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captainsblogPreface: Thanks to those of you who made suggestions (WordPress) or anti-suggestions (Tumblr) about where this blog might go. After giving it thought, I'm putting it off just a bit: I am likely to activate my own real website under my own real name sometime in the next few months, as part of a change in my business model I'm seriously considering. I may also try to buy the rights to captainsblog.com, which now points to a blog that hasn't been updated in almost three years. When I do one or both of those, I will likely move to my own hosting of this material. In the meantime, I am back to using Semagic as my near-exclusive interface for entering posts, so I will not constantly be done in by LJ's insidious inability to maintain a login cookie for more than a few minutes.
So, anyway. The post last night had a Laws theme. Beginning, appropriately enough, with Murphy's.
If you didn't catch the update to the previous post about my holiday-weekend car death, it had a mostly happy ending: it had nothing to do at all with my leaving the door open and draining the battery (if I even did), but was caused by a mechanic the previous weekend who disconnected a sensor while checking an idiot light I'd set off, and who never bothered to reconnect it. I count myself lucky that (a) it only cost 56 bucks and a few hours to diagnose and reconnect, and (b) it happened close to home and not on an interstate or a back Rochester road where I was for much of the intervening week.
Continuing the theme, though: Eleanor discovered yesterday that the duct to our dryer- that would be a gas dryer- had been disconnected at the machine end; while randomness or an animal might have caused it, it's far more likely that when Washing Machine Repair Man came a few months ago and also, at our request, checked on a noise the dryer was making, he either dislodged it or disconnected it without remembering to put it back. We therefore avoided a major CO poisoning risk because one of us was paying attention.
----
Next on the list was "The Law of the (Ire)land" - an easy transition, Murphy being a good Irish name and all.
It was heartwarming to read yesterday morning that one of the most Catholic and conservative nations on the planet, given the sanctity of the ballot box, supported the right of two loving people to get married no matter what the state of their plumbing might be. They did so by such a comfortable margin, the "No" side was quick to concede, and I've heard nothing to suggest voter fraud or other trouble with the election.
How'd that happen, in a country which didn't get round to approving divorce (by a much smaller referendum margin) over Church objections until barely 20 years ago? This piece suggests some of the reasons, and they're all valid ones. The measure was endorsed by all political parties; the turnout was extremely high (vote suppression is a major tool of those in the minority); and the Church has lost much of its credibility through its extreme positions on sexuality and even extremer hypocrisy in having so many of its priests caught up in sex scandals. Yet that's part of what I suspect might be the biggest factor, one which unfortunately will not translate across the Pond: Ireland has been a subjugated country for much of its history, and now, basking in its freedom, its people are less inclined to give into further subjugation, whether it's coming from London or, in this case, the Vatican.
I was in my own church this morning (a denomination which, sadly, continues to condemn LGBTs to second-class status by refusing to marry or ordain them), and I mentioned the outcome of the vote as something to be added to our "celebrations" list. I expected polite nods and perhaps a titter from the biddies across the aisle; I did not expect the round of applause it got. Nor did I expect to see an older parishioner in Wegmans after the service, who shook my hand and thanked me for making the announcement. "I still have a home in Ireland, although I can't vote," he said. "I am very proud of my people."
Me, too.
----
And finally, we had Cole's Law:
Thinly sliced cabbage.
One of my oldest friends in the world messaged me in the morning yesterday. Tracy grew up around the corner from me in East Meadow and still lives near there. We share Facebook posts and might meet up at a high school event over the summer, but I don't hear from her that often. Yet she'd found this among her mother's things; Mabel and my mom were fast friends for close to 30 years, and Tracy finally mourned her mom's loss a little over three years ago (mine left us 13 years before that). So she sent this picture of the recipe that Mom had passed on from one of her church lady friends:
I wrote back and thanked her for the memories, then got this back from Tracy by the end of the day:
I actually made it today. It was delicious. Just as I remembered in my back yard in EM when we sat around the picnic table taking So delicious and simple. I also have great pic of your mom in my house in Baldwin. I am going through all the boxes now. When I find them, I will forward to you. Your mom was so kind to me and my mother.
Words like that make you appreciate life, no matter how many computer programs, or distracted mechanics, or alleged Christians might occasionally do what they do to screw things up.
So, anyway. The post last night had a Laws theme. Beginning, appropriately enough, with Murphy's.
If you didn't catch the update to the previous post about my holiday-weekend car death, it had a mostly happy ending: it had nothing to do at all with my leaving the door open and draining the battery (if I even did), but was caused by a mechanic the previous weekend who disconnected a sensor while checking an idiot light I'd set off, and who never bothered to reconnect it. I count myself lucky that (a) it only cost 56 bucks and a few hours to diagnose and reconnect, and (b) it happened close to home and not on an interstate or a back Rochester road where I was for much of the intervening week.
Continuing the theme, though: Eleanor discovered yesterday that the duct to our dryer- that would be a gas dryer- had been disconnected at the machine end; while randomness or an animal might have caused it, it's far more likely that when Washing Machine Repair Man came a few months ago and also, at our request, checked on a noise the dryer was making, he either dislodged it or disconnected it without remembering to put it back. We therefore avoided a major CO poisoning risk because one of us was paying attention.
----
Next on the list was "The Law of the (Ire)land" - an easy transition, Murphy being a good Irish name and all.
It was heartwarming to read yesterday morning that one of the most Catholic and conservative nations on the planet, given the sanctity of the ballot box, supported the right of two loving people to get married no matter what the state of their plumbing might be. They did so by such a comfortable margin, the "No" side was quick to concede, and I've heard nothing to suggest voter fraud or other trouble with the election.
How'd that happen, in a country which didn't get round to approving divorce (by a much smaller referendum margin) over Church objections until barely 20 years ago? This piece suggests some of the reasons, and they're all valid ones. The measure was endorsed by all political parties; the turnout was extremely high (vote suppression is a major tool of those in the minority); and the Church has lost much of its credibility through its extreme positions on sexuality and even extremer hypocrisy in having so many of its priests caught up in sex scandals. Yet that's part of what I suspect might be the biggest factor, one which unfortunately will not translate across the Pond: Ireland has been a subjugated country for much of its history, and now, basking in its freedom, its people are less inclined to give into further subjugation, whether it's coming from London or, in this case, the Vatican.
I was in my own church this morning (a denomination which, sadly, continues to condemn LGBTs to second-class status by refusing to marry or ordain them), and I mentioned the outcome of the vote as something to be added to our "celebrations" list. I expected polite nods and perhaps a titter from the biddies across the aisle; I did not expect the round of applause it got. Nor did I expect to see an older parishioner in Wegmans after the service, who shook my hand and thanked me for making the announcement. "I still have a home in Ireland, although I can't vote," he said. "I am very proud of my people."
Me, too.
----
And finally, we had Cole's Law:
One of my oldest friends in the world messaged me in the morning yesterday. Tracy grew up around the corner from me in East Meadow and still lives near there. We share Facebook posts and might meet up at a high school event over the summer, but I don't hear from her that often. Yet she'd found this among her mother's things; Mabel and my mom were fast friends for close to 30 years, and Tracy finally mourned her mom's loss a little over three years ago (mine left us 13 years before that). So she sent this picture of the recipe that Mom had passed on from one of her church lady friends:
I wrote back and thanked her for the memories, then got this back from Tracy by the end of the day:
I actually made it today. It was delicious. Just as I remembered in my back yard in EM when we sat around the picnic table taking So delicious and simple. I also have great pic of your mom in my house in Baldwin. I am going through all the boxes now. When I find them, I will forward to you. Your mom was so kind to me and my mother.
Words like that make you appreciate life, no matter how many computer programs, or distracted mechanics, or alleged Christians might occasionally do what they do to screw things up.