly- killed-me-when-I- had-to-shut-ti. |
However, for the nonce the garage project continues. The framing was signed off a couple of weeks ago, the planning for the wiring is underway, we got a new door on Wednesday (one of the hot days, poor guys doing the installation!). The shot above is from the final closing of the old door after the springs were released. About half the paint remaining on it fell off when it hit the end of its travel... Friends dug us a trench from the house to the garage so that we can lay down new wiring (the old wiring is a perfectly legal but a bit underspec bare wire!) and we put in conduit so that we can bring wired internet and other stuff as yet unknown into the garage.
 |
| New! Shiny! Now with automatic opener! |
I may have gotten a bit excited about the rocks that were dug up along the way.
Apparently I'm a rock nerd. I can't tell a metamorphic rock from a volcanic one, though sedimentary rocks are pretty easy usually but yeah, I just like the pretty colours that some of them come in.
 |
| Where'd his legs go? And there's pebbles in that there dirt! |
Most of Seattle is situated on glacial till - all of this area has been under glaciers in the past. Some areas are on rock, some areas on alluvial soil and some sit on volcanic matter. Puget Sound, by which Seattle sits, is a fjord. The geology and hydrology of the area is pretty fascinating if you are into that sort of stuff.
Our place is on glacial till deposited about 13,500 years ago. If you dig down about hmm between 30-40cm, you dig though an layer of dark soil with pebbles in it and hit an area of reddish clay soil (with pebbles in it). I'm not completely convinced that the soil is completely native as we keep finding bits of glass and red brick in it - maybe it was trucked on site or maybe there was a house here before.
 |
| Blue skies, sun flare and contrails. |
Anyway, before the trench was filled back in, I insisted on getting some hardware cloth as it is called here (wire mesh like overgrown flyscreen only made out of metal) so that I could sift through the soil and get lots of the pebbles out.
Before enthusing about the pebbles, I should've taken some pics of them, eh?
 |
| The rhodos and azaleas are in full bloom |
Meh, I'll enthuse anyway. Some of the pebbles are bigger than fist size! Most of them are rounded but not all. They come in different colours. I found one that almost looked like it had been deliberately shaped but it is only a flake off a bigger pebble.
I really should take pictures of them. Instead you have pictures of Spring instead. Maybe it will stop raining for long enough tomorrow for me to take pictures of pebbles - I'm sure you will be totally thrilled.
 |
| Look how far north the sun is now! (Ok, it had already set but you get the idea) |
Who needs existential crises when you've got pebbles and rocks and lovely spring flowers and a quilt to make and knitting to do? (However I do keep thinking that November is only half a year away and will be on me before I know it and I will be very very sorry then because November and December in Seattle are pretty blah times of year... how pathetic is that! The best part of the year still awaits and I'm already worrying about the grotty part that follows the best part?) Plus I also have this thing called work plus a husband and a house to keep up with.
I can't be the only person in the world who would prefer to go and sift rocks out of dirt than do the vacuuming or do dishes, surely?
anon!
Yes, Where are the photos of the pebbles? It's always lovely to see flowers though. The garage looks wonderful with its shiny new door. I think an electric bike would be really handy and fun to get around on, go on, get one.
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