Do you know what’s beautiful? Waking up to find that Fall is well and truly here. It was 30F outside this morning when I got up. Inside, it was 70F, and I still haven’t turned on the heat. It’s weird to live in such a tightly insulated place after living in the equivalent of a big tent for the past five and a half years.
Category: Uncategorized
It’s Official
I looked at the apartment on Tuesday, signed the lease yesterday, and will get possession on Friday. Yay!
It’s two bedroom, with about 90 more square feet than where I am now. The lay-out makes the space more usable than where I am now, too. The bedrooms are big and there are lotsa closets. The appliances (including dish washer!) and carpets are all brand new. There is no washer-dryer hook-up, but there is on-site laundry, which is fine with me. It’s on the ground floor, with a large patio that opens onto a huge, tree-lined field that is perfect for playing with dogs. The sliding glass door will be like big screen television for Miss Brown. She’s a watcher. The neighborhood is quiet and great for dog walking, and it’s close to work, shopping, etc.
In a word: w00t!
Teh Enb.
A doe, a deer, a female deer
There have been a few discussions in one of the dog groups I frequent about silly things our dogs have been mistaken for. One of the best stories involved a sighthound that was misidentified as a deer by a clueless stranger. I never could figure out how someone could make that mistake, but now I have a little more sympathy for the clueless stranger.
I took the back road home yesterday. It’s twisty and hilly, and it can be kind of nerve wracking, but the scenery is so lovely that it’s well worth it. While on Hardscrabble Road, near the Quality on Tap water tower (for those playing along at home), I rounded a curve and saw what I assumed was a large dog running down the road toward me. I slowed down, in case it darted into the road. As it got closer, I realized it wasn’t a dog, but a deer. A large fawn, in fact, with only a trace of spotting remaining in its coat. It occurred to me that mamma must be nearby, so I slowed almost to a stop. Sure enough, mamma was on the opposite side of the road from the fawn, and I was stuck in between them. Eeep!
If you’ve never seen a deer in action, their movements are about as predictable as a super ball. When its feet touch the ground, you cannot predict which direction the deer will bounce. Even stopping your car entirely may not save you from having a deer hit you. So I was stuck with having to decide whether to stop and let mamma go around me to get to her baby, or creep along and hope that mamma stayed put until I was well past her. I opted for creeping slowly along, reasoning that stopping altogether wouldn’t necessarily keep my car from being damaged, because there was no telling what mamma would do when she finally moved. If I drove off slowly, there was a good chance I’d be able to get far enough away before she tried to get to her baby. And that’s what happened. As I drove off, I watched mamma in my rear view mirror. She boing-boing-boinged over to her baby as soon as I was out of the way.
Instant Review: Rough Science
I don’t recall Rough Science running on our local PBS station. For shame! I got it through Netflix, and give it an enthusiastic Two Nerd Thumbs Up! I’m nearly finished with the third series, in which a group of scientists are dumped in New Zealand and challenged to find and smelt gold. Each half-hour episode covers a new aspect of the overall challenge. It is the perfect entertainment one of those days when you’re sick and stuck on the couch. It’s funny, geeky, and the challenges are difficult enough to hold your attention, but are still easy to follow if your brain is foggy.
Next up is Everything is Illuminated or some more Little House (I’m nearly finished with season six).
And then there were eight
Pluto and Charon
Credit: NASA on The Commons
The International Astronomical Union has demoted Pluto to “dwarf planet,” leaving the solar system with only eight “classical” planets. There are now three categories of objects in our solar system: Planets, Dwarf planets, and the not so very poetic Small Solar System Bodies. The last seems to be a catch-all for everything that is not the Sun and does not fit in either of the first two categories.
She Gets Around
The Blessed Mother, who was recently spotted inhabiting a hunk of chocolate, has taken up residence on the plastron of a cute little turtlekins. The visage of the Virgin of the Turtles appears to be from her Cubist period.
Sweet Nostalgia
When my youngest brother was a wee ‘un, one of his favorite shows was Super Ted. What the hell is Super Ted, you ask? It was a surreal British kids’ cartoon. For some reason, our local grocery store chain stocked the series in its tiny video department. My mom rented one of the tapes for my brother, and it was an instant hit.
Two! Red! Foxes!
Seen this ayem on my way to work. The first one was just before the crest of the hill above Mr. Mows His Woods. The second was in Bloomington, across the road from the Newman Center.
I assume this is a good omen.
May
Instant Review: May
May has always been just a little weird. Born with a lazy eye, she grew up wearing a corrective eye patch. The other kids didn’t like her, so her mother–a doll maker–gave her a special doll and told her that, if she didn’t have any friends, she should make her own. When she grew up, that’s just what May did.
As independent horror films go, this is one of the better ones. The acting is good, the story is unique, the writing is smart and funny, and the characters are well developed. And, Angela Bettis, as May, is perfectly mesmerizing and disturbing.
An ill wind
We must have had a storm last night. It’s hard to believe I could have slept through it, but when I tried to go to work this morning, the road was closed. There’s probably a tree down. There were high winds yesterday, and if a storm did come through last night, it wouldn’t surprise me if it brought down trees. The ground being pretty thoroughly soaked doesn’t help, either. If you’ve ever seen an uprooted tree, you will have noticed that the root system is surprisingly shallow. It’s a wonder they stay up at all. When the ground gets soft, it doesn’t take much wind to topple them.
So, here I sit, contemplating whether I should call in or send an e-mail. I changed my schedule this summer, so that I have Mondays off. After three days at home, a fourth makes me feel like I’m playing hooky. As a penance, I might have to actually do some work. Or, I could wait awhile and try again. They may have the road cleared by now. Or, I could try going the alternate route, but I’m not familiar with it and would rather not get lost and spend the day wandering around back country roads. I’m pretty sure that staying home is going to win out, but I still have to decide whether to call in or e-mail. It’s far too early in the morning for this sort of decision-making.
Hmmm… Phone or e-mail…? E-mail or phone…?
red paper boat 