C James

Sorry, but any leftover omlettes are now encased in lava, and thus of the extra-crispy variety. Maybe Jerry will invite them aboard his plane for some more home-cooking? True that there is no security at the airport to worry about. The only minor obstacle is The Scar, his henchmen, and the two remaining nukes. What? You don't like Eric being on the FBI's list? but... I was only trying to make him feel wanted. Doublespeak? From poor, innocent me? That route was used when Eric first arrived on the island. The problem is that the volcanic ash is falling there the wind takes it, and the waind is not constantly from the southwest. Sometimes it's from due west, and that carried the ash east, blanketing the area from the southern tip (just north of it) to the airport. That area was hit the hardest. I used the 1976 ashfalls as a guide. The roads there are not quite what they appear on the map. If you use a map-equipped GPS, you'll see that from the resort to the airport takes a half hour less via the tunnel (I have the map set for Europe in my GPS, because I was there a couple of months ago, including on one of the canary islands). The Taxi driver took Eric via the "scenic" route, which is longer, LoL. On a map, it looks easier, but it isn't. I'm basing this on the GPS tomes, and also what a similar appearing road around the west end of Teneriffe, an island about 60 miles away with similar terrain, is like. I drove it, and it took quite some time. Also, once the heavy ash falls began, the road from the southern tip to the airport was closed. The tunnel route keeps you out of the ash until you are much closer to the airport. Bingo. And BTW, now that the nuclear warhead has gone off in the tunnel, no one will be using it anymore. It was asked above where the beach that Brandon and Chase got married on is on the map. It's abotu a mile north of the resort. It's not on this map, but it's called Playa Zamaora.

Neither that logical drive nor that physical drive are a boot drive for any OS. The drive shows as unformatted in one Win2k install, but not the bare-bones one that I checked with (That shows the drive just fine, and accesses the files). What I'm seriously considering doing is going into the other OS, copying the contents of the drive to another physical drive (I've got about half a terabyte of combined HD storage, so no shortage of room) and then letting the OS that wants to format it do so. My backup media seems fine (I did check, but I'm keeping it disconnected for now, just in case this is a virus) but, this way I'd still have two copies. (I've already done the copying). Speaking of Viri... I DL'd the trial of Avast anti-viri and installed it in the other OS. (I mainly use that one for testing software, and as a backup for the primary OS) It found a virus in the root of C: masquerading as an .htm file and the file date was yesterday, the day all this started. I stupidly forgot to write down the virus type. I removed it as part of a full system scan and rebooted, but so far no change to the HD visibility issue, either in the OS that can see it, or the one that can't. No options for "Import media" in windows explorer or any other disk checking program that I have. I don't recall ever seeing that in Win2k. I have a copy of Norton Ghost, but its an old one. I dug around a bit regarding AVG: it looks like I might not have the latest update packs for Win2k. I never allow the automatic updates, and I haven't checked for updates lately, becuase I heard there were no more for 2k as Microsoft had ceased 2k support. THANK YOU very much for replying. I appreciate it.

I've just developed a very perplexing comupter problem; One of my logical hard drives, F, can no longer been seen as formatted by this copy of Windows 2000 However, it's a dual-boot system, and booting into a different copy loads the drive just fine. This copy (my main one) sees Drive F as unformatted. I'm not entirely sure when this occurred, but I had a sudden shut-down (as if the plug had been pulled) earlier today, and noticed it soon after. I also lost some firefox and google toolbar data, and both thought they were new installations. I have a few tools, such as Partition Magic and Norton System Works, but I thought I'd ask for advice before blundering in and trying to fix it. The system is backed up on an external drive (detached, at the moment) so I'm at no risk of data loss, no matter what. What I would prefer to avoid is any OS re-install, as I have tons of installed software and re-installing would take forever. If I do end up doing a re-install, I might install Windows XP instead of 2000 pro, at least on this partition. The "missing" drive is a logical drive. I have five physical hard drives, partitioned into two logical drives per physical one. The other logical drive on that physical drive works just fine. (the are IDE drives, BTW). Second and possibly related question: My AVG anti-virus no longer updates; it stopped a few weeks ago, when a new version came out. It picks up nothing on a scan, but it's not using an updated virus database. It's offering me AVG 8.5, but it won't install, saying it can only work on 2000, XP, and Vista (and I'm on 2000). Anyone know of any other free virus scanners they would recommend?

I don't understand why most states opt in to DST. I very much like not having to reset all the darn clocks twice a year. So many things have clocks in them these days... IMHO, except for perhaps northern states, DST is both useless and a nuisance.

Eric doesn't know that Jim and Linda are dead. That's why he left that sign for them at the resort. You are absolutely right; I should have included a map. The reason I didn't was that, technically, it's a copyright violation. That's why early on I linking, including from some of the chapters, to google maps coordinates. A map would have been far better. I love the one you found, thank you! The tunnel isn't portrayed quite right on that map; it's probably an older map, or just used out of date data. The small tunnel was replaced by the longer, deeper one ( roughly in the same location) in the story about four years ago. The resort is on the coast, near the town of Las Indias, which is on the map. The zig-zag shown on the map between Las Indias and the sea is the one where they saw the rescue convoy coming down. And yes, it was indeed Jerry who saved both Instinct, and the coastline of the entire North Atlantic Basin! I've been hinting at that here in the forum for a while.. By calling Jerry "Poor, Misunderstood Jerry". I used to say that about the character Eric in "For the Love" (not the same Eric as in LTMP or Changing lanes) because, in the end, he saved the day. Fear not, the pool is still.. sort of intact. It's just full of lava. That would be a true disaster for Eric. ROFL!! Okay... now we've seen chapter 46, I can say this; everything required to save Instinct occurred in chapter 45. So, therefor, it cannot be considered a cliffhanger and I think it's time for you to do your froggish duty and Amphibiously Certify Ragnar

ROFL! Yes... that would need a cutting narrative style, I suppose. ROFL!

Hey now, just because you're amphibious is no reason to malign those of us who are not so aquatically inclined. BTW, the reason for this thread (and we do have a volunteer, who can announce himself if he wishes, but I can't without his express okay) who will be helping on the technical side. Helping with what? The next story to appear on my site after Changing Lanes wraps in a few weeks: Circumnavigation. Its an entirely new story, not a sequel to anything, and its in a different style to Changing Lanes. BTW, I will finish Jake first, it's more than half done (It's a short novel by my standards.. about 12 chapters) though my team hasn't seen it yet, but it will initially appear in Premium. I am hopefull that I'll have enough of a backlog of chapters so that my work on Jake won't delay the posting of the start of Circumnavigation, a week after the end of Changing Lanes.

Thank you Eric!!! You're right.. A nuclear blast underground does leave most of the fallout underground, though a little will often leak out (enough for air samples to detect the blast in many cases). It also has a unique seismic signature. As we saw with the blast in Iran earlier in the story, only the secondary reaction in the Uranium Hexeflouride partially masked the siesmic signature there, but it was still discernible as a nuclear event once they knew what to look for. In an earlier chapter, there was an earthquake in Los Angeles. One of the reasons for it was to show that energy release can be measured in kilotons (or megatons, for a big one). That was among the first clues that Cumbre Vieja would be triggered by a nuke (and why I often mentioned Mount Saint Hellens, which had it's major collapse and eruption triggered by a quake). Okay, now that 45 has posted, I can share an issue that I wrestled with since before chapter one, back when I was laying out the overall plot. It was where would Jerry detonate the nuke? At that point, I did not know that the only road tunnel in the world that transects an acive volcano was, oh so conveniently, located on the northern flanks of Cumbre Vieja. (the tunnel, BTW, is quite real). Before I found it, my initial idea was to use one of the famous water tunnels, which I remembered visiting when I was very young. Those are bored into the mountainsides as water sources. I wrongly thought that Cumbre Vieja had some, but then I found out they were only in the north of the island. Ooops. At that point, the only thing I could think of was a geothermal power station (often, the boreholes those use are large, about 18 inches, and a gun-assembly nuke can easily be made that small, though it would have been a stretch for the Iranians to have made one with a narrow diameter for a first-generation weapon). The idea of a geothermal station on the slopes of Cumbre Vieja isn't as far-fetched as it sounds; tere are such station in active volcanic fields in Iceland. One even inadvertently tapped a magma pocket, once. A station was at one time proposed for Cumbre Vieja, so I was thinking of having it in the story, until I blundered on the runnel. I'm glad I did, because the scene were Eric and Jansen on their first date, are driving through with the nukes is one of my favorites.

Goat roasting?!?! ACK! Here I post a nice, calm, relaxing chapter (Ragnar

This is clear proof that other goats should follow my example, and always stay away from high places. King?!?!? But... but... but... I am entirely undeserving of the "King of Cliffhangers" moniker!! Ya'll know I never use cliffhangers.. right?

Steve; hang in there and GET WELL SOON! Thank you for the update. CJ

hey.. how come The Frog gets a defender, and no one sticks up for poor, innocent me when it's BBQ time?

It's cleverly hidden from frogs, in the thread entitled Contest! We could always make an exception in MikeL's case.

I thought it would be fun to have a contest! A few of you felt, for whatever reason, that the situation at the end of Chapter 45, Ragnar

I'm willing to bet that no one can make a good case that the next chapter is unrealistic. BTW, things seem quiet in here.. So, I'll have a contest! The prize? An early look at Changing Lanes 46: "Out of the Frying Pan..."

Unless the nuke was heavily shielded against heat, magma would make it unable to fire within a few seconds. Gun-assembly (Uranium core.. only Uranium can be detonated by assembly, though both Plutonium and Uranium can use an implosion design) is a lot more robust that most designs. Actually, nukes aren't all that fragile in most cases; look at the g-loading they endure during a missile launch and the re-entry. Then there are nuclear artillery shells (being fired from a gun is one hell of a shock) etc. But, the gun=assembly design is the most robust of the two, and that's why it was used in the very first nuclear bunker-busters (earth-penetrator warheads) back in the 50's. The nuke in the tunnel has already gone off, so the magma won't be much of a concern to it. Had the nukes still been in the storage locker and had it been hit by a lava flow, there would have been no nuclear kaboom. CJ

Umm, does the bottom of the ocean count? Speaking of the next chapter... should I post it on schedule, or wait? I think Graeme said something akin to chapter 45 being a nice, calm place with which to begin a restful story hiatus? ACK!! Echidna!! How can it be beyond a cliffhanger, when I never even use cliffhangers? Besides, the cliffs aren't hanging, they are heading for the bottom of the sea. I do recall saying something akin to chapter 45 being a good penultimate chapter for the story; at this point, the story could easily be concluded with a short epilogue; the Scar blasting off in his C-130, flying off into the sunset, while Instinct slides to their watery graves at the bottom of the sea, and the unstoppable tsunamis race out to destroy the entire coastline of the Atlantic basin. But, you said, and I quote, "Cliffhanger? Technically not" and that is pretty clearly a certification of cliffhanger free. And, it is free of cliffhangers! You so often pointed direly at the volcano and claimed that its threat of eruption is a cliffhanger, but now, no more worries, because it's no longer in doubt; the eruption is underway. Fear not! It's not as if I've ever written a story where the antagonist rides off into the sunset with a suitcase full of cash. Hrmmm. I think that's a great term, "A little bump in the path". It goes well with my own prefered description of "Perhaps ever-so-slightly tense..." The Scar is definitely one of my favorite characters. True, he's not a nice guy, but he does have his interesting points. Shot the goat? Awww, who would want to harm poor, innocent me? What? Me? BTW, one huge shortcoming I have as a writer is in estimating just how many chapters it will take to fill in an outline. For example, for a while, until late last fall, I was hopeful that this chapter, Ragnar

I can't stay on line long, due to lightning in the area, but first, I would like to thank MikeL for amphibiously certifying Ragnar

You're right; Brandon and Eric were the closest to Jim and Linda. Ah yes, Mr. Graeme, he of the prickly personality, has certainly caused a few headaches, though he's just part of a power block. The interesting thing there might be how do they change their stance without embarrassing themselves? (Public humiliation is something political types are not fond of). I do need to clear up one thing; my yachting question has absolutely nothing to do with Changing Lanes. It's for a story idea I'm toying with for a new story. Dropping a nuke onto the surface or in the crater of an erupting volcano might not do a lot... it would have to get deep inside to really blow the magma chambers open. But if that happened, what a mess! Thanks for the link. The immediate kill zone for a groundburst in the 20kt range isn't all that far, just a couple of miles or less, depending mainly on terrain. On the other hand, for the volcanic issue, the airport would destroyed within minutes if the full lateral collapse occurred; the tsunamis on the west side would simply wrap around the island. (the airport is right on the edge of the sea, about 20ft above sea level.) I'll also mention that their was a prior chapter with the word "Ragnarök" in it... "Prelude to Ragnarök". In that chapter, we saw the launch of the mission to Iran, and also the awakening of Cumbre Vieja (The final line in the chapter was "And the Earth, awakened, continued to dance...." Now we have 44, "Countdown to Ragnarök". So, now might be a good time to mention the title of chapter 45: "Ragnarok".

You want me a write a cookbook?

I'm not entirely sure, it may be that the current record-holder for the oldest living thing on the planet (a bristlecone called Methusala) is older than the cut one, but there wasn't much in it, and it was mentioned as part of a documentary that I saw years ago. It sounds sadly plausible, though.

That reminds me of the oldest bristlecone pine... I beleive there was one even older than the current record, and they discovered this by counting its rings, shortly after chopping it down (thus killing it). It was almost 5000 years old.

What? Who? Me? But.. it's just a nice, relaxing chapter.

Thank you Edward! The Scar knows that Instinct is working with the General and Felecia; that suspicion is why he came to the island and was at the resort (the reason he was after Instinct was to get the bombs back). He's also heard of Helen's press conference, which confirmed it. There will be a few surprises in store, for all. And, a chapter title announcement; the next chapter is 44, "Countdown to Ragnar

200 posts?!?!? Yep, he's a postaholic!