2970 Smokey sketch, life phases

Monday, May 24, 2010

A witty saying proves nothing.
--Voltaire--

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In 1966 my cat Smokey, black with a white spot on her chest and a white bar on her belly, was eight years old. She was sitting on a table looking out the window one day, and I happened to be holding a ballpoint pen and notepad. I quickly sketched this:
She died in 1975, aged 18 years. I've had a lot of cats over the past 50 years. At one time I had seven cats (two adults and five kittens), but Smokey remains the most unique and memorable. She was extremely intelligent and sensitive to my emotional needs. It's been 35 years, and I still miss her.

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To niece, who said that the BMW rode hard, and I should get a Mercedes, I now know what you meant. They gave me a 2010 128 loaner (Hal is a 2011 135), and the older car rides hard and handles awkwardly by comparison. I felt every bump in my street and driveway yesterday.

"John" called this morning to tell me Hal was ready (they found and fixed a pinched speaker wire), and I mentioned the difference to him, and he gushed yes, such a difference. They softened the suspension in mid-2010 or somewhen, and the newer cars corner better and feel solidly heavy. The 135i, being a convertible, feels especially heavy, which smooths the ride, but steering and cornering are still dancer nimble.

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The Man turns 50 today. He is embarking on some major and scary changes to his life path. When he's stressed he withdraws, and I know that, but it doesn't make it any easier to be rejected when you want to help.

I sent him a happy birthday email at midnight in which I mentioned that he's starting the second half of the 60-year adult phase, in which one gets to start over, redefine, redirect. He's absolutely doing that, but I'm not sure he understood what I meant and I didn't explain it.

I have a theory that the ideal life has four phases:

1. First 20 years - youth - you get to be silly and childish and experimental.
2. Next 60 years - adulthood, which has two subparts:
• First 30 years of adulthood - you have to be sensible and responsible, building a family, a future, a support structure for later years, perhaps doing what you have to do rather than what you want to do.
• Second thirty years of adulthood - you get to reexamine the first thirty, and restructure your life, redirect your energies to something you really want to do, using different criteria for decisions, perhaps contributing more to society than to the economy.
3. Next twenty years - youth again - you get to be silly and childish and experimental.

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2969 Another Level

Monday, May 24, 2010

The victor will always judge the defeated, and always find him guilty.
--Goering, during the Nuremberg Trials--

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I mentioned I'd been driving tin cans, used cars, and a Dodge wheelchair mini-van for the past 45 years. With the exception of the van (needed for Jay) they were always the cheapest but still dependable thing I could find. Hal is my first brand new luxury car. I am just now finding out what that means.

The van has a lot of fancy do-dads on it, so some of Hal's bells and whistles didn't impress me. The service does. Wow. There's a big difference between the BMW service garage and the local independent garage, or the Ford or Chevy or Dodge service garages. Or even Mazda, for that matter (the BMW dealership is the same complex that used to be Mazda - I bought a Mazda GLC hatchback there in 1983).

There seems to be a loose wire in the driver-side speaker, so Hal had his first service visit today.

I don't have a key for Hal. I have what looks like a remote thingy that locks and unlocks, and allows me to push the button to start the motor. Actually, I have two thingies, meant for two drivers, and each of them remembers the settings for the seats, temperature, mirrors, radio, and so on for the driver who uses that particular thingy.

When I got to the BMW service area, the guy stuck my thingy in a reader box on his PC, and it gave him all kinds of info, including my name, address, phone number, service and warranty info on the car, mileage, and heaven only knows what else.

They also gave me a new BMW (about the same size as Hal) to use until Hal is released.

Every other service garage I'd ever seen had a greasy oily cement floor. This place was paved with sparkling clean foot-square beige ceramic tiles.

About 1 in 6 times I've taken a car in for service, I've got it back with grease on the seat belts from mechanic's hands. I've actually had clothing ruined by it. Today, a mechanic walked into the reception area while I was there, and he was removing his latex surgical gloves.

I'm finding that "the rich" aren't different, but "they" sure get treated differently. I could get used to this. I could even get addicted to it, which might explain the crazy things that people do when they are in danger of losing it. I'm amused that owning a BMW gets you "rich" treatment, even just on the streets, but the interesting thing is that you don't have to be rich or classy or "better" to own one - just very foolish will do.
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2968 Another bug?

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than
it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
--George Bernard Shaw--

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I remember when Mr. Potato Head (he was "born" in 1952) was just a box of plastic facial features. Parents had to provide a real potato for the head. It was more fun that way, because you could choose oddly shaped potatoes, and stick the nose on anywhere you wanted. Allowed much more creativity. Especially because it didn't necessarily have to be a potato.

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I've had a slew (for my blog, a slew is about 15) of visits this morning to my post about the strange message that heralded the arrival of a virus. Something nasty must be going around.

I have a bunch of protective stuff on my system, and in the three-plus years I've had the laptop and Vista, I've been hit with a virus/trojan/sniffer three times, and every time it was caught, blocked, and removed by my valiant and ever vigilant protectors before it got entrenched. Only three is remarkable because of the amount of time I'm online and the range of sites I visit (...but significantly, no games sites, no "social" sites, no porn, and I never click on ads).

The last previous virus was acquired when my cursor accidentally crossed over an ad on, of all places, the Wall Street Journal (or maybe it was the New York Times) site. That was enough to release mayhem, and the newspaper later issued a public apology for the problem.

Early last week I got another. I had several windows/tabs open, and wasn't anywhere I hadn't been before, all trusted sites, when suddenly the popup came up asking for permission to open the Adobe PDF reader. Um, I hadn't tried to read any documents, let alone a PDF. I've heard that PDF docs can carry executable code, which can be malware. So I said no, and my sniffers all went crazy.

SpyBot Search and Destroy got rid of it for me. Because I hadn't opened the mysterious document, nothing permanent had been installed. I forget now what it was called, but a little research said it was a keylogger, which gathers passwords and all kinds of id info and ships it to parts unknown. Very dangerous.

My protectors:

• Vista firewall
• Firefox firewall
• Popup blockers
  
• McAfee Antivirus
• SpyBot Search and Destroy
• Ghostery- tells me what trackers are running on a site
• Web of Trust (WOT) - marks all links showing on the screen as safe or unsafe
• There are probably more that I've forgotten

They are all set to automatically update themselves and all either run constantly, or periodically. They probably slow my system down a bit, but a lot less than I'd be slowed down if they didn't.

Piper is constantly plagued by bad stuff. I suspect that young mortgage-handler guy who sometimes uses his office has been being naughty. A lot of porn sites require that you download their special video player, then you get that popup alert that your system has been infected and you must download a special program to get rid of it. If you try to close the popup, it just keeps coming back and you can't do anything else. You're effectively dead. Downloading the program is worse.

I told Piper to get tough with the kid about unsafe browsing, and it hasn't happened since. Really, since MY highly personal financial info is on (protected from the kid and any other human user by a password) and transferred through that computer, Piper should lock it up and allow no one on it. Passwords mean nothing to a virus.

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The Hairless Hunk was working on my yard yesterday, and wanted to talk about what we can do about the flower(weed)bed across the front of the house north of the front door (which is 6'x34'). He wants to just dig it up, and put down a barrier layer topped with stone, with plants through the barrier and directly into the soil. I want to pave it and put huge flowerpots on it, for many reasons, not the least of which is that loose stone is difficult to remove leaves from, and within a year the leaves will support weeds, and weeds and leaves make soil which weeds love, plus weeds will grow up through the barrier holes in the middle of the shrubs, which makes the bigger weeds like volunteer trees, sumacs, and thistles impossible to spray or dig out, and it'll be the same maintenance horror again. I know paving will be expensive, but I refuse to be dissuaded.

I should never go outside when he's working. We should always communicate by email or phone, because every time we start talking, hours go by without notice. We must have talked for three or four hours yesterday and didn't notice the time passing at all. Damn. I admit I find him very attractive, but he's something like 20 years younger and married, with a passel of kids. The other day when I said that in 10 or 15 years my daughter would be trying to take my car keys away from me, he asked how old I was, and was shocked at the answer.

I don't know why. I do look it, especially if I'm tired, or with no makeup, or when my hair is a mess. I have been told I don't move like a crone, or talk or flirt or act like or have the attitudes of an aged hag. For some reason I'm seen as blond, not white-haired, even though it's (almost) white.

Sigh. I don't want to get any older.

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For the last several years, while my weight was up and in constant flux, I was wearing stretch slacks all the time. They were enormously comfortable, and draped nicely over the lumps. Now I'm back into size 6, and it seems to be holding, so when my favorite boutique had a wide selection of non-stretch slacks on super sale, I bought a bunch. They are tighter, hug closer, less forgiving. And I rediscovered the other reason for loving looser stretchy pants.

In non-stretchy pants, I get "bumples" on my bottom. "Bumples" because they're not pimples - nothing so convenient as a head. Just big hard bumps under the skin, right on the sit-down spots. Not ingrown hairs, no hair there. Maybe an angry irritated sweat or oil gland, without infection. I'd forgotten about them.

I've now got a bumple. Blah.
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2967 I'm back from nowhere

Thursday, May 20, 2010

It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me,
it is the parts that I do understand.
--Mark Twain--

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Wow. Nothing since last Saturday? I guess it's because I have a new toy, and we've had some sunny top-down-worthy days, which means all the time left over is taken up by ye olde to-do list.

I signed the contract for the house on Monday, so once the seller/builder signs, it's a committed deal.

On Tuesday, I joined The Man for the evening. Wednesday morning he set the pre-select buttons for me on Hal's satellite radio (Sirius) with the stations he thought I'd like. He did an excellent job - I love all his choices.

This evening I went to diner with Roman and his new lady friend. (I've told him over and over he should run ladies past me for approval, since he doesn't know what he wants.) I like her a lot, but I'm not sure whether it will be a good match. He needs to "do for" his lady, he needs for her to need him, it's an aphrodisiac to him, and this lady seems very strong and self-sufficient. On the other hand, she seems smart enough to play damsel in distress when he needs the boost, so maybe....

Otherwise, not much going on.

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A pet peeve: Decimate. During a commercial for a blender or chopper or something (I wasn't really watching), to show the power, the demonstrator put chunks of concrete in it, and the machine "decimated it to powder!"

Cringe.

Pulverize, maybe. Decimate means to reduce by one tenth, and that's all it means. So unless the blender shot one of every ten chunks through the lid, it didn't decimate them.
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2966 Saturday Muse

Saturday, May 15, 2010

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that
you would lie if you were in his place.
--H.L. Mencken--

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Not much happening. I've been joy riding on back roads. Funny how I become an "attractive blond" in the right car. And the right hat. I can't wait to get on the Thruway.

It's been perhaps 18 to 20 years since I'd driven a car with a manual transmission, and in the four and a half days I've been driving Hal, it's all come back. I clutch and shift automatically already, without even thinking about it. I guess it had become body-knowledge.

Prior to the 1990 Ford Taurus, my first automatic, all my cars had been manual, and I must have been pretty good, because I drove a car an average of 6 to 8 years, and never had to have the clutch adjusted, let alone replaced. Same for the transmission. I also got a higher mpg than expected. Hal might be a little harder to squeeze out mpg, because I can't hear the motor. (According to Hal, I'm getting 25.9 mpg now. I might actually be getting more, but I've been spending a lot of time idling while I read the book and play with all the buttons. This evening I found out how to turn the headlights on! Go me!)

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

Piper is a big Frank Sinatra fan (when he gets drunk, he sings Sinatra at me), so to thank him for going to NJ and looking at the house with me and advising me on the purchase, I bought him the complete set of Sinatra movie DVDs, and gave them to him yesterday.

We were talking about the van's woes, and he told me about an excellent mechanic just around the corner from me. Says he's used him for years and has been very satisfied. Weird. It's not an auto shop, it's a painting company, but they have a large fleet of trucks, and a mechanic on staff. So I went there and asked, and they are willing to take a look at the van. They'll tow it away on Wednesday.

All else seems to be holding its breath.
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2965 Closer to safe

Thursday, May 13, 2010

It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry.
--HL Mencken--

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Hal now has a 2-inch extender on his clutch pedal, and he's much easier to control. Captain Vantastic charged me only the cost of the aluminum block, no charge for installation. However, he pointed out a problem I suspected and had asked the salesman about - I'm too close to the airbag in the steering wheel.

I had read long ago that short people are in danger of having their necks broken (or spinal cords stretched) by the force of a too-close airbag. The salesman said that shouldn't be a problem because Hal moderates the force of deployment based on the weight in the driver's seat. BUT! New York state requires 13 inches space between the driver's nose and the bag. I've got only 10.

Interesting.

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A simple, cheap, "green" way to sop up oil spills:


[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5SxX2EntEo]

Quoting the comment on the video from "maydayfire":

one reason that oil spill clean up companies do not use this method is that for such a natural and simple solution like this, you cant sell it and you cant patent it. When Money/Capitalism becomes the sole motive for scientific firms and companies, such natural and easy solutions are overlooked.

I've heard that before. If someone can't make scads of money on something, that something doesn't happen.
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2964 Rolling

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I don't care who does the electing as long as I get to do the nominating.
--Boss Tweed--

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I took Hal (that's the new car's name, because it's half computer, rather imperious about it, and I don't completely trust it yet) out for a test ride early this evening with a throw pillow behind my lower back. The pillow worked fine. When I got home, there was a message on the phone from the salesman with the phone number for the place where I can get the clutch block installed, in Kingston. I'm not sure, but I think it may be the same guy who handled my purchase of the wheelchair van and serviced the electric ramp and door, and he's really good at adapting things. That's great. I thought they were going to send me to someplace in Westchester or something.

Things are movin' along.
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2963 Car sedation

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Poor spelling does not prove poor knowledge, but is fatal to the argument by intimidation.
--Gene Ward Smith--

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I took Jasper to the vet's today. I wanted to ask if I could sedate him for the 2.5 hour ride to New Jersey, because he throws fits in the carrier. He'd had what appeared to be a seizure during the ride back from the boarding attempt, so he needed to be examined before we could talk about sedation.

The little turd. Toddlers and animals will make a liar of you every time.

Here I am at the vet's talking about how he screams and bloodies his lips and paws on the door and ventilation holes, how he throws his body around and drools, and Jasper? Well, he's nodding off in the carrier. Kind of like when a toddler is running a scorching fever and is unresponsive, and you make the emergency call to the doctor, and when you get there 15 minutes later, the kid is fine and playing happily with toys. Rotten kids and beasties. They make you look like a hysterical parent.

So we now have some tiny pills, and we'll try one once or twice on shorter test-drives before the big trip.

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Speaking of driving, I need a block, about two inches of extender, on the clutch in the new car. The salesman was supposed to call me last night with the 800 number to find out where I can have it done, but he didn't call, and time got away from me today, so I didn't call him. But I've decided I really shouldn't drive the new car much until I get the extender. It's really hard on my back. I woke up this morning with my back warning me not to do that again, or else.

Tomorrow I'll try a rolled pillow behind my lower back, but that's only a temporary solution.
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2962 Car Car!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Whenever anyone says, "theoretically", they really mean, "not really".
--Dave Parnas--

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Yesterday I went to NJ and the attorney and I worked on the house contract. It needs some changes. Then I visited Daughter at her office, then I drove to Newburgh and had dinner with some Mensans. When I mentioned I needed a way to get to the new car today, Roman volunteered. When I got home, there was a message on my phone from Piper, also volunteering.

So Roman picked me up at noon, and dropped me off at the dealership. The amount of crap that car thinks, does, monitors, and allows me to do is overwhelming. I guess I've got some reading to do.

There is a small problem - when I tried on the 2010 model, it fit me perfectly. However, that was an automatic transmission. I wanted manual. This car fits as far as the gas and brake pedals, just like the 2010, but the clutch is way out there. Even with the seat all the way forward, I have to slide forward and point my toes to fully depress the clutch. The salesman checked, and yes, we can put a block on it (I need about 2 inches), but it has to be done at a special "handicap refitting" shop. I guess having short legs is a valid handicap.

So, I'm driving it with ballerina toes, but I hope not for long. On the way home I stopped by Roman's and gave him a ride, then by Piper's for his ride. And even though it's only 55 degrees F, we had the top down. If you keep the windows up and turn the heat on, it's fine.

The amount of pure power is frightening!

These pictures were taken by Piper:

The white rings around the headlights are the daytime running lights. I don't want to even think about how much replacement "bulbs" must cost.

You can tell how far forward I have the seat by the length of the seat belt. I should be able to move it back a bit once I get the block on the clutch.
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2961 Wind and Babies

Sunday, May 9, 2010

If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.
--Isaac Newton--
If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders.
--Hal Abelson--
In computer science, we stand on each other's feet.
--Brian K. Reed--

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Whatever happened to the expression "I have a cold in my back"? It used to mean muscle cramps, which usually resulted from a draft on one's back. You don't hear it at all anymore.

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Wind! We had 50 mph gusts yesterday. I went to see "Babies" at the arts theater, and almost couldn't get home. There were trees and large and small branches down on the road everywhere. It was complicated by bridge work. The county has used economic incentive money to replace bridges over the hundreds of streams and creeks and ravines on small roads everywhere, which is good for many reasons, except that they seem to have decided to do them all at once!

The Hairless Hunk cleaned up all the winter-downed branches on my property last week, and the yard looked good. He's going to have to do it all over again. Luckily, nothing has fallen on the house or driveway.

When Jay first moved into this house in the early '80s, his parents gave him a young maple tree as a housewarming gift. They planted it to the side of the house, outside a bathroom window.

Unfortunately, it was planted too close to the woods, and now it's huge and leans toward the house, looming threateningly over the roof. It's unbalanced, with more branch growth on the "open" house side. The Hairless Hunk has recommended that we take it out. I can't cut it down, because it meant a lot to Jay.

Maybe, when I move and sell this house, the new owners will have more sense and less sentimentality.

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"Babies", the documentary, was enjoyable. It's perhaps not something you should schedule time for, but if you have some free time and it's showing near you, see it. It is very cute.

I had watched a TV interview with the director last week, and he had said that the movie illustrated that first-world children are over attended, over stimulated, and over scheduled, and it's absolutely not necessary, that children are perfectly happy playing alone with sticks and stones, and a little boredom doesn't hurt them. He said that the Mongolian baby was usually left alone in the yurt for up to eight hours while his mother was working with the herds, and he was perfectly fine.

Well, actually, the film didn't show any of that. You see it, but no point is made. Well, if there is a point, it's that a child must know that they are loved, unconditionally, and that they make their mother smile. Everything else is fluff.

The clearest contrast was the attitude toward dirt. The American and Japanese babies were protected from nature and dirt - the Mongolian and African babies reveled in it, with no harm at all. That's kind of my attitude. Babies should get dirty! The dirtier the better! They should french kiss the dog! I've told Daughter that I intend to sail leaves in the gutters with my grandchild, and dig worms, and make mud pies, and yes, we might even taste them.

(Maybe that's why I have no grandchildren yet.)
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2960 Car!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Democracy, n.: A government of the masses. Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of direct expression. Results in mobocracy. Attitude toward property is communistic... negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether it is based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences. Result is demagogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy.
-- U.S.Army Training Manual No. 2000-25 (1928-1932), since withdrawn. --

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My car is in! The salesman called today. It will be two days or so before I can pick it up. I guess they need to "do stuff" to it first.

Monday is filled up with the NJ attorney and an evening dinner. Tuesday I have to take Jasper to the vet (maybe I can change that appointment, since it's not like he's sick or anything).

The dealership is about 40 minutes south, and I need to figure out how to get there without a car. Piper would happily take me, but he'd been in Florida for the past two weeks taking care of his elderly mother while his sister was on vacation, so I know he's buried in work right now, so I don't want to ask him. I checked the county bus routes. They seem to be geared toward getting people to jobs and home again - the latest of two daily buses downriver leaves the village at 7:56 am (! Ack !) and I'd have to change buses in Poughkeepsie. A taxi would cost a zillion dollars. Almost all my friends have jobs, and most of them live way the heck down there, so it's a strain for them.

Gee, sorry. Don't you wish you had my problems?

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It snowed last night in the Catskills. Sigh.
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2959 Candidate

Friday, May 7, 2010

All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers ... Each one owes infinitely more to the human race than to the particular country in which he was born.
-- Francois Fenelon --

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An acquaintance is running for governor of New York State as an independent. This is her campaign video. She does make some good points - budget cuts go to the powerless.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMy9CniCGKY]
.

2958 Nothin' Much

Friday, May 7, 2010

Mitchell's Law of Committees: Any simple problem can be made insoluble
if enough meetings are held to discuss it.

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Nothing much happening.

Yesterday the market went crazy. Piper called me to ensure I wasn't freaking out, since I'll be selling stock soon to pay for the new house. He asked how much I thought I'd lost of my private holdings (the stuff he doesn't control), and I told him I hadn't even checked. I figure it was an aberration, and will come back very soon, and today's financial reports seem to be bearing that out. But it's probably just as well that I'm moving a significant amount out of equities and into real estate, at least until Greece, Europe, and the Euro gets sorted out. Which may take a while.

I asked the nurse at the vet's yesterday what they'd advise for Jasper's move to NJ. He freaked so badly the last time he was in the car that I thought he'd had a stroke. She said that it sounded like a seizure - and yeah, now that I think about it, yeah. You'd think I would be able to recognize a seizure.

So anyway, she said that Jasper could be sedated for the trip, but if he did have a seizure, he should be checked out before we attempt that. So, vet appointment next Tuesday. I don't know what the heck they'd be looking at or for....

Nothing else going on.
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2957 Prediction

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Art is anything you can get away with.
-- Marshall McLuhan --

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Yesterday I got an email from the company that I buy most of my clothes from. The online outlet was having a clearance sale.

Stuff in the outlet is already 50 to 75% off, and they were offering 40% off the outlet price.

Wow! That means a top that normally sells for $70 is now something like $12. That's cheaper than Wal-Mart!

Naturally, I jumped. When they run sales like that, things go fast, especially in my size. I bought 3 jackets, 2 pairs of pants, 2 knit tops, a turtleneck, and a dress for a total of $110 plus shipping, in the smaller size I'm wearing now.

As I hit the "checkout" key, I thought to myself, "Just watch. I'll get a coupon tomorrow."

Sure enough, in today's mail I got a coupon for $30 off my next purchase over $100. And it has to be used by May 19.

I could spit.

But if I had waited until today to order, they'd have been out of my size in the things I liked.
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2956 Cleaning out

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought,
but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
-- Albert Einstein --

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Today I cleaned out three clothes closets, sorting into summer keep, winter keep, sell, donate, and throw out. I had a good time.

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I missed the miniature horses giving birth, but then I found some video clips at the Pacific Pinto web site [http://www.pacificpintos.com/new.html] of the very births I'd missed. Neat.

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Thunder storms last night, more predicted for the wee hours tonight.
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2955 Contract Review

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

If you explain so clearly that nobody can misunderstand, somebody will.

(Meetup is teaching me the truth of that....)
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I spent most of the afternoon reviewing the contract for the new house. I had 19 questions and/or things that needed changing, from the fact that my name was misspelled, to paragraphs that were incomplete, stopping in the middle of a sentence. A few of the things the builder/seller and I had agreed upon were not specified, but there's a paragraph that says that this is complete and anything not specified herein ain't gonna happen, so I want those things added before I'll sign it.

There are bunches of possibly important stuff, like the type of deed is "bargain and sale, covenants against grantors acts", which I don't believe is usual. I'd prefer "bargain and sale, with covenants". And the fact that I have to provide a something-or-other 30 days before closing, or I pay a penalty, and the contract sets a tentative closing date of May 28. I received the contract on April 29 - 29 days before the tentative closing date. Duh?

Daughter recommended the lawyer I'm using, but it looks like he received the contract from the builder's attorney, and sent it to me "If you are in agreement, you may sign the Contract and return" without so much as glancing at it. What am I paying him for? What if I had assumed he'd reviewed and approved it, and I went ahead and signed it? Since when does one have to research and cross-check the legal advice you get from your own lawyer?

Mother is not happy.
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2954 Moroccan Urn

Monday, May 3, 2010

A jury consists of 12 persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.
--Robert Frost --
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Every time I've ever bought anything fragile that had to be shipped, the retailer has told me that I must open the shipping container while the delivery guy is there, or the retailer cannot be responsible for damage.

Whether or not I understand that doesn't matter, because I have never convinced the delivery guy, whether UPS, FedEx, USPS, or the store's own people, to wait.

My urn from Morocco arrived today. I asked the FedEx guy to wait, and he said, and I quote, "No, I can't. There's no external damage. If anything's wrong, call them." Me: "Them who?" He: "The people you bought it from, or FedEx." And he left. He didn't even wait for me to shake it and see if there were any clanks. And that's the way it always goes.

The urn itself is ok. The lid has a finial on top, metal, soldered to a flat cap on the top knob, and the final has broken off. It would be easy enough to glue or solder the finial back on, except that the flat part it attaches to got bent off horizontal by the pressure it took to snap the finial, so glued back on, it would not be straight. Sigh. I'll have to find someone who can figure out how to straighten it out.

Here it is. It's all hand painted, very detailed, and trimmed in silver. I set the final on top for the photo, and turned it so it looks straight. Standing on the floor, it goes up to just past mid-thigh on me. Click on the photo for detail.


Now that I have it in the house, I realize I goofed. I should have chosen something more toward the red, pink, orange, brown, green, or tan color group. I have next to nothing blue in my house. But I loved this at first sight and didn't think of that. Still love it.
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2953 Weekend

Monday, May 3, 2010

Mythology, n.: The body of a primitive people's beliefs concerning its
origin, early history, heroes, deities and so forth,
as distinguished from the true accounts which it invents later.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" --

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

Another thing I don't understand: Why is the drain in a bathtub always under the spigot? If they sloped the tub away from the spigot and put the drain in the opposite end, it would be sooooo much easier to clean the tub, and doesn't change the function at all. Of course, the dooflinky to open and close the drain would need to be smooth so you could lie comfortably against the drain end when it's closed, but that's a minor design change.

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

I had a great weekend. The Man has joined a barbershop chorus, and they competed at a convention in Scranton (where I was born) on Saturday. We left Friday afternoon, checked into a hotel in Moosic (the convention hotel was full), stopped by the convention (the quartets competition was Friday), had dinner at the new hotel in the old Lackawanna Railway Station around the corner (where my grandfather used to work), and then found a bowling alley where he could practice. (He gets two lanes and bowls 20 lines in quick succession. It's pretty impressive.)

I love to watch him bowl. He's so intent. He's incredibly focused and intent no matter what he's doing, and I love to see it. Or feel it. (Yeah, ok, I'm in love again.)

Saturday we returned for the chorus competitions.

Now, The Man doesn't like barbershop style, and he's especially annoyed that the group he's in sings only the old standards, which he finds irrelevant to today. But, the man's gotta sing. It's one of his ways to relax. He was hoping he could get them to sing like Christmas carols at nursing homes and hospitals, and do some a-capella stuff at street festivals, but all but one of the other members are over 70 and stuck in their ways. "We don't sing carols." Huh? But he's their strongest bass, so he decided to stick with it for now, I guess, and if he can't change their minds, I suppose he'll eventually find something more suitable.

A group warming up on the street:

The winning chorus (NYC). To tell the truth, I didn't like their performance. There was so much going on onstage it detracted from their music.

The second-place group (Westchester). I liked they way each of them was a different type, and it was easy to identify who/what they were. "Willy Nelson" was perfect, and the hippie, and the Amish guy ... click on the photo to enlarge and see who else you can identify.

The Man says that the groups come in types - the "top" being the competition groups, like the two above. They spend money on costumes, and spend all their time learning two to four songs for competitions. I forget what the middle type is, but most of the rest are recreational. They get together to sing together for fun. They just need to compete every so often to keep membership in the national group. The Man's group is one of those.

Some other groups:



The competition was over and scored by 1 pm on Saturday, and The Man didn't want to stay for the afternoon's festivities, so we went to North Scranton and I showed him where I spent almost every summer of my childhood, then we headed back to NJ to my car. The original plan was that we'd part then, but he was going to practice again and asked if I'd like to watch, so he bowled another 15 lines and I watched.

I wanted to visit Daughter on Sunday, so I asked him to find me a room near her (he's got a membership that gets nice upgrades, so I let him make the reservation and have the points when I stay anywhere). His hips were aching from all the bowling, so I said that if he found me a room with a Jacuzzi, I'd allow him to soak in it. Neat how I wrangled another night together, eh?

Sunday he went to a small bowling tournament where he did pretty well, and I went to Daughter's. I didn't go into the new house, and now I kick myself because once the contract is signed, I'm not allowed to until just before closing. Apparently that's a standard clause.

I got home in time to watch The Amazing Race.
.

2952 Thoughts

Friday, April 30, 2010

Impartial, adj.: Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from espousing either side of a controversy or adopting either of two conflicting opinions.
--Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary --

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

Where are all those people who were yelling for more offshore drilling? They've been awfully quiet these days.

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

What happened to that bacteria that someone had discovered/developed fifteen years ago or so that "ate" oil? I thought it was used off the shore of Texas when there was a drilling leak sometime in the '90s, and it worked.

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

There's something the psychiatrists call omnipotence, where one thinks their actions and thoughts have widespread influence. I think I may suffer from it. I have to sell some stock to buy the new house, and what I was counting on to get about 20% of the money from is BP stock. It's very hard for me to accept that it's coincidence.

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

My urine has had a very bad odor for several months, so bad that I hate it in the morning. It's hard to describe - sort of like the vitamin-B odor with overtones of iodine, and what your hands smell like when you've been handling copper and zinc. Lately I get whiffs of the odor when I'm just sitting around. I'm beginning to worry that whatever it is, my skin smells of it too.

I don't have a UTI, so I thought maybe I'm dumping one of the many vitamins and supplements I take. While I was in Morocco I didn't take anything but the prescription thyroid supplement (L-Thyroxine), and my urine still stank, so maybe that's it? Internet research doesn't list stinky urine as a side effect.

As an experiment, I stopped the L-Thyroxine three days ago, and my piddle now smells like piddle. I guess the next step is to ask/tell the doctor. I'd been taking the lowest available dose of the thyroid, so unless you can cut the tiny dot-like pills, I can't take less.

(The pills are so small they're hard for me to handle with my fingers. I scoop one up with a fingernail.)

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

Sign on the deli door, carefully hand-lettered in multiple colors and mixed cases:

~~NOTICE ~~

- No ID
- NO CiGERETEs
- No BEER
- No EXEPTioNs

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

In June of 2009 I had crept back up to 150 pounds. Last February I started the "6 meals a day, a bit of protein at every meal, no sugar, low fat" diet. I am now at 126 pounds.

I weighed 135 when I first met The Man in March 2007, and he thought I was underweight then. He likes full-figured women, and I think that was a factor in my gradual weight gain over the next two years, but I didn't like it. I like me better now.

The weird thing is that I STILL have big thighs and a belly pad, and I'm hoping he will be satisfied with the 40" bust and 39" hips. They don't seem to ever go away. I'd like to lose the belly pad. At this point it seems to be just thick loose skin. I've got thinner loose skin everywhere. It hangs in very soft silky drapes that feel wonderful, but look awful. I won't be able to go sleeveless for a while, if ever.

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

After yesterday's post, one might wonder how I have time this morning to post this. Well, Jasper has actually been sleeping on my bed lately. Last night I found his lost favorite tiny felt mouse, and I put it in the middle of the kitchen floor where he'd find it. This morning, he was tossing and pouncing on the felt mouse on my bed - at 6 am.

I got up early.
.

2951 Crunch

Thursday, April 29, 2010

With capitalism man exploits man. With communism it's the exact opposite.

The only difference is that it's reversed.
------------------------------------------------------------

It is absolutely imperative that I pay bills today. I planned to start at 1 pm, but then I got notice of some critical Mensa business, and the research and subsequent emails took a few hours. So then at 4 pm I figured I'd better get to the bills - but I received an email from my NJ attorney, with the house contract attached, along with a note that if I had any comments or questions, to contact him tomorrow, otherwise I should sign and return it.

Of course I have questions! The estimated closing date is May 28 (ack! too soon!), and in another paragraph it says I have to provide to the seller a something-or-other, a minimum of 30 days before closing, or pay a penalty. Um, May 28 is 30 days from YESTERDAY, so obviously I can't sign this. There are also a few other things the builder/seller and I agreed on verbally but that aren't mentioned in the contract, and since unfinished items are not an acceptable reason to delay closing, I want to see them in the contract. Like sod, and the wider driveway, for example. Otherwise I could end up with seed and a skinny driveway, and I can't safely park the second vehicle on the narrow street. (Yeah, I could park it on the drive in front of the garage door, but that means I'd have to move it every time I wanted to use the other car. Not to mention, um, overnight company who won't want to park on the street.)

Ok, normally, I'd just write up my concerns and email them to the attorney tomorrow morning - except that tomorrow I'm leaving for a short trip with The Man, and I've got a bunch of stuff to do for that, especially since he moved the leaving time to a little earlier.

So, bye now.
.

2950 The Birds

Thursday, April 29, 2010

You can never say anything about another person that’s true.
-- Joe Biden’s father --

Not completely true, anyway. There's always more that you don't know.
People who gossip should keep that in mind.

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

Last year I wrote this very sad post about the birds who nest on the front porch lights.

The male arrived early again this year, and at first I thought he was going to be alone again, but there's a tail sticking out over the edge of the nest on the left light! He's got a new mate!

I'm very happy for him.
.

2949 Windy

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

One plus one does not equal two. It approaches two as an upper or lower limit.
-- Silk --

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

It has been windy today, but I didn't realize how windy until I took a quick trip to the deli. There are branches down, some quite large, all over the road. None down in my yard, which is surprising, since most of my trees are black locust, which are quite brittle.

I thought I felt pretty good today, compared to yesterday, but as soon as I got outside, I felt that stuffy feverish feeling again. One more day of sleeping with the heating pad, I guess. I need to feel better by Friday.
.

2948 Fighting a bug

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

No two equals are the same.
-- Malaclypse the Younger --

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

Found online: (go ahead, google her), a realtor in Memphis named BJ Worthy. Well, I guess potential clients don't forget her name.

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

I got rained on a lot on Sunday. Yesterday was raw windy cold, and I had dinner with Mensans in a restaurant where the waiter disappeared for an hour at a time, and it was freezing in there. We all wore our jackets to eat. I had a cold draft on my behind. Today was freezing wind - the TV weatherman actually said snow in the mountains. I was supposed to meet someone in Rhinebeck at 4, but we'd had a small spat last week, and I wasn't sure he'd come. I didn't want to email or call to ask, because then I was sure that he WOULD come, and frankly I preferred that he didn't. So I stood on a windy corner from 4 'til 4:30. My body was well covered, but my hands, neck, face, head froze. He didn't show up. Considering that he really should have told me, he'll never get another opportunity, so that's one problem solved.

But...
... my body is rebelling. I have a headache, I'm freezing no matter how high I punch the thermostat, even though I'm wearing long knit cotton underwear under my slacks and turtleneck. Every joint in my body (especially my back, but including my fingers) has taken a turn at screaming. I feel like I have cotton in my lungs. I hurt. This has been growing since Monday morning, but I didn't take care of me. This afternoon I guess it was more important that I be the one in the right (or perhaps that he fall into my trap, leaving me the wronged one) than that I take care of me.

But, there are other people close to me going through Hell right now. It's doesn't lessen my aches, but ... a little perspective, Silk. Go blow your nose.

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

I am fully aware that chills don't cause colds. Germs cause colds. However, we are exposed to those beasties constantly, but we don't have colds constantly, because our immune system fights them off. You get sick when either your immune system doesn't recognize the new attacker, or when your immune system is weakened - like by stress, which includes physical stress, like getting too chilled. So there. Stress can result in illness. Physical stress is stress. Stress in the absence of germs will not result in a cold. It takes both.

Actually, three - stress, germs, and not paying attention. You can mentally rev up your immune system.
.

2947 The (possible) new house

Monday, April 26, 2010

Common sense is what tells you that the world is flat.
-- Malaclypse the Younger --

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

I don't think I've put pictures of the (possible) new house on here.

These photos were taken by Daughter a few weeks ago, when the rooms inside were just stud-outlines. Oddly, I didn't take any pictures when we visited last Friday.

Front. That thing on the left is a construction dumpster. The porch will have a railing when finished, and it is wide enough for wicker or rocking chairs.

Side. As you can see by the red house glimpsed across the street, this is one of the larger houses.

Back. The yellow house next door looks large, but although it's two stories, it's only maybe 15' across the front. Narrow, high, and deep.

Roughed-in master bedroom, large closet at the back. The bedroom and closet are the full depth of the house.
Four bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms. There are two separate furnaces (gas) and two A/Cs for upstairs and for downstairs, two zones. 2300 sq. ft.
.

2946 Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so ....

Monday, April 26, 2010

You will find that the state is the kind of organization which,
though it does big things badly, does small things badly too.
-- John Kenneth Galbraith --

This is significant not so much for what it says as for who said it.
------------------------------------------------

I'm getting very annoyed about the mares [http://www.marestare.com/fcam.php?alias=pacificpintos]. I watched Blossom until 1:45 am last night, then went to bed. This morning at 9 am the note said she had a little boy foal, seven hours before. Do the math. That makes three out of three that I've missed by minutes.

Maybe I have some kind of power.

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

I'm also getting annoyed at the way some groups use words to twist our perceptions, like the current political commercial from Albany that says that "the Obama administration" cut grants to schools, blah blah budget problems blah blah, but "we can still get the money from Washington" by demanding greater accountability and making the schools meet certain standards.

It annoys me greatly that they imply the Obama administration arbitrarily caused the problem, but are careful not to admit that the Obama administration requires higher standards to get the money. Apparently reward for high standards are the province of anonymous "Washington", but arbitrary cuts are "Obama".

Too few people will catch the twist there. They're just left with a distaste for Obama. That pisses me off.

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

I was supposed to do two things yesterday - go to Home Depot and pick out the flooring and paint colors for the NJ house, and lead a hike at 2 pm. I thought I'd go to Home Depot first.

At 9 am, it was raining hard and looked like it was going to continue, so I got on the laptop and brought up the broadband connection (Verizon Wireless) to notify people that the hike was canceled. Verizon said it had to update the connection maps, and I clicked "ok". It said it did it successfully --- but thereafter I had no bars. No connection. No nothin'.

Of course, the first thing I did was make sure I had paid the bill. Then I restarted a few times. Then I called Verizon technical service. I was on the phone with "Neal" in Arkansas for 90 minutes. We tried a few things, then reinstalled the software from the original CD, twice. While waiting for loadings and so on we had a nice conversation about the baby he and his wife are expecting in August, about living in mountains rather than flat, about animals, wild and domestic, and finally we realized that the software I have is probably just too downlevel to work anymore. I used to get automatic software updates, but for some reason it never updated to the current level. Too bad I can't get to the internet. I could download the current level.

So then I took the laptop to the Verizon store in Kingston, where a fabulous little lady all alone in the store multitasked beautifully with several customers and me, and she installed the current level of broadband software on my laptop.

By then it was 1:35 pm. Too late to notify people that the hike was off, so I rushed to the trailhead, arriving at 1:58, where I waited in the rain for 20 minutes in case anyone showed up. Nobody did.

Then I went back across the river to Home Depot, where I got thoroughly overwhelmed by paint colors. I know in my head exactly what I want, but those colors don't exist on paint cards/chips.

I brought home a pile of brochures and cards.

By then it was after 5 pm, and I collapsed.
.

2945 Meetup Rant

Sunday, April 25, 2010

It is my firm belief that it is a mistake to hold firm beliefs.
-- Malaclypse the Younger --

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

It's been about 4 months, and I've about had it with the Meetup groups. Man, some of these people are infants! There are many stories, but the latest has me ready to give it up completely.

Some woman, let's call her "Nell", sent me an email that she had noticed that a particular guy had joined the 50+ singles' group. She is friends with his ex-wife, and the ex-wife says he abused her and she had to get a restraining order against him. So Nell wants me to kick him out of the group, or at least spread the word through the group that he is dangerous and everyone should avoid him.

Duh? As far as I'm concerned, that's third-hand gossip, I don't know the particulars of the case, I certainly don't know the truth, and spreading accusations could be legally actionable. Our members are all adults, and they can make their own judgments. She can do what she wants, but I will not punish someone for something I know nothing about. Besides, if her sees her, Nell, on the membership list, maybe he won't show up anyway. I sent her a note to that effect.

She responded that she was disappointed that I would WANT a violent man in the group! (Huh?) She said that having been in an abusive relationship herself, she knows how hard it is. She said he doesn't know her because she didn't meet the ex-wife until after the divorce. She advised me to ask Meetup for advice.

So I did, and as expected, Meetup says that they don't get involved in the internal workings of a group, will get involved only if the website is used inappropriately. I wrote back to her with that info. I told her that I was offended that she accused me of wanting violent men in the group. I told her that restraining orders are not proof of anything, they're simply a tactic, that I had worked with a family law office in Hyde Park, and the attorneys joke that half of the people in Poughkeepsie had restraining orders against the other half, that I have personally had experience with abuse, but I've also had experience with gossip - where people said to my face that they know I did such-and-such because they were there and they SAW me, when *I* know for a fact that I had not done it, and in fact wasn't even there. I reiterated that our members are adults, and that she can say anything she wants to anyone she wants, but having no direct knowlege, I would not kick the guy out on the basis of third-hand stories.

She deleted her membership.

The woman has a doctorate in physics.

What you wanna bet she is now telling everyone that I want men in the group so badly I am willing to sacrifice the women to them.

I want to back away from all this crap. I didn't merely volunteer for this, I PAID for the privilege. How stupid do I have to be continue to pay to be insulted? (An organizer of a meetup group pays a hefty fee to start a group; members pay nothing.)

This is only the latest of many.

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

Organizers of Meetup groups pay to start them, and it isn't cheap. It's something like $75 for six months. Several interest groups have been started by people who have something to sell, and they see Meetup as advertising, but mostly it's just social, like knitting groups, bicycling, book clubs, hiking, movies, dining, and so on. Some of the organizers do ask for a $1 "meetup fee", either at every function, or when it's time to pay the Meetup renewal fee.

Would you believe that there are people who object to paying that? And call the organizers all kinds of names for it? They seem to expect people to think up interesting outings for them, make the arrangements, make reservations, charter the bus, assemble a group for their amusement, and all they have to do is show up?

It's no damn wonder organizers burn out.

2944 Earth Day photos

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Facts do not cease to exist just because they are ignored.

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

From Boston.com, 39 photos celebrating Earth Day.

This photo was truncated on the right by Blogger to fit the screen. Click on it to get the whole view.

"The Northern Lights appear above the ash plume of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano in the evening April 22, 2010. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)"

2943 Leaving the nest.

Friday, April 23, 2010

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
-- Douglas Adams --

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

Piper and I made a quick trip to NJ today, to look at the house being built across the street from Daughter & Hercules, and to talk with the builder. The house has the sheetrock and kitchen cabinets in, doors hung, and so on, but not floors, toilets, bathroom stuff, counter tops and so on. So the builder took us to another house a few miles away that is almost done, using the same plans. Looked good. Piper was impressed.

On the drive home, we talked about it a bit, and halfway up the Garden State Parkway Piper called the builder and made an offer, they dickered a bit, and our offer was accepted.

I just bought a house in NJ. Ack! 2300 sq ft. Small lot. Contract will be drawn up next week. Daughter had given me the name and number of the lawyer she and Hercules had used when they bought their house, so I'll call him on Monday.

The house will be finished in about two months.

Eeek!
.

2942 Jasper and the Mare Cam

Thursday, April 22, 2010

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.
-- Douglas Adams --

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

This is Jasper:
Handsome fellow, isn't he?

In the three years I've known him, he has never once reacted to anything on the TV, or in a mirror. It's as if he doesn't see anything there.

But he's as fascinated as I am by the Mare Cam [http://www.marestare.com/fcam.php?alias=pacificpintos], even though it's just blurry shades of gray. He keeps trying to catch himself a horse.


.

2941 The day's been shot

Thursday, April 22, 2010

In a democracy, people get the government they deserve.
-- Adlai Stevenson --

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

I was cleaning out the refrigerator and found an empty "vitaminwater" bottle. The stuff is full of sugar, so it must have been there for months, and I couldn't figure out why, until I read the label. I saved it because I wanted to comment on the label. Why I stuck it in the refrigerator, I don't know.

In its entirety (lack of capitalization preserved):

if you've had to use sick days because you've actually been sick then you're seriously missing out, my friends. see, the trick is to stay healthy and use sick days to just, um, not go in, and this combination of zinc and fortifying vitamins can help out with that and keep you healthy as a horse, so drink up.

remember, don't overdo it on the coughing and sniffling (big rookie mistake). just stick with the ever elusive "24-hour bug." the symptoms are vague and people will actually encourage you to stay home.

vitamins + water = all you need

made for
the center for responsible hydration (aka glaceau)

The first ingredient is water. The second and third are sugar and fructose. So much for "responsible" hydration. But that's not what annoys me the most. It's the slacker, play the system, ripoff attitude in that text. Even if it's supposed to be funny, it's still approval of the behavior. People who do stuff like that piss me off, like when the school system schedules in ten "snow days" as part of the spring vacation, and teachers schedule major vacation trips over those days, and then when we have five major snowstorms over the winter and the snow day buffer has been used up by what it was SUPPOSED to be for, the teachers act like their vacation has been taken away from them and it wasn't their fault, no fair, man! Duh?

Idiots.

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

Celeste, in stall #4, is still walking around in circles, between brief naps. The straw on the floor is swirled in a carousel circle. The note at the bottom of the screen says she is leaking colostrum ("wax"), which usually means delivery will be soon.
.

2940 Mare Cam 3

Thursday, April 22, 2010

I often think it's a pity that Noah and his party didn't miss the boat.
-- Mark Twain --

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

I think mare #4, Celeste, will be next. She's walking in circles, licking the sides of her belly, and rubbing against the walls. Not tossing her tail yet, though.

http://www.marestare.com/fcam.php?alias=pacificpintos

(Sometimes when you tune in, it looks like there's no signal, everything is so still. But watch the ears. They're just asleep, but the ears still flick.)

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

11:10 am - Now #3, Black Lace, is licking and rubbing. It could be an interesting afternoon.
11:19 am - Camera #4 just flipped to fullscreen. That means whoever is monitoring onsite has decided something is about to happen in that stall!
.

2939 Mare Cam 2

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds.
-- Albert Einstein --

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

Earlier today I mentioned the Mare Cam (http://www.marestare.com/fcam.php?alias=pacificpintos). I had it up most of the evening, and I decided that the first mare to foal would be the white one, "Cloud 9", in window #2. She wasn't the furthest along, but she was acting funny. She was restless. She was flicking her tail a lot, and licking at her sides, and rubbing her rear against the walls. She was hungry and had her face in the food bin a lot, but was just throwing the food around, not eating.

At about 8:50 I brought up another window and answered some email. At 9:30 I went back to the mares, and found that stall #2 had gone to full screen. There was a foal in stall #2! It must have just been born. It looked like a little whippet dog lying there - all legs and ears. Mommy was sniffing and licking it.

A woman entered the stall and toweled the foal off, dried it with a hair dryer, put (probably) iodine on the cord stub, put food in the bin for Momma, and spread more straw. The mare is a good mother. This may not be her first. She licked, sniffed, nudged the foal every few seconds. She was hungry and dove into the food bin, but after every bite, she looked at and touched noses with the foal while she chewed.

A half hour or so later, the woman came back in and held up a sign to the camera: "FILLY". The little one was trying to stand, got her feet under her by about 9:45. Momma moved to present her udders, nudged the baby to the right spot, and the little one found a nipple. The woman gave a thumbs-up to the camera.

It's now 10:53, and the little filly has her feet more square under her, but is still wobbly walking. It looks like all that straw may be catching on her feet. She's nursing every few minutes.

Cloud 9 is a good momma.

Note - I knew these were miniature horses, and I was aware that of the four on the cameras, Cloud 9 seemed to be the smallest, but I didn't realize how small until the woman entered the stall. Cloud 9 doesn't come up to the woman's waist.

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

Later: It's now midnight, and two hours since the filly found a nipple, and I swear she's already doubled in bulk! She's gone from whippet to pit bull shaped in two hours! Getting a little broad in the beam there.
.

2938 Mare Cam

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

He who controls the present controls the past.
He who controls the past controls the future.
--Orwell --

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

Four miniature horse mares ready to give birth any day (based on gestation period of 320-360 days), at http://www.marestare.com/fcam.php?alias=pacificpintos. They are all certainly huge!

You can move the bar across the top of the viewer to make the picture larger.

It is a live feed, although the ladies are moving very little. I don't blame them.
.

2937 Crazy House Market

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The end move in politics is to pick up a gun.
--Buckminster Fuller --

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

Wow! What does Vancouver, BC, Canada have that makes it so desirable? Or at least makes the land/houses so expensive? Go to http://www.crackshackormansion.com/ to find out what one million dollars will buy. (It's a test to determine whether you can tell the difference between a mansion and a crack house. It's mind-blowing.) They're talking about one million Canadian dollars, but the current exchange rate is almost dollar for dollar, so it's still one million.

I couldn't believe it, so I found a real estate listing site, and checked. At http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search?cmid=1021104&sby=1, sorted by lowest price to highest, the cheapest 1 bedroom "bachelor" condo in West Vancouver, 393 sq ft, is $240,000. You don't see two bedrooms and more than 700 sq ft until the $400,000 mark. And that's apartments, not houses.

At the $598,000 mark I found a large 5/6 bedroom house - the first - followed by more condos. I wondered what was wrong with the house that it should be so cheap, and found this little tickler: "Land lease is 10,200 yearly." Huh? No wonder.

I didn't see another freestanding house until $839,000.

So, ok, maybe West Vancouver is the ritzy area. It's near the ocean. Let's head inland to East Vancouver, at http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search?cmid=1095503. Ok, we can get a bachelor suite for $190,000, but prices go up rapidly. The fifth cheapest condo is $225,000. Not a lot better than West Vancouver.

Here's what $580,000, the cheapest house, will get you:
"Handy man special. Needs TLC. Mainly Land Value." They don't say how much land.

What is going on in Vancouver? Are the salaries commensurate? This is scary.
.

2936 I STILL hate winter!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

"Tis an ill wind that blows no minds."
-- Malaclypse the Younger --

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

Yesterday I marveled at the spring growth. It was 35 F degrees out there at 7:30 this morning. That's only three degrees above freezing.

I don't understand.

Actually, I remember Easters on Red Rock mountain, when I was in high school. We'd walk to the chapel on the base in a blizzard, through hip-deep snowdrifts, bundled in heavy coats over our Easter, spring, fluffy, cotton finery. (No spring flowers then. We'd still be hearing the boom of frozen tree trunks exploding in the forest.)

The chaplain told us it was silly to get so dressed up just because it was Easter, that we should wear our plain wool usual clothes. Dress for the weather, not the calendar.

He made sense.
.

2935 Biting off....

Monday, April 19, 2010

You're worth only the amount of bail people will pay for you.

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I drove about an hour west today to have lunch with a friend. I was surprised at all the flowers and green leaves. We've exploded! I swear there wasn't so much going on only a few days ago.

Preparing for the trip to Morocco, searching for a new car, and looking into buying the house across from Daughter had eaten into available time since about mid-March, so I'd been neglecting the Meetup groups (now at 47 members each, with very little overlap). Today I scheduled two movies for the movie group, and a hike and dinner for the singles' group, and within 10 minutes of posting, I'd already had positive RSVPs. Next weekend and into Tuesday will be very full.

I may have started a problem with the western friend. He's very lonely way out there in the mountains, and I think he wants more romance than friendship. I never know how to handle stuff like that.

The local Mensa group is imploding. Personality clashes and some hurt feelings, and an effort (or more accurately the impression thereof) by one person who (has the power) to avoid the election due this fall by ignoring the schedule for announcements and nominations. People have been asking me to intervene, and I really really don't want to. On the other hand, I have the ability and the intimate knowledge of the Bylaws, so much against my desire to avoid conflict, I volunteered for the nominating committee, and I'll make the stupid election happen. I may regret this.

It's bad enough that people are looking into the national organization procedures for censure.

Nothing else much going on. Sheesh - I may have to move to New Jersey just to get out of this fouled nest.

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Later: I have a message on my home phone from the person causing the Mensa problems mentioned above. She just wants to chat, but I really really really don't want to call her back. I don't know what to do.

Can I please move now?
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2934 Earrings, bonsai, and tea

There is a direct correlation between the size of the hoop earring and the sluttiness of the wearer.

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Ever notice that most men love big hoop earrings? About the only earrings I've ever got male compliments on were either huge thick dangling hoops, or demure pink pearl buttons. Madonna or whore.

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"Sunday Morning" did a story this morning on bonsai. I've never been a fan. Yes, they are lovely, and take you into a fairy land. But they make me very sad, because they are like old Chinese women hobbling on bound feet. They were never allowed to be what they want to be, what they were meant to be.

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For a while now I've wanted to say something about the tea party (for a long time I called them "the tea baggers", and it wasn't until I asked someone why they used that term, "don't they know what it means to frat boys?" when I was told the proper name. I'm amused that no one had corrected me before) but I never knew quite what to say.

I do think the concept is a good one, a movement of ordinary people gathering to make their concerns known. Takes me back to the anti-war days. But their language, and the degree of misinformation disseminated is disturbing. Although so far the gatherings have not been violent, the incendiary language is, and that frightens and repels me.

Pres. Clinton seems to have said it best in a speech last Friday in Oklahoma City:

"What we learned from Oklahoma City is not that we should gag each other or that we should reduce our passion for the positions we hold - but that the words we use really do matter, because there's this vast echo chamber, and they go across space and they fall on the serious and the delirious alike. They fall on the connected and the unhinged alike[.]"

That's who scares me - the delirious and the unhinged.

"Sunday Morning" (or maybe it was "Face the Nation"? Whatever. I can't find it either place, but it's netted out here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html) outlined the demographics of the tea party this morning. They are overwhelmingly white, the majority are middle class, employed, gun owners, in other words, "the haves".

On a slightly different topic, I keep hearing that something like 70% of Americans are against health care reform, and yet in every venue at every opportunity, I have asked friends, acquaintances, and strangers, close to two hundred people by now, and so far I have found only one person against it, and he happens to be a Wall Street denizen and the most wealthy person I know. He's got his.

Either I don't know and never meet any ordinary people, or someone's lying.
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