Tuesday, June 28, 2011

More random than usual


Remember the huge round ball that resembles a cage with a maniac on motorcycle riding around the inside you’d see at the circus?  If your head starts to feel like that inside, please seek help.  Mine? Maybe one of those plastic tricycles that were popular with kids back in the …well whenever that was.

I had cataract surgery on both eyes in May, now I only need glasses for working all day and reading books or a computer when I’m not at work. 

It’s a strange sensation driving without them though.  My son was looking at me the other day and I guess thinking about the recent surgery and asked me “are those bags under your eyes supposed to be there?”  Hell no! They’re not supposed to be there, but due to age and genetics they are.   I was surprised to see how much gray I had in my hair too. 

I read somewhere good blogs are about other people not the writer.  I have strong opinions on people like Michele Bachmann but I like to save them to irritate people on facebook.  However, she seems to me to be a classic demagogue. 

I see Gabrielle Giffords made her first public appearance.  I can’t imagine how messed up she might be.  Her recovery has been reported as near miraculous but my friend Jennifer who is  in the brain injury business says she’ll be significantly impaired. It’s hard to see how she could be otherwise.  We now have a clue as to why you can’t let your brain get as described above.  Guns and mental illness just don’t work out well and we have too much of both.  

Thursday, April 28, 2011

A dark and stormy morning

The rain is blowing sideways outside right now. The series of severe thunderstorms and hundreds of tornadoes they spawned is unprecedented in my memory but I have to admit I haven’t studied the past history.  They do demonstrate as do other natural phenomena how tenuous our existence on the earth really is.  We don’t really know for sure just how violent and earthquake can be for instance.  Just because we’ve only been able to measure up to a magnitude of 9.5 so far doesn’t mean a 12.9 won’t hit somewhere tomorrow. 
The fact that the soft, warm, comforting, relaxing breeze that seems to caress can in very short order cut a tremendous swath of destruction though not just a trailer park, but a hub of human activity is mind boggling to me.
 I’m beginning to think that perhaps if there is an apocalyptic event it won’t be a nuclear war or aliens or even a deadly virus.  We may be decimated by weather and geophysical events.  Whether it’s merely a reaction of chemistry and physics brought on by what we’ve done to the earth’s troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and so on or, the earth decides on its own we’ve become a pest that it needs to rid itself of us, it could happen in large enough quantities and close sequences to seriously reduce the population of the earth.  Then, there’s always that meteor. Keep watch dinosaurs.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Parents Curse


Without going into too much detail, I’m a believer now.  I’m still hoping I won’t suffer as badly as my parents did at my hand although I suppose I deserve to.  What goes around comes around…

I can hardly believe how little I cared what hell I put my parents through (I had brief moments of regret, 5 minutes at most every so often) and now am finding out in a so far lesser measure what it feels like and it’s hard to swallow. 

Oh well. There will be an end to it eventually, but it may be a while. 

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Unstuck in Time

Remember Billy Pilgrim? 

I was searching for the source of a phrase that turned out to be a line from a song and ended up on a page that had a picture of a young Swedish woman apparently a singer that looked very much like my mother when she was about 20.  It was startling to say the least to see what she might look like if she was young today. 


My mother could have been a professional entertainer too had she not been raised as Lutheran farm girl in rural Minnesota. Maybe in one of those other universes...

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Mundane yet Meditative



I sometimes find myself staring blankly into the open refrigerator without a thought in my head long after I’ve determined there’s nothing edible in there. 
 I’m the only one in my home that thinks it easier to wash something than let it crustify in the dishwasher and hope it come out clean rather than have some food baked into it that requires power tools to remove.  So washing dishes is a great one as well. The warm water, the sounds of the water and the mindless activity are very calming.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Home today

I could have gone in to work but I guess I just didn't have the heart for it today. 

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

A day late and dollar short


I already broke my promise.  I suck.  The weather here today does too.  Tonight should be the worst of it and relatively speaking not a major snow event like last year but it’s a headache here anyway. 
No one bothered to come to work today, or at least until very late in the day.  I see the big boss finally got here in time for lunch. 

I don't feel much like being here either but I was here on time, unlike the few that bothered to come in. 

Makes sour face...and stomps off...