Austanspace

Now, This is Sad

2012-02-15T21:53:00.002-05:00

From our community calendar...

"Community Sledding Party -Cancelled

Saturday February 18th 2012 1:00PM- 3:00

The sledding party has been cancelled due to lack of snow. Next year!"

Can't sled in February in Vermont? That's not right. I suppose there'll be no Sugar on Snow suppers either.

67 Days to Greg

2012-02-15T15:34:00.000-05:00

All systems are go. The Sharpie fine points came today, ready for Greg's siggy. I'm still thinking about where to have it, and I'll start looking for a tattooist next month. The guy who used to tat in town is gone, but I heard of a woman over in NH who's as good. I'm gonna clear it with Eileen before I go. If he has an aversion to such things I don't want to put him on the spot.

I think I'm on a diet high. 6 weeks and a day in and I'm diggin it. Haven't weighed in since the end of January but I'm wearing clothes I couldn't wear at Christmas and I'm seeing bones I haven't seen in a while. We'll see what shape I am in April- it may be the upper thigh after all!

The Harris Hill Ski Jump right here in town is this coming weekend. It's been so warm and we've had so little snow that the resorts are helping make snow and getting the run ready. The weatherfolk are calling for rain. If my Achy Breaky Hip is any barometer, I'd say we're getting rain for sure. A rain hip is different from a snow hip. The snow hip hurts but it doesn't throbby hurt. Throbby means rain. I hope the temp drops and it snows. Rain won't stop the jumping, but it'll put a damper on the whole thing and less people will show up for it. Who wants to stand in the rain to watch ski jumps?

Another thing that's going on is that our power company is installing "smartmeters", these meters they can read remotely without using a human being going around. But it's going to cost us more one way or another. If you don't want the radiowaves running around you'll have to pay an additional fee. If you take the radiowaves you'll have to pay for its installation. This is causing kerfluffle. An additional 10 bucks a month may not seem a lot, but these days, it really is. Everything- food, oil, gas, is damned expensive. Everything but the crappiest quality foods are so pricey. When American cheese is almost 7 bucks a pound, things are bad.

So yeah, no end to the issues we're facing. On it goes...

The Little Things

2012-02-15T09:59:00.000-05:00

In my town we can get caught up in a lot of issues. The location of a skatepark has been unbelievably contentious and I feared for some peoples' sanity in it all. Our formerly-local daily newspaper is dying a slow death and plenty of people are all pissed off about it. There are almost as many issues in Bratt as there are people. It can get boggy. Especially now, in the pre-Town Meeting agita.

Then a question like this, about a really free-ranging chicken, lightens everything up.
http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php/20120214140114758

February is a heavy month. Much ado about decisions for the next year go on. There are changes going on in many lives around me. The whole country is nuts. But really, here and there it's good to have a break and only worry about an escaped chicken or two.

Valentines Schmalentines

2012-02-14T09:19:00.000-05:00

Another overrated holiday is upon us. I've never understood how a martyred saint's feast day turned into a lovers' holy day of obligation. But it has and is, and we must bear with it or try to ignore it. Not that I'm a total cynic when it comes to romance. Let's just say the banana truck of romance has run me over too many times for me to get very psyched at its appearance and I run like hell to get out of its way.

It's fine for other people. But not for me.

So Happy Valentine's if you like that sort of thing. If you don't, please join me in ignoring the hype and getting on with your day.

Changes II

2012-02-13T17:00:00.000-05:00

Things have been way better since eating veggies again, not the least of which is eating soup. I think I could live on soup. Since I live alone, I make just enough to fill up my tank for the day. I also eat midday now, and not at all at night. When I eat soup I don't usually get hungry later, and if I do, a bit of cheese or a glass of milk does it. I'll still cook some meat every couple of days and eat a regular meal. It's a good way to have some meat for instant soup.

Here's my Instant Soup recipe
1 1/2 c. stock or broth or bouillion
1/4 lb. frozen mixed vegetables
some leftover cooked meat, diced
seasonings
Bring all to a boil, simmer 3 minutes. Done.
It's that simple, and is warm, nourishing and feels healthy to eat.

Through this process I've realized there are some things I've never liked but was trained to eat. The Clean Plate Club was enforced in our house. If it was served, you ate it. And so I grew up having to eat a lot of things I never would've willingly eaten. I'm thinking that's good programming for eating disorders, which I and my brothers have had all our lives. Starches abounded in a house with 7 or more mouths to feed. They're the norm of American food and are often a conveyor of good things. Potatoes, rice, pasta, pancakes. I never liked them. Now I don't eat them. I'll take the good things we put on them- butter, cheese, veggies, meats- without the starchy stuff I never wanted in the first place. So this is a kind of new freedom I've discovered in all this.

Of course, it wasn't so easy to give up some things. I still miss bread now and then, but not much. Bread was too often a filler. We'd go through a whole big loaf or more at dinner. Again, stretching things to feed that many people. So yeah, I've had enough bread for a lifetime. And I always loved sweets. Suddenly sugar seems much too sweet to me. I had a few little baking chocolate chips today- semi-sweet at that- and they were cloyingly, unstandably sweet. Guess it's just the Midnight Ghirardelli from now on, if I get a chocolate fit. Tastes change, like anything else. These are just healthier changes.

Random Bits of News and Observations

2012-02-13T10:02:00.000-05:00

As I enjoyed a weekend and ignored much of what was going on, things went on.

InSanetorum accuses Romney of rigging things with $ (This is news? I thought that's what politicians usually do)
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/mitt-romney-bought-conservative-political-action-conference-caucus-win-rick-santorum-article-1.1021400

Just read this blog:
http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/photos/very-suspicious-quotation-marks
And good god it's so true. Along with the inability to spell, we have an epidemic of quotation marks. I thought they were meant for sarcasm in a written form, but they're everywhere these days.

What a terrible tragedy:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/whitney-houston-daughter-bobbi-christina-brown-rushed-hospital-mom-dies-reports-article-1.1021338

I hope Obama and the Dems don't cave again:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/13/obama-fiscal-year-budget-2013-release

Signs of things to come in the US, if we don't nip it-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/10/china-jails-dissident-zhu-yufu

Syria's conflict goes on
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/13/syria-rejects-arab-league-call-peacekeeping

It's sincerely trying to snow here, little more than flurries, but it's trying. I'm thinking it's the effort that counts most.

If the Improbable Happened

2012-02-12T21:30:00.000-05:00

A conversation today veered into what would you do if you were suddenly rich. Everyone's watching Downton Abbey, it seems. Lots of my friends, like me, are the grandchildren of the once wealthy. I think coming from a family fallen to troubles molds one's character as much as those who get and are raised rich in one generation. In different ways, of course.

But back to what we'd do if suddenly we had no monetary limits.
My list:
Travel everywhere I've ever been curious about.
Buy the old brownstone in Brooklyn.
Have a staff. Make them unionize.
Buy up space and have everyone interred in Greenwood.
Buy a farm here and run it as a training ground for new farmers.
And I'll train cooks there. Not friggin chefs, real cooks.
Set up my family and friends.
Charities.

It's remarkable what everyone had on their lists. Businesses. Everyone wanted to have their dream business, and work. Not one wanted to invest and lay back. And just as interesting was what nobody named. Education. I guess we're at the age beyond considering school? All would help their families and friends. All had charities to mind.

And if you had limitless funds, what would you do? I'd like to hear.

But the Wind Goes Right Through Ya!

2012-02-12T15:59:00.000-05:00

Holy cow is it cold out there. I thought I was out there for a couple of hours but it wasn't even a full hour and despite being in full sun, it's coooooold! I've been back inside more than an hour and I'm still chilled like fresh produce. That wind is more than bracing; it's pushy!

I put on full battle face before going outside. The new makeups are a charm. With eyes watering from the wind and blowing dust, no mascara smudge. No streaking from the tears running down my cheeks, a miracle in itself. I found some quality products at great prices. Small victory, but a good test run for Greg night too.

Onto the day's projects. I was going to pickle smelts (herring is much too difficult to deal with these days- even getting them is near impossible) but they're not ready to salt yet. Think I'll make a pot of chicken vegetable soup. There are good scary movies on, the Beest is crashed out, and it's a lovely quiet day in The Shire. The kind of day to do next to nothing and not think too much.

I am thinking of Rory, who's having his long-awaited surgery today. Let's hope this fixes what's wrong and we'll have our old rabblerouser back in form soon.

Yes, it's good to let the world spin on its own, make yourself happy and revel in peace and gratitude for all one has, and has had.

Sunday in the Park with Poppa

2012-02-12T12:32:00.000-05:00

It's seasonably cold and quite windy today. There's something about the light today that reminds me of Sundays with my father. In the sixties and early seventies Sundays were spent with him, like most kids after divorce. We had adventures in New York City. Out in all kinds of weather, on all sorts of public transport. We went to movies in the worst weather, but on days like this I think of lunch in Central Park.

Poppa was an avid picnicker. He'd pack up a jar of his "Health Salad" (basically shredded carrots in vinegar), some cheese and cole slaw sandwiches wrapped in wax paper, and off we'd go. There is one big rock formation in the southern part of the Park that was our unspoken destination. For a guy in his sixties (he was 53 when I was born) he was very agile, and he'd climb up those rocks in his suit and hat and overcoat like a goat. We'd get to the top and just sit for a minute, surveying the people and the Park like gods on Olympus. I can't remember any sandwiches tasting better than those soggy, falling-apart ones, as the wind whipped my hair around and the sun's warmth came up from the boulders we sat on.

After lunch we'd head for our day's amusement, or education. We went to every museum, place of worship, library, tourist trap, famous building and neighborhood in NYC. I knew the city and the subways before I knew long division. This would aid in my truancy, but that's another story.

I suddenly feel like packing sandwiches, bundling up, and going outside. Can't eat bread, climb rocks or go to a wondrous place like the Cloisters but the front porch and some cheese and carrots will do. It's mostly the light and wind I crave anyway. I think I will. See you later.

Rumor: Kim Jong-Un Assassinated

2012-02-11T12:31:00.000-05:00

Tomaidh of iBrattleboro.com just reported a rumor he found online that Kim Jong-Un, son and inheritor of Kim Jong-Il's dictatorship has been assassinated. Read the original here:
http://centintel.com/?p=359

Allergies and a War of Wills

2012-02-11T11:44:00.000-05:00

Seems to me there are a boatload more allergies these days than there used to be. I about live on benadryl. It can be discouraging. Just got a fancy soap (part of Operation Greg, natch) and upon opening began sneezing. This was the scent I wore throughout the late 80s. I have a cologne of it on order. Hope it's just the soap does it.

And, the Beest is allergic to the cat litter. Over the past week I noticed she's been decidedly scratching and chewing at herself. So I combed her thoroughly, took off about a pound of fur and she seemed okayfor a day or so. However, I changed the litter again yesterday and she went at it furiously, scratching a bald spot on one ear.

The vet, when I called, asked right off if I'd used Tidy Cat, as lots of cats are allergic to it. Bingo. Unfortunately this all transpired after Gal Friday had left so getting new litter will have to wait a couple of days. The vet said give her half a benadryl. Erring on the side of caution I crushed up about a quarter in a mortar and pestle and mixed it into her wet food. She stuck her face right in and chowed a mouthful. And stopped. And made a face and stuck her tongue out.

Minutes later she was sprawled on the leaf of my desk, purring up a storm and the sweetest cat you ever saw. I had to watch and make sure she didn't fall off. She was adorable.

A couple hours later, however, she was back to chewing. Today she is wickedly stubborn. As I mixed her a fresh dish this morning she sat right there waiting. I put it down and she sniffs and walks away. She will not eat her food. I took up her dry food so that's what she has. This is now a battle of wills. I have that guilt of having to do the best thing for her whether she likes it or not. Getting even a bit of a pill down her throat would be a two-person operation. I still don't have gauntlets. Perhaps someone coming by today will risk their life and limbs to help out. Until then, I'm giving her the hairy eyeball and repeating, "Eat your food." And she's chewing and throwing me filthy looks. This is war.

Saturday Morning Musiclog

2012-02-11T09:21:00.000-05:00

Well, whatever snow we have gotten overnight has left a partial residue like a cheap frosted flake. There's too much blue to the sky to expect more right now. If we get anything worth noting it won't be til later. I heard they're already sugaring, and that's not right.

Anyway, I've been listening to music this morning. It all started with a dream where someone was singing, "I've Heard that Song Before" which I needed to get rid of, and went to YT to erase. Came across "Begin the Beguine", my grandfather's favorite;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNcPnEc99UE

Which for inexplicable reasons took me to Petula Clark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHQjiCCDH1U

From there to Herman's Hermits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5ozG5JYMvM

To Marianne Faithfull
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhPPJ5dolxU

Folowing logically to The Hollies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgA4-bLcoN8

and ending with my second cuppa to The Troggs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9DVJE_bhVU

What was that original head tune again? :D
Happy Saturday.

Weekend Headshakers

2012-02-11T01:03:00.000-05:00

Right. And I'm The Highlander.
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/ghost-rider-nicolas-cage-denies-vampire-civil-war-era-photo-likeness-late-show-article-1.1020529

Good luck.
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/2012/02/shutdownthecorporations/

Ya mean ya can be too thin?
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/skinny-macaulay-culkin-article-1.1020194

Space cowboy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16922438

Rubber baby buggy bumpers?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/guinness-record-holder-credits-big-breasts-saving-life-car-crash-article-1.1020614

I can't get over this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/31/how-to-make-your-own-knickers

I'm Speechless

2012-02-10T18:14:00.000-05:00

Trucks have been driven into buildings and taken out the movie house marquee by driving up on the sidewalk in my town, but this tops them all.

http://www.wcax.com/story/16905375/driver-accused-of-driving-over-car-leaving-scene

I really hope the car driver is okay, I know her sister. What the hell is wrong with the truck driver?

Gotta Get a Chicken

2012-02-10T16:29:00.000-05:00

It's sure looking like we'll get some Winter this weekend. Every weather source I've checked says snow starting late tonight and on to tamari. Two sources say snow on Sunday. And lows for the next nights in the single digits.

It's a snow sky out there right now, a light gray hunkering-down sky. The white light of the sun is so mild you can look right at it and see branches in front of it. My Gal Friday said the supermarket was packed. That in itself isn't a sure sign, but it means people think we'll get it.

Every time snow was coming we couldn't put out the chicken fast enough. An unspoken primal urge came out in people: "It's gonna snow, gotta get a chicken." It was all hands on deck, drop what you're doing and get the chicken cases filled. 400 pounds at a time, til we'd run out. Then we'd go back to whatever we were doing- cooking in my case- and the disappointed customers would shuffle over to ask us for more. Like we were holding out on them? "Oh, we have lots of chicken, but we're not selling it to you."

There are times I don't miss the food business. Before a snow is one of them. I think I'll call the boys and ask them if they have chickens.

Are We FUBAR?

2012-02-10T10:23:00.000-05:00

Don't know about you, but following the NDAA being signed in by Obama, I was damn upset and still am. Now I see this
http://www.avinc.com/nano
and think, "It's over. We didn't get a chance"

Bye-bye Constitution. It was nice while it lasted. Soon enough my generation will be gone and nobody will remember what relative freedom was. Hello, Age of Big Brother.

Wake Up and the Day is Over

2012-02-09T20:03:00.000-05:00

It's been one of those days when time just slips by and I can't really point to anything getting done. Except Hildie is thoroughly combed. Rewrote a chapter of the book that I'm still not satisfied with and put it down for the day before I drove myself nuts. Seems like I woke up, did some things, saw and talked to a few people and now it's almost 8 p.m. Where the time goes on a day like this I don't know. Some days feel like extra hours are put in. I guess this was one that they borrow the time from.

It feels like Spring. Sunny, breezy, cold but not like other Februarys kind of coldness. Not to the bone, move fast, cover your face cold. I've always wanted a really long Spring, maybe this is it. Just feels off, not having a Winter.

Today is the 15th anniversary of my Mom's death, too. 15 years already. Impossible. As the years go by I try to remember her laughter, her singing... it fades a little. February is not a favorite month of mine. Too many deaths remembered. But if it all flies by like today, that's fine by me.

I'm glad to be eating healthy. I'm sleeping and everything is normal. Maybe the pounds won't magically disappear this way, but it's liveable. I don't even miss flour products anymore and more surprising, I crave veggies now. Go figure.

All's quiet in The Shire. The story of Beowulf is on H2, and I have books to read. Life is good. I hope everyone gets a peaceful day like this now and then. See ya tomorrow.

Daily Theme Songs, Evil Head Tunes, Etc., Etc.

2012-02-08T22:48:00.000-05:00

Repeating synchronicities weird me out. Like hearing a song three times in one day after not hearing it since an ex stole the cassette in 2000, leaving me a PIL tape. I guess to him it was a trade, but not to me. Anyway, here's the song I heard 3 times today in different places, by the Psychedelic Furs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpJFmIE3avk

This happened a couple of days ago with this song by The Ramones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBN1CkyRzmE

But that's better than an evil head tune. I had this stuck in my mental 8-track mercilessly yesterday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBiepqrfsS0
That should be registered as a weapon. Even the classic wiper of head tunes, Piano Man, didn't work. From now on, it's the song I will call, "The Song That Must Not Be Named". Because that's how it started. Trying to remember it. I once knew an old man who'd sing it all the time. He's dead now. The song goes on. And on and friggin on.

And then for over a week now, Oliver Reed keeps popping up. Not literally, he's still buried in Ireland, far as I know. But here and there, it's Oliver Reed. A friend sent me this today, not knowing about the Ollie thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPXMHZ4XEs0
Why Oliver Reed? Who knows? Is there a why?

What does it all mean? Not a damned thing. It portends nothing, has no hidden meaning, is naught but synchronicity. Which weirds me out a bit.

Daryl's Birthday and Jambalaya

2012-02-08T12:04:00.000-05:00

What do Daryl Pillsbury's B'day and Jambalaya have in common? It's Heat Fund Recipe Day! Yay!

So last night I made a double batch of a simple jambalaya (no seafood- everyone's allergic these days) and let it sit and marry all the luscious flavors in the fridge overnight. This morning, bright and early Daryl came by and we sat and schmoozed for a while and he took it in to the radio station. He and Steve West, talk show host of our Live & Local show, are on the air drumming up donations for the Windham County Heat Fund.

I've stumped for this charity on this blog several times but this year there's a bigger need than ever. Despite the mild winter it's been, we still need heat. The temps have been dipping into the teens at night lately and the funding for LIHEAP and the state has been cut. This can be a deadly combo. So far this year I haven't heard of anyone freezing to death in their home, thank Gods, but it happened last year in a neighboring town. This is why we work to get donations, to help those in an emergency who have no heat and nowhere to turn for help.

Daryl handles the paperwork while I do the recipe and cooking. He is now sending the entire collection of recipes- about 15 he just said- for a single donation of any size. Even 5 bucks helps, and will get you all the recipes I've created over the last year and change.

You can help the heatless by sending a tax-deductible check to:

The Windham County Heat Fund
679 Weatherhead Hollow Road
Guilford, VT 05301

If you want the recipes, include a note saying so. Daryl will get them in the mail to you within a week. And wish Daryl a Happy Birthday. He's one of the good guys.

What a Difference a Year Makes!

2012-02-08T07:11:00.001-05:00

One year ago I was kicking the opiates I'd taken for about 4 years. I started out Cold Turkey, but cooler heads prevailed (friends who happen to be nurses freaked out at me and my pharmacist Jim freaked out at my doc- who didn't care) and I withdrew a little more gradually, over 3 weeks. My daughter still laughs at the emails I was sending but doesn't tell me what was in them. I kinda live in dread that they'll surface some day but what the hell. Can't be any nuttier than what I was posting on my blog.

I don't remember a lot. So much has happened since then! But when I look back at a blogpost from a year ago http://austanspace.blogspot.com/2011/02/later-that-same-day.html
it comes back pretty clearly. Too clearly.

I don't endorse Cold Turkey. I've done it a couple of times now and it's never a good experience. Though I'm the type who laughs through a lot of it, there were horrors too. The severe physical withdrawals from being dopesick can kill. While I know that's how I do it and make it last, I don't recommend it. Somehow- unremembered exactly how, as I was alone most of the time- I broke my collarbone during it, which went untreated. I recall having to make several cups of coffee in succession all the time because my arm would jerk out and throw the cup, or my hand would just open and I'd drop it.

Many good things have come after. Living here and getting out of the "luxury downtown living" of the Brooks House. Overcoming pain without using drugs. The entire Oz trip that came with Irene. Bonding so closely with Strider again. My friends rallying to move me twice in six months. The joy of blogging, which really only started with detoxing a year ago. Until then I'd blog in a year what I now blog in a month. And getting Hildebeest, who's now more a part of me than black clothing. What's left of my brain is, well as Tim Minchin says, "It's not perfect but it's mine."

A year without dope is a year of real life. In Technicolor. It's good.

A Moveable Beest

2012-02-07T17:52:00.001-05:00

The Beest is less cantankerous than ever. She's been pretty friendly to everyone who's stopped in from the beginning, here. She adores and demands a lot of attention. She will bop you with a paw when she wants it. She will crawl onto you when you are sitting or lying down and hook her arms around your leg. However, she doesn't like being handled. The evening I tried clipping her claws is imprinted on my mind, and arms. I've been looking for gauntlets since.

And so I determined to socialize her.

Since she perches for a good deal of her time right beside me on my desk leaf I started picking her up and holding her. This was met with scrabbling for the edge of the leaf with every ounce of strength she has and hanging on for dear life. Luckily I can still outwit her, and use the old kung fu to push her forward off the leaf, a move she never expects. Once in my hands and with nothing but air to cling to, I zoom her to my chest, where, I've been told, the beating of my heart will calm her. This is a lie. Within a second she begins a low rumbling growl. I join her, growling right along. This probably doesn't help matters, but it feels right. I scratch the parts she loves scratched, her ears and chin. She continues growling. Her claws are in my flesh by now, and every muscle tensed in genetic jungle cat apprehension. I whisper in her ear. She hisses. I hiss back. Perhaps this is not working.

Not wanting to traumatize her or make her hate me and kill me in my sleep, I let her go. At first she'd jump down to the floor in a great leap of freedom and would sit licking herself, shooting me indignant and pissy looks from the kitchen. Now she scrabbles back onto the leaf from which I plucked her, has a full-body shiver and ignores my existence. Once she regains composure she nonchalantly tiptoes around my keyboard with one eye on my every move and goes on about her business.

This is now a nightly ritual. We are moving forward, little by little.

Attention All Zombie Fans

2012-02-07T16:09:00.000-05:00

Stevil at auto de fey has just posted some very important news. Read his post for more info:

http://auto-de-fey.blogspot.com/2012/02/now-even-dead-are-dying.html

"Probably be a lot more of em when they find out about us!"

75 Days...

2012-02-07T10:05:00.000-05:00

...to Greg. Plans continue, choices dance in my head, stomach flutters. And all so tiny in the grand scheme of things.

The circus of politics goes on in this country. I wish I could ignore it but it's ubiquitous. Never in my nightmares would I have thought Newt the Corrupt would be back in the headlines after the scum he proved himself to be in the 90s. And why oh why does anyone report what Trump or Palin says? Who cares?

Around the world, reality bites:
In Syria
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/06/syria-brutal-bab-alamr-homs

In the Phillipines
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/07/philippines-earthquake-toll-landslide

In Iran
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/world/middleeast/irans-middle-class-on-edge-as-international-tensions-rise.html?_r=1&hp

In Romania
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/06/romania-pm-cabinet-resign

In Egypt
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/06/egyptian-activists-trials-ngo-workers

In Zimbabwe
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/17/world/africa/experts-say-diamonds-help-fill-mugabe-coffers.html?ref=africa

This is why I've been avoiding the news lately. And these are among the least horrifying stories, in the big picture. As my Mother would say, "It's very discouraging,"

Guard Your Dreams and Visions

2012-02-06T14:46:00.001-05:00

"We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it's grand and great."
Lucy Maud Montgomery

This was yesterday's quote, and has been on my mind since reading it.

Expectations are unreasonable wishes to my mind. Ideals, on the other hand, are necessary. We can hold ideals, and as Ms. Montgomery says, try to live up to them, but we rarely can live up to them 100%. Or expect anyone else to. And there, as they say, lies the rub.

Take this whole Operation Greg thing. The ideal was to stay on Atkins Induction for 3 months, as I did last time, and drop 50 pounds. As it turned out, that was impossible to keep. I made it one month and am now eating a sensible balanced and healthy way. A part of me is disappointed in myself to not be able to carry through the 3 months, even though I know it was an ideal, not to be expected. There are just too many things that happen in life to rely on- or expect- anything to work out exactly as planned. Any action can have a number of outcomes.

I believe that you never lose if you never give up. And that however many setbacks, changes in plan, changes in realizations you come across, you don't ever have to give up your ideals. Ideals have a bell curve, too. You may not reach the apogee (Hi Pearl!) but chances are you'll fall somewhere along the big portion of success, as long as you don't cave in to hopelessness and give up.

Which is way easier to say than to do. The same setbacks or changes mentioned can undermine your attitude and confidence to hugely damaging effect. Getting into a bad, hopeless and negative thoughtstream will drown you. It's much easier to give up, to cast blame and act out and justify your laziness. It's easier to not examine ourselves, our motives, our choices. And it's a sure way to be a loser and a cynic, if that's what your aim was. Life ain't easy.

Perhaps that's why I like and have kept the Catholic church's conviction that hopelessness is a Mortal Sin. It does kill your spirit, that elusive thing that is the wellspring of hopes and ideals.

And perhaps that's where the constructs of sin are based. The things that can trip you up and pull you down, ruin your happiness, that must be fought off. Of course, it's simpler to blame them on a Tempter, and every religion has at least one. But the real deal is that we all have a Tempter inside us, and it's how we keep it at bay that matters.

So guard your dreams and visions. Respect them, and you're respecting yourself. They are the most valuable things you can ever own. Only you can take them away from yourself.

Take Your Protein Pills and Put Your Helmet On

2012-02-05T22:51:00.000-05:00

Welcome back, Rory! What a happy and huge relief!
We've all missed you and have worried.
But I think your spaceship knows which way to go.
And here's a little celebratory song to mark splashdown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D67kmFzSh_o

xxx

Ghost in the Machine Time Again

2012-02-05T16:35:00.000-05:00

There are Blogger issues. I can't comment again. This has happened before and no doubt will again. I see Lawless' follow roll is screwy. Who knows what's up- these things happen. It's a blah day in Bratt but there's an AbFab marathon while I do some tidying so I'm not bovvered. :)

Tomorrow will be better. And with any luck this will be back to normal...

Shades of the Times

2012-02-04T10:50:00.000-05:00

Since childhood, I've loved horror and monsters. Bring on the vampires, werewolves, ghouls, zombies, ghosts, mummies, atomically altered insects, I love them. These days, not so much. Vampires have turned into "sensitive glittery emo types"
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/feb/04/being-human-true-blood-twilight) and zombies are funny.

This really stinks. I don't want to watch some simpering misunderstood romantic tragic vampire BS. I want the classic vampire; evil, killing, well-dressed, scary but charming creatures they are. I want werewolves that hide from society and have no conscience for killing when the moon is full. I want ghosts that ominously appear and give you nightmares. I want hordes of nearly unstoppable zombies that determinedly lurch on in search of brains. And mummies with unquenchable vengeance.

All my monsters have been vanilla-ed into mediocrity. What's called horror these days is sadistic gore. Humans are the monsters, humans that torture others. While I agree this is a much more realistic portrayal of evil in the world, it seems a sort of normalizing of psychopathy. We hear too many tales of people imprisoned for years or hacked to pieces by madmen. Watching the worst of human capabilities isn't horror to me, it's PTSD-inducing.

The magic of the horror genre was that it didn't and couldn't really happen. Dracula didn't live down the block for years running an antiques business. He didn't go to high school and suffer an interminable, pale adolescence. He was an abomination, a creature of the night, and yes, an allegory. But an evil that was vanquished in the end.

And that, in my humble opinion, is how it should be.

Billy Bragg's "Between the Wars"

2012-02-03T18:36:00.001-05:00

One of Billy's best... timeless.

I was a miner
I was a docker
I was a railway man
Between the wars.
I raised a family
In times of austerity
With sweat at the foundry
Between the wars.

I paid the union and as times got harder
I looked to the government to help the working man
But they brought prosperity down at the armoury
"We're arming for peace me boys,
Between the wars."

I kept the faith and I kept voting
Not for the iron fist but for the helping hand,
For theirs is a land with a wall around it
And mine is a faith in my fellow man.

Theirs is a land of hope and glory
Mine is the green field and the factory floor.
Theirs are the skies all dark with bombers
And mine is the peace we knew
Between the wars.

Call up the craftsmen
Bring me the draughtsmen
Build me a path from cradle to grave,
And I'll give my consent
To any government
That does not deny a man a living wage.

Go find the young men never to fight again
Bring up the banners from the days gone by.
Sweet moderation,
Heart of this nation,
Desert us not, we are
Between the wars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAceYMZXBnY

Every click on this site helps feed people:
http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1&link=ctg_ths_home_from_ars_home_sitenav
and it costs you nothing.

Now We Are Four

2012-02-03T14:03:00.000-05:00

Today is the 4th Anniversary of putting my first tentative fingers into blogging. I had almost no knowledge of the internet then, no expectations of where this would go. I did have opinions and stories and that's where I started. And seems to be where I've stayed.

Blogging has brought so many interesting and good people into my life. I maintain that writers are among the best humans possible. Writing daily has disciplined me, has made me more aware of what's going on in the world, and has made me get to know myself on a different level. It's been challenging, sometimes tough, sometimes a joy.
I'm very glad I do it, and very grateful for the people I've found in blogworld.

On to year 5.

The War on the Poor

2012-02-03T10:42:00.000-05:00

This isn't funny anymore. They really mean it.
Of course, shaming the poor isn't new, it's part of our culture. But the GOP hasn't stopped this campaign against social programs since the 80s and is ramping it up by passing laws in individual states, state by state. Their forerunning candidates have all legislated and spoken toward eliminating "social safety nets" including Social Security.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/165250/ongoing-republican-plan-shame-poor

Romney "isn't concerned about the very poor."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/opinion/krugman-romney-isnt-concerned.html?_r=1

This is a good summation of how the Repos became the party of and for the rich:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-gop-became-the-party-of-the-rich-20111109

Poor Republicans say their party doesn't help the poor enough (why are they still voting for them then?)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/02/mitt-romney-poor-people_n_1250208.html?ref=mostpopular

Pennsylvania is adding restrictions to Food Stamp recipients:
http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/nakedcity/PA-declares-war-on-food-stamps.html

The Daily Show did a fabulous job on the FL law to force Welfare recipients to take drug tests- but the politicians won't pee in a cup:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/thu-february-2-2012-david-agus

Oh What a Relief It Is

2012-02-02T22:23:00.000-05:00

Hallelujah for a tummy that bounces back as soon as you give it veggies! Who knew that a basic bodily function - such as Susan pointed out in a comment about sleeping- could be so different as you age, and make life entirely awful if put out of kilter? Right now I don't care much that the world is going to Helena Handbasket (which it is). I'm not bloated out to here and have lost at least another 5 pounds today. :) Once we hit the speed limit ages, you have to do the sustainable. Or your body will make you as miserable as the little kid who won't go to sleep.

Thank you to everybody who pitched in with support and advice. I am a very stubborn git but that was an obvious body-in-revolt moment and I made it through relatively unscathed because of your cooler heads and reasoned thinking. For the one month it was okay, but at this age, it's intolerable to continue.

Besides, after a month of no sugar, veggies are incredibly sweet. Carrots? Like candy. This will probably wear off- we too soon grow accustomed to everything- now it's as if my tastebuds are reset.

It's great to have a brave face, but if your butt's not happy, ain't nobody happy. I'm relieved that's over. And good things have come of it- I don't have starch and bread cravings anymore. I've grown to really like good coffee straight up. Having cleared the cabinets and fridge, my choices are clear too. And my head's a bit clearer, too.

So it's on to sensible. The very last thing anyone who's ever known me would expect. But I'm perverse that way. Sleep well.

I'm Reviewing the Situation

2012-02-02T10:06:00.000-05:00

While the full-on Atkins Induction/22 grams of carbs/meatfest was great for the first 4 weeks or so, this past week zoomed into a sharp attitudinal decline. A sort of PMS on steroids. Not good, not comfortable. All it took was a few common stresses to bring it to a boil. After some emails, talking to some pals and thinking on it, the diet has to change. I can't do what I did 15 years or even 7 years ago. My body has changed, my abilities have changed- which eliminated some key coping mechanisms- and I'm at "the change". Not a smart time to severely cut carbs for an extended period.

I am really tickled at having lost 18 pounds in the last month. But this diet isn't sustainable for the long run. Not for 3 more months, even. So I've decided to change tack, and do the dreaded "sensible" thing. No flours (that's out of my system at least), no sugar. More along the lines of a primal diet. Meats, fresh fruits and veggies. Which should help with the effects of high pro that aren't desirable. And will still be viable to drop the remaining weight. This is beyond seeing Greg in April; this is about regaining health and being able to keep it.

Funny how sometimes I start out on a project and its focus shifts to something else as it goes along. When I quit opiates, it was initially to give the finger to my doc and the new regulations that office had begun. It was a protest. A protest that took me far and away from how I'd been existing for 4 years. Guess that's how I am. I have to go drastic to make a big change. Eventually I settle into a new reality. It's all good.

80 days to Greg. :)

What Do You Do?

2012-02-01T20:25:00.000-05:00

When you're irritated, frustrated and agitated, what do you do?
Pitch a fit?
Twist and shout?
On innocent bystanders take it out?
Or on those who've had it coming?

When you're fed up, bursting with freefloating ire, what do you do?
Meditate?
Dance and sing?
Yell a bunch of curses and throw something?
Or just sit and let it fester?

When every last thing jumps on your last nerve, what do you do?

Love, Peace and Soul, Don Cornelius

2012-02-01T15:07:00.000-05:00

Don Cornelius, velvety- voiced host and producer of "The Soul Train", is dead. "The Soul Train" was a part of every Saturday morning to me, playing as I cleaned house. I loved that show, learned dance moves and new songs from it. It was long before MTV and much cooler. I only stopped watching when they went entirely disco.

Mr. Cornelius was found dead this morning in his home, apparently of suicide. He was a pioneer in entertainment, a gracious show host and an icon. He was 75. He will be missed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkleiqrWji0

Sweetness

2012-02-01T10:09:00.000-05:00

Penny, the Jack Russell dog and modest internet star, employer of Gary of
http://klahanie.blogspot.com/
has kindly bestowed upon me the following:

Thank you, Penny, you adorable and very sweet blogger.
This award asks that you reveal 7 facts about yourself and pass it on to 7 worthy bloggers. And so:

1. I still own the very first toy I ever owned, a stuffed floppy rabbit that my godparents gave me at birth with my name written in its ear.
2. My mother and 3 older brothers all served in the military and all worked in the medical field.
3. I used to be 5'10" and have shrunk to 5'8"
4. I have lived in 5 states over my life.
5. I own a copy of everything Scott Fitzgerald ever wrote. Short stories, magazine articles, letters, everything. Been collecting his writing since HS.
6. My hair, naturally brown, has been red, pink, black, platinum and purple-streaked.
7. For several months, I worked nights at the Limelight club in NYC.

These get tougher to fulfill as time goes on! But it's never tough to find 7 sweet bloggers and here are today's:
http://susan-swiderski.blogspot.com/

http://talesfrombettybeetowers.blogspot.com/

http://trainrideoftheenigmas.blogspot.com/

http://homecookingiswhatilike.blogspot.com/

http://www.forgottenbookmarks.com/

http://jillstodayisaw.blogspot.com/

http://startrekspace.blogspot.com/

Give them a gander; the blogworld is wide and sweet to the eye.
And thank you again, Penny. Don't let that puppyrazzi get you down.

These Dreams

2012-01-31T18:18:00.000-05:00

Considering there was nothing happening today, no aide, no HUD, no Shire workers, I decided it would be a nap day. I read for a while (Hitchens' last book, Arguably, is wonderful) and fell into a deep comfortable sleep for 3 hours.

The Beest enjoyed it, curling up in one place or another on or around me. And it felt really good to my body, as if I hadn't slept in weeks and was finally getting a great hunk of relaxation. But for the daymares. If I sleep during the day it's bad dreams time these last few years. Not horrific (I don't have those anymore, hallelujah) just bad. Like today's- first I couldn't find my car and then kept losing what belongings I had with me as I walked all over town in a snowstorm trying to find everything. It was pointless and annoying as a video game. The second dream was so rotten I woke myself up from it. I dreamt Bernie Sanders suddenly died and right after reading the blurb and telling Stevil (in my dream), I refused to be in any more of it and opened my eyes. There was the Beest, staring in my face.

Maybe I need to sleep during the day til this works out. There was one February- 1984? -when my friend Evan and I barely ever left our beds but to work. And we skived off that as much as possible, calling each other every couple of days to make sure we were alive and say we were still exhausted. I don't recall that marathon as being full of bad dreams. So this is my plan for February. Sleep like Sleeping Beauty. Sleep until I'm not tired anymore. Sleep until the daymares stop or my enthusiasm comes back, whichever happens first.

Yes, Winter has come. It may be bizarrely warm and nothing like a normal February Eve, but it has come. And I'm going to hibernate.

A Brand New Day

2012-01-31T09:50:00.000-05:00

That was quite a fit of diet meltdown. I came pretty close to blowing it. But the blogdom cavalry came rushing out with cheers of, "You can do it!" thanks to Lawless, and guess what? I didn't blow it. Ketosis not wrecked, onward we go. Maybe the bitching was all I needed to get out of my system, maybe I just needed that push of support. Well, it worked. Thank you all. It's meat, eggs and 22 little grams of carbs a day and I'm dealing with it. What was a huge thing last night is not just not a big deal today, but another thing to point at and smile, cuz I made it through -with a little help from my friends.

It's Tuesday, and the last day of January already. That was a quick month. Seems like we just turned the year and here we head into February. I think the last we heard, Rory's surgery was scheduled for today. I hope he's okay and that someone will hear from him soon.

We got a slight dust of white last night, nice to brighten up the grey waterstone that our dooryards have become. The forecast is for warmth and rain the next days. I'm trying to spin it into being the January Thaw, though we haven't really had a winter to thaw out from.

It's election time in our burg:
http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php/20120130171656603

Florida's Repo Primary Day today
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/the-florida-republican-presidential-primary--in-one-chart/2012/01/30/gIQA2iGAdQ_blog.html

The UN calls for Syria's Pres to step down in wake of repression:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/31/un-resolution-syria-assad-step-down

Tell me how "green" nuke power is again?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/power-failure-forces-nuclear-plant-shut-illinois-article-1.1014494

Can we apply Occam's Razor here?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/team-investigate-underwater-ufo-sunken-ships-millennium-falcon-article-1.1013642

Jelly from the sky:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/30/blue-marble-mystery-rains-dorset

American Dictionary done after 50 years:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/31/dictionary-american-regional-english-dialect

Run and play. I'll be back later.

As Resolve Wanes

2012-01-30T18:37:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow marks 4 weeks on the high protein highway. I've certainly lost weight. I do feel better. And I would kill, yes, kill, for a plate of lasagna or chinese food.

Instead of leaping off the meatwagon, I'm trying to figure out how to deal with it. I made a commitment and come hell or high water we're meeting Greg in April. That's the bottom line. If I don't carry through, I'll totally hate myself.

So it's time to take a minute and look at what's eating at me. First of all it's no help to have someone remark that they "can't believe" I don't "even have ketchup in the house". And to leave behind a pound of truffles - the same truffles I've been parrying with for a month and successfully ignored. Then there's the fact that everyone you see or talk to or email with brings up what good food they've just had, or are having, or will be having. And then there's the tv, where every 6 minutes is a food commercial.

These are all everyday things and normal (well, maybe not the truffles) but right now are really annoying issues. It's like any mention of food looms huge in my head. It doesn't help that I'm sick of meat, eggs, cheese and romaine. Even bacon. Who gets sick of bacon? Me. It doesn't help that it's the end of the month and there's little left in the fridge anyway. It doesn't help that it's winter and the bleakness is starting to set in. It doesn't help that I'm starting to feel very sorry for myself while everyone else eats whatever they want to get through the winter doldrums.

So I gotta set some limits. For now at least, I gotta stop anyone talking about food to me. If a food commercial comes on, mute it or change the channel. I have to work on my attitude. On Friday new meats, fish and cheeses and real coffee will be in the house. I only have to make it til then. Maybe I can't make it forever, but I can make it for 3 more days.

And it's 82 1/2 days to Greg. Gods help me.

Monday Monday

2012-01-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

As Lawless noted, I wasn't online yesterday. There were good reasons. My back reached its zenith of uselessness, and I was hungover from red wine. There are few things that lay me as low as red wine. That and the bad decision that while feeling no pain from it, to carry on moving things.

Well. The place is ready for HUD. Or as ready as it will be. Meanwhile, life goes on.

After reading this, I'm more confused than ever about what independence in Scotland would mean:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/real-divide-is-haves-and-have-nots-says-miliband.1327896337

Occupy Oakland got some rare press coverage this weekend:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/oakland-assesses-damages-occupy-movement-cops-clash-article-1.1013718

Censoring is okay by Thailand
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/30/thailand-backs-twitter-censorship-policy

Don't drink the water
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/30/cadmium-spill-china-river

OWS protesters arrested after "Occu-party" in Brooklyn
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/4-occupy-wall-street-protesters-charged-williamsburg-brooklyn-melee-article-1.1013926

Microaggression?
http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php/20120129153241513

2 arms are better than one
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16739682

The Beest is demanding breakfast. Off I go.

Pank Cup Boy

2012-01-28T17:58:00.000-05:00

I just have to repost this on its own. Ty is a regular guy, a fast-food worker, who's never, in the years I've watched his YT vids, ever talked about politics and what's going on. This whole early morning- little sleep rant is something we should pay attention to.He makes many points so many are missing:

http://www.youtube.com/user/thamagickjumpoff?blend=1&ob=0#p/a/u/1/-VN-eijKQEI

Homo Erectus, not so Erect. Yet.

2012-01-28T12:42:00.000-05:00

This is pissing me off. There's so much to do, I have the whole system figured out of what goes where and how to get it there and I can barely tolerate sitting up. Ya know that marionette feeling? Like your back is in pieces and the whole top of your body could just fall over? Yeah, that's it.

Meanwhile, Gal Friday was diagnosed with a concussion and I'm really glad I didn't let her do much yesterday. Just don't screw around with concussions. I've had them. Who knows what this means in getting an aide this coming week. And the doc she saw had no interest in why she fainted or has been having dizzy spells. They didn't even take blood to see if she's anaemic, pregnant or has low sugar or electrolytes. Typical US treatment. Our medical system sucks. It wasn't always like this.

I did look at the news yesterday, but it was one horrific thing on top of another (one story started me heaving) so I'm leaving the news alone for a couple days. Maybe tomorrow. Here are the usual sources, in case you want to check out what's up:

http://www.guardiannews.com/

http://www.nydailynews.com/

http://www.bbc.com/

http://bigthink.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

http://kos.dailykos.com/

I Shoulda Listened

2012-01-27T12:43:00.000-05:00

Well, I dood it. Got halfway through shifting the boxes when my back said, "UP YOURS!" and went out. I'm not surprised. I won't be surprised if it forms a union and goes on strike for better working conditions either. United Vertebrae, local L2-4.

So this calls for short sitting periods and long laying-down periods.

My Gal Friday showed up bright and early and was in worse shape than me. So no, the bed's not moved, the closet's not shifted, and guess what? They'll just have to deal with it. There's nothing around the water heater and there's no "storage against the baseboard heaters". What do they freakin expect from us anyway, we're all disabled and/or old and we've only been back 10 weeks with the holidays in the middle of it. They can bite me. Really.

I could always leave the broom next to the door. Herman said that keeps people from coming in. I've never tried it but here's a good opportunity. They're going to places randomly; we don't know which homes or even what day next week they'll be in The Shire. Maybe I'll get to it, maybe not. Either way, I repeat, they can bite me.

Well, back to prone. pfft.

Can Anyone Explain?

2012-01-26T10:03:00.000-05:00

There are several things I've been following that I can't make sense of and hope someone can explain. I'm either thick as a brick or missed some things that are key to following the story.

First, the Scottish Independence referendum. Neither The Scotsman nor the Herald has reported exactly what the referendum says, nor what Salmond said yesterday. So I sift through the Guardian website and finally find these, buried well below many other stories. And the take is that the question,
"Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?"
is a "loaded" and "biased" question. Eh? It's a yes or no. You agree or you don't. How is that loaded?

Then, in the same issue, I keep seeing "devo-max", and have no idea what that is. It's dropped here and there with implications but no explanation or context of what it is.

Next, the Davos convention. Why is Cameron talking about the Robin Hood Tax and lobbying for it to be squashed before it's even got teeth? Talk about contraception! It seems to me that from what I've seen about the Davos summaries, it's a big PR meeting for rich Capitalists to plan ways to get richer and stay rich. Is that the purpose?

So if anyone can explain what these are really about, please do so.

Look, Back in Anger

2012-01-25T17:35:00.006-05:00

Oh is my back pissed off at me. I just hung two paintings and really thought I was faceplanting for a minute there. Totally pitched me. What the hell? I've treated it well, spared it from so much and this is what it does to me. Ungrateful little git.

Well no more Mrs. Nice Gal. Just for that, it's going right back to moving boxes tomorrow. See how it likes me then! And boohoo if it doesn't like it. A back has to learn to work just like the rest of us.

(and yes, this probably makes me look entirely nuts but I find it therapeutic)

In other news, it's Burns Night. And it's looking like Special K's birthday may not happen for the foreseeable future. I need to break this diet because the romaine and spinach have stopped working, if you catch my drift. Nothing drastic (I think sugar would do damage at this point) but I'm going to break out the haggis and eggs for dinner. What I don't eat of the haggis I'm sure Hildebeest will eat. For a few years I tried having a Burns Night Supper but nobody had interest. Which doesn't faze me; I'll do it, sans pipes, whisky, or company. Traditions must be kept, standards must be maintained, and the haggis will be eaten. Like roasting a turkey, or dyeing eggs, I'll do it once a year for tradition's sake.

I'll listen to this while cooking and eating
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017l5y3

And this, if it takes me a while to get the haggis down:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b019p2gv/In_Search_of_Highland_Mary/
And tomorrow I'll go back to the carnivorous rampage.

P.S. My pal Annie Boline just stopped by, declining haggis but sharing a wee dram. I do adore me muckies.

Fun Awards Time Again

2012-01-25T15:12:00.002-05:00

Moonraven at http://social-alchemy.blogspot.com/ gave me The Versatile Blogger. This is a fun award and thank you Moony, I see your blog is springing forward by leaps and bounds!

The Versatile Blogger award carries 2 conditions; you must pass it on to 3 other bloggers and reveal 7 obscure things about yourself. Well, here goes.

The three bloggers I pass the torch to are:
*drumroll*
The Twisted Scottish Bastard
http://twistedscottishbastard.blogspot.com/

The Sarcastic Test Guy
http://sarcastictestguy.blogspot.com/

And bazza at
http://todiscoverice.blogspot.com/

These are fun, entertaining and yes, versatile blogs! Check them out.

Onto the obscurities.
1. I have Morton's toes. This is where your second toe is longer than your big toe.

2. I can read upside down and backwards. This was handy on NYC subways.

3. I've lived with 13 dogs (including Ems the Wonder Dog for 2 months) and 11 cats (including the Pastel Kitty for 2 months) over my lifetime. And I still prefer them to people.

4. I've never read a romance novel and never will.

5. My pierced ears now reject all earrings, even 24k gold, so I no longer wear them.

6. I don't understand what boredom is or how people get it.

7. I attended seances from the time I was 6 until I was 17, when I was thrown out for laughing.

Boy, the more you do these, the harder it gets to find obscure things about yourself. Okay, TSB, STG and bazza, take it away...

One from Column A, Two from Column B...

2012-01-25T10:18:00.000-05:00

Here's a good sign:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/cairn-energy-withdraws-25m-bonus-to-gammell.1327460819

Obama delivered the SOTU speech:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/25/state-of-the-union-obama-fairer

Apple's doing well, anyway:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/24/apple-reports-record-revenues

Pirates' hostages are rescued:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/u-s-military-raid-somalia-frees-american-dane-held-hostage-article-1.1011524

James Farrentino is gone (he was a nice guy, I met him a few times):
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/actor-brooklyn-native-james-farentino-dead-73-article-1.1011506

Egypt is marking the 1st Anniversary of their first uprising:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16711302

And this was in my inbox this morning:
"...But as I listened to President Obama, I looked at obstructionist leaders in Congress and I couldn't help but get angry.
It is past time to throw aside partisan differences, put America first and embrace the American values of equal opportunity and fairness for all.
In communities across the country, the NAACP has marched, rallied, and raised our voices to let our leaders know job creation can't wait. President Obama has heard our call, and tonight he laid out his ambitious blueprint for continuing to improve the economy and put people back to work.
Unfortunately, too many members of Congress are committed to nothing but blocking the president's work. They are more concerned with scoring political points than getting us out of the worst economic slump since the early 20th century.
Every day, NAACP leaders nationwide speak with people who are working harder than ever before, and still struggling to make ends meet. Just this week our North Carolina NAACP leadership conducted a tour throughout the state to chronicle the effects of joblessness, underemployment, and poverty.
We know many of you have similar stories, and we want to hear them. Will you share with us your story on how the economic crisis has affected you and those you love?
http://action.naacp.org/job-crisis-stories
It is time for cooperation to trump personal political agendas.
And until it does, we must continue to speak out, stand up, and be heard.
Please share your stories and experiences on the economic crisis, and how it has affected you and your loved ones: Thank you. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Sincerely,
Ben
Benjamin Todd Jealous
President and CEO
NAACP"

It's gonna be a busy day, once the coffee hits and I get off my butt. Much to do, before the HUD inspectors get here. I'll try to get back here later.
Enjoy your day.

A Foggy Day

2012-01-24T10:59:00.000-05:00

The Shire is fogged in this morning, which is kind of cozy. I'm moving slowly. By some miracle, the VNA managed to send me an aide who is a ball of energy and in a half hour has started the laundry, cleaned the bathroom and is out running errands already. After she's done I'll see what the rest of the day brings.

Interesting developments in the Leveson inquiry:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/bbc-paid-out-310000-to-private-investigators.16562580

How come Romney only pays 14% while I paid 22% my whole working life?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/mitt-romney-releases-tax-records-gop-presidential-candidate-paid-3m-14-2010-article-1.1010823

Video of the solar storms going on
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2012/jan/24/solar-storm-video

Oscar nominees announced, if anyone cares:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jan/24/oscars-nominations-2012-live

This is a surprise? To whom?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/22/fruit-vegetable-consumption-poorer-families

The SCOTUS did something right!
http://bigthink.com/ideas/42104

This is- well, just read it and shake your head
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/wisconsin-man-ghost-beat-wife-article-1.1009972

Bits and Bobs

2012-01-23T22:32:00.000-05:00

I've collected some things over the last few days that defy category. So here they are, in no order whatsoever.

Aurora comes in view

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/gallery/2012/jan/23/space-northernlights#/?picture=384882297&index=0

Do-gooders do well

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/do-gooders-article-1.1009809

How to respond to your Senator

http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php/20120119140759209

shit NYers say

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRvJylbSg7o&NR

shit hipsters say

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUhrSVyu0Kw

shit vegans say

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmWFnd-p0Lw

shit yogis say

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMC1_RH_b3k

It's pouring outside. The snow looks very sad. When this is over it'll all be turned to waterstone that we won't be rid of til May. Wah.

It Ain't Happening Today

2012-01-23T12:42:00.000-05:00

Big plans for today are very undoable. It's oh so wet, like the winter days I remember in the schoolyard when it seemed like the snow was putting out steam. That icy-melting smell is in the air. And it's disabling the functional mode. There's always tomorrow.

So I'll do the little things I can do. Like a makeup test run with what I have. It's honestly been so long since I wore any that I don't even remember. I've no idea if the mascaras I have (which have never been used) smudge or run, if the foundations are still useable, or what pencils and shadows I own. Today is a good day to sort that out.

And then I'll examine my shoes and bags. I'm sure things need polishing. All sitdown work, and useful things that need doing so I can plan spending.

A neighbor was taken away in an ambulance earlier. I know her daughter; I hope she's okay.

Everyone I know who's still working is having workplace issues. Sometimes I think there's something to astrology, as Rob Breszny predicted this a couple of weeks ago. Nah, more likely a clever assumption considering the times we're in.

It's gonna be a low-key day. Those are good, too.

90 Days to Greg

2012-01-23T00:04:00.004-05:00

Still working out details. Strider's getting us a hotel room nearby the concert so we don't have to travel after the excitement; I'm getting us VIP passes for after the show. I'm still fretting over what to wear. What shoes? New shoes? Sandals? Will it still be nasty and cold? If so, is the dress too thin? Is my little black jacket enough? What jewelry? And what to do with my hair? And what bag to carry? Should I get a pro manicure? If I end up in sandals I'll have to get a pedicure too. Should I bring him something? What? This is the series of bibble running through my mind every spare minute. Right down to what indelible pen to buy and who's gonna tattoo me. The tat guy I knew in town is nowhere to be found.

Also, I think this is what's really holding me to the diet. I flat out refuse to be on a walker when I meet him. A cane is bad enough, though it's a snazzy cane. I don't care if I'm in hellapain, I'm going to look marvelous. And we all know that it's more important to look good than to feel good.

So 3 weeks into the diet, I'm wearing a size 6 1/2 ring that I haven't been able to wear since before the opiates came along. It's a damn boring diet, and no birthday dinner so no break yet either, but it's working. I haven't lost energy and in fact I'm feeling stronger. In the morning I'm going to move the bed and shift the boxes in the bedroom closet. A production, but necessary, and it'll give me a good workout. HUD is coming next week; the heat thingies have to be clear, the pull-string alarms have to hang free to the ground, the water heater has to have clearance around it. I won't have a gal friday til Friday this week; the VNA is nuts, as always. And aides don't move furniture, or lamps, or well, anything. Tuesday will be a sitting day anyway, it's supposed to start raining tomorrow. Oh, joy..

Here We Go Again

2012-01-22T22:43:00.000-05:00

Once again, I was in the middle of returning emails when Comcast went down. This time my modem's fine. But I can't get into my email for 2 hours now, and the message is "This webpage is busy". Whatever the hell that means or is supposed to be the cover for what the problem is, we'll never know.

At least I can still get here, for now. I'm going to try to get onto other sites. Honest to god, Comcast. Get your shit together. And don't tell me to email you again. I just said I can't get into my email.

What a way to run a business.

Has Anybody Heard from Rory?

2012-01-22T17:48:00.000-05:00

He should be getting ready for surgery if I recall rightly. I haven't heard from him since...November?

If you have- or haven't- please leave a comment. I'm concerned at his long silence.

The Slumber of the Beest

2012-01-22T15:00:00.000-05:00

For the last couple of weeks all the Beest wants to do is eat and sleep. She sleeps on the desk leaf (and falls off). She sleeps on the couch. And if I'm making noise or moving things she goes into the bedroom (now with blackout-thermo drapes) and sleeps in my bed. She'll sleep after dinner and will wake up to follow me to bed, where she goes back to sleep.

Must be the midwinter. It's been on and off cold the last week, and rarely sunny. And her middle name is Bear, after all. She's in semi-hibernation.

Hasn't affected her appetite any. Though I fear I'm spoiling her to hell. She gets bits of my meat and cheese as well as her foods. And milk. She won't eat greens though. Catnip, yes. She'll hunker right down into catnip, then go eat, then pass out. Just like a stoner. She slept right through my combing her today after she hit the catnip. It's a phenomenon.

And it's also an instant wake up when she hears any of the following:
running water
a can opening
the fridge door
so I figure she's just acting like she's asleep most of the time. In a stoner daze, as if she's lying in an opium den, where I'm her watcher. I do look over to see if she's still breathing when she isn't snoring. She has me trained well.

Sunday Not-so-Funnies

2012-01-22T08:48:00.000-05:00

The Four Horsemen of the Republicans on Gingrich's win:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/jan/22/newt-gingrich-south-carolina-video

This is the NY Times I loved, back in the saddle:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/opinion/sunday/south-carolinas-divisive-message.html?_r=1

The World Economic Forum takes place this week in Switzerland, where the elite meet to cheat:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/22/davos-world-economic-forum-guide

Mitt pays 22% less taxes than his dad did, thanks to the Cayman Islands and the 2003 Congress:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/opinion/krugman-taxes-at-the-top.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

The 99ers, uncounted in unemployment stats:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/long-unemployed-99ers-star-documentary-series-crown-heights-filmmaker-immy-humes-article-1.1009303

Soylent Pink is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jan/21/artificial-chicken-food-prize

The Pirate party says more than Arrrrr: "We're at a point where this old corporate industry thinks that, in order to survive, it has to dismantle freedom of speech."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/22/rick-falkvinge-swedish-radical-web-freedoms

Wayne Goes Kindle

2012-01-21T18:24:00.000-05:00

My old friend Wayne has put his book, A Life Gone Awry, up on Kindle. This book is about the time he spent at the notorious Elan School in Poland Springs, Maine. The money made from the sales of this book will go to "organizations that fight abuse of children in residential treatment programs, and to the Jani Foundation, to help parents of mentally ill kids who are struggling."

Here's an opportunity to read a harrowing account of life in a correctional school and to help kids and families in crisis at the same time. It's only $2.99. It's worth much, much more.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007055KA8/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk

Saturday Well Spent

2012-01-21T17:11:00.000-05:00

Since the weather was delightful, all scheduled things were rescheduled. No birthday, no Comcast guy (it's been behaving since Friday anyway). Which left me free to tackle things I'd been meaning to. Like the storage room mess.

Going through 3 moves in 6 months makes organization in the moment impossible and there's just no way to be on top of things. When you get the chance, you have to start from squat and go into box by box sorting. I got through 6 boxes this afternoon, emptying 3, throwing stuff away and pulling out things to be used. The rest of the dresser set for LilaPie, the cobalt vase for the bathroom... and I got to see what's where. Where the framed pix for the living room are, where my Charlie Brown collection is, etc. Still haven't come across my tabletop drums, missing kitchen things, Keith Emerson's autobio, etc. But I did find the wind chimes and hung them on the front porch. They were my Mom's- lovely deep tones. I'm only a sixth of the way in to all there is to open and examine, but it's a start.

And hey, it's almost 5 p.m. and not dark yet!

Today's news, should you choose to know:

Wait, didn't we just occupy the place for like 8 years?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/20/body-iraq-hostage-alan-mcmenemy

The Bastards can multiply:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/20/undercover-police-children-activists

This may be the "Most Bleeding Obvious" article title:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/21/egypt-election-clear-islamist-victory

He can carry a tune!
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/president-obama-york-city-hold-trio-fundraisers-2012-re-election-bid-article-1.1008607

They have to be told this?!
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/police-commissioner-raymond-kelly-tells-cops-shrug-crime-victims-article-1.1009562

SC primaries up today:
http://news.yahoo.com/primary-day-hand-sc-voters-175958423.html

Damn zombies
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/21/1056815/-This-week-in-the-War-on-Voting:-The-invasion-of-the-zombie voters?via=blog_1
(you'll have to copy & paste that one)

I can't pick just one
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Setlle in, grab a hot cuppa, have a lovely Winter evening.

Il Neige!

2012-01-21T09:55:00.000-05:00

I asked for it, I got it. It's snowing like a normal New England Winter. Yay!

However, this may wreck my plans to finally celebrate Special K's birthday, which was 3 weeks ago already. Didja ever have a present to give that's so cool you're itching to give it to the giftee? Something you know they'll so dig, something that'll blow their minds, as we old farts used to say. Well I've been waiting, and now we may have to postpone for a weather call.

The Beest is mesmerized, perched on the desk leaf, staring out the window. Not even her tail is moving. I wonder what's running around in her little brain. Nobody's out in this. This is the kind of day I'd go walking, before the plowing and shoveling, when all's quiet in the hush falling snow creates.

The first Winter I lived here, 95-96, was a snowy one. And I had a Mercury Capri, which is all but useless in a snowy place. So I walked a lot. Every night after work I'd walk down Flat St. toward home. Flat St. then had few and daytime-only businesses. By the time I closed my area and got out it was late, and reasonable people were home and snuggled in. The silence of that street, walking down the middle of the road, snow falling steadily, was a welcome decompression after the craziness of food service before a storm.

It was the same growing up, when after dinner I'd take the dogs out and it was snowing. Winter is nature's meditation class.

We'll see how this pans out.

Etta James is Dead

2012-01-20T13:44:00.000-05:00

Etta James died today, just short of her 74th birthday. Her troubled life, great talent and hit records are now part of R & B history. She'd cancelled her 2010 tour and grew increasingly ill as the leukemia, hepatitis C and dementia she was struggling with overcame her.

We'll always have her music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfNLspDL3ns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0uCsFOhNCE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YApNirMC9gM

Rest in peace now, Etta. We'll miss you.

Brunch with Bernie

2012-01-20T09:38:00.000-05:00

Bernie Sanders is my Senator and a great man.
On Fridays he does the Thom Hartmann Show at lunchtime:
http://www.thomhartmann.com/radio/listen-live

Here is an article on his position about Corporatocracy:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/20/us-constitution-and-civil-liberties-us-supreme-court

It's a zoomy day, gotta run, be back later!

Unsolicited nor Paid for Recommendations

2012-01-19T20:01:00.000-05:00

Huurah I'm online- for the moment anyway.
Two things I came across in my life lately that actually work. One I got for Christmas, Sugar Dipped Vanilla Body Cream by Carol's Daughter. Fabulous stuff. Since the heat's been on I'm drying out like filo on the counter. This goes on a little too creamy for my liking but it sinks right in and gives you soft healthy skin. Costs a bit. Totally worth it.

The second is the Zenith Tibet Almond Stick. After 3 moves this year my poor furniture, which is mostly wood, was scratched to hell. So the local hardware store recommended this strange little hundred-something year old product in a tin that was like, 2 bucks. A bizarre tube of cotton that makes scratches and scrapes disappear. What's to lose? It's magic. From some company in Addison, Ill. The whole of Sr. Clarissa's drawfronts are beautiful. I'm starting on the rest this weekend.

Okay, running away before they shut me down again.

Warning, Warning Will Robinson!

2012-01-19T18:11:00.000-05:00

My intertube service is on and off all day today. I keep watching the modem lights like they're life support. I called 3 times, learned a bit about working on the modem, but it won't stay fixed. The Comcast service guy will be here Saturday evening 5-6 so if I'm not posting it's not for any reason except I can't get online.

You're Insane, Loki, and Out of Your Senses.

2012-01-19T14:48:00.000-05:00

Nothing like a day out of the world's nuttiness to make it look even more nutty when you look again. I've found myself going, "nn-mm." and shaking my head several times today. It's hard to tell The Guardian stories from The Onion's these days; that's how crazyass the world is.

Nearly every single person I know these days is at least a bit off, and some are downright bugaboo. Some singularly insane and/or rotten people are making others batty.

Then there's my own nuttiness in dealing with this diet. I'm bored to the bone with this already, it's unbelievably expensive and there's another 3 months to go. The results are fabulous and I've no intention of stopping; it's just the hamster wheel in my head telling me that instead of eating what bores me (conspiring with my Scottish $ tightness), I won't eat at all. And that's stupid AND nutty. I never thought I'd get sick of bacon and eggs. I am. Well I'll just carry on. It'll pass. But negotiating with that hamster wheel going round and round pisses me off.

And the freaking weather isn't helpful. One day it's zero, the next it's 40-something and rainy, the next it's windy and Walt Disney cold, then it's sunny and now we're expected to have 3 days of snow. How are these old joints with no cartilege supposed to keep up with that, I ask you?

So I can see every perfectly good reason behind every mother's child being toe-picking crazy. It's actually no wonder why the whole world is mad.

Bah. I need to go put myself to some good works.

Restart, Refresh, Reset

2012-01-19T11:32:00.000-05:00

Weirdo glitches with Comcast this morning. Spoke to two nice CSRs, one of whom explained to me how to check things and reset my modem myself. Hopefully I'll be able to fix things without going through the whole schmagiggle every time now. Of course, I lost the post I was working on, and now I have other things to do, so I'll be back with the rest of the news and other criminal acts later.

Meanwhile, Rick Perry pulls out and recs Gingrich:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/19/south-carolina-primary-iowa-results-live

Spies just aren't smooth as Bond anymore:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/19/fake-rock-plot-spy-russians

Don't take my Kodachrome away:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/19/kodak-files-for-bankruptcy

A Day Without Blogging is Like a Day Without Blogging

2012-01-19T00:06:00.001-05:00

Checked around just after midnight. What a bizarre thing to see Wiki'd taken their site down. Then I had to see what others were doing. Reddit was still up. iBrattleboro, up. Youtube, up. Google blacked out their logo. Ladies of the Lake put up a black page with links to find out about Sopa and to contact your Congresspeople. Then I got offline.

It was a good day offline, I may do it more often. I took the rest of the holiday hoohah down and made overdue phone calls. It's Day 17 of meat and greens. A few "This sucks!" moments lately but nothing that's thrown me. I'm making my own mayo and Caesar dressing so I know there's no hidden anything and they're all protein and fat and no filler or carbos. It's nice to wear my old rings again. My clothes are at that really comfortable stage (where everything is loose but just starting to look homey, a ridiculous look). Had a hard time swallowing romaine tonight, damn near choked. I think I'm dehydrated. Must remember to take vites. Am entirely sick of water and black coffee and teas. And need new animals. Yummy ones.
Like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k-l1HLj9Nk

We're celebrating K's birthday Saturday and it's a planned diet break. It'll be three or four days to get ketosis back afterward, but I'll get right back on the horse. 94 days to Greg. I'll lose one day but every day counts.

Meanwhile the world kept spinning.
Sign of the times

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2012/jan/16/secrets-of-shoplifters-tv-review

There's faith

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/kalachakra-2012-festival-_n_1196739.html

There's hope

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/17/wisconsin-governor-facing-recall-petition

There's charity

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/bed-stuy-hair-salon-offers-free-dos-jobless-unemployed-prideful-owner-article-1.1004106

He pays less tax than I ever have

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/17/mitt-romney-speaking-fees-tax

I dreaded this would happen

http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2012/jan/16/ever-ok-to-wear-onesie

Cuomo getting more like Christie every day

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/gov-andrew-cuomo-budget-plan-reform-pensions-incoming-city-workers-article-1.1007352

reasoned morality

http://bigthink.com/ideas/41972

I'll get up to speed on the current and catch up with everyones' blogs when I wake up later. It's cold and windy and bed calls my name.

Sopa, Pipa and the Wednesday Blackout

2012-01-17T19:50:00.000-05:00

I'm sure y'all know about Sopa and Pipa. I'm sad to say that one of Vermont's Senators, Pat Leahy, was behind these from the beginning.

President Obama has already said he won't sign it. It has too broad powers for him. I'm relieved to hear that. It's too close to censorship to me also, and in support of the Wednesday Blackout, I won't be posting. There won't be Wiki or Reddit to source tomorrow; so anything you want from them, do it tonight or wait til Thursday.

In solidarity, and see you Thursday,
Laura

Hot Off the Presses and Other Good Reads

2012-01-17T11:48:00.000-05:00

There's a hale crop of winter books this year. Not all will make it to a library near you, because of the recent cuts. Around here we have an "interlibrary loan" system, where you fill out a form and your local library borrows it from another library who has a copy. I don't know how big this system is, but check to see if yours is part of one.

The Jefferson Bible has been printed at last:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/17/thomas-jefferson-revolutionary-bible-reissued

Jodi Kantor's sensationalist book about the Obamas is likely only the first in a string of election year stinkbombs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/07/obama-rahm-emanuel-barack?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

Was the Arab Spring uprising foreshadowed in fiction? The International Prize for Arabic Fiction seems to show it was;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/12/arab-spring-foreshadowed-fiction

Here's the latest NY Times bestseller fiction list. There's always something of interest in there:
http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/combined-print-and-e-book-fiction/list.html

And I have to mention The Game of Thrones series, which has captured my attention and imagination for months now. GRR Martin has produced a series that truly blows my mind. There aren't any thoroughly good nor thoroughly evil people, just like real life, but there are entirely evil forces and impending doom on the horizon. I can't wait to see how this turns out. The books are so dense that you can't rip through them, which makes now a good time to start, as he's in the finishing stage of work in the sixth of the seven planned books.
http://georgerrmartin.com/

The boxset of the first 4 novels is a bargain:
http://www.amazon.com/George-Martins-Thrones-4-Book-Boxed/dp/0345529057/ref=pd_sim_b_21
with A Dance with Dragons available separately and the soon-to-be published Winds of Winter probably being released later this year.

This is my favorite thing about winter; long reads. I also recommend anything Margaret George writes. She takes history and fills in trivial fact and imagination to make a tiramisu for the mind. Her Autobiography of Henry VIII is a particularly wonderful romp. And there's always Dickens. I find different subtexts to Dickens every time I reread his books.

And of course this is the perfect time for reading all those classics you've never gotten around to reading. I'd planned to tackle Proust's RTP this winter; that'll have to wait for next year, there's not time now and I'm not going to read half as I always have.

So check out a book or two this winter. Remember your library needs your support and patronage. If we don't use it, we'll lose it.

Synchronicity

2012-01-17T01:25:00.000-05:00

Today's Quotation is:
" Death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is to be received with formal manifestations of respect, even by those most familiar with him."
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914

Perhaps it's living in a relatively small town where nobody is more than 2 degrees of separation away, but there have been a number of deaths lately. All since the holidays began.

Nobody's new to death anymore at our age. I'm pretty used to it. But the recent deaths have all been of good, gentle people. It's as if little lights have gone out all over town, dimming all those left, too...

Yes, we must meet death with formal manifestations of respect. It helps those surviving and reassures in a peculiar way. We need the traditions. The casseroles, the mourning clothes, the sympathy cards. They count. They hold us together and keep us going on.

The coincidence of today's quote and the biggest thing on my mind is somehow comforting, too, though I'm sure there's some kind of spyware/Satanic marketing behind it. ;)

Well. May we all rest in peace tonight.

What Now?

2012-01-16T21:33:00.000-05:00

Tried to comment on thefeatherednest, cuz Lawless isn't well and I wanted to send her love and goodness wishes. Blogger won't let me. Then tried to comment on WayneingMoments, who's an old pal having better times at last; thought I did, but now can't view his blog to see that it made it.

What oh what is going on now? So annoying. I went to Help and Issues (where nothing applies) and finally left a comment there that there's a ghost in the machine.

"It just goes to show ya, it's always something." Thanks, Gilda, it certainly is.

Get well soon, Lawless! And hooray for you, Wayne!

Pinball Wizard

2012-01-16T13:39:00.000-05:00

Life is a lot like a pinball machine. Sometimes you hit the flippers just right and everything's lit up and exciting, and sometimes the ball just won't go the way you want it and everything goes down the shoot.

2012, so far, has really sucked for a lot of people in my life. Deaths, cancer, tragedy, hurtful disappointment... all have made the rounds already and it's only mid-January. This year is suspicious.

It'd be really nice if we had more control over the game but we don't. There are too many variables, too many bumpers that ricochet the ball in unexpected ways. Not enough flippers in the spots that would keep the ball in the game. Sometimes you can't keep the focus and things run away from you. And sometimes you just get lucky out of the blue, doing nothing.

I wish I was a pinball wizard and had all the tricks down so I could advise others. But I never was good at that game, and learned to laugh at how I continuously missed. Maybe that's as good as it gets.

Food Glorious Food

2012-01-15T16:20:00.000-05:00

While I'm basking in meat and greens, the rest of the world keeps eating what they eat. There's been a lot of foodie news lately, and old chef habits die hard, so here for your gustitory information is food in the news:

Virgin? Maybe not. Maybe not even olive
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/13/extra-virginity-tom-mueller-review

Things the industrial producers don't want you to think about
http://www.cracked.com/article_19433_the-6-most-horrifying-lies-food-industry-feeding-you.html

The diet industry is as rotten as any other industry
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/15/women-protest-diet-industry-parliament

HuffPo's weekly food stories:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/13/great-food-stories_n_1205165.html?ref=food

The produce pesticide roundup
http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/

Things regular consumers don't read
http://www.fmi.org/

I won't editorialize here. The stories and facts stand on their own. Just know that governments don't have your back when it comes to food. Like any other industry, the food producers have their lawyers and lobbyists shaping policy to keep them rich.

Glad That's Overwith!

2012-01-15T14:40:00.001-05:00

Oh so much better today. And I didn't even break the diet. Mostly because the idea of eating anything put me off. Sleep is a magic cure. Should've known something was coming when I couldn't sleep. It's stupifying that I know all these signs of things and still don't recognize them when they're happening, only after the result lands. Then it's "Oh, of course!" How old do you have to be before that catches up? Does it ever? Is it some kinda body defense, like not recalling terrible pain?

It's 98 days to Greg's concert! And halfway through January! Wasn't it just Christmas about a week ago?

I've been neglecting the news, so here are some choice cuts:

But we're not, Blanche, we're not
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2066-humans-intelligent.html

I guess they can go around saying they poop gold after this. But I bet it still stinks:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jan/14/golden-globes-america-food-poverty

Tell me a story!
http://bigthink.com/ideas/41943

This is just awful:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/15/italian-cruise-ship-survivor-found

The Pope ousts Occupiers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/15/occupy-vatican-protesters-evicted-police

Blackout Wednesday is gathering steam
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/01/13/wikipedia-mulls-sopa-blackout-as-other-sites-join-in/

Stephen Colbert's not running, but an ad is that's causing an uproar:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/funnyman-stephen-colbert-mock-presidential-run-wackier-defends-attack-ad-article-1.1006407

Feed your head:
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2039-6-fun-ways-sharpen-memory.html
Okay, I'm going back to bed.

ech, plech, atchoo!

2012-01-14T16:29:00.000-05:00

It's a cold. After sneezing my head off, blowing the schnozz, and having a head too full to rest for long, a lost voice, a clogged ear and general poopy tiredness I've realized it's a cold. This is rotten timing; I have things to do. Today I can fall apart, try to sleep and take Nyquil. I'll even break the diet and have chicken soup but that's it. It's annoying when you're just sick enough to be unfunctioning but not so bad that you just pass out. And man, ear things really bug the hell outta me. So I'm giving this 24 hours to do its business and get gone. There's just no time for it. bah.

I Remember Henry

2012-01-14T05:38:00.000-05:00

Neither his birthday nor his deathday. I've been emailing with Wendy, which always brings back Henry. I just remember what a good guy Henry Tewksbury was to me, and how by his sheer understanding everything was all right. He didn't always agree with me, he didn't like who I chose to be around and he always let me know in plain talk what he thought. And I never held anything back from him. It could get starish. Soon we'd start smiling. At heart we really, really just liked each other. He was the Best Boss I ever had.

There have been a hundred times I wish we could've had a banter over what's gone on since you joined the choir eternal, Henry. We had one of those rare communications where not a lot had to be said, we just looked at each other and knew. You're one of the ones I hope I get to see again, and ask if your Stairway to Heaven really was made of my brownies. :)

Getting to Know

2012-01-14T05:14:00.002-05:00

It seems to me that my generation, and the gens I knew before, weren't raised to know ourselves at all.Whoever we happened to be didn't matter. Fall into the big part of the bell curve and go along. Duck and cover. That's way different now. That's a good change. The younger generations are more honest and they'e more honest because it's safer to be so. Remember being spanked for not doing what everyone else did? I do. In school, and worse when they found out at home.

We are very different from the youngers. We saw things they never knew in their entire existence. Young women are so far removed from what it was to be a woman then that they don't know to respect the change. And we just want to make believe that we won.

Today's seriously adult folk were born in the 70s. The 70s. A hundred too long agos and just yesterday. But they don't have to know how that is yet.

Here's a typical but true story song from my generation; we bought a lot of crap in being raised but it was all different then, and overnight it seemed we had this new reality that doesn't remember what happened yesterday. The world keeps changing faster and faster.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQXtTvl-N-c

Randomness for A Winter Day and Good Friends

2012-01-14T02:24:00.002-05:00

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A little Jackson Browne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGz8L4of3po

Cheesecake for the ears (mine, anyway)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcAYoMBDgIs

Maybe the one single song I love most; we've been thru a lot together (play it loud):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU0yg2ep1Tc

One way or another, 'it' always ends up like this, no matter what the 'it' is (though Jonesy is no Sandy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkLM7qd8q5g

And because I'm a nerd, this would be perfection if Jimmy, Jonesy and Bonzo were here. She's even better than Sandy. (and really Percy. Cymbals? No. Bodhran all through.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjofsqj8OEM

This is a month after I last saw them
I've said this before and I'll say it til I die. We had the best of youthtime to be alive in, in generations. Maybe the Flapper Gen was that rebellious but they weren't about a cause. We had similarities. There was war. But there was thought. There was freedom. There was incredible music. There was risk and responsibility. And tons of consequences.

For my generation going to a Zep concert was like going to a religious rite. The smoke was so thick you barely saw the gods from afar... the people danced and sang with abandon...there was joy and hope in the temple of Led Zeppelin. I miss those rites
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okafT6Ok92Y

It's all so fleeting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8VUolqWr8U

Let your mind wander today. Remember funny good things. Look at the person you're with and remember something that makes you laugh from the inside. We tend to not savor the cherished stuff and these days let the very real dark smegma cover us. It hasn't always been this way and it won't always be, either. All things must pass.

R.I,P. Sue Press

Mitt Romney, You ....

2012-01-14T00:50:00.000-05:00

I posted half of this the other day and got peesy email complaints for rhyming Mitt. But more has come to light so in the retitling to not offend I'm adding the unbelieveable more truth.

Every time I hear anything said by the current conga line of fools running for the Repo nomination I think of my grandmother, Nana. She was called "The Republican Battleaxe" by Brooklyn's papers in her day. She would've grabbed every one of them and bashed their heads together just like she did with hooligans when she was NYC's first woman Police Captain. My Republican family would be ranting. There would be a Family Conference around Nana's big dining table and they'd discuss what to do. I'm fairly certain they'd change parties as a unit. Because these vertebrates are nothing like the Republicans they were. Today's Democrats are closer, but not as socially caring as my relatives were. And these Repos are just psychopaths with marketing consultants.

Take Mitt Romney. Please.

Mitt has a long professional politician history, after growing up rich. While Massachusetts Governor, he was quite lefty, to garner votes. Then he changed and changed and changed again, to suit the mood:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/mitt-romney-flip-flopper-or-not/2011/11/30/gIQAH6ubEO_blog.html

Even Conservatives don't like him:
http://notmittromney.com/

When he drove 12 hours to Canada with his dog tied to the roof of his car Mitt claims the dog liked it:
http://www.inquisitr.com/176518/mitt-romney-admits-he-tied-family-dog-to-the-roof-of-his-car-video/

Here's an interesting summary of ol' Mitt:
http://www.who-sucks.com/politics/12-reasons-why-mitt-romney-sucks

He sucked in 2007:
http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/good-god-mitt-romney-sucks.html

He sucks now:
http://www.americablog.com/2011/12/romney-adopts-kkk-slogan-keep-america.html

Mitt got 3 Pinnochios:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/washington-post-fact-checker-upgrades-mitt-romney-jobs-claim-to-3-pinocchios/

And I was told the media was all "leftwing elite". Imagine my surprise:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/abc-news-debate-ignores-mitt-romneys-admission-that-his-bain-jobs-claim-is-bunk/

More Mittbain:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-romney-defends-bain-record-20120112,0,5132594.story
If this is The Best the Repos can do I almost feel sorry for them. I should probably call Greenwood Cemetery and make sure the family're still at rest and haven't spun right up out of their graves.

And don't worry. I'm marinating Obama for his turn on the spit. These days it's about who makes you rage least or who doesn't make you puke.

Hey Supernatural Writers!

2012-01-13T21:34:00.000-05:00

One of the things that keeps me humble is my unabashed fanhood for Supernatural. Part of this has to do with my upbringing but admittedly it's because of the 2 lead actors. Which probably sounds disgusting coming from someone my age but Hell. I claim common sense but not class. I'm the woman who burped at Governor Douglas.

Supernatural is a fun series. It has many good points- two brothers fight together as "Hunters" who take out paranormal bad things, two handsome and tragic but brave and committed brothers, a cast of characters and bizarre stories, and a devoted fan base. But it has a tragic flaw- 7th season. They just killed a beloved main character after having "maybe" killed off another. The writers need to get their shit together. This could totally die by the end of the next season. This is Scarlet Fever season. The heat is on. The patient needs to get better or will die. They're introducing new characters. Okay. They've gone a little X-Files lately. If they start including aliens I'm gone, Jensen Ackles or no.

So maybe the writers are burnt and need ideas. The fans can help. The fans are all writers. I'd like to see story line that brings them back in time- fill out the years and their characters. With a twist. They're thrown into a replay of being back somewhere, they see each other as they are now but everyone else perceives them at that age; they know they're being screwed with, and that what's happening isn't what they recall but they seem to recall things very differently. They don't know who dunnit or how to get out and now Bobby's dead. But the dead talk in dreams. I'll leave it to you to say who did it to them, how Bobby helps and the ramifications of time traveling, etc. Okay? Free of charge, as a fan who doesn't want to see this series fade out.

Now, get to work.

Christ Almighty, Comcast!

2012-01-13T12:25:00.000-05:00

Why are there always issues with Comcast? Why? Today, I can't get into my email and the message is "This service is temporarily unavailable. Wer're sorry for the inconvenience." Really, how sorry are ya? Sorry enough to work these damn issues out so they don't happen every few days? Seriously, every few days it's something else.

And for this I get to pay 115 bucks a month. If I'd ever done a job the way these people do, I'd've been fired. Difference is, they're a monopoly around here, so they can do whatever they want in this Capitalism Gone Mad country.

Glands and the Ice and Snow

2012-01-13T11:27:00.000-05:00

A couple years ago I gave up using wireless gadgets and microwaves. Starting in 2000 I began having a serious problem with lymph glands swelling. Some were surgically removed and tested, and thankfully benign. But they didn't stop swelling up. Like ants, you take one away and there's four more popping up. It was worst on my left side, between my ear and collarbone. My collarbone disappeared under a mound of swollen glands. My neck and left side of my head were full of little lumps. Something was going on. But doctors had no answers. "You're just one of those people who have swollen lymph glands", one said to me. Like that's normal. Well ya know what? They hurt. I didn't know anyone else who "just have swollen lymph glands."

Around 2009 I did an internet search and saw many people complaining of similar things. They talked about suspecting microwave sickness. Curiousity rose. I spent a lot of time with a cordless phone tucked in the crook of my neck, the same area where the glands were running riot. Circumstantial and maybe coincidental, but still... As an experiment I gave away my wireless phones and microwave oven and went back to old-fashioned tethered things. My glands receded. My collarbone reappeared. And Dr. Magda Havas read my blog and contacted me. She's investigating these things about microwave sickness.

Last year, out of necessity while being homeless and in other people's places, I used Wifi, microwave ovens and cordless phones. My collarbone disappeared under lumps. Behind my ear all those lumps rose again. But beggars can't be choosers and with everything else going on there was no point in addressing it. Doctors offered nothing anyway, I'd been that route several times.

In coming home I got back to corded things and no microwaves. It's two months later; my clavicle's back again, all but 2 of the lumps on my neck are gone and those 2 are small. I'm not saying, I'm just saying. If it's just coincidence it's a huge one. I think I'll avoid having wireless things for the rest of my life.

Totally apart from all that, we have a lovely wintry-white world outside. The temp has risen so there's splotting as the snow falls from the trees and the sidewalks are gray with ice and slush. It snowed just a bit earlier, a slight squall that put a little frosting on top. It's early snow, the sloppy kind we usually get in November and early December. But it's here and it's pretty. And above all, it's looking like January. A little normalcy goes a long way in this world these days.

Resting is Futile

2012-01-13T00:08:00.000-05:00

Oftentimes this kind of weather screws with gimps and this is one of those times. There's no getting comfortable lying down tonight. Doesn't help that today was the day of heavy phone conversations and surprisingly bad news that still hasn't quite sunk in.

But I'll blame the weather for all this, and understand why my grandparents and parents did. It's true anyway. A swing in the weather means crapola coming. Even when life's going along like a healthy puppy.

So the deal is to get really dragging yer ass nodding off tired because then even the pain won't keep you from sleep. At least for a couple of hours. Sleeping was good. I miss it. Staring at glowing screens helps burn your eyes out. Sit in one position and never move. Pull a throw up to your shoulders. Take an extra Aleve. The latest I can sleep in is 9. If I get to sleep in the next 2 hours I'll function. If not I'll spend half the day trying to keep my mouth shut. The only good thing out of that is that by tomorrow night I'll be sodead that I'll crash and sleep for 12 hours. It ain't my first time at the rodeo.

So I'm gonna go read some news and then stupid things and by then I should be nodding off.

Complications Set In

2012-01-12T18:45:00.000-05:00

It's been one of those days where not everything quite made it to the finish line. Ach, that's life, there are days like that.

But the drapes are up in the bedroom, the clothes are put away, my Greg dress came and it's perfect and Day 10 of the Hi Pro Glow is nearly done. Things are coordinated for tomorrow, and there's a long list of things to do already waiting.

Had a nice chat with my brother, for once. He's okay. We caught up and it was good. I miss him, the big creep.

The Beest has been sleeping a lot the last 3 days. She's not off her oats, isn't gakking and seems fine. Perhaps she's just gotten comfortable. She slept all the time at Strider's house. I got a couple of good pix of her today on my new digicam.

Speaking of Strider, she's on vacation and I hope she's having fun. She got outta New England just in time!

I think there's something about the snow and winter that tires one out. I'm entirely dragging and it's only 6:30. It's like I could sleep for a week, and not care what I miss or what doesn't get done.

The Shire is under that blanket of quiet that comes with a good snowfall. Voices don't carry, the homes themselves change acoustics, insulated and snug. I think it's early to bed tonight with comforter and book.

It's Vermont After All!

2012-01-12T11:39:00.000-05:00

Just when I'd begun to think that the world had turned on some strange pivot that had put us in an equatorial zone, winter finally arrives.

Aaaah, it's beeeeyoootiful out there.

I'm gonna attempt loading the software and getting this camera up and running... I'll be back.

Boom! Brrurrrrrr! Beep Beep Beep!

2012-01-12T06:42:00.000-05:00

5 a.m. The Beest and I jolt awake and about 4 inches off the bed as a Shire snow plow goes back and forth, back and forth, right outside my bedroom window. "Holy crap!" I say to the cat. "We must've gotten real snow." Well, I went to bed at 11 last night. It hadn't started by then. Beest and I head for the bathroom and I look out there. "What?" There's maybe an inch out there. As the Tonka toy plow goes back and forth another dozen times over the same patch I catch the snow falling in its lights. It's a light, swirly snow.

Really, is it necessary to plow one inch of snow at this hour? And to run over the same ground a dozen times, spinning lights and beeps on high, plow banging the ground again and again, for one lousy inch of snow? Sounds like the sound of eagerness for overtime to me.

There's no going back to bed. I'm not deaf enough to ignore that much noise. So the Beest and I make our way to thekitchen and I start making coffee. Oh good, the plow has left the back of the building for the front. There's no more snow here than out back. But he makes a 45 minute job of plowing the 30 feet of street down this end of the Shire.

It's 6:30. It's seriously snowing, as I see in the headlights of another truck that's just pulled up and is idling in the road. I think whoever's in the Tonka toy has created an all-day job by simply starting so damned early before there was any snow or traffic to bother. Ah, here comes the sidewalk plower/blower. Running over the same ground the plow just did. Don't you love efficiency? I guess the office will appreciate it, when they come in to work in a few hours. It'll have been plowed for 4 hours already by then.

Maybe, Perhaps, Possibly

2012-01-11T19:51:00.000-05:00

There is a winter weather advisory issued for New England. We may get up to 6 inches, or it may be sleety-sneety-rain. This would be a boon to the ski resorts. So far it's been scarily bare. The coming weekend is a normally huge tourist weekend.

Two things make me take this seriously. First, the full moon. Storms are always bigger around the full moon. We're just starting to wane, so it's a tough call. Second, it's predicted as a two-day event. If it really is that much of a wallop, we just have to get some of it. Please. Let it snow.

You see, it's not just the ski industry that needs it. The ground plants need it. The ground itself needs it. The maple trees need it. Hell, all the trees need it. I haven't worked on a farm in 31 years, but I know the farmers are watching. You have to become a weather watcher if you farm; it can make or break you. We really don't need to lose anymore small independent farms in Vermont. So please, yes, bring the snow.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2012-01-11T11:20:00.002-05:00

This is good all the way around. A win-win situation.
http://www.anh-usa.org/reduce-your-heart-risk/

Very bad- 30 Arrested - "Intent to Feed" the homeless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQZjXDuGh6Y

Ugly. Ugly all day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvrofhdK6PI

Back to Work

2012-01-11T07:06:00.003-05:00

Last night after everything was done- making the pasticcio, cleaning up the mess, tending the Beest- I finally got back to the book.

I'm reevaluating the chapter about attitude that put me in a meltdown when I was at Strider's. Sparked my whole interest and enthusiasm again. It's half done; maybe I just needed time and space, to get back to normal before I could face it. Talking about becoming disabled when you were once very active is heavy. I guess the world just got to be too much with me.

And, Lawless of
http://mybabyjohn.blogspot.com/
sent me a beautiful watercolor set. Nothing I'd ever seen before. Hope I get to try them today! Thanks Lawless!

In any event it's good to be back at work.

Bravo Brattleboro

2012-01-10T22:22:00.000-05:00

For all the trials and tribulations, for all our infighting and arguing, we're a good little town. We usually do the right thing. We work on things and battle it out. There are some incredibly good and committed people here. So I just want to share with you some of our stuff.

Our town's television station has really grown:

http://brattleborotv.org/?q=watch/watch

So has our local radio talk show:

http://1490wkvt.com/Podcasts/2416488

And our only local independent paper

http://www.commonsnews.org/site/site04/index.php

And iBrattleboro passed 36 million pageviews

http://www.ibrattleboro.com/

Here's my pal Daryl talking about the Heat Fund

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdY-OFAeuH0

Every June we Stroll the Heifers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkoZZerDaAQ

And every February we Ski Jump

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf42UnYii9U

Sometimes we're silly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FHbSRTAcGI

Sometimes we're serious

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_SKHcB9Mmg

But we're always up to something

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtEOAENi61c

If you ever get the chance, come visit. Look me up, I'm around.

The Rich are Doing Very Well, Thank You

2012-01-10T11:45:00.003-05:00

Rolls Royce is prospering
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16467885

The others aren't hurting
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bmw-audi-mercedes-bet-on-luxury-sales-surge-2012-01-09

Oil's not doing badly
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/10/28/355891/chevron-profits-oil-companies/?mobile=nc

Banks are expecting 57% profit this year
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/01/05/financial-stocks-analysts-expect-bank-profits-to-r.aspx

You can always tell by the shoes
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/business/sales-of-luxury-goods-are-recovering-strongly.html?ref=business

Scott Fitzgerald wrote:

"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different."

The Year of Dreams

2012-01-10T08:03:00.003-05:00

This is turning into an interesting year. Not only have we got Greg's concert in April, but at some point Uncle Glenn's estate will be settled. I didn't know he'd put me in his Will, but he did. In all the years I knew him, we talked about the UK and he made me promise that one day I'd take the train from London to Edinburgh.

Who knows how much there'll be once the smoke clears. But I think there'll be enough to get me there and back. I've never been to Europe. It's what UG would've wanted and what I've wanted all my life. I'm not getting younger. It's time to make some dreams come true...

Weekday Update

2012-01-09T14:46:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but every site I visit, every vid or audio clip I play is preceded by a Mitt Romney ad. Just how much payola is behind this guy?

Grandpa the monkey picked his NH Repo winner
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/grandpa-spider-monkey-picks-gingrich-win-n-h-primary-article-1.1003325

Gabby Giffords is still on the mend, a year later:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/survivors-tucson-shooting-mark-anniversary-poignant-video-calling-tighter-gun-control-article-1.1002528

Ziggy Stardust is a pensioner now
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/graphic/2012/jan/07/infomania-david-bowie?INTCMP=SRCH

No time or patience for the Downton Abbey 2nd series? Read the synopses:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/series/downton-abbey-episode-by-episode

There's too much going on in the MidEast to just pick one story
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middleeast/roundup

The Irene cleanup continues
http://www.commonsnews.org/site/site04/story.php?articleno=4663&page=1

Study: psych drugs and diabetes link
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20120109/NEWS03/120109024/Vermont-data-show-diabetes-psych-drug-link-?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

Why Vermont has no snow
http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php/20120109114221361

Thanks for the Doorknob Hanger

2012-01-09T11:59:00.000-05:00

A knock on the back door interrupted the putting away of stuff. I gimp on back there to see two wildly smiling younger people. "Hi!" says the woman one. "We're from yada yada and we're here to help." I nod. "We're going around offering assistance to everyone affected by Irene. Were you affected?" "Yes," I say, "The whole area was evacuated and homeless last fall." The smiles never fade. "Well, is there anything we can help with?" I look at them. Of course they mean well so I won't turn into Susie Sarcasm on them. We all know that the help I need, unpacking, sorting, putting things where they'll live, isn't their form of service. It's nobody's form of service. "No." I reply. "Can I give you some lit in case you find something we can help with?" "Sure." I say. And she hands me a doorknob hanger. They're a "support organization" from the State Dept. of Mental Health.

Are you serious? 4 1/2 months after the fact, now you wanna know how I'm doing? This is like the services offered after we were back here a month, in "applying for help and adjusting to changes". That phone call went to the Ashram that I left in September and they called Nancy's looking for me- in December? What the hell use is it so long after the fact, after we're already back in our homes and have fought the fight? Where were these do-gooders when we did need them? Any clue what rapid changes we went through in the thick of it and how maybe we could have used someone's shoulder to cry on while it was happening? Luckily I had my friends and Strider to lend shoulders. There were others who didn't have my luck. And guess what? Those unlucky aren't back here. They're away in treatment of one kind or another.

So yeah, that's all very nice and would've been useful- in September. As is, thanks for the doorknob hanger. I'll make a "Do Not Disturb" sign out of it so it doesn't go to complete waste.

Meatful Monday

2012-01-09T07:42:00.004-05:00

Today is 7 days on protein. Ketosis is kicking in, the bad breath and all. The bread jones has moved along and now I have visions of pasta dancing in my head. Which is made worse because I have to make pasticcio for Wednesday's Heat Fund on the Radio. And there's no part of that I can have. So I'll make it quickly, with unboiled pasta tomorrow, and cook it off fast on Wednesday morning. Meanwhile the key is to not get too hungry (I'm at the "I hate everything but what I can't have" phase) and stay busy.

A great perk of last night's television- the return of AbFab via BBC America. Just as fab as ever, 20 years later. It's sooo good to see the girls again. My only complaint is that it was over too soon. Talk about leaving them wanting more!

T'ain't hard to stay busy. There's undecorating to do. The bedroom still isn't finished. And I can always do more unpacking. I haven't even connected the dvd player to the tv yet. The ladles and the knife steel are all MIA 2 months later along with several other things. So yeah, no dearth of stuff to do.

This morning I'm gonna fill up on coffee and get going at things. I'll be back with news at break time.

Meanwhile, here's something to ponder:
http://edge.org/conversation/the-evolved-self-management-system

Do They Know it's Wintertime at All?

2012-01-08T13:03:00.000-05:00

It's January 8th and it's 40'F according to my outdoor thermometer. We've had some cold (last week) and some snow (twice since I've been home but it doesn't stay). This isn't right. At this rate there won't be a January thaw because there's been no deep freeze.

In the last years I've noticed that seasons have moved by a few weeks and that Spring and Fall have been shorter than ever. And I'm sure there have been other New England winters when there was no snow and it felt more like Florida than Vermont in January. Last year snow didn't come til after Christmas. But we're 2 weeks past Christmas now and there's no sign of snow in the forecast for the week ahead. Temps are expected to be around 40'F in the day every day, with rain on Thursday. The 2 big ski weekends are the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and Presidents' Day. MLK Jr. is the coming weekend. This weather is no good sign for our tourist-based economy, and adds to the already depressed and struggling times we're in. First Irene put the kibosh on the Peeper Season (though I'm told there were gawkers for the storm destruction) and now this. Not good. As travel writers have noted, the people who have timeshares and second homes will come anyway- there are snow machines to make up for it- but the random "Let's go ski this weekend" folks won't be showing up, and they make up a lot of the profit.

So these are nervous times. Pray for snow.

105 Days to Greg

2012-01-08T01:09:00.001-05:00

Day 6 of the Hi-Pro Glow. Sick of meat. Remembering how this went last time. I pretty much stopped eating because I grew to hate proteins. But it works. Staying at under 22 grams of carbs can be made a game. If you care to. Me, I'm not caring. Just keep on keepin' on. My new dress is in the mail. I'll see results soon. The sugar craving is gone. Now there's a longing for bread. And so it goes. It's a luxury to be able to do a hi-pro diet. Kinda shuts my bitching off.

Some news bits:
Mitt's on my spit for later or tomorrow
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/08/new-hampshire-republican-debate-live

Hungary's fed up too:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/06/hungary-viktor-orban-faces-protest

"I do not think it means what you think it means."
http://bigthink.com/ideas/41764

Romney outsourced jobs? The dog story isn't bad enough?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-touts-jobs-numbers-swipes-romney-outsoucing-business-career-article-1.1002233

We lost Ronald Searle this week. Thank you for St. Trinian's, Mr. Mole.
http://ronaldsearle.blogspot.com/

My favorite Jumbafund vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZvSD1O86M8

"Living Homes"
http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/tv/Wired-Science/95583/771692345/Earth%3A-Icy-Depths/videos?skipTo=1004&cmpid=FCST_hero_tv

Amazing Stories

2012-01-07T07:09:00.000-05:00

Truth is always stranger than fiction. Some of us have incredible life stories and most of us who get some years behind us have seen things nobody would believe. Regular humanity's stories are as awe-inspiring and surprising as anything by Homer or Dickens.

Here's one helluva woman:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/07/winnie-johnson-keith-bennett-moors-murders

Some pack 80 years into 12:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/child-cancer-blogger-jessica-joy-rees-dies-age-12-battling-brain-tumors-article-1.1002107

Life takes unexpected turns on everyone
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/staten-island-priest-bolsters-feds-mob-case-high-school-lunch-contract-extortion-prosecution-article-1.1001149

And given a reason, people will do good
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/supermarket-raises-thousands-peter-figoski-scholarship-fund-article-1.1001576

Even in the normal course of life experiences there is a story
http://www.commonsnews.org/site/site04/story.php?articleno=4671&page=1

More Fun and Games

2012-01-07T01:39:00.000-05:00

Which Downton Abbey character are you? (Can't believe I missed this the first time):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/quiz/2011/sep/13/downton-abbey-character

Match the dictator to the country:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/quiz/2011/dec/19/dictator-quiz-match-the-strange-fact-to-leader

The Jung Personality test (I'm an ENTJ):
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm

What kind of humor do you have?
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/the-3-variable-funny-test

Which Shakespearean character are you?
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/the-shakespeare-character-test

I'm Not Alone

2012-01-06T22:26:00.000-05:00

Because I'm such a masochist (I blame the Episcopal upbringing) when Gal Friday said there were little cakes in the community room I said, "If they're small, please bring me one." So she did, a little 6" layer cake. I knew I had company coming so I thought, "well if I fail now, only 4 days in, I'll be ashamed so my pride won't let me." This is how I make myself do things. Cold turkey, head-on Viking stubbornness. Unless I test and torture myself it's not right. It uses my damning pride to keep me in line.

So yes, company came and guess what? Everyone's on a diet and going through sugar withdrawal after a very pigout holiday season. They hovered around the table where the cake was. Resistance was futile. The cake is gone. I have a bit of guilt. But I still have my damning pride.

Day 5 starts tomorrow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AlEvy0fJto

Zero Tolerance

2012-01-06T13:13:00.000-05:00

I'm in absolute bitch mode today. The sugar withdrawal, monthly hormonal rage and remarkable idiocy around me has landed all at once and I can't even stand myself, much less anyone else.

And so I'll spare us all and just leave some newsie bits for your...whatever.

Mt. Etna erupts (didn't it used to be spelled Aetna?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/jan/06/sicily-etna-volcano-erupts-video

At least it wasn't a customer:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/06/death-cap-mushrooms-chinese-australia

Gods Bless the Irish
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/05/irish-village-ballyhea

Sign of the times:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/06/belarus-freedom-internet

We did something good for once?!
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/iran-u-s-navy-rescues-13-iranian-mariners-arabian-sea-pirates-article-1.1001875

It's Jor-a-lemon, not Joral-eh-mon Street:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/living-door-a-transit-authority-mystery-brooklyn-heights-family-likes-strange-neighbor-article-1.1001588

Maybe he should be their candidate:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/grandpa-psychic-monkey-toughest-challenge-predict-gop-winner-hampshire-primary-article-1.1001715

People are Talking About

2012-01-05T21:15:00.002-05:00

Chris Hedges:
http://www.alternet.org/authors/5769/
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Chris_Hedges

Last fall, he released a book, The Death of the Liberal Class. Here he is with Amy Goodman:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/20/chris_hedges_obama_is_a_poster

From Amazon:

"For decades the liberal class was a defense against the worst excesses of power. But the pillars of the liberal class— the press, universities, the labor movement, the Democratic Party, and liberal religious institutions—have collapsed. In its absence, the poor, the working class, and even the middle class no longer have a champion.
In this searing polemic Chris Hedges indicts liberal institutions, including his former employer, the New York Times, who have distorted their basic beliefs in order to support unfettered capitalism, the national security state, globalization, and staggering income inequalities. Hedges argues that the death of the liberal class created a profound vacuum at the heart of American political life. And now speculators, war profiteers, and demagogues— from militias to the Tea Party—are filling the void."

From iBrattleboro under a thread by Tom Finnell (with a 3-hour video posted):
http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php/20120103125716573

"...the poor, the working class, and even the middle class no longer have a champion." It's true. We have to do everything without organization. Or do it singly, which is inviting $%!( upon your head in these days. What remains of the left are painfully and sometimes damagingly their own persons, view themselves as individuals, and don't often support each other near enough to push a victory in anything. It's herding cats. I've heard some people can do that. We need one. Or a dozen.

There are few of the old-fashioned Liberals around. The "Progressives" of today are not of the same cloth. I can count the number of original old style Liberals in town on one hand. And who I know elsewhere will fill the other. Many have died, and many are disabled. And more than one got fed up and walked away from the BS.

This is a discussion long overdue. Thank you for bringing it up.
We the old-fashioned Liberals need to get off our asses again. Things are too desperate to walk away. We've already been stomped on, so what's to worry about? Nothing we haven't done before. But we need organizers.

Snow!!!

2012-01-05T16:17:00.000-05:00

Finally, and likely not lastingly, it's snowing. Considering it's been trying for a couple of weeks but nothing stuck...well, it's nice to see. Normal. Really, we're in January in Vermont and still with the bare ground? That's not right.

You never know how it'll end. The snow began early this morning and there's only a sugar frosting out there now. The flakes are tiny, which some consider the kind that keeps coming down. The Weather Channel said it'd just be flurries. I've shovelled flurries before.

The sun is setting. With the energy-efficient security lights I won't be able to see much of what's falling soon. But I hope we wake up to a wintery fairyland.