only to be saved by an answering machine?
Or gone to a class to face something gruelling only to find out the prof has cancelled? Like skipping a class only without the guilt, a sort of lightweight feeling, and time stretches a bit, the free hour feeling like 15 as you get to contemplate your navel, or wool-gather in your own particular way.
Or stood in a doorway, pressing your arms hard against the frame, and stepped forward to have them float in the air?
Or been about to bring an aged and sick relative home into a challenging and unsafe environment only to find her the last room in an awesome facility that is as close to the hospital as it is to your house? And that is situated such that the eastbound onramp to the highway they built on the rail line that used to run into the downtown [when they were being idiots and tearing out all the rail they are now trying to rebuild, but on different land, but that is a rant for a different day] can be accessed from the west end of their parking lot, leading to a dedicated lane that drops us almost at our house, one exit further, possibly taking 5 whole minutes? And they could move her “bed-to-bed” and when you got there the manager brought you a really good BLT and it turned out there was a flat screen tv on the wall, with the cable fully working and included? And they gave you a Nanaimo bar
A delicious, if you have a sweet tooth, Canadian dessert
to take back to your mum when she was still in the hospital, a dessert she became strangely obsessed by, which they by coincidence had on the menu and had made fresh that morning and was the only thing your mum had eaten in its entirety in about a week?
That’s how I’m feeling this morning. And if you don’t, you could always try standing in a doorway, pushing against the frame as hard as you can, to get that momentary fix of dodging a fast ball and landing on a couch, with cable, a full walk in shower and a beer fridge. Yes, a beer fridge and cable. Floating, really, quite floating.
Floating music from their Floating World album. Glad to hear your good fortune, Xty.
Awesome, Xty B! Have a great day, week, and onwards. My tea tastes extra yummy this morning, basking in your turn of good fortune!
Alert to all, US-Canada Girls Hockey Gold is at stake today. 11:00 Central time, check your local listings.
I’m working “split shifts” these days. Working early, running home to watch hockey, then working again late. Fun, fun, fun.
Apologies to my homies- looks like my wish will come true. We will be in Fl next week visiting friends and to enhance our experience, I had wished for it to be cold here. Sorry. Booked into the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel on the way down. Looks like fun.
Sad to have to ban Dude Stacker, but I checked the forecast, and now that we know EO’s Missus controls hockey outcomes, and the Dude has the weather at his command, we no longer need other theories. If the US wins, I guess I will have to ban Mrs EO as well, even though she only participates through her proxy.
That game is on at noon ET, which seems like a good moment to be installed in mum’s new room!
Just had to post this quick before heading out. Courtesy of Barry and Cassandra, two of the brightest lights on the web. Of course, anything that flips the bird to Zero Hedge is always a great read.
An About-Face Regarding ZH Conspiracy Theories
For those who have not had the pleasure, here is a direct link to Cassandra. Great stuff, always.
http://nihoncassandra.blogspot.com/
Xty – i think when you’re a realist, and something goes your way, that is when you get that feeling. pessimists probably should be surprised more, but often don’t notice when things go well (or could have been worse). optimists set themselves up for disappointment! so there you have the peckerwood philosophy. the glass is empty, and full, and everything in between. it is a shame that Schrodinger’s cat’s reality had to be so stark! 😛 😛 😛
Dude – you’re dead to me.
EO – these doomer sites have an agenda plain and simple. fear is used to shut down thinking. what i find the most disgusting is when the agenda is also the “business plan”.
Well our girls just got gold in curling so the stage is well set!
I’m hoping Florida gets a hard frost. 😈
And rain.
And locusts.
All at once.
Thanks for the love, folks.
Just got back from that detestable city that DP calls home. Had to take my 85 y.o. f.i.l. to the S.S. office. My reasons for loathing that town may not match anyone else, but still they are valid reasons. About 15 years ago we went to a music venue at the county fair there and there was no beer tent! Unheard of. And then when we left, it was past 8:30, so nowhere open to get roadies! Unbelievable.
Now back to planning my vacation he said with a sheepish grin.
Fantastic hockey game, no matter how it comes out. Nobody could ask for more.
Wow – I am sorry about that – you guys played such a great game – that puck off the post, and you blocked all our shots and picked up our passes. The game was just too long.
My mum had to ask if it was really women skating they played so hard. My daughter and I were texting and almost had a heart attack. What inspiration for young women today – there was really nothing like that even when I was young.
Xty – can you start editing my comments, especially those spoken by Herr Grün?
just one wrong word makes a phrase untranslatable by the online widgets.
didja find the Steak and Shake Dude? oh wait, we aren’t talking. but next time stop by the pecker hole for packaged goods any and all of the 24 hours.
i’m knocking off some items on the list that have been on hold for months here. i’ll stop by later. i’m making Kartoffelknödel (potato dumplings) and Bratwurst tonight EO.
maybe it is in Canada where the men are men, and the women are too. 🙂
And I will not ban Dude Stacker as a)he is nice to his F-i-L, and b) he is going to let us vicariously enjoy Florida through the power of the interwebs, and c) we crush, especially the women, at hockey. Get some skates on that grand-daughter!
We once booked a golf holiday at Henry Horton State Park in Tennessee and it didn’t mention anywhere that it was a dry county. Even the golf course. So yes to the shock of no beer tent. Unheard of. But we played a lot of golf!
DP, no time for S & S just Kwik Trip coffee and a 6 pack of Glazers (it’s been awhile since I’ve been off the farm).
Now begins our discussion of accents. I feel i am relatively free of an identifying one, but the f.i.l. is from way, way, down south in Illinois and he speaks with a decided Southern drawl. I often find myself aping his patois. Opening the box, I heard myself say “gitchu a donut thar Graimpaw”.
Xty, thank you, thank you, thank you for the heads up on dry counties in Tn! We will first stop in Nashville to find a Diners-Driveins-and-Dives place then a slow drive down to Chattanooga to the National Cemetery to visit my great-great uncle’s grave on the 150th year since he was killed in the assault on Cheatham’s Hill during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. More on that later.
“The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was fought on June 27, 1864, during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War. It was the most significant frontal assault launched by Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman against the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, ending in a tactical defeat for the Union forces.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kennesaw_Mountain
taking a break…
i spent about 10 days in Salt Lake City, which is by far the most “liberal” city in Utah. even so, at first i was surprised that i could by beer at the grocery store. so i bought a twelve pack for my first couple nights in the hotel. but i knew something wasn’t right as soon as i opened one. when i checked the box i found it was NA (non-alcoholic) beer. so many places to get beer, and all of the big brands, but NA. i asked someone the next day if i had to drive to Wyoming or something to get real beer, and he told me about the state run liquor stores. so on the fourth day i hunted around and found one, then paid at least double Wisconsin price for some Pabst Blue Ribbon. had i known all this on the first day i probably would have driven to Wyoming. 🙂
i found this just now too. good night Irene…
“Lofgren is the author of The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted.
“It is, I would say, the red thread that runs through the history of the last three decades. It is how we had deregulation, financialization of the economy, the Wall Street bust, the erosion or our civil liberties and perpetual war,” Lofgren tells Bill.”
http://billmoyers.com/segment/preview-the-deep-state/
this batch of potato dumplings are my best in a long time, if not ever. funny thing is that i had to substitute corn meal for farina (malt o meal) not realizing we were all out.
sorry for killing the thread. 🙁
What a blessing to get all set up like that with the new facility… And for the record, if I had about 40 ounces of fresh milk, I could eat at least 200 cubic inches of whatever that little desert thingie is. hhmmmmmmMMModerationnnnhhhhmmmmmm… ok, i’m better, I wouldn’t do that. need to quickly think about something else.. oh yeah- Congrats to the Canadian gals curling win. What a pretty team. I was watching them today… and thinking, if I had a 40 ounce bottle of beer, I … “Doh!!”. (j/k) Apologies Xty,
Well, we’re back into the 70s now and that should do it from here. Not to draw any ire, just to say, ‘come on down!!’
We’ll have some more chilly nights probably… but I doubt i’ll have socks on again until next winter. Once you get used to never wearing socks, and you ever wear them when it’s not needed to stay warm- they cause some weird kind of unidentifiable anxiety. same with uncomfortable shirts and pants, yuck.
(sorry, probably just complaining about stuff since I can’t have that desert thing they gave to mum!)
Now I’ve got a few deer living in the field right next to the house. They act indignant when I wander near them at night. And it worked, I notice that they’ve trained me to go out the side porch and not bother them after about 11.
Will try to set up the game camera and get a picture. What are those things, like cheesecake with chocolate cake together??
It is raining! I know it is going to get cold, but the rain sounds so nice.
I have to say, the Canadian women athletes are darned good looking – even the bobsledders, who just also happened to take gold, are almost cute, and these two nutcakes who just won gold and silver in a crazy sport called ski cross are also adorable:
As to the Party is over – no kidding and what a great title.
And I hope this isn’t an insensitive question, but which side was your great great uncle on?
So I just watched three of the Canadian women hockey players interviewed, and Hayley Wickenheiser, who used to be our captain and is now assistant, the new captain being the young lady who scored the winning goal, explained that they just stayed calm and kept on playing, and that they had climbed many mountains together, literally.
I remember so many coaches saying to the kids “that it wasn’t over until the buzzer sounded” and “to keep on playing until you heard the whistle”. I know we were insanely lucky when the puck hit the post on that empty net, but it is so true of life. Just stay calm and stick to your game plan. Freddie Couples once won a golf tournament, somewhere very tricky, maybe even a Masters, and he went into the final round down by about 6 shots or something. All the other players fell one by one, and when he was asked about the leaderboard during the end of the tournament, and how had it affected him, he said that he felt before the round that if he could just shoot a 68 or whatever, it would be a great score for the day. And he did that and won. Leaderboard shmeaderboard.
I go on about this because it is so important not to give up when you are sure you are right – but of course how to be sure is the problem – but not always – and when faced with the inappropriate behaviours of others, carrying on and trying to set an example rather than badgering and getting in a snit yourself, is by far the best thing to do. Rising to anger to counter people who use fear to intimidate just makes one into an intimidator too, trying to use fear of one’s anger to control people. Then you are just them. Ghandi talk, from hockey, but I know what these girls have meant to my daughter, setting an example of what cute Canadian women can accomplish through hard work steadily applied, that it is something to behold.
And speaking of which, guess who just sent me this:
as if Xty. as if i don’t know that your anger comment is directed my way. but Ghandi talk, that’s OK. he’s considered a socialist libertarian you know. 😛
it’s Groundhog day here, again. so Dude, why don’t you visit DN on the way down, maybe stay a while. as it appears you are taking I75… you are practically driving by his house.
i am going to try to start posting more in the morning even though that rubs across my grain. i like to get everything done early in the day before plopping into the desk chair. the problem is that only two time zones are represented here. three of us in EST three of us in CST. i also don’t really watch TV anymore – so my computer is my TV. my evenings are often spent on the computer, maybe because it still is less effort than reading a book!
anyway, i was starting to regret not having cable with all the Olympics discussion here, but no more. it has become so plainly obvious to me now that even the Olympics are rigged. 😛
We just practice a lot:
Two brothers enlisted in the Union Army- my great great grandfather and his brother, my great great great uncle. Looks like I left off a great yesterday. They were in different regiments, having enlisted at different times. One came home, the other didn’t. 27 letters survive(d) that my grandfather sent home, only 2 from the uncle. A relative compiled a family history tracing back to 1675- we actually spent some time in Canada before finally settling in Illinois. This was all put into book form including the letters.
The letters provide a fascinating first hand account of an infantry soldier’s experiences. Grandfather apparently knew his brother was remiss in corresponding, so he was diligent in sending home information not only about himself, but whatever he could ascertain about his brother as well. This is how I know uncle was in 4th Corps, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division under General Thomas on June 27th 1864, when the assault on Kennesaw Mountain began. Thus he was involved in some of the deadliest fighting of the war when the attack on Cheatham’s hill began.
He was wounded that day, shot in the arm and face. Able to walk off the battlefield, no doubt in shock, he joked that “his hardtack days were over for a while”. Little is known after that, only that he couldn’t talk anymore most likely from swelling, infection and pain. I can barely imagine the horror as he lingered, declined and finally died on July 5th.
Among his affects sent home was a gold watch. Grandfather was adamant that it be always kept in the family. I have it now. Grandfather also vowed that he would find the grave and someday visit his brother’s final resting place. I know he was never able to do this. With the help of the internet I was able to find the grave and I will serve as his proxy.
So the watch survives, but as for the letters- remember this- (d)? They were passed to an aunt and at her death went to my cousin who is a fancy Harvard educated women’s rights lawyer in California. Her no good Spanish (thinks he’s royalty) husband sold them on eBay.
Dude – i can relate to that, but for me it isn’t even done yet. i have a brother that has plans for all of the family heirlooms, and i am afraid that he will prevail. the pattern is clear. what he has conned away from my parents so far has been pre-sold by the time he gets it. karma. karma. karma. serenity now.
potato dumplings and sausage for breakfast. all is good.
🙂 🙂 🙂
as promised, more morning posts (11:20 CST), and more optimism. looks like we will dodge the bullet this time EO. (Wisconsin is underneath the arrow). 🙂
Hey, I am all in favor of cute Canadian women. I just want to put that out there on the record.
But that particular hockey game is something that will never be spoken of in this household, or pretty much anywhere on this side of the border, ever, ever, again. 👿
karma served with a little optimism…
And don’t worry, Xty. My internet anger days are winding down, steadily, inexhorably. As a matter of fact, the internet as a whole, at least anything that smacks of social interaction on the internet, feels to me like a bubble that has burst. I think of it in the past tense.
I was a tad late to the internet entirely, then a tad late to actually commenting on blogs. Then I went whole hog (if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing), learning a lot about myself and others in the process. And now the peak feels well behind me. It’s probably a process that everybody needs to go through once. But only once.
I’ve shutdown my facebook and twitter accounts in recent weeks. Commenting or reading comments on the web is going down, down, down, week by week. Soon it will be zero (The Lighthouse excepted, of course).
I feel like I’ve already said everything worthwhile that I have to say, and plenty extra that was not worthwhile in the least, or shouldn’t have been shared in the first place. And honestly, I really have no interest anymore in what others have to say on the web either (again, present company excepted).
The internet has been a world changing thing, and it will keep doing so for a long time to come. But for me lately, it all feels so yesterday.
one last thing. just broke another record. this month’s heat and electric bill is even bigger than the last. 🙁 see y’all later. hope someone’s around.
Actually the anger comment was something that I first realised in my close personal life – the squeaky wheel getting oiled because everyone is afraid of what will happen if it isn’t. Not a fair way to win an argument, my anger is scarier than yours. Put an end to that and many things improved.
Fascinating tale of the triple greats, and god people are awfully callous sometimes – sold on eBay? So strange.
And apologies for the hockey enthusiasm. And I am not watching hockey now, not at all.
The crusher is likely to come in the form of the automatic videos that start up on so many pages now. Pisses me off. So intrusive. Anytime a page starts a video without me doing anything, I just click away immediately and make a mental note to try to never go there again. But, the trend is that this will become ubiquitous, and then I will be done with the web. Facebook had already said they are going that way. I quit them preemptively.
I already abandoned the entire movie industry since they went crazy with product placement and commercials mixed in with the previews. I used to love movies. Now I see maybe one a year, or less, and still come home feeling like I want my time and my money back.
I’m with EO on the internet crap, and the movies to a certain degree.
I want to see a real movie, not 2 hours of political propaganda from either side of the false choice political world. I don’t even care what the real movie is about, and I know that ‘good’ is a tad subjective, but hey.
American Hustle, I really enjoyed.
My latest quest that I will never follow through on is to find one single critic, or movie reviewer who has the same taste as me, and then I can just wait and watch the ones they like.
True Grit 2010, The Hangover (original only) The Big Lebowski, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Moneyball, stuff like that. I don’t know, maybe I need to find an ENTP movie reviewer.
And don’t forget Big Trouble in Little China:
This song covers all the bases, even hockey.
This tells you pretty much everything that is whacked about the silverbug crowd. The mere fact that such a product exists makes me increasingly itchy to sell all my silver.
Silver Bullets
it has always been a pet peeve of mine when cartridges are called bullets. i’m pretty sure all of you know that the bullet travels down the barrel, and out the muzzle, while the rest of the cartridge remains in the breech, until ejected. and what good is a fake “silver bullet” anyway if it cannot kill a vampire, like the jerks selling these things?
and i liked movies before special effects. McQueen did most of his own stunts.
edit: i obviously screwed something up. forgive me, i’m not going to try to fix it. pretty tired after driving this afternoon/evening in this crazy freaking wind.
all that matters is entirely relative.
chemtrails actually are high altitude bong smoke. birds like to get as high as possible, but their wings lose lift in the thin air. Bongtrails for Birds is one of those liberal causes that i fully back.
I forgot to comment on the loose clothing comment – no socks, loose collar, etc. There is a medical condition, kind of related to my middle child’s leg story, sometimes called Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome, and for some people even the weight of a sheet can be quite agonizing. And it is true that when he was little he would get down to his diaper fast, and seemed uncomfortable – always had to cut out labels from his shirts, etc.
I am probably the genetic source of his troubles, and am a fan of clothing that secretly feels like pajamas. [Why does this infernal spell check want me to write pyjamas? Is that really correct? I feel almost saddened.]
Flannel lined jeans are pretty much the greatest invention ever. They feel like jammies. I wear them all winter long. Except for when I’m wearing actual jammies.
I can’t believe I was already 40-something years old before I found out that such a thing existed. Wow, the wasted decades… 🙁
That I love them is the glass half full. That I discovered them late in life is the glass half empty.