I've changed the title back to "I Don't Understand", now that it's available again. It's more appropriate (although "I Don't Approve!" might be even better).
(Note: The number in the post title is a sequence number, having nothing to do with contents.)
(A bit of trivia: Duct tape is, in fact, not suitable for taping ducts, except perhaps on the outside of insulation around the duct. Temperature extremes will destroy the glue.)
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I'm going to Rakkasah Spring Caravan today. I do not plan to buy anything beyond an entrance ticket and food. We'll see how well I can hold to that.
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Love is the only game you are sure to lose by declining to play.
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The past two days, Daughter and Nugget have come over while I was on the porch with my post-breakfast cigarette. Daughter says Nugget sees me from the window, yells "Amma! Amma! Amma!" (Gramma!), jumps up and down and waves her arms and makes it clear she wants to come over. If the window's open, I hear her.
Daughter escorts her across the street, and Nugget is all smiles.
But I suspect it's not "Amma" she's so excited about.
I meet them on the porch in front of the door. I get a quick hug from the Nugget, and then she reaches toward the door, turning her wrist. She wants the door opened.
I suspect she's madly in love with my house.
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Another blogger (RockyCat) was recently distressed by a Craigslist ad she'd found, advertising kittens ready for adoption. The ad was full of typos and misspelled words. It was pitiful. Rocky was sickened by it. (Here.)
I didn't comment because I had to think about it a bit, and now my thoughts are too long for a comment.
Yeah, the failure of American schooling? But maybe English isn't her native language? On the other hand, if one makes the necessary spelling corrections, the ad was rather well composed with all the necessary information, which these days is something unexpected and to be admired.
My thoughts eventually led to Jay's perfectionism. He'd blow deadline after deadline making sure that some piece of code was perfect. He wasn't satisfied unless it was as tight as it could be, as small as it could be, as fast as it could be, as efficient as it could be, and still handle every possibility, even those never considered by the product design. He'd fiddle and fiddle. He wouldn't let go until it was absolutely perfect. And to do this, he'd blow his own deadlines, the deadlines of everyone down the line who depended on his piece, the product announce and delivery dates, and lose the market advantage. And then (pure Asperger) he didn't understand why everyone was mad at him. "It's perfect! I couldn't release something that wasn't perfect!"
I had to watch over him. I had to be aware of his target dates. And as they approached, I'd have to hold his hand, look him in the eye, and say, over and over, "Good enough is good enough. What are the written requirements? Does it meet requirements? Yes? Then it's good enough. Maybe it's not perfect, but it doesn't need to be. You can update it later. Good enough is good enough."
So, back to the Craigslist ad.
I hate to admit this, but it's good enough. The reader has no great difficulty understanding what it's saying, and it conveyed all the information. (I had a bit of difficulty with "they are verry qute", reading it first as "quiet" until "cute" dawned on me.) The reader isn't left with a lot of respect for the educational level of the writer, but that wasn't a requirement for an ad of this type.
In this case, it was good enough.
It hurts to say that.
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The writings that upset and scare me most the ones I can't read, or can't understand, because they're full of text-speak or acronyms or "urban-defined" words, or when the writer has chosen the wrong word (decimate/devastate)(problematic/a problem)(loan/lend)(lose/loose)(its/it's), or the wrong homonym (to/too)(site/sight), or something like incident/incidents/incidence, or horror of all horrors, incidences, which isn't even a word at all. The kind of thing that LOOKS like it should be read literally but creates the wrong picture in my mind when read literally, and I have to back up and attempt to figure out what they REALLY meant, which sometimes isn't possible. I mean, if we could read minds, why write at all?
Those are the errors that have me blowing stream, especially when made by "professional" writers.
(E.G. - I was reading a post about an acquaintance's hiking trip a few days ago, wherein he mentioned "a beautiful site" he'd seen. I stopped and frowned. I thought I'd missed the part where he'd said he was looking to purchase some real estate in the mountains. When I realized it was HIS error, I was pissed at him.)
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In my March 26 post, I asked if any rich or famous people had died waiting for a transplant - name one. (See also this post for the explanation as to why rich people rarely wait too long). A commenter pointed out that Robert Goulet had died waiting for a lung. I just found out that he died exactly one month after a diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He very likely wasn't strong enough for transplant within two or three weeks of the diagnosis, and didn't have the time or strength to travel to get on more than one or two lists, so ... I don't think that counts. My challenge stands.
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Contrary to the advice I give others, I almost adopted another stray cat last week.
Three days in a row a young, probably no more than 5 months old, unaltered male tabby visited my front porch. He was absolutely beautiful! A rich reddish gold and cream swirl-type tabby with enormous dark gold eyes that matched his coat perfectly. Pink nose. He was very friendly, allowed petting, and he was very very thin. His little waistline was pinched. Otherwise looked healthy. No collar.
I offered him some dry food, and he gobbled it up. Three days in a row he visited briefly in mid-afternoon, ate some kibble, sat with me on the glider while I read, and then went off to explore. I seriously considered adopting him as a strictly outdoor kitty. I was planning his vet visit and collar color and tag info and everything.
On the fourth day I saw some young teen girls walking up the road. One of them was carrying MY cat. He now had a collar on. He seemed perfectly happy, rubbing his cheek on her neck.
Saved by the belle.
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My back is still complaining, but not at all like over the weekend. I can sit, stand, and walk just fine, but I get warnings when I lift things or bend wrong. It'll be ok.
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I hate when you're watching a movie on TV, and you have to jack up the volume to 50 to be able to hear it, and then a commercial comes on and the blast sets off the car alarm in the garage.
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I went up river this past week. I put a lot of heavy stuff in the van on Wednesday, small pieces of furniture and boxes of papers and books. I was a little worried about the effects on my back of wrestling it all out of the old house, but Thursday and Friday my back was fine. So Friday I made dozens of trips up and down stairs carrying loads of stuff. Friday evening my back went out. I am now wearing the brace off and on, and walking all twisted into a corkscrew.
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Daughter and Hercules have set up a measuring board in their kitchen. Heights of Mommy, Daddy, Gramma, and the Nugget are now marked on it.
For much of my early adult life I'd been 4' 11". A decade or two ago I went to 4' 10", and until yesterday that's what I always wrote on forms. I am now a hair under 4' 9". Under!
That's downright scary. I've lost more than two inches since my early 40s, and I've never had that many to spare. I think I've lost the latest inch just in the past two years, because suddenly things I had hemmed not all that long ago are too long. Slacks seem to be unaffected, but dresses and caftans are dragging on the ground, which would indicate I've got spinal compression in progress. (Yes, I do stand straight. I have to, to protect my back.)
This is not cool.
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There's not a single cloud in the sky today. A most incredible blue. A half-moon is visible directly opposite the sun. I wish I could enjoy it. Mostly I'm standing in a hot shower, the massage setting directed on my lower back, or lying on the floor.
It's weird, but if I consciously tell myself to relax my back, I can move easily and the pain lessens. As soon as I forget, it clenches up and hurts. I guess the medical community refers to that as guarding.
When did "convo" become a verb? A transitive one, at that? "Convo me if you're interested in my product."
Yes, I understand it includes call, text, and email, but doesn't "contact" work as well? In fact, "contact" implies that you are to initiate the conversation. What meaning does "convo" add that "contact" doesn't already have?
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Barbara Kingsolver's character Adah in The Poisonwood Bible points out that God created vermin and microbes as well as humans, and "He's not necessarily rooting for just the humans."
Hair cut: Week 1 - much too short Week 2 - too short Week 3 - too short Week 4 - a little too short Week 5 - almost right Week 6 - PERFECT! Week 7 - too long, unruly, can't do a thing with it, aaaaggghh!
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On Saturday morning we awoke to fog. And voices. And the boom of feet on boards. When I went out, this is what I saw:
There were thousands of them, and they kept passing for hours. They were running from Asbury Park (next town to the north) to a few miles south, then back again, and then turned around and did it several more times. Some were running a 5K, some were running a half marathon. Some were running alone, some were running as teams, some were passing a baton to team members at each end (relay?). Some people were still running at 1 pm.
I wanted to stick a number on the Nugget and take her for a walk on the boardwalk. That would have been funny.
The fog cleared, and it turned into a nice but windy day. I stayed at the hotel while Nugget took her midday nap and her parents went window shopping. Nugget woke up before they got back, so she and I snuck out to the beach. It was Nugget's first sand.
We walked down the stairs from the boardwalk to the sand, and she took three barefoot steps on the sand, was surprised by the texture, plopped down, and checked it out. She was fascinated by how she couldn't hold a handful. The way it blew away as it sifted through her fist. The way it was so easy to dig in it. The way you could bury your feet by kicking them, and then find them again.
She found a flattish piece of shell and dug with that. Buried it. Dug it up again.
The wind was helpful. I turned her with her back to the wind, and the wind kept the sand out of her face.
We were still sitting there when Daughter and Hercules returned to the hotel, found us gone, and called my cell in a panic. They came down, we played a little more, Nugget demonstrated the special properties of sand for them, and then they decided to carry her to the water.
The waves are really far from the boardwalk. I declined to walk that far on soft sand, so they went without me. They returned pretty quickly, actually, with Nugget half naked wrapped in a jacket, and Daughter looking panicked.
When they got to the wet sand, easier to walk on, they had set the Nugget down. She hit the ground running and was waist deep in a wave before they caught her. Cold cold water, wind.
Back at the hotel Hercules and the Nugget found a cabinet in the lobby filled with ancient board games. Nugget's favorites were the dominoes and the playing cards.
We left Sunday about 11:30 am, and I was home by noon.
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Nugget's friend Sky had visited for the birthday party, and earlier Saturday a little girl named Rain had come into the lobby with her parents. Sky and Rain?** I feel like I have to make it clear that "Nugget" is not my granddaughter's name. Her name is a respectable old name.
** That might actually be Skye and Rayne or whatever fancified spelling. Same thing....
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Daughter, Hercules, Nugget and I all spent the weekend at a shore-front B&B in Ocean Grove. The original plan was for a big family gathering on Saturday to celebrate the Nugget's first birthday (which is actually this coming Thursday), but no other family members accepted the invitation. Sheesh. Nugget's little playmate Sky and Sky's parents came, and that was ok.
Daughter didn't get a cake for Nugget - she got a custard & fruit pie - and given the Nugget's speed at grabbing we didn't use candles. But there were balloons!
In the photo above, she already has two big strawberries in her mouth and is reaching for more.
Nugget actually ate half that pie! There was a second pie for the adults. (The t-shirt says "Nobody puts Baby in a corner".)
Balloons! Nugget moves so fast these days it's difficult to get a still photo when she's on her feet.
The above is the hotel as seen from the boardwalk in the Saturday morning fog. My room was second floor left.
The above is the view from my room's porch, on Friday evening. Yeah, it needs editing, but no time right now.
Hmmm. I just tried to upload a second video (a more interesting one) showing what I woke up to on Saturday morning, but when I click on the "Upload a video" button now, it just sits and stares at me. I have to leave for dance class in a few minutes (yeah, Gypsy, it's BD, but again I'm not really dancing, just exercising), so I'll have to try again in a later post.
Stories are simple sequences of events, plots are about causes, motivation ..., what stories mean. ...life is all stories, and fiction is all plots..... -- Peter Ho Davies --
Well, I am only a little stiff today. A little bit of pain down the left hip and thigh. I put the brace on anyway, just to make sure. So far, so good.
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My floors are gross. I haven't swept or vacuumed in ages, and there are crushed leaves, dirt, and cat hair everywhere. I passionately hate vacuuming. The weight. The dragging and controlling of the cord. I purposely rejected carpeting in the new house so it would be easier to keep the floors and stairs clean, but, uh, I hate sweeping, too. The bits escaping, the dust flying, the trying to corral it all. The moving of things in the way.
I bought two vacuum cleaners for this house so I wouldn't have to carry any up and down stairs. But the flipping things are heavy to use. I prefer canisters, because the weight stays on the floor and the head is light, but good canisters are next to impossible to find these days. So I got bagless uprights. I hate them. Being short, I hold the handle lower than most people, which puts the entire weight of the mechanism on my arm, and then moving it out and back strains my lower back. Hate, hate, hate!
So I got the Roombas, one for each floor. But there are a lot of table and chair legs the Roomba can't get between, and the floor is cluttered with cat and toddler toys that I have to pick up first, plus the cat's food tray, and curtains that touch the floor, and shoes under the bed with shoelaces that the Roombas like to eat, and, and, and, and it's a LOT of work for not such a great job (Roomba's exhaust tends to blow dirt, especially cat hair, sideways onto tracks it's already cleaned). I haven't turned them loose in months.
Sigh.
I hate it all.
I looked at the floors today and thought, "I've GOT to do something, now!"
So, I bought (online) a rechargeable vacuum stick. It's lightweight, no cord. We used to call them electric brooms. It's a Eureka, so it should be adequate. With its ten inch wide head it should be easy to maneuver around stuff. No bag.
I don't know how long it will take to get here, but nothing will be done with the floors until it arrives.
Alan Greenspan, to Congress: I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
It got into the low 80s F today. I don't know what to think of that.
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The following is lifted from Field (http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2012/04/mole.html). He always has interesting observations, and tidbits I find nowhere else. He's worth a visit (but, as per my previous post, don't read past the first one or two comments. He gets some insane trolls, which is unfortunate, because buried in the dross are some real insights. I wish he'd monitor comments, but, I guess he has a life....)
Finally, I have to have a last word about Flipper and this mommygate controversy.
“I wanted to increase the work requirement,” Romney said. “I said, for instance, that even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that's heartless,' and I said ‘No, no, I'm willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. It'll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.’”[Source]
So, in essence, what he is saying is that there is no "dignity" in being a stay at home mother.
Well, actually Romney was talking about welfare mothers, and I think he's implying that there is more dignity in supporting your children yourself than in allowing the government to do it. But the statement was ripe for the same misinterpretation as last week's "never worked a day", but it didn't happen. Nobody from the opposition said anything about his implication that there's no dignity in raising children.
Why?
I don't understand.
By the way, he's accused of "flipping". Why is that bad? I actually prefer people who are willing to change their position based on changing circumstances and new information. I wouldn't want someone in power who is so bullheaded and so convinced that he's right, and so afraid of looking wishy-washy, that he refuses to listen to arguments, won't change his mind.
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I make my oatmeal with water. I don't use any milk with it because mostly I don't have milk in the house because I don't use it up fast enough. But I like milk with oatmeal.
This morning I was eying the instant Irish oatmeal and the low-fat plain yogurt, wondering which to have for breakfast, and I had this great idea!
Yup.
Don't.
The taste and smell is indescribable, having nothing of either oatmeal nor yogurt. Gag-worthy.
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The Nugget is now walking (well, running). No more crawling. Talking is a bit slower. She occasionally says something quite clearly, but one is never quite sure, because she's talking to herself.
She has had a relationship with music since birth. She has lots of toys that play music, and she always dances when she hears music. As an infant, dancing was kicking and waving arms in rhythm. Then it was rocking on her hands and knees, or bouncing while sitting. Now she bounces standing. It's amazing. Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" is a favorite, and when her toy cell phone played it today, when it was over, she very clearly said "Eee-iii-eee-iii-ooo".
She'll be a year old next week.
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I went to the first session of a dance class this evening. I have no flexibility left anywhere! Nothing was working except my wrists. I'm afraid I may have exceeded my capacity - won't know until tomorrow. I took aspirin as soon as I got home to head off swelling around my lower back. We'll see.
How come anyone can be ruthless, but only some people are Ruth?
Actually, the biblical Ruth is considered the model of loving kindness, who acts in a way to promote the well-being of others, so to be ruthless is to have nothing of Ruth. I think it's interesting that there is no Ruth-rooted word for being "ruthful". Seems like it would be a useful word.
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I spend a lot of time thrashing. I read a lot of stuff on the internet, I follow links, then more links. I figure that reading only one version of a story isn't the whole story, so I'll search out other versions of a news item. And then the story takes over my mind. I'm not getting other more important stuff done.
When I read an interesting article somewhere, I then read the comments. I've learned that there are some sites where one should not read the comments. The degree of misinformation, stupidity, meanness, poor writing, poor grammar, sheer nastiness etc. is discouraging, will overwhelm me and will destroy the rest of the day. Don't read the comments on Yahoo news items. Don't read comments on YouTube videos, even quite serious and newsworthy videos. Don't read comments on popular news blogs. Don't read comments on the Huffington site. And if you value your intellect, never read comments on any of the Cheezburger sites.
It is safe to read comments on blogs and articles that attract only a smaller and more aware and educated subset of the public, like Lifehacker, the Wall Street Journal, the WSJ law blog, political news sites outside the US, and some others.
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I commented on one of the smaller opinion blogs recently, that I couldn't understand why Zimmerman was charged with 2nd degree murder, since that requires a much higher standard of proof than manslaughter, and that I suspected that it was a political move.
I got a response from an anonymous commenter from Texas, who 'sounded' like an attorney, who said I was very perceptive. He/she also suspected that it was a political move. Charging him with murder 2 got the press and mobs off the backs of the state, prosecutor's office, and the police. No matter what happens now, the pressure is on the courts and, if it gets that far, on the jury, and there's virtually nothing the courts or jury can do that will satisfy everyone.
The "very perceptive" felt nice.
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I came across something the other day that is one of those things we know deep inside, instinctively, but need to see in words before it comes to the forefront of our minds. It was in an article on how to succeed in whatever you are doing, and really, the whole secret nets out to one very simple directive (found at the very end of the article, of course):
Don't do anything that doesn't further your goals.
Wow. I hadn't noticed I'd been trapped in a pattern of reading and following trails of ideas, which, although interesting, had nothing to do with my current goals of getting out of the upriver house and settled in this house. I had forgotten my goals. (Note that this is related to but not the same as setting priorities.)
In general, it means that if you have a goal, and you find yourself spending time trapped in activities that do not further that goal, fix it. Examples range from busywork in the office or work that does not move you along your career path, to practicing scales and unchallenging pieces on the piano for hours when your goal is to succeed at challenging pieces.
(Hmmmm. Is that green quote a repeat?) ((Yeah, multiple posts today, and I'm supposed to be loading the van.))
Some political strategist is in hot water today for denigrating Mrs. Romney's opinions on the concerns of women, saying that Mrs. Romney "hasn't worked a day in her life".
Much uproar, mostly of the "Stay-at-home mothering and housewivery IS work, hard work! How dare she!" variety.
Very annoying. Again, people are missing the point and flying off the handle based on a few buzzwords.
Give me a break!
Yeah, the woman said "hasn't worked a day in her life" so what can she know about women's concerns. She had a point, but she said it wrong! What she MEANT was that Mrs. Romney has never HAD TO, has never been FORCED TO, work OUTSIDE THE HOME TO SUPPORT A FAMILY, in her life. A hell of a lot of women don't have that choice. So what could Mrs. Romney know of the hardships faced by those women? That's what was meant. (My own thought - Mrs. Romney doesn't have to worry about losing her job if she gets pregnant or can't find reliable childcare, for example.)
That's a far far cry from Santorum calling the president "that nig... uh person", or Limbaugh calling a woman testifying before a congressional committee a slut. There was no mistaking what they meant.
Stupid emotional people, please THINK! For once! It's really not that hard!
Stuff I wondered about this morning: Why is "deer" both singular and plural, but "series" is singular? Does "descent" imply that people on mountaintops have an odor? If something is more distant than far, it’s farther. Why not farrer? Where did the “th” come from? And if you push my patience too far, then you went further. “Fur”? Where did the “u” come from? -- Silk --
I read "FreeRangeKids.wordpress.com". It's a movement to let kids be kids, to play, wander, and learn on their own. Somehow we've got the idea that kids are in danger everywhere, all the time. All over the US, kids aren't allowed to walk to or from school or the bus stop on their own. They can't play with friends in a park without an adult present. Let your 12-year-old walk to the local deli, and you could be charged with child endangerment and lose your kids. Something has gone very wrong.
This is a sample of comments I found on an article about how lazy thinking leads to conservative views. I want to save them. In the blog is the easiest way. Draw no conclusions about my views from my saving these comments - it has more to do with an ongoing discussion in another forum. Most of the people who wrote the comments did so anonymously, so I feel no need to attribute them, and I don't and won't claim them as my own.
I advise hitting "Back" now.
If you decide to go further, understand that most of the commenters misunderstood what the conclusion of the (poorly done) study was, as the first commenter below notes. The study said that lazy/shallow/low-level thinking leads to conservative responses. It did NOT say that conservatives are lazy thinkers.
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Keep in mind, Dr. Eidelman said the correlation was between low-level thought and the expression of conservative positions. It was not that conservatives use low-level thought. To have any validity, the study would need to include a random sampling of people with differing political opinions, including liberals, independents, and conservatives. If this is true, the study reveals that when people, including liberals, are asked for prompt response, they default to conservative viewpoints. So, to the liberals in this virtual room who are reading this story with glee, your fellow liberals defaulted to conservative viewpoints when asked for a prompt response. So, another title for this article could be "Study Shows Liberals Under Stress Switch to Conservative Viewpoints."
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It's also funny how conservatives are continuously bashing liberals for welfare policies, when the conservative red states are nearly all on net "welfare" from the federal gov't - that is they receive far more in federal spending than they contribute to the federal budget. So they're being carried by the blue state, godless, pot-smoking, same sex couples that they despise. Isn't that cute?
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I see conservatives parroting whatever the media tells them far more often than progressives. This agrees with what the study says. Progressives have a vision for what they would like the future to be; that takes alot of thought to envision a good future. What have the conservatives contributed to this country other than blocking any and all bills, holding up progress and polluting the environment?
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Conservatives tend to think of themselves, the individual, first and foremost, which is pretty easy to do. We are, by nature, selfish and greedy creatures. Liberals tend to think of the community and its components first and foremost, which is a more complicated task. It requires the thoughtful consideration of a multitude of people, including those whose cultural, ethnic, racial, financial, and religious backgrounds do not match up with one's own. It's not at all shocking nor is it necessarily insulting to find conservative beliefs require low-effort thought.
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of course wingnuts will rail against this 'study' but then again wingnuts don't believe anything that is a result of study--climate change, evolution....but if these conclusions had come, say, in the form of a message whispered to someone like pat robertson from god, well then that would make it believable...
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"Conservative thinking is just common sense." So you think that taking away fundamental rights for women is "common sense". Glad I don't have your kind of common sense. Now, can you explain all the hate that conservatives spew?
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Conservative common sense positions: 1) Ban gay marriage 2) Ban abortion under all circumstances 3) Discourage use of contraception 4) Pass anti-voting fraud laws when evidence suggests voting fraud is not occurring 5) Intelligent design (no more needs to be said) 6) Bombing other countries makes them love us 7) Other countries hate us for our freedom (refer to point #6) 8) Trickle down economics 9) Public healthcare is a communist, socialist, new-world order plot to introduce death panels! 10) Conservative principles make sense
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Before I even read this, I was thinking today that if Obama were to take offensive military action against Iran's nukular facilities (a hypothetical), I promise you that the GOP will cry "He's doing it because of the election". Meanwhile, they've been bashing him for being weak on Iran. It really doesn't take much thinking on the part of conservatives to oppose everything Obama does even if it's what they called for. Remember Libya. He shouldn't go in. He didn't go in soon enough.
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This could be the function of ubiquitous right wing propaganda that saturates the landscape. People parrot what they hear all the time when they don't think about it.
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I think we do need studies such as these. The fact that we research and back up our claims is what differentiates us as critical thinkers. Cons regularly seem go from the gut and cannot be bothered to think things out....or research matters to help their case. .
On Monday, The Angel sent me drafts of my federal and state tax 1040s for approval. Yesterday I spent some time in Piper's office going over some questions I had, including a 45-minute phone call to The Angel, who was not at his office in Fishkill at the time, but in Manhattan. I was amazed that even though he didn't have access to my files there, The Angel was still able to remember actual numbers from my 1040s.
There is news that is either very good or is going to get me audited, and some bad news.
The bad news is that my total income for 2010 was $20,000 less than it was for 2009 and for every year of the decade before.
The "eh" news is that I paid about $14,000 in real estate taxes in 2010 for the two houses, and it's all deductible. Bad in one way, good in another.
The good news is that for the first time since I retired and started paying quarterly estimated tax, I'll be getting a refund. Over the past year, I paid the same estimated tax as the year before, but with the lower income (all those lost dividends from the stock I sold to buy the house and car) and the higher deductions, my taxable income is TINY! I mean below the poverty line. So low my bracket is like 5-6%. My tax due is about 1/5 what it had been in prior years. So I grossly overpaid estimated tax, and I'm getting a huge refund from both the federal and state.
If the IRS compares the previous years to 2011, That might be a red flag. I've checked all the numbers and the math, and it's all correct, but a drop like that is logically unbelievable, not to mention emotionally upsetting.
Another bit of good news is that NJ doesn't tax social security income, so I end up paying LESS income tax for the year than for a normal weekly grocery store trip. Another relatively large refund.
Then The Angel did something I don't understand. 2012's income and deductions are likely to be pretty much the same as 2011's (I can guarantee that the old house won't be sold this year), so my total tax for this year is likely to be the same. He applied part of my refund toward 2012's tax, a prepayment, so I won't have to pay quarterly estimated tax this year, which is nice, because that's always a budgeting nightmare and a scramble (although I'd rather invest that money instead of letting the government sit on it and lose the interest, but it's not a huge amount, so eh.)
These aren't the real numbers, but let's say I paid $6K over the year in estimated taxes, and my tax due for 2011 was a hair over $1K, giving me a refund of almost $5K (whoop!). The tax due for 2012 is likely to also be about $1K.
So why on earth did he put almost $4K toward my 2012 federal tax, leaving me a cash refund of 1K? And a similar proportion to the state? He's sending them each enough for two year's worth of taxes. Duh?
Uh uh. Squash that right now. Don't give them more up front than the absolute least.
When the money arrives, I get to pay the credit cards down, and pay the Hairless Hunk for his winter's caretaker work. Whoop whoop.
But it's not enough to afford landscaping or painting at the new house yet. .
Oh good grief! The random (honest - they're set up weeks ahead!) green quote sort of fits again.
Anyhow, Newt Gingrich wants us to believe he can oversee our budget.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports Gingrich's $500 check to pay the filing fee to get on the Utah primary ballot has bounced. [Link]
His campaign is about $4.5 million in debt. [Link]
His health-care think tank has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, according to federal court filings, shuttering the most profitable of his former enterprises and potentially putting a big piece of his net worth in jeopardy. [Link]
It is better to be wanted by the police than not wanted at all.
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Just watched the announcement on TV. Second degree murder! Wow! I was expecting an accidental manslaughter determination. The prosecutor didn't mention secondary charges, which means if a jury won't go for 2nd degree, he'll get off. Hmmmm.
(Again, the completely random green quote at the top looks non-random.) .
Just announced, Santorum dropping out, leaving field open for Romney, whose campaign "can now do what they've wanted to do all along, instead of concentrating on other candidates they can concentrate on Obama."
I frowned hearing that. I never wanted them to concentrate on each other. I don't want anyone to concentrate on the other folks running.
I want them to concentrate on ME!
Instead of making the other folks look bad, try making me feel good. .
Haven't done a Honey of the Week in ages. Haven't seen anyone new who stunned me - until this morning. The local Fox station was on in the background, and I glanced up and saw a guy in bathing trunks standing next to a pool, and my jaw dropped. Yowza!
Mike Woods is the weekend meteorologist and “Good Day New York” feature reporter for the NYC Fox channel. This is one of the very few HOTWs that I have elected based on appearance alone. All the previous guys I had watched in various roles, got to superficially "know", liked the way they moved, liked their voice, blah blah. This HOTW has the posture I like, the easy smile, the open eyes, the big arms, the narrow hips and tight high round behind I like - this HOTW is totally appearance. He sure is easy to look at. I don't want to know any more. It might spoil it.
Wow. Ten days since my last post. I'm really slowing down here. No reason, just lazy, I think.
Things that have amused me:
An envelope arrived in the mail today with "SECURED DOCUMENT", "OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE", and "PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL" in bold emblazoned across the front, above and below the address printed inside the gray block designed to prevent peeking through the envelope, between the tear strips designed to prevent opening and resealing the envelope. Super important looking. Addressed to [my name] or current resident.
I figure it's actually for the house, not me, so I won't open it.
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Remember the "Nova" automobile, and how it generated laughs because in Spanish, it means "No Go"? Well, there's a line of haircare products named "Wen". I guess whoever named it doesn't know what a wen is.
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Today I overhead someone telling another person to calm down and shut up. She said, "Turn your off button on."
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I found this chart showing the relative depth of lakes and ocean trenches, and how deep various animals and submersibles can go: http://xkcd.com/1040/. Click on the chart to enlarge it so you can read the labels. I am amazed that sperm whales and turtles need to breathe air, so how can they go so deep? They must come up fast!
At one point, Steve asks Sylvester to teach the kitten to talk. Sylvester teaches Gibson only two words: "Help!" and "Todd". Steve wonders who Todd is, it's driving him crazy, but Sylvester won't tell him. Warning - Sylvester swears a lot, to the point where Shelby the lab starts to think "Bitch" is her (Shelby's) name.
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I read this headline, "Giant, feathered dinosaur remains discovered in China", and for many moments I thought, "Well of course. When you discover something, it does tend to remain discovered."
Told ya I tend to read literally.
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This video is for The Queen. My sister sent the link to me.
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I took statistics courses three, maybe four, times, and I still don't understand it. Makes no sense to me. I always thought the course should have been titled "How To Make Any Set of Numbers Mean Anything You Want Them To". However, I still know the difference between correlation and causation. So statements in "news" articles like "Another reason to floss every day: New York University researchers found that people who floss infrequently are three times more likely to develop stomach cancer" make my head hurt.
And I bet people who wear baggy shorts are three times more likely to get the ball through the hoop than are people who wear argyle socks.
The latest perversion was today, when I heard that the autism rate is rising, and the number of women who are overweight when they are pregnant is rising, therefore obesity during pregnancy causes autism.
Duh? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. That is an extremely loose correlation, not evidence of causation. "Helicopter parenting" is on the rise too, so is that also a cause?
It might make more sense if they tracked the children of women of various weights, and then they'd have to look at other factors common to women in various weight groups. I hate when sloppy "scientists" make things sound so simple.
Explore! Go to http://maps.google.com/, and search for "Ulan Bator, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia", and then click on the satellite view. Fascinating, eh? The main drag is Ghengis Khan Avenue, N-S. Note that many of the homes are walled, and have some kind of round structure in the yard. I'm wondering if they are yurts, or water tanks.
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I signed up for the local township government newsletter email. Stuff like board meeting minutes, activities, news, police blotters, and so on. The top part has either a link to a topic or a short announcement, followed by boilerplate.
Received last month:
Top part - NOTICE TO ALL RESIDENTS - [xxxx] Township Water Department will discontinue service for unpaid utility bills as of March 5th, 2012.
Boilerplate - We hope you enjoy this Township e-Bulletin for residents.
I laughed.
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I'm literal, remember? You really don't want to know the mental image I get when someone (using the wrong word!) describes something as "heart rendering".
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Evidence tampering: A Republican Party advertisement on the president’s health-care law uses doctored audio from the arguments earlier this week to make Solicitor General Donald Verrilli look bad, according to Bloomberg.
A spot circulated yesterday excerpts the opening seconds of the March 27 argument in which Verrilli is heard struggling for words and twice stopping to drink water. “Obamacare,” the ad concludes. “It’s a tough sell.”
According to Bloomberg,
A review of a transcript and recordings of those moments shows that Verrilli took a sip of water just once, paused for a much briefer period, and completed his thought, rather than stuttering and trailing off as heard in the doctored version.
What kind of idiots .... ? ... and some people continue to believe ... Sigh. I give up. .
Everyone not under a rock knows about the Travon Martin/George Zimmerman controversy.
Both "sides" have their own theories, and in the spirit of today's political examples are trying to paint the other person as scum.
I have my own theories, based on the simple facts.
Facts aren't easy to come by. Zimmerman has been described as the neighborhood watch captain. Other sources describe him as a vigilante who appointed himself to the supposed position. The photo that's on every website shows him as pudgy. The police video of his arrival at the police station shows him as trim and muscular. It has been reported that the police report says that he had a cut on the back of his head that would have required stitches, and a broken nose. The police video shows him uninjured and with no blood on his clothing, and he did not go to the hospital. The photo everywhere of Martin shows him looking small, and sweet. Actually, that photo is several years old, and now he was much taller and filled out more.
Several things we do know for sure. Zimmerman had a gun. He called 911 and was advised not to follow the kid. Zimmerman was white, Martin was black, and it was a mostly white neighborhood. If racism entered the picture anywhere (and friends of Zimmerman claim he was not racist) it was significant that Martin didn't know if Zimmerman was racist or not. That's key. Anyone looking at this has to understand that. A white person might be able to understand how nervous they'd feel walking in, say, South Philadelphia after dark. Well, a lot of black people feel the same way about threatening-looking whites, and that's everywhere, all the time. You never know when some racist thug is going to pick a fight, just because they don't want you in their area. Having the wrong skin color is like wearing the wrong color in a gang area.
We also know that Zimmerman continued to follow Martin in his car. Slowly. It's dark. That would scare anyone. We believed it scared Martin because he called his girlfriend, and she said she told him to run.
Fact - Zimmerman got out of his car and confronted Martin. We don't know why.
We don't know what was said, or who did what. Martin can't give his side of the story. Zimmerman said that Martin attacked him, knocked him to the ground, bashed his head against the concrete, and tried to take his gun, and so he shot him in self defense, which is legal under Florida's "stand your ground law" (which I'm sure Zimmerman knew all about). Then the story changed, and now Zimmerman claims he didn't pull the trigger, that Martin pulled the trigger while they were struggling for the gun, so forget self defense or manslaughter, he didn't even kill him. Ta-rah.
(Consider how difficult it is to pull a trigger with the gun pointed at your own chest. Yeah, it happens on soap operas all the time, but that's fiction.)
Other people said they heard someone yelling "Help", then the shot. Some people think it was Martin yelling for help. Zimmerman says it was he himself. Who knows.
There are a few things I do know.
If Zimmerman hadn't followed Martin after being advised not to, thereby scaring the kid, it wouldn't have happened. Period.
If Zimmerman hadn't gotten out of the car and confronted the kid, it wouldn't have happened. Period. And I would not be surprised if Zimmerman's lawyer hadn't pointed out that his having been the aggressor sorta negates the "stand your ground" argument, since if anyone had the right to stand his ground, it was Martin. Zimmerman had complained in the 911 call that "They always get away". So I can't help but wonder why he got out of the car. To keep the kid from getting away? And how did he intend to accomplish that?
If Zimmerman hadn't gotten so close to the kid that he could be pushed to the ground, he wouldn't have been pushed to the ground, assuming he was, and it wouldn't have happened. Is it possible that Zimmerman displayed the gun, thinking that made him all-powerful? How else did Martin know there was a gun, to try to take it away from him? As to Martin, if you were wearing the wrong colors in a gang neighborhood, and were confronted by a guy with a gun, running or surrendering could get you shot in the back. He didn't know for sure what Zimmerman's intent was. If you're scared witless, the first thing you'd think of is to knock the guy down and get the gun - THEN run.
It doesn't matter at all whose finger was on the trigger when the gun went off. If Zimmerman had not displayed the weapon, it wouldn't have happened. Period.
If the gun had gone off during a struggle for the gun, then the two would have been close together. Zimmerman (now, since the story changed) claims he was on the ground with Martin over him, struggling for the gun. Got the picture? So why wasn't any of Martin's blood on Zimmerman?
The above is all fact, even given that facts in this case are hard to get.
In my opinion, Zimmerman set it all up playing cowboy. It was entirely his fault. I suspect that HE shot the kid in a moment of panic, and then later realized how wrong he was. Or that the kid pulled on the gun and Zimmerman, whose finger was on the trigger, reflexively tightened his grip, firing the bullet.
Whatever. He is entirely at fault, he killed the kid. Period. If it was accidental, then it's manslaughter, at least. But only the actual pulling of the trigger was accidental. He set it up for the trigger to be pulled. "Stand your ground", as stupid as that law is, doesn't apply here. Zimmerman was the aggressor. Under "stand your ground", Martin had a right to kill Zimmerman, not the other way around.
None of this would have happened if Zimmerman hadn't acted like a macho asshole and invaded Martin's space.
Blogger is throwing "bX-cy0oum" errors when people try to leave comments on Blogspot blogs. They know about it and I assume they're working on it. I'd hate to lose comments because of errors. I do want to "hear" what you have to say. So if you try to comment and can't, please come back later and try again.
Becs, I've been trying to leave a comment on your "not a vegan" post. Here it is:
You know you're not allowed to have a preference that others don't agree with. They'll give you an argument. You have to be forced into choices by something you can't control.
Lie. Tell people that meat causes severe digestion problems, like and painful acid reflux, or nasty flatulence. Act embarrassed by the whole thing. They can't argue with that. In fact, you'll get pity.
This is SO useful! (From www.xkcd.com - go there. They're fun.)
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I've mentioned before that I don't form habits easily. I don't have a set sequence in the morning, for example, not even when I was working. Without habits and routines, we can easily forget important things. Like, sometimes before I leave the house, I have to feel my toothbrush to know whether I'd brushed my teeth yet. I have to keep careful notes as to whether bills have been paid, since I don't have a set time or routine for paying them.
Jay was very bound by habit. He'd actually get anxious if a set habitual routine was disrupted.
I do have a few habits:
I always always turn off the stove burner before lifting a pot off the burner. It's such an ingrained habit that I don't even think about it when I do it.
I often fall asleep with a pencil in my hand. When I wake up in the morning, the pencil will be tightly gripped in my fist. When I fell asleep, the pencil would have been in writing position, so at some point I had to have shifted it to a fist grip.
I never lock any door - house, car, hotel room - with an empty hand. If I don't have something in that hand, I literally can't lock the door. What's supposed to be in the hand is of course the key, so I can't lock myself out, but occasionally it happens to be the WRONG key, or not even a key. Oops. I don't seem to have added "check that's it's a key, and the right key" to the habit.
Because I don't seem to have routines, I depend on To Do lists. An unfortunate habit is that if there's something on that list of very high priority that I don't feel like doing, nothing else on the list gets done, either! I wish I could train me to do something else. I think I'm untrainable. Wild feral me.
Do you live by habits? Do you have any odd ones? .
There are designated transplant facilities, some specializing in particular organs. Every state has at least one, some better than others, many associated with universities, or there's one just over the state line. (No, your local community hospital is unlikely to be a transplant center.)
Lists of people who need transplants are kept by the transplant centers. They examine and test you for suitability and if you are approved by their board, you are put on the list for that center and that state, and it expands outward by distance, so you are also on the national list.
Organs are are doled out within the state of origin (where the donor died) first, going to the nearest transplant center, then to other centers in the state, then within the region, then it spreads out nationally. So if you are on the list in Pennsylvania, you'll get first dibs on organs in Pennsylvania. You'd get one from Virginia only if there was no match in Virginia.
In other words, one major factor in your priority on the lists is location.
Some states tend to have more patients on wait lists than organ donors. Other states have more donors than patients on the waiting lists. Since each center wants to do their own testing and records review, the more money you have, the more centers' lists you can go on. It's to your advantage to find the states where donors outnumber patients, and get approved by a center in that state, and to get on as many centers' lists as possible. Obviously, it is best to be on lists at centers all over the US.
In order to actually GET the organ, you have to be able to get to the center within X hours of notification. That's why people who need an organ will actually move to the city with the transplant center to wait. When a match is found, the best and neediest match who is on the center's list AND shows up at the door soonest gets it. Having access to a private jet to get to centers in far-flung states makes that a lot more feasible.
And that's why rich people get organs before poor people. They have been approved by more centers, are on more centers' lists, and they can get to the centers quickest.
(Um, also, they can positively or negatively affect the center's fundraising, but, um, we won't mention that.)
When a very wealthy person doesn't get an organ in time, it's frequently because either they didn't make the effort, or they have a rare genetic makeup.
Re the age cutoff being based on overall health - Cheney has a VERY bad health record. It's a miracle that he's made it this far. Perhaps the age of the heart he was given (60?) was a factor. You don't put a brand new motor in a 15-year-old junker, nor a 200K-mile motor in a 2-year-old car. .
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Ghandi --
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This is copied from my blog post of 01/08/10:
In other movie news, my Meetup group saw "The Road" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_%28film%29) Wednesday evening. One of the attendees (R.) was a fan of Cormac McCarthy, the author of the novel, had read the novel, and was able to explain some of the symbolism and meaning that otherwise might have escaped us. Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry on the movie skims over the meaning, too.
I did notice that even though the father keeps saying that they are "the good guys", he is descending into immorality himself, and that the son was of an age when he would not only learn from the actions of his father, but would strive to take those teachings to a greater level to impress the father - and yet the kid remains good and pulls the father back from depravity. I noticed that, but I didn't know why, and R. explained it.
Odd that I didn't write the explanation then. I did later read the book, and it's also odd that I didn't comment further then.
The major character in the book and the main symbol is neither the father nor the son, but the road. The journey. It is neither from nor to, but simply a journey. A context. Although it is lifeless, it is life, and it is what we have made of it.
The son is the second messiah. "The fire".
I found a New York Times review of the book just this morning, and it explains it all much better than I could (but not half as well as R. did). If you are familiar with the book I urge you to read this review. It won't hurt and might help you to deal with leftover emotions.
The novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006. (Not that that means a whole lot. Most Pulitzer Prize-winning novels are unreadable.) .
I understand Google, Google Chrome, and Wikipedia all have spoken pronunciation guides, too, but I don't know how to get to them. Comment if you know.
If it's one of those esoteric fictional words, or a proper name, you might be able to find it on YouTube.com. - go to YouTube.com - at the top, search for (for example) "ahmadinejad, cc", where the ", cc" says you want closed captions - this will get you a list of all captioned videos whose titles or descriptions contain that word - select one to view. If it's short, you can just listen to it - if it's long, you can go directly to the word: -- under the video you will see what looks like a page with a highlighted line -- click on that icon -- this gives you a printed transcript -- look for the word you want, click on that line, and the video will go directly to that line.
Captioning on YouTube videos can sometimes be unintentionally hilarious, especially if it was machine generated. In the example above, in the CC transcript for the first video I tried for "ahmadinejad", it was transcribed as "on the teenager". So sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes the speaker is full of crap and pronounces it incorrectly. It's a crap shoot.
Denis Johnson, "The Small Boy's Unit", Harper's, Oct. 2000, on the meaning of "everything is arranged" in Africa: Everything is arranged doesn't mean you should expect to get anywhere or accomplish anything. In fact for sanity's sake these two ideas have to be banished. Everything is arranged means that all is complete, the great plan of the universe is unfolding before our eyes. So eat, drink, sleep. Everything is arranged.
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I have widgets on my laptop desktop that show the outside temperature at both houses, and although all winter it's been 8-15 degrees warmer at the new NJ house, for the past two weeks it's been 5-10 degrees warmer at the old NY house, 140 miles north. In fact, Thursday of last week it was in the 70s. Weird.
I'm now at the old house upriver.
When I left NJ this afternoon to drive up, I was wearing a pink sweatshirt-like hoody over a silk/cotton turtleneck, and I forgot to grab a jacket to take along for just in case. I remembered it when I was on the road, but shrugged and figured I wouldn't need it.
Yeah, sure.
They are predicting 22 degrees F here overnight tonight, and it won't be much warmer tomorrow. Luckily there are a few ratty old coats and jackets in the hall closet. If they're not too full of moths and mice, I guess I'll have to find one for tomorrow. .
Dick Cheney got a heart transplant, at age 71, after only 20 months on the wait list. Authorities insist that there was no favoritism.
You know, the rest of us simply don't believe that. We might be more inclined to believe that rich and famous people don't get organs faster, don't jump the line, if once, just once, somebody rich or famous died while waiting for an organ.
There are thousands of ordinary people every year who die waiting for livers, kidneys, lungs, hearts. If it's really fair, at least one of them had to be rich or famous.
Anybody know of any?
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If you're here for info on how transplant lists work, see the comments, especially my second (long) one. When I originally wrote this, I assumed everyone knew how the lists work and why rich people don't wait, but it became obvious from the other comments that they didn't. So I explained it. Read the comments.
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Jean-Pierre Deriaud, on French laws: It is forbidden, but possible.
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I've been watching videos on YouTube of fire departments in action. Many are from helmet cameras, and several include entering the burning structure. Pretty interesting. (Search for "fire cam helmet" in YouTube.)
I had volunteered with the completely volunteer fire company in the little village upriver. I was an EMT on the rescue squad. The company got some money from the village and the township, but most of the budget came from donations and fundraisers. Watching these "professional" company videos, I am amazed at the equipment and procedures we had. We were pretty damn impressive!
In the video clips, when they need an ambulance, they have to call for one. Our ambulance and EMTs went to fires. We were immediately ready for injuries. Even the EMTs were in full turnout gear for fires (and for motor vehicles accidents) - you know, the helmets, liners, shields, overalls and jackets, gloves, and boots. EMTs weren't allowed close to the actual fire, weren't trained for it, but we had other duties.
In most of the videos, the firefighters seem to be in charge of their own SCBA (the air tanks). In our company, the EMTs checked the pressures before they were distributed, filled them, handed them out, and checked the masks.
Each of our firefighters had a number shield on the helmet, and a corresponding tag clipped to the jacket. They were not allowed to go into a burning building without permission of the EMTs, and they had to give us the jacket tag, which got hung on a board on hooks. When they came out, the tags were moved from the board and clipped back on the jacket, and the firefighters had to be medically checked and approved by the EMTs and have the tank checked or refilled before they were allowed to go back - after surrendering their tag again.
That way, we knew instantly who was in the building, and since the tags were hung in order, we knew approximately how long they'd been in there. Nobody went missing, and nobody could disappear. If someone had been in too long, we knew exactly who, and could radio or send someone to fetch him or her out.
On these videos, firefighters seem to be running around with nobody paying attention to who went where. If a ceiling fell in, I wonder how long it would take them to realize that Joe is missing.
On the equipment, we had a high power ladder (even though there wasn't a single building in the township over three stories), and a bucket, and powerful stadium-type lights that turned the entire area into daylight. In the videos, these guys are pulling ladders off the truck and leaning them against the eaves, and if it's a night fire it's so dark, the only exterior lights seem to be from the truck headlights and flashing sidelights, and from the fire itself - which makes everything in silhouette and strobing confusion.
Yeah, your equipment is a reflection of your budget. But we were a tiny department in a tiny village. It's not like we were rolling in money. The training is NOT a reflection of the budget, and our guys were well trained with tight procedures in place and enforced. The Chief gets all the credit for that.
I've been reading the critical comments on the videos from other firefighters, and I'm proud that our little group would have passed their inspection. .
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
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Well, I've finally pulled my tax documents together. It took about six times as long as I thought it would.
I was missing two 1099-DIVs, but I was able to recreate the dividends paid from online info at Google financial. I never got the promised statement of total real estate taxes paid for the NJ house, and I couldn't figure it out because my checks included their screw-ups from 2010, so I had to go to the township tax office and get a statement.
It's shocking. Fully 26% of my disposable income went to real estate taxes on the two houses. Add in what I'd paid in estimated income taxes, and it's over a third that I'd paid on one tax or another. That doesn't include sales taxes, or what I still might owe on income tax (I usually owe more, never get a refund).
Prior to moving here, for the past nine years or so I had gone to bed after the evening news, somewhere between 11:30 pm and midnight, read or worked some puzzles or watched TV in bed, and fell asleep an hour or two later. I'd wake after 9 am, sometimes 10 if it had been a good book.
Here, I'm dragging by 9 pm, asleep by 11, and wide awake usually around 6:30 am. I don't use an alarm clock, but it's pretty much the same time every day. It's still dark out.
I didn't understand why. I am not a morning person, so it makes no sense.
Today I woke at 5:30 am to get some aspirin because I had a headache, and now I think I know why the early waking.
At the old house my neighbors were at some distance. Here they're right on top of me.
The guy across the street has a remote car starter. He starts the car at 5:40, and then it sits there running for 15 minutes, with the tail lights flashing red on my bedroom windows. And either it's just a deep-throated car, or he's got a muffler problem. He leaves a hair before 6.
Then at 6:15, the short school bus arrives to pick up my neighbor, who rides that bus to care for the kids who need assistance. The bus turns around in the driveway across the street, and it BEEP BEEP BEEPs when it backs up.
The birds are in full throat by then. There are a lot more birds here than at the old house. The old house was on a ridge above farmland to the west, where they grow corn, wheat, and several kinds of berries, and it's all woods around the house to the south, east, and north. The majority of the birds are in the woods or in the fields, away from the house.
Here, Daughter has two huge white pines in her front yard, with about 12 bird houses (some are bird apartments), there's a small lake behind my house, and at the end of the block there's the bay. Screaming seagulls, honking geese, chirping songbirds. Those damn things are LOUD!
So the idling car pulls me out of deep sleep, the beeping bus pulls me to awareness, and the birds don't let me fall back. By 6:30 I'm fully awake.
I figure the being so tired by 9 or 10 pm is due to early awakening, pollution, and boredom.
Life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.
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I was just out on the porch and saw a couple walk by with an infant in a carriage. There's a fine mist in the air, so they had the hood on the carriage completely closed over the baby. I wondered why they were taking the baby out at all, with it so enclosed. There's no sun and the baby can't see anything.
Daughter walks the Nugget a lot, saying she wants Nugget to "get fresh air".
Duh! This is New Jersey! There is no fresh air!
I can see taking the kids out for some sun, or to look at interesting things, but for fresh air? Bleck. .
