The growing season usually starts about mid May here the foothills of central California where I have lived for (51-18=33) thirty-three years now, the same amount of time I have known Misses B. I met her the year I moved up here. Local nurseries recommend that gardeners wait until after Mother's day to plant most things. There is a possibility of frost, and a very real chance of thunderstorms with dime size or bigger hail that can shred tender leaves like a weed-whip with a hormonal imbalance. Have you ever seen a thousand people clear a beach in five minutes? I have.
Several years ago my sister and her kids came to town some time around mid June. We all headed down to one of the local lakes for some sun, swimming and scenery. It's a very crowded beach so by "scenery" I mean half-naked fully-developed women. After a bit some very black and ominous looking clouds ended the "sun" part of the excursion. There was a flash of lightening out over the lake followed by a crack and then the slow deep pleasing roll of thunder. "Lets go", I live here, I know whats coming next. Besides it is never a good idea to be in or near the water when the Thunder Gods are angry. Tourist, what do they know? We get all our stuff packed up, so do some of the other people who descended from apes. Then it happens. One of the big black clouds moves to left, another does a quick side step to the right and out of the hole in between comes masses of frozen water in marble sized chunks. And it hurts. And it is down right scary, especially if you're not expecting it and most of these people were not expecting it. Black clouds, lightening, thunder and these people were oohing and aahhing like it was part of the light show for the Scrambled Omelet Reunion Tour. Imagine one thousand people on the beach with their towels and their picnics and their kids and their dogs and their floaties and their beer and their coolers and their garbage and their grandmothers and their sister-in-law's neighbor's ex-boyfriend's new boyfriend. And they all just decided it would be a really good idea to get off the beach NOW. With the children screaming, for effect. Even with the head start it took us a good ten minutes to get out of the parking lot and on the road. By then there was four inches of water running not only through some of the camp sites but actually through some of the tents. I don't usually laugh at others misfortunes but thinking back damn it was funny. Misses B. wonders why I never want to go camping...
Anyway spring weather here on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada can be kind of dicey. Global warming will make early planting an even riskier proposition because thunderstorms feed on warm air. But don't tell mom that. I mean mother nature. Last year I grew sunflowers in my garden, planting them about mid May as recommended. This year in early April sunflowers came up from the seeds that dropped on the ground last fall. Today on May 31st two weeks into the "growing season" the sunflowers are taller than I am. A little less than six feet!
Mother knows best.
Having six foot tall sunflowers this early in the spring should make the gardener in me happy. But it hasn't. I've been depressed. Some how writing about it makes me realize how wonderful it is.
Are those storm clouds?
OWL
May 31, 2007
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Saturday, May 26, 2007
It's a living breathing thing
Black Eyed Susan asked me if I felt alive. We had been talking about the reasons I used to do drugs. I feel alive when I am in my garden seeing the plants get bigger every day, blossom and develop fruits. And oddly enough I feel alive when I dream. It is such a different reality and experience. Anyone I've ever known can show up, anything I've ever seen, anything I've ever done might be a part of the nightly peep show. And the things I've never been, the things I cannot or will not do........
What I didn't tell her is how blogging makes me feel alive. It can be exhilarating or cathartic. I can express my anger, my joy, my cynicism. I can make fun of the world or of myself. I can let things out in a way I have never done before. And I don't have to worry about what others may think. I don't have many readers. Those of you who know who I am know me well enough that I don't have to hide any thing.
The garden and weekend chores await.
OWL
May 26, 2007
What I didn't tell her is how blogging makes me feel alive. It can be exhilarating or cathartic. I can express my anger, my joy, my cynicism. I can make fun of the world or of myself. I can let things out in a way I have never done before. And I don't have to worry about what others may think. I don't have many readers. Those of you who know who I am know me well enough that I don't have to hide any thing.
The garden and weekend chores await.
OWL
May 26, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Hi, this is me!
When scientists talk about human cloning they mean taking a single cell, getting it to divide and creating more cells just like it. Usually for the purpose of finding cures or treatments for cancer, Parkinson's, ALS or other disabling and deadly diseases. When many people hear the term "human cloning" they think of a brilliant but disturbed individual, backed by billions from a secret government agency, surreptitiously obtaining a hair sample from Jean-Claude and generating 2,345,116 identical, over sized, well trained, obedient army-guys using poorly paid illegal immigrants as surrogate mothers. All for the next invasion of New Jersey.
Groups claiming authority from God have used this confusion to engender public opposition to stem cell research and other types of medical research involving human cell division. Their reasons for objecting to this type of experimentation are uncharacteristically vague. Usually they just point and shout, "It is in the Bible". Yeah, right next to the bit about not cutting your hair. LEV. 19: 27. "Thou Shalt Not Divide Thy Cells To Cure Diabetes" is apparently in one of the lost books of the Bible. "It is not natural!" Neither is immunization. "You mustn't play God." A long standing objection to progress. I go out in the garden every day and decide which plants will live and which shall die, isn't that playing God? And "It destroys life." A very god argument coming from the Bush camp.
One of the real reasons Christians object to using cloned cells to cure disease exist at a subconscious level and is not expressed by church leaders. "Disease is a punishment for sin!" and the proper way to treat disease is to repent and pray. Prayer is always answered, except when God, the Son and the Holy Ghost are all "busy with another customer".
What will happen if they find a cure for AIDS? Your son will develop a craving for live salami and your daughter will decide addiction to intravenous drugs is not so bad? There will be no good reason to lock up women who have been forced into prostitution? God will have to put his research and development department to work finding a new slow and painful death as punishment for gender maladjustment?
Given the great advances made in modern medicine whenever science had made serious and continued inquiry I believe it is inevitable that wonderful things things will come from "human cloning" and stem cell research. With or without federal funding or the approval of conservative Christians. And when these breakthroughs are announced, whether it is a way to reverse the effects of Alzheimer's disease or a cure for Lupus, all those who opposed such research on religious grounds will stand up, join hands and speak with one voice...
"THANK GOD !"
OWL
May 24, 2007
Groups claiming authority from God have used this confusion to engender public opposition to stem cell research and other types of medical research involving human cell division. Their reasons for objecting to this type of experimentation are uncharacteristically vague. Usually they just point and shout, "It is in the Bible". Yeah, right next to the bit about not cutting your hair. LEV. 19: 27. "Thou Shalt Not Divide Thy Cells To Cure Diabetes" is apparently in one of the lost books of the Bible. "It is not natural!" Neither is immunization. "You mustn't play God." A long standing objection to progress. I go out in the garden every day and decide which plants will live and which shall die, isn't that playing God? And "It destroys life." A very god argument coming from the Bush camp.
One of the real reasons Christians object to using cloned cells to cure disease exist at a subconscious level and is not expressed by church leaders. "Disease is a punishment for sin!" and the proper way to treat disease is to repent and pray. Prayer is always answered, except when God, the Son and the Holy Ghost are all "busy with another customer".
What will happen if they find a cure for AIDS? Your son will develop a craving for live salami and your daughter will decide addiction to intravenous drugs is not so bad? There will be no good reason to lock up women who have been forced into prostitution? God will have to put his research and development department to work finding a new slow and painful death as punishment for gender maladjustment?
Given the great advances made in modern medicine whenever science had made serious and continued inquiry I believe it is inevitable that wonderful things things will come from "human cloning" and stem cell research. With or without federal funding or the approval of conservative Christians. And when these breakthroughs are announced, whether it is a way to reverse the effects of Alzheimer's disease or a cure for Lupus, all those who opposed such research on religious grounds will stand up, join hands and speak with one voice...
"THANK GOD !"
OWL
May 24, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Appliance yourself
When I was young, oh such a long time ago, we had in our house: Refrigerator, stove, toaster, vacuum cleaner. In the living room was a console with back and white TV, record player and AM/FM radio. FM was classical music. The TV got three channels, ABC, NBC and CBS. When we went to the beach we took along a portable, battery powered radio which according to the proud statement on the side contained "Three Transistors!" Our family photographs were taken with an old Brownie. No one in my family drank coffee but we had a perculator for when there was company. It was a big deal when mom got a hair dryer for Christmas. The one telephone in the house belonged to Ma Bell, we merely rented it. The house was heated by a single gas wall furnace, to cool it we opened a window. In the driveway was an old Ford Fairlane. On the weekend us kids would pay 35 cents to see a movie at the local theater, or the whole family bundled up in the car and we went to the Drive-in.
We were middle class and thought we had enough stuff to lead contented lives in our small community. Pufftt. We were blissfully ignorant. How unhappy we would have been if we had known what we were missing. Imagine a device in your living room allowing you to watch any movie ever made when ever you want. In color!
In my house today: Refrigerator (it is not frost free, it is getting replaced, long story), stove with self-cleaning oven, toaster, vacuum cleaner, blow dryer, blender, micro-wave oven, portable telephone with caller ID, telephone with wires for when the electricity goes out, two cell phones, three color TVs (one is a spare), two VCRs, DVD player, two CD players, George Foreman grill, automatic drip coffee maker, computer with color printer/scanner/copier, cable box, five remote controls, web cam, coffee grinder, hot air popper, electric toothbrush, digital camera, video camera, Game-boy, telephone answering machine, electric massager, cassette player, mini-cassette recorder, heating pad, lap top computer with color printer/scanner/copier, and a hand held laser pointer! Central heating and air conditioning keeps the house at just the right temperature winter and summer and I have a small space heater in my office for cold mornings. A Subaru and a Mazda take up space in the driveway.
Typical for today's middle class household.
Mandatory for today's middle class household. In order for the average family of four to afford all this stuff it has to be made very cheaply. So it cannot be made in America, at least not by Americans. Manufacturing jobs have moved over seas because no one buys well built, Made in the USA, products any more. We can blame Big Business or the government or the illegal immigrants or predatory Japanese trade policies for the loss of well paying jobs here at home. But who is it that goes to Wal-Mart every week and empties the large cardboard boxes marked "ROC"?
Now where did I put the battery powered remote control backscratcher/teleportation device?
OWL
May 21, 2007
We were middle class and thought we had enough stuff to lead contented lives in our small community. Pufftt. We were blissfully ignorant. How unhappy we would have been if we had known what we were missing. Imagine a device in your living room allowing you to watch any movie ever made when ever you want. In color!
In my house today: Refrigerator (it is not frost free, it is getting replaced, long story), stove with self-cleaning oven, toaster, vacuum cleaner, blow dryer, blender, micro-wave oven, portable telephone with caller ID, telephone with wires for when the electricity goes out, two cell phones, three color TVs (one is a spare), two VCRs, DVD player, two CD players, George Foreman grill, automatic drip coffee maker, computer with color printer/scanner/copier, cable box, five remote controls, web cam, coffee grinder, hot air popper, electric toothbrush, digital camera, video camera, Game-boy, telephone answering machine, electric massager, cassette player, mini-cassette recorder, heating pad, lap top computer with color printer/scanner/copier, and a hand held laser pointer! Central heating and air conditioning keeps the house at just the right temperature winter and summer and I have a small space heater in my office for cold mornings. A Subaru and a Mazda take up space in the driveway.
Typical for today's middle class household.
Mandatory for today's middle class household. In order for the average family of four to afford all this stuff it has to be made very cheaply. So it cannot be made in America, at least not by Americans. Manufacturing jobs have moved over seas because no one buys well built, Made in the USA, products any more. We can blame Big Business or the government or the illegal immigrants or predatory Japanese trade policies for the loss of well paying jobs here at home. But who is it that goes to Wal-Mart every week and empties the large cardboard boxes marked "ROC"?
Now where did I put the battery powered remote control backscratcher/teleportation device?
OWL
May 21, 2007
Papers?
I used to watch old movies late at night on a little black and white TV. The picture was grainy, the sound quality poor and the story line predictable. The protagonist, a top level English or American spy would be waiting at a seedy night club in Bucharest, dressed in native garb, three days growth on his chin and speaking perfect Romanian in a drunken slur. In walks the chief of the Secret Police followed by two soldiers carrying machine guns. Taking a quick look around the room the chief walks straight up to our hero and demands, "Your papers please! Show me your papers!" Double O nineteen fumbles though his pockets and produces a stack of dirty wrinkled documents. Chief examines them carefully and hands them back with a disappointed grunt.
Score one for MI5 or the CIA or The Man From Uncle. And we back here in the free world sit smugly in our easy chair feeling much superior. No papers are required. We do not have work permits, travel permits, housing documents or serial numbers. And never are the police allowed to walk up to you and demand that you prove who you are and where you're going with out good reason to do so.
But that is changing. First Social Security cards were mandated and now you have to prove your citizenship or at least swear to it in order to get a job. And now the good people of Farmers Branch, Texas, a suburb of Dallas have passed a law requiring landlords to get proof of citizenship before renting to a perspective tenant. I guess they were not happy with the slow pace at which the current administration is stripping us of our rights and freedoms. What is next? Having to show your birth certificate to see a doctor, open a bank account, buy major household appliances or go through a toll booth. Will we need permits to travel from Minneapolis to St. Paul? Will Farmers Branch be the first city in the US to establish check points manned by Boy Scouts?
In Japan in order to buy a new car you have to prove you have a place to park it. Now that makes sense.
OWL
May 21, 2007
Score one for MI5 or the CIA or The Man From Uncle. And we back here in the free world sit smugly in our easy chair feeling much superior. No papers are required. We do not have work permits, travel permits, housing documents or serial numbers. And never are the police allowed to walk up to you and demand that you prove who you are and where you're going with out good reason to do so.
But that is changing. First Social Security cards were mandated and now you have to prove your citizenship or at least swear to it in order to get a job. And now the good people of Farmers Branch, Texas, a suburb of Dallas have passed a law requiring landlords to get proof of citizenship before renting to a perspective tenant. I guess they were not happy with the slow pace at which the current administration is stripping us of our rights and freedoms. What is next? Having to show your birth certificate to see a doctor, open a bank account, buy major household appliances or go through a toll booth. Will we need permits to travel from Minneapolis to St. Paul? Will Farmers Branch be the first city in the US to establish check points manned by Boy Scouts?
In Japan in order to buy a new car you have to prove you have a place to park it. Now that makes sense.
OWL
May 21, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
Where did I put that?
Way back some time during the last century scientist all over world started making dire predictions of global warming. "Green house gases will build up in the atmosphere trapping heat from the sun and causing the average annual temperature around the globe to climb to record levels. The polar ice caps will melt, sea levels will rise and weather patterns will go haywire. There will be more floods, droughts, hurricanes, twisters and bad hair days." Thus runs a typical quote from a scientific journal of the 1980's, it was in the paper yesterday. The main culprit in this scenario of meteorological horror, carbon dioxide.
Atmosheric scientist estimate that mankind releases some 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year, 3 billion tons remain in the atmosphere, 2 billion tons are absorbed by the ocean and the other 3 billion tons are presently unaccounted for. Of course plants suck up huge amounts of carbon dioxide and convert it to oxygen and sugar in the process of photosynthesis. It is assumed though that plants basically use the same amount of carbon dioxide that is released when those plants decay, burn or are metabolised by animals.
So the brilliant scientist in their smart white coats with their incredibly complex computer models of the earth's atmosphere have a problem. Three billion tons of greenhouse gas per year that they cannot account for. That's six trillion pounds! At approximately 1.1 gram per cubic meter that would be 72,090,000,000,000,000,000 cubic feet of the stuff that they claim is going to bring about the end of the world and turn you and me into shoe polish for the next species that takes over the planet. And these guys still have jobs? I don't know about you but I get called to account when there are a couple reams of copy paper and a can of Decaf French Roast missing from the supply room.
Butt weight! (Stoopid spell checker.) News flash. Now they are telling us they found the missing carbon dioxide sequestered in the forest of the northern hemisphere. I guess they noticed that green stuff covering the better part of three continents and decided to actually check their assumptions. Fancy that. Studies have show that evergreen forest suck up about 40 grams of carbon per square meter per year. Just enough to just balance the account. How very convenient. I wouldn't trust these guys with my 401k. I must remind you that these numbers are "estimates". They're guessing.
All this doesn't mean that I don't believe in global warming. I just wonder if it is due to a change in the formula for "air" or if it is because every one of the 23 million Mal-Marts world wide are surrounded by 117 acres of asphalt. I also want to know how it is that these scientist can get up at a news conference and say "Oh, by the way we're missing 6,000,000,000,000 pounds potentially deadly carbon dioxide" and rest of the world still takes them seriously. I'm in the wrong line of work.
I guess if your main product is hot air no one counts the zeros.
OWL
May 14, 2007
PS To put this into perspective for those of you who are not adept at mathematics and hence are not used to dealing with numbers larger than seven. 72,090,000,000,000,000,000 is 72 quintillion. The Rubik's cube now gathering dust in your junk drawer only has 19 quintillion possibilities. That should help you visualize it a little better. Your welcome.
OWL
Atmosheric scientist estimate that mankind releases some 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year, 3 billion tons remain in the atmosphere, 2 billion tons are absorbed by the ocean and the other 3 billion tons are presently unaccounted for. Of course plants suck up huge amounts of carbon dioxide and convert it to oxygen and sugar in the process of photosynthesis. It is assumed though that plants basically use the same amount of carbon dioxide that is released when those plants decay, burn or are metabolised by animals.
So the brilliant scientist in their smart white coats with their incredibly complex computer models of the earth's atmosphere have a problem. Three billion tons of greenhouse gas per year that they cannot account for. That's six trillion pounds! At approximately 1.1 gram per cubic meter that would be 72,090,000,000,000,000,000 cubic feet of the stuff that they claim is going to bring about the end of the world and turn you and me into shoe polish for the next species that takes over the planet. And these guys still have jobs? I don't know about you but I get called to account when there are a couple reams of copy paper and a can of Decaf French Roast missing from the supply room.
Butt weight! (Stoopid spell checker.) News flash. Now they are telling us they found the missing carbon dioxide sequestered in the forest of the northern hemisphere. I guess they noticed that green stuff covering the better part of three continents and decided to actually check their assumptions. Fancy that. Studies have show that evergreen forest suck up about 40 grams of carbon per square meter per year. Just enough to just balance the account. How very convenient. I wouldn't trust these guys with my 401k. I must remind you that these numbers are "estimates". They're guessing.
All this doesn't mean that I don't believe in global warming. I just wonder if it is due to a change in the formula for "air" or if it is because every one of the 23 million Mal-Marts world wide are surrounded by 117 acres of asphalt. I also want to know how it is that these scientist can get up at a news conference and say "Oh, by the way we're missing 6,000,000,000,000 pounds potentially deadly carbon dioxide" and rest of the world still takes them seriously. I'm in the wrong line of work.
I guess if your main product is hot air no one counts the zeros.
OWL
May 14, 2007
PS To put this into perspective for those of you who are not adept at mathematics and hence are not used to dealing with numbers larger than seven. 72,090,000,000,000,000,000 is 72 quintillion. The Rubik's cube now gathering dust in your junk drawer only has 19 quintillion possibilities. That should help you visualize it a little better. Your welcome.
OWL
Thursday, May 10, 2007
It can't happen here
If a man wants to have sex with a woman he needs her "physical cooperation". He can get this in many different ways. He can seduce her so that she wants it as much as he does. He can offer her a reward such as cash payment, dinner and a movie, eternal gratitude or life long security with marriage and children. He can use coercion, the threat of violence or other harm, or blackmail a type of coercion. He can get her "cooperation" by physically restraining her, the traditional definition of rape. He might also get her to do it as a favor or reward for good behavior. Or he might try whining and begging and pleading until she just gives in, works for me. If she loves him she may be willing for that reason. In most of these instances sexual arousal on the part of the female is desirable but not required.
The situation is different when a woman is wanting to make love with a man. His physical cooperation is not enough. If he is not aroused a great many things may happen, but the ultimate act, coitus will not. Unless the man desires sex with her no offer of money, no promised treat, will allow him to rise to the occasion. My own experience is that threats of physical violence will not coax little Willy out of his hidey hole. Men prostituting themselves to women is unusual and females raping males is unheard of except in "statutory" cases which are now in the news regularly. How much of that is because of women's attitude toward sex and how is that attitude shaped by a man's inability to perform under pressure? Women avoid putting themselves into situations where the man might be unable to perform. They understandably find it degrading, even when it has nothing to do with them. Like when the man has had to much to drink. Is this why some women "hold out" until they know their man is desperate for sex?
This explains a lot about the difference in how men and women act, dress, live and think. Men spend a lot of time seeking, amassing and displaying POWER. Working out at the gym until their neck muscles bulge to the point they have to say "yo" because they can't nod their heads. Cat scratching and clawing their way to the top of the corporate dog pile, buying and selling major companies and small countries. Accumulating obscenely large piles of money and collecting politicians like so many trading cards. "Oh look, I got a senator!" Men's fashion is designed to convey power, the eye paint of Egyptian Pharaohs and the exquisite lace wore by Elizabethan noblemen were symbols of power. And big boy's toys are all about power. Power boats, jet skis and muscle cars with turbo-charged V-8 engines capable of going twice the legal speed limit. Harley-Davidson motorcycles whose deep rumbling vibrations can induce female orgasm at fifty paces. Four wheel drive trucks with over sized bumpers, mud flaps and the must have wench on the front. Motorcycles have the wench on the back. Eighteen wheelers, Caterpillar tractors, semi-automatic assault rifles, F-15 fighter jets, five thousand watt mega-amplifiers, IEDs and Sherman tanks. It's all about the power, grasshopper.
Women are different. From before puberty until well after their child baring years women spend a lot time and money trying to look attractive and desirable. They fix their hair, powder their faces and squeeze themselves into little black dresses. They get dye jobs, nose jobs, boob jobs and face lifts. They walk on high heel shoes and paint their fingernails. They wear fishnet stockings, fake eyelashes and cheap perfume. They get themselves injected with botulism toxin to eliminate wrinkles, pluck their eyebrows and shave their legs. In societies or social circles where powerful woman are considered sexy business suits and breast plates are the height of feminine fashion. Women use creams and lotions and starve themselves on fad diets all in an effort to make sure that when they find Mr. I Think He Might Be the One he'll find her desirable enough to put it through the uprights.
I've seen lots of studies and surveys about the psychological differences between men and woman. Men are more visual and look at porn. Women are drawn toward good providers and have a nesting instinct. I don't remember anyone discussing how this basic physiological difference shapes our social interactions. I'd like to hear other opinions about this.
The introduction of Viagra and other erectile dysfunction treatments may change the dynamics of male/female relations but they won't change our attitudes anytime soon. A million years of evolutionary selection and thousands of years of social conditioning won't be quickly over written by a little blue pill.
OWL
May 10, 2007
The situation is different when a woman is wanting to make love with a man. His physical cooperation is not enough. If he is not aroused a great many things may happen, but the ultimate act, coitus will not. Unless the man desires sex with her no offer of money, no promised treat, will allow him to rise to the occasion. My own experience is that threats of physical violence will not coax little Willy out of his hidey hole. Men prostituting themselves to women is unusual and females raping males is unheard of except in "statutory" cases which are now in the news regularly. How much of that is because of women's attitude toward sex and how is that attitude shaped by a man's inability to perform under pressure? Women avoid putting themselves into situations where the man might be unable to perform. They understandably find it degrading, even when it has nothing to do with them. Like when the man has had to much to drink. Is this why some women "hold out" until they know their man is desperate for sex?
This explains a lot about the difference in how men and women act, dress, live and think. Men spend a lot of time seeking, amassing and displaying POWER. Working out at the gym until their neck muscles bulge to the point they have to say "yo" because they can't nod their heads. Cat scratching and clawing their way to the top of the corporate dog pile, buying and selling major companies and small countries. Accumulating obscenely large piles of money and collecting politicians like so many trading cards. "Oh look, I got a senator!" Men's fashion is designed to convey power, the eye paint of Egyptian Pharaohs and the exquisite lace wore by Elizabethan noblemen were symbols of power. And big boy's toys are all about power. Power boats, jet skis and muscle cars with turbo-charged V-8 engines capable of going twice the legal speed limit. Harley-Davidson motorcycles whose deep rumbling vibrations can induce female orgasm at fifty paces. Four wheel drive trucks with over sized bumpers, mud flaps and the must have wench on the front. Motorcycles have the wench on the back. Eighteen wheelers, Caterpillar tractors, semi-automatic assault rifles, F-15 fighter jets, five thousand watt mega-amplifiers, IEDs and Sherman tanks. It's all about the power, grasshopper.
Women are different. From before puberty until well after their child baring years women spend a lot time and money trying to look attractive and desirable. They fix their hair, powder their faces and squeeze themselves into little black dresses. They get dye jobs, nose jobs, boob jobs and face lifts. They walk on high heel shoes and paint their fingernails. They wear fishnet stockings, fake eyelashes and cheap perfume. They get themselves injected with botulism toxin to eliminate wrinkles, pluck their eyebrows and shave their legs. In societies or social circles where powerful woman are considered sexy business suits and breast plates are the height of feminine fashion. Women use creams and lotions and starve themselves on fad diets all in an effort to make sure that when they find Mr. I Think He Might Be the One he'll find her desirable enough to put it through the uprights.
I've seen lots of studies and surveys about the psychological differences between men and woman. Men are more visual and look at porn. Women are drawn toward good providers and have a nesting instinct. I don't remember anyone discussing how this basic physiological difference shapes our social interactions. I'd like to hear other opinions about this.
The introduction of Viagra and other erectile dysfunction treatments may change the dynamics of male/female relations but they won't change our attitudes anytime soon. A million years of evolutionary selection and thousands of years of social conditioning won't be quickly over written by a little blue pill.
OWL
May 10, 2007
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
The morel of the story
Last weekend I packed Misses B. up and we drove up the mountain for a lovely getaway. We spent the night in a little cabin by the river at the resort where we used to work. It brought back a lot of memories. Memories of a quieter time and place. Of a life that changes slowly or not at all. The roads are free from litter because the towns people pick it up. The people are the same as ever. The sound of running water, the constant reminder of fresh water running freely, is broken only occasionally by the deep reverberating throb of a logging truck engine. Or grating call of the Blue Jays scavenging bits of food the tourist thoughtfully leave behind for them.
Dawn needed to get away from the job and from the "complex" for a while. I needed to wander around the place I called home for twelve years. We had dinner at little restaurant that opened up since we left, run by the nice couple that used to own the Inn. Back at the cabin we played Scrabble and slept in a king sized bed.
The next morning I took a bag and my walking stick and went out to look for mushrooms. Morels. The delicious little sponge like fungus. The gourmet item that sells for big bucks at specialty markets. Morels that suddenly appear in the spring and disappear just as quickly. I had missed them last year, the first time in eight years that I hadn't gone morel hunting.
This year it was worth the trip.
OWL
May 8, 2007
Dawn needed to get away from the job and from the "complex" for a while. I needed to wander around the place I called home for twelve years. We had dinner at little restaurant that opened up since we left, run by the nice couple that used to own the Inn. Back at the cabin we played Scrabble and slept in a king sized bed.
The next morning I took a bag and my walking stick and went out to look for mushrooms. Morels. The delicious little sponge like fungus. The gourmet item that sells for big bucks at specialty markets. Morels that suddenly appear in the spring and disappear just as quickly. I had missed them last year, the first time in eight years that I hadn't gone morel hunting.
This year it was worth the trip.
OWL
May 8, 2007
Saturday, May 5, 2007
May the Fifth be with you
Cinco de Mayo, the Fifth of May commemorates the victory of Mexican forces over the occupying French in 1862. Is victory over the French really a reason to celebrate? Maybe it should be a world holiday? The day is a party day here in California and across the southwest. And where ever there is a large Mexican-American population. And on college campuses where winning two bucks on the lottery is a reason for the whole dorm to do rapid fire Jello shots and hold spontaneous wet T-shirt competitions. Like all Latin holidays there is a lot of food involved, good food, and brightly colored banners, pinatas and beer. Of course it has been commercialized. Cinco de Mayo sales at all the shops, Cinco de Mayo greetings cards and Cinco de Mayo green mayo.
I will be celebrating by planting peppers. Red, green, yellow, purple. Bell peppers, wax peppers, sweet peppers. Maybe one or two hot peppers. I love peppers. Fresh or pickled. Raw or cooked. I love fried pepper sandwiches. Hot peppers give me the hiccups though. It is really weird. I don't like the burning but the hiccups are painful!
Well the sun is shining, I need to get out to my little plot of land and do some weedin' and plantin' before Misses B. comes back and we head up the mountain for a one night surprise get-away in a cabin by the river at the resort where we used to work.
Running on...
OWL
May 5, 2007
I will be celebrating by planting peppers. Red, green, yellow, purple. Bell peppers, wax peppers, sweet peppers. Maybe one or two hot peppers. I love peppers. Fresh or pickled. Raw or cooked. I love fried pepper sandwiches. Hot peppers give me the hiccups though. It is really weird. I don't like the burning but the hiccups are painful!
Well the sun is shining, I need to get out to my little plot of land and do some weedin' and plantin' before Misses B. comes back and we head up the mountain for a one night surprise get-away in a cabin by the river at the resort where we used to work.
Running on...
OWL
May 5, 2007
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Up the Hershey Highway
Hershey is closing down their chocolate factory in Oakdale California and moving it to Mexico. People round here are upset. Hershey is one of the largest employers in the area. 575 people out of work. Some folks are calling for a boycott of Hershey in support of those who have lost their jobs. Hit ol' Mr. Hershey right in the pocket book. Good idea. See here is the thing, these people who live and work here in the USA have bills to pay, children to feed and cars that run on gasoline, the price of which is climbing to record levels. I mean what are these people going to do? On the other hand the unemployed people of Mexico don't have a need for a steady income. What are they going to do with jobs and paychecks and security and prime rate mortgages?
Really I get tired of people in this country feeling that because they were born in the United States of America that they therefore have a God given right to the highest standard of living in the world. And if an American company wants to be competitive in the world and make a profit for their shareholders then they are unpatriotic. I know, other countries don't have the type of industrial and environmental regulations that we have here. When are the people in the third world going to realize that having a job with no medical is worse than having no job at all. Back here in the USA we pass regulations, require businesses to meet all kinds of safety standards and pay unemployment and other benefits. Then we expect "our" companies to pay wages that enables us to ride around in gas guzzling SUVs and eat over priced "organic rice".
Natural born citizens complain about immigrants coming to this country and taking "our" jobs. So US companies ship the jobs overseas. That doesn't make the populace happy either, oh well.
There is only one people on earth. That's us. We have to learn to live together and share the resources of this planet. Borders are made up lines and nationality is an accident of birth.
I am a human being.
OWL
May 3, 2007
Really I get tired of people in this country feeling that because they were born in the United States of America that they therefore have a God given right to the highest standard of living in the world. And if an American company wants to be competitive in the world and make a profit for their shareholders then they are unpatriotic. I know, other countries don't have the type of industrial and environmental regulations that we have here. When are the people in the third world going to realize that having a job with no medical is worse than having no job at all. Back here in the USA we pass regulations, require businesses to meet all kinds of safety standards and pay unemployment and other benefits. Then we expect "our" companies to pay wages that enables us to ride around in gas guzzling SUVs and eat over priced "organic rice".
Natural born citizens complain about immigrants coming to this country and taking "our" jobs. So US companies ship the jobs overseas. That doesn't make the populace happy either, oh well.
There is only one people on earth. That's us. We have to learn to live together and share the resources of this planet. Borders are made up lines and nationality is an accident of birth.
I am a human being.
OWL
May 3, 2007
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
May Day
May the First 2007
I want to go out and pick flowers today. Flowers from the garden and wild flowers. I don't know where the wild flowers are around here, haven't lived here long enough. Or I don't walk enough. I've become way to dependent on my auto. I could cheat and take some from the neighbor's garden. During the summer I keep fresh flowers in the house constantly, for my wife. Or that's what I tell her. I really do it 'cause I like fresh flowers in the house. Brings the outdoors indoors. Makes it seem cheery and inviting. Our little apartment is very dark, there are not a lot of windows and they all look out to the north so no sunshine comes in. Very dreary. Flowers give a special light.
I give flowers to all the people who live in the complex too. My way of spreading the joy of gardening.
OWL
May 1, 2007
I want to go out and pick flowers today. Flowers from the garden and wild flowers. I don't know where the wild flowers are around here, haven't lived here long enough. Or I don't walk enough. I've become way to dependent on my auto. I could cheat and take some from the neighbor's garden. During the summer I keep fresh flowers in the house constantly, for my wife. Or that's what I tell her. I really do it 'cause I like fresh flowers in the house. Brings the outdoors indoors. Makes it seem cheery and inviting. Our little apartment is very dark, there are not a lot of windows and they all look out to the north so no sunshine comes in. Very dreary. Flowers give a special light.
I give flowers to all the people who live in the complex too. My way of spreading the joy of gardening.
OWL
May 1, 2007
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