. Spinning .

Two stories on tonight’s news that show a tendency for mankind to be getting more out of touch with reality with each generation.

A young white couple walks into a bar and are offended by a noose which has been part of the bar’s decor for nine months since a western theme birthday party celebration.  They walked out and evidently notified the newsfolk about their indignation at this "racist" sign.  Black Americans don’t seem bothered by it until some white self-righteous jackass came out a few months ago that there’s a connection between the southern lynchings and racism.  Forget the blacks who’ve been shot, beaten, and burned, or the cowboys, cattle rustlers, witches, or anyone else who’s been hung; now the whites have turned the noose exclusively into a symbol of racism.

Governor Rell (CT), after a hard year of losing a large number of young people to drunk driving accidents, has proposed a law whereby a teenager (16-18) stopped for driving drunk would lose their license for a year.  Forget that it’s not just drunk-driving, it’s illegal drinking and then driving drunk. One young girl when asked said she thought that was silly and too strict, the idea of losing a license for a year.  She felt they should be told not to do it again.  Well, duh.

And a third one before I even finished this posting:  Another proposal to make it a law for a car seat reminder that shows when you have a baby in your car.  Should save lives (well, maybe one this past year).  Bad enough with the irons that shut off because the ironer is too stupid to remember they were ironing when the phone rang.  Now you’ve got to be reminded you have a baby and where it is.  Yeah, I know ONE lady did that.  To me it’s insulting that they think all mothers are that scatterbrained.

Why does it seem that the smarter we supposedly get, the more irresponsible we allow ourselves to be.  Maybe as our brains get bigger they begin to leak out our ears.

If I tell you that my Christmas tree is still up, will that give you the idea?

Usually January is spent on cleaning and catching up on home things after overdosing on holiday framing.  Besides taking inventory and doing the books for the business, I try to sort of take care of things that got behind and also do some projects like couch covering and curtains.  Down the cellar, I have to set up some clothing racks that just came in today to hang up what can’t fit in closets that I’ve stored downstairs but the racks broke under the weight (I really hate design engineers who have never used a clothes rack and so think plastic ends are okay to hold the bars together).  Since the clothes, in storage bags, are heaped on the floor in a room where I have tried to store all those things that you can’t use nor can you toss away, once they’re hung on the new racks I can put away the Christmas tree.  And all the spare computer parts like monitors, scanners, cases, etc. from the recent upgrade.  And the Melitta one:one coffee maker that I told my neighbor I wouldn’t use but got anyway for Christmas.

In the middle of all this, I broke down and got a Mac laptop so where do you think I’m spending all my time instead of doing all the above?

Good things sometimes happen to good people. Got a ton of different meat–chicken, pork, beef–and salmon filets, sandwich meat and cheese, and rolls all for $36.00.

Brought my ring to Michael’s Jewelers and explained how I lost the stone and they’re replacing it with another for free.  Of course, I played the "this was a Christmas present from my husband and I love it and feel terrible" card to its fullest, so that may have helped.  Also, a loud, "are these stones just glued in?" didn’t hurt.

And a nephew just claimed the top spot in my will for being a sweetie.

There’s something else good, but I can’t talk about it here yet.  I bought myself something and along with paying all the bills and especially those needing to be under the 2007 books, spent thousands of dollars in about two hours. Of course, oil and propane bills alone were a good part of that.

So I can settle back and wait for the snow, comfortable in the knowledge that bills are paid, lotsa little errands have been taken care of, and I’ve got plenty to eat.  That’s a lot better than a shameful number of people in this land of plenty can say.

Dark’s not black.  Dark can be fun.  But when a black mood hits suddenly it’s not a nice thing to watch.

And black has descended.

One of the tanzanite stones in my new ring fell out somewhere this morning and this is not a cheap ring.

Not happy.  Not happy at all.

Had a rather delightful meeting with a young woman who’s a fellow blogger and former student at Tunxis CC while she’s on semester break from Vassar.  It was nice to meet her in person after reading her version of her life on Bad Serendipity and some of her story writing that displays an unusual viewpoint and some completely awesome descriptive phrases. 

Prior to the meeting I ran into a few friends then sat to wait for Carolyn in the ‘old’ cafeteria. I got a cup of hazlenut coffee and started to read a book I’d pulled from the shelves at home only because of it’s size–able to fit into the pocket of my raincoat.  By the first few lines I was taken in by Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath.  Carolyn has assured me that the version written in Middle English is truly the one to read and it’s something I’ll be adding to my To Buy list.

One of the things Carolyn and I discussed was the communication of the internet that creates some bonds that would never otherwise have been discovered, and the change in relationships in dealing with others in a less personalized manner as far as physical connection goes.  We talked family, school, hypertext and the Mac.  Good stuff.  A fine young woman who seems to have a good head on her shoulders, is smart, and still holds the lens of a child to see things as we sometimes forget to do.

The only thing I regret in meeting with Carolyn is that some of the mystique is gone.  She now knows I am not really 5′ 8" tall.

It used to be that the U.S. FDA  used to take years and years before approving a promising new medicine that dying folks would gladly have tried without that stamp of validation.  So what’s with this new trend where the list of dangers are worse than the symptoms?  From the Humira website (Abbott Corp.), a drug mainly prescribed for pain from various forms of arthritis, or Crohns disease:

Serious side effects of HUMIRA include:

Serious infections, certain types of cancer (there have been cases of certain kinds of cancer in patients taking HUMIRA or other TNF blockers. Patients with more serious RA that have had the disease for a long time may have a higher chance for getting a kind of cancer called lymphoma), allergic reactions (signs of a serious allergic reaction include a skin rash, a swollen face, or trouble breathing), hepatitis B virus reactivation in patients who carry the virus in their blood, nervous system problems (signs and symptoms of a nervous system problem include: numbness or tingling, problems with your vision, weakness in your legs, and dizziness), blood problems (symptoms include a fever that does not go away, bruising or bleeding very easily, or looking very pale), new heart failure or worsening of heart failure you already have (symptoms include shortness of breath or swelling of your ankles or feet), and immune reactions including a lupus-like syndrome (symptoms include shortness of breath, joint pain, or a rash on your cheeks or arms that is sensitive to the sun). Call your doctor or get medical care right away if you develop any of the above symptoms. Your treatment with HUMIRA may be stopped.

I’m not sure why the FDA felt that the possibility of cancer and heart failure is a fair trade-off against the pain and debilitating effects of arthritis, but there ya go.