More info. As the log in the previous post suggests, the trouble is in the battery applet.
I applied the "Dirty Harry" technique described in the Docky wiki (remove and reset all config info). As long as I don't enable the battery applet, all is fine. So this is clearly an upstream problem. Since I am not a mono/.net programmer (and don't have time to become one), this is as far as I can go.
