Well yesterday we got another kitty. His name is Toby. We got him from the lady who had him, and on the way home we found he had fleas. Already having two cats and a dog, and one of those cats being a long haired Maine Coon, we didn't want to bring the creepy crawlers into our home, so we went to the pet store and got some flea spray, and that seemed to get the fleas under control before we got home.
Stupid us, we decided to sleep with kitty in our bed. Trouble is, Kittens are like infant humans. They power nap for 10 minutes at a time. After 4 hours of sleeping in short kitten like bursts, Toby's new nocturnal residence is in my office downstairs. This morning he woke up bright eyed and is following my wife around the house.
I have to respond to this story. about the Intelligent Design debate at the Dover School disctirct in Pennsylania.
The school board is not requiring teachers to teach creationism. Their new policy is requiring teachers to read a statement about intelligent design and sending them to read Of Pandas and People if they had further questions. The statement urges students to have an open mind, and to view the biological question of evolution from different angles? What's wrong with that? Last time I heard having an open mind was important. The greatest scientists of all time, Newton Galileo, and Einstein all thought outside the box. Under the view you have of how kids be taught, these youngsters will not have all their questions answered, and in fact would be scolded for asking questions that science cannot answer.
I am by no means a religious zealot. I am a Deist, and do not believe in a God of the Bible. I do, however, believe that through education, learning, and reason which includes personal contemplation we can become better people. Some peole say Brian Rehm was a great teacher. I say he is a horrible teacher who should have been fired. Lucky for his students he quit. He is so blinded by his own beliefs that any philosophy other than his is regarded as WRONG. He doesn't even want his students to be aware that there may be other approaches to why we are here.
And that is not encouraging students to think and learn. That is producing mind numb robots simply regurgitating a teacher.
I hate the Book of the Month Club. They are annoying. They should call them books of the month.
See what happens is that they automatically send you crappy books chosen by pointy headed book freaks for you to allow to collect dust. They decided that sending you a book every month wasn't enough, so they have multiple choices.
They October choice, then a Fall choice. They come at the same time. They have a November Choice and a Thanksgiving choice. A December selection and a Christmas selection. So basically they send you two selections a month.
I am sick of going back to the Post Office to return these stupid books.
Or lack thereof. I noticed that I get nasty gall baldder attacks after eating a tasty fatty meal. Since gall attacks generall suck, I am avoiding fat as much as I can, and am not eating past 7pm.
The downside is that I am craving a philly cheesesteak, the upside is that I lost 7 pounds in the past 10 days.
I'm in the process of writing a book. "The Gallstone Diet".
It does pour when it rains. Now my wife's gas tank is leaking. I guess we'll have to move up plans to purchase a new (or gently used ) Subaru Forester.
Things that kids don't have anymore are those local TV shows to watch on a Saturday morning. Heck, even those Saturday morning cartoons are replaced by Good Morning America. Kids gotta watch the bland Cartoon Network for their fun.
I remember watching Philly's channel 6 growing up. Watching the Saturday morning cartoons. My favorite were the local shows, produced and filed right in Philly.
The one that I remember best was Captain Noah and his Magical Ark. I would be glued to the TV watchign for the "Send your Pictures" segment to see if the drawing of the dinosaur I sent in was shown on TV.
Another favorite of mine was Chief Halftown This guy was a TV legend as far back as when my dad was a kid. He's still doing shows at Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA.
Kids today don't have those memories of those shows that they grew up with. Sure, they have the national cartoons, but it's the local guys I remember most.
Capt. Noah and Chief Halftown.
So I am having trouble with stones in my gall bladder. It hurts like a mother fucker when I eat something fatty late at night. Usualy as long as I don't eat anything too greasy during the day it's ok, but even a few peanuts or glass of milk after around 8 will keep me up for 6 hours with tremendous pain.
So what does my wife do? She orders chicken wings and eats them. Lucky for my lack of will power I was at the bar attempting to play darts. But she saved them for me. Thank you. I want to be up till all hours of the night. Better yet, I want the stones to pass so I need open surgery to remove them instead of the simple laproscopic.
I could save a bit by switching to Geico, but it's only about $40 a year, and they don't have he personal commitment that my current company does. With them I have a local rep that I can call and talk to, he even sends me a Xmas card.
I would pay a little for the personal touch. Plus they are a PA company, and I want to support our local economy.
Now it it was a few hundred dollars difference, then that would be different. But for only $40 a year, I figuere stay with my current guy.
I guess I overreacted on Thursday when the car's brakes went out. First off, I'm glad it didn't happen when my wife was driving down a winding mountain road. Second, it only cost $98 bucks to get two brake lines repaired, so I guess I shouldn't be too angry. It's just that every single thing beaks at the same time and it kinda pisses you off.
So my wife goes out to get in her car this morning, and POOF. The brake line blew out. So, lets see. A fridge, washer, oven, and now who knows about what the hell this will cost me.
I hate when life serves you shit pies.
Apparently everyone of my 3 daily readers love my blog, and have asked me to talk more. So I will.
I think home appliances belong to a union of home appliances. And they conspire to go on strike at the same time. Case in point, our washer, fridge, and oven.
Granted the oven and fridge were 30 and 17 years old respectively. But the washer was only about 5 years old.
The death of the washer occured first. It began with a little leak. I thought I fixed the situation with a tightening of hose clamps and some strategically placed silicone. It didn't work, and appeared to make the leak worse. I thought I was in New Orleans with the amount of water flooding into my laundry room. Luckily we had an older (they don't make them like they used to) kenmore. It works beautifully, though is stylin it 80s style.
Then the fridge decided that we didn't need to eat cold food. The first sign of trouble was melting butter. So we bought a new Kenmore bottom freezer, and the old one started to work again. Tough. It was relegated to the heap.
Then our old Fridgidare (a division of General Motors) decided to die. And it went up in a blaze of smoke. I guess it thought it was trying to do a magic trick and vanish. Unfortunatly the ugly thing was still there when the smoke cleared, and we bought a new double oven, made by Maytag.
Now the fridge and the oven were bitch to find. Our 1970s formica kitchen was designed with smaller appliances in mind. They were probably top-of-the-line huge in 1975 when the house was built, but in 2005, it's hard to find an oven and fridge to fit the holes they were meant to.
But they did. And we got them. The only problem was when my dad and I were lifting the new oven into it's spot, and he grabbed the lower oven door handle, puttinng pressure on the external decorative glass. Let's just say that my wife found out what safety glass does when it beaks.
Luckily it was under warranty.
The other funny thing about all this was getting rid of the striking machines. Most places you'd have to pay for removal, either by the delivering company, or by a garbage tranfer station. Not in my hometown. Just put a sign on it that says "free" and it'll be gone in 2 hours. tops. Let them negoiate the the union.
I haven't felt like talking much, so I thought I'd share with you a favorite image of game days at PSU.
The drum major doing his salute after his front flip.
Truly, this guy has Talent on loan from God.
http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm
Pretty amazing sidewalk art.
The Gladwyne Lunch has been closed. A small family owned restaurant in a suburb of Philly which has been a part of this community for many years has been shut down. The proprietors of the Lunch have lost their livelihood. Their employees have lost their jobs. And Gladwyne has lost part of the sense of friendship and community that makes our village so special. Now there is something you can do to change all of this...
Visit Save the Lunch to find out what I'm talking about.
