Cold

It's flipping cold outside. The wind chill is supposed to be below zero, and the wind is absolutely brutal.

Years ago, I acquired a fleece sausage with hand and foot holes. Since that time, the Snuggie has become popular, but I prefer my fleece sausage. I haven't worn it since I moved to Gloucester (at least not that I recall), but I am enclosed within it tonight.

Disaster at Sea

I created a wiki:
http://disasteratsea.pbworks.com/FrontPage

I'm not sure how it works if you aren't the owner. Try visiting, and let me know what you find. There isn't any content yet, but I welcome folks to add some!

Ramsay

A co-worker to whom I forwarded an invitation to cook for Gordon Ramsay is going to do just that. It turns out that his life features enough drama to qualify him. Isn't that obnoxious? It's not your cooking that counts, it's how you have managed to survive to cook another day. I feel pretty sure that Rachael Ray wasn't hired for her stoicism in the face of chaos and adversity.

And speaking of work: I'm hoping that, because I now work 4-day weeks, it will be okay if I make special arrangements for the last week of March. Instead of missing Thursday, I really want to miss Friday, so as to get one extra day for our 3-day flight!

Too Much II

Above is a guide/map to aid readers in following my commentary, as regards things New Zealand. As I say below, I had planned to set out from Invercargill (bottom), but we may have to begin in Christchurch.

Map courtesy of worldatlas.com.

Tryouts

What am I going to do with my 2009 recipe collection? Typically, I gather them all year, then try them out during our vaca on the Outer Banks. No such vaca this year, and I knew all year that there wouldn't be, but still I collected recipes. I have quite a pile.

Hubbie says, "Just try them out here." But that would mess with my rituals—-those involving new (to me) techniques and flavor profiles, cooking for hours, and the to-the-ounce planning of shopping expeditions. I know, I know, other people do that all the time; [sigh] I don't.

I could be manufacturing anxiety. I can't find a couple of Netflix discs, and I've been actively anxious about that all evening. Have you ever put something at the bottom of your mental list, only to have it fall off the list entirely, yet bother you often, just beyond the reach of memory?

Too Much NZ

We went today to Liberty Travel to explore and book travel to New Zealand. It seems that we need to go back tomorrow, when Liberty's NZ expert is working.

We had hoped to get an assist with curtailing our hoped-for itinerary. We have a plan that takes us from Invercargill, at the bottom of the south island, up to Ninety-Mile Beach, north of Auckland (North Island). In addition, I want to have an overnight in Australia.

My husband would like to chop Australia and the extreme-south south island. But he'd also like to add fjord lands (South Island) and the Waiotapu mud pools, south of Rotorua (North Island). Our trip is 98 days away... it is starting to feel real.

Hod

I got a catalog today from Burpee. Flipping through it made me feel like spring is right around the corner—-although I know, in truth, that winter only just started.

Burpee is, of course, known largely as a vegetable-seed supplier. I am considering which veggies to grow in 2010. When our vegetable garden is producing, we keep an over-sink colander constantly over our sink. In it we pile (and wash) what is ripe; the selection can decide for us what's for dinner.

This season the Burpee catalog features a hod. I had never heard of a hod before. It's a vegetable-gathering basket with wooden ends and a wire-mesh body. I'm thinking I might need one, to use instead of our over-sink colander. Then we'd have more sink space. But where would the hod drain?

Cultural Relativism and the Holidays

Don't worry, I'm not going to go all intellectual.

A classmate said, at our last class meeting of 2009, that she questions the worth of multi-culturalism (which, I confess, I think of as cultural relativism). I immediately understood. Any culture that thinks it's OK to carve away a woman's clitoris needs to be brought up short, not welcomed into community.

But I also read the amazing book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down —- a true must-read, and a book that I will recommend as a last-minute buy to any person still trying to think of a Christmas gift.

I think "relativism" may be, bizarrely, more precise[?] than "multi-culturalism", because the former word permits you to consider what is bad here against what is maybe even worse elsewhere, without accepting either one.

Adam Cooper?

Saw Adam Lambert on So You Think You Can Dance last night. Had never seen him perform before, not being an Idol viewer.

He honestly looked like a cross between Alice Cooper and Liberace. He had glitter in his eyebrows. And his voice didn't sound that great—-too many breath tricks. I hope that he does not see himself as a role model for gay youth. He seems to be in search of himself.

Stress

I know it's just "small" stuff. But I've had a bad cold approximately forever. It doesn't help my mood.

I am sinking under the weight of cards to sign and address, papers to write (have to re-write that one from last week, isn't that just the worst?), rebates to submit, memberships to renew (important, if I want to get a prescription filled—-another to-do on my list), gifts to wrap, even newspapers to read.

Maybe I can just recycle the newspapers.

Activist

My son Mike's week of finals starts December 14. For the time being, however, he is engaged in something else:
http://www.thetranscript.com/ci_13924636?IADID=Search-www.thetranscript.com-www.thetranscript.com

Bottleneck

I am quite pleased to have found the opaque white one.

Fennel

My fennel keeps on going. And those red things—-rose hips, maybe?–-look quite nice in the front.

Cheneyism

Well worth reading:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/12/bitter-and-afraid.html

Copy that string and paste it into your browser window.

Paper

I have to write two papers this week. One is due tomorrow night. I'm stalling.

When I'm doing research, I can't do it with source materials that are available only on my screen. I have to print them out, and then I'm surrounded by paper. I have a stack literally two feet tall in the office, from papers past.

Somebody help me talk about reflective practice.

Adaptations

Did I say that my phone had some new GPS application? Not for FREE, it turns out. It's another $9.99 a month [sigh]. So what did I get in buying a new phone? Answer: It doesn't randomly turn itself off.

Today I got my eyes checked. My pupils are still huge from the drops. I made a bank deposit after my appointment, and I had to give up on the ATM, walk into the bank, and have a teller indicate which end of the check to endorse.

The result of my appointment: I got driving glasses. They are supposed to help with distance perception at night. I certainly hope they do. I've had to slam on the brakes too many times when the car in front of me turned out to be close enough to touch.

Phone

I got myself a new cell phone. I know I said months ago (on this blog) that I wanted one with all the bells and whistles. What I actually got was the new version of the phone I already had.

It might have some sort of GPS application that's new.

I'm only just realizing how portable the college-age generation considers communications to be. No matter what they seek in a given moment, they expect it to be available with a few finger flicks. Directions, data, trainings, quotes—-I can't imagine what stepping into a library must feel like in an era when primary-source research seems almost unknown.

Anniversary

Today is my and Vic's 18th anniversary. We had a lovely meal and came home to the Patriots' game. The team had better do well.

Ooh, they just scored a touchdown!

Epochs

Another cool video, courtesy of the Daily Dish, via 3Qd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwOA8AfeHM4

The decline of empires should cover a much longer time frame, of course, and should incorporate the growth of new empires. But, isn't it fascinating to see what happens in the 1960s?

Is it that the Sixties represent a change of mind in the way that the Enlightenment did? Is it the rise of disposable plastics? I just think it's fascinating.

November Glass

On Thursday morning this week, I went glass picking. I hit my favorite beach on Rocky Neck. I could only spend 20 minutes, but I collected a good bit of glass. Not much of it was great, but some of it was kinda nice.

This morning, Vic and I glassed for about 2 hours. We took the dinghy over to Ten Pound. Lots of fat old and interesting pieces! We each found a partial bottle top in blue. Vic found a bright pink shell, which is visible in the colander.

Dance

I mean this when I say it: I cried when I watched this video. Not in sadness, and not in joy. More at the spirit and the infectiousness of dance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao4DkbGbxl0
(Thanks to the Daily Dish for bringing the video to my attention.)

I know from my friends growing up that it sucks to mature as a "different" sort of person. That the guy in pink has not only come to terms with those difficulties, but also brought the simple happiness of self-expression to his fellow citizens in this way... "Hurry up, and bring your juke-box money!"

Hair

I got my hair cut on Thursday. I wanted a particular style. I printed out three pictures of other people wearing it. I brought with me three old pictures of myself wearing it. I found online instructions for hairdressers to create this cut and printed those out, too.

You know what this paragraph is going to say. Of course, I did not get exactly the cut I wanted. The hairdresser didn't even read the instructions. What I got is, it seems, the haircut that Patricia Arquette now has, on Medium. Not a bad haircut. Just not the one I wanted (and not the one I did everything imaginable to pursue).

I did not realize at the time that it wasn't right because, just as at the end of any haircut I have ever gotten, the hairdresser poofed and producted and blew my hair dry. I don't do any of that at home. At the end of the appointment, I appeared to be Hilary Clinton when she stopped wearing headbands and ponytails and went with the starched head look.

Forms

I just created a survey form using Google. It was unbelievably easy, and I can see that software publishers aren't going to be happy. Many of the forms that Google offers are the whole reason why applications were developed.

The document underlying my survey form is a spreadsheet, rather than a database (a database could use memo fields). That could be a problem; I don't know if there's a size limit on a spreadsheet cell. We'll have to wait and see.

Outer Banks

I emitted a squeal tonight, clapping and bouncing in my chair. In a slide-show survey of storm damage on the Outer Banks, I saw Once Upon a Time (the house where we stayed this year) whole, apparently intact.

See #33! http://islandfreepress.org/2009Archives/11.17.2009-ARetrospectiveOnTheCoastalStorm/index.html —- NOTE, the picture above is NOT from after the storm, but is instead ca. 2008. You have to use the link to see our home-away-from-home now. If you link, Once Upon a Time is in the lower left quadrant of pic 33, the first house entirely within the picture.

You may recall that I said, "I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that house," but I don't know that you know what a big deal this is. In the weekend storm, on the Outer Banks, 349 structures (mostly single-family homes) were damaged—-of which 81 were so damaged that they are not habitable. Another three are just plain gone, washed into the ocean.

The eradication of dunes has left numerous homes standing in the tidewater. Two motels sustained major damage; both were in Buxton, the town where Once Upon a Time is located. The house is within one block of those two motels.

Just imagine that had happened on our coastline! The affected Banks constitute only 50 miles of seashore.

Glories

The morning glories persist in the garden. These pictures are some weeks old, however.

Green Glass

One of the things I discovered in Erie at the Sea Glass Festival is that some shades of green glass are rare: jade or emerald green, for example. I have long tried to segregate shades of green, but in the sorter you can see more than one shade in some of those slots.

I've also found another sea glass website (unbelievable that I had not found it previously, as I've so frequently done web searches on the tag 'sea glass'). Victor found it, in truth. There I discovered how one 'grades' sea glass. Jewelry-quality glass is considered to be a piece that is well frosted on all surfaces, with no chips.

Last Blooms

Pink and blue dominated my garden at the end of the season. Well, yellow actually dominated, but I'm tired of yellow blooms everywhere late in the season. In contrast, I'm in love with my blue mist shrub.

Sunflower Seeds

Victor cut off the heads of all his sunflowers. He put some on the pole of his bird feeder, and one in a bag in the basement. I wish he'd just let one collapse and be absorbed by the soil—-that's how we got a mammoth sunflower from seed, where I work.

Reblooming

Final blooms appeared during September and October, for the most part. The pink rose is still blooming this morning.

End of 2009's Food Garden

Pictures more than a month old at this point.

2009's Bonus

I'm roasting my bonus today. Using a convection oven, it should take no more than 2 hours for all 12.4 pounds. Good practice with use of the convection option for the holiday!

Oramar

The nor'easter is making it rain here today, but on Hatteras, it seems, it swallowed all the dunes. A woman who runs a B&B in Buxton, NC, says that she is, today, surrounded by water. She's feeling lucky, reporting that her neighbors' homes have water 2' deep.

We stayed right around that B&B in May, one block off Hwy 12, on Oramar Drive. Remember the pictures of the beach bridge that was being washed away in the space of a week? It was eroded by normal tides, nothing like this "Nor-Ida" event.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that house, aka Once Upon a Time, to emerge like something out of a fairy tale.

Joy (with Reservations)

Of course, I am very excited that the public option was included in the House bill. Not as robust as I would have liked, but it is present.

Wish Lieberman would unclench his buttocks and relax.

Tides

Tides come in, and tides go out. I'm wondering this weekend, which is wiser: Getting ahead of the tide, never getting wet; or plonking oneself down in the water, understanding that it's not going to be comfortable—-not during, not after...

I'm in a new class on adult learning. The prof recommends that we use journaling in problem solving. So I'm going to go do that.

Meds

Heard today that a change in meds was probably part of the grisly scene that unfolded at Mass Gen.

I work with people who are challenged by mental health glitches and emotional processing delays. I will say unreservedly, it takes great care and patience, careful introduction of changes, and endurance for fallout.

Even outpatient clinics need to take basic precautions--software firms and construction companies do, why not hospital psychiatric clinics?!?

WaPo Changeover?

According to salon.com (Glenn Greenwald), today's editorial page, Washington Post, featured "two former Bush officials, one former Reagan official, two right-wing politicians, a Fox News neocon, the CEO of America's largest oil and gas producer, a defender of the right-wing Honduran military coup leaders, and one liberal columnist." What the heck?

Crazy

A psychiatric inpatient kept safe in a hospital ward snapped. A dangerous implement was used. An off-duty security guard is being hailed as a "hero" for having shot the patient dead.

I work with a child who has psychotic episodes. I parent a child who has psychotic episodes. I—-and, no doubt, many others—-had thought that a psychiatric hospital ward would have procedures, screenings, and safeguards in place; that a psychiatric hospital ward would prioritize protecting patients from their own unpredictable impulses; that a psychiatric hospital ward was ultimate safekeeping for society's sometimes dangerous, but not willfully dangerous, offspring.

Remember, everyone, that there is a big difference between a convicted evildoer waiting for his moment to lash out, and a confused and terrified person subject to command hallucinations. This is frigging crazy.

Detroit

http://theurbanophile.blogspot.com/2009/08/detroit-urban-laboratory-and-new.html
(from the Daily Dish at The Atlantic)

—-This just astonishes, in good and bad ways.

Heart

My cousin on my father's side had a heart attack yesterday, I heard this afternoon. It was a serious heart attack. She had to be defibrilated in the ambulance and again at the hospital. She is now scheduled for surgery on Tuesday because one artery is completely blocked. She is ten days older than I am.

My husband has to have surgery in the coming days and weeks. People speculate that the reasons for the surgery may be genetic. I was a lot more relaxed about it until I heard about my cousin today.

Decay

The body decays, naturally. Plastic will not.
http://chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=11

Show

I was told while taking these pictures that photography is not permitted. So I wasn't able to capture my two favorite pieces: an egg-sized, egg-shaped, well-frosted cobalt blue, and a small, triangular, deep turquoise/azur. Sorry not to be able to offer images!

These are, of course, submissions for Shard of the Year. The winning one was a lozenge-sized red cone; it could even be the one below the Y in Year, above. My submissions are depicted here, on the table absolutely full of pieces of glass. The shards are too small on this page to be clear, but one was black, one teal, and one jade green. I also had two pink-and-white pieces of art glass entered. No prizes.

Shore

There were contrasts along the shore of Lake Erie. A newly abandoned asphalt plant. A 10-mile-long park, along a peninsula. Marinas and luxury accommodations. A hospital that, I was told, has been there forever.

The asphalt plant employed a goodly number of workers until very recently. Thus there is a low-income neighborhood within sight of the lake, now largely without work. It is quite big and quite sad. I wonder how long before gentrification gobbles it up.

Erie

I tried to take pics that, to my mind, are representative of Erie. The streets are wide and nondescript—-though, at top, a train is on the overpass, crossing the street. A few buildings stand out.

Room

I did like staying at the Wingate in Erie. My room was quite large (only one photo turned out, above). I liked my rental, too: a Nissan.

I tried to eat only at places I had never been before, but that didn't work out. A Jamaican/Caribbean place was closed when I went, and a Dominican "family" restaurant was, I was advised, not in a good part of town. (As if any Flint native is intimidated by the "bad" part of another town... but that night, I was too tired/falling ill to head back downtown.)

I did try a chain restaurant that was unfamiliar: Smokey Bones. Loved, loved the pulled pork that was billed as seasoned only with salt and pepper. Also went to a pub, Molly something-agin, right next door to Starbuck's. Lovely leek-and-potato soup, and I had a yummy blackened chicken chipotle alfredo there, too.

Regulation

I read my blogs this morning, having omitted them for most of the week (PA, ill, final). I am alarmed to see that the financial-mismanagement cycle has begun anew, apparently unseen by the administration, and ignored by the Congress. So, my fellow citizens, start making some noise.

A pharmacist cannot decide to administer a controlled substance that seems warranted by a person's condition. A nurse cannot decide to discharge a sick patient from a hospital. In health care, there are rules–-even when we can perceive little advantage in breaking them, we do see human error as a risk.

In banking, there are too few rules. And, strangely, in banking of nearly any type, the incentives for outrageous behaviors are plentiful. And sizable.

It is common sense to regulate financial transactions heavily. I mean heavily, heavily, heavily. Again, the incentives are too plentiful and sizable for outrageous behaviors.

Grail

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is on this Thursday, on IFC at 10pm. IFC is the channel that is broadcasting this week a six-part documentary on the Pythons.

The Grail is worthy of attention. I used to have a semi-annaul party for viewing the Grail. People came from up to 800 miles away.

I've watched a couple of previously aired Python documentaries. I've read Michael Palin's diaries. I've actually watched everything I've ever heard of that features any Python. We are committing this six-parter to vid.

Cold

I have the world's worst cold. I pray I haven't infected anyone.

I'm home sick, less than 24 hours after coming home from PA. Being unexpectedly at home puts me in a strange, but not unfamiliar, frame of mind. I'm thinking about the trappings of my existence.

While I was in PA, I thought about writing a book. The book would be on GRID—-Greed, Recklessness, Indulgence, and Delusion—-and how these in the last 20 years have damaged U.S. culture and social relations. 'Indulgence' was a hard call; I considered 'Intolerance.' But I think the latter addresses another area of thought, distinct from GRID. The realm I hoped to address was that of the "comfortable." I fear I have become one of those.

I own too many things, I have eaten too much chocolate in the last week, there is too much paper clutter in my home, and I'm too fat. Each of these represents a dissonance between values and reality that does not settle my soul. The word "comfortable" above does not mean at peace.

Chocolate

Speaking of wishing I knew where to go, I've had two conversations to date with Erie residents (neither resident was taking part in the festival). Our talks centered on what spots I should visit while I'm here.

One Erie personage had a thing for chocolate. He sent me to his favorite sweets shop, saying that they had an incredible treat called Sponge.

So I went, and I got a 5-oz bag of Sponge. Oh my goodness. It's like a (British) Cadbury Crunchie, sort of, except that the crunchy, burnt sugar/toffee-like interior melts on your tongue. And it's enrobed in fantastic milk chocolate.

I had intended to bring some home to share, but I'm afraid that will not be possible at this point. Ahem.

The Lake

I am in Erie, PA, for the Sea Glass Festival that I've been talking about since May. This is pretty cool. So many festival participants have enormous glass collections from Lake Erie that I went to the shore of the Great Lake to have a look. I found two sharp, non-tumbled pieces of glass, which I threw into the water for refinement. I wish I knew where to go.

Ship Wik

I'm thinking about creating a shipwreck wiki.

I used to have a website, via Verizon. There I had a well-researched page full of links to info on shipwrecks. For reasons unknown, Verizon took the site down. This action was not directed at my site; they took lots of customer sites down, as they had provided them at no cost and could do whatever they wanted. However, all that research lost with no warning... it hurt.

My hope is that, this time around, the research can be shared. If anyone besides me cares to read about shipwrecks, that is.

Three-fifths Funny?

Since I was little, I've been hearing my non-American mother express shock and outrage, over the tendency in U.S. culture to make buffoons out of those with darker skins. The TV shows of the 1970s were particularly guilty, although remembered 'fondly' nowadays, even by many who should know better.

Yesterday, in Australia, Harry Connick Jr. refused to play along when a Gong Show-like television program had, as contestants, a group of singers made up as though they were of other races. They pretended to be the Jackson 5. Harry was having none of it. He spoke at the program's end quite clearly about fighting against the 'make-them-buffoons' tendency in the U.S. (endearing himself to me, I must say).

A family member described her experience working in a southern state. In the medical field, a supervisor directed her to fail to service any African-American person. The treatment she provides is often life-saving, and she simply acted as her conscience directed her to. The result was that she was told she had better not roller-blade outdoors, or ride her bike too close to certain points, and then her barn got shot up. The year was 2005.

Never kid yourself that we're done with this race thing. And kudos to Harry.

Globe

My husband has recycled Sunday's Globe Magazine.

Not a big deal, you may think. Well, the first letter in the Letters to the Editor section was mine. I kind of wanted to hold on to the issue, or at least to the relevant page.

I had fun writing to the Globe. It was my first time, and being selected to run was, of course, exciting.

The recycling went out yesterday morning.

Tierney

I had the good fortune to hear Rep. John Tierney speak at the end of last week. He spoke about (wait for it)...health care reform!

It was truly fascinating to hear some of the statistics on the health insurance industry. Here's one: There's this insurance CEO in Houston. His salary is $80,000.
A day.

There's another insurance CEO whose annual salary would cover every penny spent on Medicaid and Medicare—-both of them, the poor and the elderly—-for three full months.

Ron Paul was on The Daily Show on Thursday, and he uttered the complete crap that the government spends far too much money on welfare. Really? A tiny percentage of the original, FDR-era earmark in real dollars, at a time when shocking numbers of our peers are out of work and homeless? It should be criminal to tell such resentment-spreading lies.

$Military$

I have said before that there are dollars being spent on the military that really don't need to be spent.

I just saw a chart on Andrew Sullivan's blog (the_daily_dish) that identifies international military spending in billions of dollars. The U.S. spends $607.3 billion on its military. The next in line? France, which spends $65.7 billion—-one tenth of what we spend.

Ancho Apple Pie

I actually made a successful apple pie today.

This is quite a feat. Baking and I do not mix. Recently, while making cookies, I somehow managed to turn the oven off mid-bake. Another time, I made a mocha sponge roll with butter-cream frosting, but didn't mix the frosting quite long enough—-so it got served with big lumps of butter in it. Also, I just made an apple cake this week that isn't sweet. Not sure what happened there.

But my pie is good! Recipe follows. I modified the one on the pie crust box.

Ancho Apple Pie

9” pie pan or dish
2 very large bowls
1 pkg pie crusts
3 lb apples
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tbs flour
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ancho chile powder
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 tbs butter
2 tbs milk, half-and-half, or cream

Core, peel, and slice apples. Set aside in very large bowl.

Preheat oven to 425. Prepare bottom crust according to package directions.

Mix 2 types of sugar together in second very large bowl, then set aside 2 tbs sugar mixture. Combine remaining sugar with flour, cinnamon, ancho chile powder, cloves, salt, and nutmeg.

Add sliced apples to bowl and pour back and forth between bowls until apples are well coated and there is little mix still loose.

Cut butter into very small pieces. Mound apples in bottom crust, and dot with butter.

Place top crust over apples and crimp edges over bottom crust. Brush with cream and sprinkle with set-aside 2 tbs sugar. (If cream ‘pools’ anywhere, add enough sugar there to make a loose paste.)

Slit top to vent pie.

Bake on bottom rack for 15 min. Remove pie and cover edges with foil.

Re-set oven to 350. Return pie to middle rack and bake another 45-60 min.

Cool for one hour before cutting.

Cheese Souffle

I once, on the Outer Banks of NC, spent more than an hour putting together a cheese souffle. The results were... well, I think I said, "Seriously? All that work, for this?"

At Trader Joe's, they have frozen nuggets of souffle. You drop them into an oven-safe cup, cook for half an hour, and get souffle. I just ate one. It wasn't a shockingly delicious souffle, but it was damn good. It was MUCH better than my OBX souffle. And all I had to do was pour some nuggets into a dish, and put the dish in the oven.

You have to try this. And to my big sister, I will find a way to get you some TJ GCs.

Bless Colbert

When I heard that the Senate Finance Committee had not voted for the public option, I confess to having had an impulse. I wanted to reach out to everyone in my Windows Contacts file, and tell them to send their unpaid medical bills to those Republications and Democrats who had just cast votes opposed.

Well, guess what? Stephen Colbert—-who has a hell of a lot more clout than I have, doy—-just told all his viewers to send those very bills in to Max Baucus! Woo-hoo! I. love. Colbert.

One Weekend

This is just one weekend's worth of sea glass. All collected in (and standing next to) containers that used to hold coffee. Coffee and sea glass, what a lovely way to spend a lazy morning. Wish I had one of those about now.

Go, Schumer!

On the way home from work today, I heard a news story about the defeat of the public option in the Senate Finance Committee. Needless to say, I felt sick at heart.

Then I started to do some reading. (First I did my homework, so I didn't get to the reading until pretty late.) I found an article that alleged the following: "Ralph Neas, chief executive officer of the National Coalition on Healthcare: “What Senator Schumer did today is keep the ball in play.”"

Sen. Schumer put forth a public-option proposal that, while it was defeated, gave supporters within Congress the impetus they needed to keep on fighting. Let us all keep on fighting!

Dexter

Dexter begins tonight, season 4. I confess to this addiction. He is not a nice man, but he is funny, in a black sort of way. I'm wondering now, is this fascination with evil-doers at the heart of my love of a good mystery?

Late August

Just a little of the not-quite late-season scenery at my house. The wisteria once more re-bloomed in August-September, making me appreciate it all the more.

Victor rescued the rose when he mulched the front. I had planted about eight out there, and they all faded and died.

Blue

Individual pieces of sea glass that came out in focus. Which is unusual, it turns out.