Richard Brautigan's Birthday

“I thought about it for awhile, hiding it from the rest of my mind. But I didn't ruin my birthday by secretly thinking about it too hard.” ― Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America

Tax Season Ahead...Cats Working Hard

The Sunday Morning Muse, January 29, 2012

Musing the moon today...pondering moon colonies, moon pies... and it all makes me want to spoon.... by the light of the silvery moon.

When the moon is in the 7th house and Jupiter aligns with Mars.....peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars.It's is a marvelous night for a moondance, and a fantabulous night to make romance.

 Did it take long to find me...I ask the faithful light? Did it take long to find me...and are you gonna stay the night?

I'm being followed by a moon shadow. I have been since second grade when I had to write a poem about what I want to be when I grow up. (I want to fly to the moon and be back by noon.)

 Do I want to live on the moon?  No. I'd be pretty claustrophobic in that space suit. But the moon is sure nice to look at, and dream upon.  And it would be a great launching point someday to other places. So, as much as it sounds like we can't afford it right now, and I have to stipulate I do not support Newt Gingrich for any office higher than dog catcher.....he's onto something here. I say let's go for it. To the moon, Alice!  To the moon.

The Sunday Morning Muse, January 22, 2012

The sun is just about peaking up over the hill. Sunday morning again. Smoke coming out of chimneys, snow covered roofs, a dog barking in the distance. Birds tweeting in my hedges under the window. Supposed to be warmer than yesterday. 18 degrees outside right now.

Back is bothering me from snow shovelling, but it looks like that chore is done for now...with a few days of

warmer weather in the forecast. This is not my favorite time of year. Yes I have a snow blower, but it is too big. I let other people run it. I'm a little afraid of the thing.

I'm feeling much better now after my bout with the chickenpox. After the first few feverish delusional days, I just dealt with the "poxes" as  best as I could. They are still healing but I can function in the world. A friend of mine called yesterday who is much older than me, and he lamented that whenever he gets together with people all they talk about are their ailments. He called to invite to me to dinner to a celebrate an "important milestone." I had assumed it was a major birthday, but after I hung up the phone I realized he never actually said that was the reason for the dinner. I thought about it and remembered that the man had heart surgery 20 years ago, cancer surgery about 5 years ago....and he mentioned during the conversation how "glad he is to still be here."  Hmmm.

Milestones in people's lives. How do you measure your life? By age? By accomplishments? By the way you overcome adversity? By surviving despite the odds being against you?  I "measure my life with coffeespoons" like J. Alfred Prufock, I suppose. Day to day. A million revisions before the taking of toast and tea.

Taking a Peak at Reality

Curiouser and curiouser how this country picks a Republican Presidential candidate. Here is just a sampling of the stuff I've read this week that boggles my mind. None of this is boring political stuff. I'm not seeing long drawn out stories about economic policy, or an appreciation of the nuances of foreign policy. Replete with graphs and maps.

Front and center in the public square are no debates about real, thought out ideas on how to get us out of the economic mess we are in. No job creation strategy nonsense.

It's all about the DIRT.

Who are these guys?.... like who is the serial cheater,(the one who decided that "in sickness and in health" really shouldn't be part of any marriage ceremony he finds himself in), or who's great grandfather had multiple wives (at the same time) and had 30 children in Mexico? Who is stashing  between 7 million and 32 million dollars in the Cayman Islands ...oh no, not to avoid taxes. The money likes to be warm. It is nice to visit the money there. Hold up, wait a sec. BETWEEN  Seven an 32 Million? Can you narrow it down a bit? A million here or there...

Which candidate's wife had a long time affair with an "abortion doctor?" Egads....Incase you don't peek, It's Tricky Rick Santorum. The one who doesn't believe in birth control.  Irony is such a beautiful thing.

Kinky Friedman said it best in an interview on NPR.

"My definition of politics: 'poly' means more than one, and ticks are bloodsucking parasites," Friedman says. He says he doesn't really like Colbert's humor. But he says at least Colbert is taking risks, so Colbert has Friedman's endorsement for president of the United States. "Of course he does," says Friedman. "That's why we need Stephen Colbert in there — to stir things up, to be a troublemaker. I very much approve of that. That's what Jesus was."

That's an analogy that would doubtless please candidate Stephen Colbert.

What's the Evangelicals to do? Stay home and sip tea. Perhaps reflect on civility, and decency and family values and all the ideas that are so scarce these days. Go look for Ward Cleaver and see if he and June would be interested in serving in the White House? Beaver would love it.

The Sunday Morning Muse, January 15, 2012

The sun is shining brightly on this mid January morning as a cold blast these past few days shocked us back into the reality of winter. Musing over some of the headlines of the past few days, can you imagine the panic of those aboard that cruise ship off the coast of Italy as it made it's Titanic-like descent into the water and people scrambled for lifeboats? Terrible situation there.

In other news, I hear the company that makes Twinkies is filing for bankruptcy. This hardly seems possible. Is everyone quietly converting to bean sprouts and health foods and I am one of the few hold outs reaching for the snack cakes? Doubtful when you look around, everyone is still fat. Though I haven't eaten a Twinkie for a long time. I do like HoHo's and Little Debbies. HoHo's make me think of my childhood lunchbox. We always had them in the house back then. Though Hostess Cupcakes are the ones to beat. Yum.

 Newt Gingrich Grilled at Black Church  is a headline that caught my eye this morning. I know he is courting votes in South Carolina, but the headline makes you wonder if they served him with a side of fries and coleslaw.  Especially after those remarks a few weeks ago that poor kids, as young as 9 years old should clean their school for money.

I get more disgusted when I think about it actually. He is heartless. There are child labor laws for good reasons. Childhood is so short, and the at-risk kids already have so many problems they don't have the ideal childhood to begin with. Let them feel safe in their school. Do all we can to prevent bullying.  These are good steps. A "worth" ethic is just as important as a "work" ethic in my opinion. We have to teach these children that just because they are here, they matter.  That they are special and can do anything. It is not their fault they are poor.
But the answer is not turning schools into workhouses. We can do better than that for kids.

Hugh Laurie- The Whale has Swallowed Me

Not My Best Look

It's never good when the Physician's Asst. looks at you and says, hummm, I haven't seen THIS in awhile. No, it wasn't stinkbug bites, or  lyme disease or some other crazy thing out of nowhere. The good news is I can catch up on my reading for a good week or so. The bad news is I have freakin' chickenpox.  It stings and hurts and itches and I feel terrible. And everyday it is getting worse. I imagine myself as one of those poor waifish orphans in the time of the plaque in Londontown,  languishing alone in some dreary basement flat. Daily growing more disfigured.  (Okay I've seen too many movies. I'll be seeing many more here pretty soon...)
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Fortunately I have nothing but time on my hands so I can Google adult chicken pox till I am so much more freaked out, that I can't do that anymore, and figure I'll just rest, take pills and ride it out. There are no shortcuts.
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No I didn't have chickenpox as a kid.  And no, that vaccination mark most of us have on our arms from way back when didn't include chickenpox at our age.

Status Update from the Dead

We mourn for ourselves. I don't know who first said that. But it is very true. We mourn the dead in some very public ways in addition to private ones. Mourning as of late, has taken the form of teddy bears and flowers piled up at homes of murder victims. With the obligatory media coverage and comments for the camera about the person by people who knew them. Facebook pages with comments to the dead like Rest in Peace, we will miss you. 

 Not that I wouldn't enjoy reading Facebook when I'm dead, but I would hope in an afterlife, should one exist, I'd have more exciting things to do. Being sick the past few days, that's pretty much what I've done.Just lay here, and then get up now and then to check email and Facebook to keep in touch with the world.  Maybe that is what death is like.  Not. Hope not. Anyway. What about all the people who died before Facebook was invented?

I did not set about to write about death today. Actually I was going to write about the flu. I was so sick yesterday that it never occurred to me to take my temperature. Finally in the evening I did and it was 106.
No, I said, something is wrong. It wasn't that high.I'd be delirious. I took it again: 105.  I then thought, I need to test the thermometer.  I took mom's temperature. Fine. I got out another thermometer, digital type, but still oral...  102. Hmmph.

I felt hot, but my brain couldn't be boiling. I took two tylenol and went to bed....with fitful dreams about the
two bites behind my right ear.  Spider bites? Wait, do stink bugs bite?  Am I too sick to get out of bed and Google "do stink bugs bite." Maybe some rare thing bit me and my temp really is that high! Yikes.
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Eventually sleep came. I woke up and took my temp again. 100.6,  and I realized that I was reading the thermometer wrong last night. 100 POINT 6.  Delirious anyway. Goofy woman.
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I'm on the road to recovery. First I have to look up stinkbugs. But it's probably the flu.

Streak O' Lean, Streak O' Fat

The Sunday Morning Muse, January 8, 2011

Today is Stephen Hawking's 70th birthday. What a remarkable man.  I used to have this CD- ROM that went along with The Brief History of Time. It has this little of graphic of him in his wheel chair sort of guiding you through the universe.  I read that the way he communicates now is through a willful movement of his cheek to select words. Sometimes it can take several minutes to form a sentence.  Amazing. Yet somehow he has found a deep sense of life in the present moment. When he could no longer move his hands to figure equations, he trained his mind to think them through.
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(from Wikipedia)


In Hawking's many media appearances, he appears to speak fluently through his synthesiser, but in reality, it is a tedious drawn-out process. Hawking's setup uses a predictive text entry system, which requires only the first few characters in order to auto-complete the word, but as he is only able to use his cheek for data entry, constructing complete sentences takes time. His speeches are prepared in advance, but having a live conversation with him provides insight as to the complexity and work involved.

Random Things

I've been neglecting my blogging.If only I could harness this brain power... oh well.
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It's not like I don't do things. Today I watched a clip of Frank Zappa as a young man making experimental type music on a bicycle.  It was 1963 on the Steve Allen Show. You can find it yourself on YouTube if you are so inclined.
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I also watched a great piece on CBS's Sunday Morning about  Pink Martini. Well done.
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My interest in politics right now is at an all time low. I don't care which clown wins in New Hampshire. This day to day horse race of Republican politics is boring me to death.You never hear solutions to our problems other than cutting taxes for the rich.  Howzat working so far?  It has not. And the fact that Crazy Rick Santorum, who wants to bomb Iran, and ban birth control, is ahead in the polls, is just bizarro world.
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The St. Ronnie thing is wearing thin, too. Reagan raised taxes 12 times in 8 years. Makes no sense to me. Seems like they are creating a myth of what they want people to think Reagan was, as opposed to the facts. The Eric Cantor interview on 60 Minutes generated some buzz over that. Also, with regard to war, I agree with those who say that our military can go a long way to preventing bad things from happening but they can't necessarily make good things happen. At some point people who live in a country have to figure it out for themselves. President Bush campaigned on the theme that he was not going to use the military for "nation building."  Yet that is exactly how this whole mess has ended up.
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Even so, I'm optimistic. The auto industry still exists, the stock market has been up over 12000 for a bit now, a few manufacturing jobs here and there, and some sort of recovery is coming along. I want to see things get better for people.

The Weather

Crazy start to the year. Rain, wind, heavy clouds, splashes of sun, more rain, more clouds,  47 degrees. And tomorrow we are expecting snow. Thing seem way off. But I'm cool with it. I can run stuff out to the dump with out a coat. Of course the yard is like a rice paddy, but... I'm not complaining.

Had some good pork today. Then poured barbeque sauce on the leftovers and ate that, too. Plus too many cookies. Really good cookies that are worth the calories.

I may not eat at all in January.

The Sunday Morning Muse, January 1, 2012

Welcome to the New Year!  A chance to begin anew, change old ways, wake up, smell the coffee, start the next phase of your life.

What's your Dream? Do you have one? Do you dream during the day or just at night? Do you spend any waking hours wishing for something? 

What were your dreams of childhood? Those lazy days when you imagined what your life would be like when you were all grown up? Are you that person?  Have those dreams faded? Maybe they just changed along the way as life happened.

Dreaming...  make that part of your 2012. What are you waiting for? Maybe by next year we can talk about a dream come true.

(note: No, an optimistic-type person didn't hack this site. It's me. Trying to be an optimist.)