27 Feb 2013

Will You Adopt an Adorable Puppy?

posted in: animal friends, personal news | 0

I’ve been in Puerto Rico for the last week, working away at the Herculean task of packing up Allysen’s mother’s house for her move to the Boston area. A couple of evenings ago, her dogs Diego and Sixta ran howling up to the gate to see what insidious deed was afoot. It turns out their instincts were spot on. A family of—I can only call them lowlifes—had just dropped a litter of seven puppies in front of our house and hightailed it down the hill.  (Allysen got there in time to see them and ran after them yelling, but they fled. We are the last house at the top of a hillside road, and for years, people have been abandoning animals at our gate.)

We really needed this, while trying to pack up a lifetime of books, papers, artwork, and other possessions. But like it or not, the puppies were suddenly in our hands. And so now, we have fed them and bathed them (they were crawling with fleas), and have been trying to find a local rescue group who can take them. If we don’t hear from Save a Sato or one of the other groups by tomorrow, we’ll take them to the Ponce Animal Rescue and hope for the best. We could bring a couple of them back to the States, if we knew there were homes waiting for them. So how about it? Would you like to take in a heartstoppingly lovable puppy?

You can see six of the seven in this picture. In back is an adorable one I immediately named the Hindmost, a reference that any reader of Larry Niven’s stories will recognize.

13 Feb 2013

A Truck By any Other Name

posted in: personal news | 0

Is just as rusty. That was how it seemed for a while, as we were searching for a replacement vehicle for our beloved but aging Mazda, Thoth. (Named after an Egyptian god associated with writing and philosophy.) And then, last week, our fortunes turned, when I found a gray 2006 Ford Ranger (small pickup) in very good condition, at a good price. With a cap, no less. (Which will have to come off for some of the furniture moving ahead of us, but for routine use seems like a great feature.) Last week, our mechanic checked it over, and yesterday I picked it up from the dealer, Auto Country of Abington, MA. Good-bye, Thoth! You were faithful and a great car to drive. Not your fault you got old and started falling apart.

Hello, Star Rigger Land Shark! Welcome to the family!

These are dealer pix, and the seats are pushed back here, but I especially liked the extra room behind the seats, for the pooch and/or groceries.
Long live the Land Shark!
 
9 Feb 2013

After Nemo

posted in: personal news, weather | 0
We awoke to a lot of snow today…
 

 

After about four hours with the snow blower, shovels, and help from our downstairs neighbor Jill and the youths, we finally ended up with this. 

And after that, I came in and ate breakfast, then napped. All is now very quiet.

9 Feb 2013

Into the Blizzard

posted in: personal news, weather | 0

Winter Storm Nemo, they’re calling it. I think of Nemo as a cute little clownfish, but Jules Verne’s Nemo is probably a more apt referent. I’m writing this at about 1 a.m. Saturday morning, which should put us a third or halfway through the snowy Nor’easter. They’re already calling it the Blizzard of 2013, and snow accumulation for the Boston area could break previous records. Looked like about a foot so far, the last time I was out, which was a few hours ago. Hard to tell, with all the drifting. I can hear the wind gusting out my office window right now. Oddly, the weather bug on my computer desktop says “Fog” for current conditions in my area!

We lost power at around 10 p.m., and I was just starting to wonder how cold the house would get without heat (or how fast it would get cold), when I saw utility truck lights out in the street. They had us back up in about half an hour. (They were on site so fast I’m guessing maybe they shut us off while they corrected some hazardous condition, maybe a tree branch on a line or something.) Hats off to those guys out there working on lines in these conditions! I had to take Captain Jack out, so I walked over and asked the nearest worker if I could bring him anything. Nope, he said. A neighbor had already brought him hot chocolate.

A glance at the power outages chart for Nstar in Massachusetts shows a lot of people hurting, especially down on the south shore and Cape Cod. Here’s hoping they get taken care of fast.

It’s supposed to end late this morning, so I’ll try to remember to take some pictures before I fire up the snow blower to tunnel us out.

If you don’t hear from me again in the next day, that’ll probably mean the power went out again. Either that, or I’m too sore from shoveling to sit down and write another post.

7 Feb 2013

We Eat Problems for Breakfast

posted in: personal news | 0

Yes we do, here at the Starrigger Ranch. Good thing, too. I wrote earlier, in brief, about what the first quarter of 2013 looks like for the Carver family. Allysen’s mom, Fay, is moving from her long-time residence in Puerto Rico to live closer to us—not with us, but in a continuing care community not too far away. This is sad, because she loves it where she is. But it’s necessary.  She’s in her 80s, and at several thousand miles distance, we have been her closest family since Allysen’s dad passed away two years ago. This means not just moving, but closing down, fixing up, and preparing for sale two separate properties—and finding suitable disposition for a lifetime’s worth of stuff, much of it very nice stuff gathered from work and travel all over the world.

To this end, Allysen has taken a leave of absence from her job, and she’s already down there working on the Puerto Rico end. The rest of us will be going down at various times to contribute to the effort. Meanwhile, at this end, we’re still finishing the job of getting her charming little condo here near us ready to put on the market. (To a large degree, that means boxing everything up and moving it into our basement for interim storage.) I’ve been putting up a lot of shelves in our basement.

Just to keep it interesting, at the same time, we’ve been looking to replace our aging ’98 Mazda. We decided a while back that a small pickup truck would make a handy replacement, because even before all this started, we always seemed to be facing situations where we wished we had one, but something smallish, like a Ranger. So we’ve been looking. It’s amazing how much time and energy you can put into shopping for a used truck. Especially when all the dealers who sell them seem to be an hour’s drive away. I believe, hope, and pray that I have now found one. Tomorrow it’s to be checked over by our trusty mechanic. If all goes well, we’ll have our new (to us) truck by next week.

Meanwhile, just to keep it more interesting, I was in the basement knocking together shelves when I turned around and saw water leaking out of our hot water tank, a tank which had just passed out of its ten-year warranty. Thank God for good plumbers who come when you need them. (Thanks, Pat!) Then, the day our hot water heater was replaced, our brand-new washer went on the fritz! What is this, a conspiracy?

Making that sequence even weirder, I called Allysen down in PR to tell her the news. Her reply? “The hot water heater here just quit, too.” And the next day, the new washer there broke, locking their wet clothes inside.

It’s really got to make you wonder.

But as I say, we eat problems for breakfast. Nutritious and full of fiber!

1 Jan 2013

Happy Circuit Around the Sun, 2013!

posted in: personal news, year end wrap-up | 0

Yes, we’ve made another turn around Sol, and congratulations to all of us! I hope you have all had a terrific holiday season, and are in good form for the start of another circle. Here in the Carver household, we had a great Christmas with my brother and his wife visiting from Florida, and several other good friends on hand. My sister-in-law Youngmee didn’t exactly get her wish for snow while visiting, though. Oh, we had a little dusting, but the real snow waited until a day after they’d left. Next year!

As I look back on 2012, I see a time of transitions for the family. Allysen, ever looking for adventure, started rowing with a local community boat club last May, and turned overnight into a crew enthusiast (despite having to get up at 4 a.m.). My sister Nancy got married, out in Ohio, and we all traveled out for that happy event. My daughter Lexi went from a Masters program in mechanical engineering to a PhD program, and back to Masters (due partly to will o’ the wisp promises of funding from the university). Her sister Julia finished her homeschooling with a GED, spent some time in the summer as an editorial intern, and pondered her future direction. And I…well, I made good progress on the new book. 2012 was a good year for ebooks, and saw exciting growth in my audience to the UK. When sales in the U.S. slumped a bit, my friends in Britain came through and turned it around for me! 2012 also saw four of my books become audiobooks, with more on the way.

I look ahead to the new year with excitement and more than a little apprehension. Last year was just a warmup. In the coming months, we’re helping Allysen’s mother move from her longtime home in Puerto Rico to a really good continuing care community in a town near us. That’s a huge undertaking that will involve all of us. We also have to gear up for work on our house. It needs a new roof, and we’d like to add a modest dormer for more room while we’re at it. Once that’s all done, we’re having a solar-electric array installed on the roof (more on that later). Among other things, this means moving everything out of our attic, and probably out of my office. All while I’m trying to finish The Reefs of Time! Pray for me.

All that said, life is good. And I hope it is for you, too. Happy New Year!

3 Dec 2012

Holiday Specials!

posted in: ebooks, my books, personal news, specials | 0

Before this gets away from me and I forget to promote it (What good are specials if you keep them to yourself?), I have a few book specials lined up for the holiday season.

Ebooks first. At Book View Café, you can pick up my two short story collections, Going Alien and Reality and Other Fictions, for just $1.99 each through December 31. (That’s a dollar off the regular low, low price of $2.99!) Epub or mobi (Kindle) format, your choice, DRM-free.

In the Kindle store, the price of my spaceship-racing thriller, Clypsis (Book One of the Roger Zelazny’s Alien Speedway trilogy) has been marked down by the publisher, at my request, from $9.99 to $5.97. That’s a 40% markdown! Gentlebeings, start your engines! A rousing collaboration with the late, great Roger Zelazny, for young adults of all ages! (Plus, when you compare the ebook price to $89.56 for a new, vintage paperback, it’s a no-brainer. Never mind the $.01 used paperbacks. I’m sure they’re not as good.)



Finally, for lovers of tree-books, I remind you all that personalized, autographed paper books make fine gifts for the discerning gift giver.  Why not visit my virtual bookstore at http://www.starrigger.net/order.htm? Take 10% off the book total (not off the postage, please) for any order you send me in the month of December. This sale is not listed on the website. Just take the discount and mention you read it on my blog or Facebook page.

The book is dead? I don’t think so. Long live the book!

   

22 Nov 2012

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

posted in: nature, personal news | 0

Here’s hoping that you all have a wonderful day, and that you have much to be grateful for. If you’re outside the U.S., you might not have the day off, but I hope you’ll join us in spirit. Think of something to be thankful for, and share it with someone you love!

Oh, and if you happen to run a large retail corporation, and you’re thinking of starting “Black Friday” on Thanksgiving Day, how about thinking again? Why not treat your employees (and your customers) with dignity and respect, and let everyone enjoy their holiday before you throw open the doors with your sales? We can wait. Really, we can.

12 Nov 2012

Doing Our Part to Help the Economy

posted in: personal news | 0
No, this isn’t it. I don’t think this one has
electronic controls.

Buying a washing machine. Our Whirlpool Calypso, a lemon of a machine if ever one were built (which I’d brought back from the dead at least three times), finally nutated itself into an inert hunk of metal. Armed with printouts from the latest Consumer Reports online—which we logged into from home, using my public library card, nifty—we headed to Sears. There, we looked at everything, and settled at last on a nice-looking Samsung high-efficiency top loader (our space is awfully tight for a front loader), and awaited delivery. Today, it came.

The minute it was installed, we knew we’d chosen the wrong machine. It’s simply too big for our little pantry/laundry-room. I don’t think we’d fully realized just how much the average washer had ballooned in size in the last ten or fifteen years. Nevertheless, the Sears guys said we had thirty days to return it, and we could use it in the meantime. So we went ahead and ran a few loads. (After leveling it, which the installers failed to do correctly.)

This was the top-rated machine from Consumer Reports, and yet it was amazing how quickly it revealed annoying design deficiencies. It’s all electronic, which you’re pretty much stuck with, if you want a high-efficiency machine. But the designers didn’t think to add a button for “cancel and drain,” so I had to wait out the water-only test run. Once you’ve pressed Start, you can’t change anything, not even the water temperature selection. When it’s done, it plays an electronic song that goes on for a surprisingly long time. Irritating the first time, and downhill after that.

And so, tomorrow, we get to go out and do it all over again. This time, with the benefit of experience, I hope. 

Postscript: After looking at a lot of other machines, we (the editorial “we”) decided to do some creative carpentry, and make the Samsung fit in our space. We got over the UI design deficiencies pretty quickly, and decided that we liked it after all.  Actually, we all love the glass lid, so we can peer in and watch the clothes go swish, swish. Reminds me of when we had a big aquarium, which served double duty as “cat TV.”  We are easily amused.

7 Nov 2012

How an Election Is Like a Colonoscopy

posted in: personal news, public affairs | 0

I’m being only partly facetious. I participated in the one, earlier today, and I started the prep for the other this evening. (I’ve just finished drinking my third bottle of generic Drano.* And when did this turn into a three-day ordeal, instead of two-day?) Now I’m waiting to learn how it all turns out, on both counts.
*By which, of course, I mean magnesium citrate.

Most people over the age of 50 in the U.S. know what fun it is to clear out your system in preparation for—as the alien in the movie Paul put it—”probin’ time.” About as much fun as the twelve months of campaign noise, idiotic commentary, vicious back-and-forth attacks, and robocalls in preparation for a major election.

Probin’ time!

So now I’m sitting here feeling queasy from the noxious liquids I just drank, and queasy from watching the election returns, especially as I watch the numbers go up for the candidates I don’t like. My daughter, who just voted in her first presidential election, came to me a little while ago, and asked, “How do you get through it? How can you stand waiting to find out?” (There are some candidates she really wants to see win. I’m with her.)

Colonoscopy-wise, I still have to get through tomorrow, on a liquid-only diet, so I can have the completely painless procedure done on Friday. (I’ve done it before. The probin’ itself is nothing, once you’ve gotten through the prep.) By then, I hope, the waiting for the election results will all be over. Unless, of course, it’s in the courts.

Just to be serious for a moment, don’t anyone think I’m running down the right to vote. I’m not. It’s sacred, and I’ve voted in every election I could vote in, since I turned 21 (I think that was still the voting age, back when the rocks were cooling). I sincerely hope all of you voted today, if you were eligible to. (Also, I hope you get your colonoscopy when your doc tells you to. You know why.)

Just for the record, I’m pulling for Obama to win. And Warren for the Senate in Massachusetts.

Addendum: What do you know! Almost everyone I voted for won. This may be a first! Thanks for voting, everyone!

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