This is probably not good news, huh?
Any error with BIOS in it scares me shitless. I got this message on boot about six weeks ago. After I click the continue button, I get one of those awful ARE YOU REALLY TOTALLY POSITIVE YOU WANT TO HIT THIS RECKLESS BUTTON, FOOL? messages and then it pretends to give me a firmware update.
I say pretends, because I got the message again a week ago and then I got it five times in a row this morning before it finally booted into Windows. This is at work, mind.
I know a little weasel who’s getting a new desktop computer.
First, I’m having our tame IT guy come have a look, though. If I get a new machine, it’s positively going to be Windows 11 and I don’t know if a machine can be ghosted from a Windows 10 to a Windows 11.
If not, I’m going to spend weeks tracking down and re-installing apps. Imagine the world’s smallest “yay!”
The other computer at work, which is much newer, ‘upgraded’ itself to 11 without asking. I can’t see anything new about except, as usual, they’ve moved all the buttons around to different locations.
Why they do this?
April 25, 2023 — 7:19 pm
Comments: 20
Shithouse for sale
Today, I had coffee with a woman who has a Grade II listed outhouse in her back yard. It lost its seat years ago and has been a garden shed since forever, but it was once and for a very long time the privy that served the whole street. (!!!)
That’s not it in the picture, though. That’s a modern shed that you can buy fully assembled for $3,044 (the kit is a little cheaper).
Anyway, we fell to talking. All of us live or have lived in very old houses. So, naturally, we began to discuss ghosts.
Not me. I’m as psychic as a potato. I live in a 500 year old house and I haven’t experienced so much as a cold spot.
They weren’t exciting stories – footsteps in an empty house, being poked in the ribs by a Nothing There – but I felt cheated that I don’t seem to have that sense. It’s like being color blind. Or, I dunno – maybe they’re nuts.
Any psychics out there?
p.s. Why do outhouses have moons carved in them. Nobody knows for sure.
p.p.s. RIP Dame Edna. New Dead Pool Friday.
April 24, 2023 — 7:00 pm
Comments: 10
The week in review
I’m embarrassed to admit how long I stared at my blood pressure meds wondering why on earth the packet would say to take it NOW.
To recap:
There’s another headless bunny on the back doorstep. I’ve nearly stepped in it several times today.
Icecream is still not one word.
I’m pretty sure we have rooklets. I watched her for a long time this afternoon and she fidgeted. She once left the nest for a few minutes and then came back, probably feeding the little peckerheads (when she’s incubating, the father keeps her fed, Wikipedia tells me).
The chickens had another blissy day in the sun, though it all changes for the weekend, alas. Showers both days. (I hope it clears a little while at night; the Lyrid meteor showers peak this weekend).
And I have managed to skate through another week on the leanest of content. Story of my life, really. Good weekend, everyone!
April 21, 2023 — 7:03 pm
Comments: 11
Bucket o’ chicken
My Mo, he glows like burnished copper in the sun.
There are few sights as heartwarming as chickens blissed out in a dirtbath. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work in pictures – they look deceased. Especially if their eyes are closed.
You’ll have to excuse me being so light on content this week. I’m sunlight starved. The moment there’s a patch of it, I go fling myself into it.
Which isn’t working out so great – there was a cold old North wind today.
April 20, 2023 — 6:37 pm
Comments: 4
Rooklets
This is a very rooky area. Rooks are intensely social birds and it’s not uncommon to see a big tree with eight or ten rooks nests, next to another, next to another.
We had a very lively rookery here when we first moved in. They were noisy (next door hated them) but we loved our rooks. And then they went away.
No idea why. Maybe because the tree is partly dead? Do they have an instinct not to nest in dead trees? No idea. (Behold a scholarly discussion of rook nests in stag-headed trees).
One by one the nests vanished. Stolen to make other nests in the neighborhood, I guess, or just blown away. Only this one remained.
Sorry for terrible picture. It’s a phone snap from a long way away.
I sat in the garden in the sunshine today – first of the season – and was astonished to see a rook in this nest. See that forked thing sticking up? That’s her tail. I had no idea until the male landed nearby to feed her and she shifted. She’d been sitting immobile for so long, I thought that was an old piece of wood or something.
I can’t tell you how odd it is to have a lone rook nest in a tree.
Rooks lay end of March, beginning of April. Incubation period is 18 days. Today is April 19. Ladies and germs, I reckon we have rooklets.
April 19, 2023 — 5:42 pm
Comments: 6
The bunny beheader hisself
A picture Uncle B took this week of Fatcat in his favorite spot in the greenhouse.
For all the demands he places on his servants and for all his bold bunny hunting, he becomes 100% feral when a stranger appears. He skedaddles when we get a grocery delivery.
Which, pardon me, we have just gotten. I better go put the icecream away.
p.s. Hm. The wavy red line tells me icecream is not all one word. This displeases me.
April 18, 2023 — 7:33 pm
Comments: 10
Crunch
Today was about the fourth time Uncle B has opened to the backdoor to find a headless baby bunny on the doorstep. He thinks it’s a charming gesture of love from our great fat tomcat. An offering of breakfast.
Me, I think that boy just like to crunch up bunny heads.
p.s. yes, I’m crunching up the Lindt bunny head as I type.
April 17, 2023 — 6:08 pm
Comments: 6
Sea moncster
“Weird animal washed up on the beach” is another perennial local story, but this one is weird. It washed up on a Sussex beach – last year, if you read the article. Which is a pity; someone should have gotten a tissue sample.
I don’t know if those are nostrils or eyes toward the big end, but it’s got spines sticking out of the thin end and a couple of flippers – two different sizes – sticking out of the little bulge. No, the fish experts weren’t any help.
Perhaps it’s an alien.
No really. Have you seen that weird Tucker Carlson clip where he talks about UFOs coming up out of the sea? No idea what to make of that.
Have a good weekend!
April 14, 2023 — 6:30 pm
Comments: 6
Sexy, sexy swans
This afternoon.There were three, actually, and they were flapping and chasing each other. I don’t know if that’s normal swan interaction or mate selection or what. Wikipedia says:
Swans famously mate for life, and typically bond even before they reach sexual maturity. Trumpeter swans, for example, who can live as long as 24 years and only start breeding at the age of 4–7, form monogamous pair bonds as early as 20 months. “Divorce”, though rare, does occur; one study of mute swans showing a 3% rate for pairs that breed successfully and 9% for pairs that do not.
So, swan divorce? Who knows.
It’s not unheard of to see a gathering of swans in a field. I once saw so many, I lost count at around thirty. Hit the link for a discussion of swan-upping. A sheep farmer told me the swans gather when it’s going to be unusually cold inland (coming to the coast for warmth), but wrong time of year.
Me, I hope we have more babies!
April 13, 2023 — 4:14 pm
Comments: 2
I don’t mean to brag…
I’m one of the Community Notes contributors on Twitter now. I mean sure, anyone can sign up, but it was ages before I got confirmation.
They claim they get a balanced set of opinions, which probably means Elon has sicced an AI on my posting history to decide if I add enrichment.
The irritating part is shooting down a bunch of notes I agree with because the tweet doesn’t need a damn note.
And alas, Spoony is gone for good this time. I looked through my old posts today and, my goodness, she got herself into a lot of scrapes. Up a tree, on the roof, in a hedge. She disappeared for more than 24 hours once and I was sure that was it. Turns out, she was in the kitchen the whole time, standing silently in the corner.
The strangest of all my chickens.
Sorry about this. I try not to post when I lose one. I hate to be a downer. Some days, Twitter feels like one long montage of dead dogs and cats.
April 12, 2023 — 6:29 pm
Comments: 5