Friday, November 30, 2018
Ok, I'm back.
First, thanks to everyone for their very kind words! I'm ok, but circumstances, as they sometimes do, conspired to kick me off the internet and keep me from solving the issue for a week.
The first thing to know is that for the past month I've been working a new job in Redding, about three hours from home. I've been able to bring my laptop along and connect easily to the hotel's wifi, so there was no break in blogging.
However, last weekend, just a few hours before I was due to hit the open road north, the computer seized up. Apple offers online service help, but nothing they suggested seemed to work. The last thing that happened was complete OS reload, but that was still going on when I had to leave. Wouldn't have mattered, as it turned out it didn't fix the issue.
So, I thought I'd bring one of the older laptops along, but it turned out it was indeed so old, the software wasn't recognized by the hotel's wifi and I was out of luck and out of touch for a week.
The crashed computer had all my passwords on it, and for the life of me, I couldn't get even my email to load on my cellphone. Every possible password I could dredge up out of my throbbing brain didn't work. Finally, I got my email password changed, using my el - cheapo cell phone, and it will load now, but the frustrating struggle it took all week.
What a cluster.
I'm using Mrs. CW's desk top now, and tomorrow I'm getting a new laptop as I'm done with being out of contact. That machine, I hope, will connect effortlessly with the hotel wifi, as it should.
Anyway, it rained like the dickens up in Redding, and Mount Shasta looks like it already has a huge snow pack going. The taller mountains around town have snow now as well.
Funny story, where I work is on a bluff that overlooks a broad sweep of the Sacramento River as it flows through town, and Wednesday, one of the ladies working there suddenly let out a shriek, pointed down at the water and announced that she saw a dead body floating downstream.
Naturally, all work stopped, and a crowd gathered, and indeed there was someone floating with the current face down. Just as phones were being dialed to call the authorities, the "dead" body stood up, and it turned out it was some kind of Fish and Game guy with a snorkel doing we don't know what - surveying the fish I guess. He ultimately swam over to a small boat and climbed in and off he went.
The "dead body" jokes were still going strong when I left for home this evening.
First, thanks to everyone for their very kind words! I'm ok, but circumstances, as they sometimes do, conspired to kick me off the internet and keep me from solving the issue for a week.
The first thing to know is that for the past month I've been working a new job in Redding, about three hours from home. I've been able to bring my laptop along and connect easily to the hotel's wifi, so there was no break in blogging.
However, last weekend, just a few hours before I was due to hit the open road north, the computer seized up. Apple offers online service help, but nothing they suggested seemed to work. The last thing that happened was complete OS reload, but that was still going on when I had to leave. Wouldn't have mattered, as it turned out it didn't fix the issue.
So, I thought I'd bring one of the older laptops along, but it turned out it was indeed so old, the software wasn't recognized by the hotel's wifi and I was out of luck and out of touch for a week.
The crashed computer had all my passwords on it, and for the life of me, I couldn't get even my email to load on my cellphone. Every possible password I could dredge up out of my throbbing brain didn't work. Finally, I got my email password changed, using my el - cheapo cell phone, and it will load now, but the frustrating struggle it took all week.
What a cluster.
I'm using Mrs. CW's desk top now, and tomorrow I'm getting a new laptop as I'm done with being out of contact. That machine, I hope, will connect effortlessly with the hotel wifi, as it should.
Anyway, it rained like the dickens up in Redding, and Mount Shasta looks like it already has a huge snow pack going. The taller mountains around town have snow now as well.
Funny story, where I work is on a bluff that overlooks a broad sweep of the Sacramento River as it flows through town, and Wednesday, one of the ladies working there suddenly let out a shriek, pointed down at the water and announced that she saw a dead body floating downstream.
Naturally, all work stopped, and a crowd gathered, and indeed there was someone floating with the current face down. Just as phones were being dialed to call the authorities, the "dead" body stood up, and it turned out it was some kind of Fish and Game guy with a snorkel doing we don't know what - surveying the fish I guess. He ultimately swam over to a small boat and climbed in and off he went.
The "dead body" jokes were still going strong when I left for home this evening.
Sunday, November 25, 2018
Hoard of Celtic silver coins unearthed in Slovakia, from the time the Celts lived in the area
Archaeologists have discovered a hoard of Celtic coins from the early 1st century in the village of Mošovce, northern Slovakia. Forty silver tetradrachms were found scattered over a steep slope. This is the second largest coin hoard discovered in the area and the one with the oldest coins.
They date to the end of the La Tène period and were buried in the early 1st century around the turn of the millennium when the Romans occupied the area. The collapse of the Celtic civilization and the Roman invasions created social instability that may have spurred the burial of the coins, either to protect precious savings or as a ritual deposit to buy the protection of the gods.
It is highly probable that they are minted from silver originating from a Carpathian (Slovak) deposit. The economic power of Celts in the Slovak area was to a considerable extent based on using natural resources, especially gold, silver and iron. The Turiec region belonged among the key economic and cultural centres of Celts in Slovakia,
Via the always good History Blog.
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Bugaboo Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada
That glacial silt in the river sure makes it pretty
The Stone Prism of Esarhaddon
Black basalt rectangular-sided monument recording Esarhaddon’s restoration of Babylon, 670BC (via British Museum).
In our electronic day and age, what of our writing and thought will be preserved so well for so long?
