h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Lady C. has been experiencing computer problems. I spent most of the morning on the phone with AOL tech support, only to find out that I needed to uninstall my AOL software and reinstall it. I could have done that by myself. Don't like to waste time on the phone.

I'm not sure how to upload the photos so I may have to email them to someone who is more savvy about posting photos on the net than I am.

Wilma, those are great photos; your parents have got a great garden. Lovely, now I have a craving for lasagne, after looking at the tomatoes and aubergines and ...

I love the scenery shots too; what part of Lebanon do your parents live in?

SC

And as a late entrant, Phil from EastEnders hops into salon in his sack and falls promptly on his face!
......I kid you not, I have just seen him in a sack in EastEnders soap programme, we are doomed, we are doomed....

The Kandinsky thing is apparently sold out for all of Saturday, and I can't go to the museum of London as B and I want to go there together and he's working, so I guess I'll just potter along to the pub then.

hmh dashes in and drops a card in the platter; hears a car pulling into her real driveway and Got to go give a rub; be back soon

[fg]

[GDZ]

More photos!

These are of my trip to Washington. I took many more photos than these, but have edited them down to twenty.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jensequitur/slideshow?.dir=/54ecre2&.src=ph

My absolute favorite is the one of the sunset on the beach with the bonfire, but I also love the one of the gnarled tree in the foreground with the misty hills. Made a great photographic subject.

I'm going on vacation tomorrow and put Zeppo and Gummo in a kennel. They're only gone an hour and I miss them already.

Since we're sharing photos, here's one I took with my wide angle lens the other day:
http://cat.rutgers.edu/~delaphant/images/WideZeppoAngleLens.jpg
(Gummo runs away when he sees the camera)

Xantief got here about lunchtime; we went up to Capitan for lunch and the heavens opened while we were in the Smokey Bear cafe. It made sightseeing very difficult, so we looked around Fort Stanton, drove up onto the mesa then came back home to chat. We'll have a comfy evening in listening to music and chatting with Cille when she gets here.

Lentilla, I like the one of the sailboat in the mist

The colors of the sunset reflecting off the waves...wow. Gorgeous pictures, Lentilla.

Lil, do you have an alternate source of water, or will you have to buy jugs from the supermarket while they repair things?

I have been contemplating the idea of a cistern for some time now. I read somewhere that on the sheep stations in the Outback of Australia they have huge underground cisterns that collect all the water off all the roofs of the buildings in their compounds and are capable of supplying water for approx. 2 years of drought.

I think about the troubles we are starting to have here in the Midwest with our aquifers being depleted by wells and wondering why it is that we got away from the cistern idea. Back in the bad old days it was part of building your place to put in a cistern, and up in the wine country of Napa everybody had cisterns because the wells were all brackish.

Anyhu, Lil, I hope that Lincoln gets its water system repaird PDQ and that you are not too discommoded by it all.

Hi Xantief!

Good night all

[GDZ]

Bagpuss is on his way to Toronto. I'm home from St. Louis and have been chewed out by Annie for making her worry. When I don't come home at my regular time she always worries that I've been eaten by predators.

We stopped on Lebanon to see hmh's garden and dragon collection and her labyrinth. I didn't have time to walk the labyrinth, so plan to make another trip up there one of these days to do that. She has a lovely garden.

I tried to think of a typical road trip meal for Bagpuss and finally settled on Cracker Barrel. He had fried okra for the first time and seemed to like it. He ate it, at least. And he got to try hushpuppies for the first time.

There was a bit of a foul up with the sightseeing. I thought we had plenty of time to go up in the Arch. Trams leave every 10 minutes for the 60 minute round trip. But the place was so crowded that all of the seats were sold out. We would have had to wait nearly 2 hours to get a seat, which would made Bagpuss miss his bus. So we wandered through the museum and gift shop then sat on the steps and enjoyed the riverfront for a few minutes. Of course this means he will have to come back so he can take the tram up to the top.

There was also a delay because of the security measures. Everyone has to go through the metal detectors just like at the airports. Normally it wouldn't have made that much difference, but we were on a tight schedule.

I had no trouble getting out of St. Louis and back onto the interstate although it was the 5pm rush hour. I hadn't driven in downtown St. Louis for years and had forgotten how easy it is to get around. The city is laid out logically and the intersections are clearly marked. Plus the scenery along the route is quite lovely. So it was a pleasant drive. Or would have been if there hadn't been so much road construction. But I'm tired after the trip back home and am ready for bed.

It's official. We have no water. I had filled a number of gallon jugs earlier today, so we have something to brush our teeth with, but the water system has been turned completely off, lest the well run dry trying to replenish the tanks.

One possible culprit is where some people have been putting a fence in where one of the main lines is. When plans were presented to the board, Quentin said that the design took into account not digging holes because they didn't want to mess with the water mains. But now Quentin is not the one doing the job, it's some outfit from Roswell, who brought in a great big augur and drilled holes.

If this is what happened -- that the people in question did something different from the plans approved by the board and thereby messed up the municipal water -- then this is going to cost them dearly.

Anyhow, I prepared the sort of food that we can easily make a meal from tomorrow, cold chicken, eggs, salad and french bread, things that don't involve water. I just wish I could clean the dishes.

We've had a nice evening chatting, and the landlady has been over to sit and talk with us, too. Xantief won't have to camp out after all, cos Cille has given him the use of her guest room.

Lil, please give Cille my greetings and I hope that the water situation is resolved soon.

Good night all.