Popcorn

As the night before the first day of the New Year wends its way toward my bedtime, my mind is filled with little kernals of thought, which I am now going to share for no particular reason and/or in no particular order.

1. Have you ever had a conversation that appears as if the person with whom you are speaking is performing for an audience behind you? Reminiscent of the one-way windows in an interrogation room? I had that experience today in a restaurant, when the person I was with was far too animated, far too loud, far too persistent in HER conversation and reacted her own way, no matter what I said in the course of the conversation. I was more than uncomfortable: I felt used as a prop! In the middle of yet another of her performances, I packed up my purse and said, "Gotta go!"

2. There are 3 times in my life that I really wanted to look my best and failed miserably: (a) my daughter's wedding, where I planned the outfit and the hair-do and failed gloriously with both. The only good news is that the helmet hair-do washed out, sort of, but the bad news is that wearing wet hair in a French braid simply didn't do it for me or the resultant photos. The other bad news is that when the wedding planner saw my outfit, her comment, "Oh, are you wearing THAT?" ruined what was left of the experience. I tossed the outfit in the trash before I checked out of the hotel. (b) my son's wedding, involving the nightmare from hell flight experience, which did finally deposit me in the correct city in the correct country, but, alas, without time to find a hairdresser and/or actually take a shower, shampoo, and arrange my hair myself. I not only felt like something the cat dragged in, but looked like it, too. If only there were do-overs. (c) my best friend's wedding, where my hair looked so good, I felt wonderful, but a series of events combined to ruin the weekend for me. Actually, I tossed that outfit into the trash, too, just so I'd never have it to remind me of the experience.

3. Experts from different walks of life are arguing on Larry King Live whether there are UFO's or not. My response: if anyone thinks that we are the epitome of creation, take a closer look! The human race to which I belong more closely resembles God's biggest joke than His most glorious achievement.

4. I'm supposed to come up with a Bucket List for b'fast next Friday, and I'm not doing so well with it. What do I hope to accomplish before I kick the bucket? I have no idea, no goals, no grand plans. Are there things I'd like to do? I guess, but nothing of monumental significance and nothing with which I cannot live without. I don't like flying, or I'd take the trip to Greece and Italy I've always thought about. It isn't worth being in airplanes to achieve that goal. Are there places I'd like to see? Maybe, but there's no real reason I haven't already done that, so I must not want it enough to take action, so why put it on a list. I have a fear of heights and vertigo, and I deal with claustrophobia the best I can, which limit where I would go/what I would do. I used to think that I'd like to rent a medium-sized motorhome and take a road trip, but I've passed the age where that's a safe activity for me to do by myself, and I don't know anyone who would either want to travel with me -- or I'd like to have as a travel companion.

5. One of life's true pleasures is not getting up in the morning. I love my bed and have found that a hot cup of tea and a good book give me a full hour of enjoyment between my awakening and my actually getting up and at 'em. I've figured out exactly how to arrange the nest of pillows for maximum comfort, while still being able to see the pages clearly. My earliest childhood memories are being rousted out of bed and literally making it as my feet hit the floor, as if an unmade bed were a capital crime. These days? Every so often, I just don't make the bed. Granted, more often than not it's made before I leave my room, but there are the days when I just walk out and leave it. One of life's little guilty pleasures.

6. I'm not making resolutions as they don't motivate me to make changes. Sure, I need to lose weight, but I'm not doing that and putting it onto a list won't make me do it. I really want to clean the garage, but that's a task I need another set of hands to handle, so when the time comes, I'll do it, but putting it on a list won't make the time come any sooner. I already try to be my best, I work hard, I'm kind to my dog, my co-workers, students, family and friends; I make donations to support worthy causes; I live my life the best I can without infringing on anyone else's right to live their life the best they can, so that's about all I can do. I"m sure that if there's something else I should be doing or something I'm doing that I shouldn't, someone will tell me.

Happy New Year. If we all live life by the Golden Rule, the world will be a kinder, gentler place to be.

Knick-Knack Paddy Wack!

Ha-ha-ha: I update my service yesterday and today's headlines reveal that T-W Cable is at war with Viacom, who wants more revenue for providing their channels to T-W for viewing pleasure. Viacom says it "only" amounts to about 35 cents per customer per month, but T-W is vowing to fight the good fight, dropping the channels from its line-up and adjusting customer's bills to reflect that programming change. Thirty-five cents isn't much, but it's the principle, right?

The ironic part is that none of the channels being dropped, with the exception of the channel that hosts Stephen Colbert and John Daly, are channels I watch, so it could benefit my bill by thirty-five cents; however, I betcha that if Viacom wins the price war, MY cable bill will go up and not by "only" thirty-five cents!

I HATE paying for channels I never watch, including all of the Spanish language stations, all of the children's networks, the shopping shows, the religious programs, all of the BET genre shows, including VH-1, 2, and whatever. I also am selective about the sports I watch, which does NOT include endless hours of golf, tennis, auto racing, boxing, wrestling, or soccer in Spanish (unless I'm in the mood for some bloodsport). As I told the CSR when arranging my new service, there are 30+ channels that I resent the hell out of paying for because they are channels I NEVER watch and have to manually program out of the line-up, which is a further irritant.

So, we'll see. It's been just about 24 hours and already there are issues.

Updating: it's New Year's Day and the scheduled black-out of the Viacom channels did not occur. T-W and Viacom settled their differences. Now subscribers wait to see how much we'll all pay for the settlement.

TiVO or not TiVO?

Updating the Update: thanks to a comment left on this blog, something clicked & I found an old cable for a cheapo movie camera I bought once upon a time. It worked! My Harmony remote is updated AND the clock now has the right time!!!!!

Updating: I made changes, bundling services with T-W for cable, phone, internet and DVR at a cost of $130, and canceled TiVO to save $12.95/month ($3 less than the DVR). The T-W bundle also offers the option to buy movies on-line, as well as some other options that cost extra if I use them. It's all digital, all the time, but I doubt that I have a digital TV -- nor want/need one. We'll see if this year's changes actually make a positive difference, but, just in case, my modem and TiVO will be in the closet.
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Don't get me wrong: I love my TiVO, but lately, it's been acting up and I do not appreciate its antics.

First, the last 5-7 minutes of movies aren't recording! This may be related to the fact that I cannot change the time on my Harmony remote because I don't have the cable I need to attach it to the computer for updates. Yes, of course, I've gone to every form of electronics' store known to mankind and the bottom line is -- it comes with the Harmony remote. If you misplace the cable, as I evidently have done, you are SOL because no one has a replacement cable. However, you are certainly enticed to upgrade the Harmony remote, thus getting the required cable for a mere $200 better remote! Why replace what I already have as it works just fine -- except that I cannot update it and/or fix the time.

Secondly, my TiVO tapes the weirdest selection of programs you've ever seen just to have something to do, which means that every morning I have to go through the list and delete, delete, delete. I get cooking shows, court cases, variety shows, really old movies (I am so not a fan), and talk shows chosen by the TiVO genie who is obviously bored out of its skull. The delete list gets to 45-50 before the TiVO starts deleting, and I am not going to go through the endless delete process myself as I found that only makes the TiVO genie go out and find even more outrageous programs.

Believe it or not, my TiVO even records "movie." That description stands alone, with no title, no actors, no synopsis. I, of course, filled with curiosity, hit the play option and find a "movie" I've never heard about, with actors I don't recognize, often on channels I don't receive and didn't know existed. Some of them have been rated R, but I never watch enough of any of them to figure out why.

A year ago, I came to the conclusion that I had to something to staunch the flow of big bucks paying for TV cable ($57.75), DSL ($32.00), telephone ($59.50), and cell phone ($44.90), as well as the monthly TiVO call-up fee ($12.95). The total is coming up on $210 a month, which is a huge chunk of my retirement check. On my to-do list this week is a contact with Time Warner, one of my least favorite companies, to see if I can save by bundling cable, which includes DVR, computer, and phone services. Allegedly, I can accomplish this goal for about $90 a month, which would save me literally $100 a month over what I'm currently paying.

Wish me luck as I made changes last year that resulted in my paying more each month, and I'm still trying to figure that one out! It began with a phone call to an off-shore service rep whose limited English language skills focused on reading a script and responding to every question I asked with "I can help you with that... ." Need I say more?

Benji Butt

There's nothing quite like an overly-hyped movie to bring out the critic in all of us. Does it live up to the ads, or is it sure to disappoint? Benjamin Button does both, curiously, and, may I say repeatedly, Brad Pitt is drop-dead gorgeous in the process.

He's a butt-ugly newborn who begins life older than dirt, but ends it, as both Will Shakespeare and the movie point out, in diapers. In the meanwhile, he S-L-O-W-L-Y youthens, while those around him age remarkably fast, much too fast, in my humble opinion. Cate Blanchette, the love interest, looks pretty darned good well into her 50s, until one day, she's totally old and taking care of the newborn 80-something Benjamin. There is one scene toward the end where Pitt looks exactly as he did in Legends of the Fall: gorgeous! Sure, it's the same magic make-up that ages him so drastically, but what a pleasant flashback on a totally beautiful man's first big movie role.

I don't know if Blanchette plays the aged version of her youthful character, but that character is distracting and annoying! First, she looks so unbelievably old that it clashes with the youthful middle-aged woman she ages into during her movie life. Second, her death-bed narration of her life with Benjamin is almost impossible to hear clearly, obscured with her alleged age, her use of pain meds to ease her passage to the next life, and the phoniest Looseanna accent of all the phony Looseanna accents in the movie. Julia Ormand plays her daughter, who is directed to read an old diary of sorts that narrates the story of Benjamin, while a huuricane howls outside and threatens the patients at the hospital. This is how her mother tells her that she is Benjamin's daughter, an unusual time, place, method of truth-telling, even for a movie. You see it coming, but it still seems out of place.

Now, that being said, the movie is incredible as far as the make-up and the locations go. The scenes on the snow-covered tugboat made me shiver; the scene in the brothel seemed all too realistic; the beautiful older hotels and homes reflected a kinder, gentler time. The acting is good, except for the almost "Mammy" portrayal of Benjamin's mother, Queenie, which I found not up to the acting chops of the other actors, including the aged cast inhabiting the rest home and their caretakers.

The one flaw that needs to be rectified is the length: the movie is about 45 minutes too long, and it's a long 45 minutes as the story drags to the inevitable ending. From the tugboat sinking an enemy submarine, an entire scenario that distracts from the central story, to the totally predictable ending, the movie loses its audience. As I walked out, the boisterous group behind me was also discussing the need to re-edit the film to shorten it by at least a half hour. Once we know he's youthening and going to die as a mewling, puking infant, the film needs to end. When he leaves so the people he loves can live out their lives the way nature intends, while he deals with what lies ahead, the movie should end.

Kudos to Pitt for an outstanding job in a role that could have become comedic in less skilled hands. I doubt that this film will do well commercially once word gets out about how it drags itself across the finish line, rather than ending with the same skill it begins, but it is a good rent vid for the coming months.

'Tis the Season to Regain Reason

People believe what they hear, and what they hear at the holiday season is shopping, shopping, and more shopping. Cute little knicknames have developed to make it even more fun to spend one's self into bankruptcy, such as "shopoholic" and "shopportunistic." My favorite, however, is the newly-coined "luxaholic," a person who has to have (their emphasis, not mine) the best, the top-of-the-line, the must-have item of the rich and famous. That's so cute! Imagine rewarding binge spenders with their own little advertising slogan to make them spend even more money they don't have.

Christmas has never been my favorite time of the year and it's because it's so competitive, a time to one-up the other people in my life by showing that I can buy bigger, better, and more than anyone else who touches my recipient's life. I've never been into playing games for fun, so I'm not going to jeopardize my financial well-being to play them for the holidays. I did hear the adults in my life remark that they were buying for the children this year and cutting back on the adult gift-giving, which is a good sign. However, that disclaimer was all too often followed by, "I'll wait for the after-Christmas sales to pick up a few things for myself." It's spending money you don't have whether it occurs on Dec. 24 or Dec. 26, so if you cannot afford it before Christmas, you cannot afford it after Christmas. How hard is that to comprehend?

Retailers have created a feeding frenzy of conspicuous consumption geared around the holidays to fill their own pockets, not to enhance the individual's life. The retailer has to sell the product and, frankly, it does not matter who the buyer is: rich, poor, or the easily-persuaded middle class pseudo affluent credit card shopper who has to purchase enough packages to poo-poo being poor, while pushing the credit card limits to compete with the high-end shopper. It's a delicate spending plan based on how the middle class consumer sees himself in relationship to the rest of the shoppers: I am not so poor that I have to stand in line to receive donations from charities, but I can only shop the high-end stores if there are sales because I don't want anyone to know that I have over-extended myself financially and live with the knowledge that all it takes is one "something" to tumble my house of credit cards.

We have all become too focused on material things, rather than on our lives. We measure our self-worth by what we have and what we can buy, even if that's not the way we feel inside. It takes courage and intestinal fortitude to just say no -- and stick to your guns in the face of peer pressure and advertising campaigns. However, if we are ever going to rebuild our country's financial strength, we have to redefine our individual worth and say to the retailers "no, I'm not buying that item," rather than "It's just perfect: I'll take two."

Let's bring back into vogue some other cute sayings, such as "save for a rainy day," "open a holiday savings account," "keep current on all your accounts," and "I cannot afford that." Rather than throwing our money away on an endless stream of products we neither need nor can afford, we could develop a new advertising image of savvy consumers who shop wisely and do not react to the enticements of colorful mailers designed to make luxury purchases seem like a must-have, especially when the item is marked 10% off.

Resume Building

There are 3 writers in today's paper flashing their professional credentials:

1. A writer who writes, "I have got to get going." Perhaps no one has clarified for this writer that the correct expression of intent is "I must be going," which is the informal version of "I must leave." First, we don't say, "I have got," and secondly, we cannot "get" going because to get anything means that it has to be something that can be gotten in the first place.

2. A clinical psychologist who writes about there not being any "fun" in disfunction [sic], which proves that advanced degrees do not require advanced spelling of common jargon in one's field of alleged expertise.

3. A collumist [sic] who allegedly writes for major publications, but cannot spell his professional designation is suspect, at best, regarding his actual job experience. Perhaps the reason he has written for so many major publications is because he's not a good collumist [smile].

Lowering the Bar

The song asks, "How low can you go," and I now have an answer.

Two under-aged teens and their barely legal-aged friend went on a stabbing spree the other evening, robbing a local walk-about ice cream vendor and then attacking 2 women who were flattening boxes for recycling at a local convenience store. All 3 victims will be fine, but will live the rest of their lives knowing that these 3 young people stabbed them because the girlfriend wanted to know how much her boyfriend loves her.

Yes, you read right: the motive for the stabbings, which just as easily could have been fatal, was some sort of test of true love.

The good news coming out of this incident, if there is good news, is that the mother of the girl heard her daughter and the boyfriend talking about what they had done -- and called the police. Integrity is doing the right thing just because it's the right thing to do, and this mother put herself on the line to do the right thing.

The mother can never undo what her daughter and her two friends did to their victims, but, perhaps, she will have prevented another victim from suffering at the hands of these criminals.

Doggone!

Grady's here, and it isn't going well. He'll go out through the doggie door, but won't come back inside using it, which means he barks, and barks, and barks. When I go out to help him, he runs off. In the middle of the night, I had to get up, turn off the alarm, open the slider to let him in, and then put all to rights before going back to bed. Of course, once awake, I'm awake, so I was up for 3 hours or so before forcing myself to try to get at least another hour or so of sleep so I can survive the day.

Grady's supposed to be eating special food and taking a handful of pills, but he's refusing both. He wants Mia's food, so there have been countless fights over that issue, and he coughs the pills back up. I get the message and hope that he'll be okay without the meds until his mother comes back home.

Speaking of Grady's mom, she was supposed to leave from LAX Sunday night, but that may or may not have taken place as the midwest was enjoying a pre-holiday blizzard and her destination was on the shut-down airport list. Her plan was to arrive outside of Chicago and ride the Amtrac to her final destination, but Amtrac was also shut down, dumping people in little towns along the way to find shelter and food. My suggestion before she left Grady and took off for LAX was to cancel the trip and rebook it, but she said if she makes it to the aiport, someone will have to deal with her sooner or later; however, according to the news, other travelers are hoping to depart LAX for their destinations by Christmas Day, which is her return date!

All in all, I'm glad I stayed home due to the broken tooth, the weather, and dog care issues. The icy wind is blowing out here, the black clouds have been dumping rain off and on, and the mountains are still ringed with snow and ice. I've been enjoying an early morning bowl of Cream of Wheat, as well as endless cups of hot tea on demand, have watched a few movies that had stacked up for a rainy day, and am content to stay put.

Dental Doings

I arrived this morning at 7:45 am for my 8:00 appointment because it's hard to tell what the traffic will be like going from my side of the freeway to the other. Some days, it's backed up so far it takes 1/2 hour to make it across the overpass; other days, such as this morning, I hit the window of opportunity squarely and sailed across, arriving too early.

No matter. I use office time to read magazines I'd never pick up or purchase for myself. This issue was filled with "stars" I've never heard of, much less would recognize if I met them face-to-face. I do now know that Jen is tired of being in a love triangle, Kate is hooking up with Owen again, and J-Lo isn't wearing her wedding ring. It doesn't get much better than that, right?

Part of a tooth fell off when I brushed last Thursday, so I made an appointment to find out what has to do be done and how much it will cost. Without dental insurance, I need options, and my dentist is very good at discussing, rather than dictating. He could try to repair the tooth, but I told him I want the most bang for my buck, meaning a fix that is going to go the distance, so we're doing a crown.

The tooth didn't hurt when I walked in, but holy cow, is it throbbing now! The prep work for the crown is completed, leaving behind the after-effects of the deadening agent's demise. I don't know what he did while I was numb, but it sure hurts now that I'm not!

I'll get the final crown the second week in January as there is no timely process when it's during the holiday season. I've paid for half and must pay the balance before the final glue sets, so let's hope that the rest of the teeth don't need special attention for a while.

Snow Fotos

A friend sent me the pictures of the snowfall. This is the LAST post about the winter weather!

Seven Pounds

Friday was fun, beginning with b'fast with my Friday Friends, continuing with an early showing of Will Smith's new film, and culminating with a trip up the hill to turn in my semester grades and view the winter wonderland.

Friday Friends donated to a local rescue mission this year, instead of exchanging gifts. However, I gave one close friend a cookie platter and took a large platter to the office staff, as well as another smaller platter to a work friend. I love baking, and also enjoy making homemade gifts. I also had knit an arm protector for our Friday server as she complained about having to stack hot plates up her arm. She likes it as I used an all-cotton yarn, based on her complaint about one she bought commercially: it was nylon and made her arm sweat. We'll see how my efforts turn out for her.

Seven Pounds is in the style of Sixth Sense, so if you like that interweaving of past and present with a tantalizing resolution just out of reach, you'll enjoy the film. Will Smith does a good job, but I think he over-acts his part. His facial expressions become distracting as he tries so earnestly to convey depth of feeling. I also noticed at least a dozen continuity disparities, which I find distracting. And I knew what had happened, as well as what he was doing, not too far into the film, so it was simply a matter of riding it out to the end to have my hunches confirmed. I guess if you just watch it, you will be taken aback and/or surprised, but I knew Bruce Willis was dead when he sat across from the young boy the first time. It is my job, after all, to know how to read literature, and a movie is just another form of literature.

The one clue that most people won't get is the title: think Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. If you need me to explain this clue, email me privately.

The trip up the hill was totally surreal as the desert is usually a blank beige canvas studded with small beige bushes. Yesterday, it was an endless white landscape, studded with snow-covered roofs and shrubbery. Most of the parking lots for businesses are still covered in snow, some of which is melting, so I know that holiday shopping has been impacted by the weather. The roads were not completely cleared between YV and the college, and the snow was melting, creating both riverlets and ponds across the four lanes that probably froze last night as temps have been in the 20s all week. Traffic was moving at quite a clip, so I stayed to the right and 10 mph under the posted limit. I imagine that there will be many accidents as the base lets off work and families speed off to either shopping down the hill or on two-week holiday leave time.

The campus was blanketed everywhere except the walkways and parking lots, an especially striking accessory to the garden of metal sculpture. The view from the parking lot back toward the west was stunning and really showed the extent of the snowfall from the Big Bear Mountains and well into the National Park. Although it's snowed before during my 40-year residence in the desert, this snowfall came quickly and left quite an impact on the high desert communities.

I'm off for the next two weeks, so plan to take in a half-dozen movies, as well as rent some videos that I missed in the theaters. There are a couple of preps for the next semester's classes, as well as some further progress on cleaning out the cupboards and closets, but mostly, I'll just hunker down and enjoy the quiet time.

Mountains at Sunrise

Photo is off to the south, showing the snow at the tram.

Schools up the hill are again canceled, but will try to reopen tomorrow, as the combination of snow accumulation and icy roads makes it unsafe for anyone to be driving. Construction companies are again being requested to bring their equipment to the major roads, but I'm not sure what all the people who live off the beaten path will do as the snow is the deepest in those regions along the foothills.

Today is supposed to be clear, but we're expecting more rain and, perhaps, more snow before Christmas Day. I'm glad to see it throughout the state as we've been in severe drought conditions for at least a decade, and this week's snowfall and rain have brought what we used to see almost every winter season.

White Out!

Oh, man, there is so much snow that everyone is freaked: the college is closed, perhaps through tomorrow, because there is too much snow to either remove or wait to melt. Interstate 10 is closed because there's black ice and CHP is working 8 separate accidents within a 10-mile stretch. The tram had to shut down because there's too much snow falling too fast, and the parking lot, as well as the road leading up to it, are sheets of ice. The small picture is from my friend who lives in JT, about 5 miles from the college. This has all fallen since midnight!

A friend called to tell me that "we've never had this much snow before," to which I say poppycock. There are some of us who remember the Christmas that both I-10 and the airport were shut down due to snow. We were stranded up the hill for 5 days because the at that time 2-lane highway was buried. In our town, roads were closed due to icy conditions, which meant that school let out a week early for Christmas break.

The snow is coming down to the desert floor on both sides of I-10, so it's not going to go away nearly as quickly as it arrived. There's more snow on the tram side of the valley, but the National Park side is getting its fair share, too. It's still raining at my house, but as the temps continue to fall, that could change into something more substantial as you can see in the photo the current snowline.

I'm loving it!

Hi-Ho-Ho-Ho, It's Off to Work I Go

Updating: it's Wed morning and about twice as much snow has fallen than what fell Monday. Roads are not just closed but not likely to reopen any time soon: schools and businesses are shut tight, too. There is a call out for any construction company with heavy equipment to assist in clearing the roadways as the desert isn't prepared for this sort of weather. The ski area up the hill has had record amounts of snowfall, and it's their spill-over that comes down the mountain and blitzes both Morongo Valley and Yucca Valley. Again, it's nice and clear at the college.

A bit of a problem has developed as this is final's week -- and not only cannot teachers get to work, but neither can students. Interesting situation. I'm just calculating grades based on where we all were last week and making the best of the situation. Life does what it does, so we best learn how to cope.

Where I am, it's been raining since the middle of the night and doesn't look like it's going to slow down one bit for a while. I've been baking cookies to take to work tomorrow -- or not, depending on the roads -- and laughing at Mia, who refuses to go outside and get wet. Whatever. I have 3 movies in reserve for a rainy day, so looks like I'm going to enjoy these few days of totally unseasonal weather!

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It is amazing how much snow can fall in a short 6 hours! I drove up the hill to teach classes today and, starting where I turned around yesterday all the way to OWS road in the middle of YV, there was snow, snow, and more snow. Although the highway was (mostly) plowed, the side streets were strewn with cars abandoned by drivers who pulled off during the snow storm and then could not extricate their wheels from the white stuff.

I'm guessing that about 5-6" fell during the storm in a wide swath of deep snow that came down from the mountains, as well as across the open desert. We shared snow with Las Vegas, which is (kinda) on the other side of a big expanse of open desert that we cut across diagonally when we drive to Sin City for guilty adult pleasures once in a while. If you think of a huge bowl rimmed by mountains, the bowl filled with whipped creme yesterday, cold whipped creme.

A colleague and her husband drove up to Pi Town, which is nestled in the lowest of the foothills, and they said there are feet of snow, not mere inches. They played in it for a bit, then headed back to civilization as they were worried about ice on the back roads.

Although I tried to resist twitting the office staff who absolutely did not believe me when I called from the road yesterday and said I could not make it to work, I casually stopped in and both of them burst out laughing. They knew that I knew that they did not believe my "snow" story, especially since once of them lives in the small hamlet where I first encountered the snow. When she left for work, a couple of hours before I left my domicile, it was just raining, and with the clear, sunny skies at the college, it did not compute that between the 2 of us could be a blizzard.

She did find out when she tried to get home last night that I was NOT snowing them to avoid working yesterday.

Sorry, no pictures, but there were tons of them in the local newspaper this morning. I didn't think to grab my camera before I left this morning, and I'm sure the snow will melt by tomorrow -- but we are expecting at least one, and probably two, more storms to come through by Sunday. When I drove past the time/temp sign in YV this evening, it was 40 degrees and temps are expected to go lower overnight.

We may not have a white Christmas, but it's pretty sure we're going to have a wet one.

White Week Before Christmas

UPDATE: The highway patrol has closed the highway from the bottom of one grade (my side) to the top of the other in the next city up the hill due to extreme snow conditions. In the nearby mountains, many feet are being expected, not just a few inches of snow, and it's not due to let up until perhaps late tomorrow. Glad I decided to turn around and drive back home!

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It's raining steadily, but no cause for alarm as the desert always needs more rain. I'm a bit irritated that I cleaned the carpet yesterday and today it rains, but whatever. After preparing to leave for class this morning, I looked toward the grade I travel from low to high desert -- and saw nothing but thick clouds.

Hm, says I, and sent an email to a colleague at the school. Nothing but rain, she replied. I checked the weather service and rain, rain, and more rain. Good to go.

I made it to the top of the first grade before turning around as the snow was falling at quite a clip. Of course, traffic neither slowed nor made allowances for the white stuff falling from the sky, but I pulled over and waited about 10 minutes to see what was going to happen weatherwise. As the snow continued to fall and the thick clouds coming down from the mountains continued to hover, I said forget this and called in to cancel today's class.

I remember clearly several times both grades were closed to all traffic due to hazardous driving conditions! I didn't want to get stuck in my truck on the road, which is a real possibility if the snow continues to fall. Basically, there is snow from the top of one grade to the top of the next and beyond, as well as all along the foothills surrounding the high desert communities.

The weather service says the snow could be around for a couple of days, so I'll have to take a test drive again tomorrow to see how the roads are before commiting myself to driving all the way to class.

Totally Terrific Idea

My asthma has been kicking up for a couple of weeks, so I decided perhaps it was time to attack the pet hair magnet: the carpeting. My living room is sort of large and has wall-to-wall carpet to keep my tootsies warm in the winter, while the large areas of tile in other places in the house keep it cool in summer. I've debated doing my own carpet cleaning, rather than calling for professional cleaning, and today I decided to purchase a carpet cleaner and get on with it.

I can say from the perspective of three hours past that decision that it was not one of my finest moments.

First, I went to Wal-Mart, where I also wanted to pick up Dark Knight, which was on sale for $14.99. I went to the a-v section and as I was pushing my cart about, I was stopped by the security guard who informed me that I had to check out at this register. I responded that I had not yet completed my shopping, but was just changing aisles, and she grudgingly allowed me to pass by check-point Charlie.

I looked at some incredible deals on flat screen tv's, as well as some other items, then decided to get in line and check out before continuing my journey through the rest of the store to find the carpet cleaner. The clerk was ancient, supplementing his social security, I'm sure, and couldn't make the blasted register work right (his words, not mine). When he rang up the DVD at $19.99, I told him that it is on sale at $14.99. His reply? "Not today, it isn't."

Some days, I go from pleasant to pissed in a nanosecond. Something about his glib reply hit me wrong, so I directed him to cancel the sale. He informed me that he could not do that, but the option came up on my side of the little credit card machine, so I canceled it. Then he went ballistic because the "darned register" really wouldn't work, even though I told him thrice that I had canceled the sale. He called for help, the problem was solved, and I walked out of the store, determined to spend my time and my money elsewhere.

Then, I turned around and went back in, found a manager, who told me that he wasn't a full manager, but was right under him, which instantly brought me to full guffaw! When he realized how it sounded, he, too, laughed, and said that either came out way wrong -- or was a bit too revealing. I explained that the clerk pissed me off with his reply to my query about the price, he agreed that it was inappropriate, and offered to sell me the DVD for $5, which I turned down because it was a matter of principle with me, which I realized an hour later was totally foolish.

Back to the carpet cleaner.

Filled with righteous indignation, I drove all the way to Target to look at carpet cleaners, found a Bissell that seemed equipped to do the job, bought it and some liquid carpet shampoo, and trundled home. Assembly was actually pretty easy, once I figured out where the long screws went, and then the short ones. I figured out after trying to remove it that the measuring cup is manufactured as part of the bulky lid of the convenient lift-off water container, which made it a challenge to pour the cleaning liquid into the water reservoir, but I did so. Then I filled it with hot water, inserted it into the machine, and was ready.

I had already vacuumed the carpet well, emptying the bagless cleaner a half-dozen times as I went over and over the carpet. I had sprayed with the stain remover, so was determined that this was going to go well. It didn't. I cannot believe how much dog hair was still in the carpet! It came up in huge soppy wet balls that streaked across the (somewhat cleaned) carpet. I emptied the water reservoir 8 times, a lot for the space I was cleaning. The easy-to-remove water reservoir isn't easy to remove after all, as the handle that "locks" it closed, doesn't, so as I tried to lift that part out of the machine to refill it, I dumped the entire container across the carpet. Sure, it was filled with filthy dirty water: that's why I was taking it out! To empty it and refill it! Dammit.

When I was finally finished with the living room, I cleaned the machine and then used it as an extraction device to help the drying process, especially in the area of the dirty water pond I had created. Amazingly, even more pet hair came out of the carpet along with the water, so I feel confident that I have sufficiently cleaned the carpet and can now call in the professionals to do the job that only a professional can do.

I did a quick run-over in both the office and the bedroom, but have decided that cleaning the 2 couches is going to wait for another day.

Now, I would sit on my clean couches, in my clean carpeted living room, and watch Dark Night this evening, but the carpet is wet, the couches aren't cleaned, and I don't have the DVD. Perfect.

Diogenes Digest

Suspected gang members accused of beating security guard in court today is the headline in the local paper. The headline sounds more ominous than the writer intended as the gang members beat a security guard to death several months ago, but today they appeared in court to face charges. Had they beat the security guard in court today, it would have been a bigger headline!

Am I the only person who believes that Mr. and Mrs. Anthony knew before the discovery of their granddaughter's body yesterday that their daughter, the baby's mother, killed her? I'm also pretty sure that the elder Anthonys have been involved in the cover-up as the dad, a former police officer who recognized the smell of decomp in his daughter's car, could not have ignored the fact and not questioned the most obvious suspect, his daughter. The mother? She's a wack-job, saying one week that she was going to adopt the baby to prevent further abuse from its mother, and then claiming that her daughter was a "good mother" and never would have harmed her child. Depending how much they knew and when, they could be charged as accessories after the fact.

Obama may be pretty sure that he didn't participate in the fiasco to put his pick into an Illinois Senate seat, but he can't be as sure that his pitbull, Ram Emanuel, didn't. Hope the Emanuel family hasn't put a down payment on Washington digs ... .

It is true that when a door slams a window opens: just ask the auto execs who were told "no" by the Senate, only to get a bright green light from the White House. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa (with no limitations) Clause!

The Dreaded "F" Word

I can count on one hand (hyperbole) the number of times that I've actually forwarded something to another email account because forwarded messages are one of my pet peeves. Just because you think something is cute, adorable, relevant, meaningful, or (my favorite) necessary for my spiritual well-being, doesn't mean that I will share your opinion of the message.

A dear friend is the worst (or is it the best) offender: I set up one email account and she flooded it with forwarded messages, so I set up another account and asked all recipients to use it for personal messages, not cute, clever, meaningful, spiritually rewarding, forwarded messages. She jammed that mailbox, so I set up a third site, and now that one is flooded with incoming. I can handle forwards, but don't want to deal with dozens of them daily -- and that is not an exaggeration!

Sure there are those people about whom I don't give a crap that I can tell to stop sending the stuff, but when it's someone close to me, a person I care about, I try to find a roundabout way to stem the tide. Subtlety, however, does not seem to work. I have divided my 3 mailboxes into one I use primarily for work or contact with on-line businesses, one that seems to be the forwarded mail site, and one that is for friends and family to contact me. Perhaps if I send a clarifying message about my system she will limit the forwards to one account?

I do enjoy some forwards, but the keyword is "some." A daily stream of them becomes tedious and then annoying, especially when it is some sort of test that I must pass by sending this message back to the person who sent it to me to prove my loyalty to the sender. My coping strategy has been to delete, rather than open, read, and then delete, which escalates my hostility, rather than satisfies my curiosity or proves my friendship status. I know from experience that I'm probably not going to appreciate the message as the sender intends, so why go through the process to arrive at that conclusion when I can avoid it completely by deleting first?

It Sounds Write; therefore, It Must Be Wright

For the final research project, students are required to have 10+ sources of information, and not all of them can come from the internet, staunching the flow of blogs and message board cites before they start. Use of a library search engine is recommended as most college libraries pay fees to access appropriate research sites for college-level papers.

One student complained that information on her topic is scanty, which surprised her because she thought her topic was bigger than the information she found. So, I asked to see her "see also" list, the list of words related to the topic that could help her find info.

You see, the problem is that "asthma" is not spelled "asma," a spelling that does (somewhat) limit the available source material. I tried to explain the correct spelling of the word without guffawing, but I'll admit I was smiling a touch as I did so. She strongly defended her spelling of her research topic, so I demonstrated on the computer how many sources are available with "my" spelling of the word.

Never did I realize that it is I who am wrong! She did see it on a billboard, as she claimed, and it is spelled "asma." However, it's a billboard written entirely in Spanish about "de atac de asma." For some reason, she only saw the "asma" part, not all the other Spanish words on the billboard, and that became her spelling.

We don't teach spelling these days because it's all about the student's engagement in the writing process: did they try their best? That's good enough. As the student assured me, "asma" sounded right, which, I guess, makes it close enough for college work?

Pennies from Heaven

One of the early morning talking heads just gasped that it is going to take 900 billion dollars to bail out the economy. I disagree: it's going to take far more than that because there are some things that money cannot buy.

It's called a paradigm shift: do not buy what you cannot pay for. Don't use a credit card if you don't have the money to pay the bill when it arrives. Save for a rainy day. Be willing to settle for what you can afford, rather than demanding that which you cannot afford.

And, above all, don't expect ANYONE to bail you out when you make bad decisions that are your sole responsibility. You wanted it; you got it; now deal with it.

Believe it or not, there is no money tree in the backyard and no pennies raining down from heaven. It's all about you, how much you earn, how much you spend. If you spend more than you earn, you're going to end up in the poor house; unfortunately, today that means living with mom/dad or standing in line at the homeless shelter.

And, yes, it is YOUR fault!

Good News

There was a faculty meeting, a discussion held, and the pay-out will be made as scheduled to all who received the first half. The question was asked, "Will we have to repay the money if a mistake has been made," and the answer is "no." It's ours come what may.

Whoo-Hoo! I can now make the appointment for the 90k tune-up for the Camry, which may run me about $1k, which is my share of the pot. Many, many people received many, many thousands of dollars, so this situation was a bigger deal for some than for others.

My piece of the pie is just right!

Never Saw It Coming

In September, faculty were notified that due to a financial situation, a special, one-time bonus would be given to all faculty, paid in two parts. We all received the October half, but today, 10 days before the second half is to be paid, we were notified that we're not getting it.

I used the first payment to replace the windshields of both vehicles and to purchase a set of tires for the truck, two expenses that I had put off about as long as I could without endangering myself or other drivers. I was going to use the second payment to purchase a plane ticket back east, but then decided to stay home this year and put my time, energy and financial resources into a few chores that need doing.

Am I glad that I did not spend the money! I know people who made down payments on new cars, who made some major furniture purchases, and who made more expansive holiday travel plans because the money was a done deal. Now, they cannot cancel what they bought in October with the first half, and still have to pay for it, but the money won't be there as promised.

I imagine that there is going to be a tremendous uproar at work tomorrow as this message was sent in an email after the close of the workday. Sure, it's easy to say don't spend money you don't have, but this was a done deal. No one ever imagined that it either could -- or would -- be withheld 10 days before distribution.

Wow. Never saw it coming.

Two Good Men

The daughters of the victims of the Toys R Us shooting were on the local news, crying and affirming that their fathers were good men, a claim supported by this morning's local newspaper:

According to court records, [victim one] pleaded guilty in March to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He pleaded guilty to the same charge in November 2007.

In September 2005, [victim one] pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon, and in 2002, he pleaded guilty to possessing a controlled substance for sale while armed, according to court records.

Records show that [victim two] had a criminal record spanning back to 1998, when he pleaded guilty to inflicting corporal injury on a spouse. As part of the plea deal, charges of assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats and willfully harming a child were dismissed.

These revelations filled me with goodness about the fathers: good God, what were they thinking and good grief, why were they not in jail? I can see how the children need to believe that their fathers were good men because the rest of the world sees them as violent criminals whose lives ended in a pool of their own blood in a toy store. Goodness, what a shame.

A sidebar article about this crime indicates that both men possessed "illicit" handguns, which means that neither man, including the one with the gang tat, had a license to carry a concealed, loaded handgun, and (wait for it) the handguns were neither registered nor legally purchased. Shocker revelations when combined with the criminal records of both victims!

There'll be a community car wash to raise money to bury these two good men, but I'm not sure that there will be many patrons willing to donate to the cause.

Dot-to-Dot

How much fun it used to be to connect the dots outlining a picture that (allegedly) did not come into focus until the last line was drawn. Even when the final picture was obvious, the fun came from pretending it was not so the game could be played.

Dot: a TV pundit lamenting the loss of morality in today's young people.

Dot: a young girl, age 10, screaming at her mother that she's not going to wear what her mother has selected for her as it's ugly. When her mother directs her to wear the outfit, the girls screams, "You shut up!"

Dot: survey results show that 90% of all high school students not only admit that they cheat on a regular basis, but that they don't think it's wrong to do so because parents and colleges put too much pressure on students to get good grades.

Dot: a financial analyst stating that if the government is not going to put conditions on the use of bail-out money, corporations would be crazy not to get as much money as they can, even if they don't really need it.

Dot: Rock of Love's female cast screaming the "f word" at one another, while one female avows that she's asking nicely and with respect for the other women to get the "f" out of my "f-ing" room.

Dot: female talk show moderator discussing how wrong it is for anyone other than a parent to discipline a child because it disrespects the parent's childrearing decisions.

These dots are not difficult to connect: if we fail to raise our children, we fail society. There are standards; there are expectations; there are values that allow society to function, governments to govern, and families to flourish. Even when societies have differences, they share common values idealized by the Ten Commandments, other religious precepts, or even the simplicity of the Golden Rule, values that strengthen us as a people, as well as individuals. If, dot by dot, we disavow the commonality of values that establish and maintain standards that benefit all, we will never see the finished picture, just a series of meaningless jagged lines.

Misc

It's one of those days when my mind is filled with little bubbles of thought that float through my head before they pop. Some of them pop sooner than others, and some of them should stick around longer.

Pretend you are sitting around a campfire and suddenly, without warning, another person grabs ahold of your arm and forces your wrist into the blazing fire, all the while stabbing it with a white-hot knife. That's what I'm dealing with since I picked up the textbook for class this morning -- and set my wrist off again. I've popped a continuous string of Aleve, wrapped it in hot, wet cloths, put ice packs on it, and worn the brace. The bottom line is that I cannot pull the cap off a board marker, pull my seatbelt across my body, turn the page in a textbook, or roll down my car window. For this whole thing being "nothing," it sure as hell is painful.

I listened to all the talk about how the stock market crashed today -- because it was announced that we've been in a recession since last December. Is that a delayed reaction or what?

Then I read this headline -- Huge Italian white truffle sells at auction for $200,000 -- and I wonder if someone didn't get the recession memo.

The discussion at work re: the annual Christmas party that hasn't been held for about 5 years took place via email. One person wants to revitalize it, feeling that during hard times it is important to celebrate with friends, colleagues, and family. A suggested gift exchange was nixed by one respondent, who thinks a donation to a charity is a better idea. Then the voice of reason spoke up and said why not do both? After all, it will probably only cost about $30, "peanuts," and because we all have jobs, we can afford that. OKAY: so why is there an option to send the endless string of messages about the Christmas party to ALL subscribers? Can I not opt out of that status as I think the discussion is just warming up to a real barn-burner and I'm not going to the party, buying a gift, or donating to the charity as I make those decisions without input from others.

I took 2 kinds of cookies into class today just because I wanted a cookie myself yesterday, which meant I baked an entire batch. Because I couldn't decide which kind of cookie I wanted and they both sounded good, oatmeal with craisins and/or sugar cookies with sugar-free frosting (talk about juxtaposition), I made both. Does that mean my diabetes won't care about the cookies I ate yesterday because I donated the rest of them to my class today?

I'm working M-T-W-Th this week: glad we're done in 3 weeks, before more instructors have to take care of personal business and want subs to proctor their finals.