fer Pete's sake...

I just got a phone call from the guy who bought a HP calculator from me on eBay, a month ago. It's 11:55 here. He wanted software support from me. What do I look like, AO flippin' L? With 24-hour hotline?

The guy must've looked up my phone-number in the white-pages, since he called my home number.

He seemed suspicious that I hadn't given him all of the memory the calculator came with. I firmly told him I had nothing else I could help him with; he has a working calculator, and if he has software problems he needs to talk to the people who made the software, and no, I didn't need his phone number in case I had any ideas to help him out. I was probably too polite, but frankly I was dumbfounded.

A good hike on a hill spoiled by friction-reduced fiberglass runners

I splurged a bit, and it was fun. This evening, I went downhill skiing for the first time in probably eight years. The occasion was an invite/suggestion from a member of our local Perl group; and I had the cash from a Christmas gift (thanks Grandma Marge!) So a small handful of us went to the local slope, for two hours of falling down hills, plus one more over beer and tasty hot chocolate.

It's satisfying (to me, at least) to know that my muscle-memory works fine for things I last did eight years ago. I was confident enough on skis to work my way from the bunny hill up to the intermediate runs then to try some of the more difficult runs, before deciding that one of the intermediate runs was in better condition and more fun anyway. I know my form sucked, but my body knew what it was doing enough that I could pay attention to what I was doing wrong, rather than only thinking about not falling on my ass. So, yeah. Fun. And a rare treat, too.

Apparently schools are still on break, since there were a fair number of short people on the slopes. Nearly all snowboarding. In fact, the total fraction of snowboarders to skiers is much higher than it was in Ithaca close to a decade ago- I don't know if this is generic popularity, or regional difference, and I'm too lazy to look it up. But I did feel old and outmoded.

(The Subject is a bad takeoff on the standard description of golf, as "a good walk spoiled", I think by Twain.)