It is 8 a.m. and I am ready to go back to bed. I dropped the girl-child off at her school this morning at 5:30 for a ski trip, which should be interesting. The local highway signs are announcing that chains are required at Blue Lake, which is only a few miles inland. Knowing Humboldt, though, that probably means that someone thought they saw a snowflake and assumed the sky was falling. (more…)
Oliphant Parts
Reframing Reality
Archives: February 2011
Oh God, The SMELL!!!
The girl-child just wandered in with a stack of books reeking of mildew (the books, not the girl-child). She is going to learn about “The Patterns of Plausible Reasoning,” “The Science of Decision-Making,” “Journeys Out Of Body” and a few other subjects from the past 5 decades. Mathematics is based on guessing? Really? I see some creative arguments over grades in the near future . . .
What else do we have here? A book about the near future: 1994, and some more mathematical philosophy. Oh yeah, parent-teacher conferences, here we come. Great. My hands are mildewy now. This is one of those rare times that I’d support a book burning, just to get rid of the smell and the soon-to-come allergies/asthma from the boy-child. She must have found the local branch of the library of Hell. I plan on taking a journey out of body when it comes time for school counseling.
I Will Always Love You, Beach
It’s only February, and I am in shorts and a t-shirt, wandering the seaside and soaking up the sun. The tide is high and the waves are only a foot or so tall, but the surfers keep flocking to the beach. These calm days are incredible, making me once again wonder why I took a five year Idaho break. My own private Idaho was a hellish snowscape, followed by a few weeks of wonderful weather, followed by blistering heat and a losing battle against knapweed and the slow collapse of everything related to my house. Damn, the previous owner (and builder) certainly had a love for low grade pvc and creative wiring, didn’t he? (more…)
More Beachy
The day bounced between rain and sun. I took a late walk to Moonstone during a sunshine moment but mostly spent the day doing nothing. I think I like nothing very much. Once again, hula hoops came into the picture. As I was leaving, a group of four hoopers with hoops of several sizes were heading for the shore. Fascinating. I wanted to stay and see what the latest routines would be, but home and children were calling. Jennie, meanwhile, spent the day getting used to Vegas, and may not hate it quite as much as she did last night.
Flight To Nowhere
Several hours late, but Jennie is finally off for a week-long veterinary management conference. I had forgotten how small and poorly-served our local airport is, so I guess this is a good reminder. There is, or might be, a restaurant at the airport, but it is not open on Saturdays. With no schedule listed, it might not be open any days. None of the car rental facilities (facility?) are open Saturday morning. Instead of handing your checked baggage to an attendant so it can be sent back to be checked, the attendant sends you around the corner, through the door marked “Authorized Personnel Only”, to drop your baggage off next to the baggage X-Ray machine. So not only do you get to fly out from here, you get a very short stint as an airport intern. Yay! (more…)
Search Terms
Well this is disturbing: Two of the top five searches used to reach my site appear to be attempts to get to child pornography, beating out the search for “flushmaster plungers.” I wish the stats page would show who actually did these searches. I guess I could look through my access logs, but that would require too much effort on my part. Anyway, for you folks trying to get to “preteens” and “preteen Topanga” you have reached the wrong site. Unless you are here to hear me discuss my preteen days in Topanga, sacking up for nude tennis. If so, you’re welcome. And for the rest of you, I will try to make brain bleach available to rinse that image from your minds.
Green Doom
Incandescent Heaven
And with a crackle-pop, another compact fluorescent bulb explodes in a cloud of mercury and burning plastic. I get to air the house, clean up the mess and reflect on the differences between packaging (“bulbs last 10 years or more”) and reality (bulbs die a flaming, smelly death in a year or less). This probably explains the two year warranty on the ten year bulbs. Is it wrong of me to think the warranty should last as long as the bulb is expected to last? These bulbs are supposed to be built to strict energy efficiency guidelines. Hopefully some day they will be built to strict quality guidelines as well. I also hope that I have saved some money on electricity, because the yearly replacement of CF bulbs is definitely lightening my wallet. (more…)
Come again?
(warning, some may find my included links NSFW)
Some days you learn way more than you ever wanted to know, whether it be about home remedies for depression, or the latest in yoghurt toppings.
I am still trying to decide if the PT article is an attempt to convince women to have more unprotected sex with psychologists (“Hey baby, what’s your sign? Want a little injection of antidepressant?”) or completely serious. Somehow I missed the sourced article in Scientific American, although I am guessing it was only in the online version, not the print version. (more…)
Get A Job, Hippie!
Oh, Humboldt!- you’re embarrassing yourself. Richardson Grove is beautiful, Humboldt is awesome, but we need decent roadways. This is not a clear-cut. This is not a deforestation. This IS good for Humboldt, assuming that you consider letting us stay connected to the outside world and thrive a positive thing. Quit being stupid and accept that growth requires change. If a meandering two-way highway through the trees was all that was needed to get people in and out of Humboldt County, that would be evidence that the world had passed us by. Personally, I LIKE being able to live here and not have a completely stagnant economy and culture.
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