Some days, everything just takes longer…
This morning, I wanted to whip up a quick couple of loaves of bread. [...] No hot water. So I spent a while in the basement relighting the hot water heater. I don’t know why it randomly goes out, but that happens a couple of times a year.
This afternoon, I took the dog for a quick walk though the neighborhood. [...] She found one of those weeds that leaves little clingy, green, caper-sized balls all over her fur. So when we came upon a spot in the shade of a tree, we chilled for a bit, and she wiggled and rolled in the grass while I picked the burrs out of her coat.
And so on…
The good news is that it was a gorgeous day, and even though I didn’t get as much done as I wanted, the dog and I had a great time enjoying the beautiful weather, and house smelled of fresh bread when we got home.
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So, welcome Arlen Specter to the good side of the Force! And then give all the quatloos you can to Al Franken. Norm Coleman’s ungracious little tantrum in the courts just reached a whole new level of ugly.
Wow. I just talked about politics! Freaky.
And speaking of which, check out this list of the most and least partisan members of the Senate!
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I got a phone call today from out of town:
“Hello?”
“Hey! Uh… I’m just calling to find out if you’re alright…”
“Yeah! Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because you haven’t been posting.”
Yeah. Sorry about that. The weather here has been excruciatingly beautiful and the end of the week and the weekend were incredibly busy with spring cleaning, our neighborhood celebration of the Great American Cleanup, quality time spent with Emmie (who is now done with her semester) and the usual distractions of work, cooking and life in general.
I haven’t spent a moment more than I’ve had to sitting inside at the computer. The good news, though, is that I have been taking photos again, so once I get caught up (HA!!!), I’ll have something to post! And now that the weather has become hot (can you believe we had to turn on our AC in April?!?) and the pollen in the air is thickening, I’m not as eager to spend all my time outdoors.
I’ll try to get back into a regular routine this week…
* That’s a Monty Python reference.
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Sorry it’s been so quiet around here. I’ve been swamped with the usual, PLUS trying to get the house in order before Emmie (and her stuff) moves home for the summer* (this year ought to be interesting, as in the previous two, she moved her stuff home, but then she hopped off to Europe for the summer — this year, she’s actually going to live here!).
Anyway, it’s Earth Day and I hope to add some links to this post throughout the day, but first I have to jump through a few hoops. This will get us started, though:
• To Hell with Earth Day; Long Live Arbor Day!, from Batavia’s own Bill Kauffman
• Are these earth-friendly products silly?
* Boy, the spring semester sure does end early down here in the South!
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It was a big disappointment this year. $5 to park and $5 to get in (and with no warning, no less!)? That’s $15 for a couple, before buying even the first thing. Boo. I didn’t go in, since I didn’t have much time to spend and it wasn’t worth it to pay that kind of price for a 30-minute spin through the exhibits. If they’re going to keep this on the busiest weekend of the year (i.e. planting weekend, the first one after the holiday, etc…), I’ll be sad to miss it every year, but what can I do? There’s just too much other stuff going on! I’ll be sorry to see it go…
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So, look who’s trying to impress the ladies!
If you have time, you’ll find a lot more creatures on the modulator’s ark over the weekend. Now that we’re past the holiday and the weather is starting to get a little milder, everyone is having events! It’s planting time (in this zone, anyway), and Crabtree Farms is having their spring plant sale. One of the best events in of the year in Chattanooga is the 4 Bridges Art Festival, which is this weekend as well. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg — two out of a lot of events that should keep us busy all weekend. I hope you also have a lot to look forward to! Have a good one!
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…And Tax Day will perhaps be forever changed…
Everybody’s talking about teabagging this week (much to Rachel’s amusement!). Even Chattanoogans, who are notoriously non-activist, had some tea parties today. Events all over the country have been getting a lot of media coverage, but I wonder if at least part of the reason for that is the fact that protesters’ choice of language is providing so much amusement for people (and giving at least one poor old woman asthma attacks!).
But besides their unfortunate use of language — which is a place they keep going back to (more here), deliciously — conservatives might also be hurting their reputation in another way: their choice of metaphor just doesn’t ring true, and so it leaves them looking clueless and petulant. The “tea party” is, I gather, supposed to refer back to the Boston Tea Party (where they dumped chests, not bags, of tea into the harbor (not on the sidewalk) — tea which had been siezed, not purchased at the nearest Wal-Mart Asian Import Store). The 1773 Tea Party was part of a protest of the the fact that colonists were being asked to pay levies while not being allowed representation by the taxing authority — but sadly, the reference is willfully ignorant.
The events across the country were not being put together by people who suffer from a lack of representation by the taxing authority. Today’s demonstrators had the opportunity to vote for their representatives in government just last fall. I can only assume that these activists took advantage of that civic opportunity, so at this point, they’re really just being sore losers. These people put politicians in power who demonstrated an incredible incompetence at running a government over a number of recent years, and then they suffered terrific losses at the polls as a result. That is what makes today’s protests not so much like an iconic event that might change the course of history and more like a toddler’s tantrum — complete with the red face, teary eyes, and bulging diaper — after just 86 days in the minority. As Joe says:
I’m all for fighting against big government. My only question is: why just now? With a few exceptions, where have you guys been?
And, I might add, where are your suggestions as to an alternative course? (Come on, be serious — if all you’re going to say is “shut down the government,” then, really, how is that helping?) Given where we are, how should we proceed?
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