This cost too much

Our city is doing sewer separation to keep the storm run-off from filling the sewer pipes and overwhelming the water treatment plant in the event of a large storm. The main sewer line runs down the center of our street so we were told to expect the mess and disruption of the street getting torn up.
In a good cause, of course, because naturally none of us wants the sewer to back up and cause problems for homeowners and potentially Lake Erie as well. All homes built after 1971 were required to separate waste water and storm water. Nearly no houses in our pocket neighborhood were built after 1971. Until recently, many homes had a ditch out front that the gutters and other rainwater drained to.  So, progress. Good for Lake Erie. Good for the community.

Unfortunately, our city chose to contract the job to the cheapest contractor who then subcontracted some work to an even cheaper outfit. As a result, the city -because that is who is ultimately responsible here, no matter what the city engineer suggests- is complicit in the destruction of no fewer than five trees over the age of 20 and at least two that were about 200.
Our neighbors' 200-year-old oak, older than the city itself, had withstood centuries of "progress" only to be deemed in the way by the lazy contractor and eliminated.
This tree had survived the founding of the village, the building of the little vacation beach houses all around it, the piping of sewers, water and gas lines. Electricity came in and worked around it. The houses it shaded were built respecting its presence, The street was paved, first with gravel, then with blacktop and the tree was undisturbed.
But somehow, the lazy corner-cutting shits that are replacing the sewer under that very road had to have that venerable 150 foot tall, 200-year-old oak which was perfectly healthy, cut down. That irreplaceable tree now lays in pieces at the side of the road, a testament to the expediency at the cost of long-term value.

Interestingly, there is a board of municipal utilities in my city. And they are elected. I wonder if that idiot city engineer is elected too... .

cough cough

I caught this chest cold crap that is going around. (Why do we say "caught"? I have to work pretty hard to catch a ball or a frisbee, I can assure you I didn't make any effort at all to "catch" this cold. We should say tripped or ambushed. Caught implies intent.)
Anyway, I'm pretty much over it now, but it sucked for a few days. When I was a young girl I got chest colds all the time. I remember mom smearing Vicks Vaporub all over my chest and neck, propping pillows under my chest so the mucus could "drain" --where, I don't know-- and putting on the steam humidifier so that in the morning the windows were coated in moisture.
Surprisingly (to me) when I was smoking, I never got chest colds. not once. Now that I've quit, they are back. This is the second nasty one in the 6 years since I've quit.
And 35 years later, the cough medicine tastes the same.

I'm not going to post about politics... yet.

I think Mother Nature made snow so beautiful so we wouldn't get so pissed off when it falls in April. 

Showtime

You know what's fun?
     Seeing people I knew way-back-when become successful. Nice job to Dave Hansen on his bazillionth successful play. Who knew you'd be good at this writing stuff? I am very happy for you.

Static

I can tell it's winter because my flannel pajama bottoms are sticking to my legs.

Twins!

David Bowie and his wife married in 1992 and have one daughter. Just like LSH and I. We have SO MUCH in common!!

RIP, Mr. Jones. You will be missed.

Binge

Why is it so easy to binge? I don't mean due to access, although we are lucky enough to have at our fingertips, access to entire TV shows, movies, book series, and even need to make little effort for chocolate ice cream or family-sized bags of potato chips. I mean, is there a human disposition to bingeing (how odd that the e stays on that spelling) or is it a peculiarly American thing? If we gave every Bangladeshi access to the complete Breaking Bad series, would half the nation binge on Walter White? Do twenty-somethings in England watch all 9 Harry Potter movies in one sitting? I have to force myself to borrow only ONE book in a series on each library visit or I would gorge on them all and find myself waiting and wanting.
I have most recently become obsessed with the Phryne Fisher television series from Australia. 34 episodes based on the wonderful books of Kerry Greenwood who I have blogged about before. The series is not quite faithful to the books in that it creates a more complex relationship with the two main characters than what exists in the novels, but that is understandable for the medium. The costumes and music more than make up for any flaws in the adaption.

I am currently searching for a new fixation. And taking suggestions.

Plans

Happy New Year!

I resolve this year to figure out a way to get Bingu kitty to chew his treats instead of swallowing them whole.

Yes, it is about race

Last night a grand jury announced the decision NOT to indict two police officers in the execution death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice citing that in the bizarroworld in which they live, it is "reasonable" that a couple of ostensibly trained, purportedly mature police officers were "justified" in driving a police car into a park, leaping from the vehicle, and shooting a boy sitting and playing with a toy.
The "justification" comes from the fact that the toy was a gun that appeared to be real from a distance. And that a 12-year-old black boy appears to be an adult to white cops.
The "reasonable" choice in a situation in which an unknown black male of undetermined (young) age appears to have a gun in a public place in a state where it is legal to carry a gun, is to shoot first. And render no first aid once the black male is incapacitated.

The shame and horror I have in being a Clevelander right now is reasonable and justified.

Vacation, day 2

In celebration of the shortest day of the year, I spent it in my kitchen baking no less than a gross of Christmas cookies in five varieties. Quite possibly the worst way to spend a day off. But another box checked on my list of things to do.

It's not really a vacation.

Day one of vacation and I have 7 wrapped packages and all my groceries (except I forgot cereal!) purchased. If I can get a few batches of cookies baked tomorrow I will consider the time off a success no matter what else might happen.

Heymomheymomheymomheymomheymom...watch this.

The cat does a lot of things while we're at work all day, but one thing he does NOT do is screw with the Christmas tree. This is Bingu's 3rd Christmas with us and he has not damaged our tree while we were away ever.

He waits 'til we get home.

Seriously. He has attempted to chew two branches and eaten at least three strands of tinsel in just the three days the tree's been up this year. But only if I'm watching.
Idiot cat.

Photogenic

Christmas trees don't photograph well. Much like myself. It must be one of the reasons I like Christmas. We all know both of us look better in real life.






















(At least I like to think so!)

Haul out the holly

I've got my Christmas tunes going. Every year we get a fresh crop of recordings from artists as diverse as the Vienna Boys Choir to Keith Urban to Queen Latifah. They all re-do the classics from the 1700s thru the 1950s, but new holiday songs have slowed to a trickle. I will admit to being woefully underinformed about the music industry in general and "cool" music specifically, but on my iPod, I have precisely three songs that were written in the past decade.
Shouldn't there be more than that?


(Although, frankly, I'm a sucker for the Carol of the Bells in any rendition.)

Back into the fray

Yes. I took a week (or so) off. I will probably do so again at Christmas. Tomorrow, I hope to return to regularly scheduled blogging. And NO, I can't bring myself to comment on the events of the past 10 days. It's all so disheartening.
I've been lobbying my representatives for better gun control laws since 2003. Twelve years. And nothing has changed. (Primarily because I do not have a "voice" --read: money-- as loud as the NRA.) But if all 78% of Americans who ALSO think guns should be regulated (just like it says in the Bill of Rights --"well-regulated militia") then maybe, just maybe, we can drown out the voice of the NRA.

Pie!? We don't need no stinkin' pie!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am fortunate enough to have a TON to be thankful for. (Health, happiness, family, a beautiful and accomplished daughter, a considerate loving spouse, a precious little house, a few affectionate cats, very dear friends, etc, etc, etc.)
To celebrate, we are gathering at mom's for a big dinner and I am bringing dessert. Not pie. I know I've already committed the ultimate holiday solecism here --on par with politics at the dinner table-- but there are only eight of us so we don't need to go big. And while there are only eight of us, all of us like something different, so in order to please everyone I would have to bake at least three pies. For eight people. Ridiculous.
Also ridiculous: the piecaken (although frankly I'd eat it). Maybe next year...
But now I hear from Slate that apple pie is "wrong" at Thanksgiving. The author advocates strongly for pumpkin and pecan pies, so she will be hugely disappointed if she comes to our Thanksgiving dinner where dessert will be a caramel-apple cheesecake.
If I'm going to do Thanksgiving dessert wrong, I'm going all-out wrong.

And I have the blisters to prove it.

Hey! You know what we did this weekend at the Punkinhouse? (And no guessing "read" because that is a given.)
We raked leaves!! All of the leaves. In the State of Ohio.

An anonymous Internet user's image of what our leaves kinda look like.

Well, it seemed like it.

I'm not fat; I'm healthy

How could my chubby self NOT choose to feature this little beauty in the weird science category?
"Being Overweight Offers Health Benefits"

Por favor

My Spanish is so rusty that I only caught every third word in the Jorge Ramos - Antonio Banderas interview. It's okay though. Because Jorge Ramos and Antonio Banderas.

Here kitty kitty

This story suggests that it is time to retire the idea of a "crazy cat lady." The article note that "Although cats are the world's most popular pets — outnumbering dogs by three to one — they're widely assigned negative personality traits while dogs are regarded as man's best friend." And suggests that one of the best ways to remove the stigma associated with cats is to post kitty selfies. So here is mine:

Get a cat at your local shelter. They are soft, sweet, companions who are extraordinarily low-maintenance, remarkably affectionate, and hardly ever tell you to shut up.