My Forays into Fiber and other Geeky Things

I get it, the Linux users all drank the Cool-Aid. Crossover Pro, Wine will not install any version of Corel Office aka WordPerfect Office. For a smack down report of who wins the war see this link Microsoft Word VS Corel WordPerfect In short WordPerfect wins the feature war. but on Linux here in openoffice " This project is a place holder for Reveal Codes functionality. It is currently not being worked on." FAIL!!!! Corel, I challenge you to open the codes. Meanwhile, my main box that I sadly still run on windows xp pro SP3. That I have put spybot on, have a software and hardware firewall; Use Firefox to surf the web, have all the bells and whistles to keep the damn thing secure picked up AV 2010 a nasty little morphing beast that usually takes about an hour to clean out.. except my free AVG activated it... Wiped my boot sector... Trying recovery console.... Tried UBCD4WIN ...

I don't know what happened to the last two months, they just disappeared. Let's get you all caught up. First things first. I HAVE NOTHING on the needles. The knitting mojo left just about the time I got my surgery date. Let's fix this... like yesterday.. I will be down one arm for most of the summer. So, goodbye Sirius Rising, Camping, any heavy lifting and working in the garden. Even Phaedre is down for the summer minus her wheel... It's a sad time here.. Okay, the summer started off great with Clermont. Oodles of fluffy goodness. Then proceeded to Memorial Day and Mass Sheep and Wool (Cummington) Wait a minute, where's the crowd? Somethings off.... But Dave of Merlintree was there with his CPW wheels on parade. All of them beautifully restored. That's where Phaedre's Wheel is getting repaired. I ran across the new Kromski there Simple in execution, lovely in design. I know it would spin well But it does not fold . (vid) One of the simplest things that I ...

I survived April fools day and not having a car for a week. Yeah, one of the axles decided to loose all the roller bearings and start vibrating to beat the band. It's dark, and greasy, but you can see the outer race and the lack of roller bearings. I went through/broke exactly 3 1/2" socket drivers with handles (ratchets for the mechanical among the readers) doing the job. So when I don't have a car or am borrowing Harriet's I tend to walk more. While I was out and about I met this fellow hanging out on the HQ bldg of SUNY To give you an idea of the scale of that building here is a pic that was taken off the web. Shot from about 350 yards away on the sidewalk, this building is one of the few publicly owned castles in the U.S. There are two more wings to the right and left. A view of it from the bridge. Then we can see the post card It's not changed much. In fact, right across the street is the blacksmith's shop It's not everyday you see what you are missing...

I have been on a Moody Blues kick lately so bear with me. Let's see what we have been up at the Fort's Ferry house. First of all the bedroom is finally painted. Except for the inevitable second coat of paint on the window frames, I can put away the painting supplies. A quick look at the latest sundown. I can never tire of that view. But as the sun went down on that day, I could also celebrate the fact that our guests can close a door. This was the project my Father-in-law Lester and I had done together out on the deck with a circular saw. The interesting thing about working on such an old house is that nothing is square, and nothing is standard. This door had to be cut to fit a doorway 29 inches and 3/8ths so to have the required 1/8" clearance we had to take a 30" 3/8ths wide door (told you nothing is square) down to a 29" and 3/16ths. of an inch Have you ever cut a 16th of an inch using a saw? That is the width of a blade, also a fair thickness of a pencil lead...

Just because Thirty years of progress.... Need a hard drive?

I am debating upgrading dopey again I am currently running Intrepid (8.10) I don't particularly like the way Ibis handles the R30 track-pad There are great instructions here... from Ubuntu Geek. I will think about it a little further. Let's take a closer look of the fiber that I am spinning this month. I will have lots of Corrie to knit this summer. BTW, Phaedre is going to the wheel hospital via Dave's at Clermont and get her back at Cummington or I can drive from here to there in 4 hours 20 minutes one way, or I can wait a month or he can ship. Watch out, there's this "New Street" that could be confused with "Old Street" it's around the post office..... Cya next week.....

Revisiting last years post of it's not rocket science. I forgot to get an action shot of Phaedre in action. She was being all sorts of balky yesterday on the wood floor of the Athens Cultural Center The uprights were bouncing all over the place and it appears that her wheel has gotten even more off center than usual. I think I need to tear her down and straighten her wheel. but she still works. I was the only man that was spinning yesterday it's odd, being literally the "odd" man out in a room of 30 +/- Women 4 Men and just 2 of us men-folk actually play with yarn and fiber. Guys, pick up your pointy sticks!!! We are losing the race and the skills. Speaking of skills, on the radar for the last few years has been this little gem from instructables.com Low power media server. Parts? I have two slightly dead laptops one of which could turn into this... or this But, considering were I live and the age of the house I am leaning toward the second of the two. after all it...

I went to an event discussing blogging last night, I can say it was excruciatingly long on time and short of content as most blogs are... Then there's mine.. I hope. As you all know out there in the world I have moved into a lovely old house with a commanding view of the Mohawk Harriet found herself at the Town Hall yesterday with some time to kill and happened onto the town historian who gave us the story of our house. and pictures It was the "Fort" house as he knew it. This one may be when they moved in. This one is probably 10-15 years later. It's the same woman, or at least someone related. She also hung her laundry on a line under the porch roof. It's practice that is evidenced in both these old photos just zoom on them. I love a practical woman. Through the magic of Google Street View lets look at circa 2006 The first photo dates from around 1870, the second from around 1900 (Pneumatic tyres on the bicycle) I can just say.. I love this house. Speaking of pi...

As I sit here in front of my roaring fire and there is a snow storm warning . I want you all to take a quick look around the house and let you all see what we have been up to. A quiet corner of the soon to be fiber studio is Cara and Nick sitting on the guest couch/fold out futon. On another side of the room, Phaedre my wheel sits with brown corriedale that I am spinning at 40 WPI. I am having so much fun with this fiber when I have time to spin. Because the rest of the house has been eating my life... We had friends over to enjoy dinner in the now finished dining room. Or the quiet corner of the living room My latest project And as always Knits on my laptop, Dopey, powered by Ubuntu Hardy Heron.

Yesterday was my actual birthday. So I did what I always do.. I went skiing.... at this lovely resort way out the back and beyond up Delaware County Road 41 where the head waters of the Delaware River come from. Looking down one slope I had the courage to go down.... Don't tell Harriet but this was a 60-70 degree slope with a double black diamond rating (with the 80 degree surprise thrown in every now and again) oh the buildings down the bottom are the lodge... I took this slope by carving s turns from one side to the other... At my age (49) it's not how fast you go but that you make it down in one piece and that you never go faster than your legs will let you.. See the reports of of crashes from the Womens' downhill at the Olympics Outside link LA TIMES To prove that there is knitting content The helmet liner in action

The longer I live here, the more I love this house. This morning is glorious, albeit a little on the cool side with the temp widget showing 13 degrees F or for those who made the jump to metric -10.5 degrees celsius. (centigrade) Looking out of the skylight in the slowly coming together craft room. Yet another look out of the upper hallway window I really don't get tired of the view. Which reminds me, I did actually knit in December FO Hat for Foster Child, Boy Aged 10 Ribbed Snow Hat. It came together so fast, that I decided to knit another for myself. Simply because, I don't have hair now. Yeah, It's gone.... 3 years in the growing. Oh, the scarf? Harriet knit that for me a buncha years ago and it's still one of my favorites. For what it's worth, the girls won't get out of bed.