3661 Warnings

Thursday, November 15, 2012

"Actions lie louder than words."

-- Carolyn Wells  --

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I was going through the backlog of email I hadn't been able to handle during the 11-day no-power no-internet period.  I found an email from Verizon Wireless listing emergency charging stations and all kinds of other assistance.   Email?  They KNOW what my cell phone number is!  They KNOW the power is out.  So they send email?  What tiny mind decided to send emails to people they know don't have power?  Like, they think everyone checks email from cell phones?  I KNOW they know how to make robot calls, but that seems to be reserved for "your bill is ready".  Piss me off.  On the other hand, I shouldn't be surprised.  It was Verizon who sent info on how to reset your FIOS WIFI if you lost internet connection after the storm.  The info was a link to a website.  Wow.  That's thinking ahead....not!

-------------------------------

The following is a repost from Sunday, June 14, 2009.  Somehow, after the hurricane, I thought it was appropriate to repeat it.

If you love something, set it free.
And if it flies away, run after it and kill it.

Saturday night I accidentally watched "earth2100". Apparently ABC aired it on June 2, and then repeated it late last night. I was on my way to bed when I caught a bit as I was turning off the kitchen TV, and was fascinated, and ended up watching it all the way through.

The story is told as comic strip panels (or as the non-readers call it, "graphic novel" format, bleck, and no, that doesn't make comic books sound any more intellectual, sorry, good try but no cigar, beeeeep, thud). The Wikipedia entry linked above pretty much covers the story. It is speculation, science fiction, depicting a possible future.

I found it depressing, because global warming or not, human causes or not, whatever one's opinion or theory, much of the ball is already rolling - the water problems in the west, the melting of ice caps, overpopulation, the cutting of rainforests, the movement of tropical flora and fauna into temperate areas. No one can deny any of that. It simply IS.

The scariest part to me was the thawing of tundra, which would release massive amounts of methane. I hadn't thought of that before. If the glaciers and polar ice are melting (and they are, NOW) how long will it be before the tundra thaws? Is that a tipping point? Or have we already passed it?

By the time it was over, I was glad I had no grandchild. Even if things don't go as the movie suggests it might, I have a feeling the future is grim.

Since then I've read various opinions of "earth2100" from both sides of the global warming debate. I am disturbed by the number of people who just wave it off. They say it's a natural cycle, no big deal. Well, yeah, no big deal to the earth and cockroaches. They'll continue. But will we?

One blogger pooh-poohs "earth2100" as fear mongering:

"If you have tweens and teens, this is one show they don’t need to view. Let them live their lives hopeful and knowing our world is ok – because it is, and it will be for their kids. If we all believe that, we’ll take the necessary steps to ensure our futures."

"Knowing that our world is ok ... we'll take the necessary steps"? Um, that doesn't compute.

And that's the problem. I don't think we will take the necessary steps.

We waste water, and large parts of the country are drying up. We waste oil, but, hey, I NEED my Hummer. We pollute the air, but hey I can buy those allowance thingies and keep right on doing it, ok? We cut down rainforests, and then wonder why weather patterns are changing. We refuse to acknowledge there's any problem until it affects us directly, then we want the government to fix it.

Easter Island once had a thriving population. The island had plenty of fresh water, and was heavily forested. And then, for some reason, possibly in part to raise all those stone heads, they cut down all the trees. That changed the ecology of the island drastically, in a bad way. And then all the people died. One of the lines I remember best from "earth2100" was (paraphrased), "I wonder what the person who cut down that last tree was thinking as he did it?"

I can pretty much figure out what he was thinking: "But *I* need it! I'm cold! If I don't get it, Joe will, so I may as well."

Replace those big stone heads with dollar signs. Would we have done any better? Been any smarter?

(Everybody wants their little piece, and the Earth as we need it might die the death of a thousand nibbles.)

I have absolutely no faith in mankind's ability to "take the necessary steps". The human race is too selfish, too greedy, unable to think ahead, and when they don't already know what the solution is (and have not been assured that a solution, when found, won't require deprivation on their part), then they will deny that there is any problem until it's way too late.

There IS a problem. Forget the words "global warming" if they bother you. Forget "Al Gore"; this is not a political discussion. Look at what IS happening, and what the results of that *might* be. How sure do you have to be to even consider it? By the time you get to 60% sure, it's too late.

------------------------

I searched briefly, and the only place I could find "earth2100" for safe free viewing was on YouTube, in nine parts. I thought ABC might have it available, but they don't. Part 1 of 9 is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjmWivCTcvE. Starting there it should be easy enough to find the other eight parts. (Actually I prefer movies in parts. That makes it easier to wander away and pick it up again later.)

3660 Sandy - the second week

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time;

it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."

-- Sidney J. Harris --

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Continuation.  From my paper notes:

Mon, 11/5

Still no power.  They keep moving the estimate out.  It's literally freezing outside, and there's a classic nor'easter predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday.   My house is COLD!  My usual body temp is 97.5 or so, and my body is very heat-conserving - when I'm cold, blood flow to my skin and extremities shuts down.  I get chilblains when I get too cold.  As of today, I've had it.  I'd feel better if we'd get some kind of hard believable estimate.

[Now, I know there are people who, as of 11/14, as I'm posting this, still have nothing.  People with small children in poorly insulated buildings with no heat and no hope of any for weeks yet.  People running out of food with no stores open near them, and no transportation.  People sleeping on floors in shelters.  I know that, and I know I should feel grateful that things worked out comparatively well here.  But that doesn't change the fact that on 11/5 I was COLD!  And miserable.]

I want a hotel room!  (I discovered that with no phone book, and no internet, and a stupid-phone, it's a bit difficult to figure out how to make calls.)  I know that refugees and utility workers have filled most of the hotels with power anywhere near here.  I started calling the most expensive hotels first, figuring they'd be the last to have filled up.  Surprise - there are no rooms available anywhere within 70 miles.

Ok.  Put another pair of socks on and take another bath.  Between the hot baths and the chilblains, my skin is going to fall off.

We finally have some gas stations open along that 4-lane road.  Odd-even rationing.   Long lines, including people with gas cans trying to get generator fuel.  Luckily, Hal has about 280 miles worth already in his belly.

Neighborhood kids are sad - no Hallowe'en this year.  The Governor had postponed Hallowe'en to today, but with no heat, nobody wants to be opening doors repeatedly.

Mail today.  Still no checks.  They are now a week late.

Tues, 11/6

Neighbor George's generator is ancient.  It makes grinding noises.  He had set it up just under my bedroom window.  Oddly, the sound doesn't bother me.  Something about the key or timbre.  It sort of doesn't register in my ears.  Except that now it has begun backfiring.  That amuses me.

Voting day.  All the polling stations have been combined, all voting will be at the township hall, where there's limited parking.  I figured there'd be cars lined up waiting to get in, and hours-long lines inside.  Big surprise.  I parked in the lot, and when I got in, there was only one person ahead of me at the booth for my district.  Kind of sad.

A few restaurants are now open, so I ate lunch out and doggie-bagged half for dinner.  I think I'll do that every day now.

I'm running out of candles, only two left.  Hit a bunch of stores.  No candles anywhere to be found.  But in Home Depot I found a battery-operated LED lamp that runs on four D-cells.  Of course, there are no D-cells left anywhere.  As I was headed to the checkout with my lamp (hoping maybe I had some D-cells in a closet somewhere), a just-arrived case of D-cells, still on the pallet, was opened right next to me.  I snagged 2 8-packs.  I'm set for life!

Estimate for power is now Saturday.

My slab is getting colder, and Jasper is still unhappy.  "Fix it, Mommy!"

Wed, 11/7

The traffic lights came back!  The intersections are now open!

Remember that nor'easter?  I think it's here.  It's quietly snowing, 2 pm.  And it's sticking.  They were predicting a lot of wind, so this is a bit of a bust, but hey, we'll take it.

We have still seen NO utility trucks in this whole neighborhood.  Not even a glimpse of one.  Wires are still down blocking some streets.  We are now the only section anywhere around here with no power.  Keyport was clobbered, as shown in the video in an earlier post, and THEY have power!  It's maddening to drive three blocks north or south and see streetlights and porch lights.  And to see people sitting in warm living rooms watching TV.  Like, why are they more deserving?  Why are we ignored?  NO FAIR!

Wow.  One can get very personal and very emotional about stuff like this.

Mail - the checks arrived!

Thurs, 11/8

Woke to a few inches of snow on the ground.

BTW, cell phone reception has been odd since the storm.  I've called Daughter, and it rings and goes to voice message, and then when I shrug and walk across the street, she says it didn't ring, AND my message isn't there.  Several of her friends said the same thing, that they called or texted her, but there's no evidence that it went anywhere.  I have also made a few calls outside, to upstate NY and Pa, and they seemed to ring at the destination, but there'd be no answer and no switch to voicemail.  But other times it'd work fine.  Someone said there were towers down and the remaining towers got overloaded, but even so, one should not have got the impression the call went through when it didn't.

Daughter and Hercules are spatting over the generator.  He wants to still restrict it to a few hours in the morning and evening to save propane.  She points out that tanks are fairly easy to find now that fewer people are on generators, not like earlier when you couldn't find propane anywhere.   She thinks it's unfair that he sits in a warm office all day, with lights and radio and everything, and then thinks he can dictate unnecessary conservation to her.  Frankly, I agree with her.

No garbage collection again.  We've had one collection since the hurricane, and that was on an unscheduled day, so no one had their garbage out.  We can usually hear the trucks on the next street over, so we can rush our stuff out, but with all the generators running, we can't hear them coming.

Speaking of generators, the exhaust is settling close to the ground, and I can feel it affecting my breathing.

Fri, 11/9

Saw the first utility truck on our street.  George ran out and flagged him down.  Guy says today, with luck.  Just in time.  It's 50 degrees F mid-day in my house, colder overnight.  I was about ready to improvise a fireplace in an unused corner of the living room.

Electricity came back on at 6 pm, and has stayed on.

I opened the refrigerator for the first time since the hurricane started, and the smell was so bad I immediately slammed it shut again.  Not a spoiled meat smell, more a rotted vegetable smell.  I'll clean it out on Sunday evening, ready for (I hope!) Monday's garbage collection.

Lost from the freezer:

The above is just from the freezer.  Add from the refrigerator a large bunch of kale, fresh (heh, not so any more) asparagus,  carrots, celery, opened yogurt which was probably edible but had absorbed that terrible odor, boiled eggs, deli sandwich meat, opened mayonnaise, creamy horseradish sauce, grape juice, cottage cheese, cream cheese, half an onion, half a jar of three bean salad, etc.

P.S. - Yes, that's Eggo waffles.  I refuse to be embarrassed.  That's the first Eggos I've bought in like 15 years, and they're for the Nugget!

---------------------------------

So, today, 11/14, things are looking more normal (of course, I'm speaking only for this area).  Stores are restocking.  Most restaurants away from the waterfront are open.  Sadly, many of the most popular, the ones with ocean-front or bay-side views, may never open again.


This morning, I was awakened by birds chirping.  The little birds are finally back.  Oddly, the seagulls and terns are still missing, and no geese have flown over since the Monday of Sandy.  Yesterday I realized that part of the reason for the odd quiet the first few days after the storm was the absence of airplanes.  We are on the flight path for the NYC airports, but so far out that when the planes pass over, they are very high.  But there are never fewer than three high planes visible at any moment, so even though they aren't loud, it's a constant low sound, always present.

During those eleven days with no TV or internet, I know I should have taken advantage of  all the otherwise wasted time to get some stuff done here.  But - I was cold!  I read almost every moment.  Not moving and not exposing body parts, huddling next to candles, was much nicer.

I have about 80 books lined up on the Kindle, and was disgusted that I couldn't read them, because I couldn't recharge the darn thing.  New and lasting appreciation for paper books!   Future post - what I read.

Oh, free piece of advice - don't buy a used car for at least the next two years.
. 

3659 Sandy - the first week

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution,

no law, no court can even do much to help it.

While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it."

-- Billings Learned Hand --

----------------------------------------------------------------

Continuation - More from my paper notes after the hurricane:

Tues, 10/30

1:30 pm - 68 degree F in the house.  There's a feisty little garter snake in the back yard.  He seems very frightened.  Usually the garter snakes slither away when approached.  This guy coiled and struck repeatedly.  Poor guy's probably lost, disoriented, and cold.

We have many squirrels here.  I haven't seen any yet since the storm.  There are no birds, either.  Except for generators, it's very quiet.

Wed, 10/31

Guy across the street is related to someone in the state police.  A police car pulled up and delivered a large very heavy box.  Generator?  They cut the nylon straps off the box and left them lying in the street.  That pissed me off.

No mail delivery since Saturday.  I'm worried about my checks.

A neighbor came to my door.  She said a water dept person said to spread the word that water was going to be shut off, so we should store water.  Daughter split the street with her and went door to door.  I stored water in multiple containers and in plastic-lined cardboard boxes in the bathtub.  About three hours later I got a "Code Red" cell call from the township saying it's a false rumor, please stop calling the township and police department about it, the water is fine.  I asked Daughter if she was now going to go back to all those doors and tell them it's ok.  She snarled at me.

George says the local big chain grocery store is open - sort of.  Hercules and I went. Surreal experience.  Lights maybe one per aisle.  Dark.  Empty shelves.  They had a full dairy section, though.  I tried to buy yogurt and eggs, and they chased me away from the shelves.  They were pulling everything from that section, including wrapped blocks of cheese, and throwing it in dumpsters.  Pissed me off some more.  Unbroken free-range eggs do not need refrigeration, and you can be even surer by cooking the yolks solid.  I mean hey, farm eggs often sit under a hot hen for a few days before they're collected.  And unopened yogurt with live culture and no fruit or sugar added doesn't need refrigeration, either.  Throwing it all out is a terrible waste, when lots of folks have no food.

Here's something that drove me crazy, another complete waste ---

First you have to understand NJ roads.  Four-lane roads are almost always divided and don't allow left turns off them, only rights. There are openings in the dividers only at larger crossing roads.  That means that if where you're going is on the left side of the road or you'd like to turn left at one of those intersections, you have to pass it and keep going until you get to a "jug handle" on the right, where you can curl around, kind of like one quarter of a mini-cloverleaf.  This means that although the store you want to go to is practically across the street, you will have to drive sometimes several miles to get to it, and then several miles the other direction to get back from it.

The grocery store (also my bank and a few other stores) is on the corner across from where the only remaining way out of our neighborhood dumps on to a divided 4-lane.  It's less than a mile from my house.  I've walked to it.  Normally, I just cross the 4-lane road and turn left off the side road into the strip mall.  Hercules and I were shocked to find orange cones across the intersection.  Traffic lights were out, so the police had made the entire road divided all the way north and south!   To get across the intersection, we had to turn right and drive north until we came to a street where we could go under the 4-lane.  Then to get back home from the store, we had to go south until we got to a place with an overpass over the 4-lane.  The trip, normally about two miles, came to 8.5 miles.

The complete waste?  1.)  There were no gas stations open, and people were desperate for gas for generators, so hey, let's make them waste gas!  2.)  At every impassible intersection there were a minimum of two police cars, usually three, with the cops sitting there making sure no one tried to go through the cones.  Uh, I understand that the traffic lights were out.  I don't understand why the cops weren't simply directing traffic.  I mean, there were at least two of them there anyway.  Don't they teach traffic directing in cop school any more?  Heck, it's more fun to waste gas, I guess.  And it's not like it's dangerous - the school crossing guards could show them how.

That absolutely thoroughly freakin' pissed me off to the point of screaming.

The neighborhood kids are sad.  Hallowe'en has been postponed to next Monday, by order of the Governor.   He's a bit optimistic, methinks.

Thurs, 11/1

Quarterly real estate taxes are due today.  I went to the township building with my check and stub, undated because I wasn't sure the office was open.  It was, and the clerk was shocked that I was there to pay my taxes.  Apparently, no one else did.

61 degrees F in the house today at 2 pm. I LOVE my bed.  With the good comforter on it, I'm warm as toast at night.  During the day I'm wearing warm snow boots and multiple layers, and a hat, and I'm still cold.  I've discovered that a hot bath will actually keep me warm for a few hours after.  The worst part is getting dressed in the morning, climbing out of a warm bed to mid-50s, and putting on cold clothes.  I've been going to bed at 8 or 8:30 pm, when the house starts to cool down, and then reading by candlelight.  (I put a fire extinguisher next to the bed.)

The parkway is open, so Hercules was able to get to work today.  He's is in the IT department of a utility holding company.  He spent most of the day on the phone lining up hotel rooms for the thousands of visiting utility workers arriving from all over the US and Canada.

Today is garbage collection day (Monday and Thursday).  People hopefully put their garbage out.  It was not picked up.

Today was the first sunny day since Sunday.

Fri, 11/2

Windy today.  Temperature outside dropping.  The garbage trucks came by, but of course everyone had taken the garbage back in.  Sigh.

House is still getting into low 60s during the day.  I am pleased that the house seems to stay about 20 degrees above the outside temps.  Daughter and Hercules have the small generator on a few hours every day, and they have an old furnace in the basement used by the previous owner to heat just the basement that doesn't depend on electric start.  They're using that, and it's been keeping their house in the higher 60s and low 70s.  Daughter wants me to come over to their house "to get warm", and to sleep there, but I have horribly insulted her by refusing.  I'm cold, but fine.  And I know that we can't spend much time in each other's company before she starts "reading negative into" everything I say or don't say, and getting bitchy.  So, thanks, but I'm ok.

The Nugget has been on antibiotics and decongestants since before the storm, when she was diagnosed with a head cold, croup, and 2 infected ears.  She'd been doing fine, but late today she suddenly spiked a 102 fever, and was very lethargic.  The lethargy worried me more than the fever.  Worse, the antibiotic would run out tomorrow.   Pediatrician's office gets no answer. 

Sat, 11/3

The original township estimate was that we would get power today.  Most business along the highway have full or partial power.  Some residential neighborhoods are back up. 

Daughter called pediatrician, and they were open!  But, they're in triage mode.  Nugget isn't at death's door, so they just called in a refill on the meds.    Nugget seems to be feeling better anyway.

I saw the first squirrel today.  I am pleased that he's the young one who caches in my lawn.  I figured he was hungry, so I threw him some peanuts.  No other squirrels showed up, so I suspect he's the only returnee.  I wonder where he was.  Seems like if he was just sheltered under a shed or something, he'd have been back sooner.

Still no birds.  That's beginning to feel weird.

Mail delivery today.  Still no checks.

Sun, 11/4

Some birds are back!  Daughter's bluejays, both the male and the female.  George has a pair of cardinals who nest in his eaves and like to sit in his birch - the female was in the birch this morning.  Haven't seen the male yet.  The robin who nests in a branch over my driveway is back, the female, anyway.  Still none of the noisily cheerful little birds yet.

Temp will go below freezing tonight.

All the residential neighborhoods around us have power.  We still don't.  Something about a substation destroyed or something. We feel neglected.  Seeing the lights of others makes us feel even colder.

Food - I've been eating yogurt, cheese, eggs, oatmeal, grits, those no-refrigeration vacuum-sealed dinners (they're supposed to be heated in a microwave, but do just fine in a pot on the stove), canned veggies, stews, soups, peanuts, cookies, and lots of fruit.  On Wednesday's excursion to the grocery store I found no-refrig bacon.  Expensive, but actually quite good.

I drove down some of the streets along our waterfront, past where the sea wall ends.  It's so sad to see house after house with all of the family's possessions piled on the curb.  Furniture, bags of clothing, toys,  appliances, chunks of soggy drywall, mattresses, books, photo albums, carpets, all of it.  Back in 1999 when my house burst a pipe and flooded, I was able to save almost everything that wasn't cloth or paper.  But my stuff just sat in a foot of clean water (well, clean until the mold started).  This stuff had been literally battered back and forth in several feet of filthy water.  Big difference. I appreciate our sea wall even more.

...to be continued.
.

3657 Sandy - the day after

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

"Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish."

-- Euripides  --

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Continuing the Sandy saga:

Tues, 10/30
8:00 am - I walked down to the sea wall to see what had happened.


[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrGCUtSgDYQ]

The space between the sidewalk and the access road had been sandy, with lots of plants, with little paths here and there through the plants so you could get from the road to the walkway.  You couldn't see the rocks except in a few places.  Plants and sand are now all gone.  The sidewalk, which is just two years old, has been badly undermined, and many of the slabs are cracked.

In the distance, coming in from the right, you can faintly see a spit of land sticking out into the bay.  I think that saves us from the worst of the waves.

The air would be still for about 20 minutes, and then there'd be wind gusts and rain for maybe 5 minutes, then stillness again, through most of the morning.  Hercules said it was probably the last of the outer spiral arms passing. I got soaked on my walk back from the seawall.

I'm going to do something here that isn't nice.  I'm going to copy photos from another person's blog.  Usually when I do something like that, I send you to the other blog, or at the minimum I post the photo and then link to the source.  I would like to do that here, except that he/she is very specific about the location - and I prefer to be a little more mysterious about where I live.  Deter stalkers, dontcha know.

So, I'm at least being clear that the following are not my own photos.

This is the sea wall after the storm, and gives a better picture of the height difference from the water to the walkway on top of the wall, up to the access road, and on up the bank.  The waves were well over the bank.  The clear area between the walk and the road had been full of plants.

This is at the end of the sea wall (that's the "mesa" in the middle) and where the beach starts.  You may have seen the video from this past summer of Nugget playing in the sand.  There's now no sand left.  There had been large dunes between the beach and the street that runs along here.  The dunes are gone.

To the right, what's left of the beach.  On the left, what's left of a park.  Between the posts (that used to be guard rails, but the rails washed away) is a street, now covered in sand.  All the electric/telephone poles have completely disappeared.

A closer view of the street.  In the distance is a bridge.  See that white house through the trees (under the leaning pole)?  Flooded out.

Please note that there are only three routes out of our neighborhood, and the above street and bridge is one of them.

Here's a video of the town next door.  You'll see a bridge with boats on it.  Yeah, ON it.  There is a huge marina there, and boats were washed up all over the place, huge million-dollar boats stacked on top of each other, all over the roads, yards, jammed into houses, some a quarter mile away.  That bridge?  With the boats on it?  And the leaking gas and propane tanks under it?  That's the second of the three ways out of our neighborhood. (Warning - annoying loud music. Cut the sound.)


These were our "early reports", places we could walk or bike to.  We had next to no idea what had happened elsewhere.

It's frustrating to have no TV, no radio, no internet.  You don't know what's happening out there.  But we saw enough nearby to be very grateful for that miserable little sea wall that bravely protected us from the water.  Our street had one tree down on a roof, and one tree down on the road at the very end of the street near the sea wall.  Streets to the south, east, and west of ours didn't fare so well, but still better than neighborhoods north and south of us.  Multiple trees and lines down here, but almost no damage to property.  Just messy.  All our telephone poles survived.  This gave us hope that we could get power back soon.

Yeah, sure.

1:30 pm - getting trickles of news, like looting hither and yon, don't know what to believe.  We can't get out of the immediate neighborhood.  Two routes to the highway involving bridges are blocked, the third way is open, but it isn't much help to get to the highway, because southbound and northbound are both blocked by trees, boats, and BUILDINGS! on the road.

It's 68 degrees F in the house, and I already feel cold.

1:55 pm - I am confirmed as an idiot.  I just discovered I have hot water.  I didn't know my gas water heater has some kind of non-electric non-pilot-light thingamabob starter.

People are starting up generators.  The big box hardware store has them coming in by the truckload and if you wait in line for enough hours you might be able to get one.  Unfortunately, propane and gasoline is almost impossible to find.  Daughter and Hercules have a very small propane generator which they plan to run only a few hours a day.

I have candles and the gas stove, hot water, some non-perishable food, and lots of books.  I figure I'll be ok for up to maybe four days.

The fates laugh.  It gets worse.

To be continued.
.

3656 Sandy, continued - she passes over

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Stupidity fuels itself.

 -- The Man --

-------------------------------------------------------

Ok.  I was "blogging the storm" on Monday, October 29, and my last entry was that the lights had flickered.  Then silence for the next eleven days.

I kept on "blogging", though, on paper.   These days I keep notes on everything.  Otherwise it never happened.

From my notes:
Mon, 10/29

2:20 pm - electricity out, switching to paper

2:30 pm - branches in the street

3:15 pm - wind is getting scary.  moaning and rushing and roaring sounds.  People are walking down the street toward the seawall.

3:20 pm - neighbor banged on my door, he's worried about the huge sweetgum tree in my back yard.  It's scaring me, too.

4:00 pm - videoed (is that a word?) the sweetgum.  It's actually twisting in a spiral in the wind, which means it's flexible, so I'm not as worried now.  If that were a brittle locust my roof would already be gone.


[http://youtu.be/M-O1JLFpgms]

4:15 pm - people across the street hurriedly packed up the car and left.  Jasper is worried, glued to my ankle.  "Fix it, Mommy!"

5:05 pm - wind is N to S, flocks of birds flying E to W, don't seem too bothered by wind.  Just saw three kids, 12-14, walking down the street to the seawall.  Got out the candles.

5:10 pm - the wind is odd.  It's like there's a dome about 10' high over us.  Above that, the trees are thrashing wildly.  Below it, the air is still.  There's NO wind on my porch, for example, and the piles of leaves at the curb are undisturbed.

5:15 pm - folks 2 houses down loaded car and left.  I'd be afraid to leave now for fear roads would be blocked and I could go neither forward nor back.

5:25 pm - huge tree fell on house across street and two houses up.  Messed up their roof.  It's very dark.  Would be nice to just go to bed, but not alone....

6:10 pm - Daughter and Nugget are outside!  In street, talking with neighbors.  We still seem to have that ground-level protective dome, but trees are still dangerous.  Neighbor says waves are coming over seawall.

7:20 pm - many bright flashes low in the sky.  First thought was transformers, but then realized it's sheet lightening (cloud-to-cloud).

8:45 pm - where's the rain?  Lots predicted, but it's been no more than a drizzle.

10:15 pm - much quieter outside.

Midnight - asleep.  I slept in the opposite end of the house from the sweetgum.  Was surprised how quickly and easily I fell asleep and how soundly I slept.

Tues, 10/30
6:30 am - awake.  All quiet outside.  All done?

**to be continued, next post**
.

3655 Snork

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

"If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside."

-- Robert X. Cringely  --

---------------------------------------------------------------------

I am SO tired of hearing from talking heads that the Republican party "has been decimated" by this election.  The word is DEVASTATED!   NOT DECIMATED!  Sheesh.  Learn the difference, folks.  You're supposed to be highly-paid professional communicators.  Decimated and devastated are NOT the same word.

-------------------------------

"We the People" is a section of the White House web site that allows citizens to create and sign petitions on just about any topic.  When a petition garners 25,000 signatures, it gets a response from the executive branch.

 Talking heads are now reporting that "a number of states have petitioned to secede from the United States."

Um, not exactly true.

Yes, there are secession petitions out there for something like 15 states.  However, those petitions were created by individuals, and signed by individuals.   None are from or signed by any state officials.

Texas has already exceeded the threshold for signatures.  That's been cracking me up!

See, you don't have to be a resident of the state to sign its petition.  I wonder if I'm the only person who sees this not so much as a petition to secede, but as a petition to force them out of the union.  I would gladly sign a petition to kick Texas out! (And a few of the others, as well.  See the Snopes article for the list.)

I wonder how many of those signatures on the Texas petition are non-Texans willing to, uh, help them out.
.

3654 Clearing out the bins

Sunday, November 11, 2012

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and

 evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

-- Steven Weinberg --

----------------------------------------------------------

Well, it took me all day Saturday to catch up on email, news, and internet stuff.  I get "feeds" for a bunch of blogs and various web sites, and when I was finally able to check Friday evening, I had over 1500 alerts on the queue. 

I spent a lot of today on cbs.com watching the two "Survivor" episodes I had missed and last Sunday's "The Amazing Race", while battling the laptop which has decided to hang every so often, so that it takes twice as long to do anything.  I also spent some time holding the ladder for Hercules while he got tree branches off my FIOS wires.  Then I dragged some branches out of the back yard, and Hercules helped me figure out why the garage door opener latch didn't want to catch the chain that opens the door.  Turns out I'm just too short to pull the release rope far enough to the side to engage the catch.

Then, finally, I cleaned out the refrigerator.  Power had gone out Monday, 10/29, and I hadn't opened the doors until it came back again on 11/9.  It was pretty bad.  The smell was not of bad meat - it was more like rotted brussels sprouts or something (there was kale and asparagus in the veggie bin, both of which had gone liquid), a smell so bad it immediately filled the whole house, and I was actually afraid it would get into the rugs and upholstery and I'd never get it out.  I slammed the doors shut hoping that chilling and freezing would knock the smell down, but it didn't.  Garbage collection is tomorrow, so I had to clear it out today.  I filled three kitchen-can-sized garbage bags. 

I still want to complain about the storm!

Maybe tomorrow.

3653-6 Sandy, aftermath

Friday, November 9, 2012

I'm baaaaaack!  Electricity came back on about an hour ago.  More later (tomorrow).

3653-5 Sandy, 1:45 pm Monday

The aforementioned garbage can is now gone.  Wind is much stronger.  I hear that some trees are down a few streets over, but on this street it's just branches.

Uh oh, the lights just flickered a bit.
.

3653-4 Sandy, 1:15 pm, Monday

I see cars going up and down the street.  I'd be afraid to go anywhere now, worried that if a tree fell I wouldn't be able to get back home again.

Another word for "brave" is "foolish".

Ha!  Just after writing that, I looked out the window, and Hercules' car is gone.  I called Daughter to ask if it had blown away.  She said he was asking if she needed milk or something, he was antsy, it was obvious he wanted to go out.  He's probably driving around checking out the storm.  If you see some idiot getting washed off a boardwalk somewhere, that could be him.

A few years ago I advised Daughter to take out as much insurance on him as they could afford.  I was perfectly serious.
.

3653-3 Sandy, 12:20 pm Monday

Strange that inside my house I can usually hear everything on the street.  I can hear the neighbor's phone ring.  There's a sump pump on the next street over that normally drives me crazy. 

Not today.  The wind and whipping trees have now risen to a roar, it's really loud on the porch, but inside my house it's quiet.  You'd never know there was anything going on out there.  Weird.

The TV is on, but it's constant mayors and governors saying the same things over and over.  I need a little entertainment.

One small tree in my back yard has bent over parallel to the ground.  I'm not worried about that one.  The 100+ foot gum tree, on the other hand....  If that goes the wrong direction it'll take out my roof and second floor.

3653-2 Sandy, Monday, 11:10 am

Wind has picked up.  It's not steady, though.  Strong gusts in one spot while 50 feet away the air is still.   Light rain, almost a drizzle.  Neighbor's garbage has hit the road.  People are walking down the street, heading for the seawall.  I am tempted, but I don't have any waterproof jackets and an umbrella would be ridiculous.  Tall trees up the street are beginning to worry me.  Most amazing - birds are flying, and they don't seem to be driven by the wind!

3653-1 Sandy, 9:55 AM Monday

Monday, October 29, 2012

If I have not seen as far as others,

it is only because giants have been standing on my shoulders.

----------------------------------------

I don't understand.  I doubt I ever will.

The eye is now projected to pass about 80 miles south of here late this evening.  On TV I'm seeing wind, waves, and sea-surge flooding in NYC, north of here, and really bad stuff south, around the tip of NJ.  The air is full of water.

Here?  Nothing.  There's some high wind tossing the tops of taller trees, but not more than normal with any summer storm.  I'm sure it will rapidly get worse, but I'm surprised to see so much going on already north and south, but nothing here.

Yet.

-----------------------------------

Garbage collection for today has been cancelled.  As predicted, the folks across the street have their garbage out for collection.  Two large garbage cans, without lids.

Idiots.

A few people have wondered whether they'd have to take this or that in.  People seem to think heavy patio furniture and grills would be safe to leave out, unsecured.

My advice:  Imagine putting it on the hood of your car and then driving 60 mph.  Same thing.

--------------------------------------

If you are ever advised to store water by filling the bathtub, forget it.  Few bathtubs will hold water for more than a day.  Having lived in an area where everyone has wells, so no electricity means no water, I know how to store it.

Cardboard boxes and garbage bags.  Put the boxes in the bathtub, line them with sturdy plastic bags, then fill them.
.

3652 Thrashing

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Confidence - The feeling you have before you fully understand the situation.

-----------------------------------------------------------

(I do hope that green randomly-generated quote above is not prophetic.)
 
If you don't hear from me for a while, it'll be because we lost power.

Yesterday was weird.  All up and down the street, people were raking and blowing leaves into the street.

Duh?  Why?

They are all just going to blow, and what doesn't blow away will block the storm drains as soon as it rains.

If you have a day and a half before all hell breaks loose, why are you spending that time raking leaves?

I don't understand.

Tomorrow is garbage collection day.  I will not be surprised to see garbage cans at the curb.

Sheesh.

---------------------------------

I searched the blog to help remember when last year's hurricane was, and I found this, from August 2011:

Back in the mid-70s, Dr. K. said that one of my problems involved feelings of omnipotence, that I felt I was personally responsible for everything bad that happened. No wonder, given that my father blamed me for everything.

Anyhow, it's awfully hard not to fall back into that.

I mean, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence. People have been convicted of murder on less.

Let's examine:
I bought the house last fall.
This past winter [2010-2011] was the coldest and snowiest here in decades.
This summer [2011] had the worst heat wave in decades.
Last week we felt seismic activity for the first time ever here.
Now we're to get a hurricane, and the last time an eye passed directly over this area was in the 19th century!

I rest my case.  

Today, add to the list what is predicted to be the worst storm since the 1800's, and the eye will (probably) be passing about 20 miles south.

I am Typhoon Mary.

--------------------------------

I am hoping that the wind and ocean surge predictions are exaggerated because no government entity wants to be accused of downplaying it.  Daughter and Hercules, and the Nugget, plan to stay here.  "We have a generator now." 

I'm not happy with that, because the Nugget has been very sick with a head cold, croup, and TWO infected ears.  She was limp-sick on Friday, but a little better yesterday now that she has antibiotics.  But I don't know where else they could go with a sick baby.

Also, while my house is 29' above sea level, their house is at least 8' lower.

Well, excuse me while I bring outdoor furniture in and corral the flamingo herd.

--------------------------------

Flash:  NYC Mayor is on TV right now, he says surge is expected to be 10-11 feet.  Ok.  That's a lot better than the 20' I was hearing yesterday!  I guess I don't have to worry about fish in my living room.
.

3651 Weathermen or Tarot cards?

Friday, October 26, 2012

It is the insane that make the sane go insane.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Constant storm warnings on TV, and it isn't even expected until Monday evening.

The only thing that would worry me is splash/overflow from the bay.  I'm about 29 feet above sea level, Maybe 600 feet from the bay.  The TV folks are confusing me.

To consider:
- high tide.
- storm surge.
- waves
- rain unable to go into the storm drains because the drains are full of leaves (and washed away Hallowe'en decorations).

Tide - They're saying high tide is 8 feet.  Huh?  Maybe in constricted areas.  Judging by what I have seen on the piers in the bay, I'd say less than 5 feet.

Surge - There's been three different guys talking, all on the same channel.  One says 5 to 10 foot surge.  Another says 10 to 20.  Another said 8 to 12.  Who do I believe?

Waves - "Up to 20 foot waves."  Wow.  That "up to" really covers every possibility, doesn't it?

Rain - I LOVE the way everyone here rakes and blows their leaves into the street.  Right over the drains.

So adding the numbers up, I can expect somewhere between 0 and 19 feet of water in my house.

Cool.  But I'm staying here.

Note - I did evacuate in August of last year, a hurricane, but that was less for myself and more to convince Daughter and Hercules to go.  The Nugget was 4 months old, and I mainly wanted her out.

3650 Panic

Friday, October 26, 2012

Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks or where he lives,

but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is.

-- Barbara Bush (Former US First Lady) --

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A lot of freakin' out going on.  Some kind of super storm supposed to hit up the east coast.  The local township is sending out email alerts that make it sound like there will be no food, water, or power available for weeks.  The water-heavy sky is going to fall and flatten us like a pancake and then float it all out into the ocean.

The town of Rhinebeck, NY, near my country house, is also drumming up a panic with email broadsides.  They seem to think that the world is going to blow away, leaving everything flat as a pancake, not a blade of grass standing.

Ok, who's the spoilsport who sued a municipality for not warning people sufficiently about weather, so now they're afraid NOT to scare the pants off people?

This is ridiculous.  Tell us something is coming.  Give us the best prediction as to rainfall, windspeeds, etc.  It really isn't necessary to scream at us.  I'm tired of being treated like an infant.

FLASH:  The NYC mayor is on TV right now talking about precautions and plans being put into place for the storm, and how people can get information and assistance if needed.  He's being matter-of-fact and serious without being hysterical.

You know, his calmness has got me thinking about it, whereas the local and upstate hysteria just had me rolling my eyes and passing it off.

--------------------------------

Speaking of infants, the Nugget is very sick.  She has a cold, it's going into her chest, frighteningly high fever, and she has two infected ears.  Remember I said she's very strong?  Well, it's next to impossible to get medicine into her.  She fights like a tiger.  She clings to Daughter, won't allow any space between them.  Daughter has Hercules and me to help her out with a sick baby.  She asked today how on earth I managed alone.

Well, I didn't tell her, I'll let her think that's how it always is, but the biggest difference is that Daughter would take the medicine if I asked her to.  She was very compliant.  Nugget will not allow anything she doesn't want, that's that, and there's no reasoning with her. That's different, but not better or worse, and I don't want Daughter to wish it otherwise.

--------------------------------

John Scalzi has written a letter from "a rapist" to conservative politicians, thanking them for making his hobby so much more satisfying.  It's sadly funny and it's infuriating.  Please go read it, at http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/10/25/a-fan-letter-to-certain-conservative-politicians/.  You won't be sorry you took the minutes to read it.  An excerpt:

Ah, I see by your surprised face that you at the very least claim to have no idea what I’m talking about. Well, here’s the thing. Every time you say “I oppose a woman’s right to abortion, even in cases of rape,” what you’re also saying is “I believe that a man who rapes a woman has more of a right to control a woman’s body and life than that woman does.”

3649 Kora!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch.

-- Jack Nicholson --

------------------------------------------

I love this!

[http://youtu.be/O37H6NODLDM] Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate, "Wonamati"

It's not my usual style or genre, but I love it.  I found it by accident searching for classical kora music.

I love kora.  That's the unusual instrument on the left.   I'd never seen one this size.  The traditional kora is huge and sits on the floor.  They have a very wide range of sounds.  Love 'em.

And, if you are very naughty, perhaps you'll figure out why I laughed.  And immediately wrote a note to The Man.

3648 Sitting on my stool

Saturday, October 20, 2012

My girlfriend always laughs during sex---no matter what she's reading.

--Steve Jobs --

---------------------------------------------------------

The Queen asked on my post #3646 why I don't call the police about apparent drug sales in the parking lot.

Daughter says there's no point, that it might be dangerous to be (even if mistaken as) a rat, and the police don't do anything about it anyway.  They'll pull in, the dealers will pull out, and the cops let them go.  She's lived here a lot longer than I, and I'm beginning to see where she's coming from.

I read the weekly township police activity report (PDF link in an email).  In any given week in this small township the police are called out well over 250 times.  Arrests are made or investigations conducted for domestic disturbances, burglaries, robberies, unauthorized use of credit or debit cards, motor vehicle infractions, bar fights, blah blah blah, but you never see anything about drugs.  Never.  No prostitution, either.  (Oddly, about 1/3 of the arrests are for "contempt of court".  It looks like most people arrested for whatever never bother to appear in court.)

About the only time the local cops even check for drugs is when it's a traffic stop and they get pissed at the driver.

This is the summary paragraph from the most recent report:

Officers responded to or initiated 260 calls for service between October 10 and October 16, 2012, including 15 suspicious persons/vehicles; 19 alarms; 17 first aid calls; seven motor vehicle crashes; six thefts; one domestic violence incident, one noise complaint; one criminal mischief incident, four disorderly persons, four burglaries, and 71 motor vehicle stops. Officers issued 45 motor vehicle summonses.

I think the police are overwhelmed.  I don't know how many officers there are but I see the same seven names over and over in the reports.  Doing the math, each officer is handling a heavy caseload.  Drug busts are time and effort intensive, and given that known dealers are all over the place here (there are two homes on my short street where I hear you can get anything you want), busts are probably a waste of time.  Slap one down, another pops up.

Most dealers here operate out of houses.  You can tell where they are - they're the ones with a lot of traffic, short visits.  I guess they have lots of friends over for a quick cup of tea, eh?  Tea drunk on the doorstep.  I'm surprised that this parking lot bunch is selling so openly.

My major point was that I've never actually seen it right out in the open like that, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do.  The first time I realized what was probably happening I stood there and stared in disbelief - which I suspect is the wrong thing to do.

Of course for all I know they're actually selling thumb drive copies of their garage band's latest album. 
.

3647 Protect your rights

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Countering someone's negativity with your positivity doesn't work

because it's argumentative.

People don't like to be emotionally contradicted and if you try

to convince them that they shouldn't feel something,

they'll only feel it more stubbornly.

--  Peter Bregman --

-----------------------------------------------------------

Well, about a week ago I saw the first neighborhood house and yard decorated for Christmas, multicolored lights strung up all over everything.  I guess I can understand why they'd want to do it now, rather than wait for freezing temperatures and snow, but the distaste and sinking feeling I had upon seeing them surprised me.

I hate hate hate those gaudy displays. It ruins the whole Christmas thing for me.

--------------------------------

I've got a bunch of eBooks on my Kindle and a few more on the Nook.  I'll bet lots of people have huge music collections on iPods or whatever.  Did you know that if you die, you may not be able to leave those collections, unlike vinyl, CDs, DVDs, and real paper books, to your heirs?

You paid a small fortune for those collections, and it all goes poof when you are no longer around.

It appears that you don't legally own the bits and bytes you paid for.  Your account purchased the right to read, watch, or listen to them.  When you die, your account is terminated, and that terminates any right to the materials.  Story at http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-08-23/finance/33336852_1_digital-content-digital-files-apple-and-amazon.

----------------------------------

Something else to watch out for if you have a PayPal or an eBay account.  The user agreement says that if you have an argument with the companies, you abdicate all rights to sue them and can't join a class action suit.  You have to go to binding arbitration.

Now this is bad.

• That leaves you out in the cold paying your own legal bills, going up against a corporation with an in-house legal department.
• They might do the same nasty thing to hundreds of thousands of people, but very few will take it to arbitration.
• This means that even if they lose every single one of those arbitration rulings (and arbitration rarely goes against the corporation, since the arbiters are not required to rule according to laws), it costs them relatively little, and therefore there's no incentive to change their practices.

Corporations LOVE arbitration!

Yeah, class action suits enrich the lawyers and rarely result in any real money for the damaged parties, and that's why people hate class action attorneys, BUT they DO make the offending companies change their practices.  It hurts them financially, but even more from bad publicity.  You can't do that all by yourself, and definitely not in arbitration.

Oddly enough, PayPal and eBay will allow you to opt out of that clause, but you must meet the deadline to do it.  You have to write each of them a letter in a particular format, to be received by early November for eBay, and the end of November for PayPal (exact dates are at the link).

Go to http://consumerist.com/2012/10/15/here-is-a-downloadable-template-for-opting-out-of-paypal-arbitration-clause/ for details.

Pass this around.

--------------------------------

Now, I'm a little confused, because when I took a class in commercial law about 16 years ago, it was pointed out to us that you cannot be forced to give up the right to sue.  Even if you sign a contract that specifies arbitration, you still have the absolute and irrevocable right to request redress from the courts.

Did something change?
.

3646 Different World

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Your measure is not what in you believe, but in what you do.

-----------------------------------------------

There's a little quick-shop owned by a young Pakistani (I assume) couple about 2.5 blocks away, that I go to for cigarettes and munchies and minor groceries.   They had an attempted robbery a few days ago.  There are cameras, and the wife showed me the video.  It was so funny!  The miscreant leaned across the counter pointing a knife at the husband.  That in itself was funny, since there was no way he could have reached him to stab him.  The husband walked down the length of the counter with the robber following him along the counter, waving the knife, then the husband rounded the end of the counter swinging a baseball bat!

He swung that bat so fast and so hard --- it was amazing!  It was like a blur surrounding him three feet around.  The bad guy jumped straight up in the air and came down running for the door.  The left side of the double door doesn't open, and it looked like he bounced off that, got hit by the bat, and fell and rolled out the right side.  Took  off running.

The wife said that when the bad guy saw the bat, he kept yelling, "Wrong store!  Wrong store!  I got the wrong store!"

I guess there's another store up the street that's easier to rob?

----------------

Update, from the police blotter:  The guy was white male, 5'9", black hoodie with horizontal white line across back, blue gloves, jeans, white shoes.  K-9 attempted to track, no result.


----------------

This store has a large parking lot to the side.  I think that's the place to go for drugs.  All day long there are two or three people sitting in a car.  Sometimes it's different people, different cars.  Maybe they take shifts or something.  Someone will pull up to the driver's side window in a car or on a bike, there'll be a short conversation, something gets passed back and forth through the window, and then the visitor leaves.  And the folks in the car continue sitting there.

This morning it was a lone middle-aged woman in a car.  Another older woman came up on a bike, window lowered a crack, things passed, bike lady leaves, older woman still sitting there when I left.

I don't know how I'm supposed to act when I see stuff like that.

Man, this place is SO different from what I'm used to.
.

3645 Even mold avoids it

October 19, 2012

Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake whole relationships.

-- Sharon Stone --

-----------------------------------------------------

I don't much like bread, except maybe with a fried egg or as a grilled cheese sandwich.  It's just a carrier for the good stuff.  I'm limited to about 150 calories for breakfast and 300 for lunch (I eat six times a day), so two slices of bread at 80-100 calories per slice kind of  limits what I can put in or on a sandwich.  All I want is something that will sop up egg yolk or hold meat, cheese, and lettuce together, and provide some fiber without using up my allocatable calories.  Oh, and taste good, or at least not bad.

Hello low calorie bread!  It's not always easy to find, but there are about three brands out there that have like 40 calories per slice.  (There's an absolutely fabulous bread available up by my old house, 40 calories per slice and multiple whole grains - actual chunks of grain and sunflower seed in it - that's delicious, but I can't find it around here.)

I tried one brand down here that was ok, but I didn't save the wrapper, and the next time I bought bread I got some other brand of tasteless dreck (Pepperidge Farm Lite Style 7 Grain).  I didn't eat half of it.  It tastes like cardboard from the basement.  You know it's bad when I start calling meat wrapped in lettuce a "sandwich", or when I'm making Welsh rabbit (rarebit!) instead of grilled cheese sandwiches, or when I lick the yolk off the plate rather than use bread - well, maybe I'm avoiding the bread.

Believe it or not, next shopping trip I bought the same dreck again.  I'm not too smart.

So I figured I'd feed it to the squirrels and birds.

Today I realized I'm probably starving the animals.  I'm throwing what looks nourishing out there, and they're gobbling it up like it has calories or something.

Oops.

You know there's not much nourishment in bread when closed up in the cupboard for three weeks it doesn't mold.  Or go stale.
.

3644 Drying up

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Mouths lie; hearts don’t.

-----------------------------------------------------

I took a 12-hour pill this morning.  It should be wearing off about now.  I feel great!  My temp has been 97.5  all day, and although I still have to blow my nose occasionally and I've been sneezing a bit, it's a clear discharge.

Wow. 

I hope it holds.

And if Romney doesn't stop exaggerating, interrupting, and going over time, I may have to sue him for a broken TV set.
.

3643 More schnork, and an oof.

Monday, October 15, 2012

People have a way of getting away with exactly what you let them get away with.

--------------------------------------------------------------

So, I got dressed and went out to buy some decongestants, and discovered another symptom.  My legs are weak.  I was walking like I was drunk.

Speaking of drunk, I think I've had two hangovers in my entire life, and in both cases I wasn't even inebriated.  Both hangovers were from drinking home-brewed mead.  Man, that stuff is EVIL!  Tastes good, but evil evil evil.

This headache I have feels just like a mead hangover.  It was overcast today, but every once in a while a beam of sun would break through, and when it did, it split my head.  Somebody two houses away was running a wood chipper, and every time a branch went through it felt like my head was going through the chipper.  (Yeah, I saw "Fargo".  Just like that.)

So, I bought a box of pills for runny nose to take now, and a box of pills for breaking up nose and sinus congestion (I figure that's where this is headed next) and some menthol lozenges for zinging the old membranes.  In each case I got the smallest packages.  It came to $27!  Not counting the lozenges, that's almost $.75 per pill!  I about fell over.

When did that stuff get so expensive?

I'll be sleeping in Vicks Vaporub tonight.  I love that stuff.  I like the way it smells and the warm glow on my chest.  (No expiration date on vaporub, so it's one of the few things spared from Daughter's purges.)

-------------------------------

The other nickname for the Nugget is Monster Truck - acquired in utero when she ran all over her mother's insides, and that's her geocaching "handle".  The teachers at her nursery school call her Muscles.  She's almost 18 months old, 32" tall, and weighs maybe 27 lbs.  Powerful chubby short legs.

She really is incredibly strong for her size.

When I got back from the grocery store yesterday, I put away the refrigerator and freezer stuff, but left everything else in the bags in the hall near the front door.  Daughter and Nugget came over this evening.  Daughter picked up all the bags and carried them into the kitchen, but left the laundry detergent in the hall because it goes in the laundry room under the stairs.

When Daughter brought the bags to the kitchen, I looked up and then past her, and here comes Nugget trotting around the corner carrying the laundry detergent jug by the handle, high against her chest.  The jug weighs just under 8 lbs.  That's almost 1/3 of her own weight.  It was as big as her chest and belly.  I need two hands to lift it comfortably.

She's amazing. 

[Photo at the nursery school.  Interesting the way her shirt matches the floor, wall, and door.]
.

3642 Schnork

Monday, October 15, 2012

Identifying a problem is more important than solving it.

---------------------------------------------

Sick.

I was fine yesterday late afternoon.  I went across the street to visit the Nugget for a few minutes.  Hercules, her father, was sniffing and snuffling and complaining of a slight fever.

I left them and went to the grocery store, and my nose started running in the bread aisle.  Yeah, that suddenly.  Naturally, I had no tissues.  I was licking it off my upper lip and hoping nobody'd notice. 

Also naturally, I walked right past the colds aisle and didn't buy any decongestants.  I've got nothing in the house, mostly because Daughter goes through my kitchen pantry and medicine chest when I'm not looking and throws out anything past the expiration date, and I'm not asking her if she has anything I can take because she uses herbal remedies and that stuff, I forget what it's called, where there might be one molecule of active ingredient in the whole bottle.  You know, that stuff.

She doesn't like chemicals.

Last night I was working logic puzzles in bed and dripping all over the pages.

Today I am miserable.  I can breathe through my nose, but I don't because that sets off sneezes that scare Jasper and aggravate this pounding headache I have.  It seems to be all sinus and nose at this point.  Temp 99.5 (normal for me is a bit over 97).

I've got to get up off my tail and go get something.  But I guess that's the other symptom.  I don't have enough energy to get dressed, let alone go out.
.

3641 Pretty feet, so there!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Polls reveal attitudes; they do not predict behavior.  Just because a poll says 50% of the polled will resign their job if X occurs doesn‘t mean that anyone will actually resign when X occurs.

We forget that attitude and behavior are, for obvious reasons, different.

-- [To keep in mind during this time of rampant OMG polls] --

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you ever heard of Morton's Toe? See http://www.integrative-healthcare.org/mt/archives/2010/12/mortons_toe_one.html.  That's where the second (index?) toe is longer than the big toe.

Believe it or not, it's considered a deformity, a disorder.  10% of the world's people have it.  The articles insist that 80% of the people who have it suffer foot pain, and it causes (domino effect) hip and back pain (and apparently practically every other pain in the body, including fibromyalgia and TMJ pain.  I think they're going a bit far with that.)

The Greeks considered it the height of beauty.  A Morton's Toe foot is called a Greek foot.  The non-Morton's are called Roman feet.  Most ancient Greek statues have Morton's Toes, and the statue of Liberty has them.  When I went to the Mensa world gathering in Orlando a few years ago, there were a few thousand Mensans from all over the world all wearing sandals, and I did my own informal survey.  Four out of five Mensans there had Morton's Toe.  That's an extremely high proportion.

Everyone in my family has it (so far as I know), so it never struck me as odd.  It makes the foot look nicely rounded, much prettier than those ugly feet with those sticking-out pointy big toes.

---------------------------------------------

The auction hall near my country house has scheduled an estate auction next Saturday.   (I bought most of my furniture there over the years.)  It's going to be a combination of a few estates, and one is Jimmy Cagney's.  "The" Jimmy Cagney, I wondered?  So I did some research.

It is his stuff.  He died about 26 years ago, so it's a bit late for his things to be auctioned.  Maybe it was a heir who's getting rid of some things.  Maybe his wife?  It turns out he had a large farm in Stanfordville, less than 20 miles from my country house, where he'd lived for the last 30 years of his life.  He enjoyed painting, and a few of his paintings will be auctioned, among other "smalls".

That was something interesting about that area.  There were/are a lot of very famous people living up there, and sometimes you'd see them on the streets or in the village shops, and nobody said boo, nobody takes photos, nobody asks for autographs.  No fuss.
.

3640 Quality in code and sex bunnies

Saturday, October 13, 2012

A good deal of tyranny goes by the name of protection.

-- Crystal Eastman --

 

-----------------------------------------------

If you're a masochist who is curious about the budget proposed by Paul Ryan, you can find all 98 pages of it at  http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/pathtoprosperity2013.pdf.

------------------------------

When I worked for IBM, there was a lot of blather from management about "quality", but that's just what it was - blather.  We put out code that we knew was full of bugs, but we sent it out ON TIME, by damn!  We techies hated it.  Everybody said the word "quality" with a snort.  Yeah, sure.  What it came down to was that we had to beat the competition to market,  Period.  As far as sales and executives were concerned - "get it out first and fix it later", which eventually devolved to "get it out, and fix the bugs only if customers complain about them".

Well, judging by what I received the other day, that hasn't improved.  What really gets me is that there isn't even any competition in this instance - just maybe a due date to be met.

There's a website for employees.  I got an email saying that I should register for it.  This is how:  

Your IBM ID must have the format of a valid email address. It is uneditable and

•     must be no longer than 80 characters
•     must contain an '@' character that separates the user and domain values (example: yourid@ipsname.com)

[...later in the instructions, after the part about creating a password ...]  

If your IBM ID is over 32 characters or contains an "@" symbol, it may not give you access to certain password-protected parts of [the site].  This is a known, temporary condition, where a shorter, simpler IBM ID is required to access those areas properly. If you haven't already created a secondary IBM ID, return to the area where you had trouble signing in, and follow the 'Register' link from there to create one. 

 They have GOT to be kidding!  How could anyone send that crap out with a straight face?

---------------------------------

  Well, ladies, it looks like all the advances of the libbers in the '70s have not penetrated some areas.  The above photo accompanies one of those Yahoo sidebar ads, versions with captions like "One simple trick to beat the recession and make a fortune" or "One simple way to make a million dollars".

Take a good look.

Now, who is that ad addressed to?

And what does it say about women?

Apparently, a woman is still a thing to be owned, a reward for good work, good for one thing only, and we don't mind if she's a golddigger if she's got a chest full of silicone.

They could have shown him with a fancy car.  Car = woman, woman = car, same thing, same amount of respect.

Bah!

3639 Apt!

Thursday, October 11, 2012 (before the debate)

Human beings are never more frightening than

when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.

-- Laurens van der Post --

------------------------------------------------------------------

Aaaagh!  I just choked on a potato chip.   Field called Ryan "Eddie Munster in a suit"!


-------------------------------------------------------------

Update, during debate:   I WANNA VOTE FOR JOE FOR PRESIDENT!!!!
.

3638 Simplistic rant - don't bother reading.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

If your customs allow you to kill on the basis of religious, racial, material, political,

or ideological differences, then you are living in a barbarian society,

and you are a barbarian.

...[T]hose who engage in violence even to spread seemingly well intentioned

political ideologies are barbarians.

-- Michael Hachulski --

--------------------------------------------------------------

I'm hearing that CEOs are against Obama.  Not all - but the hand-picked ones are being trotted out, threatening layoffs.  Sheesh.  I can't think of a better reason to vote for Obama.  Yeah, sure, if he's elected you're going to kill your own personal golden goose?  Wait a minute.  I gotta find my violin.

And hey, Kodak wants to kill the health care plans for their existing retirees as a means to  emerge from bankruptcy.  Note that retirees are usually on medicare, so all Kodak is paying for is fill-in policies, and for dependents of retirees.  These are older folks and dependents with pre-existing conditions.  Um, did you do anything first about executive salaries?   And if you get Romney, what will these folks do when medicare is strangled, or disabled to the point that facilities will no longer accept it?  How about the 60-year-old dependent who is not yet eligible for medicare?

Oh yeah, I forgot.  Romney has a plan for them.  He said people who don't have health insurance can just go to ERs.  Is he unaware that the ER will just stabilize you, then if you don't have insurance you are not admitted for further care, you are just sent home?  Stabilized means you're not going to die in the next day or two.  The basic condition is not addressed.  That's Romney-care.

CEOs like that, I guess.

-------------------------------

Something to keep in mind - CEO jobs and salaries have not been impacted in the current environment.  The stock market isn't thrilled, but that's because large companies are not expanding.  They are sitting on capital, waiting.  They won't admit it, but they kind of like being able to dictate salaries and conditions to people and unions who are desperate for jobs.

"Don't like it?  Leave.  I can get another just like you for less."

What they don't seem to realize is that nobody's buying what they have to sell because nobody's sure of their jobs, your job could move to India or China next week, and if they have a job they haven't had a raise in six years.  Corporations don't seem to have made that connection.  Chicken and egg.

You can't keep taking away from your workforce, and then expect them to keep buying your crap.

That's the REAL trickle-down theory.
.