All posts by djones

friday high five

A Week of Happiness

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Time once more for:

 
Five Occurrences That Made For Some Happiness This Week
  • The mosquito who put the bite on my rear end while I slept. I am sure it made the nasty little blood sucker happy, but when I woke up in the morning, it itched like mad. Not to mention my pants rubbed that exact spot and made it itch all day, leaving me the choice of looking indecent while scratching or suffering mortal agony as it itched.
  • The gentleman who so enjoyed talking to me in the park. I still have no clue who he was, but he was willing to discuss my golf game, the best time of day to walk, how his business was going, and other trivia. He knew me by name and I can’t escape the feeling I should have known who he was.
  • The chickadee and wrens who waged war outside my bedroom window at 5am. I’m sure they enjoyed making all that racket a lot more than I enjoyed hearing it.
  • The prowling pussy cat that drove Molly wild. She sat two inches from the screen of the sliding door and meowed relentlessly as Molly tried to get someone, anyone to open the screen. When I finally gave in and let Molly out, the pussy was forced to sprint to make it over the fence in time. Molly was very proud of herself for protecting me from that vicious pussy. I think she felt she earned her doggie treat after all that hoopla.
  • The back-of-the-truck fish guy who came knocking on my door tonight. When I asked to see his sales tax license to verify if he was legitimate, he couldn’t leave fast enough. Heck, I even offered to call the tax license people and get him set up. I knew exactly what department of the city he needed to talk to. He seemed more interested in heading on down the road. I wonder how long it will take him to remember we had a similar conversation about 6 months ago, the last time he stopped by.
mama kat, writer's challenge

They Just Don’t …

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Time once again for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Challenge. This week the prompts are:

1.) They just don’t make (fill in the blank) like they used to!
(inspired by Roxanne)

2.) If you had the time and money…what charity would you help raise awareness for?
(inspired by Christina…click here to enter her raffle)

3.) What are YOU giddy about?
(inspired by Heather)

4.)What’s on YOUR little kids list?
(inspired by Ashley)

5.)Describe what brought you closer to your faith.
(inspired by Emily)

My responses:

#1 – They just don’t make summers like they used to.

I can remember when summer lasted forever and featured all sorts of new and exciting things to do. It went on so long that you thought it would never end. And even though you had a vague concept of just how far away tomorrow was, it seemed like forever. If an adult told you “Not today, maybe we can go tomorrow.”, you just knew that tomorrow would never come. If the fishing trip was “next Friday”, that was so far in the future that you couldn’t bear to wait, even if it was Thursday already.

Then there were the timeless pleasures. Awesome events like sneaking off to a shady spot with a new book from the library and reading it straight through from cover to cover without interruption.  (That was why you snuck off to the shade of a tree away from the house – because otherwise you might get tagged for chores if someone spotted you.) You spent the afternoon lost in vivid imagery as your imagination caught fire with each word your devoured.  You remember that timeless feeling when each glance at the sky featured whole new armies of knights and dragons and aliens and machines and spaceships and …

Maybe it’s not summer that has changed, but our grownup lives. I would love to go back to those endless summers of youth, those times when it seemed that the world could never move fast enough to fit our dreams and ambitions. Those times when little pleasures meant so much.

#2 – I find this to be a hard question because there are clearly so many good charities to support and so many needs to be met. Let me begin by dividing the charities into two classes: those that respond to unforseen need and hazard and those designed to handle specific diseases and their effects. In the first class I place groups like the Red Cross and Salvation Army, etc. In the second group I place groups like the American Cancer Society and the March of Dimes, etc.

I think that if I had time and money, I would spend it encouraging basic research so that we might have a hope of solving *all* the problems and curing *all* the ills. So I’d give some amount to the Salvation Army since they seem to me to be the most effective of the first class of charities. But the bulk of my money and time would go to support of fundamental research. It makes so much more sense to me to support fundamental research that may be applicable to thousands of diseases as opposed to squandering our efforts across the myriad of causes, trying to address each one individually, turning each into a popularity contest for funding (and hopefully results). Not to mention, the track record of issue specific efforts has been pretty spotty in the last couple of centuries. Emotionally it is certainly more satisfying to give to the cause that pulls the most heart strings. But realistically, basic science and research wins everytime. So I’d have to go with supporting basic research in general since I am not a fan of the disease-of-the-day causes,

#3 – Nothing. Call it a symptom of getting older, but I don’t find myself giddy over many things. Of course given that I am a famed curmudgeon, it might just be that I am not prone to giddiness.

#4 – Since I have no little kids anymore, I going to assume you meant what is on my own inner kid list. I.e. the toys for grown boys that I would like. The problem is that the toy I’d really like still hasn’t been made. I suspect it will be another decade or so before it arrives.

What is it you ask? Well picture a box the size of your cell phone with the computing power of a massive server farm, a holographic pop up display as large as you want, full surround projective sound, with direct voice command input. It would function as communications device, computing device, calendar, datebook, movie shower (in real 3d), etc. When one of those hits the market, I hope it hits a toy store near me. Oh, and I almost forgot – it should have a battery life measured in weeks or months under continuous usage.

 #5 – My faith is a bit eclectic to start with. I am a Methodist with a touch of rationalist and even a skosh of secular humanist thrown in. So I don’t necessarily think that the things that bring me closer to my faith will have much meaning to others. If I had to chose one thing that builds my faith, it would be the diversity of the world. Just the fact that life itself is so chaotic and random seems to me to be a sign of something interesting going on.

One of the outcomes of my eclectic faith is that I believe it is good to explore all faiths and integrate the larger whole. To that end I often talk to clergy of various faiths and ask hypothetical questions. One of the answers I got from a clergyman who is now bishop made a great impression on me. The question I asked this man was “How will you react if when you die and get to heaven it isn’t the God of your religion sitting on the throne?” So if you were a Christian cleric, what if it was Buddha sitting on the throne. And the answer he gave? “Since I’d arrived at a heaven, I would assume the gist of my version had been correct. Then I’d point out that all the worlds great religions are basically the same. We all have a moral code for living a meaningful life, we all value human life as being precious to our creator, and we all teach the treating of our fellow man with kindness and respect.” I thought that was one of the best possible answers to the question. I’m still waiting to pose a similar question to an imam. The answer should be illuminating.

birds, misc

The Birds Have It and Other Wars

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This morning I was awoken from a peaceful slumber by the sound a a raging bird war going on in the bush outside my bedroom window. A chickadee and some wrens were having a knock down dragout with stereo chirps and tweets and screetches. Once I figured out that:

a) I hadn’t died and gotten a bad harp translator in heaven,
b) I hadn’t somehow set the alarm to play really hideous music, and
c) it was turning light outside,

I was able to focus enough to read the alarm clock an spot that it was 5am. Given that I get up at 6am so I can walk down to the radio station on Wednesday mornings, I decided to bag the idea of geting back to sleep and instead get some reading done. I have paid for that decision all day now. It seems like I am tired but not quite sleepy. Oh well.

Last night was an interesting special meeting of the city council. A historic first meeting no less, with the city council, the county commissioners, and the rural fire district board all sitting in official session together to go over the proposed intergovernmental agreement (IGA) for the formation of the emergency services authority. Once the smoke cleared and the attorneys for all sides had thrown up their hnds in disgust, there was general agreement as to the form of the IGA. So the modified and corrected version will come before the city council for a first reading next Tuesday (and a second reading and public hearing a few weeks later if it passes the first reading) with similar time frames for approval by the other two entities. Thenthe ballot questions can be put on the ballot and see what the voters want.

The interesting part is that although the city and county have sat in joint session a couple of times during my tenure as mayor, this was the first tri-party meeting anyone can recall. It was also interesting since we filled the council chambers, which is rare. Pretty much, we had a standing room only size crowd. The last time we had that many people in attendance was when there was a proposed liquor license near the college which the churches opposed. I sure wish we could get that many interested citizens for the normal day-to-day business of running the city.

In other news, a good friend of L and I underwent spinal surgery today and I have received word that it went well and has relieved the pressure on his spine. So please think good thoughs for T during his healing and recovery.

cooling, green

Being Green In The Heat

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This summer and last summer, I have experimented with being green with the air conditioning in the heat. Other than a few days, it hasn’t been overly onerous if you are willing to walk around smelling like an escapee from a gym workout all day.

During this time of the year the high temperature during the day is generally between 90 and 105. Even though we are in the flat semi-desert, we are still at an altitude of 3,900+ feet, so it generally cools a bit in the evening/night. If we get lucky, the daytime temperature only reaches the low 90s and the nighttime drops to the upper 60s. So by practicing diligent airflow control (opening the windows and turning on the fans when the outside temp drops below 80 and closing the windows in the early morning when the temperature inside has dropped to the low 70s), I can manage to keep the house livable with no use of the air conditioner. The drawback is that it means I spend my days in an office that runs between 84 and 90 degrees. Which is warm enough to cause the aforementioned gym funk effect. The rest of the house generally stays in the 70s, but all the computer equipment in my office generates enough heat to cause the temperature difference. I can live with the warm office for now.

The problem is that sometime in the next couple of months we typically get a few days or weeks of really hot weather. Days with highs in the 105-118 range and cooling at night only to 85. Then it becomes almost impossible not to fire up a bit of air conditioning. So I am not looking forward to the coming heat. Last year I managed to run the air less than five days. it will be interesting to see what I can do this year.

The reason I bring all of this up was that yesterday and today was one of those weather conditions where it has been in the upper 90s each day and has not been cooling much below the mid 70s at night. Thus the indoor temperature has been rising. Today my office hit 89 late in the afternoon, which is just a bit too high. So I’m hoping for a cool night and a less hot day tomorrow. Otherwise, I’m going to have to fire up at least one of the chilling units (the house has two units, a 5 ton at one end and 12 ton at the other end including my office). I really don’t want to, but it may become a necessity.

The only drawback to the green method of staying cool is that in years like this one where we have had unusual amounts of rain, the number of mosquitoes has also reached new heights. And this year they are all little hungry bugbears that can fly right through the screens to bite and leave really itchy welts. So the combination of mosquitoes and gnats and open windows leads to the occasional use of the vacuum cleaner to suck them all to oblivion once they decide to land and congregate. Either that or invite a few guests over to serve as preferred food hosts for the ravening hordes. (Mosquitoes generally avoid biting me if there is any other possible target around – I assume it is because of some of the drugs I take.)

So what are you doing to be green about cooling this summer?

summer

The Summer Dolrums

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It seems that the frequency of posts on a number of the blogs I follow are fast approaching zero as an asymptote. This leads me to all sorts of questions. The questions can be broken into the following categories:

  1. Are people posting less just because it’s summer?
  2. Are people posting less because they have entered the dormant phase of blogging?
  3. Are people that I read posting less just because of my selection criteria?
  4. Are people leaving for more mindless social networking activities?

#1 – I have some grounds for suspecting that some authors are posting less because they are spending more time with family activities during the summer. Things like T-ball and baseball and swimming and vacation can add up to take a toll on the time available on the blog. Especially for the vast majority of us that are non-commercial bloggers, the blog can come in last in the demand for time. Especially when the yard and the garden keep crying and making piteous noises begging to see us more. At least a couple of authors that I follow have begged off for the summer fr reasons like the above. The true test will be to see if they return to posting regularly come the fall.

#2 – A lot of the blogs that I follow seem to be entering that dreadful second year period of dormancy. People start blogging and keep it up for a period of time before they lose the motivation to keep it up. Since by my reader selection criteria, it is a pretty good bet that I haven’t started reading too many brand new bloggers, I’ve avoided the early burnouts that blog for a month or two and fade quietly into the night. On the other hand, it seems an awful lot of bloggers get tired of blogging sometime around that one year aniversary. It is always interesting when someone has blogged that long and then decides to hang it up. They often feel a need to post a swan song letting their readers know thay are heading into the sunset. Since I have seen more than a few swan songs this summer, I suspect that there are a percentage of authors no longer posting that came from this group.

#3 – Yet another possibility is that I have, by my selection of what I choose to read, biased the sample of blogs to select people who are prone to quitting blogging. Given that I follow only a few of the so called “big bloggers” and only a few full bore “mommy bloggers”, my reading list tends to have authors with smaller and more eclectic followings. That is part of what made them attractive to me in the first place, but I suspect that it also makes them susceptable to dropping out of the blogosphere for a myriad of minor reasons.

#4 – That leaves the possibility that people are leaving for the relative mindlessness of places like facebook and twitter, etc. I suspect that this is a very small part of the lack of writing. Facebook and twitter are generally not satisfactory as an outlet for the sort of author who writes a blog that I might follow. Most of the authors I follow that have an interest in facebook or twitter are already present in those media and continue to be active in blogging. The two activities seem to satisfy different parts of the writer’s soul, so I suspect this has little to do with the lack of writing.

So my question to you is two-fold. First, do you see the same decline in the number of posts on the blogs that you follow? Second, do you have any better ideas for the causes of the summer posting doldrums?