Back at work ...

to find that Big Computer had had its monthly meltdown. This is apparently a useful data point for the sysadmin, but tiresome for the rest of us. I spent the day easing back into things gently, moving more data from Old Computer to New Computer and trying to pick up threads. New Computer revealed yet more fascinating screen-savers. I particularly liked the giant ants on a wireframe Moebius strip. Tomorrow, I need to start actually interacting again.

Made a little more progress with Myst:Revelation this evening, finished the crocheting part of a doily that's been in progress since August, and ordered gifts from Amazon UK for my mother and nephews. I'm a little worried about my own incoming Amazon package, which appears to have been circling Tucson in a FedEx Home Delivery van since last Wednesday, not managing to get to my workplace when it was open.

It's a cold night, at least by Tucson standards, with a hard frost predicted for the morning.

Package update

FedEx Home Delivery is no doubt a great idea when it's delivering to homes. Unfortunately, I have my Amazon and other mailorder packages delivered to work, which is fine when they come via UPS or USPS or even that weird hybrid known as Airborne Home. The combination of FEHD's belief that they can deliver any time between early morning and 8pm, six days a week, and the Thanksgiving four-day weekend means that my latest package has been wandering folornly around the city for the last week.

Tonight I called them, and managed on the third repetition to convince the nice young man that they actually need to try delivering In Business Hours. I'm promised they'll try that tomorrow. We shall see.

Edited at 10pm to add:

OK, I just checked the tracking page again, and it's now showing as having been delivered at around 3pm. So now I'm wondering why the Receiving people didn't bring it over ...

Frost, Arizona style

I dropped the rent off at the office this morning, and then went out the front way, over the grass. There's something very strange, to an English eye, in seeing frost-traces on grass that's such a rich and tender green. This is the winter rye grass, seeded a couple of months ago and in its lush prime now, greener than any English lawn I ever saw; the footsteps before me had bruised it here and there and held the frost that had already vanished from everywhere else.