Snow!

Written January 17, 2007: Sorry for not dating blogs as I enter them. Just never occurred to me. I didn’t usually number my fanzines back in real publishing days with mimeograph and stencils until collectors of same asked me to start numbering my publications. Then I numbered one as “#4 or 5 or possibly 7” just to get a reaction. One of my early pulp paper fanzines was also named Bjottings. There are copies of it in the Riverside U. library.

Today I Googled for “Trimble” and, among other things, discovered that there is a Trimble GPS unit for sale. This is pretty funny considering that several Trimbles are not the people to ask for directions, excepting John. If you want to know how to get anywhere in Southern California, ask him, but be ready to take notes! You’ll get a whole lot of “… you take the 210 to the 134 to the 509 to the 1325 to the 1776 to the…. “ at which point my eyes glaze over.

One site that I can’t translate into a URL has, for no reason but the obvious one, a lovely semi-nude young lady at the top of the home page. Though the Google search part actually has a quote from this Bjottings, I found no evidence of it in the listings. But I thought maybe I could get away will claiming to be the pretty lady…

Aw, c’mon! I need some cheering up after getting my seriously ugly passport photo taken, and paying a heck of a lot extra to make sure the darned thing gets to me on time. Dead-on shots always look like one should have a set of numbers across your chest. But looking on the bright side, nobody else is ever going to claim that photo!

Anyone paying attention can guess that I’m getting my passport for the Mayan Highland Backstrap Weaving and Dyeing tour. It’s on! Whoo-hoo! Six people finally signed up. At least one of them knows me, so I assume the person is on the Natural Dye list. Not everyone has come forth to get acquainted before the trip, which I consider odd. I’d certainly like to know a bit about someone sharing 9 days in Mexico with me. But maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, it’s a revelation to check on one’s given name as well as surname now and then. I’ve discovered my own listing in Wikipedia, and wish I knew how to correct it. It’s pretty close, but there are bits that need changing.

Hope everyone enjoyed the photos taken last season of our lovely avocados. We won’t have such photos this year. The cold nights made most of the fingerlings (finger-sized new fruit) drop off our big old backyard tree. Larger avocados that already developed will have to be removed from the tree and ripened in the warm house. Then we’ll see if they are edible. The leaves have all been frost-bitten and look dead or dying, but we won’t know the damage for several weeks. If new growth comes out, we’re OK. My heart really goes out to all the avocado and citrus growers whose orchards were devastated by this unusual SoCal freezing weather. Farmers never seem to get a break. Several good years can be totally wiped out by having to re-mortgage the farm in bad times.