Holiday snaps

Christmas night.

Boxing day.

Change

Change the clock, change the calendar, change the decorations. That's change you can depend on.

Face-to-face

Dennis face-to-face with his long-time idol Stephen Sondheim (so to speak).

His first major role was as Jack in Into the Woods (1994).

Since then Dennis has done more Sondheim:

• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1997),
• Sweeney Todd (2000), and
• West Side Story (2003).

Tuesday Tree

per prior threat, and for the leaf-peepers and the Mountain Harvest Festival folks.

More better

Less plastic than what?

The only way I can spin this package into being more sensible is if the old one only had one flash drive in this acre of plastic. So in the twisted mind of marketing, that would make this package three times better for the environment. Or if it used to hold three 1GB drives, they would say this package is four times better! Or if it had been just one 1GB drive, it would be twelve times better. That's over 1000 percent more green! Way to go SanDisk! Keep on Cruzin' and savin' the planet. It's easy being green.

Equinox

I was about to post in another blog when I realized that not only has 2na been neglected over the summer, but also that the topic fits better here. Today we celebrate the equinox, autumnal here in the northern hemisphere, an instant when everyplace has aequam noctem. If blogger is on schedule, this will post at that instant; and if I'm on schedule, I will be finishing the last Summerfest just as summer expires.

Equinoxes are important. Most religions have some fete or other associated with them (even if they don't admit it); although more often with the vernal than this one. Sex is after all a lot more fun than anticipating staring the harvest. Last month was the Spring equinox on Saturn. It's probably a bigger deal there since they only occur once every twenty-nine⁺ Earth years. What makes it especially special is that the rings are edge-on to sun for an instant. Check it out on the Cassini Equinox Mission website, or look at the article and slide show in the msnbc Cosmic Log.

Back here, this tree, our tree, is the best and first to herald the new season. Here is its progression over the last couple weeks,

and as it is today.

Maybe I'll start a regular "Tuesday Tree" post, ... or not.

Review

From the Houston Chronicle, "Dennis Arrowsmith is a standout as a firm-voiced Sergeant of Police, leading his comical cops through the droll When a Felon's Not Engaged in His Employment with limber, acrobatic moves reminiscent of both Ray Bolger and Charlie Chaplin."

MySpace

Those who know me know that I am generally easy-going, that I sail along on an even keel, I take life as it comes, turn problems into opportunities and generally try not to make waves unless waves are what is actually needed. Yes I have a good collection of expletives at hand, but I usually find them awkward to use and generally too imprecise for the situation. I have peeves, but many years have taught me that for the most part peeving is more trouble than it's worth.

One thing that does get under my skin from time to time is inconsideration. Bad design happens when designers implement their preferences without considering the actual needs of the user. Rude behavior is not considering your effect on those around you. Tourists who expect everyplace to work the same as the place they came from, only better, are inconsiderate. Not trying to follow the so-called Golden Rule is often inconsiderate. Et cetera.

A week ago my favorite niece and her family came for a visit - the first in a score of years. As I usually do when we are expecting visitors, I parked back away from our front walk so that our visitors can park conveniently close.

First I should describe what you can't see in the photos: There are only four lots, two on each side of the short block where we live, and only two of the four actually face onto what is a relatively wide residential street - ours and the one at the other end on the other side. The only vehicles that regularly park overnight or even for more than a few hours are ours, the aging but still operational VW bus of the neighbor who lives across from us on the too-narrow side street, and an occasional extra car of a guest staying at Ada's Place. We usually park near our walk and the others usually park on the other side of the street or on our side but by the lot that does not face the street. In short they follow the unwritten rules that apply everywhere except in an urban area where parking is scarce: you park in front of someone's house only if you are visiting them or if there are no other places near or across from the place you are visiting.

Back to the story - we're parked back away from our usual spot. Lora comes and goes, parking conveniently close to our walk as planned. We don't move our car for a couple days after they leave because in Q-topia almost everything important is within walking distance. Then a car parks in the spot by our walk - a nice shiny new high-end Saturn; and it stays there for several days, never moved, never anyone around. Saturday morning it disappears. Again we don't move ours. Sunday the pictured old Mazda appears in the same space, My Space! It is still there, unmoving, unapproached, definitely inconsiderate!

Oh well. Maybe the eastern Europeans (many Romanians) who generate the most hits on this URL as they Google for the artist who goes by 2na will enhance the photo, read the license plate, and take appropriate action (it would be inconsiderate for me to take any action). [Chali 2na, Comin' Thru]

Payton's Place and the Easy Button

Of course I've never personally done it; you know, hit "Reply All" with the sarcastic politically-incorrect inane career-damaging comment, or change the URL of your blog without days and weeks or more notice to your followers.  It's too easy.  You would expect that there would be one of those "Are you absolutely positively sure that you really, Really, REALLY want to do this?" warning pop-up alert boxes; or at least an "Undo" button.  But noooooo, and once done, its done.

So, if you lost ittybittybaby Payton, you can find her now growing happily in Paytonia.

NOLA

Here's a link to the review of Houston Opera Vista's performance of Cabildo at the Cabildo as a part of the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans yesterday.

Straight Talk

What is Papa Murphy trying to say? Help me English majors. Is there any difference between "6 straight years" and "6 years straight"? Was their chain not totally straight seven years ago? Was it kinky, was it gay? Are they being duplicitous since they admit that some things never change?

Who would want a chain made out of pizza anyway? Especially when it isn't even half-baked.

B-ball(s)

Sure March Madness is in full swing, but now it's April Foolishness. Believe it or not, there was a time when the final games were in early March. I recall one year in particular when the championship game was on March 12th. It was a really good game right down to the final buzzer (I admit that I no longer remember who was playing). Fortunately it did not go into OT because by then the contractions were coming two minutes apart and we really did need to go to the hospital. Thirty minutes or so later we had a son.

Speaking of sports played after March, the Feather River College baseball team is currently ranked 26th in the nation. An amazing feat for the smallest community college in California. Way to go Golden Eagles! I guess I should try to give the players in my classes some slack.

Lights out, please.

Turning off for an hour at 8:30 PM this evening to observe Earth Hour will not reverse, halt, or even make a tiny dent in humanity's reckless rush to warm the planet and plunder her resources. But symbolism is important in helping those who cannot do the math to realize that there really is a problem and that every individual must do something about it.

Music for the Equinox

Dennis as Eros in The 10th Muse, with Divergence Vocal Theater.

Happy 3.14

Since 3.17 is on a Tuesday this year, many are celebrating 3.14 as St. Pi-Tricks Day. 3.1415926535897932384626433832795...

Highs and Lows, fasts and slows.

I can't figure out why I have been so busy, but I have been, and still am. Maybe if I slow down I'll go faster - the other way around hasn't worked. Along those lines, here is an "unknown" singer-songwriter I heard on Sirius Idiot's Delight the other day. Emily Arin. Kinda nice, maybe not fabulous, but nice. Reminds me of something simpler, easier, slower, better. I'll write more later, when I have less time - honest.

Snow Bird

Taking advantage of the one dry, not-so-cold day between two storms.

The trick is to be flexible enough to handle the unexpected opportunity in a way that makes it appear not at all unexpected.

The Last Tomato

Last evening I ate the last tomato. Not the last one in the universe like you might have at the Milliways restaurant, but the last one from our backyard crop last year.

Back in mid-October on the eve of the plant-killing frost, I picked every tomato to let them ripen on the workbench in my home office. The progress is documented in the photos below. All but the last one were red, ripe, and eaten by early December. But then there was still one small green hard stubborn one. I would have tossed it but, since there was no downside, I kept it; and now a full three months after it was picked, it was in a salad. It was not the most tasty tomato ever, but it was still better than anything that can be found in the grocery store at this time of year.

Delurk, delux, delightful, ...

Lora says that it is delurking day today, so I am delurking her. Here she is more-than-a-few years ago. Recognize the hand gesture? The guy that has her in a headlock is the one pictured with the airplane in the previous post.

Christmas

Three photos from Christmas:

• An eggshell ornament I made in the 1950's that Lora sent me
• A Christmas Sweater
• and A Rubber-band Powered Airplane.