Amiable Dorsai

ProfessorTomoe's car alarm problem reminds me that I had my own alarm problem last week. An alarm went off in my neighborhood just as I was drifting off one evening last week.  My annoyance grew by an order of magnitude when Mrs. Dorsai reported that it was our car.
She turned it off remotely after looking out the window and seeing no intruder near the car, but 15 minutes later it went off again. Not wishing to start troubleshooting at midnight, I went outside in my pajamas and disconnected the battery.
Shortening a much too long story, I finally found a broken wire in the rear hatch. At a guess, it was falsely signaling to the car's computer that the hatch was suddenly open with no key involved.  Fixing the wire, and replacing a few dodgy-looking ones has, so far, fixed the problem.

Snerk. Many years ago, Mrs Dorsai, who knew precisely what she was doing, embarrassed him quite bit when she asked him how he liked her new fanny pack.

Meh. If I can go across the Atlantic, maybe I can go from NJ to Chicago, too. Stranger things have happened.

Nah, Chicago boy, born and bred. More difficult for me to make side trips these days. but you never know...

Yeah, good to see you too. I won't go into why I've been gone (medical, boring, take care of your pancreas, trust me on this) this feels like home, in many ways. I wish I could invite you all to my real home, for a chat.

It's been a while, old friend. Good to see you again.

It's cruel of me, I suppose, because it would hurt her, but I wanna see Grace go all Bruce Lee on magic steroids.
And I want Tony to be there.

On February 20 in History:
1472 - Norway can't afford a dowry for their princess Margaret to marry the king of Scotland, so they just pawn a few of their islands. This is why folks from Orkney and Shetland are so difficult to understand.
1816 - The Rossini opera, The Barber of Seville, premiers. It is most famous today for its appearance in Bugs Bunny cartoons.
1895 - Death of Frederick Douglass. Unlike his birth date, he did not get to choose this one himself.
1933 - The people of the United States are once again legally allowed to stop pretending they don't drink.
1962 - John Glenn goes around the world three times in just under five hours. Suck it, Jules Verne.
1967 - Kurt Cobain is born. He is among the...no, Nevermind.
1971 - The U.S. emergency broadcast system is accidentally activated. Haha, how embarrassing. I bet they'll never do that again.
1985 - The people of Ireland are at last legally allowed to stop pretending they don't use birth control.

An incredibly courageous German diplomat caught wind of what was going on and he and some of his friends risked their lives in getting word out before the operation started. Many Danish Jews quietly prepared for flight. On the night between October 1 and October 2, 1943 the Nazis started their action but only caught 500 Danish Jews, or about 5% of the total. The rest managed to escape to Sweden or simply to stay hidden in the time that followed.
I have mentioned that my own family was part of this. My uncle Per was only a few months old, and my grandfather and grandmother did not dare to bring him along for fear that his crying would bring the Nazis down on them. Instead my family's beloved and loyal nanny Gerda took charge of him and went out of town, pretending that he was her own. My grandparents and my eight year old father then went to the coast hoping to find transport across the Sound. They could not find a vessel willing to carry them but managed to buy a leaky rowboat for the exorbitant price of five thousand crowns, or roughly thirty to fifty thousand dollars in today's currency. The rowboat nearly sank and one time they feared they had been turned around, but they finally reached Sweden. Fortunately they were not greeted by a Nazi-sympathising government that separated my father from his parents and sent him to a children's internment camp. I am very thankful for that.
Faithful Gerda stayed hidden for three months but rumour got around that she was hiding a Jewish baby and she was forced to flee. She managed to reach Sweden and started to search for my grandparents. Once again, the Swedes did not seize my uncle and send him to a holding facility for refugee babies. And after many weeks of searching she found my grandparents and my father. It was an emotional reunion and Gerda was part of my family for the rest of her life.
Of course, this would have been impossible without the cooperation of many Danish politicians, police officers and civilians. Fortunately not all of the fleeing families had to deal with greedy war profiteers to escape. And happily and importantly, when it became possible to return home to Denmark again, the way opened by the Allied soldiers who fought so long and hard to destroy the Nazi abomination, Danish Jews were welcomed home. My own family found their apartment completely untouched if a bit dusty. All that was missing was a bottle of brandy that the janitor had availed himself of, and given how well he had taken care of everything my family hardly begrudged him that.
I owe my life and freedom to the German officials who leaked a warning of the upcoming purge, to the Danish politicians who quietly spread the word, to all the people who aided in the flight, to the Swedes who so generously gave shelter to my family and so many others, and of course to the efforts of the American and English soldiers -- and to all the Americans and English who worked so hard and paid so much back in their homes. My wife's grandfather, a Captain in the U. S. Corps of Engineers, fought his way from D-Day to Berlin, missing only the Ardennes offensive because he was on Christmas leave. It was a privilege to have known him. (Lord, but the man hated Nazis. I find it hard to blame him.)
This story is very much on my mind these days. I apologise for rambling about it, but I feel better with it out here. Thank you all.

17 September
 I can't believe you forgot the big one...
1859 – Joshua A. Norton contacts the newspapers of San Francisco, California, and declares himself "Norton I, Emperor of the United States."  Mainstream historians would later try to revise history by portraying the Emperor as insane.  But does declaring yourself a ruler without the support of the citizens, religion, military, or other politicians really mean that you are insane?

My wristwatch just texted me to tell me it was time to take a walk.
This is not quite the 21st century I was expecting.

Dude, it was totally on sale, think how much money we saved.  Besides, that jerk, George was sniffing around it. Couldn't let him have it, he was still making a nuisance of himself in the Northwest Territories.
 

Technology is getting damn uppity. Even back when I was a kid I felt that clocks had too much power over our lives. Now they come right out and tell us to take a hike.

Today in future history:
April 3, 2024. I finally perfect my time machine. But due to using artificial diamond in the central unit instead of a real one, I misjump several years back in time and the central unit burns out. To make matters worse, the first time I wait around long enough to attempt to warn myself I arrive just a moment too late. Maybe I will be luckier six years from now.

I'm reserving judgement--this boat has flown so far off the tracks I expected that I want to see where it parks before I calculate the orbit.

I'm reserving judgement--this boat has flown so far off the tracks I expected that I want to see where it parks before I calculate the orbit.

Do they use a different term over there for the thing that measures how many kilometers a car has traveled?  An Elastigirlmeter or a uryuometer or somesuch, perhaps?

You guys are super soldiers, aren't you? A few flurries ought not be a problem for the heroic Dorsai.

I know the feeling. Logistics just told me I couldn't have five fusion powered tanks for mowing my lawn.
In fact, the buggers wanted to know why I would need even one fusion powered tank for mowing my lawn.

The lady on the radio says the snow has stopped.
So this is the Fake News I've been hearing so much about...

Damned REMFs.

In our defense, we were doing fine until Gunny got a paper cut while filling out the requisition for the antimatter snowblower.

The lady on the radio says the snow has stopped.
So this is the Fake News I've been hearing so much about...

The lady on the radio says the snow has stopped.
So this is the Fake News I've been hearing so much about...

The lady on the radio says the snow has stopped.
So this is the Fake News I've been hearing so much about...