May we live in interesting times

Tuesday, 1:19 pm

By Kate

Jan

22

2008

With yesterday’s bloodbath in global financial markets (and still bleeding today) and a 3/4 of a point Fed rate cut today, one might get the impression that we’re in trouble. While the Dow might not totally tank today, it’s a pretty good bet that it’s not going to go all robust on us in the foreseeable future.

I’m not privy to the financial talking heads on the cable networks, but, from what I understand, they seem to be utterly shocked by what’s happening. Which leads me to wonder what world they are living in. This has been brewing for quite some time now and it was only a matter of when, not if.

It seems that the global financial markets were a little scared by the president’s stimulus package idea that we should each get an $800 check to help buy our way out of this mess. I think part of the problem is that we bought our way into this mess in the first place. He’s looking at a remarkable legacy at the moment...the guy who watched it all implode and told us to keep spending.

What can solve our insolvency now? I don’t know. I suppose giving up greed for Lent this year might be a good first step. Maybe not paying for two wars on borrowed money would be smart. Maybe ethical business practices would help. Maybe a little regulation of the financial industry would be a good idea. You know, loaning out way more money than they had on their balance sheets was, for quite a while, considered an unsound business practice. That compounded by handing out loans (sub-prime and conventional) for over-valued houses with little or no down payment and subsequent cash out refinancing...well, here we are. If financial institutions aren’t bright enough (or are too greedy) to follow basic sound business practices, maybe we oughta re-regulate them up to the eyeballs to make sure that they behave in the future. Again. When the financial institutions treat our houses and investments like monopoly money, it’s time to take away the keys to the vaults. It looks as if they’ve spent the golden eggs and overworked the goose into a coma.

Why are the talking heads so surprised?

I’m thrilled. How about you?

In another bit of greed news, I read someplace yesterday that two of the large oil companies (Shell and BP, I think) have suspended contributions to their pension funds for the next year. Weren’t they among the number who have seen billions of dollars in profits the last couple of quarters? And obscene bonuses? But they’re too strapped to meet their pension fund obligations? Huh.

Madly spinning electric meter

Sunday, 6:15 pm

By Kate

Jan

20

2008

Much laundry being washed and dried today. I am using the dryer for the first time since the Thanksgiving flood. Had I planned things out a little better, I could have washed and dried without the dryer, but today is here and the lad needs clean clothes to take to his Dad’s house for the next couple of days. My electric meter reading tomorrow morning is going to be ghastly. Nevertheless, I readily admit that the convenience of a dryer is really, really nice once in a while. It sort of feels like living in the lap of luxury for a day. That bears thinking about.

This morning the lad and I cleaned house. And sorted the recycling and dragged trash bags outside—the ones from our room swapping exercise. He washed the dishes from his party last night. And we dragged in a goodly supply of wood. I think that just about takes care of necessary chores. It was very nice having his help, though he did say that half the work was a result of his being here. He’s not into rinsing a cup or glass out and reusing it. Nor is he much for rinsing a dish before the food dries to it. When one does the dishes by hand a few times, one begins to appreciate what rinsing a cup, mug, or dish out means in terms of future work. Washing the dishes by hand this afternoon was a learning experience for him, I do believe.

Even though we hustled right along with the chores, it was fun. We had a good time. I’m soaking these moments up, naturally. They’ll be over for a while after next weekend. He will be at his Dad’s house until Wednesday, so that leaves two more days here at home before I take him back to school. Most of that time will involve more laundry and packing. He’s beginning to look forward to it and, in some regards, so am I. I love having him home, but my normal routine has been upended for the last month and a half. I’m sure that I’ll wander around the house acutely feeling the absence of his presence for a couple of days, but that does seem to pass much more quickly each time he leaves. It surely has been a terrific vacation, though. Can’t believe it is nearly gone.

Switching rooms

Friday, 4:38 pm

By Kate

Jan

18

2008

In anticipation of summer, the lad asked me, this morning, if I’d be at all receptive to switching bedrooms. He has found it a bit crowded in his room when his friends come over. And I have to admit that I’ve often thought that they’d be better off in my room, too. Judging by the expression on his face, he didn’t actually expect me to entertain the idea. But I said, “Well, yeah, I’d be receptive. I’ve been thinking I’d rather have your room, anyway.”

Well, I must have been out of my mind.

We are both, regrettably, pack rats. While I’ve managed to restrict most of my pack rat-ism to under my bed, the lad isn’t quite that contained. I think we could fill an entire house with the stuff we’ve uncovered. Moving is like that. And, meanwhile, we have pieces and parts of beds and desks and whatnot scattered between the two rooms and filling up the bathroom. Eventually order will be regained, but I’m not sure that it’ll be in time for me to fall exhaustedly into my own bed tonight. I’m not sure that I’ll have a bed to fall exhaustedly into tonight. I’m not sure that I’ll even care at that point.

On the bright side, when we are finished, those two rooms will be cleaned out and spare. When you want to get ruthless about getting rid of stuff, moving rooms is a really good way to do it. It’s probably worth the effort just on that score, alone.

I finally had to take a break, though. The lad’s music is...shall we say...loud. And not exactly my cup of tea. I can listen only so long before my head begins throbbing in time to the pounding beat. I suddenly feel like an antique. My poor head. At least he has had the grace not to make fun of me. I figure that since he’s doing most of the heavy lifting, the music is his choice. But ohhh...my head. “Good Music” is a highly subjective thing. I do try, though.

Pretty soon, I’ll go back up and start cleaning some more. I’m rather looking forward to getting my new room all tidy and pretty. It’s a cozy space and I think it’ll be just perfect when I’m finished with it.

TinyPilot

Wednesday, 9:04 pm

By Kate

Jan

16

2008

I like to decorate my computer with pretty stuff. Or at least interesting stuff. Since purchasing my laptop, I’ve more or less ignored the prettification process. But the wallpaper that comes with Windows Vista is just plain...generically blah. I took a good look yesterday and was underwhelmed.

So I went over to DeviantArt where there is usually a collection of pretty cool stuff, put on offer by a wide variety of artists or wannabe artists. Some are, admittedly, pretty awful, but there are a lot of eye grabbing images displayed. I waded through several pages and found some wallpaper that I liked. And then…

I stumbled across TinyPilot (Thomas Meldgaard) who is a 30-something artist from Denmark. He seems to have some aspirations toward Children’s Illustration and I find it incredible that he isn’t published yet. He kind of reminds me a bit of a young Chris Van Allsburg (who also offers wallpaper) with a smidge of Maurice Sendak mixed in here and there. When you stumble across someone that good, you can just feel it. Most of his work is digital art and I’m captivated by it.

Among his many pieces, this little fellow is currently serving as wallpaper on my laptop. There are several other of TinyPilot’s pieces that he offers as wallpaper (and several available as prints) and I’ve snagged them all. Definitely check out TinyPilot’s DeviantArt Gallery. Or you could check out his deliciously updated website where he also offers wallpapers in different resolutions. His illustrations really are wonderful.

Breakthrough

Tuesday, 4:40 pm

By Kate

Jan

15

2008

I slogged through the snow drifts to read the natural gas meter this afternoon. All I can say is...it was worth getting a load of snow down the back of my shirt!

Since Saturday night, we have used slightly less than 1 CCF of gas. That’s three days of use. Which means, supposedly, if I multiply .85 CCF by 2.33, I should get a reasonable estimate of what I’ll use for the entire week.

That would be....drum roll....1.98 CCF!!!

Could it be? Is it possible? I finally found the gas eating culprit? The furnace pilot light? And all this time I’ve been blaming the hot water heater.

I’m so excited, I can hardly wait until Thursday to get the final week’s tally.

Post storm bliss

Tuesday, 3:49 pm

By Kate

Jan

15

2008

Yesterday was a quiet day on the ranch. Being snowed in has its advantages. The lad and I spent a lot of talking and generally goofing around. We shoveled a lot, too. It’s much more enjoyable shoveling snow with someone than alone. Although he was perfectly willing to go out and do all the shoveling, he clearly didn’t object to having a bit of help. And I was in an utter state of bliss having someone to help with the heavy lifting. Then there were the inevitable snowball fights. We had a lot of fun.

Just before we went out to shovel, a couple of college age lads knocked on the door to see if I needed to have the driveway shoveled out. They were going around, house to house, to inquire. I might actually have been tempted if the lad hadn’t been here. But I told them I had my own 20 year old here to do the shoveling for me. They laughed and pushed off to the next house. I hope they had some success. It struck me as an enterprising way for a couple of college boys to dig up some extra cash. I’m assuming they were college kids—one was wearing a Notre Dame ski cap. It has been a long time since any kids knocked on the door to see about shoveling.

Today the sun has been noticeably brighter than in days past. The sky is bluer, too. We’re only a couple of weeks past the solstice, so maybe it’s all in my head. But the sun really does seem brighter today. Of course, with a fresh bright layer of snow on the ground, that’s probably the bulk of it. As much as I’d prefer not to have a foot of fresh snow at a time, it does spruce the neighborhood up nicely. Everything looks better with fresh snow. We’d already begun to acquire that smudgy February brown look before the storm, where everything looked dreary. No wonder there’s a spring to my step today. It’s really beautiful outside today and the house is filled with bright reflected light and sunshine.