old computers must die

...someday, but not today.

 But the warning bells sounded last night. Right in the middle of a nice session of Lexulous, a grunting clank issued from the box and a strange Blue Screen of Death popped up with a dire message about the Nature of the Soul or some such gibberish about the inner workings, both hard and soft, of this computer that I have been abusing since early 2005. 

The fan goes through spells of making sounds like a coffee grinder or guinea pig sex. The heat that comes off this machine makes this corner of the room cozy on a chilly morning.


After a night's rest for both of us, I powered it back up this morning, tinkered with the OS a bit and was able to restore to a few days back but time is running out on this one I fear. The errors are too widespread and diverse for it to be other than a impending motherboard  implosion.

Saturday Afternoon at the Cathouse

We took advantage of another gorgeous fall day to sleep outside while she stitched away on that blue thing.

sun day on a friday

Took myself and Ocean Homes to the park for some sun and fresh air today.  Stitching, solitude and a good book on the ipod. There was not a soul there
but me and the geese who were less than interested after I made it
clear that there would be no snacks.

They  seem to think that everyone who sits at that table will be sharing but I had nothing to offer but bits of thread and they milled about and muttered amongst themselves for a while before they lost interest and moved on. This is at Bethesda Park which is a short three minute ride from my house.

Caesura

I'm still in the clutches of a cold and will probably hang on to the cough until sometime in March just like last year.

Although I got up full of piss and vinegar yesterday I made the mistake of tackling a long put off cleaning project.  And this on my day off! "Hoarders" is really getting under my skin.

It's not that bad but I was thinking that months and months of dust piled on stacks of books, CDs, mail and UFOs right next to my bed wasn't helping me get better. Digging it out an doing away with it may have set me back a few days but it's done now and the opposite corner beckons. Maybe Saturday. 

After a spell of rest, I settled into bed with this piece to see if some hand stitching could bring some light. After cross hatching a handful of the white shapes with full ply floss I realized that it was not going to help and picked it all out and fell back on the comfort and ease of crocheting with cotton.

Next for this one, and irrevocably, will come paint but not until I'm feeling more focused. My head is full of echoes and hollow places full of NyQuil fumes...

slogging

I stitched on this one between coughing and sneezing this weekend. I have a world class head cold and should probably sterilize it when it's done.

The Janome continues to puke up when I try to use the Sulky 12wt cotton so the white was very slow going.

I still can't help feeling that I have done these pieces of cloth a disservice using them this way, but I'll see it through to the finish I suppose.








Meanwhile, this one continues to tantalize me over my  shoulder and I am thinking over how I want to build this one before I start the same unsatisfying dance I'm in right now. Back to handwork on something this large? Maybe I have to experiment with a sail maker's needle and full weight embroider floss.