Mare egrets mouse two ewes

A bit belated - it's been a busy couple days of ennui. I'm hoping for better, next year. Too many missing family members for a good season - we passed on most Christmas music, and it was very low key on the "gift giving" or "graft providing" part. My wife's sister died a few months ago, and having the middle son in jail didn't help matters much either. Our karma should be well balanced though, I'm in hopes of some good stuff coming our way. Although, as any Blackjack player knows, a long streak of losses doesn't add up to a long streak of winning coming your way.

We had hoped to go see "The Polar Express" today. Or yesterday. But it's too much effort. Tomorrow is the sentencing day for the kid - it's throwing a pall over our lives. Even if the results of tomorrow's government messing with our lives comes with him staying in jail for some period of time, at least the other shoe will have settled and we'll know. Right now it's been two months of wondering how bad the end will be.

I'm looking forward to spring. I'm in hopes this will be a great year where we'll get things moving and have a fresh start.

Life stinks - then you keep living...

I could be on a rampage...

but probably not. Christine Gregoire has very likely finally won in the third count (second recount) of the Washington governor's race.

My philosophy? If she won, she won. If a recount shows she won - even a second recount - then she won. Leave it alone, already.

Here's our chance to be consistent - in exactly the same way that George Bush won the election in 2000 we see Christine winning. By close votes, carefully counted, and legal intervention properly decided on.

Let's be consistent here - she won.

But I don't have to like it!

This is unusually annoying

I was actually filling in some of the blanks in my profile and the last item was "tell the story of the bald frog with the wig". Now, it didn't give any length limitations so I wrote a silly story and when I saved my profile, it came back and told me I only had 150 characters. Now, it's unlikely that Proust or Faulkner could have written much of a classic in 150 characters either. So I asked for another question - which was easier to answer in 150 characters. Never one to waste words [heh] I have posted the story here for your edification, and no doubt, finally confusion...

Once upon a time there was a bald frog. He was very conscious of his baldness, so he determined to buy a wig. Now, I don't know about now, but in those days it was exceedingly unusual for a frog to own a wig. He searched high and low to find one. Finally, heartbroken and weary, he returned home empty-handed. Now, pausing at the door of his little house, he looked over his shoulder, and what did he see? Surely that bit of bright red fuzz hanging in yonder juniper would work wonders for a wig! He leapt for the bush, already making plans for the morrow. The parties and state dinners he would go to! All the people he would know, he might become famous! Sadly, as he landed near the tree, a French chef stole out of the shadows and cut off his legs to use for dinner. The moral of the story? Two legs at the waist are far better than a wig in the bush. [you thought this would make sense?]

I'm making fudge...

Actually, to be truthful, I'm making dinner and helping some of the peripheral tasks in creating fudge. It at least qualified to eat the leftovers out of the pan that way! We are making fudge to give to some of our favorite places - the restaurant we eat most often gets some, and the coffee shack my wife gets her fix from the most often. Probably the paper boy and some others will get theirs. I just hope we leave enough for some at home!

It's tomorrow!

Actually, it's today. But yesterday it would be tomorrow, today.

At any rate, it's the Solstice! The shortest day of the year. That means tomorrow will be longer - spring is coming! Less than three months to the annual spring home show here in town - and that is the real "sign of spring" here!


-max

Equus or Pachyderm?

Weeeeelllllll ...

That's not particulary tough to answer.

BUT...

I'm really not either. I am a conservative - and in many ways that's NOT a Republican. I do vote Republican for the most part, since most of the time the Republican agenda is closer than the Democrat agenda to my thinking. Which is not to say that I'm particularly proud of many of the things that "my"party has done on this go-round. Mostly at a local level - many of the Republican stalwarts are slimy politicians. They seem to buy and sell favors, and make alliances far too often. I understand that some of that is necessary - a political evil if you will. But in this particular case they have attempted to tarnish the reputation of another Republican simply because she refused to side with them on something that was pretty dang shady. In other words, she stood up for her principles and was ostracized for her stand.

Personally, I'm proud of her for doing what she thought was right, and standing up to be counted. I must say that I also gained just a tiny bit (not much, mind you) of respect for John Kerry when he conceded rather than dragging out a foregone conclusion until now or later.

My wife's a Democrat. But she's a "thinking Democrat" .. in other words, she doesn't vote knee-jerk Democrat, marking the little box next to the "D" no matter who it is.

Wotinell's the point of a secret ballot if everyone's gonna vote the party ticket anyhow!

Equus or Pachyderm - why can't we all just get along?

Addendums and corrections

That sounded pretty damned official, didn't it! Got your attention? Yup .. thought so.

Just wanted to perhaps correct a possible misstatement below.

The ballots mentioned are STILL SEALED. Not this thing of hanging chads or anything. For one reason or another, these ballots were simply misplaced - or missed. I dunno why - but having been intimately connected with the ballot counting here in my county, I know that it's people running these elections.

Just people. You know, folks, we all make mistakes. I make 'em daily. Do you? Probably. My mistakes usually don't result in anything important, although it's exceedingly possible that someday one of my mistakes will result in something important indeed. Like making a wrong turn onto a one-way street. THAT can be a big mistake that could possibly ultimately result in the death of a fellow person.

Doctors make mistakes. Lawyers - the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. McDonald's employees. Presidents. Note a common theme here?

MISTAKES.

Past elections have had mistakes in them. I know, it's a shock. Most of you didn't realize that.

I find it interesting that in this particular election it just may make a difference - the mistake some of those elections workers made might make a difference in who is finally declared the final winner. This is also a very unusual election. Most gubernatorial races do NOT come out within literally a few votes. Possibly less than 20. Less than 10? Maybe so.

Mistakes didn't make the difference in the election.

YOU DID.

So ..

GET OFF YOUR ASS AND VOTE NEXT TIME!

(or possibly get off your elephant)

Hot dang, I'm on a roll.

Let it be a cinnamon roll, please.

Just reading the post of 11/17 - re: the governors race (walk?) here in Washington state. It's still not been decided. First a machine recount, then a hand recount. From 260 odd to 42 - and now who knows.

Consider - King County contains Seattle and it's environs. A blue section of this almost completely red state. And the deciding factor in almost every vote IN this state.

King County keeps coming up with more uncounted ballots. As of this point they are up to something like 700 ballots that for one reason or another were not counted.

Geez, I hate this thought - but to stay true to my beliefs, I have to say that those votes should be counted. They should HAVE been counted. But of course, someone said "oh, a few votes won't make any difference". Uh huh. Some little glitch happened. The person's signature wasn't on file. The person didn't sign their ballot. Or .. the canvassing worker failed to make a "good" decision on the ballot. For whatever reason, if the ballot SHOULD have been counted on election day, it should be counted now. If the ballot should NOT have been counted, it should NOT be counted now. Lets not make super-human efforts to make that ballot that was incorrectly submitted valid. But .. let's also not kick it out if the election worker or the machinery (including beauracratic machinery) did not process it correctly.

And maybe cut off the "finding of ballots" after the count is over. Find some ballots - shame on you - throw them out with the rest of the trash.

Human error is always there. If the whole country was to be recounted several times, we might always wind up with different answers.

Keep in mind that the doctor that you ask for the second opinion isn't always right...just second.

-max

Hey, do you know what tomorrow is?

Nope, but it gives me a whole day to figure it out.

Or at least a few hours.

One hint - it's good news!

Mostly.

I think...

Gee, did you realize

how long it's been since you posted, Max?

Um .. no .. guess not.

It's my obsession with time.

And so it goes.

Quickly.

An unabashed "Merry Christmas"

Good grief.

Now I can't even say Merry Christmas to someone without the possibility of causing irreparable (or something like that) harm to some poor sot's psyche. I dunno .. if someone offered a Happy Hannukah or maybe Happy Ahriman's Birthday to me, I'd be a little confused perhaps, but not angry. What is it with this bunch of whiners the world's been stuck with these days. The only real good thing about the whole mess is that with the pendulum swinging this far out of whack, it should be more obvious to even the most oblivious that something is wrong. Most of us are just too damn patient with stupidity. Myself included. Standing back and looking on in shock just ain't gonna cut it, folks. Once again, the old adage "all it takes for evil to win is for good to not get involved" (slightly paraphrased) has been proven. Long as I stand back and look aghast at the 10% party running the show, I'm as culpable as the rest.

Ah well.

Here I am, standing over by the light pole.

I'll be right here if anyone needs me.



Merry Christmas...