quote of the day

It is very wrong for people to feel deeply sad when they lose some money, yet when they waste the precious moments of their lives, they do not have the slightest feeling of repentance.

--The Dalai Lama

speaking of asking questioins

The new credit card law went into effect today. The law's intention was to protect credit card holders from excessive interest rates, fees, and other tricks credit card issuers use to drive up their profits. Here's my question. If the law which was passed last May was meant to help the American consumer why did it not go into effect until today? In the last nine months the banks have wasted no time raising interest rates, creating fees and rules that will cost the consumer a bundle. Hey, congressmen! Yeah, that's right, I'm talking to you. Who are you working for, the people who voted for you, or the banks?

what i'm reading now

Since the 2008 election I've been thinking about the way the political parties and pundits attempt to manipulate our thinking with their slogans and sound bites. It's difficult to separate the truth from the manure. I picked up this copy of M. Neil Browne and Stuart Keeley's book, Asking the Right Questions - a guide to critical thinking and it is helping me sort through not only the claims made by politicians, but all the nonsense that assaults my reasoning via TV, the Internet, and other media. We are living in an age where the collective mindset of huge sections of the population can be captured by a few words on a bumper sticker. It's urgent that we wake up and start asking the right questions.

quote of the day

"Serendipity is looking in a haystack for a needle and discovering a farmer's daughter."

Julius Comroe

absurdities of american life

There was a time when drug companies would try to hawk their wares directly to physicians. Now, they appeal to patients with TV commercials. The idea, I suppose, is that a person watching the commercial and then recognizing the symptoms would persuade his doctor to prescribe it for them. I've been paying particular attention the the "fine print" that is shown at the bottom of the TV screen while the commercial is playing. They go something like this: "results shown are not typical," or "do not expect to achieve these results," and "40 percent of those taking this medicine showed improvement." So while the commercial is describing the wonderful things I can expect from the product the disclaimer tells me not to expect those results. And then while the actors are declaring the benefits of the product there's a quiet voice over warning of symptoms such as depression, suicidal thoughts, anti-social behavior, weight gain, incontinence, an uncontrollable desire to pick up trash and listen to this: excessive flatulence with an oily discharge.

Then there are the law firm commercials that ask: Have you taken _______________and as a result experienced depression, suicidal thoughts, anti-social behavior, weight gain, incontinence, an uncontrollable desire to pick up trash, and excessive flatulence with an oily discharge? If so you may qualify to join a class action law suit and be compensated for your suffering.

Isn't this absurd?

quote of the day

We believe in a personal, unique, and separate identity -- but if we dare to examine it, we find that this identity depends entirely on an endless collection of things to prop it up: our name, our "biography," our partners, family, home , job, friends, credit cards...It is on their fragile and transient support that we rely for our security. So when they are all taken away, will we have any idea of who we really are?

Without our familiar props, we are faced with just ourselves, a person we do not know, an unnerving stranger with whom we have been living all the time but we never really wanted to meet. Isn't that why we have tried to fill every moment of time with noise and activity, however boring or trivial, to ensure that we are never left in silence with this stranger on our own?

--Sogyal Rinpoche

icicles

after the storm

The storm has passed and we made it through fine. We received 1/3" of ice and then five inches of snow on top of that. Some of the highways in the area were closed down for awhile, but traffic seems to be going by on the highway. There were power outages west of us, but we were spared this year. Now we just wait for the thaw. We have the whole weekend before Dorothy has to go back to work so it's watching old movies and eating comfort food for us. Our daughter, Rachel, whose been visiting for the last two months was able to make her flight back to St. Thomas this morning. She's going from 19 degrees to 80 degrees in a matter of a few hours.

black cat

A few months ago a skinny black cat, barely out of kitten hood, showed up on our front porch. I had no intention of keeping it and didn't feed it in hopes it would wander off in search of better pickings. It stayed around and when a crew began to clear the woods across the highway I thought it best to let the cat stay to take care of the rodent population that was sure to migrate across the road and invade our property. Jenna loved the feline and named it Alice. Upon further observation we thought it best to change it's name to Alex. We've had cats before but I was never happy about having them in our house. They smelled up the house, even though we kept the litter box clean, and they ruined the furniture with their claws. Once a Manx tom cat that lived with us peed in my shoes. Alex is a unique cat. Without any training on our part he tells us when he needs to go outside. So far, he's caught a mole and two mice, so he's earning his keep. Our Cocker Spaniel, Lizzie. is not too happy with the living arrangements and tries to keep Alex in line with stern growls whenever she sees him enjoying himself. Alex, the typical adolescent, taunts her until she loses her temper and then escapes to the safety of the back of the sofa.

winter storm

We had freezing rain yesterday until 10:00 last night. The roads were passable this morning and except for a momentary loss of power we've maintained our electricity all day. I think we're past the critical point. It's snowing now and will continue until around midnight; then the storm will be over. So far we've been lucky. I don't think this will be as bad as the Christmas blizzard or the ice storm of last January. Dorothy stayed home because, although she could have made it to work we didn't want her to get stuck in Tahlequah. We may see the sun tomorrow.

quote of the day

If three people say you are an ass, put on a bridle.

--Spanish proverb

here we go again

Earlier this week I noticed the green tips of daffodils and tulips poking up out of the ground. I took heart at that because it's a sign that Spring is just around the corner. But, now we have a major winter storm bearing down on us. This will be a repeat of last year's ice storm, although, not as severe. I went shopping this morning for batteries and candles. I couldn't find any lamp oil, but I think we'll be OK. The kerosene heater is full of fuel and I have enough to last several days. I'm hoping we don't have any power outages. I just went up to the mail box and there is ice forming on our chain link fence. I called Dorothy and she's punching out and coming home at 2:00. So, I guess we'll spend the weekend watching old movies and eating comfort food.

quote of the day

"My own concept of humor is ... the subtle discrepancy we discern in what appears to be normal behaviour. In other words, through humor we see in what seems rational, the irrational; in what seems important, the unimportant. It also heightens our sense of survival and preserves our sanity. Because of humor we are less overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of life. It activates our sense of proportion and reveals to us that in an overstatement of seriousness lurks the absurd."

--Charlie Chaplin

a day in the saddle

This weekend we took Marley, Hunter, and Jenna to our friend Kathleen's house to ride her horse. While we were there we watched Bald Eagles in flight. It was a great day.

Marley and Jenna pose in the saddle.

Hunter takes a ride.