Never Yet Melted has been out of service since yesterday as the result of a type of database error which seems to strike about three times a year. I can usually fix this error quite easily, but every now and then the easy fix will not work, and repairs are more difficult.

We have some planned inprovements which, we hope, will eliminate these kinds of lengthy outages in future. But, you know how it is….

I should know better. Anonymity of the original source is always a dead giveaway that the item is a hoax.

Some alert classmates spotted yesterday’s “Denver vs. New Orleans” as hoax email which has appeared in several variant forms, and which is recorded on Snopes.

The moral is that one should always take the time to investigate these things, no matter how agreeable to one’s own prejudices and preconceptions a particular item may be. I get the dunce cap for today.

Hat tips, kudos, and thanks to Rodger Kamenetz and Stephen Frankel for the correction.

We slept at our new house for the first time last night. My satellite Internet has been installed. I’ve got my PC set up. It is pouring rain, and we’re waiting for the second moving truck to get pulled out of the mire, so that they can deliver about 500 more boxes of books.

We’re located on the first ridge of the Blue Ridge mountains at the western edge of Loudoun County in Virginia. Trees block most of the view, but you can see Virginia to the East, and the Shenandoah Valley in West Virginia from even the first floor.

It’s today that the workmen come to drill a hole in the rock ledge of the mountaintop for that satellite Internet antenna.

We did visit the new house yesterday. It’s perched on the first ridge of the Appalachians. The mountaintop is quite narrow, and one can see into both Virginia and West Virginia even from the first floor of the house. It was cold up there. We are going to get snowed in for sure this winter.

The previous owners left us a John Deere lawn tractor with a snow plow attachment. But there are two problems: I have no idea how to attach it, and I can see no way to get that tractor with plow attached through either of two fence gates into the driveway to plow.

We have arrived in Virginia, but are currently camped out at a hotel near Washington, awaiting the arrival of the movers later this week. Blogging will be sparse for a few days, as the hotel wireless connection is not entirely reliable, and there are many errands.

A work crew arrives tomorrow AM at our Blue Ridge house to drill a base in the ledge rock for our satellite Internet antenna.

We have left our California house, and are currently camped at a hotel, preparing to depart very early tomorrow for Virginia. I will be away from my keyboard after this evening until late tomorrow.

They’re loading the trucks. I still have a PC, and have not yet moved to a hotel. We fly east Saturday. When we arrive, we’ll be camping in a hotel for about a week while the moving vans cross the continent.

I may lose my PC later today, and have to work on a laptop.

It’s awful moving, but at least I don’t have to pay attention to the election results right now.

Heavy packing day today. Movers arrive to pack books tomorrow. Our plane leaves next Saturday. I’ll be working from a hotel for several days after our arrival, waiting for the moving vans to cross the continent.

Postings will be a bit lighter than usual for the next two weeks, as we are packing in preparation for a move from the Bay area of California to Loudoun County, Virginia. I will share more details of our schedule later.

I’ve never actually lived south of the Mason-Dixon line before. I grew up in Pennsylvania, attended college and resided for many years in Connecticut. It will be nice to move to a red state for a change.

The Never Yet Melted Blog was started October 29, 2005. Current statistics are: a total of 1800 posts, visitors from 176 countries, more than 26,000 unique visitors this month, and 800 blog links (by Technorati’s count). Our thanks to the many generous bloggers who linked our new and obscure effort, and to all our readers around the world.

I was obliged to restore the databases to a point a couple of days back. I will have to put two days’ postings back manually. Operations will thereafter, hopefully, return to normal.

Thank you for your patience.