Good luck to all you facing Hurricane Matthew — though I realize some have already evacuated and might not be reading this until later. If you’re within the storm zone but in a place you can stay put, be glad you’ve got your stored food and water. Rumors that you may also require holy water for Matthew are probably exaggerated.
Author: Claire
In today’s links post, I blogged about Yahoo’s compliance with a federal “security directive.” If true, their act would not only be despicable, but would be technologically unprecedented. They reportedly not only rolled over without a fight, but actually built new software at the behest of the fedgov to spy in realtime on their users’ incoming and outgoing mail. There are obviously still a lot of questions here including some extremely basic ones. Did Yahoo really do this? Was the request made by the NSA or the FBI? What were the specific terms the company was “directed” to scan for?…
We’re cruising down life’s highway and we find ourselves backed up in traffic by a colossal wreck. Glass and metal and blood and guts are strewn everywhere. Some survivors scream for help, while others lie bleeding out, pierced by steering wheels and shards of glass. But never fear! First responders are already on the scene. The experts will soon handle the ghastly situation. Except that the “experts” on this particular highway of life are standing there screeching at each other about their Twitter messages, tax returns, fat-shaming, mutual degrees of personal and financial corruption, and whether or not they enabled…
Three days without Ava. As a special treat for myself, I dropped Her Royal Highness Princess Ava Prettypaws off at Furrydoc’s this morning. Ava is the most willing and loyal dog I’ve ever had. That girl lives to please. But along with that package of goodness comes extreme clinginess, hyper-vigilance, constant attention-seeking, and a seeming belief that every time I so much as twitch a muscle I’m either going to a) take her on a glorious adventure; b) feed her; c) throw a toy for her; or d) heartlessly abandon her in cruel Dickensian style. I literally can’t shift my…
If you’re a member of our sister site Claire’s Cabal, you probably just got an automated email about your membership. You can ignore that. It was the result of me trying to change all the free memberships from “unpaid” to “paid.” Didn’t realize that would result in an email blast to everybody! I also appear to have screwed up somehow, so that membership statuses may have changed. Don’t panic. And don’t think you’re suddenly a life member. 🙁 I did something wrong and have to figure out how to fix everything. Also, I just put up five new articles —…
You might recall that late last winter I stumbled upon a most touching doggie grave in the woods. (More photos at the link.) Isabelle Boothe (of various spellings) had died only a few days earlier. It said so on the marker. And a whole family of children had written and drawn their goodbyes. The plastic-protected mementos fastened to the cross also included photos of the beloved dog returning from a victorious hunt and more. All in all, a great act of love by a family for their too-soon-dead pet. I’ve visited the grave many times since then, saying my hellos…
Wednesday was a heartbreaking end-of-summer day. Beautiful. Perfect. But sad because even without looking at the weather report, you know you might not have another one like it for a long, long time. So Ava and I took advantage as much as possible. I worked and read and knitted (another dragon) outdoors while she lounged and barked at the neighbors’ invading chickens (which they’ve given up attempting to keep in their hole-y yard). In the afternoon, we took a long drive, followed by a walk along the river. And there we had one of those odd moments where it’s hard…