Cognitive Dissonance

Episode One: In the airport shuttle, going back to the South Bay after two weeks in England... What's with this warm weather and the bright sun? And why are we on the wrong side of the road? And why are all the cars so BIG?

Episode Two: In front of the market this afternoon. There are Halloween pumpkins and a huge display of pineapples. Somehow doesn't seem right to me.

Conclusion: Jet lag does funny things to my mind!

Saturday Night...

... and all is well (I think). Good dinner (thank goodness for pre-cooked, microwaveable pot roast), first Cal football game is on TV, the kittens are "helping" me with my latest sewing project (the first in months and months and months) (maybe the depression is lifting), it's not beastly hot, and I'm just kind of floating.

I did have milk and cookies (yes, really) at 5PM with The Spouse (our ritual), but pretty immediately followed up with a very lovely Cosmo. I figure the milk and the graham crackers coated my stomach. And a nice glass of Pinot Grigio with dinner. Yum. Maybe I'll get some energy and m-wave some dessert for the old man... What the heck...

Got a fair amount accomplished today, thanks be. Washed the bed linens (where the kittens have been nesting -- ergo my itchy eyes), went to the bank, the post office, the market, the hardware store, and the fabric store. Shredded stupid old papers that just made me sad (filled up a lawn and leaf trash bag with THAT crap), and that's a weight off my soul.

I am having good luck with the exercises my dentist gave me for my rather painful TMJ issues. Now, when I do it, pressing gently on my jaw, it tends to click back into its proper position. Amazing how that eases the pain! But, I have a feeling it'll be a long haul. The dentist said it's all probably due to "rolling tension"... ??? (As in, "If it's not one thing, it's another"???) Oh, well... If this doesn't work, there is Plan B... More exercises and maybe some Valium at night, to reduce the spasm in the muscle that's causing everything to move out of its proper position.

Well, I feel that I should be opining on the great issues of the day, but I'm too tired to get into it. There are some pretty good back-and-forth discussions on Facebook, though, which are fascinating. A good diversity of opinion, and a bunch of stuff I don't necessarily agree with. But, so far, pretty civil... Amazing!

And, speaking of civil (or not), what about that guy who got his finger (well, the tip of his finger) bitten off at a health care demonstration? What in the world was THAT all about??? Sounds like a nursery school run amok! Jeez...

Well, Boston (the black kitten) is now laying down square in the middle of my cutting board, and attempting to loll on the cut-out pieces for the shoe bags. Silky, slithery satin -- I can't blame her!

OK, it's probably a good time to take a break and go do some knitting and make the dessert. Bad idea to cut and/or sew when one is tired, and after one has consumed both a Cosmo and a glass of wine. :-)

Hope all of you are having a restful and thoughtful (and safe) Labor Day weekend. Remember, without the organized labor movement, and a confluence of other factors, this holiday (and, by the way, the two-day weekend itself) would not exist. (If it didn't, how would we know when to stop wearing white shoes?)

Cheers!

As Dorothy Said...

It's true, there is no place like home (for better or worse). The Spouse and I just got back from a week in Eugene, Oregon -- we were there to work on a rental property we own. It needed some things done (not huge, but lots of little stuff), and I have not been pleased with the quality or the pricing for work performed by the property management company. When I was quoted $1,300 for installing a ceiling ventilation fan in the master bathroom, I rebelled. One thing led to another and, before you know it, we (The Spouse and I) decided that we could do all the work needed, and it would be done right. (The bathroom ceiling in the house looked like some bizarre cave with mineral deposits hanging down from it... don't ask...)

So, we packed the SUV to the brim with every bit of stuff we figured we'd need, had three ladders strapped to the top, and off we went. We even shlepped a TV with us (!), for entertainment. Yes, including a digital converter box and rabbit ears (antenna). It's a lovely drive up Highway 5 through Northern California and Southern Oregon, and the weather was fine, thank goodness. We left in the afternoon, stayed overnight in Yreka, and rolled into Eugene in time to get a fair amount of work done on Day One.

Long story short, we worked our collective butts off! Our lovely daughter drove down from Portland, to help out. She's such a treasure! We scraped, patched, sanded, primed and painted all over the darn place. The Spouse worked on swapping out all the electrical outlets (which were quite ancient), poked about in the dark, dank, and junk-filled basement (a delightful experience), and worked himself up into a swivet about all the things that really do need to be done to the house. It's an older house, built (I think) in the 1940s or late 1930s, and needs a fair amount of TLC to bring it up to date. But it has good lines, and a solid design, and a lovely "feel" about it. Some strange things have been done to it over the years, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with a moderate investment of time and money.

We enjoy Eugene, and are toying with the idea of moving there... It would kill us to leave the SF Bay Area, but Eugene is not a bad alternate. It's close to Portland (which is a GREAT city), an hour from the ocean, a few hours from the snow/mountains, a college town, not too big (and not too small), and cheaper than where we live now in the Silicon Valley. We would miss all the friends we've made here, terribly, but the folks in Eugene are quite friendly, too.

The worst thing about being away for a week was that we missed The Kittens terribly! My former secretary was kind enough to come by and look after things, so my mind was at ease. But, when we got home, The Kittens went berserk! In fact, they jumped around on top of us all night! (The next night, we did kick them out of the bedroom...)

I've made it through all the dirty laundry we dragged back with us, sorted out the stuff we hauled up and back, cleaned the kitchen, went grocery shopping, and things are generally settled down again.

The thing that made a big impression on me was living a week with: no cable/satellite TV (just good old broadcast), no microwave (aaaccck!), and no Internet access. What spoiled babies we are... Luckily, I grew up in the "old days", so I know how to boil water for tea, and how to occupy my hands at night, when it was too dark to work on the various chores. (It really did feel a tad like "Little House on the Prairie"...) But, we survived. Duh, of course we did!

So, that's the most exciting thing we've done recently. I am grateful to be home, safe, in a great area. I am thankful that we are not close to any of the horrible fires that are ravaging California right now, and that my cats are healthy and didn't commit any irremediable offenses while we were gone...

I wish all the best to all of you, too. Cheers!

Why is tennis like long division?

I don't know, why... Because it's learning a new and seemingly difficult and impenetrable skill for me, and I'm reacting just like I did in fifth grade... badly! I'm sulking, occasionally get teary-eyed, and sometimes stomp off the court and sit down in a foul humor. However, thus far I have not cheated (as I did on one test in fifth grade and famously got totally busted by the teacher).

Of course, now, long division is as easy as breathing for me. You just take it step by step, remember the basics (i.e., basic math), and it all turns out beautifully. I do it by hand often (i.e., no calculator), and it's just fine -- sometimes I do it in my head. I forget, of course, all the pain and suffering and bitching and moaning it took to get me here...

When I am on the court, practicing on my basic shots (forehand and backhand), I go through my checklist (in my head): where is my arm, what is my body posture, what is the orientation of the racquet, where in the trajectory of the ball ought I hit it, etc., etc. And, still, I often end up hitting the ball with the rim of the racquet, or otherwise just screwing it up. Blast! But, there are a lot more good shots coming out of me these days than in prior months. So, I guess that's progress. But I am still way too hard on myself... Really, I must stop that.

I love this blog. It's like a diary, but I feel some sort of odd obligation to write things for this -- with a diary, I say, "Oh, I'll do it later"... Not that anyone reads this, but I fancy that occasionally someone does. I hope it's good friends, who will (generously) listen to me blather on about things.

OK, I'm off to attempt to get some chores done. Ha! (Something is going on with me -- I'm totally exhausted all the time, and get tired way too easily. The doctor -- who ran every test in the world on me -- says there's nothing wrong. Humpf. What do they know...)

Everyone out there, be good to yourselves!

Nothing, Zip, Nada...

... And, sometimes, that's the way it needs to be! Just kicking back all day, futzing around, doing chores, and basically bouncing along. OK, I did get totally whipped up today due to (1) reading the Sunday papers, (2) cruising the 'Net and reading the news, (3) listening to the Sunday news shows, and (4) listening to NPR stories. The country is so f'd up, on so many issues, I can't stand it. Now, don't get me wrong, I adore the Prez, and so glad he's in office, you have no idea. But, how can he possibly deal with the MESS that the bozo brigade (W and his cronies, in case you've been living in a cave) left oozing on the floor.

Ah, don't get me started. The Spouse and I went out for pizza tonight -- could have knocked me over with a feather when HE suggested it. I ate myself into a stupor, of course, and am not regretting it. I shall have to be moderate in my eating this whole week to pay for my indulgences today. Well, too bad... It was worth it...

Other than that, the kittens are being as cute as ever, I'm starting to nod off, and The Spouse is -- again -- looking at who knows what on EBay... I only hope it doesn't cost us money.

I'm sure I'll be far more witty tomorrow. Or not.

One Year Later... Holy Patoley!!!

It occurred to me yesterday that it was (yesterday) one year since my last day at The Company. Wow, this year has FLOWN by! Both The Spouse and I agreed it's gone by very very quickly. This morning, I'm sitting here, cruising the 'Net, sipping my tea, getting ready to go hit the tennis ball, laughing at the kittens' antics, and thinking . . . hey, it's OK. I'm still pissed (a bit), but it's OK.

More on this theme later. Maybe.

Have a great day!

Random Thursday Musings

Sorry, this is going to be a long post. I am "in the zone" today, feeling good, and just want to share/ramble...

Apparently, I have a "thing" about jellyfish... They just fascinate me! There was a story on NPR this morning to the effect that it is now believed that jellyfish churn up the water when they rise from the depths to feed at night; that is, they bring cold water up with them, and bring warm water with lots of carbon dioxide (?) back down with them when they descend. What is being discussed in certain circles is whether this phenomenon has any impact on global warming and/or whether it ought to be factored into computer models of climate change issues. Anyway, the photo in this post was on the NPR website this morning. I really really REALLY like images of jellyfish. (There's a whole load of those images on my flickr.com account -- taken when I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and they had the jellyfish exhibit going on.) I think they are mysterious, lovely, enigmatic, graceful, and all things lovely. I just never want to get stung by one!

The Mayan calendar, December 21, 2012 and the end of the world, or whatever. Have you heard about this one? Apparently folks who study this sort of thing (i.e., the Mayan calendar) say that the last day of the calendar is 12/21/12 (lots of 1's and 2's) (hmmm). It's unclear whether this means the world will end on that day, or what the heck will happen. I blame NPR, again, for bringing this up. Those who know say this date (12/21/12) coincides with a projected sun spot/sun flare big to-do. That solar activity could (note: "could") cause extreme upsets in the Earth's communication systems, resulting in all heck breaking loose. Others who worry about this sort of thing say, nope, this is the end of it all. However, the better theory is that extreme hoo-hah will happen (no Apocalypse), resulting in (best case) a spiritual re-birth for humanity. At one point in the story, there was a reference to that date being the end of the Age of Pisces and the beginning of . . . the Age of Aquarius! New spirituality, etc., etc. There are folks who are already forming groups with the aim of being ready, spiritually, when the AofA starts. I will put the date in my iPhone calendar, with adequate pre-reminders. We shall see. (Ought I start stockpiling anything now? Canned goods? Knitting supplies? Batteries?)

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I'm in touch with my best friend from elementary and junior high school. We sort of lost touch in high school (she went to a different all-city school than I did), and didn't see each other again for years and years; we ran into each other when I was living in Berkeley, going to law school. She was there, with her husband and baby (who just got married) (now, not back then); I think her husband was doing something with the Lab or the University or something. Anyway, we saw each other then, and somehow once again drifted apart. Long story short, we're now in touch semi-regularly (not as often as she or I would like). She lives in Texas (!), and I have no idea when we'll actually lay eyes on each other again. As noted, her elder daughter got married about a month ago; she was kind enough to forward lots of photos, I wrote a nice note, and said (among other things) that we are lucky to have fallen back into a very easy communication, just like we were back in fifth grade, whining about our very nasty teacher. Well, last night, SKM (that's her) (my friend, not the teacher) wrote me an email, reminding me that, back in fifth grade, we really really disliked the teacher, and we made a voodoo doll of her, complete with pretty heavy spell. (We were very creative little kids.) Lo and behold, the teacher had a heart attack and was out for most of the year. My friend apparently felt very guilty about that; me, not so much (or at least I don't recall feeling very guilty). I had totally forgotten about the voodoo doll episode. Good lord... My friend is a teacher now, and I'm sure that, regardless of what she thinks, she ought not be worried that her students would do a voodoo doll of HER!!!

SKM also has stayed in touch, or gotten back in touch, with another one of our buddies from way back when. CH lives in Brooklyn now, and we finally hooked up via email. I am so lucky to be able to contact old friends. Really. I'm in pretty much daily email contact with my BFF from high school. She's one of those people who knows me so well, sometimes better than I know myself. I adore her to bits, and wish we lived closer. (She's in Massachusetts, I'm in California...) And, by the way, thank goodness for Facebook. Really. I'm now in touch with folks from high school, folks from my past lives, and all kinds of new friends. It's great. I love it. I am so very lucky... We can "chat" with each other without the need to be in the same time zone, or even on line at the same time. I adore seeing everyone's comments and postings. Makes me feel like we live on the same block, just like in the old days!

The flu... So, the H1N1 virus is still lurking out there. In today's SFGate, there was an article/blog posting by their on-staff medical person, talking about the coming flu season. Her analysis of the H1N1 virus scared the bejeezus out of me, I can tell you. This bug (if she's right) is a nasty little thing, and different enough from the "regular" flu virus that it's going to give people fits if and when it starts spreading during the upcoming flu season. However, since I'm on the older side of the time line, I apparently am in a better place, risk-wise, than a younger person. That is, really, so unfair. I was all ready to go and get my will re-done quickly, but perhaps I better be nagging my daughter about taking care of herself! I urge all of you to go find out about this little phenomenon, and take precautions. WASH YOUR HANDS! It drives me nuts when I see people not washing enough. My spouse is guilty of this. He'll wash when he's been futzing around with mucky stuff on his cars, but not nearly enough during indoor activities. But that's a lost cause (i.e., me nagging him)...

Music in the kitchen is a great thing. For years, I've been brooding because I don't have a stereo hook-up in the kitchen. I have an iPod (of course) (doesn't EVERYONE???), and there's all kinds of wonderful radios and other electronic thingies that are designed to dock an iPod in, so you can listen to your music. However, for reasons that are unclear to me, I never got my act in gear and bought one. (No, I don't know why.) A couple of years ago, I did buy my husband a clock radio/alarm/iPod dock thing, but it never worked very well for him, and he ended up not using it. I thought we had thrown it away, but recently found it in The Great Heap. I put it in my (lovely new) kitchen, charged up the iPod, and it works just fine! Earlier today, I was dancing around the kitchen, my music blaring away, and it was lovely! The spouse, of course, does not appreciate my fine taste in popular music (!), so I have to turn it off when he's around -- he turns on the TV and that's that. (Our family room and the kitchen are really one big space, and I enjoy spending time with him, and he enjoys watching TV, so there you go...) Anyway, I'm thrilled to have both my music (on my iPod) and a working radio in the kitchen. I am an NPR addict -- I'll fess up to that -- and sometimes watching endless loops of cooking shows and tart-up-my-house shows on TV gets a tad old.

I am so proud of some of the Republican senators... Particularly Lamar Alexander and Lindsey Graham, for their statements in support of confirming Judge Sotomayor for the US Supreme Court. Both those senators disagree with Judge Sotomayor's positions on certain issues (at least their perceived views of her positions), but say she's qualified in terms of education, ability, experience, whatever, and that's that. Yes... Finally, some grown-ups in Congress. Amazing.

And, speaking of grown-ups, I love the idea of the "beer summit" that the Prez is holding with that feisty Harvard professor who got arrested a couple of weeks ago, and the cop who arrested him. (You all have heard about that story, yes?) (If not, please just shut down your computer and go watch "American Idol" -- there's nothing I can do for you.) Anyway, yes, who knows what really happened and who was acting like an idiot. Probably both of them. And, getting together to drink a beer is just such a guy thing. (But do we really think Obama drinks Bud Lite? Really? I'm thinking he's totally a Stella Artois guy...) Anyway, yes, as someone from the Anti-Defamation League (I think) said, we all need to talk to each other. A lot. We all have prejudices and expectations and influences that affect how we interact with each other. I have been thinking about this a lot, particularly during the Sotomayor confirmation hearing kabuki set piece. OF COURSE we all act in accord with our conscious and unconscious positions, thoughts, ideas, and prejudices. Duh... It's OK, it's fine. But we need to be mindful of them, and be sure to honor them (or not) and acknowledge that they're there... And, maybe, sometimes, tell them to go sit on the sofa and shut up. Maybe we should all have a "beer summit" with someone we're not totally comfortable with. What a thought.

This whole hoo-hah reminded me of a block party (in my neighborhood) I attended some years ago. (If I've already told this story, work with me.) As many of you know, the city/town in which I live, here in Silicon Valley, is about 2/3 Asian these days. Chinese, mostly, but lots of Indian families, a smattering of Russians, some Israelis, some Japanese, and goodness knows what else. And some of us run-of-the-mill white folks. Anyway, at this block party, there was a good ethnic mix. I ended up, at one point, sitting next to a gentleman of Chinese ethnic heritage. I cannot, now, remember if he was an ABC (American-born Chinese) or born overseas (either in Hong Kong, Taiwan or on the mainland). We did the who are you dance, realized that we both had kids in the local high school (predominantly Asian), and started talking about the school. Long story short, we were both not too happy with the amount of pressure the kids were put under, the amount of homework, etc., etc. I think I said something about well, it's well known that Chinese parents put so much pressure on their kids. He seemed surprised, and then said, "Well, we always thought it was the white parents who wanted all this!" Nothing like talking to each other... We all should do a lot more of it... And that includes spouses, life partners, dating couples, friends, parents and children, whatever. Just my five cents.

OK, I think I've run out of steam. Thank goodness for my blog. I'd keep a diary, and I've tried it, but it seems so . . . blah . . . Perhaps the thought that others might -- MIGHT -- read what I have to say drives me to organize my thoughts, and actually write stuff. Who knows.

It's a beautiful day here in SiliValley today, I'm in a good place (i.e., on the positive side of the equilibrium/disequilibrium helix), and the kittens are napping somewhere (probably on my pillow). Life is good. I may have one of those cupcakes I stashed in the fridge last night.

Have a good one, everybody!