Oh no

I'm tired already.  My dad called to warn me about all the checkpoints in Missouri.  I will not be driving anywhere a Mo. state trooper would have jurisdiction, and since we have a new vehicle (yeah, that was Thursday), I can't screw around with the KCPD either.  Unfortunately, we have to cross town to achieve our destination.  I ate too much today so far, and the recipe I was about to make is missing soy sauce.  We were out and I forgot.  I just had an idea that I could collect the sauce from the panda packets from the Chinese food we ate today.  I think I need two tablespoons.  Quiz:  how many packets does it take?

We figured out the extent of one of the circuits.  It's got a lot on it, and it's kind of random in my opinion, but I am not an electrician.  When they are blown, they are barely perceptible; it took monkey power to figure out which switch to flip.

Tsunamis make the earth wobble out of balance.

Leap year ho!

Northface

It does not melt.

Murderous windows

Kitty likes all windows, of course;

but apparently there are other reasons besides modesty to have curtains.

The house killed a junco, I think.


Of course, suicides do go up this time of year, right?

Apparently not.

There is nothing nice about hearing a feathery thud and the tiny ring of slight skullbone against thermal pane, then seeing the twitching back-half of a dying bird sticking up out of the snow.

The Dr. is in

I didn't notice, since, well, I was not paying attention,
but Rupadupe is back, and I'm glad.
It's always good when the people who make you laugh return.
Congrats on getting off the "rarely updated, defunct, etc." list!

Sunny

T-Rite X-mas

(or is it a trite Chirstmas?)

Mom did great.

Distance is torture.  Holiday-enforced over-proximity is not ideal.

I don't like talking on the phone.

I never have, remember?

Let's be merry.

At least Spring is on the horizon; thank goodness

we've passed the solstice d'hiver.

See you soon,

 t.

Something

Blank it was.

Mom preview

She wanted to see the house.

Thoughts on [the writer's] strike

1. Wow, life without T.V. – finally! Did I win a wishbone battle or something?

2. Dear actors/actresses: take a cue from other artists and write your own material.

3. Get ready for more reality shows.

4. YouTube's big day is on the horizon!

5. Whew, I won't have to watch LOST anymore… on the other hand, no more Prison Break? : (

6. Why don't they just pay them???

[p.s., I tried to read about it, and I got confused. Obviously, I do not belong to a union. Label me what you will, but I refer to myself as happy to join associations such as the SPJ. I tend to gravitate toward non profits anyway, so the issue of minimum pay is already a forgone subject. I expect no giant gains. Those in non-profit work who do, they usually end up the center of embezzlement controversy. Note a peach on the Society of Professional Journalists' Web page, and then note a restaurant with similar name that is leaving a wreck of a mismanaged real estate sector for a greasy but above-board (we all nodded, you remember) one a few blocks west. Anyway, no union necessary; I'm already quite the socialist.]

In other bygone times

Back when it was pretty, Katrina was making sure the Christmas wheel and the view were adequate.

Something not missed

This is a bus stop transfer point, which is never sunny.

Times gone by

Yellow and red and sunny have been replaced by grey and white and snowy. This is a view from last month of the famous Tension Envelopes factory building. I do not know what tension envelopes are, and I rather like my delusion that they are the manila ones offices use over and over, "sealing" them temporarily with the coated rubber band that winds around the grommetted flat card circles on the body and flap.*

You won't find better rhetoric on any blog. Where else but the ID-confirmation random letter generator dialogue box can you find such gems as "grommetted flat card circles on the body and flap?"

Incidentally, the word grommet is from 1626, has French origins and is not a verb or adjective.

I first learned the word when I was 18 and sewing costumes for "Much Ado About Nothing," produced in the subterranean Shattered nightclub, which smelled always of skunks and was painted black. It's a coffee shop now and quite clean and bright, in Columbia, Missouri.**

You may find that my punctuation seems different. You also may not find it, I could care less.

I am going though a grammatical mid-life crisis.

I learned something that must have always been but that I have never noticed in my reading: both a trusted English use guide and the Associated Press style manual dictate that it is necessary to place a comma after the name of a state, when the state (even abbreviated) is preceded by one of its cities (from which the word is separated there by another comma, the one I know well).

So, if I write, "Let's go to St. Louis, Missouri, for Christmas," that's the way it should appear. It seems preposterously ponderous and unnecessary.

I am using the dictionary more and more, it seems. I used to know how to spell certain words without having to look them up. But who is to say that grommet has two "m's" or only one "t?" English is a messy business. It's no wonder we all speak so abominably.


*Well, now of course I know what they make there; I had to look. I was right, it was not some industrial item no one but those in some specific manufacturing situation has ever heard of. I do not like their logo.
**I guess they reconstituted themselves; it used to be on a street, perhaps Cherry, perpendicular to Broadway.

I see

That it our efforts to purchase a vehicle are going to be delayed once again.

Walking to work led me to the conclusion that Public Works does not care about pedestrians.

No, I did not fall. I do not want to be like my friend who cracked her laptop monitor in pieces, but it's discouraging to have to walk so slowly, picking through crunchy ice, invisible glaze, snowpack and clear pavement.

Saturday, husband and I celebrated his birthday. We were going to play on the Metro, but the freezing rain lured us to use the 196,345-mile Camry. It's oil leakage has induced Greenpeace protestors to come to our house recently with their pickets and puns. I'm not kidding. We gave it a quart at noon, drove 18 blocks to Anthony's for unhealthy indulgence, then to Historic Northeast where the Mosaic Brain guys were hosting a holiday art sale, then up Chouteau Trafficway, across the bridge and to Target. After the fourth and fifth window-scraping, we gave it two more quarts and then headed home in the dark. The windshield, however, was lightened with smeared salt the ever-ineffectual wiper blades missed. There was not enough precipitation, really, to keep the windows clear, and the spray function has not worked for a decade perhaps.

By the time we were back down on Independence Avenue, the oil light was flickering to a meek shine every time we stopped for a light or traffic or to smear snow on the stupid window.

By six o'clock tonight, we're supposed to be feeling paranoid about our power lines and travel.

Saturday was also when my friend's furnace went out; it was about 17ºF in Lawrence, Kan., and it was 82ºF in Houston, Texas, where my brother's air conditioner froze up twice and failed.

"An ice storm warning means severe winter weather conditions are expected or occurring. Significant amounts of ice accumulations will make travel dangerous or impossible. Travel is strongly discouraged. Commerce will likely be severely impacted. If you must travel, keep an extra flashlight, food, and water in your vehicle in case of an emergency. Ice accumulations and winds will likely lead to snapped power lines and falling tree branches that add to the danger."

Still cheaper than a church

It was indeed "over five years ago" that the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Commissioners increased the fee to have a wedding in the Loose Park rose garden, as we paid $150 in May 2003. Before that, it had only been $75.

They're raising it again to $300 for the guaranteed four-hour access.

Of course, they have you sign something that says they really can't stop other people from coming through the park during your wedding anyway. They only promise someone else won't be having their wedding at the same time.

The paper reports that the fee was already $250. Perhaps I should check my records. My memory says $150.

Happy December

Today, I guess, we're supposed to be grateful if we don't have AIDS and mindful that bunches of people, most of them poor and in Africa, do. World AIDS Day. I can't say anything nice about it, except that I wonder if all diseases will someday have a day. World Cancer Day. World Diabetes Day. World Depression Day. Just kidding. I am also not going to say anything researched or profound about efforts going on to help people with AIDS or how we can get involved. Still, just thinking about it, seeing the notation on the calendar, doesn't do much, does it?