I'm really getting sick of media spin

It's been obvious for years (to me, at least) that news reporters and their networks don't report news, they create it. They take a non-event and sensationalize it until it becomes news. Last week a whale was spotted in the Gulf of Mexico near Tampa. That alone is news because whales don't usually come that close to shore. The first news teaser said just that: a whale had been spotted near the coast of Tampa... details at 11:00. I guess that wasn't enough of an attention-getter because every teaser after that stated that a "sea creature" was spotted near Tampa Bay, without mentioning what the "creature" actually was..

Unfortunately, in America bad PR can kill a company (or a person's image), so everyone is on the bandwagon. Which is why Dunkin' Donuts was pressured into pulling an featuring Rachel Ray.

But what's wrong with the ad? Well, according to conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, the scarf Rachel is wearing looks like a traditional Arab headdress (called a kaffiyeh). Since Yasser Arafat and other terrorists wear kaffiyehs, Dunkin' Donuts must support terrorism.

This is stupid on so many levels. First off, she wearing a SCARF, not a kaffiyeh. secondly, it's wrapped around her neck, not her head.

Just because the kaffiyeh is worn by some terrorists doesn't mean that only terrorists wear them. By Malkin's logic, everyone wearing a black and white scarf supports terrorism.

You know how much it costs to produce a commercial? Neither do I, but I'm sure it's a lot, even before paying for the star power of Rachel Ray (I seriously doubt she gave back the money she was paid to do the commercial). So Dunkin' Donuts just took a financial soaking because Ms. Malkin wants more face-time on Fox News.

And if DD hadn't pulled the ad? A PR nightmare, all because people are too stupid to think for themselves.

I guess I won't be wearing a tie to work anymore... Hitler wore one too.

A day of rest.

I am intentionally not doing anything physical today. The carport/tool shed combo is as good as finished, and just in time - I'm starting to catch a cold, and I would rather rest for a day or two than be sick for a week or two.

Yesterday I went to the beach to watch the sunset. People always think it's weird when I tell them that I do that alone, but I just like the atmosphere. I like the sound of the breaking water, the smell of the cool salty air. Whenever I look at the endless expanse of water I always think of the line from "Dust in the Wind," "nothing lasts forever but the Earth and sky." It's true. The sand, the water, sky, the clouds, the sun. It all looks exactly the way it has for thousands of years... and I think that's pretty cool.

Good News

I called the vet for the results of Levi's bloodwork, and everything is normal. I was really expecting another case of kidney failure or cancer. Everything's fine, he just has a high metabolism.

I can think of better ways to burn up gasoline

My cat was due for his shots today, so I took him in at 2:00. While there, I asked what my other cat's weight was last time he was in. He looks to me like he's lost a little so I was concerned. They said 11.5 lbs., I made a mental note of it, and weighed him on my scale at home. He had indeed lost some weight (about a pound within a few months), so I called them back for an appointment to have him checked out.
Being that no one in the office knew the circumstances, I must have sounded pretty foolish. "Weren't you just in here?"
"Yes, but this is for Levi, my other cat."
"OK, when would like to come in?"
"Do you have anything today?"
"We have a 3:30."
"That will work. See you then."

What they didn't know was that the second appointment was spur of the moment, and that I could not have easily taken both cats in together anyway because my car is too small for a 2-cat-sized cat carrier.

Regardless, I went right back to the same office across town that I had just left an hour earlier. As for the cat, that story will be continued. They drew $269.00 worth of blood, but I won't get any test results back until tomorrow.

Your calendar is wrong... summer started today.

It's not the heat, it's the humidity. Putting fans in the window no longer does any good. Neither does cool showers, light clothing, or tall glasses of iced tea. Hot, sticky, clammy. It was finally time to kick on the air, and at about 8:00 this evening I did just that.

People up north say they dread that day each year when they bring in the lawn furniture, prep the house for winter, and close the windows for good. It's the end of an enjoyable season, and the beginning of being stuck indoors. I dread the first time I turn on the air each year. I always put it off as long as I can. I really enjoy the outside air, the smell of the grass, and - if the wind is blowing right - the salty breeze blowing in from the gulf. I like to sit by a window at night and feel the freshness of non-recycled air drifting from one window to another in its honeysuckle perfume.

I also like not being sweaty and not sticking to furniture. And when your furniture has cloth upholstery, that's pretty hot.

Whack-a-Mole

For as long as I can remember, I've had a flat, red mole on the back of my shoulder. Then this weekend I noticed that it was raised up and bumpy. The next morning I called the doctor and set an appointment. He saw me in the afternoon and said that it's not a mole at all. It's a small, harmless cluster of blood vessels called a manglealoma, or mangianoma or some name that reminded me of "Chuck Mangione." Either way, it was a relief. I celebrated with a large chocolate shake from Wendy's. One of life's little rewards.

After my afternoon nap I painted some more on the Endless Carport/Utility Shed until sundown. I'm almost done, maybe an hour more of painting. After a hot shower and a change of clothes I grabbed some dinner from Taco Bell. Driving home with the top down, I looked ahead at the rim of purple sky fading into the horizon. I felt the May wind teasing through my hair, and thought about the way I'd spent the afternoon: how I chose. I just smiled and told myself, "This is what it's all about. This is freedom. This is why I'm not a manager anymore. It's why I no longer work 11 hours a day, only to come home pissed off and too tired to do anything else."

Maybe a ten-minute drive in a convertible doesn't sound like a big deal, but believe me, after doing the management gig for three years, the contrast glows with intensity. It's been over a decade, but I'll never forget my last day as a Suit. Leaving the store that night, I felt like I did on the last day of school, like a ton of bricks had been lifted from my shoulders. It was pure freedom. Kind of like this afternoon.

ZZZzzzz...

Well, today was a sleeper of a day. Up at 9:00, goofed on the 'Net until noon, then went back to sleep. Got up at 3:00 and spent the rest of the day lying on the couch watching T.V. until 9:30. No biggie. I was exhausted all day, and rather than wipe myself out I figured I should use a day off to rest up. So I guess it's back to housework tomorrow. I finally finished painting the Spider Wall. Now there's just some touching up around the carport and a second coat on the utility shed and I'll be done with Phase One of painting. I still need to pressure-clean the carport and then I can install the shelving unit out there.

Vertigo (not Hitchcock or U2)

A few months ago I was having a typical day at work. I was getting over a cold so I was feeling a little tired and went into the bathroom to splash some water on my face. I blew my nose, felt my ears pop, and immediately knew that the next few hours would suck - bad. The ear popping was fluid rushing into my inner ear, throwing my equilibrium out of whack. Remember when you were a kid and you'd spin around in place (like a ballerina, except you didn't know about the thing where they spin their head intermittently to keep from getting dizzy)? Well, that's how it felt, and looked - like the room was tilting. I also knew what was next: on my knees in front of the toilet, ralphing my guts up.

I've been through this twice before, once on a plane and knew thought the worst of it would be over in a few minutes. Five minutes later nothing's changed,. Then my manager came in to see if I was OK. "Just give me a minute, I'll be alright." a few minutes later he offers to call 911. "No, I'll be OK once this is out of my system." Ten minutes later I still couldn't stand up and knew that I couldn't just stay on the bathroom floor. My boss said that the paramedics could give me a shot or something to help. I knew that they do have stuff like that, so I finally gave in and had him call an ambulance. I could have just had someone drive me home, but I was too dizzy to stand up, much less walk, and didn't want to impose on someone by throwing up into a bucket in their car.

By now there's a small crowd gathered outside the bathroom. My 15 minutes of fame - about how long I'd been throwing up. It turns out paramedics don't give the magic shot that restores your balance. So I had them take me to a hospital (I could have just gone home but they aren't a taxi service either).

At the hospital I finally got the Magic Shot, but by then I was already starting to feel better anyway. They also gave me a couple of pills and a cup of Gatorade. A few hours later it was all over. Someone from work came and picked me up and brought me back to my car. I drove myself home, took a nap, and felt almost perfect.

Moral of the story? I don't know. Careful with that Kleenex, Eugene.

Best Buddies

Moses and Levi. Moses was here first, then Levi came along about a year later. I wasn't sure if they would get along, but within 15 minutes they were playing tag under the bed. A few hours later, Moses was grooming/licking Levi's head. They've been inseparable ever since.

Domo Arigato DaRuMa

A week ago I made plans to take my friend Terri to our favorite Japanese steak house, DaRuMa. It's an annual thing we do on her birthday. It's one of those places where they cook the food in front of you and juggle the knives and throw shrimp in the air and catch it in their hats. This happened to be the same weekend as Mother's Day, so we took our mothers as well. A lot of fun and very tasty, and our Moms had a great time.

Day off

No painting or spider-dodging today. Gotta concentrate on cleaning up the house (the inside part). I'm pretty tired too. I might not even get all the house cleaning done.

Just scraping by

Actually, I'm done with the scraping. I've removed as much of the dead paint from the concrete

wall as I could. I scraped the paint from each hole, then scrubbed out the excess flakes with a wire brush. After three days and several bloody knuckles, I finally started putting on primer. Using a 1" brush, I spread the primer into each hole. I ran out of daylight before I ran out of primer, so I called it quits at about 8:30.


Good thing I quit when I did. A couple of hours later I went out there and saw what I later deduced to be a brown widow spider climbing around about 2 feet from where I quit. It ran up into the wall, so I looked closer and saw that up underneath the very bottom opening, all the way to one side, there was a nest (click the picture for a close-up... if you dare). If I had kept painting I would have eventually stuck my hand under there. Had that been the case I'd probably be typing this with a bandage on my hand and a good dose of antibiotics coursing through me. I did a little research on widow spider bites:

"The bite from the widow spider causes a set of symptoms in the bite victim known collectively as latrodectism. The initial bite is often painless and goes unnoticed; at worst it will feel like a pinprick. The toxin then travels through the nervous system. The first significant symptom is a dull, numbing ache in the region of the actual bite. This ache may progress to painful muscle cramps in the large muscle masses of the body, particularly the abdomen. Additional symptoms may include sweating, nausea, a rise in blood pressure, leg cramps, muscle tremors, loss of muscle tone, heartbeat irregularities, and vomiting. Symptoms and pain begin between 15 and 60 minutes after the bite and generally peak within one to three hours. Symptoms are usually completely dissipated within 12 to 24 hours. In extremely rare cases (<1%), death may occur. Very young children and elderly adults are the most susceptible to the widow venom and, therefore, the most likely to experience severe symptoms."

SPIDER UPDATE (next day)
Even though I destroyed its nest with a paint stirrer and sprayed a few ounces of bug spray up there last night, Mr. Spider was still there. Always one to tempt fate, I took some daytime shots of it:




Another topic. So how big do owls get in Florida? A few nights ago I was awoken to a very loud "hooo!" I thought it might be an owl, but it was too loud - about as loud as a dog's bark. Then I realized that I've never actually heard an owl hoot in the wild, so maybe that's how loud they are. It kept hooting about every 15 seconds, then I noticed that both of my cats were staring out the window up at the power lines. I could see a shape up there, so I quietly went outside with my flashlight. That flashlight sucks, so I could only make out a large brown oval, about 2 feet tall. I went inside for a better flashlight, came back out no more than ten seconds later, and it was gone. I never even heard it flapping its wings, which is another sign that it was an owl. Or that Predator monster.

I Am Legend

Last night I watched this movie over an order of Domino's buffalo chicken and Cheezy Bread. The best part of the movie was the buffalo chicken and cheezy bread, and the bread wasn't even that good. Smith's acting was superb, but the movie itself was incredibly boring. Sure, it's hard to make a flick about the last guy on Earth exciting, but it's just plain tedious to watch. Then in the third act the irony was being shoved down the viewers' throats so hard it could have been in subtitles. Save your money - rent something else.

My new favorite picture

Otters rule. You can click the pic for a larger version.

Like I said earlier, today I stripped paint from the concrete fence. Still a little ways to go before I repaint it. AFter a short nap I painted the carport ceiling.

Roll the Bones

Why are we here? Because we're here. Roll the bones.
When Doogie Howzer was on T.V. back in 1986 or so, I thought it was cool that he kept his diary on his computer. Each show would end with him typing white text onto a blue screen, musing about where life was leading him. I said that if I had a computer I'd do that too. Well, I got one a few years later. It ran on DOS and had no hard drive - everything was stored on 5¼" floppy discs. Floppy discs were the PC equivalent of 8-tracks: not real convenient. Of course if you're too young to remember floppy discs, you have no clue what an 8-track is, so that's a moot point. But I digress...

So here I am, two decades later and still only document the occasional major event on paper. Since my days usually end with me sitting at the PC, I've decided to start tracking my life, right here where it's convenient.

Nothing exciting, if I stick with it, it will just be what I did each day or so. For example, I've spent the past few weeks fixing up my house: re-screening windows, getting rid of clutter, taking stuff to the scrap yard. Today's job is to strip the dead paint from the concrete barrier next to the carport. Yes, I will literally be spending the day watching paint peel. See? Nothing exciting.