I’m trying to feel some excitement about NASA announcing they found a 140 year old supernova in our galaxy. Wait, they didn’t just find it. They have been tracking it since 1985. They just figured out it wasn’t as old as they thought it was. Yes, trying to be excited about that.

Not succeeding much. I was hoping for something a lot more exciting.

With the Vatican’s official astronomer announcing it’s OK for Catholics to believe extraterrestrial life is possible, if not probable, and the Shuttle crew discussing how life must exist beyond our planet, I am extremely eager to hear what it is that NASA is going to announce in about 80 minutes. Something they have been searching for in our galaxy for 50 years? Could it be … life not on our planet?!

Now that would be cool.

I wish time would move a little faster. I want to hear what NASA has to say as they say it, but I would also like to go back to bed for a few hours. I am fading fast.

But I can stay awake just a little longer! Whatever it is that NASA found, it better be worth me trying to stay awake to hear about it!

Digging through a plastic storage container filled with ephemera from my early school years, I found something too funny not to share.

It dates from about third or fourth grade, and yes … it’s Spock dressed as Santa. The assignment seems to have been to draw someone I thought would make a good Santa Claus and explain why.

The back reads thusly:

I think Mr. Spock would make a good Santa Claus because he is logical and because he has pointed ears.

Not enough early childhood drawings of Mr. Spock? Behind the cut is another one.
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That working file with all the nicely laid out layers I was looking for? Guess where I found it.

On the iMac.

So all that bother with the old PC was for naught. This is the story of my life. But … I have the file, and now I can do some editing!

I thought I would quickly boot up my old Windows 98 PC and look for the Photoshop file for my blog’s banner graphic. Quickly being a relative term when talking about my old computer … on a good day. Today is not a good day, apparently. For reasons beyond my knowing, the stupid thing is not seeing the mouse and keyboard at all. I already checked the cables. Well, I checked they were plugged in. I haven’t yet checked if they have been gnawed on by cats. This is a possibility. I’m going to wait for the stupid Scandisk finishes scanning the gazillions of hard drives I have on that computer, since I can’t stop it without a working keyboard. Then if it still isn’t working, I suppose I will pull the whole thing out from under the desk and do a more thorough investigation. This is not what I planned to do with my morning.

It makes no sense at all for it to not see the keyboard and mouse. It was seeing the keyboard and mouse just fine the last time I booted it up many months ago. Though I am wondering why the hell I had the Maxblaster hard drive floppy in the floppy drive. I don’t remember putting it there or what I could have possibly been doing with it. Certainly not formatting those drives full of data!

My gods. Scandisk is taking bloody forever!

Holy hell that antique takes forever to boot up!

Hmmm … the lights on the keyboard are on now. Perhaps it will all function so I can locate one silly file? That would be nice.

Still booting. Really … it’s taking forever. How did I used to used that computer?!

OMG! Will it freaking boot already?!?!

Argh. Still not working.

[Continued Later]

It would appear my old keyboard is non-functional. Owing to the fact we have an entire antique computer museum in our house, I was able to reach out, grab another ancient keyboard and plug it in. Everything appears to be working now.

Well, working as well as that computer ever works, that is … which isn’t all that well.

Now to go find that file!

While the snap peas don’t seem to be too excited by their Earthbox existence and continue to look like they are going to die at any moment, the cucumber seeds I planted only a few days ago are popping up quite nicely. I have the feeling the snap peas are not long for this world, because I have the feeling I will be ripping them out and replacing them with more cucumbers.

I’m kicking myself for not buying fertilizer when I was out and about yesterday. Meant to get it. Didn’t write it on the list. Totally forgot, until I pulled into the driveway and saw my plants. Doh! I guess they will all just have to survive until later this week.

I went to bed. I tossed and turned forever. I finally fell asleep.

Myu kicked me in the face, which was just annoying enough to engage my brain slightly. I noticed bright lightning flashing and thunder rumbling. That was annoying enough to engage my kidneys, which immediately started sending messages to my slightly awake brain stating they were full and needed a trip to the bathroom.

I grabbed my cell phone off the nightstand and opened it to see what time it was. Like a vampire suddenly caught in daylight, I was blinded by the obnoxiously bright pink display … pink and Hello Kitty in nature. I think I even hissed at it. By squinting as much as possible, I was finally able to discern the time: 5:14 am. Well, damn. I could have gotten 15 more minutes of sleep, if the stupid cat hadn’t kicked me in the face!

There was no ignoring the kidneys, so I stumbled to the bathroom. While doing my business, I hear loud noises like a pile of concrete bricks and tiles being knocked over and tumbling down … concrete bricks and tiles the likes of which I used to close up the under-house access point just outside the wall by the toilet. I wouldn’t think the weather had anything to do with them falling down, seeing as they have sat in place through much worse storms. My gut instinct suggested Peyton the Possum was tired of being out in the rain. Whatever had just moved under the house by way of my careful blockage had to be both determined and large. Those bricks and tiles are not light in weight, which is why I used them to block that entrance. There’s only one critter big enough, determined enough, and downright mean enough to tear down a brick wall to get out of the rain, and that critter would be Peyton. Wonderful. I have a possum under my house again.

The weather isn’t too awful at the moment. There’s a lot of rain, thunder and lightning. If I hear so much as one hailstone on the roof, I suppose I will have to run out and bodily protect my Earthboxes, because we didn’t put them back up on the porch yet. I’d really like it if those two banana peppers achieved maturity, and the tomato plant in the box is the biggest and healthiest one I have. So, please … no hail.

Our alarms keep going off. It’s time for me to stumble into the kitchen and make the morning coffee. My plan today, as soon as Lin is out of the house, is to clean up the mess from last night’s chili-fest and work on that canvas that is taking forever to finish. It’s the reason I was having problems sleeping. I know how I want to proceed, and I want to proceed right now. I believe I have been inspired somewhat by Rauschenberg’s death.

Or I want to go back to bed. I guess I’ll make that determination after a cup of morning coffee.