Showing the Way

Interested in genealogy? Care to know about your ancestors? I did a 7 generation family tree when I was in college. At that time there were no members of the 7th, 6th, and 5th generations. Now the 4th generation is all gone. I am in the oldest generation now. Anyone who lives long enough will get there. One member of my generation was born in 1922. I am the second youngest and have a good chance of being one of the last to be alive. Unless I undertake some dangerous sport, like skydiving, cliff diving, or reforming social security.

The president gave his State of the Union speech tonight. I like to watch the show. Justice Alito was there just a few hours after he took his seat on the Supreme Court. Ted Kennedy was there trying to look bored. Hillary was there trying not to look interested when the President mentioned Bill. Laura Bush was there beaming with pride. There was even a German Shepherd dog in the audience (former Air Force canine.) Who can't love a show that includes a heroic dog? It is the Chinese "year of the dog" now you know.

The first month of 2006 is over in a few hours. The glass is 1/12th empty. I'm still thirsty.

The Week

This is going to be a busy week. Bush is going to give his State of the Union address, the House of Representatives is going to pick a new majority leader, Samuel Alito will probably be confirmed to the Supreme Court, Super Bowl publicity will be in full swing and the ground hog will be coming out of his burrow to tell us how long winter will last. Frankly, most people care about the last 2 items more intensely than the others.

I guess I ought to take down my Christmas cards that are still on my living room wall. I procrastinate because these cards represent love. It is hard to dispose of these symbols in the trash.

I am starting off my week fortified with homemade pizza topped with elk pepperoni. Very tasty. Now we want to go elk hunting this fall. There are lots of elk in Arizona, it is just hard to get picked in the lottery for an elk tag. Boy, I thought it was tough to haul a whitetail deer out of the woods. An elk is many magnitudes bigger. Maybe I should think this through again...

No rain is in the forecast for the week. But at least we got some last week. There is a dusting of snow on the mountain. Any moisture at all is welcome, to delay the onset of fire season.

So the earth keeps grinding ahead. Summer yields to fall, winter yields to spring. Yin yang. On we go.

Are You Reading This Blog?

Let's see, in the past week I have blogged on sheep, Mad Cow disease, paranoia, water, the sense of sight, entropy and the breath of life. When it might be that you may just want to know about the price of gasoline in Arizona. (It is going up. $2.39 in town now.) My site meter tells me how many unique visits to my blog there have been. Subtracting my own, that leaves about 150 readers. Since October. Not much to brag about. I could have a lot more readers by writing a letter to the editor of our local rag. Judging by the quality of letters published therein, I'd have no problem getting published for anything I'd care to write about. But this blog is about my brain and letting readers pick at it. I rarely get comments though. Readers are afraid I think. So for whatever reason you read or don't read, I'll continue to write. Who knows, I might have something interesting to say eventually.

Advanced Sight

I got new eyeglasses yesterday and am having a trial getting used to them. They are progressive lenses. I don't feel very progressive trying to read something with my glasses that I can see perfectly well without them. But if I just keep telling myself that I'm being progressive...

In a book I am reading about 5 generations of a family, some members are lost in the holocaust. One man who was a dentist put down in his "papers" that he was a doctor. So he was spared. Those who were more elaborative, got the death camp. Such small details our lives can revolve around. A half a second here, a half a second there. I was impressed by the movie "The Pianist". A lot of close calls there. (And great music by the way.) I think a lot of people are skeptical of these near brushes with life changing events. But then I see the automobile accidents I have barely avoided. And wonder what else has happened to me that was almost avoided but happened, or that was avoided and would have changed everything. In this I am not a skeptic. Life is a tip-toe across a slippery roof. One tip and life is changed forever. Will I see it coming?

Chasing After The Wind

There is no denying that nature abhors a vacuum. Just look at weeds. The push of life is everywhere. Instinct drives animals to reproduce. Plants produce millions of seeds after their kind. Life is found in the arctic and thousands of feet under the sea. I read recently that there are more living organisms in desert soil than in moister areas. My guess is that they have to be there, in a state of suspended animation almost, but always ready for that drop of moisture to spring to life. And since that moisture is so sporadic, they have to be everwhere in order to have the best chance to survive. On the other hand, there is entropy. Things are always moving toward more disorder. Everything born will die, rot, become less organized than they were as a living thing. So what is nature? Trying hard to live or trying hard to die? It's all meaningless. Read all about it in Ecclesiastes.

Water

It rained today for the first time since mid-October. The sound of the raindrops on the roof was beautiful. It spoke of life. Canada has 20% of the world's fresh water supply. We are already used to buying water in bottles. But what about the water that flushes our toilets? When the thirsty American West needs water, we aren't going to turn to de-salinating the Pacific, we are going to look north. Water will be the OIL of the future. They need to start thinking of how they are going to market their commodity. Just don't send us the mosqitoes with it. Thanks.

I Confess

I would make a poor conspiracy theorist. I don't find connections everywhere. I believe things can be a coincidence. I am not on guard looking for hidden motives or meanings. I think American society is the freest and most tolerant society in the world. I would make a boring date for Michael Moore. Only in America could Moore make a movie like Fahrenheit 9/11.

William Shatner Might Know

The Conservatives have won the elections in Canada. That may mean better relations with our northern neighbor. I hope so. Although Mad Cow has turned up again in a Canadian cow. No wonder William Shatner (who was born in Canada) plays a crazy lawyer on Boston Legal who says he has Mad Cow disease. I think there are a lot of undiagnosed cases of Mad Something out there. All over this continent.

I'm sure I have Mad Something disease. Was probably born with it. Congenital madness. Drove my mother crazy. Drove all my friends crazy. Maybe it's infectious. I walk by you and you start having bizarre thoughts. Like, I think I'll order a salad instead of a burger. Or, beam me up Scottie. Or even, today is a present, tomorrow is a gift. I can't think fast enough to type all the possibilities of this epidemic.

Did you know that during the Great London Fire of 1666, they used gunpowder to blow up houses in the path of the blaze to bring it under control? How interesting!

Today's word is audacious. And if I wasn't so audacious, I wouldn't write this blog. After all, their are spies out there. Someone from the government may be reading this. I could be on a watchlist. They want to keep tabs on bloggers with chronic brain wasting disease you know.

What does all this have to do with the elections in Canada? I don't know, but the Mounties might.

Sheep

Lamb was on the menu for dinner tonight. It was delicious.

I used to raise sheep. For meat. Stray dogs and coyotes worried me. None were ever lost to canines, but I worried none the less. Sheep are, well, sheepish. Someday I'd like to have them again. But with better secuity, like a sheep guarding dog.

People are a lot like sheep. We respond to the direction of the crowd. We don't want to be singled out. Things that go bump in the night scare us. In the end, we die. But hopefully we have left a legacy. An improvement in the flock.

Some lambs are born to reclining ewes, but I had some lambs dropped by standing mothers. Their first intro to the world is a free fall and a splash. Sometimes I think some people were born like that. Senator Ted Kennedy for instance. He dares to attack the morals of Samuel Alito. Does he think that everyone has forgotten about that dark night on Chappaquiddick? I can try to understand the people of Massachusetts electing that man to Congress. Perhaps it has something to do with the aura of the Kennedys, their money. People wanting to hold onto Camelot. Nobody wants to abandon the ideals of JFK, of RFK. The liberal flock had their heyday with them. Things that go bump in the night scare us, so we don't think about them. Sorry Mary Jo Kopechne. Sorry Judge Alito.

The Latest News

A northern bottle-nosed whale swam up the Thames River to London, presumably to see what he could see. But he didn't get out alive. The Thames is tidal but not salt water. It's another mystery for the marine biologists to solve.

In news from Italy today, Luigi is suing Rev. Enrico because the good father is deceiving people by teaching that Jesus of Nazareth really lived. And deceit is against the law in Italy. Old Luigi and Father Enrico have a long history, having been schoolmates as boys, so methinks the atheist has an ulterior motive here. Since he doesn't believe in an afterlife, he wants to get what he can before he kicks the can? Both men are in their 70's. So Americans are not the only people in the world who are sue-happy. How refreshing.

I've never had a problem believing that Jesus really lived and breathed and walked the earth. Moslems even admit it. Hell, even Satan himself admits it. The big stumbling stone is whether he was divine. There are a lot of opinions on that. I choose to believe. I bet my immortal soul on it.

The cacti are drying up in the Arizona desert. Imminently we will break the record for consecutive days without rain. The weather has been great, if you don't need water to live. Most other deserts are drier than the Sonoran Desert. So our cacti are not used to a drought this long.

This week a national home improvement store opened up here. Tremendous excitement for my small town. The site used to be a cotton field. Cotton is easier to grow elsewhere. Here the farmers have to depend too much on government subsidies. And the water? Well, I have to think that the retail store will use as much as the cotton did, so no savings there. One of the things they sell there: plants.

Tip of the Day

The credit card company had some lame excuse for the $1.56 finance charge and finally said I didn't have to pay it. I made sure I used $1.56 worth of the person's time complaining about the charge.

There was a sad report in today's paper about the lack of knowledge current university and college grads are exhibiting. One example they used was their inability to figure out the amount of money to leave as a tip in a restaurant. Another was being able to balance a checkbook. These are our best and our brightest? I think I'll start a Nigerian sweepstakes fraud and go after alumni from this year's class. No wonder we are such easy marks. Wake up America!

Recently I had an eye exam. For some reason I kept cracking jokes through the whole process. The impression I gave that doctor is that I am a light-hearted soul. How changeable feelings are! Emotions come and go. People who harbor bad attitudes carry a cloud with them that is so familiar that they may not realise it can be changed. Ever hear of familiar spirits? Refocusing one's life away from that heavy, damaging baggage is hard to do. Recognising the enemy is the first step.

Mayor Ray Nagin apologised for saying New Orleans should be a chocolate city again. I wonder what college he went to. And does he leave at least a 15% tip?

I bought a new book to read. It is about 5 generations of a Polish-Jewish family, including the Holocaust experience. Of course the president of Iran does not believe the Holocaust occurred. I bet he can't balance his checkbook either.

Generally I am no longer the light-hearted soul I was, but I can have vacations from the black cloud and writing helps me go there. Thank you dear reader for your time today.

Green

One of my favorite activities in life is letter writing. Both on a word processor and the old fashioned way: pen & paper. Ysterday I bought 500 sheets of green pastel paper. Green is my favorite color. I may not live long enough to use 500 sheets, but I'll give it a good try. There is evidently a store in the city where one can buy fine writing instruments and exotic papers. Usually I just pick up pens at doctor's offices. But maybe my penmanship would improve if I had a fountain pen. For you youngsters out there, a fountain pen is one that has the ink supplied by a cartridge or a refillable reservoir. Cheap ones are notoriously leaky. If you can afford a good fountain pen, you can afford to replace the shirt the leaky pen marred.

Yesterday I visited one of those sporting goods stores that are as much a destination as a shop. Bronze elk and deer statues adorned the front of the store. Inside were various animals in taxidermy displays. I've never seen so many fishing poles, guns, knives, camo clothes, etc. I was so overwhelmed that I didn't buy anything. My husband could be lost in there for days and be happy as a clam.

A credit card company is charging me a $1.56 finance charge even though I paid my bill in full and on time. Being from the old school of watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves, I am going to investigate these shenanigans and change credit card companies if this is a new policy. What would be best is to carry cash, but I think that is more dangerous. I've carried credit cards since I was 18. It would give me the willies to carry $100 cash but I think nothing of carring $25,000 of credit line in my pocket.

An unusual fact about horse ownership is that in the long run, it matters less what you pay for a horse but what it costs to keep it. My horses have been relatively healthy. I give my own annual horse shots, and my husband does some farriery. But my advice to prospective horse buyers is to buy the best horse you can afford. I've never spent more than $550 on a horse, but then I've been extremely lucky. Horses eat a lot of green.

In the Sonoran desert grows a tall, stately cactus known as a Saguaro. Pronounced Sa-War-Oh, it is the defining species for this most diverse desert in North America. I tried to take some photos of them in the heart of this Sonoran desert yesterday but wouldn't you know, there were high clouds, and the light was not pleasing. I get particular about my photography. My only artistic talent. I especially like to photograph green things.

Galloping in Fog

For me the most frustrating verse in the bible is found in I Cor 13:12 - "For now we see through a glass darkly..." That is the KJV because it is more poetic than the more modern translations. If you wear glasses you know what it is like to try to see through a smudge. Or if the windshield of your motor vehicle gets splashed. Or your TV has dust on it. You just know that things are clearer out there but you can't quite see that good. I just know things are going to get clearer but there isn't anyway to get there from here. Very frustrating, like I said.

I am switching my membership from the NRA to to AHA. I still like my 2nd Amendment right to keep & bear arms, but I am tired of the politics for now. Let someone else support the activists. The AHA is the Arabian Horse Association. I used to belong years ago. I know I own a Thoroughbred in addition to my 4 Arabs, but that doesn't exclude me from the club. My Arabs are much more people-oriented than the TB. I've read that the bedouin brought their horses into their tents with them in the desert. I can believe that. Some old timers used to refer to a cold night spent in the open as a three-dog-night, with 3 dogs curled around them for warmth. How much nicer to have one soft horse to cuddle up to on those starry, cold nights in the desert of Arabia. By the way, I used to love the music of Three Dog Night. Can't remember what year their music was on the charts. A long, long time ago.

I observed an interesting phenomenon of the hair coat of my horses. The ones who spent their youth in places where winter was cold, continue to grow longish winter hair, and those raised with mild winters grow a shorter coat. So if you live in Minnesota, don't buy a horse born in Phoenix unless you are prepared with horse blankets.

Well, today I am traveling to the city again. Forecast is for 71 degrees. Gee, not even a one horse day.

Lure of Things

Mayor Ray Nagin says he wants New Orleans to be chocolate again. I say, what is wrong with chocolate and vanilla swirl? Best of both worlds.

I'm attempting to learn a couple software programs by reading a book about them and working tutorials. The problem with that is you are supposed to know what the definition of words are and where to find things to click on. Such as: "choose it from the files of type drop down list." Huh? What is a file of type? Where is it? All this takes an enormous amount of time. My husband thinks he is widowed. Help, I've fallen into a software pit and I can't get up! Send the drop down list so I can climb out!

Ebay has cast it's lure my way again and I'm bidding on a couple things. I can't help myself. I just love to get things in the mail. The biggest thing I ever won on eBay was a children's saddle. My grandkids use it. It's perfect. And I got it at a fair price.

When I was in high school I studied Horticulture. Thought I might go to college and study landscape design. Instead, I just enjoy plants around my property and in the house. Currently I'd like to find a plant called "Crown of Thorns" which is a houseplant that evidently can live outdoors here in summer quite nicely. Euphorbia milii now comes in a variety of flower colors due to the work of horticulturists. A lot of houseplants are grown in Southeast Asia and shipped to the US for sale. Cripes we can't even grow our own poseys cheap enough, they are outsourced. Wherever they come from, a house is not a home without plants. At the very least, they make a conversation piece.

The King's Legacy

Today is Martin Luther King Day. This is definitely an excellent holiday because it memorializes a man at the head of the civil rights struggle in this country. We all need civil rights. The famous quote: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character," is one I can say, as a citizen of the USA, irregardless of the color of my skin. I believe all colors are beautiful. I want to live among colors, among various age groups and incomes, among people of different spiritual values. My father lived for awhile in an assisted living apartment. I often visited and met many of the residents. They were almost invariably white, over age 70, upper middle class, and Christian. The most interesting resident was a Jewish man who was a bridge fanatic. I don't know anything about bridge. But he was a great conversationalist. My father wasn't too fond of him but then Dad was the product of a segregated generation. These things too shall pass away.

Happy Birthday Mr. King.

Lessons

Lesson number one, if you are a gambler, do not follow my predictions on who is going to win football playoff games. (See Jan 14 prediction.)

Lesson number two, never think you can predict anything for certain.

Lesson number three, don't listen to me.

Moving Things

From what I gather, Mr. Alito is going to be Justice Alito pretty soon. Finally Justice O'Connor can retire to take care of her ailing husband. I saw the video of the hurtful comments from the Senators causing Mrs. Alito to cry during the hearings. Mrs. Alito goes by a different last name than her husband, but her skin was not thick enough for the rapacious Democrat politicos. Hmm. A woman president soon? I don't think so. We haven't moved that far, yet.

Our 3 1/2 year old grandson got a horsey ride yesterday on our nearly 17 hand tall Thoroughbred. He looked like a speck way up there in the sky on the big horse. But he wasn't afraid. Good sign. My husband's family has a long history with horses. Not mine. They've been automobile people since the horseless carriage arrived. So I must be a throwback, because I am so at ease around them. Anything I can throw a leg over: horse, motorcycle, personal watercraft, and now snowmobile.

Like the man in the cartoon whose garage was full of National Geographic magazines, I have trouble throwing away "good" stuff. I still have my year 2000 calendar. And the 2001, 2002, etc. What for? Maybe the pretty pictures? Is this a compulsive saver disorder? Naw! But I think my resolution for 2006 is to move on. First step? Move those calendars into the trash. I think I can do it. I think I can!

The NFL playoffs are on today so I will leave you with two words, even though it is snowy & cold up there: New England.

Art

I need more art in my life. On my walls I have 2 original oils, family pictures and calendars. When I was young I hung posters. Usually something like Vincent Van Gogh, or other impressionists.

I think I need more horse art. My girlfriends all have horse pictures. Hey, I've got a horse themed toilet paper dispenser, does that count? No? Maybe?

I do have a sign along my driveway warning visitors that this is a horse ranch. People keep forgetting we use electric fence wire so we just put up a sign warning about that. Danger Danger! A friend in Wisconsin says her state requires a liability sign at homes with horses to inform humans that horses and humans together can become accidents. The horse usually wins. Duh.

I'd like to have a sign in my bathroom that says 5 minute parking.

There are no parking meters in my town. This is a big plus in its favor.

The main post office has huge murals of pioneer life here. They're antique.The post office building is the tallest building in town. It has 3 stories.

I have a new antique clothes scrubber hanging above my side-loading clothes washer. Does that qualify as art?

I want to get a horse collar to hang on the wall. It could act as a frame. For art. Or maybe just a picture of my double barrels. The cactus not the shotguns!

Off Key

Yesterday it was 75 degrees in the city and I sat outside and ate ice cream again. This is turning into a non-winter. As long as the wildfire season doesn't obliterate Arizona, I guess it is a good thing: lower heating bills.

I drink moderate amounts of strong coffee. Sometimes I make herbal tea at night. There have been so many claims and counter-claims over whether these beverages are good for you or not. One could go nuts trying to follow the latest reports. I will continue to drink coffee and tea. It relaxes me!

One of my horses has a sore foot. My farrier husband is taking care of it. The source of the infection is an error made by a farrier we hired to shoe this horse. The old saying is true: if you want it done right, do it yourself. So far his bad back is holding up to the rigors of bending that a horseshoer needs to do. Then again, this is only one foot.

I've heard that President Bush authorized domestic telephone taps without requiring a court order. I understand that court orders are not that onerous to procure. If I am being spied upon, I at least want 2 branches of government to agree to do it, not an all-powerful executive branch. That is why we have 3 branches of government. To keep the power spread around. This is a big boo-boo Mr. President. And this is an opinion from a red-stater.

Last night on the TV show "House", a bizarre medical case was investigated. A man suffered from aphasia. When he wanted to say "I'm cold" -what came out of his mouth was more like "Eggplants are purple." It sounds just too funny but I can see where dealing with this would be incredibly frustrating. It would be like the sleigh rocks over the corny Caesar. Just makes me want to choke on my dark roast Columbian while holding up two branches of the Republic in the bright sunlight. Sometimes I get foot in keyboard disorder. See "Lewis Carroll."

Open Letter

Dear Mother,

Today I tried to make sense of my decision to have a career and not to have children. A few days ago I wrote in my blog about it. Right now I have neither career nor children. I am too confused to decide if I should care about either. So probably I'll just get up tomorrow and see what happens. I wish I could have explained better to you when you were here, why I wasn't going to be like you. But now, it seems I resemble you more every day. Maybe some afternoon I too will lay down for a nap and never wake up. Oh Mom! I miss you. (H.P. 1915-1991)

Alive or Let Die

Watch these movies of the Roman times with the soldiers dressed in their armor. During battle the film director has them stabbing at chest mail, cutting off limbs, bonking each other in the helmet. Makes great Hollywood.

If it was me? Go for the throat. One slash and the enemy has no blood going to their brain, no windpipe. I'd have made a great Gladiator. Hear that Russell Crowe? I haven't seen any Roman movies lately either. I simply think, it's too easy to kill a person.

These modern terrorists think they are so hot, planting roadside bombs, killing at a distance. Or walking into a police station and offing a bunch of fellow Iraqis with that belt around your waist. How easy.

It is saving lives that is tough, that is heroic. Every caretaker that saves a life will get at least 72 virgins in heaven. Although I can't really say that having a virgin is such a grand reward. And the older I get, the more ridiculous it will seem.

Killing has been the same old story since Cain and Abel, but life-saving is getting better and better.

Science and Adam

Science tells us that if one moves faster than the speed of light, that time begins to go in reverse. So if you leave home at noon, once you start moving faster and faster, the clock will turn to 11:59, 11:58. etc. It then follows that eventually the lunch you ate prior to leaving will not yet have sprouted in the fields, and the dairy cow that slice of cheese came from was not yet born. As you speed up faster, your parents will not have been born yet, and the ice age will still have North America in its' grip. Faster and faster you go and dinosaurs are eating each other. But to you it is still Monday afternoon. Is this how one can explain that the first man was Adam, a few hundred centuries ago, yet there was a long history to earth prior to the creation of the human being? Far be it from me to say that God, who created time and the speed of light, did not use these scientific facts to position his prize creation, us, in recent history. Not swinging down from the trees and bipedalling. I am too tired to go further into this tonight, but I just thought I'd throw that out there for anyone to try and get their head around if they are feeling bored.

Carved In Stone

Carved In Stone
Originally uploaded by edification.

Spiral rock art left by previous residents in Arizona desert hundreds of years ago.

The Trade River, northern Wisconsin

The Trade River, northern Wisconsin
Originally uploaded by edification.

Another wintry photo taken during my cross-continent trip.

Southern Colorado Rockies

View of Pagosa Springs, Colorado from a lofty point, Dec.6,2005.
Originally uploaded by edification.

Work and Family

Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe recently wrote about Terry Hekker, a woman who chose to stay home and raise a family instead of pursuing a career. A radical idea to me since I always felt the need to work and provide for society and not burden the world with more mouths to feed. But back to Terry, a mother of five who championed the housewife and mother lifestyle for many years. The rest of the story is that on her 40th wedding anniversary she was handed divorce papers. Out in the cold, cruel world she found herself treated like some "outdated kitchen appliances." Her new income made her eligible for food stamps. Something similar happened to my mother. So that is why my life was career-minded and childless. I saw first hand the pain of being abandoned in a culture that sees dollar signs and doesn't value enough the nurturing their young. So 25 years after singing the praises of being a stay at home mom, Terry Hekker wishes she had done something to make herself more marketable in the workplace. And I, more than 5 years after I had to medically retire, wish I had spent less time preparing for my career, and more time with my Mom.

My Trinity

I'm back after a few days absence due to a medication problem. All is solved, for this few minutes at least.

I know a couple women who lived in Nazi Germany. For me, it brings up the issue of the trinity: God, Country, and Family. In that order. The Nazi's put country above God. The Palestinians have put country above God. The Moslem Fanatics have put 72 virgins above God. The peaceniks have put family above country. The Asian entreprenuers have put money ahead of God, Country and Family. PETA has put nothing ahead of the welfare of our animal friends. Whereas a dog is smart enough to put everything behind being loyal to its' human owner. The American government is supposed to be "under God." And that is where I'd like it to stay, even if it offends the minority in this country who believe in no God. I don't believe in UFO's and Space Aliens, but I don't mind it being part of the culture. Let's stop being so PC and get on with life. Under God, loving our country, and embracing our family. Even the members who are not so nice. They won't get nicer if you are not an example of good family to them. Maybe I should have wrote this before the holidays when many people got together with their families.

So let's all take a deep breath and start again. Coal mining is dangerous. People make mistakes. Sharon of Israel may or may not be suffering due to the will of God. And we have to get rid of the death penalty before any more "mistakes" are made. Executing criminals puts country above God. And for gosh sakes, watch what you gamble, don't put your greed above your family! Today's speech over.

What was that I said?

Mon Dieu, I made it to another year. Will wonders never cease?

If I can stay alert long enough I will write a decent post tonight. But basically today I was in mourning for the waning NFL and college seasons. No other sport fascinates me more than football. I can't understand why they call baseball the thinking man's game. I see a lot more strategy moving 22 men around a gridiron for 3 hours. I hope Brett Favre doesn't retire. Although he won the final game, the year was a terrible disappointment for the Green Bay Packers. Sports are a necessary diversion in modern life. Someone has to stay in shape! It certainly isn't your average American with our ever expanding waistlines.

The cell phone bill arrived from my new wireless company. It was written in Swahili or something. Remember I am college educated, but I couldn't make out half of their credits, charges, surcharges, etc. I don't know anyone who reads Swahili, which is probably a very nice language, so I will pay the amount that I guess is what I owe and see if it all turns out ok in the end.

After writing out the full year since '99 (i.e. 2000, 2001, 2002, etc.), I think I am now comfortable enough to start writing '06. Call it the prejudice of someone who lived too much of their life in the 20th century. It just looked peculiar to have an aught in front of the year abbreviation. Since it's been 6 years, I have gotten over it. See? An old dog can learn new tricks.

Today, just standing in the sun, one of my horses was sweating a little. He has a good winter coat but we have no winter this year. I am not complaining. Just observing.

So the first day of '06 comes to a close and I am no smarter for it. Better try harder tomorrow. Can't keep bleeding these brain cells or I might forget how to live. What was that I said?