IN A FOG

18 January 2003

This picture was taken in front of the house at 6:30 this morning. It was a real pea-soup fog today. You expected to see Joseph Cotton standing under a street lamp in a trench coat, with the collar high around his neck and a cigarette dangling out of his mouth. I can't remember the last time I saw a fog this thick.

Cindy and I did not do our usual tour around town in 41 minutes. The fog slowed us and we added a full 2 minutes to our time, as we had to actually stop at stop signs and stoplights just to make sure that there were no cars coming, since we couldn't see them and they couldn't see us in the fog.

It was also very disorienting. This route that I have come to know so well seemed strange. All the curves and turns that I take automatically seemed to be in the wrong place. It's amazing what impaired visibility does to your perception.

Then the University, which seems to be constantly building and expanding (it's the "Winchester Mystery House" of universities) decided to erect a barricade across the road we always take. In the fog, we almost didn't see it.

The center of the university was eerily beautiful. Lights shining through the fog and the silhouettes of students walking to the cafeteria.

We also decided to take a quieter street on the last leg, since the street we usually take is quite heavily traveled, even at 6 a.m. and we felt we'd encounter fewer cars on a quieter street. Well, yes, that was true--but there were also no street lights at all, so not only were we in this thick fog, but it was dark as well. That slowed us down considerably.

By the time we got home, I was drenched. It was so cold that I wore my new balaclava for the first time (that's the thing that makes me look like an Afghani woman) because I wanted something that would keep my neck warm as well as my ears (I have a headband that warms the ears, but this did the whole head). I also put a sweatshirt under my jacket, and then glove liners under my biking gloves, and sweatpants over my regular pants. I was very glad that I'd bundled up when we started because it was very, very cold.

However, as always happens, by the time we were hitting mile 2, I was already wishing I could discard clothes. (Haggie tells me I should get leg and arm warmers, and I'll do that any day now...just about the time the weather turns warm, probably!)

By the time I got home, not only was I all but blind (because of all the moisture on my glasses, making it impossible to see), but my clothes were absolutely drenched. I swear one of these days I'm going to take off my jacket and be able to wring sweat out of it. I usually come into the house frantically removing the outer layer and heading for the water cooler to get a cold drink.

But I have to admit that the experience of riding bike in a thick fog was really kind of fun.

I was in a fog of a different sort last night. The Palm Pilot that I ordered from eBay's half-off site finally arrived and I was trying to make heads and/or tails of it, since it came with no documentation (though I later discovered the manual was a pdf file on the program disk)

I sent off a series of e-mails to my friend Susan, who had raved so much about her palm (conveniently the same model--Vx--that I now have).

• Well, my palm arrived. Without documentation. Do you know if there is a Palm for Dummies out there? Or is there a book you would recommend so I can figure out what I'm doing?
• Nevermind. I found the .pdf file. NOW I'm bonding...
• Well...it couldn't just be easy, could it? I can't get the sync to work. The Palm tells me it can't set up a connection and when I attempt to run Hot Sync manager, nothing happens. Sigh... Everything ELSE runs ok--but this is very frustrating!
• I should probably make another trip to see you. (At one point I tried changing from com 2 to com 3--but now I can't find where I did that...not that it did any good)
• well, I found the right com port and I got it to say that it was synchronized, but I still can't move anything from computer to pilot...but I'm getting there!
• Well, apparently my name is Rafael because it doesn't recognize Bev, but I have successfully uploaded things to the Palm. Amazing. I think I'll go to bed now!!

She must have thought I was nuts. But yes, I finally did figure it out. The machine didn't recognize me as Bev, but did recognize me as Rafael (presumably the guy I bought it from) and I was able to move things from Palm to desktop and vice versa.

I can now play Free Cell anywhere I want.