A poem...

Spring has sprung
The grass has riz
I wonder where
The birdies is.

The first sign of spring outside my front door.  Gotta love a climate that gives you eleven inches of snow on a Wednesday and snow drops on Sunday.

Spring cleaning has commenced

In spite of the eleven inches of heavy, wet snow that fell on Wednesday and is currently melting quite nicely, thank you, spring cleaning is here in the person of a two man cleaning crew who is currently cleaning the  most used items in the house, the couch and the rug in the living room.  What are they finding....well, cat hair galore, as you might expect.  The cats are safely esconced in the bedroom and probably lay shuttering on the bed with all noise and new, fresh, clean scents.  The rest of the house is nominally clean.  I suspect in lieu of getting the windows replaced this year, which may still happen, I will have someone wash the windows inside and out.  And speaking of out, I am or will be taking bids to have the lawn basically ripped up and roto-tilled and seeded.  The front is very shady so I don't know how that will go but I can try.  My home in Detroit had a lush lawn back and front, suitable for walking barefooted in the summer months,  I don't expect that kind of lush lawn but anything has to be better than the disrepair the last owner left the lawn, not to mention the whole house.

Brandon and Eric, my rug and sofa cleaners, are having a field day.

This week brings the coming of March and if it comes in like the lion as we are due for another snow storm, then please let the rest of the month be lamb-like.  I am chomping at the bit to get out in the side yard and see what I can do with my small rose garden.  Also collect all the pots of soil and put them in the small tomato patch I put in last year that went to hell as I convalesced from my fracture leg.  This year I will have none of that.

What I may have is a cousin stay with me for the summer as he will be doing an internship, possibly at my library. He is one smart young man, currently at BGSU as a MLS student.  He was up last year and I arranged for him to meet and greet the head honchos at the library.  He must have impressed as he may be coming to catalog Spanish language materials if the funding is available.  So maybe he can help out around the house when he isn't working...like water the lawn or bringing me a drink on the patio.  And speaking of the patio this year we must have that fire and sit around one evening with Soph and friends.

Yes, spring cleaning has commenced and I am ready for the actual spring,

How cool is this? (Photo by K. Stepnitz)

The Big Chill

So here is the view from my window at work.  Yes, indeed, I was able to make it in this morning.  Very quiet this morning.  Big Daddy dropped Jane 2.0 off and the air redolent with ketchup and tater tots.  What she eats at her desk and why is beyond me.

Yea it is quiet here.  Hoping the Green Tuna, not to be confused with MPT, can make it in.  All in all, as it has stopped snowing and I can say that it is rather beautiful outside.  Now this weekend when the temperature warms up to the mid forties and this incredible snowfall melts and resolves itself into mud I merely hope that the sudden influx of warmth doesn't cause my basement to flood.

And now I must call Sophie and let her know I am fine.  In the interim here is the aforementioned photo.

Stream of consciousness

Here goes.  The first song I wrote in tenth grade. I won an award for it.  Thus is went

Though your love phrases are extemporus
They're really not contemporus
To what's going on today

And the thing I am abhoring
Is the fact that you're so boring
And I not in the mood today.

Ogden Nash might be proud.  The melody was simple and the words were twisted but good enough for a Scholastic Writing Award (alright an honorable mention but not a trophy for merely participating).  I'd like to think I have progressed.  Maybe not.

In any event speaking of not merely getting a trophy for participating my annual evaluation. Went extremely well.  And this blog was even mentioned but no mention of ending the blog just to be certain that is is on my time and not the library's and on my tablet and my Gmail account.  Thus I think the long anticipated fallout that a certain Monsieur was swift to point out is not to be forthcoming.  I can't help but to bask in the sunshine of freedom of expression.

Alright.  So I am in th clear and have the end of the year to prove my worth.  I am thinking retirement in a few years.  As the days dwindling down to a precious few I am proud of the time I have served MSU and proud to be an Area Rep for my Union.   I am not a freeloader.  My Union bargains for me and gets me benefits like health care and raises.  I feel I owe them not merely my allegiance but my dues.

I haven't slighted anyone recently.  MPT has been a pain in the arse with her constant sighing and clearing of the throat.  Even with headphones on I can hear the sighs.  As for the Madame Defarge she continues to knit her brows whenever she spies me.  But,  unlike her symbolic knitting no heads will roll.

Update: my crowns were put in place today and while it feels weird I think my mouth looks grand.  However they numbed me up so much that by the time I got back to work my nose was very runny and I didn't realize it.  Talk about embarrassing.  It took until almost four hours for the novocaine to wear off.  I have to floss and brush myriad times a day.  But I am not used to how smooth my mouth feels.

Reflections.  I gots them.  Positive evaluation, the sense that the blog is being widely read and not to be banned.  Teeth...yay!!!  Oh but the days are dwindling .  Tempus fugit I say.  Tempus Fux is more like it.  The bond between me and the world is strong.  The days dwindle.  I dwindle.  I dawdle I putter and ponder.  Time to get to bed.

More songs in my head

A Thing I learned (yes I still learn things) while looking up something else.  My handy, dandy iPod is full of music.  I was having a blast from the past and downloaded the Best of Phoebe Snow, an artist I loved when I was much younger.  Her music has held up well over the years.  But I learned in addition to other things that she was a Jewish woman, long since passed, and possessed of a great voice.  Here is her rendition of the Etta James' classic At Last:  Phoebe Snow

The soulful, mournful voice belonged to a Jewish woman...who knew...I always thought she might be African American...who knew?  Not that it matters, her race or ethnicity.  But who knew?

Also in a fit of nostalgia for my undergraduate self, the long suffering poet and writer of my own soulful songs, I downloaded some Janis Joplin. Who knew Phoebe did one of Janis' songs, Take Another Piece of My Heart and did a great job...Piece of My Heart

James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, both artists I saw live in Detroit as a mere youth of 20.  The perfect concerts for the moody artiste I thought I might be, instead of the failure of a history of a graduate student (only getting my masters and failing miserably and drunkenly at the Ph.D.), the work at the library's book binder, getting laid off, finding work as Molly Malone, the Irish songstress at Moriarty's Pub, failing to return to work at the bindery...meeting the foreshadowed failure of a love life...working in a gas station for three years, believing I was incapable of landing a better job only to have a friend who was back in town and working at the library recommend I take the typing test for MSU (which, by the grace of God I actually passed) and getting an interview at the library almost thirty two years ago. And moving up the ranks to my current position as the Authority Czarina.  Who knew? 

Life takes many twists and turns.  I wasted years struggling with psychological issues that were not  diagnosed until the ripe age of 33 (significant in a numerical sort of way...who knew?).  I look back and see wasted time, wasted life, wasted, and struggles with a number of issues.  I look forward and see now that there may not be that many years left.  More behind than in front.  I now think anyone that dies in their 70s to be too young.  Even if I live as long as my aunties, which was 105, that is less time left than I have had.  Young people are actually young...my friends now are grandparents, great aunts and great uncles...who knew? 

This reflection makes me more willing to take time (which there really isn't a great deal of) to stop and appreciate all I have.  Even the psychological struggles and the long tunnel of being bipolar has brought me to this place.  I appreciated all that has happened.  If, perchance, you have feel injured in some way by this blog, and some do, I actually appreciate all that has happened to me to get me to this point.  My home, my boys (actually the cats), learning not to have meltdowns at trivial events and controlling my temper, all this has formed me.  The drunken mother, the devoted father  to the drunken mother, the loving/withdrawing grandmother, the two "loves" of my life blowing up in my face and so forth...what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger (See good old Fred Nietzsche).

And on that reflective note I bid you adieu.

The Song(s) in my Head

It just occurred to me that I have been humming (sorry MPT) the theme song from Leave it to Beaver, which some gentleman at Wharton thought I was scatting to Miles.  Whilst I was in the shower the song turned into the Mighty Mouse theme...as in...'Here I come to save the day...'  Odd,  I think.  That put me in mind of the late Andy Kaufman...he did a bit on Saturday Night Live with an old 45 rpm record player (watch out, I am morphing a memory), and he was wearing a white leisure suit and lip syncing to the song.  It was pure performance art, yet no one knew what to make of it.  Kaufman was a bit of an odd duck but he was perfect for his role on Taxi.

So this just seems so odd to me.  The songs that get stuck in our heads.  My most popular (to me) number is La Vie en Rose...I hum that often.  I am not much for idle humming; I normally have a song in my head.  Oops now it is the overture to Die Fliesdermaus.  I hope the spelling is correct.  I feel like thumping la la la la la la la lala thump thump...

Alright.  I had a busy wonderful day.  I was up at 6:30 as the first light was filtered through the trees in the back yard.  Oh my gosh what didn't I do.  I straightened up the music/cat room. Cleared off the front porch and tucked away all the boxes that had accumulated.  Then on to laundry and watching The Black List.  That done I headed to Kroger's and did my grocery shopping.  Walked home and put stuff away.  Mail came and that mandated a walk to the bank and then Panera's and purchased some breads and made myself a lovely chicken salad sandwich while humming the theme to Leave it to Beaver when I returned home. The best part of the day was the fact it was warm  (oh please  tulips...don't bloom yet) and the sun is pouring through the windows.  This is a mere prelude of what is to come...but being only February 20th I fear the winter is not done with us yet.  A tease, as it were, pure and simple.  Ah but the Lenten roses should be perking up as well as the snowbells I planted last March.

Oh, my...if this were really the end of winter and the start of mud aeon (see: e.e. Cummings).  Ah, mud lusciously and puddle wonderful.  Like my flowers I perk up as the winter end.  Pitchers catchers reported to spring training this past Monday.  Hope does spring eternal.  Come Marxh 1 the spring training games will be televised.  And then April 4th Opening Day.  Six months of listening to the crack of the bat, the thump of the ball in the catcher's mitt.  And the song of the turtle dove is once again heard in the land.

Ah, spring, my favorite time of year.  But cruel Michigan will probably snow a good one next month...thus this is merely foreshadowing.  El Niño is responsible for this mild winter.  Be still my heart...this is but a taste of what is this come,

Back in the prattle again

After a brief respite I return to my blog with absolutely nothing to say.  Well, not quite true.  My mouth, instead of getting me in trouble, is now silenced due to some issues with the temporary crowns on the front teeth.  Gums feel really irritated.  And speaking of irritated, it has been over a month since the incident  with the librarian  and her feeling I had disrespected her.  I am still awaiting the fallout from that but none seems forthcoming.  And the  librarian who incited the first librarian to go after me has been, mentally, castrated by my quick action in going to HR. That and her general poor reputation in the library.  I guess if you are friends with whales you get what you attract.

SPOILER ALERT: If you don't like what I say in this blog why are you still reading it? 

Of course there have been some rude remarks posted here and later redacted but that is water over the dam or under the bridge, whichever you prefer.  And that is all I am going to say on that topic.

Narwhals...I love narwhals.  They are the unicorns of the sea, but they actually exist.  Seems only the male has the horn (figures) and it is not so much a horn as it is tooth growing through the lip of the narwhals.  But the song of the narwhal is beautiful.  And yours would be too if you had a tooth growing through your lip.  I love them narwhals:Narwhals Song

Alrighty then.  Watching a marathon of old Law and Order episodes.  Waiting for the wished for sleepy bugs to land on my face.  Didn't have a chance to play guitar with the old duffer tonight.  Tomorrow is the midpoint of the week.  Next week I embark on the new evaluation process.  Point of information for my colleagues: when you have your review have your self evaluation done and be prepared to ask a lot of questions of your supervisor. Make sure you know or ask for your unit's goals and objectives and ask how you may best help your unit to achieve them.  Also go to HR and get a copy of your job description, not merely the list of your duties. For  me, pretending to be an authority librarian when in fact I don't have the coveted degree. Yet my function as the Authority Czarina is a position that at most other libraries is held by a librarian.  I was fortunate in 1989 to get the Czarina position and I have grown with the position and handled all the changes in technologies with a great deal of flair.  As I approach my 32nd year at MSU (March 6, 1984... A day that will live in infamy) I am proud of myself and my ability to handle change and sometimes work well with others.  I almost had to go on disability in 1990 because of being bipolar.  But better living through chemistry has served me well.  So, yes, I am justly proud to approach my work anniversary.  The Beached Whale notwithstanding I do really play well with others,.  Not only do I know Jack, but I know Jack Shit.  And as the children's book purported everybody poops.  Words to live by.

My grandmother had a expression she claimed was popular in Russia...she would tell me whether the water is salt or fresh, shit still floats.  Now those are words to live by.  And she was a brilliant woman.  Not schooled in the traditional fashion she was still savvy enough to help run an oil company in Detroit and provided the seed money for her brother in law to start his business.  She was the oldest of nine children and I have waxed nostalgic about the Friday night dinners at the manse in Detroit.  A lover of musical theater, she would take me out of school on a Wednesday to take me to a matinee at the Fisher Theater.  We would take not the "A" Train but the Hamilton bus to the theater. Our stop was in front of  Saks.  Then have lunch at the counter of a drug store in the Fisher Building.  How we got the tickets was sneaky, I guess, but worked. She played cards with the wife of the man who was legal counsel for the theater chain (The Nederlanders) and he would give us tickets to shows in trade for a pot of my grandmother's sweet and sour trout and don't ask how those smelled when she was cooking that dish.  My grandmother also played cards with the elite in Detroit, including Gilda Radner's grandmother. My oh my.  She was and continues to be a guiding spirit.  In retrospect she did have faults, such as withdrawing from me as a means of punishment when I acted badly,   But in general she was the one person who made life bearable when I was growing up. Yes, Dorothy and her youngest sister Martha (whose obit is still in my inbox) helped me to navigate school and life as I was growing up.

Anyway, I just noticed it is getting on to 10:30 and the bed is calling my name.  So now I bid you a sweet adieu...adieu

Happy trails

It has come to my attention that I am intensely ugly and I lisp, to which I plead guilty as charged.  And as for feral cats, I suppose they go where they can get a handout and a place to sleep.  Maybe your house? To wit, to woo,  I thaught I thaw a puddy cat.

I had a perfectly lovely, but intensely cold weekend.  Made a big pot of stew and gobbled it up.  Had a tender moment with a good friend.  We went shopping and had coffee and a great talk, mostly politics.  Also did some tech support for some friends and their cell phones.  Sunday morningthe paper didn't come, Lady Madonna.  Yep, just a quiet weekend.

I may have gotten myself into some "trouble" with my Rabbi as I have agreed to coordinate yet another music program, maybe even two.  It was my idea to have a coffee house type function ar the synagogue and also coordinate an Jewish a Capella group.  Just when I thought it was safe to go in the water again, I apparently jumped into the shark's gaping maw.  My first order of business will be to get someone to mentor and/or. coordinate with me.  For the coffee house I may take the opportunity to play some original music, which I find pleasant but probably wouldn't pass muster at a songwriters convention.  But the bottom line is I like the community of the synagogue and although I rarely go to services I am a known quantity.  I am also volunteering once a month to serve or cook food for a homeless shelter we have partnered with. Yes, it is a good group of people, all highly educated and all have a love of music as I can't go to the symphony or other shows at Wharton without running into people from synagogue.  In fact you can't swing a dead feral cat without having a Jew show up.

In addition to lisping when I am tired I also begin seeing double when I am tired.  Like now.  Typing with one eye tied behind my back so excuse the typos.  Yankel Cat is yowling for treats, Simcha is belly up on the couch and the Gonif Cat is in the bedroom waiting for my arrival.  I have another week with the temporary crowns and it can't pass fast enough.  Mouth hurts and the roof feels like I ate hot pizza when it was too hot.  And the packing in my gums is very irritating.  All in all I can't wait for permanent crowns.  Yeah, the Authority Czarina needs a new crown, two in fact. I am probably lisping more than usual and that is part of my charm.

And indeed I bid you adieu.  Sleep is attacking me on all sides.  This small minded, rotten mouthed and sorry excuse for a person needs her lack of beauty sleep as I ponder the universe.

With Apolgies to a Bevy of Coveys

Dr. Stephen Covey’s Seven Cardinal Rules of Life

#1 Make Peace with your past so it does not spoil your present. Your past does not define your future – you actions and beliefs do.


#2 What others think of you is none of your business. It is how much you value yourself and how important you think you are.


#3 Time heals almost everything give time, time. Pain will be less hurting. Scars make us who we are; they explain our life and who we are, they challenge us and force us to be strong.


#4 No one is the reason for your own happiness, except you yourself. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside.


#5 Don’t compare your life with others’ you have no idea what their journey is about. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we would grab ours back as fast as we could.

#6 Stop thinking too much it’s all right not to know all the answers. Sometimes there is no answer; not going to be any answer, never has been an answer. That’s the answer! Just accept it, move on. Next!

#7 Sometimes talk-therapy can cause you and me to over think everything. Sometimes you just have to stop thinking about some things and move on.

Drooling for Trollope or message in a bottle

Nothing goes away on the Internet.  Nothing (got it?).  So I know if I write something here there will always be a permanent record in the universe somewhere waiting to bite me in the ass.  I can live with that.  So, gentle reader, if you have left comments I thank you, regardless of their content.  But please remember they are permanent and while you can redact them on the blog they are still in my Gmail account.  So a steady stream of "you suck" are now in cyberspace for all the ages.  I mention this because I want there to be a free and accessible blog with room for your comments.  And since these comments are in my Gmail account they are traceable.  So, if you have the courage of your confessions, as I do, rant on. 

That said, on to other things.  Like my mouth.  Thank God for Wicked Whoopie Pies from Maine.  These tasty morsels are the main portion of my diet for the next two weeks because of the mouth.  Soft foods, I don't need no stinking soft foods, not when I have those pies.  I tried to eat some Chinese food last night and that didn't go so well.  In steps the Wicked Whoopie Pies and says, as if to Alice, "eat me"...I had a coconut cream one last night.  To die for...So it is good to know I will make it through the next two weeks with my tongue every twisting on each temporary crown.

No Old Duffer this week to play music with.  I must confess I do enjoy our time together, especially when the playing is done and we just sit and talk.  So now we play for an hour and then we talk for another hour.  Go figure.  It is even more enjoyable when his wife joins us. 

Going to go to a women's basketball game this week with my colon pal.  We always go when the temperature dips and this week is no different.  So Thursday we have a 6:30 game against Penn State I do believe.  No popcorn for this chicky.  Maybe in two weeks.  My gosh, in two weeks the end of the season will be approaching fast and March Madness will be upon us.  We better hasten to a game soon.  And so we shall.

So there you have it.  Nothing earth shattering, just the news that gives me fits.

Bore--Trolling for dollops

For those of you wondering how my mouth is...after almost an hour in the dentist chair yesterday I have two lovely temporary crowns on my two top front teeth.  Now I am living in dread that they will fall out before the permanent crowns are ready and I will look like Ma Kettle, not that I am vain, mind you.   The temporary crowns feel weird and I keep playing my tongue over them, plus the packing they have put in the gums to accommodate the permanent crowns so my gums feel swollen.  I have to eat soft foods for two weeks and no candy or gum.  The feel is so very strange that I have seen the dentist office staff again today (ostensibly to drop off my bite splint) but really for some hand holding, which they were glad to do.  Also they have since called and asked how I am doing.  What an ordeal (not really).  I am "heartened" they were able to save my small teeth (not quite the big mouth you thought I was, eh?) and in two weeks I shall be whole again.  So lots of pasta and rice the next two weeks.  Yogurt to be sure.  Eating soup is a small challenge as it keeps falling out of the side of my mouth.  Drat...some of the plastic has dropped out of my mouth.  Ah, well, to be expected with all this tongue-play. 

But, enough about me...How you doing?

Super Bore

Yes I am watching the darn Stupor Bowl and my team is behind.  Oh my...

I was able to get two walks in today and over five miles. Now doing laundry and making supper.  I must say how much I love my little house.  I truly do.  Seems like this house anticipated my arrival.  In any event this seems more like my home than any other abode I have aboded in. It fits like a glove.   I Like entertaining, I like the outside work in the yard and puttering.   I love deciding when to do laundry.  I feel very good about my little house and am so glad my financial guy said I could swing the deal.  This time last year my hallway at the condo looked like a loading dock, the inside was getting packed...eighteen years of stuff.  The new house was all torn up in remodeling.  In another month I will have moved in.  Almost a year I have been here. Planning my opening day party.  If you feel like crashing it the 4th is the date.  I am hoping with this mild winter that perhaps we will be able to sit outside and ponder the universe.  Yes, this house is good for both puttering and pondering,

The boys are on the couch and I have done the miss en place for dinner.  Once the laundry is in the dryer I shall start the meal.  Yep, I is a happy camper.  So maybe I have nothing to say.  I am anxious about tomorrow and the dental appointment.  I just wish it was over.  But I don't want to wish time away.  Now that I am in my sixties (OMG) it does seem like time is slipping away.  My aunt Marilyn called me in a panic as she just turned eighty five and she was having drams about dying,  I don't have that yet but it is comforting to know that my anticipations are correct and quantified.  I wondered with great aunt Martha at 105 what she thought when she indeed did wake,up in the morning...or just wake up.  It is said that humans are the only animal that knows it will die, that it has this as a conscious thought.  I don't know what brought this on.  Perhaps the knowledge that this will be my last home.  Thirty year mortgage will mean it will be paid off at ninety one years, God willing.

My team just scored.  But so what?  What is the meaning of it all and will it really mean something in the long run.  But my house is my home and my solace.  I hope to be like my neighbor across the street who just turned eighty eight.

Ah yes, one must imaging Sisyphus happy.

Sunday morning...very early..coming down...

It are very early Sunday morning and I am a little restless and pissed .  The ear piece of my glasses fell off.  Good thing they are under warranty.  And while I am still waiting for the much anticipated fallout and another rebuff by Monsieur Jacques I thought I might post this very pleasant weekend edition.  Sunday it might rain.  Still I need to get out and get Fitbitted, as it were, getting some groceries and mayhap taking a second walk.  I am glad I was able to take Friday off and rest as the coming on cold came and went in three days. Felt good enough Saturday to get out with the now retired Sophie and sister Ethel.  Went to a great market that still has a butcher counter.  I was hoping to get a brisket but sad to say they had none.  I settled for some stew meat and shall prepare beef stroganoff for supper tonight as I have a surfeit of mushrooms.  Should get out early in the morning to get half and half for coffee as the last of it is spent.

Let's deal with cats.  The oldest, Gonif, has been whomping on Simcha, the youngest and I think I have figured out why.  It is jealousy.  When Simcha wants to cuddle he is right on my head, usually drooling on my face, and Gonif, who is my special baby, seems to be jealous and gets pissy with Simcha, much to the amusement of truffle hunting big boy Yankel.  Last week, whilst having a weekly session of reflexology,  I saw the look in Gonif's eyes that he was about to pounce on Simcha who was sittings on arm of the chair and before I could stop him he did indeed pound, and as Simcha fled the planter with pebbles and a bamboo plant went scattering across the floor thus breaking the calm of the moment.  Well, shit...the reflexologist cleaned most of it up and I didn't have the meltdown I would have had if I had been alone, which might be a good thing.  Only a few chosen words escaped my lips and not the loud torrent of words I might have used had I been alone.  After that every thing was calm for the most part.  Still Gonif persists in whomping on Simcha.  Usually when Simcha is asleep or unaware which is most of the time.

Let's deal with groceries.  I did purchase some half and half yesterday but the container exploded leaving me with a mess that the cats were all to willing to clean up.  No meltdown then.  So I made a little list, as they say in the Mikado...I think I will go out at first light to get my groceries and fill in with some staples I need that the special market either didn't have or were too expensive. After shopping yesterday I came home and made the call to my friend who needed some tech support and to talk.  Which we did, all the while watching MSU beat up on Michigan in basketball.  Oh yeah!  Talked about my impending dental appointment Monday to get two, count 'em, two crowns.  My mouth will be good and numb. The dentist said the appointment would last almost two hours.  Yeah, baby.  I might go home or I might go back to work, where the offended who are offendable, can make light of my dental woes.  I am a big time grinder of tooth  and justice and the American way.  So I am getting a set of porcelain crowns.  I have been whitening the teeth now for  two weeks and the crown will match my new smile.

I seem to have wandered from groceries to mouth.  I just want everyone to know I might be an easy target on Monday should I return to work post dental extravaganza.  And I will be an easy target for two weeks as I can't get in to see the American Girl Therapist until the 18th of the month,  which coincidentally we have tickets to see Paula Poundstone that night.  Yes another evening spent in the good company of Sophie,  to wit and too woo we shall be going to dinner prior to the show.

You know I think I am up for the night. The misstep with the glasses pisses me off as I will have to go back and have them fix or replace the frame.  And don't ya know they ain't open On Sunday.

I received a note from a distant cousin who is in library school at Bowling Green.  I offered him a place to stay when he is up here for a internship. He's a nice kid, all of twenty two.  He seems earnest and is a thoughtful person.  There is some indication that he has Asperger's, which is a high functioning type of autism.  He is a good candidate for library work as he wants to be a cataloguer, which is very intense work and does not have a people factor.

And finally Jack.  Maybe s/he will leave a comment concerning my mouth (how's that for an easy target?). And for their every thrust I seem to be able to parry and soon Jack redacts the comment.  So, let's see.  I think I will list possible targets for Jack.  My mouth is one...the misfortune of glasses is another.  Maybe the infighting amongst the cats.  Or now I have just noticed the police are up the street and it doesn't seem to be a traffic stop.   But ah, no, the cats are quietly sleeping on the couch.  I now only see one cop car so maybe it's a domestic dispute.  Hopefully it is not another neighborhood home invasion (and I don't want Jack to work on that number)..

So, good evening ladies and gentlemen the cop car is gone.  My porch lights, which tonight are green, should discourage anyone from coming to my door uninvited.  I have on my spare pair 'o glasses...and all is right with the world.  I truly haven't pissed anyone off in a week.  The intellectual discussion which got a very hostile reply from MPT, and generated a good deal of support for my position, has had a week to fester, and  if the bully was going to bully some more I do believe and I could be wrong, that the wind has been taken out of their sails.  Oops,  there I go against, rapping on people,   Flail away my friend, flail away.

A delay

For those of you expecting a new post this week I am observing a moment of decorum to gather myself and the narwhals into a more comfortable position to parry he thrusts of Jack, who persists in writing little love letters and deleting them after I respond.  The last had to do with Bartleby the Scrivner, something I read In College in lieu of Moby Dock (sorry narwhals)..   I recalled this novela  as I responded last to Jack and s/he  deleted their "barb".  Oh, well.  That said I think I am going to try to go a week without offending the offendable.  The narwhals and I shall return, perhaps over the weekend.