And I haven't any lox, either

I have three bagles left: one asiago cheese, and two multi-grain covered with all sorts of seeds. I don't especially care for the seedy ones, especially since the caraway seeds kind of overwhelm all the other flavors, and I love-love-love the cheesy ones. But all three have to be eaten, and soon. So which do I eat this morning?

Ponder that question as I try to dislodge this caraway seed from my wisdom tooth.

The Dark End of the Street, Epilogue

It was a particularly frosty night, but I had a very big log on the fire, and the indoor temperature was about 75 degrees at 3am. This is what it was at 9am.

Brrrrr.

Why the South Ain't Gonna Rise Again, Reason #2,753

Southerners can't count.

“I am running for one reason and one reason only, and that is to change a state headed in the wrong direction and to come back here and raise grandchildren.” -- Roy Barnes, candidate for Governor of Georgia, as quoted in the New York Times, Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009, Page A1 of the New York edition.

The Dark End of the Street

My house is perched on the eastern edge of a riverbluff, with expansive and breathtaking eastward views over the Eel River and to the Coast Range beyond.

To the north I have a hedge, which was about 15 feet tall before my landlord trimmed it last month. At its new height of about 8 feet, I can see into the adjacent sheep pasture (now occupied by geese) and to the main house beyond. I can also see the river course for some miles in this direction, enabled by my large picture window.

On the west, my view is mostly of the rest of the bluff, the lower third of which is the main sheep pasture (this one occupied by sheep). The bluff rises up to its maximum height, perhaps another 100 or 150 feet, fairly steeply, which means my sunsets come backwards: when the sun sinks beyond the bluff, which is by 4pm this time of year, it's still sunny in the river valley to my east.

But the main problem is to the south, where there is a copse rising from the edge of the bluff to a maximum height of about 30 feet. It's lovely in the summer, and I guess it's still lovely, but it's only about 20 feet from my house, and that means that, for the past month or so, the arc of the sun has not risen above the treeline when seen from my house. That means that my house, or at least the portion of my house inhabited by humans rather than bats, receives no direct sunlight for a little less than half the year. This perpetual darkness means that my house can get very cold, even when it's not very cold outside.

My only source of heat is my wood-burning stove. If I stoke the fire at bedtime high enough to last the night, which I'm not sure is possible, it makes the house as hot as a Turkish bath. If I do not do this, and the fire dies in the wee hours of the morning, the house cools off so rapidly and thoroughly that it stays refrigerator-like all the next day. The third way is to keep the fire at a house-warming low level all night, but generally I sleep too deeply to wake up every two or three hours to add a log to the embers.

I guess the fourth way is to learn to enjoy the darkness and chill, and wait paitently for the sun's return in March.

Arlo & Janis skewers the NFL

Today's Arlo & Janis strip perfectly illustrates the two reasons I've lost all interest in the NFL:

Click on the 'toon to see a larger (i.e. readable) image at Comics.com.

Cricket Saves My Computer

At 6:30 this morning, the fairly strong winds of an approaching storm blew some branches into a powerline across the street (in the sheep pasture), causing first the fuses and then the transformer to blow. We were without power for nine hours as tree-trimming and transformer-replacing crews toiled in the rain. When power was restored, and I reset a tripped breaker, I discovered that my microwave oven had been, well, nuked by the power surge. The microwave is the only electrical item of any significance that was not plugged into a surge protector; it was plugged directly into the wall outlet. (I'm not completely stupid, but I am lazy: I had a surge protector for that outlet, but when I moved my refrigerator out of the kitchen and into the pantry, where there are no grounded outlets, I realized I had to string two surge-protecting power strips together for the 'fridge to reach a grounded outlet. One of those strips came from the kitchen counter, and all good intentions to replace it were quickly forgotten.) So now I need a new microwave; no big deal, as this one was getting pretty old and may not have lasted much longer.

However, it soon occurred to me that the microwave was not the only appliance in harm's way. On almost any other night, my laptop would also have been plugged directly into the wall (and being a Wednesday night, it'd've been left on to run some utility programs overnight.) I blanch to think what my mental state would be if this very expensive laptop which is essential in so many different ways had been converted into a smoking doorstop. But good fortune, a very infrequent visitor in this house, was in my pocket last night, and it's all because of cricket.

You see, I've fallen in love with cricket, and have slavishly watched every moment of the recent 5-match ODI series between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. The final match, played today in Chittagong, which was last night California-time (and which was won by Bangladesh in thrilling fashion), was telecast beginning at 6:30pm yesterday. (If you are wondering, I can watch such things on the web via the site ESPN360.com, the only good thing ever to come from the Worldwide Leader.) Zimbabwe, batting first, survived their entire allotment of 50 overs, which meant that their half of the innings lasted until something like 11pm my time. Not wanting to miss Bangladesh's turn at the strike, I took the computer to bed with me--where the available outlet is a surge-protected one. When the match ended, at about 3am, I considered returning the laptop to its usual place, but opted to just leave it on the dresser, still plugged into the power strip (because it was still running, as noted above.)

Had it not been for that fifth match of the Grameenphone Cup, my laptop would be a smoldering piece of toast right now, and so would my psyche. Cricket is my new favorite sport.

Pictured: Bangladesh allrounder Shakib al Hasan, source http://www.deshiweb.com/cricket/shakib-takes-top-spot-among-odi-allrounders/

Menu Management for Morons

I bought a quart of milk today, to replace the one that passed its exipry date about 7 weeks ago. Since this milk is fresh, I want to make mashed potatoes for dinner. I also have leftover peas in the fridge that need to be eaten. So which leftover entree should I have, the beef or the pork? Easy. Alliterative alimentation requires that I have Pork with my Peas and Potatoes. The beef will just have to wait for another day, one on which I feel like making Brown rice and steaming Broccoli.

But wait...crisis...the beef is leftover Pot roast...

Maybe I should just go out for Pizza and Pepsi with a chaser of Pepto-bismol.