Frog and Goat

I read about a man, who, apparently, finds joy in running marathons while wearing a diving suit, making an attempt to find the Loch Ness monster.

What I don’t understand is why? When we were there in May 2001 we saw Nessie and her offspring…

There’s an interesting and entertaining article about Obituaries in the October issue of Smithsonian. I wrote awhile ago that I was disappointed with Smithsonian’s coverage of stories so I figured if I can complain I can also praise. There’s also a good article on Dubai and, while interesting, it reinforces my original thought that Smithsonian is trying too hard to be topical.

Yesterday I heard a story on NPR about a new book out regarding James Smithson donating money to start the Smithsonian. I didn’t know that the Smithsonian has James Smithson’s bones in a crypt. As far as anyone knows, James never visited America while he was alive.

I finally got to see the season opener of ER. I was disappointed but if this episode finally puts a nail in the Carter & Abby love-fest then I’m a happy camper.

Also, what’s up with the ER being totally reconstructed? It was a bad device to show us (yet again) how hard they have it at the nitty gritty ER. And, furthermore, how “safe” is an ER that uses plastic doors instead of metal detectors? Oh wait, I forgot, now that Carter has had his world-view altered by his two week vacation in Africa he just doesn’t care anymore about getting shot or stabbed at work.

And, what kind of job does Carter have where he can just say “Later, I’m going to Africa and I’m stealing a bunch of medical supplies while I’m at it”? How much vacation does he really have?

How many patients have to die before someone does their job and orients medical students?

When will Romano and Corday finally throw down in the bathroom thereby ejecting horny Susan?

Do you think Weaver’s health insurance will cover the purchase of a new cane since she had to have bent the other one while she was going off on that worker’s ladder? Hey, Crazy Lady, Get A Grip.

Does anyone else think that the whole Luka thing is just a ploy? How could they take Mr. Handsome off the show? Oh, maybe the actor wanted to leave because his storylines always entail his patient either dying or him sucking down too much booze.

Have you ever actually purchased anything out of the on Amazon? I have never been presented with something that is remotely appealing. I don’t have a DVD Player and probably, maybe, have only purchased 1 DVD from them ever, and, honestly, I don’t think I have. I did purchase a VHS (Dolemite–if you want to know) from them ages ago. But, what comes up over and over again…crappy DVD movies.

What I do buy from them is music and books and an occasional toy for one of the tikes in my life. So, I ask you why does my Gold Box contain a bunch of crap that I’ll never buy? Why is my Gold Box my Gold Box anyway? For all the attention Amazon is paying to my purchases they may as well call it “Our Bargain Bin of Stuff You Probably Won’t Want Anyway”–I guess that would be a tough sell.

There are a few things I learned from Hurricane Isabel…this is probably the last entry on this subject.

When a hurricane is forecast, don’t fall back on what you remember happening the last time. Every storm should be treated as severe — so that means that if there is laundry to be done, do it; vacuum the floor even if it doesn’t really look like it needs it; wash the dishes; fill up the 5 gallon gas can; get lamp oil; and you can never have too many candles.

Also, if you have to stay with someone or if you have to rely on someone for any length of time then you need to cough up something. Whether that means you give someone a gift certificate so they can go out to eat; agree to baby-sit their kids the next weekend; wash their cars; bake them a sweet treat; mow their lawn; whatever…you owe them and just because you are related doesn’t mean you get off the hook.

If electric crews from another state come to your state and work like dogs to restore power, then you need to thank them. Thank them verbally, by mail or the internet. Thank them by slowing down when you have to go around their trucks. Wave at them. Smile. Be NICE. They can go home and leave you in the dark–don’t forget that.

Thank you Alabama Power for giving us back our power.

We went (officially) 10 days “off the grid”.

Ok, I promise this is the last Isabel related entry today. I can’t go making promises about tomorrow or the next day.

During the storm last Thursday we finally turned on the generator during a period of little rain so we could flush and then it turned into a party. Remember reading days in college? You’d get an hour to make as much noise as you could and then when the gong sounded you had to shut up again? That’s what it was like around 10:30 last Thursday night (the 18th for those of you keeping score).

Here’s what we listened to…yes, I got hooked on a theme.

Stereo MC’s-Connected (as in get connected to power)
Mary Chapin Carpenter-Down at the Twist & Shout (mentions drinking Hurricanes)
Peter Gabriel-Red Rain
Stevie Ray Vaughan-Couldn’t Stand the Weather
Prince-Purple Rain
Billie Holliday-Stormy Weather
The Doors-Riders on the Storm
The Blue Nile-Tinseltown in the Rain (we went into the vault for that one)
JJ Cale-Call Me the Breeze
Cowboy Junkies-Southern Rain
Nanci Griffith-Comin’ Down in the Rain
The Alarm-Eye of the Hurricane

Prior to the Hurricane, the local rag said we should all look out for rats and snakes during the aftermath of the storm. I suppose this is something that city residents could look forward to. We only saw one snake and it was tiny and dead in our driveway. I think we killed it. Sorry, little snake. I’m still on the look out for rats.

I went out today to restock the candles–we’re burning them at night like maniacs. There isn’t any lamp oil to be found. I feel bad about running our electricity like we’re not in an emergency situation so we don’t sit around and tax our generator with lots o’ lights and things at night.

Today I walked through the woods to see about the pole that services our house. From the pole to our house the service goes underground. From the road to the pole now lays on the ground entwined in a dead pine tree. Great.

Prior to sawing up one of the hickories that fell in the backyard, I got some shots of a tree frog making him/her-self invisible. I figured I’d show you those pictures since this is an entry by the resident frog.

I will stop talking about Isabel real soon now.

“Hey, hey Julia, you’re acting so peculiar
I know I’d never fool you in a million years
A horn section you resemble and your figure makes me tremble
And I sure would like to handle what’s between your ears”

Thanks, Robert.

One week + one day and counting…there’s a difference in our area between those who can count the hours they were without power and those that can count the days. We’re in the long-haul group.

We were pretty lucky in the no trees on our house department but we counted 14 trees down with some that will have to come down because they will eventually fall over and really piss us off. We had two that came down over our driveway thus blocking us in. You wouldn’t believe how many people asked if that was our only driveway…no, we’re the freaking Rockefeller’s of driveways—got millions of them. And, then the show-stopper stupid question as we’re standing in the driveway trying to cut our way out…did you weather the storm out at home? Dude, do you see any cars at the end of the driveway or parked on the road? Then where do you think we were? Gack, if you can’t say something intelligent then shut your yammering trap.

We hosted the MIL for 5 crazy nights and you’ve never seen two happier people when we found out her power was back on–shuttled her back over there as soon as was possible.

We’ve been pretty lucky because we have a generator. We bought it after the ice storm during Christmas 1998. My house will never be 30 degrees again. The only downside is having to baby-sit the generator and having to plan if you want hot water or a toilet flush. But, considering what other people are dealing with that’s small potatoes.

Today as we were headed to the office to restart all the equipment we saw an idiot come over the yellow line and the crane truck we were following had to swerve off the road to avoid a head-on collision. If there is one thing I complain about on a daily basis is morons who don’t stay in their lane. Anyway, as we’re watching the crane truck careen off the road I start shouting “F7ck, F7ck, F7ck” because the crane is crashing into a telephone pole so hard that he’s snapping the tops off of others and one dangles above our truck. No one was hurt and the offending driver did loop back around to face the music. It will be my fate that some torrent of potty-mouth will spew forth and my last words will be very unladylike.

Here are some storm pictures.

A Close Call

Bye to the hammock hickories

As my mother calls it “Salad”

A Resiliant Spider

A Toast to Isabel–yes that’s a Hurricane