They specify to soak in hot water for 5 to 8 minutes, but I've been cooking them for 2
minutes, like other such noodles. Too long, I think. Today I cooked for 1½ minutes, and
maybe that's also too long. More experimentation needed.
It's taking its time, but gradually Mona is becoming less timid. She comes out in the evening, when the other animals aren't there,
and gradually she's coming to terms with Bruno, who spent a lot of time following her at a distance:
One of the issues with hydra is that the X configuration is a mess. Part of that is things like font size, and it's a good thing that
I postponed until after my cataract operations: I think I can now choose a significantly smaller text size.
Even the issue with the window decorations is no longer so important, though it's still on
the small size.
The real question is the window
manager. I was quite happy with fvwm2, but X no longer is. And all the instructions say that fvwm3 is
a drop-in replacement, but that's not even close. It makes a complete mess with my
configuration files, but it's too polite to complain.
OK, yes, there are indications that it only accepts one kind of colour definition,
“colorsets”, but so far I haven't found any clear indication of how to convert them. And
then this page goes
on to discuss monitor layout and definitions. I have always had one window manager per
monitor, but it's not even clear whether fvwm3 supports this configuration.
All would be less of a problem if it would at least complain if it finds something that it
doesn't like. But so far it has been completely quiet, and there's no explanation as to why
it doesn't include my terminal definition files.
So despite everything, AAMI claims
have not gone away. Time to prepare for the next step. They really have nothing to go on.
To summarize:
On 18 October 2022 I backed into Helen Miller's car, which she had parked in the
blind spot outside the garage. Contact was (plastic) bumper to (plastic) bumper.
Damage was non-existent, but Helen claimed to see something. All I have is this photo
of the bumper on my car, where it connected with her bumper:
The same evening, Helen asked Yvonne for the registration
number of my car. She didn't mention the incident to me at all, although I saw her a
number of times.
On 18 November 2022 I received two apparently identical letters from AAMI, claiming that I had damaged Helen's
car. No explanation of the damage. Helen was there at the time, so I asked her about
it. She said “you're insured, right, so the insurers pay”. I wanted to examine the
alleged damage more carefully, but she refused to let me, and she also refused to let me
take photos, though I got a couple as she was driving off. I replied to AAMI denying
liability and asking for evidence, to which I received no reply.
On 3 April 2023 I received another letter from AAMI, enclosing an invoice for
replacing the the rear bumper. No reference to my letter of 8 November. I replied
again reminding them of the letter and asking for proof of my liability.
On 17 April 2024, after 4 reminders, I received a reply from AAMI claiming to have
tried to call me on a different number from the one I gave them. They included a total
of 18 images, all with missing Exif data, and without comment. At least half of them were unrelated to the
incident. Some showed minor damage to the rear of the car. I replied reminding me of
the phone number and asking for correct photos and a description of what damage was
done.
On 27 April 2023 I received another email, again claiming to have tried the wrong
phone number, and supplying no further information. I replied reminding them that they
had the correct number on record.
After that, silence for almost exactly a year. The message was so badly written that at first I thought
it was spam. I replied asking them to answer my outstanding questions.
On 23 April 2024 I received an email with two screen shots: a Facebook page showing where Yvonne gave her the registration number of my car, and a partial
display of my initial diary entry on the subject, the one where I wrote “Sorry, Helen, I didn't
do any damage. If you want me to pay, get proof”. And that, they say, proves that I am
to blame.
Are there any clues in the photos AAMI sent me on 17 April 2023? Many are clearly not related, and there are photos of the back of the
car that look perfectly normal:
That's strange on a plastic bumper. But how could it have come from the incident? My
bumper is convex, and it couldn't have caused a scratch like that, especially not in concave
parts of her bumper.
The one on the left looks more like an indentation from a pointed object. So there were
really two separate scratches on the bumper, one on each side. There's no way I could have
caused even one of them, and absolutely no way that I could have caused both. For me the
case is clear: Helen is trying to get me to pay for damage done by somebody else, probably
in a car park. There's no way she could convince anybody with a brain of that.
Spent a lot of time reading documentation for fvwm, without coming to any real
conclusion. It does seem that I can have one window manager per screen, but clearly there's
a question as to whether I want to. It seems that the -v option might give me more
insights into what fvwm3 doesn't like about my configuration file, though.
They've changed the location of Ports Collection man pages, and I didn't find out. But then
the references to Bitkeeper date to my time at MySQL, over 17
years ago.
The good news is that she doesn't go into hiding any more when the dogs go past.
This page contains (roughly) yesterday's and today's entries. I have
a horror of reverse chronological documents, so
all my diary entries are chronological. This page normally contains the last two days,
but if I fall behind it may contain more. You can find older entries in
the archive. Note that I often update a diary entry
a day or two after I write it.
Do you have a comment about something I have written? This is a diary, not a
“blog”, and there is
deliberately no provision for directly adding comments. It's also not a vehicle
for third-party content. But I welcome feedback and try to
reply to all messages I receive. See the diary overview for more details. If you do
send me a message relating to something I have written, please indicate
whether you'd prefer me not to mention your name. Otherwise
I'll assume that it's OK to do so.
