many thanks
J: A week ago Thursday - Threw
out more furniture with a friend, who shall remain anonymous because he
would love to add this missive to his claims list as part of his ever
burgeoning lawsuit against me.
Which reminds me: this August 5th, TLC's Wild Weddings is showing clips
from our wedding in a tree oh so many years ago. (Thanks, TLC!)
Anyhow, after safely moving furniture out to the sidewalk for special
trash pickup, I stayed a while and chatted with— we'll call him Dr X,
and before long I realized that it was quite late and Gina might be
worried about me. I was supposed to meet up with her at the Looneys'
place. I gave her a call, but it was too late, I was already in
trouble. She was worried that I would call from a hospital because
she's seen me injure myself before while moving other people's heavy
stuff. (Thanks, Deep Freeze!)
While I was at the mysterious Dr X's house, he taught me lots of new,
exciting things about the world, but I can't remember much of what I
learned.
Here's one: Did you know that the
New York Dolls
are coming out with a new album? Did you know some of them are actually
still alive? (Thanks, Dr X! And thanks, NYD!)
Friday - Poker night at a friend's house; lost a lot of money. Don't
tell Gina. Also lost lots more money purchasing something I have never
purchased before, in my life. Ever. Yes, after 44 years of living on
this planet, I bought a TV. I mean, I actually spent money for one. I
feel a little dirty. We don't watch much TV lately—I don't think we've
watched any at all in the last several months—but we watch a lot of DVD
movies. Our old hand-me-down Montgomery Ward TV that dates back from
the Pleistocene (thanks, Dad!) just didn't handle the wide screen films
well.
Saturday - Went to work, came home, then Lori's son Jonathan visited
with two friends, John and James. Gina made a fantabulous meal for all
of us— tasty bean burgers and (vegan) potato salad. Later we all walked
down to beaver damn bridge to look at the wildlife. I saw a turtle,
some fireflies, bats, two bald eagles, and about 500 mosquitoes. Those
mosquitoes were beautiful, man. Nature's little six-legged vampires.
And don't forget the ticks. Ticks are nice, too. (Thanks, billions of
years of random selection!)
Sunday - Lazed around playing online poker all day, while it's still
allowed in this Land of the Free (thanks, elected lawmakers), then went
to a movie (thanks, Clerks II) with TVTom and Gina. Then we helped Gina
make and devour another amazing meal. Then we played Alan Moon's Ticket
to Ride. Tom won. Gina placed second. I lost. Ticket to Ride is a nice
game. (Thanks, Alan!)
nasa's missing statement
Bob Parks
reported it best:
On 3 Feb, after NASA climate scientist James Hansen told
the NY Times he was being harassed for speaking out about greenhouse
gas emissions (WN 3 Feb 06)
, NASA Chief Michael Griffin issued a "scientific openness" policy.
However, on 6 Feb, the phrase, "understand and protect our home
planet," was quietly removed from the NASA mission statement. It had
been cited by Hansen to justify his remarks.
Essentially, bad people in my government told government scientists
that if they didn't have something nice to say, shut up. When the
government scientists pointed out that they were just doing their jobs
and following NASA's mission statement, the bad people feigned
acquiescence, waited till everything calmed down a little, then changed
the mission statement by deleting the offensive phrase and acting as if
it never existed. These are obviously very shrewd, bad people who don't
really care about understanding
or protecting our home planet.
I'm beginning to suspect the bad people are actually aliens sent here
to take over our planet and terraform it to resemble their home planet—
which characteristically has a much hotter atmosphere and an oilier
ocean than ours used to have.
:-j
