Experimental Cooking

Today was dull and dreary; overcast skies and alternating rain and thunderstorms most of the day. Molly wasn't willing to get more than a few inches from me all day. Finally this evening with the storms passed she was willing to leave my side long enough to venture outside for a bit. What is it going to be like this summer when the real thunderstorms arrive?

I had supper at mom's tonight and the discussion turned to the ingredients in microwave mashed potatoes. We conducted a side by side taste test of two different brands because the advertised differences were amusing. One brand (Betty Crocker) advertised "high fiber" and had a larger serving size (2/3 cup) with fewer calories, the other (Idahoan) was advertised as "natural" potatoes with a smaller serving size (1/2 cup). (Both were red potato varieties.) The results: we preferred the Idahoan natural potato kind. It tasted more like real mashed potatoes and had a better consistency.

I had predicted the result before the experiment based on the ingredients listed on the box. The Betty Crocker "high fiber" variant had cellulose listed as the second ingredient. They were using cellulose to supply fiber and add body to the potatoes, allowing the lower calorie claim along with the larger serving size. But it also made the consistency stiffer and the taste was less potato-ey than real mashed potatoes. It is amusing what you can learn if you read the box carefully.

That experiment in turn led to a discussion of angel food cake baking.  I had made a regular angel food cake earlier in the week and mom had made the chocolate variant yesterday. I happened to mention that the boxed mix I used allowed adding either a quarter cup of all purpose flour or a quarter cup of cocoa and extending the baking time by 3 minutes to account for the altitude here. Mom had started from a different mix but had added the cocoa as a seat of the pants thing. Both turned out well, but the high altitude "fixes" led to us looking at a couple of the "from scratch" recipes renowned in the local area and comparing them to a recipe out of a standard cook book. Sure enough, the local recipes had that dash more flour added relative to the standard cookbook.

 
I wonder how many local recipes have all the altitude corrections built in without notation? I also wonder how drastic the effects would be on low altitude cooking.

Enough blithering about cooking, time to do some real work.

I'm Mad

(Before proceeding, the answer to yesterday's question is octopus. Odd huh?)

 

(And no, I'm not literally mad in either sense fo the word.)

 

Time once more for Mama Kat's Writer's Challenge.

This weeks topics:

1.) “I’m mad at myself. I’m embarrassed. I can’t believe after all these years, I’m still talking about my weight.” Poor Ope. What are you mad at yourself about?

2.) Divorce Dreams…a tempting alternative? A disaster to be avoided? Ever an option? Advice? What’s your take?

3.) What is the joy in your present moment?

4.) List 10 rules you’ve unlearned (meaning 10 things you thought were expected of you or were the “right way” of doing things, but that you now ignore).

5.) Mother’s Day is coming…what is the secret behind the close bond you have with your mom? OR What do you do to create that close bond with your kids?

#1 - I'm Mad
(I think that if I were Oprah, I would just leave it at that: I'm mad!)

I suspect that we all have multiple subjects to be mad or obsessed about. The problem is narrow it down to just one thing. I'm going to say weight for the moment.

I have spent my entire life in the 3 standard deviation range for size (except for a week or two sometime in infancy). I was born a small preemie, one of the smallest to survive at the hospital at the time. I have always claimed that they over cooked me in the oxygen tent after birth. The growth that followed led to me being one of the biggest (both tallest and heaviest) in my class throughout school. That is why I have been 6'5" and 300 lbs. since high school.

The only time I get perturbed is when people design doors too short and chairs too small, when people drive cars so small that even one of my size 16 feet won't fit in the door, etc. But at least I can see above the crowd.


#2 - Divorce Dreams

I think that everyone in a long term marriage has occasional thoughts of divorce. L and I have been married for close to 35 years and I know I have had such thoughts. I suspect L has as well.

Such thoughts tend to occur in the throes or aftermath of a particular disappointment or unmet need. Usually the thought of divorce is completely unrealistic. A few hours or days later, the cold hard light of reality intrudes and you realize that divorce is not going to meet the unmet need. You realize that the shared memories and experiences are more important than the problem. That history and belief in each other will let you work the triggering problem out.

The other big trigger for such thoughts seems to be a crisis of self belief. It is a dangerous trap to start believing you are not good enough and that divorce is a way to let your partner find happiness (or even yourself). Usually the delusion fades away and with it the contemplation of divorce.


The divorce dream becomes problematic when it becomes the wedge that prevents you from working on the underlying problem(s). We've all know couples where the idea of divorce was the axe that sundered the marriage because it stopped the ability to function as a team to solve the underlying problem.


(Confused enough?)




#3 - The Joy


The current joy is the coming of summer. The glorious days of never ending sunshine and green growing things all around. The satisfaction of mowing the lawn and working in the garden. The late evening twilight with the cicadas and birds and even the coyotes.




#4 - 10 Broken Rules

• The best person always wins

• Belief is sufficient to impel action

• People are always honest

• Life is fair

• Liars never prosper

• Change is not a constant

• People never change

• Good plans always work well

• Managing people is easy

• Sleep is always attainable

#5 - Relation to Mom

It's getting late, so I'll just point you to this post from last year.

Pears and Goats

Today was one of those days where things started strange and went pear shaped from there. It began with a voice mail box full of full moon (you know, lunatic type) messages, including two from people that wanted to adopt cats but then left no number for me to contact them. Then the fiber optic interface box at the demarc was scheduled to be replaced, but the new box hadn't been programmed quite right. Browsing to a new page hung up the phone and picking up the phone led to strange internet behavior. It took about an hour for the technician to get all correctly setup, so there went the lunch hour.

Molly and I were finally able to head out on our walk a little after 6pm and it was glorious. Warm, slight breeze, late afternoon sun: what could be better. An hour later and the clouds were rolling in and by the time we finished our 5 miles and returned to the house it was sprinkling. It gave the air that glorious ionic touch that smells so good during and after a rain. Before I could even get supper fixed, the rain started falling and the lightning and thunder sat on the horizon, giving a sight and sound extravaganza. Told you I shouldn't have worked on the lawn sprinklers! Of course Molly didn't care for the booming and kept her head in my lap as I ate supper. Poor doggy.

I'll close with this weird fact I was reminded of today: unlike most creatures, goats have rectangular pupils. (Don't ask how it came up.)

Human pupils are round. Goats and most other animals with hooves have horizontal slit pupils which are nearly rectangular when dilated. This gives goats vision covering up to 340 degrees, meaning they can see virtually all around without having to move. Contrast that with the less than 180 degrees we poor humans can see around. The real kicker is that animals with rectangular pupils can also see better at night due to having larger pupils that can close tighter during the day and open more at night. Makes me think we got shorted a bit in the grand eye design competition.

Bonus question: what well known invertebrate also has rectangular pupils? No Google!

Spring?

Needless to say, the PowerBall ticket of the last post was indeed worthless. At least no one else won either. {*grin*} Better luck Wednesday!

Sunday was a return to spring warmth, so I finally got to work on the sprinkler system and play in the water without being too cold. Of course that meant I awoke this morning to the sound of thunder and rain as a thunderstorm rolled through. I'm just happy I didn't wash the truck or it would have flooded for sure.

Today was symptomatic of the arrival of spring. I had at least 5 panicked calls on the office phone before 9:30 this morning. All from people who had lost their puppies Sunday. They were hoping that we (the humane society) had found and captured them Sunday or this morning. I passed the calls on to the animal control officers, really hoping that we had indeed captured their pets. Dogs that wonder into the fields and river bottom this time of year tend to become coyote food in very short order.

The first nice spring weekend and people were out working in the yard, removing debris, etc. and forgot that the gate was open and the puppy was in the yard with them. Many times it is hours later that the pet is discovered to be missing. We actually schedule more animal control during the time in an attempt to keep the animals out of harms way, but there is a limited amount we can do in our huge rural area.

One final observation: the economy must be picking up a little. We run the only no-kill shelter in a huge geographic area (hundreds of square miles), so we are getting calls from a 3 state area from people who have gotten a job elsewhere and cannot take their pets with them. It is good that people are getting jobs, but it is hard on them to leave their animal friend and companion behind. They look very hard to find a shelter that will ensure they are taken care of and not subject to euthanasia. That's how they find us. It will sure be a relief when we get the new facility built. Our current one (an old municipal shelter from the '60s) has very limited space and is almost continuously full in spite of volunteer fostering and help from the front range shelters with adoption and finding new homes out of area. We really hope to have the construction finished by December.

Back to the salt mine and then off to bed.

Fall?

Today felt much like a day of early fall. It was overcast and breezy and the temperature never got above 60. A perfect afternoon for football, but not so good for working on the sprinkler system. (Which was my original plan.) I have a solenoid to replace and the cool and breeze made the idea of working in the water unattractive today. A good excuse to goof off.

Molly and L and I took a stroll through the neighborhood, wasting a dollar at the corner store buying a PowerBall ticket. Given that we have a gigantic 1 in 195,249,054 chance of winning, I think it is a pretty safe bet that buying the ticket was a waste. If I turn out to be wrong, the party's on me. {*grin*}

My reading of the last year seems to be feast or famine. Right now it is in feast mode, since I have 6 books setting on the shelf as yet unread and yet another on the way. It really works out well to read the publishers blogs, because all of that precious new reading material has come from volunteering to read new issues on their blogs. Now all I need is to find a similar source for my expensive scientific book habit. After being a member of a certain scientific book club for 20 years, I quit a couple of years ago. I don't want to say that I was their best customer, but the annual report did take a nose-dive and they do keep asking if I wouldn't like to rejoin. {*grin*}

Well, enough meandering. Time to go figure out what to fix for dinner.

Five Things That Leave Me Going Huh?

Five Things That Leave Me Going Huh?

People who watch reality TV.

People who fail to consider of the different abilities of others.

Molly, who wags her tail in time to only some of the music I have on.

My neighbor who mows his lawn twice a week, even now when it has barely started to grow.

The crow trying to nest in the evergreen bush outside my bedroom window. The raucous battle between the crow and the robins nesting in the pine trees makes morning a noisy affair.

(World's Largest Crow - Belgrade, Minnesota - Photo by Oxley)

The Dad Things

Time once more for Mama Kat's Writer's Challenge.

 

This weeks topic of interest to me:

3.) What does that tell you about your father?  List five products your father used (or uses).  Write a longer piece about, at least, one of them.
(writingfix.com)

There are a lot of things that come to mind when I think of all the things dad used, but given that it is spring, I'll stick with yard and garden related things.

The five things I remember dad using in the yard and garden:

• lawn chair
• hand sprinkler
• lawn mower
• spading shovel
• push hoe

The lawn chair and hand sprinkler go together. Many the afternoon and evening I would find dad sitting on his folding lawn chair with sprinkler in hand watering the lawn. He seemed to achieve a zen state sitting there, moving his arm back and forth, watering. Every so often he would bestir himself, move the chair, and resume sprinkling in a new area. He much preferred to water that way over any other. No sprinkling system or stationary sprinkler held a candle to sitting in the breeze amidst the cooling mist and hand sprinkling for dad.

Dad was also lawn mowing fanatic. From the time we were old enough to operate a mower until we found a "real" summer job, we all had lawns all over town to mow. I can remember being so happy when I got a job in a furniture store as the carpet layer's assistant in 9th grade. No more lawns! Carrying rolls of carpet and moving furniture was a snap compared to mowing multiple lawns day after day. But dad actually enjoyed mowing. When dad retired, he started mowing pretty much all the lawns on the block just for the pleasure of mowing. I think he was mowing 7 or more of the neighborhood lawns at his peak. It was one of the sure signs of his final decline and impending death when he could no longer mow.

Dad was also a spader. He liked to spade, sometimes huge tracts. In his later years when he got a roto-tiller, he still liked to spade. Unfortunately he was not a discriminating spader. Seedlings and weeds and ... were all treated to equal opportunity before the shovel when dad spaded. Along with the spading was digging. I can remember dad digging out the stump of an entire mature tree in a day, using shovel and hatchet and a lot of back breaking labor.

When garden season was in swing, dad loved to use a push hoe to keep the weeds and sand burrs down. Like his spading, his push hoeing sometimes lacked discrimination. Mom was often exasperated as her seedlings and young plants joined the weeds in being cut off at the roots and removed.

The amusing part of all this is that during the time I was growing up, I always swore I'd never do any of those things. And now that I am older - I actually enjoy mowing the lawn and spading. But I still haven't fallen in love with the hand sprinkling. {*grin*} Makes me think that dad may have been onto something.

Grrr Day

I hate getting suckered. Today I wasted four hours of a perfectly nice (albeit windy and pollen filled) day attending a meeting I would not have attended had the true agenda been published. Grrrr.

Then I had a Boy Scout committee meeting tonight that ran a bit long. The actual business of the meeting should have been completed in less than a half hour. The meeting lasted ninety minutes after all the asides and reminisces. So all in all, close to six hours of my time were wasted today in pointless or needless activities. Grrr.

The wind is howling outside, making noises and rattling the windows. Days (and nights) like this are somewhat akin to the Santa Ana winds in SoCal. Everything feels a bit out of kilter and unsettled and the gusting noises and random bangs and booms from the wind keeps nerves on edge. Grrr.

(Painting: Gust of Wind - Corot)

What are your Grrrs for the day?

Spring Has Sprung

It's that time of year here on the high plains - spring. The time of pollen, warmth, and wind. What more could one ask for?

Pollen levels are already high enough to qualify for health alerts, temperatures are in the 70s and 80s, and winds are predicted to be in the 50 mph range tomorrow. I always love the warnings and forecasts about the pollen this time of year:

Concentration of pollen grains in the air for Tuesday will be greater than today's levels and extend even further into the extremely high range. This forecast of higher pollen concentration is based on strong winds and decreasing humidity.

Makes me really happy I don't suffer from hay fever or other pollen allergies.

This post brought to you by the 24 loads of lawn detritus, 8 loads of tree limbs, and the complete coverage of the lawn with weed and feed Saturday followed by the early phases of getting the garden ready on Sunday.

Phobia redux

Tonight for your reading edification, allow me to present fifteen phobias that begin with the letter K:

Kainophobia- Fear of anything new, novelty.
Kakorrhaphiophobia- Fear of failure or defeat.
Katagelophobia- Fear of ridicule.
Kathisophobia- Fear of sitting down.
Kenophobia- Fear of voids or empty spaces.
Keraunophobia - Fear of thunder and lightning.
Kleptophobia- Fear of stealing.
Koinoniphobia- Fear of rooms.
Kolpophobia- Fear of genitals, particularly female.
Kopophobia- Fear of fatigue.
Koniophobia- Fear of dust.
Kosmikophobia- Fear of cosmic phenomenon.
Kymophobia- Fear of waves.
Kynophobia- Fear of rabies.
Kyphophobia- Fear of stooping.

I guess you could say my kainophobia is the only thing that keeps my kenophobia under control. But my koniophobia coupled with my kathisophobia and koinoniphobia makes my life a living hell. But it might be worse!

So what K-fear drives you? How many of you know someone suffering from lachanophobia? Isn't it hard to overcome?

Writing in Code and Other Topics

Time once more for Mama Kat's Writer's Challenge.

This weeks topics:

1.) Baby fever is in the air. Describe what you would do differently as a first time mom.

2.) What book captured your heart? Write about why the first book you loved is the first book you loved.

3.) Who is a bird-brain? Think about all the birds you’ve seen–from songbirds to hunters. Compare one or more people you know to different types of birds in a piece of writing.

4.) Why do we need 26? If you could change the alphabet, what would you do? Add? Subtract? Combine? Simplify? Write about it.

5.) Where does that fear come from? Write about something that frightens you that other people might find ridiculous. Write about it in a poem, a story, or whatever.

So off we go into the gloom and doom.


#1 - First Time Mom
I feel left out since I am clearly not the requisite gender to be a mom. Sexism is alive and well on the web!


#2 - Book O'My Heart
This has different answers depending on how you define first and love. (Sounds like a lawyer blithering, doesn't it?)

The book I loved and read often as a wee tyke is "Digger Dan", written by Patricia Lynn and illustrated by Si Frenkel.

Who can resist the story of the steam shovel that does so many interesting things? Besides, a book with my name on the cover - priceless. Thanks to my mom, I have this book around the house even now. The Son learned to read with it, but it just didn't have the same appeal to him as he was growing up as it did to me.

The first book that I read and fell in love with for the content and the way it was handled was also my first experience of the love of science fiction. The book was Robert Heinlein's "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress"

followed closely by "Podkayne of Mars" by the same author.

Both books appealed to my pre-teen imagination with adventure, science, emotion, and youngsters thinking deeply and doing well in an adult world. I have both books in my library today and still enjoy reading them, despite the fact they are classified as Heinlein "Juveniles". They led me to other science fiction authors including Heinlein's opus, "Stranger In A Strange Land". It was a summer of intense joy and discovery as I read every science fiction book I could get from the library, my mind and horizons literally expanding with each new word. I'd love to go back to that time.


#3 - Bird of a Feather
(The name used here has no relationship to anyone in real life. If you want to get annoyed, remember it is all in *your* mind. {*grin*})

Long ago, I spent several years serving on an adjunct to the district school board known as the District Accountability Committee (DAC). The DAC did a lot of the detail and grunt work that was used by the school board to make decisions on curriculum, student accomplishment, building maintenance, etc. So we had the joy of seeing many members of the community during our meetings, almost invariably with something of great importance to them on their minds to impart to us.

It was during a DAC meeting that I saw Jim resemble a sage grouse to the point I was sure it had to be an act. You remember the sage grouse mating ritual? Where the male puffs up his chest and struts back and forth cooing and prancing to impress the female grouse. Well Jim pranced back and forth, fingers in his suspenders, chest jutting out through the whole of his speech before the committee. The only thing missing was the hen gallery to appreciate the performance.

#4 - Alphabet
I think 26 letters is too restrictive. We should switch to Mayan with close to 800 identified symbols. Of course as it turns out, there are considerably less 800 real letters. It seems the Mayans liked to represent the same sound by 6 or more different symbols. And then they went the extra step by combining several symbols into one common word/sound. But just think of the beautiful calligraphy and lack of repetition such a scheme makes possible. In any case, allow me to introduce a simple 52 letter roman alphabet mapping for your consideration:

Let me know when you have your message written. {*grin*}


#5 - Fear
Most things don't scare me. But one thing consistently gives me the falling sensation of riding a down elevator. You know, where it feels like your stomach has just crawled up your throat and is heading for the exit? Yeah, that one.

What causes the momentary swell of panic? Stepping close to something solid and not being able to see it. I.e. walking along a path with a cinder block on the edge and not being able to see the block as I pass. Why does this particular act cause that rush of fear and panic? Because after many years as a diabetic, I have lost a lot of sensation in my feet. So if I were to kick or hit the obstruction, the pain warning me to stop comes too late and I have already rammed my foot into the object and probably broken a few toes before the pain can warn me not to do that. It happens often enough that I get that panicky feeling in anticipation of the possible happenstance quite often.

How's that for a rational but seemingly irrational fear?

Spoken Too Soon

You remember that I mentioned that at least it wasn't snowing yesterday?

Well, guess what I woke up to this morning? You got it.

More springtime on the high prairie.

Yet Another Odd Day

Today began with the sound of rain falling hard enough to wake me up. Then a bit later the rain was gone and the wind started howling. Although the temperature finally got up to the 50s, it still felt cold with the wind. Not only that, but the wind was dry enough to remove most traces of the rain in short order. So now it is drear and overcast and calm. Quite a change form yesterday's rather pleasant 70s, sunny, and light breeze. Springtime in Colorado continues! (At least no snow - L reported snow yesterday and today in the mountains.) On to bigger and better topics.

This weekend I installed the PC version of the Kindle book reader on the laptop here. It is an amusing experience to read via the Kindle application. On the plus side, they have made it as pain free and simple to use as possible. It is actually tolerable to read for long periods. But there are gotchas. I am one who typically scans both pages of a paperback book in an extended pass as I read. You can't do that in the Kindle app. That is somewhat ameliorated by the larger font sizing in the app versus the paperback, but I still find that it slows my reading time versus a paperback. Not to mention the continuous tap-tap-tap of the next page button as I read - but I suspect that a good mind reading application is still a ways off. {*grin*} My recommendation? Give it a try and see what you think. And here's a gem from XKCD about the Kindle:

Speaking of reading, do you ever find yourself beginning a book and within a paragraph feeling that you have read the book before? I have a semi-edetic memory, so I generally remember books I have read recently word for word. It is good enough so that I can refer people to the answer to their question in a manual without consulting the manual. I used to get calls while sound asleep and be able to tell the caller to read, for example, page 56 on the left most column and then promptly resume sleeping. It is amusing the reputation you can build after a few calls like that. {*grin*}

In any case, I began reading the free Kindle download of Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking.  Within a paragraph I was sure I had read the book before. So I ventured out to my library - and while I had a number of Kim Harrison titles, none were Dead Witch Walking. So I read on, becoming even more certain I had read the book before. Maybe it was serialized? Maybe I read it on a website? I certainly didn't have this cover on the shelf:

It was driving me crazy to *know* that I had read the book before but was completely unable to figure out where. Since Kim Harrison is one of the authors I like, I was certain that if I had read the story in book form, it was in my library. So I pulled down the volumes of Harrison here and began going through them to see if perhaps I had the book under a different title. Sure enough, I opened This Witch For Hire and discovered it was a combined copy of Dead Witch Walking and The Good, the Bad, and the Undead. Mystery solved.

Since it had been more than 5 years since I last read the book, I decided to go ahead and re-read it. I greatly admire the way Harrison combines fairy tale and mythological arcana, witchery, and sarcasm to generate an enthralling read. Where else do you find a wise cracking, hen-pecked, male chauvinist pixie paired with a naive witch and an undead vampire in the grip of living ennui in a private detective business sharing a re-purposed church and cemetery together with werewolves and fairies?

I most admire Kim Harrison's writing for her handling of satire and sarcasm without going too far. I liken writing satire and sarcasm with running along the edge of a cliff - go a little too far and you are likely to suffer a devastating crash. When I write satire and sarcasm, I seem to be incapable of stopping before I dive off the cliff and crash. Ms. Harrison has the knack of teetering on the edge without falling. It makes reading her works a pleasurable yet toe curling experience. Is she going to go too far in *this* paragraph, how will she recover from this misstep? A bit like reading Terry Pratchett, only edgier.

What author(s) do you admire most for skills you cannot perfect?

P.S. Happy Birthday to the Son. Early this morning he will reach the ripe old age of 20. It sure doesn't seem that long ago that L and I were anxiously waiting for him to make his appearance. Happy Birthday Son!

Multi-topics

Tonight's post comes to you as a collection of disjointed ramblings. Welcome to my mind. {*grin*}


Topic 1:
After an enjoyable Easter weekend, L headed back to the mountains this morning. Of course, that meant that Molly was in a sad and inconsolable state. I thought about adding a picture, but decided to be kind to Molly.

(I lied, Molly got pictured anyway.) This evening, I convinced Molly that a walk would be a fun thing. It seems like a lot of people we knew were out and about. In the course of walking 6 miles, Molly and I saw (and walked for a bit) with at least 5 groups of people and dogs we knew. It perked Molly up a bit. I suspect that she will be back to her chipper self by tomorrow.


Topic 2:
I suspect all of us remember the music of the Bangles from the 80's and 90's. When they broke up, I didn't follow any of the members solo careers. I was not even overly enthused by their reunion for the Austin Power's soundtrack song "Get the Girl". So I was pleasantly surprised to find this duet by former Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet. Her voice has matured and she now reminds me a bit of a cross between Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin. Enjoy.

They got together to do an album of hits from the 60's with startlingly good results. I encourage you to dig the tracks up (The album is "Under the Covers, Vol. 1") and take a listen.


Topic 3:
Easter was a nice day. Good conversation, good food, with mom and L's mom and friends, and then a nice long walk in springlike weather. And the weather wasn't quite so nice that I had to work on the yard or get started in the garden. Laziness with no guilt, what more could one ask for?


Topic 4:
Back to writing a monograph (not really, more a series of press releases and radio spots) with the enthusing working title 'Rabies, Your Pet, and You'. There has been an outbreak of rabies in skunks and muskrats in the area in the last month that has resulted in several attacks on humans and their pets, so it is time to remind people to make sure their pet vaccinations are up to date and to avoid possibly rabid animals. Most dog owners are pretty good about staying up to date on vaccinations, but many cat lovers fail to realize that cases of rabies in cats have become more prevalent than in dogs in recent years and so fail to keep their cats vaccinated. Back to the salt mine.

Thoughtless Friday

Today was a typical spring day on the high plains of Colorado - cool temperatures and howling winds. L barely made it out of the mountains for a meeting in Denver due to the snow and wind. Then she had to battle the wind all the way out here. Needless to say she was a bit frazzled by the wind when she got here this evening. The wind and breeze heralds a temporary cooling down and maybe even some moisture. We can but hope.






Today I was reminded of some of the better political symbolism I have seen in recent times. One of the high points of my day. I do have to wonder if the wind today wasn't caused by all the political hot air flowing between the political parties. Election season is going to be really ugly given the early start to all the TV adds. I think they should just run the funny name change and call it good. Enjoy!