May 2006 Archives
1. Is she gone? Is it safe to come out? Please, please, please tell me Katie Couric's group hug is now over.
2. Ninety-five yesterday. Blech... that is too damn hot. Better today... Eighty-eight.
3. The good: The jury found sniper John Allen Muhammad guilty on all six counts of murder. I guess they didn't buy his argument - he represented himself - that the police were trying to frame him.
4. The bad: the federal government signed off on the Intercounty Connector or ICC. This is an 18-mile highway planned to connect Montgomery and Prince Georges counties. Naifs and wishful thinkers in the DC Maryland suburbs think the road will help with congestion. People like me think it's a road that will be born congested and only contribute to urban sprawl. The artery will exacerbate Maryland's already bad air and water pollution.
5. The ugly: The Orioles are 4 games under .500, the pitching coach questions the team's passion for baseball, the manager is pissed off at the players, and Kevin Millar just hopped over the finger-pointing line. Who'd have thought I'd ever be jealous of the Tigers, now on top of the AL-Central?
6. I finished A Tale of Two Cities last night. It is a truly excellent story. I highly recommend it. I decided to read it because the insufferably arrogant Jeff Daniels character in The Squid and the Whale called it "minor Dickens" and I just had to know what minor Dickens was. It's not minor Dickens at all and the story is so compelling I'm surprised it hasn't been made into a movie.
7. Conversation in an elevator between me and my son, D-, last weekend while at the shore. We had just come off the beach where we had dined on the usual beach food including a box of caramel popcorn. I guess the confusion arises from my still-evident midwest accent.
Me: I really like caramel corn.
D-: Carl Macorn? Who's Carl Macorn?
8. Preferred hamburger toppings: ketchup, horseradish, and onion. Preferred hot dog toppings: mustard, jalapenos, and onions (or sauerkraut when available). I can now personally recommend guacamole as an important new hamburger topping.
9. Observation: the U.S. Constitution does not mention the bible. Consequence: groups aspiring to affect public policy are not immune to close scrutiny. "We're being attacked" just won't wash.
10. Spiderman, Superman, Batman, or X-men? What... are you crazy? Spiderman. It will always be Spiderman.
K-
I spent Memorial Day weekend in Bethany Beach, Delaware. A normally two-and-a-half hour drive took more than four hours thanks to the Memorial Day traffic heading over to the Eastern Shore. But it was enjoyable. Relaxed some on the beach, ate in restaurants, enjoyed the scenery. We stayed on the sixth floor of a big high rise apartment building. Since it is well-known that balcony railings snap off under the slightest provocation, I did not venture out onto the balcony to spit over the edge the way D- did. Heights just aren't my thing.
Friday evening we got caught in a big downpour. We were rewarded with a nice rainbow that spanned the ocean. I could only photograph a snippet of the right end; it was too big to capture in a single frame.
Monday was up in the nineties. Summer is here. Of course, that is when I had to mow.
K-
A few months ago, Howard County decided that it's cable franchise needed a little competition when the county council approved Verizon to come in and install FIOS throughout the county. When the cable installation is complete, Verizon will go toe-to-toe with Comcast providing us with broadband, TV, and VoIP.
Today my neighborhood gets its cable pulled. At exactly 7 AM, twenty sturdy Hispanics arrived in my court and started digging. Twenty guys in hardhats and orange vests out there digging ditches so I can have my choice of cable provider. And it was real ditch-digging too, just like in the movies. Picks and shovels, spades and jackhammers, big piles of dirt. (And the Maryland Piedmont doesn't have that namby-pamby loam or sand stuff, we're talking good, hard Maryland clay and lots of rocks.) Around here at least, Hispanics seem to do the lion's share of all the backbreaking landscaping and earth moving tasks. Thank you guys.
It's 9 AM now and some workers are still at it. Two straight hours digging.
I'd be dead by now.
K-
When I moved into my house, I wanted a dogwood tree in the yard. Nothing looks nicer in the springtime than to drive along some country road and see dogwoods in full bloom back in the woods. I wanted some of that action. So that first spring I went to the nursery, bought one, planted it exactly the way I was told, and hoped for the best.
It died before the next spring.
Undeterred I went back to the nursery and got another dogwood. Again I planted it exactly the way I was told and, so far, it's doing OK. For me, this is a monumental success.
My thumb is black not green. Even though I have books telling me what to do, water and feed, bow down, hug, and kiss my plants, they're usually spindly and sad. Two years ago the cicadas nearly did in my dogwood but I persevered and now the tree is looking good. Lush green leaves. Sounds good right?
Except for one thing. My dogwood doesn't bloom.
At least not much. Each spring I get one or two blooms. Last year - the year after the cicadas - I got 6 or 8 blooms. I thought I had turned a corner and anticipated more and more dogwood flowers each year.
But no such luck. This year I have one bloom. One. One dogwood flower. And it's down low so it's hard to see. That's it on the left. My 2006 dogwood flower.
Enjoy.
K-
I was just sitting here working when - WHAM! - this monster thought appeared in my conscious brain unbidden, for no reason whatsoever. It is so weird when that happens.
The Time Tunnel.
Remember that show? I haven't thought about it in years. It was one of those wacky Irwin Allen adventure series that were on when I was a kid. Like Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, or Land of the Giants. I used to really like The Time Tunnel. I watched it on ABC on Friday nights. It lasted exactly one season. I think it came on after The Green Hornet (with Bruce Lee). These two guys would run into this tunnel looking thing, smoke and fireworks would go off, and they'd land in all sorts of bygone or yet-to-come times. Like on the Titanic or at Custer's Last Stand. It was always a place where the two time-travelers were doomed to die unless they were whisked along to some other point in time by the hapless time tunnel controllers who struggled mightily to get a "fix."
The time tunnel contraption itself was always out of control. Of course the project was top secret. (I have some vague recollection that the device wasn't built for two guys and the two would never land near each other.) There were these two concerned scientists in lab coats and honest military men in uniforms continually perplexed by what was going on and frantically working to save the tunnel men. (One of the scientists was Lee Meriwether for whom I had raging pre-teen hots. Beauty and brains. ) Moondoggie and some other guy were the time travelers. Moondoggie and the other guy always faced some moral dilemma at their destination that either resulted in someone dying or else caused a rupture to the space-time continuum. *Shudder*
I was watching The Time Tunnel when ABC news interrupted it to tell us about the Apollo 1 tragedy.
Well, the Time Tunnel thought is gone now. Damn.
K-
The Google logo from today:
What would Holmes have thought of Google?
K-
Yesterday evening my younger son, D-, and I were hanging out in a church parking lot. He had wind ensemble rehearsal and I was hanging with him until the doors were unlocked. While we were waiting, he started goofing around in the parking lot - dancing, doing silly walks, moving this way and that, being typically D-.
As cars drove down the church drive, folks could see him acting in a way that some dispassionate observer might consider weird. (Although to me he was just being himself.)
Said I, "You know folks coming down the drive can see you acting this way. Do you want them to think you are out of your mind or cool?"
Without missing a beat: "Out of my mind. Everyone's cool."
K-
I had my first hummingbird of the year visit my feeder.
Fred and Ethel's kids are almost ready to fledge.
6:30 PM Update: All the birds have left the box.
K-
1. Rob blogged that he was looking forward to seeing The DaVinci Code in the theater. I opined that I would see it only if it got really good reviews. Well, the movie premiered at Cannes last night and the reviews are beginning to roll in. It's not looking like I'm seeing it in the theater. And since I've already read the book, which I thought was OK but not great, I may not see the movie at all. I guess I'll be getting my Holy Grail instruction from Monty Python.
2. Hey all you people who think The DaVinci Code is blasphemous and insulting to Christianity... where have you been for the last three years when the book spent most of that time Number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list? The book didn't grab your interest but now the movie is concerning you? Pay attention why don't you?
3. Thrillers better than The DaVinci Code: The Company, The Day of the Jackal, The Guns of Navarone, The Maltese Falcon. These are off the top of my head; there are others.
4. Yo, Congress, just so you know... a law unenforced is not a law.
5. I hear the female given name "Nevaeh" is now more popular than "Amanda". Nevaeh is "heaven" spelled backwards. Well I guess it worked for Bob and Eve.
6. Been planning the family summer vacation: New York City, Cooperstown, Saratoga Springs, Lake George.
7. To the 30 percent that still approve the job W is doing as president: would you let the rest of us know exactly what it would take for you to disapprove of the job he is doing?
8. If you had to pick one classic book from literature as your favorite of all time, which one would it be? For me it's David Copperfield.
9. Could someone please help Britney Spears to the exit door of pop culture?
10. I need lunch.
A night at the prom.
K-
Do you ever experience the illusion that you've lived a moment in time before? I think everyone has. At least everyone knows the sensation is called déjà vu. Like it just now happened to me as I left my office to go buy a Coke. Obviously I've done that many times before. But this time that eerie déjà vu sensation came along with it. It lasted only a few moments.
I experience déjà vu what I think of as frequently and I absolutely, positively hate it.
My déjà vu sensations only last a few seconds. But for me, every time I get one, a great sense of anxiety - dread almost - accompanies it. This vague memory of some unpleasant or disquieting event is there along with the déjà vu... lurking just beneath my consciousness, far enough away that I can't quite grab ahold of it and remember what the unpleasant or disquieting event is, but close enough to feel apprehensive about it. I never get déjà vu for happy or fun moments. It occurs during the most random, mundane activities but always with this fleeting, ephemeral memory that something bad is about to happen.
Because it's impossible to turn on and off, I don't think déjà vu has been studied much. But I wish they'd find a cure. For me, déjà vu is really unpleasant.
K-
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
K-
Shot from about 50 ft away. Pardon the bird crap on the roof.
K-
I wasn't going to blog a second time today but this is too good. I have one of those VoIP phones at work. You can see it there on the left. That LCD screen usually lists my speed dials and provides caller ID information whenever the phone rings.
I just happened to glance down at my phone. The usual display is gone. In its place is a graphic of a big exclamation point. The text next to the graphic reads:
Run Now! ! !
Conveniently one of the soft keys is labeled "Details". I need details. The details are: "If you can read this it's too late!"
Well if it's too late, there's no point in running. So I'll blog.
K-
Jury selection continues today in the trial of John Allen Muhammad. He's on trial down in Montgomery County for six murders in the October 2002 sniper attacks that took place in and around Washington DC. I don't know how closely the rest of the country followed the events when they were taking place or the trial that started last week. Maybe not much. Distance has a way of insulating us from scary and unpleasant things.
But around here, people were really freaked out by the attacks. Kids were scared to death. And even though Howard County is well north of the attack area, during the rampage I sat in my car while pumping gas rather than stand outside by the pump the way I usually did. Time has not dimmed the memories or the passion people feel. Everyone remembers the fear. Muhammad's trial is front-page news.
Yesterday one prospective juror took a seat in the jury box, looked at Muhammad, and said, "You are a filthy murderer. You deserve to die."
The judge dismissed her immediately.
I sympathize with that juror. A jury candidate can have strong feelings about a case but must be able to set those feelings aside and judge the case based solely on the facts presented in court. In the case of John Allen Muhammad, I don't know that I could do that. Thank God I'm not being put to the test. I'd like to think I could be objective about things. But sitting here, typing this, I can only shake my head in disgust. Not only disgust for Muhammad but for me as well.
You see that juror took the words right out of my mouth.
K-
Man, you go away for a few weeks and things start falling apart. For some reason, I'm getting this weird pixel noise in the upper left corner of my blog. You can see it on the right, a 5x5 block of black and gray pixels surrounding a single white pixel. It only shows up in Firefox, too. I was able to fuss with the style sheet to get it to go away on my home page but it shows up on all my other pages.
This is new. It wasn't there before. Anyone have any thoughts on what it might be and how to get rid of it?
K-
I've been gone a while, I know. But what can I say? Life can be boring in and around the White House. Boring to the point that composing my thoughts into words is an exercise in tedium. To be on the outside looking in... well, it would have been just plain excruciating. Cruel almost. So while I've been making the rounds, I've been avoiding my blog.
But just today a friend said, "Hey, where you been? I'm concerned." So I'll blog a bit. And know that hearing those two words brightened by day considerably.
My bluebirds, Fred and Ethel, are back. They started nesting in early April. I've (they've?) got 5 eggs. As of Sunday, none had hatched.
I've seen several movies since my last post: The Aristocrats, A History of Violence, Proof, Remember the Titans, The Squid and the Whale, My Darling Clementine, Everything is Illuminated, Cinderella Man, and Mrs. Henderson Presents. Of these, I give Proof and My Darling Clementine 5 stars. I recommend both highly. The former explores the thin line between erratic behavior and madness, a child's obligations to her father versus what she might accomplish on her own. (Gwyneth Paltrow can't name babies to save her life but she does a good job here.) The latter must be the most beautiful film photographically I've ever seen. Ansel Adams could have been its cinematographer. Netflix is a terrible, wonderful habit.
D- has been visiting colleges. Hard to believe my baby has only one more year of public education.
I'm done painting and wallpapering for a while. What a relief. Looks damn good if I do say so myself.
Katie Couric is heading to CBS news. Good for her. Now I can start watching The Today Show again.
My latest political act? I've already ordered the forthcoming Dixie Chicks album from Amazon.
In the conspicuous consumption department, I bought a pair of these. Hey, at least it wasn't a bass boat.
Sunday I was cleaning up the yard. I grabbed the grill cover, which I had earlier in the week set on the wood pile, only to find a black rat snake curled up underneath it. I imagine this is his. He slithered into the wood pile before I could grab him. (And by "grab" I mean flick him into a bucket using a 3 ft. tent pole.) I don't mind snakes but I like them in an objective-armchair-field-guide sense; not in a surprise!-I'm-in-your-face sense.
See, what did I tell you? Boring. Middle-aged, suburban engineers just aren't the Great Gatsby.
More later.
K-
