Harriet likes to sit on the corner of the deck and look out over the neighboring fields. She’ll spend hours like that, sitting and watching. I think she may be channeling her namesake, Greta Garbo (Garbo used the name Harriet Brown as a pseudonym). Like Garbo, Harriet often wishes to be left alone.
Harriet had an exciting weekend. We went to visit my family, who live a couple of hours north of me. Harriet is a wonderful travelling companion, so I enjoy taking her places with me. She’s always eager to get into her car harness and settles down quickly in the car. While we’re in stop-and-go traffic, she stands up and presses her nose to the window, so that she can watch what’s going on. Once we’re on the highway, though, she curls up and goes to sleep. I mention this, because I think it’s interesting that the only thing I specifically wanted when I got her was a dog who enjoyed car rides. It’s funny how those sorts of things work out. Her previous owners never took her anywhere in the car, but as long as I’ve had her, she’s been a fabulous travelling companion.
Gabe playing with Harriet’s ears
She had a great time at my mom’s house. She always enjoys going there, and is nearly as relaxed there as she is at home. She even managed to do some kidney beaning and sassy woo-wooing, which she never does in front of anyone but me. She got to play with my brother’s kids, and got all sorts of attention from my brothers. She also got to eat all sorts of stuff she wouldn’t normally get to eat, and was entertaining in the process–there’s nothing quite like a kitchen full of people feeding green beans to a dog, who thinks they’re some sort of canine crack. I guess they’d never seen a dog eat green beans before. Harriet loves them, though.
This was the first time I’d taken the new car on a road trip. I was well pleased with it! As we reached Indy, the wind picked up, which was, um, exciting. It handled pretty well, though. Even though it’s much bigger and taller than my last car, it’s also much heavier, so it sticks to the road better. There were times in the Festiva when I’d crest a hill, and a strong gust of wind would nearly lift me off the ground. Talk about unsettling! That doesn’t happen in the Tracker. It’s just too damned large and heavy to go kiting. I did get pushed around quite a bit by the gusting wind, but it wasn’t all that bad.
Gas mileage was good, too. Even with all the wind, and running the AC because the windows kept fogging up, I only used a little over half a tank. I forgot to set the tripometer, but I’m guestimating that I used about 8 gallons over 250 miles, which would be around 31mpg–not bad at all for an SUV. Have I mentioned lately that I lovelovelove my Tracker?
Now, for the obligatory randomness:
- I belong to umpty mail lists, most of them art-related. Artists don’t tend to be the most computer savvy folks on Urth, so I ought to cut them some slack. I draw the line at reading badly formatted messages, though. If there’s HTML coding, or if I have to hunt around to figure out which is new and which is quoted text, or if there is nothing but quoted text, I skip the message. I would think artists, being aesthetically sensitive, would take the time to make their messages look presentable, but apparently that’s not the case.
- I’ve temporarily put my Netflix subscription on hold. Waaah! I’ll miss having good teevee to watch, but I just can’t justify spending money on it right now.
- It snowed today. We were supposed to get two inches worth, then sleet and freezing rain, AKA Icy Death from Above[tm]. Welcome to winter in Indiana!
- Christ died on a spruce tree for your sins. Wait, he didn’t? The use of evergreen trees during the winter holiday season dates back to at least Roman Saturnalia festival. Yeah, the Christians appropriated it, but the tree itself, along with its symbolism, is strictly pagan. So to complain about calling it a “holiday tree” instead of a “Christmas tree” is, I think, a little funny. But then, Mr. Falwell is a funny, funny man. And I don’t mean in the funny-ha-ha sense, either.
- I don’t know why this should be surprising, but it was. It’s sad but true that all news really is just propaganda. From the administrator who was paid to promote No Child Left Behind, to “astroturf” (the opposite of grass roots) form letters sent to US newspapers, supposedly by local soldiers who supported the war, I think it’s a bad idea to believe anything that comes from or lends support to the current administration.
- Firefox v.1.5 is out. If you’re using IE, I really recommend downloading Firefox and giving it a whirl. The tabbed browsing (ctrl-T) alone makes it worthwhile, but the lack of pop-ups and the ability to truly control text size (ctrl-mouse wheel up/down) are quite nice, too.
- The Ebola virus has been traced to bats.
Sunset Another Day
Clouds were just beginning to creep in from the southwest. They must have thickened overnight, because this morning, it started to spit freezing rain. We were supposed to get two inches of snow, then more freezing rain and sleet, but it was too warm for it to actually stick. It’s still gross and disgusting, though, in a way that only Winter in Indiana can be.
red paper boat 