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The "Man" Thing

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Thursday, January 17, 2008

29 more days. Pitchers and catchers.

The sweaters are coming along fine. Sleeve #1 on sweater #2 well under way. Although I haven’t been plying the needles the last couple of days, they are coming along nicely. All I have to do after the sleeves are finished is sew up all the seams and block them.

Liz and her friends went to a club in the city Saturday night to celebrate Tara’s birthday. The funniest line of the night, and perhaps the only funny line of the night, was Liz saying, "The last time we were in a club none of us had cell phones."

What is it with this "male" thing in this world? It is just that it gets a little tedious at times. I had lunch with the head of the volunteers at the New Rochelle Humane Society today. She was telling me that last Monday they saw a woman pull up in front of the shelter, take a 11 x 14 inch box out of her car, about 10 inches deep-like a Macy’s coat box-and place it on the bench in front of the shelter and start to get back into her car. They went out and spoke to her before she had a chance to get away. Inside the box were three mother cats and 16 kittens, all crammed in and piled two or three deep. The woman has a 16 month old male cat at home but she thought he probably wasn’t old enough to bring in to have fixed. Let’s see. He was old enough to impregnate these three females but not old enough to have his little testicles "altered"? When asked to bring in the male to effect this alteration she hemmed and hawed and said she knows she should, etc, etc, etc. but just hated to do it "to a male". What?

A good thing that may come out of today? They would love to have lots of pictures of the animals at the shelter and to post on their web site. They had them for a while but they have slacked off-the usual political "stuff" that goes on in an organization. I told her that is something I would love to do so we are going to start working on that.

Finished reading "Bootlegger’s Daughter" and am starting the chat book.

Posted by mcmary at 2:54 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

NYIP

Tuesday January 15, 2008

On line courses, at home study, learn yourself study. All have sounded very lame to me in the past. No way can you get what you should out of something like that. "Learn at your own pace" when maybe what most of us need is assignment deadlines, taskmasters pushing deadlines on us.

Nick gave me a "distance learning" digital SLR camera course for Christmas from the New York Institute of Photography. What Nick didn’t know is that I have gone to their website several times and looked at their courses and just decided that it would take too much of my time, I would never have the discipline to do it, etc, etc. That was actually before I retired and I hadn’t looked at it since.

The first "unit" came Christmas Day all wrapped up and ready to start. I decided that I was going to schedule time every Monday or Tuesday and sit down and work with this. Last week it was Monday and it was excellent. This particular learning experience has many many texts and audio tapes with the instructors going over the material. They do it so well that it keeps you very interested. They stop talking, refer you to the text and then you go back to the audio, etc. etc. The speakers are very conversational and hold your attention. It is actually two people who are talking to the student but almost sound like they are talking to each other as well. I have an advisor, phone number, email, office hours-the whole deal. I also have to submit two photo projects before it is over. They encourage you to submit prints as that is part of the learning-how to make excellent prints. Then I will receive an audio critique of my work. I have no idea the nature of what I am supposed to photograph as I refuse to look ahead.

I sat down for my second class today and before I realized it three hours had gone by. They are most gracious in supplying breaks along the way but it all went very quickly and today’s topic included the mechanics of a camera which they actually made interesting. Most interesting of it all though was that the camera that is used in the text to demonstrate all of the dials and controls, etc. is my camera. How perfect could that be?

Obama and Hillary have decided to take the gloves off and stop sniping at each other. Congratulations!

I started a new book a couple of days ago. Back to murder and mayhem!

Margaret Maron is an author I have not heard of before but my niece Margaret has told me twice now that she is good. Margaret has about the same taste in books as I do. So I found the first book of one of the series she writes and am giving it a try.

The knitting is coming along quite well. First sleeve of the second sweater. Maybe these actually will be done for the girls’ birthdays. I showed them to the mother on Sunday who keeps telling me that she wants to make baby sweaters for her girls. I can’t convince her that they aren’t babies any more. Toddlers works better.

I made reservations to fly to Michigan to stay at my sister Karen’s for a week or so. You know-a good break, change of scenery. After I had the reservations and the car rented I decided to just see what the weather might be like although the forecast only looks at the next ten days and it is maybe 11 or 12 days before I go. A high of 13 degrees. Are you kidding me? Who does that-actually willingly goes somewhere that the high temperature at the hottest part of the day is going to be 13 degrees? Who?

Posted by mcmary at 11:57 AM 1 comments

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Not Much Going On

Saturday January 12, 2008

Someone asked me at 8A this morning what I was going to do with my day. I didn’t have an answer and that has bothered me all day. It hasn’t been a wasted day, have gotten a lot of "stuff" done but somehow that falls short of what I think I should be doing. But then, really, does everyone do something momentous every day? Probably not. I think when you are working full time you have so much going on that you have to pay very close attention to how you schedule your time-work time as well as off time. Then all of a sudden you are not working and it is a different life completely. You have to figure out things like when to take your shower now. You don’t want to take it in the morning if you are going to the gym or to walk the dog or are going to be cleaning the basement that day. You don’t want to take it at night because why would you spend that time blow drying your hair only to sleep on it? Ah, the issues of retirement.

Finally finished the books-Chris Matthews and the one about the shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. I kept asking myself why I was reading Chris Matthews because it actually never moved beyond fluff, things we all know and we have all known for years. The Great Lakes book was pretty fascinating. Will write more tidbits about that tomorrow.

Knitting is coming along fine. Second sleeve of first sweater. The twins birthday is a month and a half away. That wasn’t my plan but it looks like they may be getting sweaters for their birthday.

I made reservations today to fly to Michigan. It is the first time I have been there since my Mom passed away that the trip wasn’t Mom related. Everything about it is weird. I have spent years flying into the Saginaw airport and Dad and Mom and then Mom and then my cousin have been picking me there. This time I am flying into Detroit and renting a car and driving to my sister’s home and staying there for a week. It is most unusual to not be thinking about what days I will spend with Mom while I am there. All very strange and, yes, sad.

Posted by mcmary at 3:31 PM 1 comments

Thursday, January 10, 2008

A Number

Thursday, January 10, 2008

How can something as simple as a number change your mood instantly? My doctor just called to tell me that my cholesterol is 151 and my HDL is 81. Certainly made my day. Thank you , Lipitor.

Posted by mcmary at 6:51 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

What Have You Done Lately?

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Happy Birthday, LMK!

Last night Liz and I went to see "Come Back, Little Sheba". What a wonderful play and two such strong performances in the husband and wife roles. William Inge made a career of writing plays about the sad human condition. This is basically the story of a strong wife who stands by her alcoholic, extremely abusive husband while living in the past when everything was romantic and the future looked so delightful.

Congrats to Ms. Hillary and Mr. John. It is still a very long way to go but it is definitely interesting to actually have a race.

Speaking of John McCain, I am still reading Chris Matthews book, slowly for sure. There is a chapter called "Rites of Passage" where he writes about moments that changed peoples’ lives.

"For Senator John McCain, his moment of testing came on a very specific date: October 26, 1967. It was the day his plane was shot down over Hanoi. …………When a surface-to-sir missile sheared off his right wing, McCain ejected. Knocked unconscious, both of his arms and one leg broken, he parachuted into a lake. An angry crowd, bitterly weary of the American bombing, dragged him from the water. One Vietnamese broke McCain’s shoulder with a rifle butt. …….McCain was denied any medical attention. There were to be five and a half more years of imprisonment and beatings. For two years he was kept in solitary confinement."

Then we have JFK. We all have heard about his PT109 whatever.

"PT-109 was three miles from shore. To get his men even to relative safety…Kennedy swam for five hours. He did so with the strap of a badly burnt crewman’s life jacket in his teeth."

Like I said-what have you done lately?

Can I explain something about Lidocaine? You know-Lidocaine that your dentist injects into your mouth before he rips it apart. You know-Lidocaine that Roger Clemens claims his trainer injected into his ass. Lidocaine is a local anesthetic. It only affects the tissue in the area where it is injected. It does not travel systemic and offer relief anywhere else. So unless Roger was looking to relief a pain in his ass? No one would inject Lidocaine in his ass otherwise.

Posted by mcmary at 11:04 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Challenge

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Why do we challenge ourselves? What is it that drives us?

I spent time last night with three young women who all auditioned for parts in a play with a small number of roles. These three women are best of friends and yet are competing for roles in the same play. They put themselves in this situation on a regular basis. No matter who is casted, feelings are hurt. But, does one not try for fear of hurting a friend’s feelings? I don’t know the answer to that.

The same thing is going on in the political arena. Why do all of these people want to be president? The power. That is always the real answer although they offer rhetoric about wanting to fix what is broken. There are so many ways to work at what is broken without having to be president.

I watched The McLaughlin Group Sunday morning. They are always interesting and irritating and whatever else but this week John raised an excellent point. He pointed out the difference between Obama running for president as compared to Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. Obama is not running as a black man. He has no black agenda, in fact, he has actively avoided the black controversial issues-Duke, Imus, etc. He is running because he wants to be president and try to fix so many things that are wrong, not correct years and years of black oppression. One could say that it is because he is half black. Let’s be real. Americans are looking at him as a black candidate. Mr. McLaughlin has given me a cause to pause here and take a better look. His inexperience is scary though. A lot can happen in ten months.

Posted by mcmary at 7:31 AM 0 comments

Sunday, January 6, 2008

"Stuff"

January 6, 2007

Feast of the Three Kings. Little Christmas. When I was a kid the Christmas manger was much more prominent in my home than it has been as an adult. It had its own table and I can remember the figures so well. One of us always hid the baby Jesus until Christmas morning and the three kings started their trek across the living room from the opposite end of where the manger was set up. Someone always moved them a little each day until they arrived on January 6.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to and attended a "Ladies’ Brunch" at the home of one of Liz’s friends. She had a beautiful manger set and there were the wise men off by themselves on another table. I didn’t get a chance to talk to the hostess about it but found it amusing.
The Three Kings. The Three Wise Men. Strange. To use both words to mean the same men. Maybe everyone assumed that all kings were wise men? I wonder if there might have even been a woman in the trio. I doubt it as women still knew their place then.

The other day I heard Hillary and Obama and Romney referred to as "The Mod Squad"-the white dude, the black guy and the blonde.

The work on the sweaters is coming along. I started the sleeves last night but I think I have to tear out what I did and redo it today some time. I have been looking forward to the sleeves since I started as they look like the fun part.

I went to Border’s on Friday. Big mistake. Sort of like going to a yarn shop. I have always been a big reader and when Liz worked at Border’s I was surrounded by more and more books all the time. When she quit and moved on to a nicer job I was determined to read the books I had before I bought any new ones. I had made significant progress, was down to only 13 books on the "to read" shelf although I was reading two others simultaneously. But I was pretty good on Friday and only bought five and with a $25 gift certificate, my Border’s rewards card and a coupon I d/l from their site, I only spent $34 on five books. That is practically stealing them any more.
Speaking of books, Chris Matthews’ is coming along. I gave it one more day and I am still reading it but have to admit that it is going quite slowly and every single night I fall sound asleep reading it. The Great Lakes book hasn’t been picked up for a couple of days. It is really interesting once I get into it each time but I don’t find myself feeling like I can’t wait to read it.
Have to go to the library this week and pick up the book for our book chat. My sisters and nieces and I have been doing an online book chat for almost ten years now (yup, April of 1998). It is good fun as we are spread all over the country. About 5% of the time is spent chatting about the book and the rest of the time it is about everything else. It is fun to see how different everyone’s taste in reading is. I have read books I would never think of picking up and starting on my own. It is like so many other things in life, not trying something new is just so limiting.

Posted by mcmary at 5:51 AM 0 comments

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