#437 The Wine Tasting Outing

Programmers' Drinking Song

99 little bugs in the code,
99 little bugs,
You fix one bug, compile it again,
100 little bugs in the code.

100 little bugs in the code,
100 little bugs,
....
Repeat until bugs=0.

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Well, I missed the wine tasting yesterday.  The newsletter said it was in Pine Bush, so I dragged out the map and found Pine Bush on route 209, north of Kerhonkson.  The directions further said to follow the "wine trail" signs to the winery.  Pizza afterward at a pizzeria in Pine Bush.  I gave myself an hour and 15 minutes to get there.

There were NO signs for Pine Bush on 209.  I went all the way to Ellenville, then back north to Kerhonkson, then  back to Ellenville, then back to Kerhonkson, then I found an old man who told me that Pine Bush was on route 52.
"Go to south Ellenville, then turn right in town onto 52.  You'll see a sign for Pine Bush."
"Turn right on 52?  That's west, right?"
"Yeah."

I found 52, and turned right at the "Pine Bush 12 mi" sign.  A few blocks later, the road split.  52 west went right, 52 east went left.  No Pine Bush sign.  Old man said right, right?  West, right?   Right.  I took the right.  Twelve miles later, there sure enough was a little town, but it wasn't Pine Bush.

Found another old man.  "Um, am I anywhere near Pine Bush?"
Laughter.  "Nope.  You gotta go back to Ellenville, go straight through town, and up t'mountain on t'other side.  Pine Bush will be on 52, about 12 miles t'other side of Ellenville."

By the time I got to Pine Bush (which was in the next county down, by the way, and therefore this version of Pine Bush wasn't on my map), I was an hour and a half late.  So I gave up on the winery and found the pizza parlor.  Where I found the Mensa group.  Which consisted of the two organizers.  They had just ordered. 

It's just as well that I hadn't looked for the winery.  The couple wondered where everybody else was, and I suggested that maybe they were wandering the highway between Ellenville and Kerhonkson, or somewhere west of Ellenville.  Laughter.  Then the guy who had written the directions speculated that they might be wandering out there somewhere nearby.  He said it was just as well that I hadn't tried to find the winery.  It seems that the "Wine Trail" signs I was supposed to follow don't point to this particular winery.

Ah, typical Mensa. 

Turns out there are at least two Pine Bushes in New York state - a village and a hamlet locally (a hamlet being a wide spot in the road).  Just as there are two Rochesters - the city and the town.  There are two Red Hooks - a village and a scary section near the NYC docks.  There are lots of duplicate names.  I don't know how the postal service handled it before zip codes.

Ah, typical New York.

~~Silk

#436 Patrick's Saturday Six - Episode 83

The famous Saturday Six, from Patrick at "Patrick's Place", http://journals.aol.com/pattboy92/PatricksPlace/entries/1341.

1. You are invited to spend a night, alone, in a large house that is believed to be haunted.  A close friend of yours whom you trust tells you of his or her own experience, and you have sufficient reason to believe that there may be a genuine haunting going on there.  Without promise of any kind of reward for staying the night, would you agree to do so?  Yes.  If there are no ghosts, it would be interesting.  If there are ghosts it would be interesting. 

2. What do you most enjoy about your job?  Being retired.   

3. Who was the last person you had a conversation with?  What was the main topic of the conversation?  Well, in the past few hours I've talked with the deli lady about how good the bacon smelled, and a telephone discussion with my gutter man about his coming to clean the gutters today, but I don't consider those real conversations.  The last real conversation would have been with Roman about what's going on in his life and how it affects us.

4. Take this quiz:   What kind of "smart" are you?  All-around.  Big deal.

5. What was the last food that you totally ruined -- to the point that it was inedible -- when trying to cook?  Oh, come on.  I ruin everything that requires mixing ingredients or more than a little heating.  Restaurants and doggie bags are how I "cook".  Mostly I eat yogurt, raw vegetables, and fruit.  Monkey diet.

6. STRANGELY-OBSCURE QUESTION #1:  If you had to do over again, would you change anything?  If I could do it over knowing what I know now, I would not have been coerced into marriage #1, I'd have waited for Obie, I'd have stayed in teaching rather than joining The Company back in 1968, I'd have flirted with a certain person at my last job (I didn't know what he had to offer), I'd have forced my baby sister into rehab, stuff like that.  But then I wouldn't have had Jay or Daughter.  So many possible branches on the tree, each with its own pros and cons.  Mainly I wish I could say that at every juncture I did the best I could.  Unfortunately, I didn't always.  I guess that's the big thing I'd change - I wish I had followed my own heart and mind more.

PS - Back to #3 - My gutters are getting cleaned right now, and I had a nice conversation with him about cruises.  He's a talker.  I showed him my pictures from the Hawaiian cruise, and he helped me locate the site for the wine tasting this afternoon.  When he's finished with the gutters, I'm going to ask him to help me get the African screen out of the van.  That would be such a relief!  He also cleans vinyl siding, and knows a good roofer, so we're lining up next spring's projects.

~~Silk

#435 Disappearing Saturday

Here it is Sunday already, and I haven't the faintest idea where Saturday went.

After finally falling asleep at about 4 am, I got up at 9 Saturday morning to go to the recycle center.  I unloaded some storage containers from the van, and then filled the body of the van with cut-up cardboard, plastic-glass-foil mix, some basement paper, and one of my four vacuum cleaners.

Explanation for four vacuum cleaners:  The one I took to recycle is a huge heavy upright Hoover.  Cleans well, very powerful, but it had come with Jay, and it's just too big and heavy for me, and won't fit under the furniture.  I dislike uprights anyway, because you have to move the whole danged thing when you use it.  Cleaner number 2 is a good and expensive canister, but the power head choked on oriental fringe one day and burned out.  When I couldn't get it fixed real quick, I bought a small cheap canister to use until I could get the good one fixed.  That was back when we had two dogs and a long-hair cat, and we couldn't possibly go a month without vacuuming.  Then I finally got mad at not being able to easily find bags (or remember which bags to buy), so last fall I bought a bagless vacuum.  I LOVE it!

The recycle center has set up a building where you can take books and almost any kind of household stuff and anybody can take away anything they want.  I've found some wonderful books there, and I've gotten rid of television sets, Christmas trees, knick-knacks, and packing materials.  Local Bard college students furnish their digs from that building.  (They won't accept the recliner.  Too big and too hard to dispose of if no one takes it.)

And that's the last thing I remember until Ballykissangel came on and I watched the Saturday PBS Brit-com lineup.

I don't have the faintest idea where the rest of the day went.

Tomorrow (Sunday) - wine tasting at a valley winery, with Mensa, followed by pizza. (??)  If I get up in time.

~~Silk

#434 Amorous Definitions

Casanova
1.  A man who is amorously and gallantly attentive to women.
2.  A promiscuous man; a philanderer.[After Giovanni Jacopo CASANOVA DE SEINGALT.]
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Lothario
1.  A man amorously attentive to women
2.  A man who seduces women
3.  A man whose chief interest is seducing women
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Gallant
1.  Adj.      a. Courteously attentive especially to women; chivalrous.
                 b. Flirtatious; amorous.
2.  Noun    a.  A man courteously attentive to women.
                 b. A woman's lover; a paramour.


Hmmmm.  A gallant(with emphasis on the chivalrous) Lothanian(1,2) Casanova(1), definitely.   At least that's how he affects me.  You'd never guess it looking at him!   Except when he takes his glasses off and tips his head back and smiles.  Then he becomes very handsome ... and I swear I see the horns sprouting. 

Ladies, protect your hearts!

~~Silk

#433 News and Stuff

When I listen to the radio, it's NPR.  When I watch TV news, it's usually BBC.  So I do get a lot of international news.  I get the local newspaper, but seldom get anything out of it beyond the crossword.  Background on international news is obtained from weekly news magazines.  So yes, I am aware of the situation in France.  No, I have no opinion as to the cause or the cure.  80% of the rioters don't either - they just joined in 'cause it looked like fun.  Ok?  I await the analysis of someone more tuned than I.  In the meantime, I worry about a few French acquaintances, although I guess the danger is to their cars or businesses more than their persons, so far, anyway.  

In news closer to home, my little world has righted itself.  Friend and I are on a different track than before, with a new and much clearer understanding.  I am content.  For the immediate future, anyway.

I will break my "no comment on the news" rule for an observation on two news items I came across recently:

Item 1:  The "free" television networks - you know, the ones who agree to let you watch their programming free in exchange for watching the commercials, i.e. ad-supported content - are worried that they are on their way out, undermined by recorders and cable - i.e. fee for content.  Their world is changing and they don't know how to respond.

Ok.

Item 2: Microsoft (fee for content) is worried that they will be losing market share to "free" software (ad-supported).  Their world is changing and they don't know how to respond.

Exactly the opposite from the TV folks.

There's something amusing about that.


~~Silk

#432 Pride and Prejudice

I wanted to see the movie Pride and Prejudice tonight.  The TV ads said it was opening tonight.  Apparently not anywhere in the Hudson valley from Albany to Newburgh!  Blech!  I am disappointed.

I applied the weatherstripping to the front door frame, and believe it or not, it wasn't thick enough.  I had to apply two full layers.  Since there's only 10 feet on a roll, I have to go buy another roll to finish the job.

Cold air comes in under the door too, and I don't know what to do about that.  It's a steel door, so it's not easy to screw some kind of plate to the bottom. 

More paper burning today.  More cardboard cutting.  Recycle center tomorrow.  I am amazing myself by what I am willing to throw out.  The biggest problem is that there doesn't seem to be anywhere to "throw" some of this stuff.  What does one do with a mouse-scented recliner?

~~Silk

#431 Thursday

Quick short entry - for Thursday.

Last night (Wednesday), dinner with Mensa, a Greek restaurant.  I had something that was exactly like cinnamon egg custard with meat in it, two different varieties that looked and tasted exactly the same, and a tiny snip of spinach pie that was very good.  And what was supposed to be tiramisu, but looked and tasted like melted marshmallow with two lady fingers stuck in it.

One of our members has Tourette Syndrome and a seizure disorder.  He gets rides with other members to the dinners, since he daren't drive.  Last night during dinner, he noticed that his right hand was trembling, but not the left, and said that meant he would have a seizure in about two hours.  Then pretty soon he said that there were "funny colors", which meant it was coming on faster, maybe an hour.  The guy he had come with was planning to do some grocery shopping on the way home, and since I have experience with seizures (Jay's) so they don't frighten me, and would pass the guy's apartment, I volunteered to give him a ride home.

It was a pretty interesting ride.  I got him to his home before any seizure, but MAN, could he talk!  He kept apologizing for being so talkative - said that that's a symptom of the seizures - but he talked and talked faster and faster, and was actually pretty interesting.  He's an interesting person.  Weird, but interesting.

I went to the hardware store today to buy weather stripping for the front door.  I had bought some really fancy magnetic stuff a few years ago and couldn't install it then because the falling-apart stuff on the door was nailed in between the two parts of the frame and I couldn't get it out.  Now that has finally completely disintegrated - but now, of course, I can't find the fancy stuff.  Oh, well.  The stick-on foam strip I bought is cheap and easily removed, so if I ever do find the good stuff, I'm ready.

Anyway, when I left the hardware store, I discovered I didn't want to go home.  I drove and drove the back roads, some I'd never been on before, up and down steep hills through sparsely populated lands, trying to get lost.  Beautiful scenery.  I'll never find it again.  Ended up at Taghkonic Lake.  Took the Taconic Parkway back home.

Spent the evening cutting up cardboard boxes and burning paper.  The living room is starting to look ... um ... possible.

~~Silk