Day: December 19, 2003

Continuing to pick up the pieces

Almost all the static site has rendered now and is once again available at http://www.www.jarretthousenorth.com. Notable exceptions, all from 2003: the end of September (being rendered now) through October. Also missing until I upload it again: my genealogy records and some miscellaneous pictures from other old parts of the site.

A great dinner tonight, a minestrone with meatballs, with a Chianti Riserva from 2000 that was mellow but lively. As are the dogs, who are taken with the new digs here in New Jersey and, after a day, have settled back into their routines.

Lights slowly coming back on

It looks like the outage that has plagued my site over the last week is slowly clearing up. I have the ability to render pages to the static site on a one by one basis, so the front page has been posted. However, for some reason, I don’t seem to be able to execute Manila’s “render this site” command. Maybe I’ll try another time when traffic is lower. The bottom line is, while the site is coming back, there are still going to be a lot of broken links for a while.

The undeclared war between pant buttons and airline seats

I don’t have a large posterior. In fact, I recently had to punch a new hole in my belt after losing about twenty pounds. So why is it that each time I wear a pair of khakis with a rear pocket button, that the button catches on the arm of an airplane seat, pulls loose, and is lost?

I have two hypotheses. One is that there is a bitter undeclared war between airplane seats and pant buttons. The former, jealous of the latter’s freedom and mobility, scheme impotently for their destruction, and reach out to burst their threads and strike them loose at the first opportunity.

The second hypothesis is that there is an airborne Underground Railroad for pant pocket buttons seeking the quixotic pursuit of independence, and that through long hours of conversation with the airplane seats, they have converted the uncomfortable chairs to their cause. Now they whisper one to another about the fate of their peers, and urge hope to be kept alive. Someday, when the maintenance crew finds them, they will be free, and maybe go to Hawai’i.

Travels with Doggies

I should perhaps have mentioned that, in addition to the outage on my static server, my blogging is being slowed by travel today (originally written Thursday 12/17). Lisa and I are currently (9:20 AM Pacific time) on our way to New Jersey, on a non-stop flight through JFK. With two dogs.

The first few hours of our day have been as uneventful as possible under the circumstances. We awoke an hour later than planned (future note to self: to avoid turning on the wrong alarm, always turn on both the night before taking a cross country trip!), hurriedly showered and took the dogs outside, then tried to convince them to eat, and were just getting them in their travel bag when the airport shuttle arrived. The drive to the airport was uneventful along the HOV lanes.

At the airport, we checked in and tried unsuccessfully to get them to attend to business before boarding. By the time all that was done, Lisa had missed her opportunity for Starbucks, as she was in the first boarding. (First class for these dogs all the way!) As I was back in coach, I had a few minutes to pop off for an espresso and croissant before my row was called. Such is my compensation for the cramped seat in which I am spending the next four and a half hours across the country—alas, no exit row set this time.

We are perhaps half an hour into the flight. Already Lisa has come aft to get the second travel bag; apparently our puppies are growing too restless to share their travel kennel. Meanwhile I can do little, from ten rows and a bulkhead back, but attempt to catch up on my reading in Peterson’s Jefferson, watch the western country unfold below me in great ripples of snowy mountains and vast expanses of arid plains, and write. And maybe catch a nap.