4069 Bloody attack by a dragon!

Sunday, July 12, 2015

"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--

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I am trying to be very careful about caring for my 1.5 kidneys, drinking lots of water, watching carbs and protein, and avoiding excesses of minerals.

This morning, as usual, when I got up I went straight to the bathroom to piddle.

I was horrified to find the toilet full of blood!  Scared me half to death!

Then I remembered that the evening before I had eaten a half a dragon fruit, the red kind.  I went straight downstairs and looked it up on the internet.  Yeah, it's known to color your urine.

So, maybe the red was a good thing.  Maybe it shows my kidneys are doing their job.

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That was my first dragon fruit.  I'd heard people rave about them.  I dunno, maybe I got a stale one or something, 'cause it didn't taste like anything, very blah.  Less flavorful even than watermelon.  I ate only half because they have a lot of calcium and potassium, which I need to be careful of, so the other half is still sitting in the refrigerator.  

Ever try dragon fruit?  Did I get a flavorless one?  Or is this blahness a usual taste reaction? 

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4068 Decorated tree

Saturday, July 11, 2015

" I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life

fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of

hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse."

-- Isaac Asimov --

(Mark Twain said something remarkably similar.)

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George has a clump of three birches in his front yard.  He keeps threatening to cut them down, because years ago (before I moved here) the main trunk of the main tree got broken in a storm, so George seems to have decided the tree is dead.  I've pointed out a few times that it has recovered nicely, another branch has taken over as the trunk, and it's growing happily.  But, well, George.

Today the birch is covered in Goldfinches.

I had noticed a pair fluttering around the birches all spring.  They must have raised a family, and the youngsters are just now learning to fly.  I counted five goldfinches for sure, but there may have been more.  It's a pretty sight, tiny bright yellow birds flitting from branch to branch against the white bark and yellow-green leaves, with occasional brave forays to the power line and back.

I hope George spares the trees, so maybe the family will be back next year.

Goldfinches, incidentally, are the only American songbirds that feed seeds to their chicks. Other songbirds, no matter what the adults eat, feed chicks bugs and worms.  I wonder where the goldfinch chicks get enough protein?  This habit saves them from cowbirds, because cowbird chicks in a goldfinch nest cannot survive on seeds.

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

I miss the purple finches from the country house.  I got really pissed off one time when I was talking about them at a Mensa dinner, and one of the women there informed me, imperiously, that they weren't purple finches, they were house finches.  She'd never seen "my" finches and apparently didn't listen to my description, but she KNEW they were not purple finches, they were house finches, because that's what she had in her back yard "and everyone always confuses them".  (It's a little hard to confuse a white belly and a brown belly, lady....)

I was furious with her. She used that tactic where she closed her eyes and pursed her lips and shook her head and  wouldn't listen, just kept repeating her line.  That always infuriates me.
.

4067 Books, leggings, stuff....

Friday, July 10, 2015

Before enlightenment: Chop wood, carry water.

After enlightenment: Chop wood, carry water.

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

Yesterday I wore a caftan I've had for ages.  It's made like a rectangle with two smaller rectangles on either side for long full sleeves.  It used to be floor-length, but I shortened it to mid-calf thinking I might wear it more often if it didn't look so eveningish.  It's a lightweight black silky fabric with vertical alternating stripes of sheer and not-so-sheer, and thin silver threads.  I wore it with a black nylon tank top and black leggings I had bought in Morocco (the only leggings I own), and a heavy silver Turkoman necklace.  I really liked the outfit, and it was incredibly cool in the heat and humidity. 

I have several loose thigh-length caftan-like semisheer tunics that I rarely wear because over regular pants they look too "heavy".  So I got all enthusiastic and went to eBay, and bought some more leggings in black, brown, and white.  They'll arrive early next week.  I used the measurement guides on the listings and ended up ordering size "L" instead of the "M" I would ordinarily order, because I didn't want them to be too tight at the waist, and that's what my 39" hips demanded.

Last night when I took the Moroccan leggings off, I looked at the size inside.  They are S/M.  Ouch.  Maybe I should have looked at that label before I ordered new ones.

Oh well.  They were like $7 each, so no big loss if they don't fit.

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

The new neighbor across the street seems nice.  BUT this morning at 6:30 am I was awakened by a power saw, and pounding of a mallet, and general mayhem.  He was replacing the posts for his gate.  At 6:30 am.  Sheesh!  I gave up trying to sleep and got up at 7:30.  I'd been reading into the wee hours, so I'm not too happy.

Reading:
I've been reading mostly nonfiction the past few months.   

I read a book about Eliot Spitzer, his rise to power and his sudden fall from grace.  I really liked him as NY attorney general, he wasn't afraid to go after the people who thought they were powerful enough to get away with anything.  When he was elected governor I was ecstatic.  I figured he could fix Albany, probably the most corrupt state government in the country.  I really expected big things from him.  He lasted 14 months.  Sigh.

I read a book written by a British Muslim female physician who accepted a two-year stint in a hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  She, having spent the previous several years in the US, was unprepared for the restrictions on her person and her freedom there.  It was interesting, but, unfortunately, in her view, everything was just hunky-dory.  I would have liked to see a little indignation....

I read the book written by Jaycee Dugard, the woman who had been kidnapped at age 11, and spent 18 years held captive by her rapist.  Her story isn't quite what one would expect from the tabloid versions, but it's harrowing enough.  It's easy to see why she had not attempted to escape, when seen through her eyes.

I read the story of Henrietta Lacks, the woman from whom came the HeLa cell line used by labs the world over.  HeLa was the first cells that didn't eventually die in culture.  Her cells are pretty much immortal.  They are responsible for many research breakthroughs and cures, and have made many people rich.  But until recently, she got no credit.  Her children didn't benefit - in fact, they can't afford the very cures her cells created.  An interesting story, but the writer got too close, I think.  It dragged sometimes.

There were a few other books in there, but I forget.  The current book is a novel about ... it's hard to explain ... you know how you make a decision that takes your life a particular direction, and years later you wonder what your life would be like if you'd gone the other direction?  This is about a guy who "splits" at a key decision point, and one copy goes one way in one complete version of the world, and another copy goes the other way.  Some 13 or 15 (I forget) years later, both men are very unhappy with their lives.  Both realize they hadn't necessarily made the right decision.  And then there's like a rift in the fabric between the two worlds, and the two meet, and decide to exchange lives.  I'm having trouble with this.  I have difficulty suspending disbelief, and I really can't accept that both would simply give up and go to a world where they know nothing, nobody, dropping into a life with no context, and one that they probably won't be able to get back from.  Like, guys, hey, you already KNOW you don't make the best decisions.  What makes you think your doppelganger knows any better.  Frying pan, fire, you know?

Well, I'm only 1/3 or so into the book.  What do I know.

If you want the title and author of any of the above, ask in a comment and I'll dig it out for you.
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4066 Throughfare?

Wednesday, July 6, 2015

People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because

it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.

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I have a new problem.

The neighbors across the street have sold their house and moved out.  They had three cars, so two were parked in their driveway beside the house, and one was always parked on the street, the narrow street, right across from the end of my driveway.  That made it a little difficult to turn into and back out of my driveway, but once I mastered it, it was no longer much of a problem for me.

The new guy has moved in.  He has one car, so he parks in his driveway, and when his girlfriend visits she parks in the driveway behind him. 

Suddenly the street is clear at the end of my driveway and it's easy to turn in, and suddenly my driveway is THE turnaround spot for the one-way street.  Seven or eight cars and trucks pull into my driveway every day and back out to head out of the street.  Well, seven or eight that I actually see.  There are probably more.  I'll be standing on the porch, in full view!, and people pull in and back out without even so much as eye contact.

It's really starting to piss me off.  I don't know why it bothers me so much, but it does.  The end of the street is only seven houses further and there's a nice big turnaround there.  These people are significantly increasing the traffic at the joint between my driveway and the curb which bothers me.  Gonna break it down faster.  Driveways aren't made for heavy traffic.  But mainly it's the sheer arrogance that gets me.  A wave when they do it would help.

This is so reminiscent of the mailbox at the country house.  The guy across the street there had a trailer, and several times he hit my mailbox backing the trailer out of his driveway, bent it to where it wouldn't close, knocked it completely down twice, and never once acknowledged it.

Sometimes I hate people.

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

While I'm thinking of it, neighbor George's granddaughter (she's in her 40s I think) does something I don't quite understand.  The street is narrow.  If cars are parked on both sides, it's difficult for, say, a wide truck to get through, let alone traffic coming from both directions.  There are no signs, but it seems to be convention that everyone parks on the east side of the street.  No cars are ever parked on the west side.  None except for George's granddaughter, that is.  Not only does she park on the west side in front of George's house when she visits (often, she lives on the next street over), but she parks in front of the fire hydrant at the corner of my lawn.  I mentioned it to Daughter, and she warned me not to say anything to the woman about it, "She's a bitch."

Does she really not see that she's blocking traffic?  Does she not care?  I don't understand.
.

4065 Drums and the cost of war

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

"There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact." 

 -- Sherlock Holmes --

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This is an interesting video, entitled "How Much Does War Cost?"  The numbers are amazing.  Trot them out the next time some fool complains about Obama and the national debt.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkax1QTEszw]

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This is some guy on taiko drums in an arcade in Japan.  He's really into it!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGY1gmVZVlo]
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4064 Medical insurance, care

Sunday, July 5, 2015

It takes 42 muscles to frown, and only 4 to reach out and smack you.

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Want to know if your medical insurance is good?  Don't bother reading online reviews.  Spend a few days in the hospital, especially over the weekend.

When I was hospitalized with pneumonia after Hurricane Sandy, I had doctors coming out of the woodwork, at the rate of about 5 a day.  Lung doctors.  Kidney doctors. Heart doctors.  Infectious medicine specialists. Whatever.  I didn't know who most of them were, or why they were there.  Some didn't do a damn thing, just asked me how I was feeling, and left.  Sometimes my "vitals" were taken by four different doctors (not nurses - although they did it too) every day.  Of course every single one of them submitted a bill.  Also, all kinds of tests and scans were being scheduled - most of which I refused because I saw no reason for them.

The woman in the other bed lived in a badly-maintained low income senior project, and I think she had just medicaid.  The doctor who had admitted her never even stopped by, even though she kept asking for him.  She was given no tests and no medicine.  Every time a nurse came in she told the nurse she still had a lot of pain in her leg, and the nurse said she'd tell the doctor, but the woman was released (pretty much kicked out) before I was, and STILL had not been seen by a doctor.  Not one.  She didn't even have a diagnosis, and she still had the pain.  She cried as she was leaving.

I suspect my insurance and credit rating were much better than hers.

Disgusting.

What brought this up was an online comment I just read.  People in other countries do not understand why anyone would be against the ACA.  A Canadian wrote that he noticed a big difference between medical care in the US, and in Canada (where it's all free).  In Canada the first thing a doctor will ask you is what is the problem, where does it hurt.  In the US, the first thing you are asked is whether you can afford the doctor's services, what insurance you have, and you might hear "Oh, oops, I don't accept that insurance, goodbye."

Disgusting.

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

Back when Jay was in the hospital so much, I kept pretty tight control of doctors wandering in.  I'd ask them who, why, what they plan to do for him, and most of them kind of sputtered and said they'd been looking at Jay's records and thought it was an interesting case, so thought they'd stop by and say hello.  And then they'd leave, and they didn't submit bills.  After the first day, I guess the word got around that Jay wasn't a free lunch, and we didn't get drop-ins other than his own known doctors.

I kick myself for not managing my own hospital stay as well, but it's different when you're the one in the bed, I guess.  I need to get over being so compliant.
.

4063 Vent covers

Sunday, July 5, 2015

I've made smarter things than you by eating fiber.

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Remember when I had all those problems with the birds trying to build nests in my dryer and bathroom vents?  This is the vent covers I found, and Daughter installed.  I'm very happy with them.  They latch at the bottom, and are hinged at the top so you can clean lint or whatever out without removing them.



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4062 Expensive and tiring week

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Love longs for union.

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It's almost 9 pm, it's still fairly light outside, and the fireflies (lightning bugs) in my postage stamp front yard are going bananas.  There are none in the back yard.  There are none in any other yards up, down, or across the street.  But in my front yard they are flashing almost in unison, and there are 8 or 10 at a time.  It's crazy.  They rise from the grass and seem to all be headed across the street, but they seem to be going up into the tall trees over there.

Do all the males live in my yard, and all the females live in the trees across the street?

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

I've had a very tiring and expensive week.

On Monday I drove up to the country house to meet the furnace man for the annual service.  Monday evening I drove home again.  That's almost six hours in the car.

Tuesday evening I drove up again to meet the a/c installers Wednesday morning at 8 am.  I left home very late, and would have got to the country house at about 1 am.  That was ok, no big deal.  Well, would have been ok if I hadn't hit an enormous pothole on the NY state Thruway, on the edge of the road just before the New Paltz exit, at just after midnight.  I didn't see it.  It was very dark, there were no other cars in sight, and it had been pouring rain, so the hole was full of water, so even if I saw anything at all I wouldn't have identified it as a big hole.  But suddenly the car dropped about 8 inches, there was a bang, and then the car jumped into the air a good 18 inches and was thrown halfway into the left lane and fishtailing.  Suddenly it was very difficult to steer.

You don't expect a hole like that on the Thruway, when you're traveling at (an undisclosed) rate of speed.

I pulled off onto the exit onto route 299, turned right (it was very difficult to turn left), and pulled into the first motel I came to, which was close and luckily on the right.  The right front tire was completely flat.  They're "drive flat" tires, but there's a limit as to how flat they can be driven on before you destroy the rim, and this was past that.

I got a room and tried to figure out what to do next.  What am I going to do about the a/c guys?  I'm going to have to rent a car, and get my car towed to my tire place, there's not a whole lot I can do at past midnight.  No way I'm going to get to the house before like 11 am at the earliest, even assuming I can get a rental car just by snapping my fingers, since the rental car places won't be open until 9:30.

I fired off an email to the owner of the a/c company, copying his secretary, explaining the situation and asking him to call me on my cell as soon as he got the message.  Then I researched rental car companies (luckily I had my notepad and my handi-dandi little WiFi box).  I know from experience there was only one company in the area that will pick me up, and they had offices only in Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, and Kingston.  I wanted Kingston, because that's closest to the country house and to where I wanted to take the car to be worked on, and that's 35 minutes away, so if they came and got me, it would still be after 11 before I could get to the house.

On the way I had stopped and bought about $30 worth of salads for Wednesday's and Thursday's meals, so I put them in the motel room refrigerator.

I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn't sleep, trying to figure out what to do.  I hoped I hadn't done any mechanical damage to Hal's front end.  (Yeah, it was the BMW, and this was the seventh blown tire in three years, the second in seven weeks.)  I finally fell asleep at about 3:45 am, and then was awakened by the a/c man's phone call at 7 am.  The motel alarm clock hadn't gone off.  (By the way, why are motel alarm clocks so freakin' hard to figure out how to set?  You'd think they'd get the simplest ones, but no, they are puzzles!)

He said no problem.  They'd take their time loading the trucks, and they could install the outside unit before I got there, AND he'd send his wife to pick me up.  She would have me at the rental car place at 9:30, when they opened.

Yay.  I opened the refrigerator to get me some breakfast, and found everything frozen solid.  Frozen boiled eggs are hard to eat.  Frozen yogurt isn't any good when it's like a rock and you don't have any spoons anyway.  And you flat out can't freeze salads. I guess you can eat them, but it's not very appetizing.  I had effectively no food.

I tried to reserve a car online, but it wouldn't allow me to reserve a car 2 hours hence.  I'd have to just show up and hope.

Pat, the wife, drove down from Kingston, picked me up and we went to Kingston, and luckily the rental folks did have a car I could have, so then I rushed to the house and let the a/c guys in.  Then I drove to Rhinebeck to my tire guys to make sure they could take me today (and that's one reason I always go to these guys, they always fit me in) and got a recommendation for a tow company.  Called the tow company and arranged to meet the tow truck back at the motel - 45 minutes back down the Thruway.  Followed him back to Rhinebeck, and then waited at the tire place while they checked the tire and the front end.  No mechanical damage.  Yay!  But I had hit the hole so hard that the pressure sensor had been blown to smithereens, so that had to be replaced.  However, even though you could buy one of those sensors at any auto supply store for like $15-20, the BMW will take only a BMW sensor, and they cost a ridiculous bajillion dollars.  Sigh.  Oh, yeah, the tire is completely shredded on the inner side, so that has to be replaced.  They need to order the tire, so it'll be tomorrow morning.

Back to the house.  It was just noon, and I am dead tired and starving.  I went out and bought more food.

By 4 pm the a/c system was fully installed, and up and running.  The guys left.  I left the a/c on, mainly to reduce the humidity in the house so I'd be more comfortable sleeping, but then it got cooler outside and I was busy sorting stuff from the file cabinets and didn't notice it was getting really cold in the house, so I turned the a/c off.  After a while I realized I was freezing, so about 10 pm I flipped the system to heat.

Nada.  It was blowing air all right, but the air was cold.  No heat.  It was in the low 60s outside.  And inside.

They had installed the a/c coils above the furnace unit and were using the furnace fan.  They'd been dinking around with the wiring in the furnace.  I don't know what went wrong, but I had no heat.  I piled blankets on, but my poor forehead and nose froze all night.

Oh, the irony.  I hadn't been able to work in the house because it got too hot.  So I fixed that, and now I freeze.

They were coming back the next morning to remove the old dead heat pump, so when they arrived at about 9 am I told them about the heat.  It turned out the oil line needed to be bled, so they did that, and I had heat.  The tire guys called, and I went to Rhinebeck, and paid the bill.  A pleasant surprise - they felt so sorry for me that they charged me only $25 for the bazillion dollar sensor.  I retrieved my keys, then drove to Kingston and returned the rental car.  The rental car place had an intern drive me back to Rhinebeck, and I drove back to the house. 

The a/c guys finished removing the heat pump at 2 pm, and at 3 pm I started the drive back to the city house.  Heading down the NY Thruway, and the Garden State Parkway, Thursday evening, when hordes of people will have Friday off, and will be heading to the Jersey shore for the holiday.  Oh, joy.

As expected, the GSP was dense and nerve-wracking, but not quite a parking lot.  The usual 2.5 hour drive took me only 3.5 hours.  The Nugget saw me pull into the driveway and asked if she could come over and visit Gramma, and of course I said yes.  Daughter was grilling chicken, so she fed me.  I was so tired I couldn't unload the car.  In fact, my notepad and travel bag are still out there.  Which is just as well, since I really should check them for bedbugs before bringing them into the house.  It really was a crappy motel.  New Paltz is a college town. 

I went to bed at 10 and slept past noon yesterday.  I'm still tired.

The damage:
$  87.99  One night, crappy motel
$  30.00  Destroyed food
$107.32  One day plus 3 hours rental car
$170.00  Flatbed tow from New Paltz to Rhinebeck
$250.00  New tire and sensor (even with the sensor break, this seems awfully low)
-----------
$645.31

Not including, of course the usual $100 or so in gas and tolls each trip usually takes, plus multiple bridge and Thruway tolls going back and forth getting the cars towed and etc.

Sigh.

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

I should have reported the pothole to the Thruway authority before it kills someone.
I didn't.
I do have AAA, and I suppose I could have called them for (some part of) the tow.
I didn't.

Why not?
Because I just wanted to get stuff done as quickly as possible with no fuss, no bother, just bam bam bam done.
Straight line to finish line.
And no, my auto insurance doesn't cover tires, so since there was no mechanical damage, nothing of this is covered.
Frankly, I don't much care.  I'm out of aspirin.
.

4061 Avebury

Friday, July 3, 2015

"Actions lie louder than words."
--Carolyn Wells--

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I took a look at the blogs listed over there on the side, those I follow on Feedly.  There were 63.  I checked them all out, and many are officially dead - either private or completely gone, or haven't been updated in years.  That's sad.  Some of the dead ones were favorites, blogs I really enjoyed.  It's like old friends died, or simply moved away without leaving a forwarding address.  The ones that annoy me the most are the bloggers who built up a base of loyal readers, then turned the blog material into a book, and when the book did not become a best-seller, they quit blogging. Somethin' kinda hissy-fit about that.  Second most annoying are those who gave no indication they were quitting - just left stories unfinished and disappeared.  I don't think they realize that people really do worry about what happened.  Some people at least said goodbye.

So, I edited the list, and ended up deleting 31 -- half!  So sad.

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

I came across a reference today to Avebury Henge.  I've been to both Avebury Henge and Stonehenge, with Jay.  They are very close together, just a few miles by car, but they are very different.  Stonehenge feels strongly masculine, in your face.  Avebury feels definitely feminine, it moves in on you quietly.  I had no reaction at Stonehenge, beyond the generic "yeah, interesting, amazing, how?, why?" bit.  I had a very powerful reaction at Avebury.

I don't know whether it was a special day, or just that it was before they roped it off, but we were allowed to walk into Stonehenge, touch the stones, stand in the center, and all that, just like at Avebury. so it wasn't due solely to propinquity.  After Stonehenge we headed over to Avebury.

In case you don't visit any websites for Avebury, I'll tell a little.  It was built in the stone age, before metal tools.  It's older than Stonehenge, something like 4500 years old.  The henge, which is the ditch and bank around the circle of stones, was dug using picks made of deer antler, and shovels made from cow shoulder bones, and it was DEEP, and HIGH, and HUGE!  The outer circle of standing stones is the largest in the world.  Inside the outer circle were two smaller separate circles.  All three circles had a center stone.

As it probably looked then:

 [Picture from http://www.celticnz.co.nz/Avebury/Avebury%201.htm]

Currently existing stones and henge, and modern roads:

[Picture from http://www.landscape-perception.com/avebury_the_henge/index.html]

Believe it or not, a modern (relatively modern) village has been built smack in the middle:

[Picture from http://sobreinglaterra.com/2008/10/07/avebury-el-mayor-circulo-de-piedra/]

When we first arrived, I was fine.  There were groups of people walking around.  They were chatting and laughing, taking pictures, it was a typical country outing.  Me, not so much.  The further into the site we got, the more frightened I got.  Strong feeling of foreboding. It got worse the longer we were there.

It was the middle of summer, but I became overwhelmed by fear of the coming winter, of not having enough food.  I was afraid of what we would have to do to ensure food.  It got worse and worse.  I didn't touch any of the stones.  I was afraid to.  It was like it was not me.  Someone else was in my head.

We got to what was the center of one of the inner smaller circles, and I had a vision.  There was a wooden post (not really, just in my vision).  It was the winter solstice, I think. It was dark, after sunset. The elder women of the tribe took a baby, a female infant, the female infant born closest to the solstice, took it from its mother, wrapped it in hides, and chanting, hung it like a papoose from the pole, and then left it there.  The mother knew it was for the survival of the tribe.  She cried, but did nothing else.  The baby was left there throughout the winter.  It cried for a while, but then was quiet.  This ensured good hunting and that the stored grains would be sufficient, and that illness would stay away.  The vision was very strong.  It was my baby.  This baby had to starve so the rest of us would not.  I heard it cry, and I could do nothing. It was tearing me apart.

If I looked around, I saw people on holiday, and grass, and the stones, and sun shining on everything, but at the same time I clearly saw, with the same eyes, like an overlay, darkness, packed dirt, no grass, the stones, older women with torches hanging a bundle on a pole.  My bundle.

It was all so strong I told Jay I couldn't stay another second, I couldn't visit the pub or the museum, I had to leave immediately.  I didn't tell him why, but I was trembling, and I think the look on my face convinced him.  He was pretty cool, didn't ask.  It all went away as soon as we were out of the henge.

It was like I was entered by a 4500-year-old woman, mourning her baby.  I didn't tell Jay about it.  All he knew was that I didn't like the atmosphere or something.  I've never told anyone.  Until now.

So, I see videos of modern-day Druids and people who define themselves as spiritual beating drums and waving arms and dancing around Avebury Henge in their white robes and floral headgear, and I am somehow disgusted by them.  I don't know what they think they're doing.  They natter on about convergence of ley lines, and powerful energies, and earth spirits, and I think they are deluded dip-shits, playing games.  They don't know.  They don't know how to know.
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4060 Executions, Lessons, and Carroll

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

"Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)"
--Ambrose Bierce--

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There's a lot I don't understand about the current furor about execution drugs.  I don't mean to get into a discussion of execution, that's a moral quagmire.  It's bad enough that some people think it's ok for the state to kill someone but then they object to certain means.  That seems silly, to justify killing, but then get squeamish.  I'm not sure why we'd execute them, anyway.  It's been shown that execution does not act as a deterrent, so that's not a good reason.  Some people object to paying the cost of supporting someone they consider worthless for the rest of their lives, "so let's just kill them", but that doesn't seem like a good reason.  Some are afraid that if the prisoner escapes they will do it again, so let's make sure he can never repeat the crime.  That almost feels ok to me, except that we cannot predict the future, so I'm not sure that's valid, either, especially when the sentence is not applied evenly.  And then there are those who are just angry and want to deliver the absolute vengeance.  I don't think that's our place.  Especially when we so often get it wrong.  So, anyway, I have mixed feelings about executions, and about those who are so hot for them.

But the current arguments going through the courts concern the means.  Firing squads, gas, electric chairs, nooses, whatever else, have gone away because they supposedly violate the constitutional prohibition against cruel punishment.  That stuff kind of hurts, I guess.  So, in an attempt to be "kind" (I guess), the current methods involve injections of crap that stops the heart.  And some folks object to that on the grounds that it's not entirely painless.  I haven't looked into it enough to know what pain they're talking about.  Something about it burning or causing panic or something.

Doesn't matter. 

I don't see what the problem is.  I don't understand why there's physical pain at all.  There will be psychological pain, of course, but that starts when the sentence is passed and gets worse when appeals are rejected, and no one seems to have any problem with that.  Doctors cut people open from stem to stern and rummage around in their insides every day, and there's no pain.  They just sedate you, then there's general anesthesia, and then they can administer anything they want and there's no pain.  The tricky part is the initial sedation, and I can think of a half dozen ways to make someone compliant without their cooperation.  A date rapist can tell you about three.

I don't  understand.

[I absolutely understand why one might object to execution altogether.  What I don't understand is why anyone who does approve of it would object to the means.  In my mind, if someone is going to be executed for murder, then they should die by the same means they used.  It is only just and fitting, and shows the same degree of depravity.  Even the Bible is confusing - there's that "vengeance is mine" thing, but there's also the "eye for an eye" bit.]

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

I came across the word "loquacious" yesterday in a blog.  It's not a word you see often these days; heck, you almost never see or hear it.  It took me back to my teaching days.

I taught high school math, and honors math for college credit.  About once every three weeks or so, I'd use a big unfamiliar word in class.  Like, I'd comment that one of the kids was unusually loquacious today, or I'd praise a kid for particular perspicacity in solving a problem, and then I'd write the unfamiliar word on the board and ask if anyone knew what that word meant, "Don't shout it out, just raise your hand if you know."

"Ok, here's the deal.  If  the day after tomorrow you bring to me a slip of paper in your own handwriting with the word and the correct definition on it, you'll get five points added to your score on the next quiz.  Yes, you can share, you can copy what someone else finds.  BUT, if it's wrong, you lose two points, so you might have to do your own research to make SURE it's right.  No paper, no problem, but no bonus, either."

Believe it or not, the kids loved it.  One day somebody said something about a confused classmate named Alice being in Wonderland.  So, naturally, the extra credit that day was "What was Lewis Carroll's real name, and what was his profession other than writer?"  [Answer:  Charles Dodgson, math teacher.  Photographer was also acceptable, although that was more of a hobby.]

Remember, this was long before even the slightest hint of the internet.  All they had was dictionaries, library books, or other adults. 

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

That all set me off in another chain of thought.  Charles Dodgson had a stammer.  Not like a stutter, but when you just can't get a word out at all.  When you know exactly what the word is, but it just won't come out.  He also had something like eleven siblings, every one of which also stammered.  He never married, and of his siblings, none of whom died young, only three married.  (There's a list of his siblings with dates at http://lewiscarrollsociety.org.uk/pages/aboutcharlesdodgson/life/lifefamily.html.)

His father was an archdeacon, preached sermons, didn't stammer.  All of Charles' siblings did.  Of the 12 kids, 9 never married. 

I am suspicious.  I'm wondering if there might have been abuse at home.  So I did some research.

Not a peep anywhere, good or bad.  However, after his death, some of his papers and letters were destroyed by his family, "to protect reputations".  That was the Victorian era, so dirt was well hidden, and patriarchs ruled unquestioned.  The reputations protected, by the way, were said to be women (some married) with whom he'd had affairs.

Curiouser and curiouser.
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4059 Nothing....

Saturday, June 27, 2015

In an age flooded with information people have become so inured to ignorance
that they now fear what they cannot understand.

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

I don't understand that green statement up there.  I added it to my list of saved quotes simply because it confuses me.  "Inured" means hardened, numbed, very used to it to the point where the condition is simply accepted and ignored.  So how does becoming inured to ignorance cause one to fear what they don't understand?  (I was tempted to say "fear what they are ignorant about", but that's not exactly what it's saying.)  I don't know exactly what it's saying.  It looks to me almost like an oxymoron.  

Opinions, anyone?

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

Nothing happening around here.  We'd had two weeks of near 90 degree days (with very high humidity), and today suddenly it's 67 degrees out there at 2:30 pm.  I don't understand.

I've learned a bit more about GeoGuessr.com.  I discovered that there's always a strong hint as to your location, no matter how desolate the area seems, somewhere up or down the road.  The trick is to find it.  Sometimes it's a road sign, sometimes it's a business beside the road, sometimes it's a clue on the side of a passing truck or bus.  You have to be careful not to zoom past passing vehicles without checking them out.  It's kind of like a road rally.  If you've gone one direction for what feels like miles and miles and have found nothing, you don't have to turn around and retrace your steps.  There's a button on the left that you can click that will take you back to the starting point, and then you can try the other direction. 

It plays with your mind.  When I see people along the road, I keep wanting to pull over and ask them where I am.

(Free hint - If every flat surface in a village is plastered with huge election posters, you're probably in Brazil.  If the land is flat and the soil is thin, and the widely-spaced trees are built like anemic broccoli spears, you are probably in southern Australia. )
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4058 They know who I am...

Monday, June 22, 2015

A glorious defeat is better than victory achieved with the wrong attitude.
 – Samurai maxum --

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

I think GeoGuessr might have it out for me.  I had a run of especially good games lately.  I got 24988 out of 25000 on a game (five maps) a few days ago, then on the next game, yesterday, I got 24367.  That's pretty good.

This evening, the first two maps were in Bulgaria!  The first two!  TWO in a row!  Man, someplace like Bulgaria, there's virtually no way to figure out where in the country you are.  When I get something like Bulgaria, once I figure out the country, I pretty much give up and click randomly in the middle of the country.

The next one was Montana, USA.  Don't know if you've ever been to Montana, but there's miles and miles of miles and miles with few signs, and the few signs I passed were out of focus.  Thanks, Street View.   I saw one clear directional sign pointing to a town, so I just clicked on that town, figuring I had to be somewhere near.  I was almost 50 miles off.  BTW, did you know that Missoula, Montana, has an international airport?  An international airport?  It's a small city, in the mountains, major employers a university and two hospitals.  They must have a good senator.

The last two were Brazil!  Two!  One after the other in Brazil!  I have great difficulty with Brazil, because again, where GeoGuessr drops me, there's next to nothing.

Sometimes I can guess I'm somewhere in Brazil without squinting at signs, just by the highway department.  Those guys are crazy.  Like tonight I got dropped in a tiny hamlet of tiny shacks, maybe seven houses widely spaced, nothing else visible for miles and miles in either direction down the road.  But, there were two bus shelters, on either side of the road, at either end of the hamlet.  (Brazil is big on buses.) The road was marked with barred pedestrian crossing marks at the bus stops.  The speed limit was dropped to half through the hamlet, AND they had two, count 'em, TWO, fancy automated electronic speed traps at either end.  Less than a kilometer apart, mind you.  Crazy.  No route signs, or street signs, or signs pointing to towns, though.  You might get lost, but by darn you aren't going to drive dangerously, either.

Other than tonight I've been enjoying GeoGuessr.  I like when I get to wander around France, or Sweden, or Britain, or Italy, or Japan.  I look at villages and houses.  The other day they dropped me in Lesotho, so I got to learn some new stuff. 

But sometimes it's disturbingly depressing.  Once I was dropped into an area that looked incredibly economically depressed, and the houses scared me.  The buildings were obviously very old, and they looked like they had been maintained over centuries by people who owned no tools and knew nothing about building techniques.  Like an exterior wall (not just one house - it was in general) had been repaired by nailing boards up, but apparently the repairer had no measure and no saw.  The boards were random lengths, so some stuck out past the end of the building, and others stopped short, leaving a hole in the wall.  Like there'd be a two-story house, and the ends of the floor of the second story were not covered by the "siding", floor beams stuck out randomly.  I was thinking, jeeze, these people are scary!  I mean, even if you're poor, you can still figure things out and take some pride in the work.  Ok, a good saw might be expensive when you have nothing, but if everyone in the village chipped in a turnip or a cabbage, maybe you could buy/barter one saw to share. 

That was Romania (a bus went by and I got the name of the bus company), very close to the borders with Hungary and Serbia.  I don't want to go back there, not even virtually.

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

I guess I owe Romania an apology.  I just went there on my own with maps.google.com street view, and most of the areas I wandered around in are quite nice.  I guess GeoGuessr dropped me into the Romanian equivalent of Detroit (the damaged part), and you can't judge all of the US by Detroit (the damaged part) either.
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4057 A week's setback at the country house

Monday, June 22, 2015

" ... the use of our intelligence quite properly gives us pleasure.

In this respect the brain is like a muscle. When we think well,

we feel good. Understanding is a kind of ecstasy."

--Carl Sagan--

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

I was so angry earlier today that I actually spoke the full F-word in all its glory when talking to someone on the phone.  I guarantee that was the first time in more than a decade.

I was rushing to get stuff done so that I could drive up to the country house this evening to meet the a/c installers tomorrow.  Then I checked my email.  Not the main id, the one I'd given to the a/c people to use, no, it was my secondary id.  The one I use when I'm afraid I might be inviting a torrent of spam.  The one I used way back when I was checking out a/c companies in general.

The email was from the secretary from the a/c company, informing me that my system installation is scheduled for July 1.  That's not tomorrow.  That's more than a week away.  

Why did I think it was tomorrow?  Because the owner and president of the company, the guy who came out to look at the house and assess my requirements, with whom I had been emailing back and forth, COMMITTED to tomorrow.  He had sent me the contract to sign and send back with a check, but it didn't have any dates on it.  I told him that the installation date was very important to me, and I couldn't send him a down payment  and signed contract without an installation date.  (I don't consider it a contract without a committed date, because if they couldn't do the work soon, I'd have to say no thanks and find someone else who could do it sooner.)  So, in his emailed response to me, he committed to June 23.  

I freaked.

I called the secretary and informed her that the boss had committed to tomorrow.  She (bureaucrat to the core) said that their procedure is that they don't schedule installation until the check for 1/2 the total clears, and tomorrow they've got a different job scheduled, and they can't get to me until July 1.   She just kept repeating that.  She refused to concede that I might have a valid complaint.   I informed her that :

1.  I don't see how anyone would ever agree to that, no one should send a check without a date, what if you couldn't do the work until August, am I supposed to accept that? or plead for release from the signed contract and beg for return of my check?
2.  I was told to send a check for 75% of the total, so, so much for your F**KING 50% DEPOSIT PROCEDURE!  Apparently sometimes your procedure is flexible.
3.  The owner told me tomorrow.   I have it in writing, in the email.  Yes, I am thoroughly pissed, and I want some kind of concession.
4.  I have already scheduled the furnace company for July 1 annual service.  You guys will be hooking up to the furnace ducts and fan.  Gee, I hope you can work around the furnace guy.  He has precedence because he got that date before you.

The woman needs training in customer relations.  She should have listened to my side, instead of repeating "the procedure" over and over.  She should have said she understood my problem, and said she's sorry, but there seems to have been a failure of communication on their part, and apologized for that failure.  THEN and only then, she could say that there's no way to correct it at this point, and asked if I could I possibly work with a July 1 date. 

I'm still pissed.

4056 Andy's profile.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words.

If you can control the meaning of words,

you can control the people who must use them.

--Philip K. Dick--

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

I LOVE this!  It reminds me so much of Jay.  If he'd had a profile, it might have looked much like this.

Hi, my name is Andy and I am trying out the new mobile matchmaking app Tinder. I hope to find my future love on here. Thanks for checking out my profile!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2gDZf-x_LI]

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4055 An educational time-waster (oxymoron, or good excuse?)

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all,

it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy,

and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy,

or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.

This is easy.

 All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists

for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.

 It works the same in every country.

--Hermann Goering--

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

I've been getting to bed very late the past few nights because I've been playing with GeoGuessr (https://geoguessr.com/).  It uses Google maps street view to drop you somewhere in the world, and then you have to figure out where you are using things like the terrain, soil type, crops, which side of the road people drive on, architectural styles, appearance of populace, and so on.  You can travel around (slowly! until you figure out the secret for moving faster) and if you are lucky you'll find a sign that might give you a hint as to the language, and if you are very lucky, you might find a highway sign pointing to a town name, and if you are very very lucky you might stumble upon a hotel, resort, or restaurant with a unique name you can find on the internet.

Purists discourage looking up names on the internet, they consider that cheating, but sheesh, even if you have honestly determined you are definitely in France, France is a pretty big country.  You have to narrow it down somehow!

In a set, you get five different locations.  A perfect score is 5,000 points, so a perfect total for the five is 25,000 points.

I usually come very close on four of them.  I've frequently been within mere feet of the target point.  I'm usually within 30 miles. (Of course, I'm not above cheating, according to the purists....)  But I always completely, utterly, embarrassingly blow one, sometimes by whole continents!  South Africa looks a lot like Australia, for Pete's sake!  Or the American mid-west.  And those central European countries, and south Asian countries, all look alike, and with weird alphabets even if I do find a non-blurred sign, I can't search the internet for it.  It's usual I'll get only a few hundred points on those, and a couple times it's been a big fat 0 (you have to be on the wrong side of the globe to get that, DAMN! South Africa is NOT in Kansas!).  So my total for five maps usually runs around 18,800 points.

Play with it when you have some time.  Don't get discouraged too soon, it does take a little time to figure out how to, uh, cheat.  But it's fun, and it's amazing how much of the world looks like Kansas.

And if you do try it, please leave a comment. 

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

I'm working on one right now --- see my comment attached -------------
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4054.1 Jumping in Muddy Puddles

I don't know if anyone can see this. Please let me know...............

4054 A bit of worry, averted

Saturday, June 13, 2015

"[T]he West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion

but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence.

Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."

--Samuel Huntingdon--

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

My neighbor George is getting up there in years.  The 19-year-old who mows my lawn (significantly, he does not mow George's lawn) is his great-grandson, and not the oldest one, either.  When I first moved up here, George did a lot of heavy work around his house, like, with my blessing, removing the fence between our front yards, which included digging up the concrete footings for the posts and loading the metal and concrete chunks into his truck.

The past year or two he's slowed down.  He sold his truck last year.  Lately I sometimes see him just standing in his yard, slumped, with his head down.  Like he was resting.  He goes to the deli for a newspaper every morning, and lately he just sits in the car for a while before starting it, and when he gets back he sits in the car with the door open for a few minutes before getting out and climbing the steps to the yard.

For the past several days I hadn't seen him at all.  It's been hot and very humid, so I figured he was just staying in to stay cool.  

I've been a bit worried about him.

Late this morning the street filled up with cars, the earliest arrivals were the grandchildren (the whole family lives right around here) and then many more people arrived with covered dishes.  Many people.  Most were wearing black. 

I got a little freaked out. 

And then someone arrived and called from the street, "Happy birthday, George!", and George stepped out his front door to wave.  I was amused to see he was wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt instead of his usual dark t-shirt or plaid flannel.  

Happy birthday, George.   Glad you're still having them.
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4053 Stuff --- Duh Stuff; Yeah Stuff; Other Stuff

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Sometimes when you look in his eyes you get the feeling that someone else is driving.

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

I read this and tucked it away some months ago, and then forgot about it, so I don't have the source or dates any more, but that really doesn't matter.  This is the output of professional writers, pro reporters.  They were PAID for this blather.  Duh.

Regarding the train derailment at O'Hare airport, "It appears as though the train would have been going faster than a train normally birthing at this station would be," he [the spokesman] said. "Normally a train pulls in at just a couple miles and hour and pulls into the station. Obviously this train did not stop so speed could be a factor here."

Further,

"... it was immediately unknown if the train's motorman had some sort of medical problem prior to the crash"

Immediately unknown?  Wow.  Birthing?  Trains have babies?  I suspect they meant "berth", but even then, berth applies to ships, not trains.   Speed could be a factor?  No kidding!  Typo - and/an.  Try proofreading.

Regarding the plane that disappeared:

"MH370 flew along the southern corridor and it’s last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean west of Perth," Prime Minister Rajak said at Putra World Trade Centre Monday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. "This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sights."

 It's/its.  Sights/sites.

Sigh.  Journalism schools ain't what they used to be.

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

Go to http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexrees/37-over-the-top-evening-gowns-from-the-2013-miss-world-fashi to see the contestants in the 2013 Miss World pageant, modelling creations from "Indonesia's elite fashion designers".  We are told this is not a joke.  I don't believe that - those are some of the ugliest dresses ever!  Perhaps it was a test for the contestants, to see if they could walk down the runway in an embarrassing dress, and carry it off.

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

I had to read this several times to figure out why it confused me:  "Most classes fill up quickly, but will be held only if the minimum number of students registers."  The problem is that the subject of the sentence is "most classes", so the "will be held" doesn't apply to the subject.

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

This one I also found a long time ago.  My note on it says "lifehacker".   There is a Lifehacker.com, but I don't know for sure that's where I found it.  Whatever -- I don't want to lose it.

You don't get very far with silence. You won't always know the right thing to say, and if you say what you think or feel you might get it wrong. That doesn't mean the conversation that follows won't be for the best. Saying the wrong thing can often be the impetus for the right discussion. It's then that you find it's better to say something stupid than nothing at all.

Words to speak by.

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

I found out a while ago that anyone under 4'10" is legally considered a "little person".  Wow.  If I were still working, I'd check into what that might mean.  Maybe I'd have been able to demand a chair that FIT me.

By the way, I find "little person" offensive.  It sounds demeaning, like I am of no consequence.  

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

I scream inside every time I see or hear "orientate".  Paul Niquette has written an excellent short essay on the topic, at http://www.niquette.com/books/101words/orient.htm.

(If you have a little time for browsing and love words, wander around http://www.niquette.com/, click tabs under "Books".)

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

"If the referee doesn't call a foul, it's not a foul." People say this about traffic violations. I strongly disagree! That's like saying that if someone wasn't arrested and charged with the murder, then there wasn't a murder.

A few years ago there was a big fuss about traffic tickets being issued based on traffic cameras in Arizona.  There were actual real people screaming bloody murder that if a policeman (referee) didn't see them running the stop sign, or the red light, or speeding, then there was no violation!

I call bullshit! 

This argument seems to be starting up again.  A lot of people seem to think that a camera catching them doing something illegal is a violation of their privacy, and that the only purpose of traffic cameras is to generate money in the form of fines.  Um, if you don't want to pay the fine, don't break the law.  And if you don't want the cameras, are you willing to pay taxes high enough to have a referee/cop on every street corner?  No?  You just want to be free to do whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want, as long as Daddy doesn't see you..

I'm all for traffic cameras.  Maybe it's the "mother gene" - mothers are all for eyes in the back of their heads.

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4052 Catching up on photos

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

"[T]he more a person deems absolute equality among all people to be

a desirable condition, the further left he or she will be on the ideological spectrum.

The more a person considers inequality to be unavoidable or even desirable,

the further to the right he or she will be.

--Roderick Stackelberg, Hitler's Germany, Routledge, 1999, pp. 4–6

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

I've got a backlog of photos I want to post - because I like to keep stuff here, if for no other reason.

This is a portrait of me that Nugget drew last week.  Apparently it is usual for her age group (recently turned 4) to have the arms and legs coming directly out of the head.   Kind of makes me wonder - I know she's very aware that people have torsos (she comments on my big boobies and belly often enough!), so why do they leave it out?  Is it that arms and legs and heads are so much more important?  I thought it was interesting that she very carefully drew in the fingers and toes.

This is the dandelions in my city house front yard last month.  I dragged out the vacuum cleaner and sucked up as much of the seed heads as I could, because I knew if the mower-kid mowed that mess, dandelions would take over the entire neighborhood.  Then I spread a weed killer/fertilizer mix.  It looks a little better now.

This is one of the five daffodil beds at the country house, this past spring.  Late April, I think.  There are several varieties in there.  This is looking up from the end of the driveway toward the house, which is beyond the brow of the hill.

 This is a bit of the side yard at the country house.  Pretty, isn't it?  I hate to give it up.

Snake!  He's coming down from inside the exterior siding near the front door of the country house.   I think each of those tiles is 6" square (the photo angle makes them look rectangular, but they are square), so if you straighten him out, that makes him about 36" long!  At his thickest middle, he was an inch and a half wide.  They can get up to almost 4 feet long, but I'd never seen one before as big as this one.

I had some Lincoln Logs here for a while, waiting for the Nugget to get old enough to be interested.  We got them out the other day.  Her Daddy built the section of barn to the right.  Nugget built the section to the left.  So far, there's no evidence of a budding architect.

Nugget's nursery school has special days, like "silly hat day", "pajama day", "funny hair day", and so on.  The next four photos are from two "funny hair" days (I wonder what boys do for funny hair....).  Daughter was very creative.

(Mouth full of peaches.)

Side view.

Another funny hair day.  She had been watching Sesame Street on TV when "the pee-pee urge" hit.  I came around the corner and found this.    Usually she uses a ring that fits in the seat of the grown-up toilet, but she didn't want to miss any of the show, so she dug out her baby potty and set up shop in front of the TV.

My lava lamp.  Sometimes when it's warming up, things get interesting.

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4051 Outside the box.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Homophobia: The fear that gay men will treat men the way men treat women.

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

Nugget is very "into" clothes.  I don't know where she got that.  She especially loves "tutu-looking" skirts, and sparkles, bangles, and sequins.

A while ago she was wearing a straight, knee-length, rib-knit skirt with a t-shirt over.  I was a bit surprised by the skirt, not her usual style, so I complemented her on her grown-up look.  

She replied that it looked grown-up because it was her mother's.

"Your mother's skirt fits you?  Wow!"

"No, it's not her skirt."  She lifted the t-shirt to show me.

She was wearing one of her mother's tank tops as a dress/skirt.  Because it was a stretchy rib-knit it fit her perfectly as a dress (except for being a bit low-cut, hence the t-shirt).

Cool idea.
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