May 27, 1999
Dear Everyone:
Still working on getting ready for
extemporé.
In the “fixing to get started” stage.
I’ve been sending emails (love email) to the programmer at STI
and then inserting his answers into a (now 11 page) application form for
CITC to get us set up on a Shared
Server.
Then I have to arrange for some kind of “funding” so we can get
going on the
SQL Server database that will form the “backend” to
extemporé.
All of this before we can even get our hands on the
software to see what it can actually do.
And all the while, people keep asking when we’re going to get out
of
Versatile and
into extemporé.
Shades of five years ago when everyone wanted us to get off the
mainframe
and into Versatile.
Anyway, like millions of others, “Jeannie” and I
“stayed away in droves” from last weekend’s showing of the new
Star Wars
movie. It looks like the
tactic of releasing it early may have backfired a bit.
Not that
George Lucas isn’t making money hand over fist.
But I think a lot of people were scared off by all the media
focus on lines of fans camping out for weeks to get tickets.
Everyone expected huge crowds.
Consequently, no crowds showed up.
Kind of reminds me of when
Dewey ran for President.
Instead of going to the movie, “Jeannie” and I
concentrated on Big White Kitty.
Big White Kitty (BWK) was not looking all that white.
In fact, he looked more like “rolled-in-something” white.
What’s more, his long fur was badly matted in a number of places.
“Jeannie” wanted to take him to a pet grooming place, but that
costs a lot of money and besides, they were all booked up.
So we took matters into our own hands.
I brought a couple of electric shavers that might work out, plus
(at the last minute) a pair of embroidery shears which turned out to be
the best tool for the job.
At first, we contented ourselves with just cutting away as many small
matted globs of BWK’s fur as we could, figuring that a shampoo would
loosen the bigger ones enough that we could then comb through them.
But, the more we cut away, the more imbedded
foxtails we found. This
began to explain why BWK didn’t want to be combed, especially in some
places. Eventually, we
worked out a routine where “Jeannie” would hold BWK firmly (but gently)
while I worked on the really badly matted spots.
I found that I could slip the thin, sharp blades of the
embroidery shears just between the matting and BWK’s skin and snip a
fraction of an inch at a time.
This was slow, careful work because you couldn’t risk poking poor
BWK with the sharp blades.
(You wouldn’t believe how black our hands got just handling him.)
But the more we worked, the more foxtails we found
that must have been jabbing poor BWK for months.
All during this procedure, BWK grumbled loudly, to let us know
that he really didn’t like anyone giving him what almost amounted to a
razor cut. However, he was
too much of a gentleman to scratch me more than once or twice.
When we had finally cut away as much as we thought
we could (enough to stuff a small pillow), “Jeannie” took BWK upstairs
for a shampoo. He came out
of it looking like a really large, “rolled-in-something” white,
partially drowned rat. Half
an hour later, as his fur (what was left of it) began to dry, he had
forgiven us enough to let us rub his ears and fluff up his coat.
He is currently sporting a very
punk sort of
look.
Next Saturday, it’s our turn to get haircuts.
However, we can pay someone to do a better job on us than we did
on BWK. On the other hand,
we don’t have foxtails to worry about.
Then we’ll go and see the Star Wars movie.
Love, as always,
Pete
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