Odds and Ends from a Week and a Day
Aug. 24th, 2009 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogThe kid's garage sale is back on. This Friday. So naturally, the 'rents spent much of today getting ready for it, mainly clearing out gardening stuff that was filling much of the middle of the selling floor.
Emily may have caught a break in the attention-getting department for this effort: North Forest/Union Roads, among the mainer drags in our immediate vicinage, were closed down starting this morning for an unspecified amount of construction. The official detour for this project, in typical D.O.T. arrogance, takes the beleagured driver a good three miles out of her way- half a mile down Sheridan, under the 290, then from Harlem to Main which then takes more than the half mile to get back to Union on the other side of the closure. Unofficially, and as a parade of cars clearly had already discovered, it's much quicker to drive two blocks past the "local traffic only" barrier to a side street which parallels North Forest and comes out on Main a block from the end of the detour.
I brightly suggested that she put up orange DETOUR signs from Park Club, round the ensuing three corners, and ending at the corner nearest our house with a sign reading "I LIED ABOUT THE DETOUR, BUT HEY! WE'RE HAVING A GARAGE SALE!"
"You'll make a lot more money if you're on a major highway," I continued, "and we can use all of it for bail!"
----
Speaking of money....
As I said the other day, my Friday night with my old college roommates was a delight. We didn't do anything officially fun or touristy, but then we didn't have to, just from all the catching up we had to do. For a couple who only shared six percent of my life to date in close proximity, they occupy far more than that amount of memories. Much of it comes from their families, who in the past included such luminaries as Cousin Giggles, Uncle Rubbish, Ralph the Cat and "Hi, I'm Ahnt Helen, have a sherry?" I remember them as well as some of my own cousins, aunts and uncles, even though I'd only met some of them once or twice (and in the case of Ralph, best I can recall, not at all).
This weekend, they added "Forrest Gump" to the mix. FG is a rel of Jim's sister-in-law, and while he's never going to challenge Stephen Hawking for any academic awards, he does have the advantage of being from an incredibly wealthy family on that side. The paterfamilias of said family is an amazingly successful, yet increasingly Alzheimered, father. They live in New Hampshire, where mistrust of banks is only exceeded by mistrust of the government, and so it was, one fine day not too long ago, that the local post office put a call in to the manse when Jim's brother was there.
"We have a package for yah at the post office."
"Well, why don't you deliver it?"
"It's too heaveh."
Knowing the family, Peter knew exactly what it was: a box of gold bullion. Delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, and probably now down in the root cellar along with the six year supply of canned goods and flouride-free water.
----
This week started out a little rough: Bankruptcy Court went way over on account of a lawyer being reamed out for his shady business practices, and while he was fined $400 for them, I was the one who wound up with the $30 parking ticket. Then I went to the library to pick up a book which came in over my vacation, and they were closed for a power failure.
On the other hand, there's a wine sale at Georgetown. And a sale at Penney's!
----
I like Bernie Sanders as much as the next Communist does, but he's probably not convincing many people of the seriousness of the health care debate by pimping the Vermont SCHIP plan as a successful government-run model.
It's a great idea, but did they have to call it Dr. Dinosaur?
And why is it that the media and public are ruling out any chance of reform, despite the fact that half the guys on the evil side of the debate are a bunch of deluded drunks?
Really. Present for your approval, former GOP Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who did the chat shows the other day and complained about Obama not showing us his...
"gift certificate?"
Maybe it's from Penney's!
----
Zoey didn't grow all that much when I was away- although she did put on enough extra weight that she now makes sound when tearing around the house- but Watching Her Think is an amazing exercise.
This morning was one such. All of this happened with my eyes closed and the bedroom door open. I'd put her back in one cat carrier, and loaded her food into a smaller one so dogs and bigger cats wouldn't pillage it while we were asleep.
Sound one: Bat Bat Bat.
Sound two: Much softer Bat-Bat-Bat.
Sound three: Loud growl.
Sound four: Soft hiss.
I've been doing this long enough to connect the dots as even Helen Keller could. "One" was one of the older cats trying to lift the latch on the smaller carrier to get at the food (they can open cabinet doors, so this is by no means impossible). "Two" was Zoey reacting to "one" by batting at Michelle against (and possibly through) the wall of the carrier she was in. "Three" was the bigger kitty reacting to "two," and so on and so on and so on. They all now chase each other around the house as if they were best of dysfunctional friends. I've got them all snuggling for warmth by late autumn.
Emily may have caught a break in the attention-getting department for this effort: North Forest/Union Roads, among the mainer drags in our immediate vicinage, were closed down starting this morning for an unspecified amount of construction. The official detour for this project, in typical D.O.T. arrogance, takes the beleagured driver a good three miles out of her way- half a mile down Sheridan, under the 290, then from Harlem to Main which then takes more than the half mile to get back to Union on the other side of the closure. Unofficially, and as a parade of cars clearly had already discovered, it's much quicker to drive two blocks past the "local traffic only" barrier to a side street which parallels North Forest and comes out on Main a block from the end of the detour.
I brightly suggested that she put up orange DETOUR signs from Park Club, round the ensuing three corners, and ending at the corner nearest our house with a sign reading "I LIED ABOUT THE DETOUR, BUT HEY! WE'RE HAVING A GARAGE SALE!"
"You'll make a lot more money if you're on a major highway," I continued, "and we can use all of it for bail!"
----
Speaking of money....
As I said the other day, my Friday night with my old college roommates was a delight. We didn't do anything officially fun or touristy, but then we didn't have to, just from all the catching up we had to do. For a couple who only shared six percent of my life to date in close proximity, they occupy far more than that amount of memories. Much of it comes from their families, who in the past included such luminaries as Cousin Giggles, Uncle Rubbish, Ralph the Cat and "Hi, I'm Ahnt Helen, have a sherry?" I remember them as well as some of my own cousins, aunts and uncles, even though I'd only met some of them once or twice (and in the case of Ralph, best I can recall, not at all).
This weekend, they added "Forrest Gump" to the mix. FG is a rel of Jim's sister-in-law, and while he's never going to challenge Stephen Hawking for any academic awards, he does have the advantage of being from an incredibly wealthy family on that side. The paterfamilias of said family is an amazingly successful, yet increasingly Alzheimered, father. They live in New Hampshire, where mistrust of banks is only exceeded by mistrust of the government, and so it was, one fine day not too long ago, that the local post office put a call in to the manse when Jim's brother was there.
"We have a package for yah at the post office."
"Well, why don't you deliver it?"
"It's too heaveh."
Knowing the family, Peter knew exactly what it was: a box of gold bullion. Delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, and probably now down in the root cellar along with the six year supply of canned goods and flouride-free water.
----
This week started out a little rough: Bankruptcy Court went way over on account of a lawyer being reamed out for his shady business practices, and while he was fined $400 for them, I was the one who wound up with the $30 parking ticket. Then I went to the library to pick up a book which came in over my vacation, and they were closed for a power failure.
On the other hand, there's a wine sale at Georgetown. And a sale at Penney's!
----
I like Bernie Sanders as much as the next Communist does, but he's probably not convincing many people of the seriousness of the health care debate by pimping the Vermont SCHIP plan as a successful government-run model.
It's a great idea, but did they have to call it Dr. Dinosaur?
And why is it that the media and public are ruling out any chance of reform, despite the fact that half the guys on the evil side of the debate are a bunch of deluded drunks?
Really. Present for your approval, former GOP Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who did the chat shows the other day and complained about Obama not showing us his...
"gift certificate?"
Maybe it's from Penney's!
----
Zoey didn't grow all that much when I was away- although she did put on enough extra weight that she now makes sound when tearing around the house- but Watching Her Think is an amazing exercise.
This morning was one such. All of this happened with my eyes closed and the bedroom door open. I'd put her back in one cat carrier, and loaded her food into a smaller one so dogs and bigger cats wouldn't pillage it while we were asleep.
Sound one: Bat Bat Bat.
Sound two: Much softer Bat-Bat-Bat.
Sound three: Loud growl.
Sound four: Soft hiss.
I've been doing this long enough to connect the dots as even Helen Keller could. "One" was one of the older cats trying to lift the latch on the smaller carrier to get at the food (they can open cabinet doors, so this is by no means impossible). "Two" was Zoey reacting to "one" by batting at Michelle against (and possibly through) the wall of the carrier she was in. "Three" was the bigger kitty reacting to "two," and so on and so on and so on. They all now chase each other around the house as if they were best of dysfunctional friends. I've got them all snuggling for warmth by late autumn.