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And Animals I Have Not Maybe they'd taste good dipped in mustard... This
AirPort is not "sleeping" I've talked about this before, how the base station miraculously "fixed" itself after dying in the aftermath of an extended local power outage. That same power wonky-bonk wiped out a neighbor's Power Mac G4, incidentally, and I think it killed my next-to-useless Que! USB CD burner. Up in San Cristobal I had a zillion power outages but no big surges (apparently). I also had a rat in the bedroom and coyotes in the yard. Here in Taos I have major power doo-doo and mice building nests in my Nissan 240SX's air intact ducts. (I can tell the latter because of the delightful baked mouse baby aroma that filled the car after an extended 80 mph run on I-25, but more on that later.) If it isn't one thing, it's another. Yesterday it was the "dancing lights of death" on the base station, something like one orange, one red, three orange, three green, over and over. I'd been afraid to touch it, really, for fear of disturbing the little tyke, but since I was sure it was fried, I took it off to check the serial number, and (whew!) it turned out to be within the magic number range that Apple uses to determine if you've got one of the early bad ones. A call to Apple tech support (800-275-2273) confirmed that my unit qualifies, even though we didn't get to run the qualifying test sequence because I have to wait until after January 1, for some reason. At any rate, even though I bought the thing in '99, I'll still get a free replacement. Way to go, Cupertino! 
* * * commercial interruption * * * Lissen up, everyone: due to temporary (?) loss of clearheadedness, I have put my amazing & incredible domain name ZOOZONE.COM up for auction at eBay. Just think what you can do with a name like that. Just think what some heavy-duty professional weirdos (no, not me) have already tried to do with a name like that. The auction starts today at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. You can search for the name or just go here.... Good Luck! And once again, that's: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2084966944&rd=1 Sunport
soliloquy But yes, London! Amazing, isn't it. I'm a little embarrassed, since I've lately been moaning and groaning about being poor. The hopefully temporary lack of funds is real, all right (enough to make a person wake up at 3:00 a.m. with a thudding heart), but this particular very worthwhile trip across the ocean is mostly funded through a sibling's generosity. It's a long story that has no place here except that I already mentioned the baked mouse babies and the base station and the whole thing goes together somehow. See, I had to drive her to the airport today. No, not THAT airport, the real one, in Albuquerque, thoughtfully called the "Sunport" so you won't mistake it for a base station. It happens to be the most civilized and user-friendly airport I've ever used, or was, until they messed it up for "security." Don't get me started (oh wait, I already am). Such a sweet little airport it used to be. There was a wonderful third-story lounge with big windows and a view of the mountains where you could hang out and watch your loved ones' planes take off. A fabulous restaurant, too. But now I can't go there unless I'm a ticketed passenger. At present there is really NO PLACE AT ALL (very slight exaggeration) for departing travelers and their families to sit, have a bite to eat, and exchange their goodbyes. Instead, you walk into what was once a beautiful, open, airy terminal and immediately confront the ugliness of BushAmerica. This sucks! (And yes, I do blame him.) At least it's still easy to get to, although I fully expect we'll have pre-airport roadblocks before long.  I
otter be more careful After about 20 minutes of high-speed cruising, a strange yet not absolutely repellent odor began filling the passenger compartment. I wouldn't have had any notion what it was, except that when I opened the hood the day before to top off the windshield washer fluid reservoir, I found the top of the battery covered with sunflower seed hulls and mouse poop. This has happened before, usually during the winter when the car is left sitting for several days in the vicinity of a bird feeder. The condition is usually accompanied by a mouse nest in the air cleaner, but as it was awfully cold yesterday, I didn't check. The air intake duct on this particular Nissan is perfectly situated down low in the bodywork of the nose, a warm inviting hole just right for mousies. Presumably they have no mice in Japan, or someone would have designed a rodent barrier. But that smell: kind of like something cooking, only something you've never cooked yourself. Vaguely oriental, actually, with just a hint of chow mein noodles. I know it was baked mouse babies, cute little pink things that won't smell so nice when the next time if I don't clean out the air cleaner housing pronto. I figure the parents jumped ship when I started up the car for a pre-trip warming. Grown mice wouldn't smell nearly so, um, food-like. Or would they? My sweetie got away in good time, presumably. I don't know because I couldn't hang around with her at the Sunport (grrr). On the way back I had a nice experience, though. I turned off the main road at the north end of the canyon just before Taos and stopped beside the Rio Grande [see images]. In less than two minutes I saw several black-and-white ducks, two Canada geese, a kingfisher, and an honest-to-God otter. A freaking OTTER! I know it was an otter because it wasn't a beaver, and dogs don't dive underwater, at least not quietly. Not bad for desert work, I say. 
"Grack!" SPECIAL
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"GRACK!" is © copyright 2002, John H. Farr, all rights reserved
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