A Test

This is only a test. Had this been a real blog entry, it would have tried to make sense.

Impatient for the Growing Season

Most springs, the daffodils surprise me, but this year, I've been waiting for them.

The potatoes in the kitchen are also anxious to get the garden started.

Lilac Leaves

Non-native plants continue to lead the charge into spring. These lilac leaves may get frostbitten, but they've popped open their bud scales anyway.

Coltsfoot on the Equinox

I've been dragging around the yard for the last month, looking for some hint of Spring from the plant kingdom, but the native plants are sensible and still hold their buds shut tight. However, my non-native plant buddies are less cautious. Coltsfoot is finally popping through the leaf litter, several weeks later than it usually appears.

Let's Have Another

The puppy is quoted as saying "Let's have another." The postcard's sender, "Agnes" (I think that would have been Agnes Moore, my grandmother's school chum, but her family was full of women named Agnes--when Grandma had her first child, she named her Agnes (my mother) in honor of a whole crowd.

The message reads: Hello there. How are you? I'm just fine and Busy. Libby came Saturday & started to work in store on Monday. (Agnes) The postmark is "Iowa City, April 1, 1911."

Happy St. Patrick's Day, 1909

Evidently snail mail did not always have better punctuation and sentence structure than we find in Internet-based communication. Des Moines, Iowa, March 17, 1909. Dear Friend Florence, I thought i would write you a few lines to let you know how we are we are all well and hope these few lines will find you all the same. From Al 1238 33

St. Patrick's Day Greetings--Printed in Saxony

This postcard may have seemed too fragile for the Post Office, or maybe someone bought it and never could decide what to say. This lets us read more easily the printing on the back. Like most of Florence Williamson's postcard collection, this St. Patrick's day greeting was printed in Germany.

Everything Is Looking Just Fine

More cards from Florence Williamson's "Souvenir Postcards" album.

The Top of the Mornin'
To you, My Dear
May the Good Saint bring
You Luck this Year!

On the back it reads Dear Florence, It was just a year ago today that we were all at your place having a jolly good time. I expect everything is looking just fine--from E. C. Postmark is St. Paul, Minn, March 13, 1909

Bill O'Reilly Confused About Appalachia

State politics blog West Virginia Blue informed me last month that "Bill O'Reilly Hates You." Now, I already knew that Bill O'Reilly hates me, as a woman, and as a person with more learnin' than him, but I was quite surprised that he hates Appalachians. (I'm not pretending to be an Appalachian--I'm an Iowa farm girl, and wouldn't dream of putting on airs. Still, I feel offended on their behalf, and on behalf of all put-down rural people.) I thought that my neighbors were part of "Real America," and that they had Bill's approval. I know a majority of West Virginians voted for George W. Bush twice, and many of them watch Fox News regularly. Turns out, Bill runs with the inbred, toothless, drunken hillbilly story, (just like the Yankee newspapers did in Hatfield and McCoy days!) and thinks Appalachians should all leave home for Miami.

I think Bill may be a little confused about Appalachia's geographical identity. Living in New York City as he does, he's probably confusing it with "The South." Or perhaps he doesn't know about the "Hillbilly Highway."

The bona fide Appalachian member of our household believes that negative stereotypes should be encouraged, as they serve to discourage annoying tourists and the sort of people who move here and want to make it like the place they moved away from. He only regrets that Bill didn't go for "inbred hillbilly cannibals," as seen in Wrong Turn.

For a serious response to Bill's nasty rant, see Betty Cloer Wallace's essay on Dave Tabler's excellent blog, Appalachian History. She is eloquent, but I have mixed feelings about campaigns against "hillbilly" stereotypes because I believe the real problem is a matter of social class, not ethnicity. Poor whites are especially hated by the well-to-do classes because their existence reminds the wealthy that privilege can be lost--it could happen to them. Believing that poverty is "their problem," because of some racial, ethnic, or regional identity keeps that fear at bay. I expect this sort of labeling to get worse with increasing fears of hard economic times.

Marcellus Shale Developments

The Marcellus shale natural gas extraction business has made the news in West Virginia lately. One company has decided not to build a regional corporate headquarters here after all, while local and state government are moving toward regulation of hydrofracture extraction's use of water resources.

Chesapeake takes parting shot by George Hohmann Charleston Daily Mail Business Editor

Chesapeake Energy Corp. on Thursday not only announced it will downsize its Charleston office, it sent the state a stinging message: West Virginia's legal system hurts business. The company said the jobs of 215 of its Charleston-based employees will either be moved to Oklahoma City or eliminated in the reorganization.

Chesapeake co-founder and CEO Aubrey McClendon said in a prepared statement that downsizing the Charleston office from a regional corporate headquarters to a regional field office follows an operational model Chesapeake has used successfully elsewhere....Then he took a parting shot at West Virginia's legal system.

It was just four years ago that Chesapeake made its presence known in the Mountain State in a huge way. In 2005, it bought Columbia Natural Resources for $2.2 billion cash. The deal instantly made Oklahoma-based Chesapeake the largest natural gas exploration and production company in West Virginia.

Little noticed at the time was the fact that Chesapeake inherited a role as defendant in a class-action lawsuit known as the Tawney case. The lawsuit charged Columbia Natural Resources and NiSource Inc. with cheating landowners. In early 2007 a Roane County jury said the companies should pay $134.3 million in allegedly unpaid gas royalties to landowners plus $270 million in punitive damages....

In October, McClendon was forced to sell 33.4 million shares of Chesapeake - essentially all his stock in the company - to meet a margin call in a $570 million fire sale.

Chesapeake's Appalachian Basin operations stretch from the Finger Lakes region of western New York to central Alabama. Chesapeake is one of several oil and gas companies drilling in West Virginia's underground Marcellus Shale reserves.

Chesapeake's stock plunged from a high of $74 last summer to a five-year low of $9.84 in early December. The company's shares were trading at $16.32 Thursday....

Last week, a New York law firm filed a class-action lawsuit against Chesapeake, alleging that company officials violated federal securities laws by issuing false and misleading statements about Chesapeake's business activities and finances.

This cancellation of regional corporate headquarters does not mean that Chesapeake will give up its existing natural gas extraction sites, or quit buying ad developing leases in West Virginia, as some people around here have speculated. Their operation in Jane Lew, along Interstate 79, is hiring now. Here are a couple more analyses of the court verdict, the unsuccessful appeal, and its putative effect on the natural gas industry in West Virginia:

• Chesapeake slashes 215 jobs--Company blames natural gas slump, court decision
• Hoppy's Commentary on Chesapeake by Talkline Host Hoppy Kercheval

A "Marcellus Shale water pollution control" bill was introduced last week: West Viginia Legislature House Daily Journal for March 5, 2009:

H. B. 2960 - "A Bill to amend and reenact §22-11-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to water pollution control; and requiring the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to develop specific standards to control levels of total dissolved solids in the state's rivers and streams"; to the Committee on Government Organization then the Judiciary.

By Delegates Fleischauer, Manypenny, Marshall, Mahan, Doyle, Martin, Beach, Shook, Lawrence, Longstreth and Hatfield

Last month saw some local government action, described in this article: Morgantown City Council Passes Marcellus Shale Resolution by John Christensen, WVEC Lobbyist.

In order to express major concern over the possible hazards to water supplies due to drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale, the Morgantown City Council adopted a comprehensive resolution calling for the Legislature to adopt stricter standards and "emergency measures" to prevent water contamination resulting from that activity. The resolution also asks for the Legislature "to petition Congressional leaders to amend the (2004) federal Safe Drinking Water Act" which "exempts hazardous chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing--even diesel fuel--from limitation."

...The three page resolution addressed the hazards of the 300-odd chemical compounds used in the fracturing process developed by the Halliburton Corporation in which a pressurized brine solution is injected along with one to six million gallons of water for each well to explain their heightened response for safety....

WVEC Green Legislative Update tracks West Virginia state legislation on environmental and energy issues.

Lichens and Linux

This handsome lichen was really catching the light on a sumac branch yesterday.

My Linux machine gave up on Friday (all indications point to a fried CPU, so I'm afraid it's "terminal"), and I'm having to use iPhoto to browse my digital photos. I had thought it was simply my unwillingness to learn something new, but after this experience, I am quite sure the Linux KDE Desktop "DigiKam" photo management software is far superior to the program that ships with Mac OS X. I understand that a port of Digikam to Mac is in the works, and when (if) that happens, I'll be putting it on any Macs I use regularly.

Buds Shut Tight

Last week, all the budscales were still clamped shut. Perhaps a few days like today will persuade them to relax just a little. I believe this understory tree is hop hornbeam, although it grows in a forest-edge thicket so entwined with blue beech trees that I'm not sure where one individual ends and another begins. I hope we get better acquainted this spring.

These bright red bud scales are hawthorn, given to showy displays no matter the season.

Plunging Head First Into the Twentieth Century

Last week, we tried to enter the twenty-first century. We hadn't wanted to rush into it, but it does look like it might take off. Because I'm teaching college courses in Beckley one day a week and driving home late at night on deserted roads, we decided to get a cell phone for emergencies. There's no cell service here on Droop, but people in Marlinton seem to use them, and every single shopper in the Lewisburg Wal-mart is talking to some ethereal presence, rather than watching where she's pushing that cart. Surely a prepaid cell phone (like the ones the hitmen are always using on the TV police dramas) would be a good idea.

We bought the recommended model in Marlinton, and brought it home, only to discover it had no battery. So we went back to the store and exchanged it. The second phone charged successfully, but it failed half-way through activation. We drove all over Marlinton, the south side of Droop Mountain, and all the way to Frankford, where we got a strong signal, but the phone still wouldn't activate. The nice young tech support man (in the Philippines, I think) was very apologetic, but unable to help. I'll be taking the phone back on Friday.

Today, I ordered the The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual, which, I am assured, is All you need to become an Amateur Radio Operator. Our neighbors are long-time ham radio operators, and keep one in their car for emergencies. The AARL (American Radio Relay League) was founded in 1914. Clearly, we are plunging headfirst into a new century. We're just a little confused about which one.

Haw Thorns

The birds have picked the hawthorn fruits, and there's just this thicket of thorns left.

A closer look shows bright red bud scales, and a certain elegance in the thorns themselves.

Lichens on Plum Bark

I was looking for some color last week, one grey February afternoon. The wild plum bushes out at the end of the ridge kindly obliged.

High-Tech Misery

Last week, I bought a new computer keyboard for my Mac Mini. The one I'd been using was seven years old with keys producing letters part-time only. As it happens, I have a stockpile of my favorite ergonomic keyboards, two rescued from the trash, the third (at which I type this) still working like new after 11 years. Unfortunately, my old favorites have PS/2 connectors, and the Mac requires a USB connector. My usual online computer stores had so many different keyboards at so many different prices I couldn't make a decision, so instead I made a trip to Wal-Mart, and bought one off the shelf. Problem solved.

The next day, via /. (Slashdot), I found an article from The National Labor Committee, entitled High Tech Misery in China: The Dehumanization of Young Workers Producing Our Computer Keyboards. I knew wages, hours, and conditions were bad in Chinese factories, but this report describes something worse than prison labor. Sadly, the young women ruining their health making keyboards are glad to be working, given the many factory closings in other industries.

Here's the "forward" to the article, contrasting my pleasure in a new, smooth-functioning keyboard with the misery of the young woman who assembled it.

"I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tools we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user....The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow."

--Bill Gates

"We feel like we are serving prison sentences."

--Meitai factory worker making Microsoft keyboards

Etch to Lenny, Without Much of a Hitch

Yesterday I decided to take the plunge, upgrading my Debian Linux machine from Etch (old stable) to Lenny (new stable.) All reports said this would go seamlessly, and that I would be delighted with the new and improved versions of all my software favorites. My past transitions (from Woody to Sarge, from Sarge to Etch) resulted in complete upgrade failure, requiring that I install from scratch and retrieve my precious data from my prudent backup locations. (I'm careful, but I always loose something, and it's time-consuming to copy all those backed-up data files.)

This time, cutting edge Debian users promised, everything would work! Of course, I made sure my data were backed up, then I edited my /etc/apt/sources.list, replacing "etch" with "lenny," and told my machine (ladymacbeth), aptitude update and aptitude dist-upgrade and waited for the fun to commence.

Unfortunately, the downloading of new packages got slower and slower....hours passed as the files crawled in at 12 kB per second. "Hmmm..." I told myself. "The Debian servers must be very busy, the day after the new release." At five this morning, the upgrade had failed, with half the files still not downloaded. I called my ISP (my unhelpful phone company), and, to my surprise found a helpful and pleasant fellow who told me about their server failures, and gave me an estimated time when I could expect the return of connectivity.

Promptly at 8 AM, I restarted the download, with speeds approaching 400 kB per second. I must have been the only user sucking down bandwidth. It's back to a more stately 130 kB per second this evening.

Anticlimactically, I was able to finish the download and installation, and I've got a new, improved operating system, with all my old settings, preferences, and data. So, although the Debian installation process worked as promised, fate, in the guise of my service provider, provided the hitch installation did not come off without.

One problem with Etch AMD64 was its lack of flash plugins. While I had a workaround solution, it worked erratically, if at all. Lenny lets you run a flash plugin (if the non-free nature of it doesn't offend your open source sensibilities.) The instructions are posted at Download Page for flashplugin-nonfree_2.5_amd64.deb on AMD64 machines. It totally works!

To My True Valentine, 1911

"To My True Valentine," postmarked St. Paul, Minn., Feb 13, 1911. "Dear Florence, I received your letter some time ago, and I am going to write to you soon. I have been having lots of fun this winter skating and sledding. Your friend, Elsie C."

Here's To Love

"Here's to Love, The Only Fire Against Which There Is No Insurance." This one's addressed to Miss Florence Williamson, Williamson, Iowa, December 1, 1906. The Williamson post office was probably located in her uncles' store, the chief attraction of Williamson, Iowa. If you Look at the fancy "Post Card" stamp, you can see another postmark. I can read ...1896, MO." It looks as though this postcard was reused, so you see I come from frugal stock.

Happy Abe Lincoln's Birthday, 1909

In 1909, my grandma's friend Elsie sent an Abe Lincoln's Birthday card. Her message (from Des Moines) reads: "How are you? There are many measle sign around here. It snowed here last night. We are going to have a Valentine box on Valentine's Day I think. Your friend, Elsie W."

Sorry, no Charles Darwin postcards in Miss Williamson's album.