Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Rats at Taco Bell

So I guess "awwww, wook at the widdle cuties!" is not the correct response to this?

Taco Bell/KFC shut down due to rats

Real estate wanted: happy place

I nearly always have a headache. Occasionally they are migraines (this was more frequent when I was a kid; at 10, the doctor put me on Inderal to prevent them), and I used to have a butalbital prescription. Now that I've worked in the pharmaceutical field for 14 years, I prefer not to medicate unless it's absolutely necessary, like when the headache affects my vision...NSAIDs mess up my stomach, and I don't want to take acetaminophen every day.

Lately I've been getting some vicious headaches, and the NSAIDs and acetaminophen aren't helping. I let the damn butalbital prescription lapse.

Several years ago, I once had a headache relieved by guided imagery. That was back when I was a full-blown cynic, too, not the holistic wacko I've become. I found a recording of a guided imagery for pain relief exercise online, so I gave it a shot.

Pretty music, trickling water sound effects, the Relaxation Lady had a nice voice. Very soothing.

She said to picture yourself in a quiet, safe place. It might be real or imagined, indoors or out...

I try to think of a place. Stress! I don't know! Oh, ok...my bed. Yeah, my bedroom is quiet and safe, and best of all, it doesn't require my imagination, because it's where I actually am. Perfect.

So I start drifting off to the bird noise and the water and the Yanni music. I breathe deeply, I feel my toes, I'm radiating something.

Then the Relaxation Lady starts talking about the sun. Dammit, there's no sun in my bedroom. Ok, I'm on a beach now. Excellent, she wants soft sand and water, so she must be thinking beach as well. I'm relaxing on a beach...

Now she's talking about smelling the pine tress. There aren't pine trees on a beach! Shit. Ok, picture woods...but serene woods...I don't want to lie on the ground in the woods. I've done that, and you get sticks in your hair and bug bites.

Crackling fire? She just said something about hearing a crackling fire? Woods on fire is not freaking peaceful!

Oh, a soft armchair in front of a fireplace. That would be lovely, but I'm a little keyed up from the forest fire. My heart is actually pounding.

The tape ended with some congratulations about taking care of myself, but frankly, the stress of jumping from happy place to happy place left me exhausted...and gave me a headache.

Mardi Gras

Finally! I didn't screw up Mardi Gras!

Should you find yourself in need of your own gross of Moon Pies, I recommend Toomey’s in Mobile. Actually, a box is a gross for throwing at your friends, and a half-dozen for your own personal consumption...if you happen to like Moon Pies. Which actually, I don't.

It's like Peeps...I love them as objects, but ick, I won't eat them.

When the one you love belongs to someone else

I hate Martin St. Louis.

And by "hate," I of course mean "I love Martin St. Louis, except for his knocking us out of the playoffs in 2003 and playing for a divisional rival."

Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs*

That's right, it's Valentine's Day. I sort of lost track of that with the ice.

So anyway, happy Valentine's Day.

And for you romantics out there: An Affair Of the Head
They Say Love Is All About Brain Chemistry. Will You Be Dopamine?

And from Joel Achenbach, the last word on why love lasts:

And here's Helen Fisher on why couples stay together even when things aren't so hot:

' "There are two stages of love, the first being attraction. During that stage, you get a brain bath of three chemicals that are natural amphetamines. You can stay up all night, and talk till dawn, and feel giddy and euphoric.

' "In time, these wane, and the second stage of love kicks in, attachment, and that's associated with a different brain chemistry, the endorphins, which have natural narcotic-like qualities," she says.

'So over time, you become narcotized in a relationship. The cocaine buzz of infatuation gives way to a dull, blissed-out heroin addiction.'

*A better title would have been Love is the Drug, but I'm more of a Wings fan than a fan of Roxy Music.

For the record

I had an interesting e-mail this morning. It's one of those "Will you link to me? I'll link to you" messages, but unlike the usual spam, the URL took me to what appears to be a real blog.

The interesting thing is the message itself:

I like your blog. We seem to have the same views. I'm a conservative,
pro-gun, anti-illegal-alien cop...

Hmm. I'm a flaming liberal, I hate guns, and while I won't describe myself as pro-illegal alien (that's sort of like using "pro-abortion" instead of "pro-choice"), I think we need pragmatic and compassionate immigration reform.

I do respect police officers, but really, I suspect that the only thing this blogger and I have in common is that we both have dogs. Which isn't to say he's not a great guy...some of my best friends are right wing gun nuts, and I say that with affection. (They think I'm a kooky hippie.)

I wonder, though, if this blogger ever actually read anything I wrote. Granted, I haven't blogged much over the last few months, and I don't wear my political heart on my sleeve (I don't generally care to read political rants, so I don't often make them...there's enough screaming in the world without my adding to it), so what could I have said to make him think I'd share his views?

Maybe I'm judged by the company I keep. I know there are a lot of political blogs on mu.nu, and all the ones I've seen lean right.

I feel like I need to correct the public record, somehow. So:

From the The Political Compass, I score an Economic Left/Right of -4.75, and a Social Libertarian/Authoritarian -5.13. (That puts me somewhere near the Dalai Lama, but I bet not near my new blogger friend.)

It's a fair cop

Call me a wuss, but I don't want to go to work.

My office opens in forty minutes. This is the view from the traffic camera at the closest intersection:

...which looks fabulous compared to my street, which is just four inches of teeny ice balls. (I heard a guy on the radio describe it as "snow cone filling," which is pretty accurate. And snow cones covering the sidewalk and street four inches deep are heavy. as. hell., in case you wondered.)

I really wouldn't mind making some tea and putting on the Meerkat Manor DVD.

I do have 270 hours of leave, it's not like 8 hours would break me.

My new boss might think I'm a wuss. But...

UPDATE:

My neighbor tried backing out of her parking space and got stuck, which effectively blocks my way out. I snapped the antenna off my car in my attempt to clear the ice off the roof. I called my boss, and she said our parking lot at work was completely untreated.

Looks like I get a day of soup and daytime TV. I wish I'd known all this at 4:30; I could have slept in.

ANOTHER UPDATE:

At 2:30, we'd still not seen a plow or salt truck. The neighbor with the Hummer got out ok, but those with small sedans had a lot of trouble until they managed to get in the Hummer's tracks. I called the HOA (they contract for the snow removal) and left what I hoped was a reasonable message ("I know you guys are really busy, but we've seen plows go by the cross street, so I wanted to make sure you hadn't missed us.") At 3:00, we got a plow. Well, we got an F-150 with a plow on the front, who did one half-assed pass down part of the street, whereupon he got stuck, fishtailed around, then finally crept slowly away (plow blade up) in the Hummer tracks.

I suppose I should consider myself lucky that he didn't push what slush he did move in front of my car.

Wisdom from a Metro Train Operator as the Snow is Coming Down

The train rolled into the Shady Grove station at about 5:15, and the Operator made his standard announcement: "Now approaching Shady Grove Station. Doors will open on the right. Thank you for riding Metro and I'll see you tomorrow," and you heard the brief crack as he turned off his microphone.

A moment later, after the Operator got a good look at the size of the flakes coming down, his microphone cracked again: "Maybe not."

Might be better than Moon Pies

I wish I had the time for this:

Mardi Gras on the Mason-Dixon Wine Trail

Eight wineries...I wish I had the time, and a chauffeur.

I'll have you know

We have quite a reputation around here for being hysterical and easily spooked by a forecast of winter weather. I went to the grocery store today, though, and there was still plenty of milk, bread, and toilet paper on the shelves.

Ok, I was just kidding

I need to do some strategic planning at work. This is bad, because I suck at big picture things and future things. I have no vision...I'm in regulatory compliance for a reason, y'know.

On the way home I was pondering this...can one teach oneself how to be creative? A book I could read...Strategic Planning for Dummies, maybe?

(Of course I was kidding. Can I have a big box to use when I get outside my box, please?)

But guess what?

Strategic Planning For Dummies

Radio days

There's a new radio station here, one of those obnoxious variety hits format stations with a name (George, in this case.) The format is very cynically and specifically targeting...well, me.

Of course, I'm a bad target, because I'm the rare 35-54 year-old who wants to hear Buddy Holly, so I bought an XM a couple years ago. But the XM's battery is dying, so I pretty much keep it plugged in in the kitchen, and I've been listening to George off and on in the car.

Much of it is like a flashback to high school...and then I find myself saying "Wow, I haven't heard that crap in twenty years!"...as I switch back to the news station.

(Just found out that the classic rock station...the one that replaced the light rock station, not the one that replaced the oldies station...has switched formats to "adult album alternative." Supposedly it will sound like WHFS from the mid-80's, when even I listed to WHFS. If they were to bring back the Daily Feed, that might win me over.)

SciFi meme

From Owlish:

Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.

The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien*
The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
Dune, Frank Herbert
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury*
The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
Cities in Flight, James Blish
The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams*
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
Little, Big, John Crowley
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
On the Beach, Nevil Shute
Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
Ringworld, Larry Niven
Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut*
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
Timescape, Gregory Benford
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Phillip Jose Farmer

The Colour of Magic is on my bookcase right now. I started it before Christmas and then got busy, but I expect to finish it. I loved Good Omens (and I love Neil Gaiman; couldn't Neverwhere be on this list? or American Gods?**)

There are a few I recognize and might have read, but if I did they didn't leave a huge impression...like the Alfred Bester. I may just recognize him from packing up Victor's books.

*For "loved," I starred anything I read more than once. Hate...eh. I never could get into Dune, but I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say that I hated it, and I never understood the fuss over Anne Rice.

**Ah! After I read back to Texas Best Grok, I found that the list is the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club.

I was a member of that for awhile as a kid...back in my D&D days. Lord, I am a geek.

Name that Tune

To answer the burning question about where I've been since I've not been blogging, I give you multiple choice:

1. I won a role in the community theater production of Paint Your Wagon and I've been at rehearsal.

2. I'm so obsessed with the new season of American Idol that I'm spending all my free time on Paula Abdul message boards.

3. I finally got an iPod and I'm busy searching the internet for Jerry Jeff Walker mp3s.

4. To pay for the new basement, I took a night job at the mall selling player organs at Jordan Kitts.