Yes, I realize that baboon lovers don’t usually go to the park to look at conceited zoo keepers, but don’t worry–after the special effects posturization and the beautiful song I wrote, there is a quick glimpse of Her…
SittiNg
PreTeaN
The age of actually imbibing will too soon arrive. In the meantime, well…
Life’s Lubrication
Maybe money is God. Or, maybe, God should be spelled o-i-l-s-c-a-r-c-i-t-y. After all, where religious convictions about creation care have led only to minor lifestyle changes for select Jesus freaks, the ever-rising cost of oil is making good things happen across our indolent nation.
NPR has reported that “$8 Gas Might Be Good for Us” (I felt only a little indignant that someone else got famous making a claim I’ve previously pronounced), and now it appears that the Hummer may be doomed, according to TheLeafChronicle.com: “The final obituary hasn’t been written, but the future looks grim for the gigantic gas guzzler. … But sales are down 36 percent this year and 60 percent alone in May. … And the Hummer was more important for what it came to symbolize — that mindset among U.S. drivers that bigger is better, especially when you can intimidate everyone on the road. With gas prices zooming toward $4 per gallon, however, being an intimidator isn’t what it once was cracked up to be.”Being intimidated by high fuel prices, on the other hand, has its benefits. On Tuesday, I received an email from the school board office: “Due to the rising costs of energy and fuel and due to the fact that we have met the instructional 990 clock hours requirement for a school year, the last day of school for all students will be Friday, June 13 instead of Wednesday, June 18.” If that’s not miraculous, I don’t know what is.
I’ve been told that other area schools have slashed their unnecessary end-of-year schedules, too, for “environmental” (ahem, budgetary) concerns, and this doesn’t bother me one bit. After all, the last several days of school are filled with uneducation anyway, and so every year schools should just cut off the last four days whether or not a solar-powered bus fleet has been activated. Jesus would probably agree.In the long term, I’ve also heard talk of changing the school calendar to four longer days per week instead of running buses every day Monday through Friday. I’m praying that o-i-l-s-c-a-r-c-i-t-y’s will in this manner will prevail.
Car Wash
Late last night, on our way home house hunting, we stopped at a car wash to feed N. It was really creepy.
You Mean All I Get for Supper Are Toys?
Green House Listing
“I consider [President Bush] a fundamentally decent person, and I do not believe he or his White House deliberately or consciously sought to deceive the American people,” Scott McClellan writes in his recent book. With this sort of assurance, that no one will think any less of me even if I commit egregious errors, maybe I’ll just take this opportunity to spin my own sort of fundamental decency exercise:
FOR SALE: Live “green and simple” in a 3-bedroom, 1.5-bath townhouse with doubly insulated attic; bountiful kitchen counters and ample cupboard space with recycling bins* and an energy-conserving dishwashing arrangement**; alternative laundry drying system***; gas-free**** and all-electric lawn care equipment; global-warming combating, carbon-reducing decor*****; heating system with optional air conditioning alternative******; entirely free nighttime lighting*******; petrol refueling centers, fine dining, major grocery outlets, public education, and liquor store all within walking distance********; all-natural, cost-free, super-sensitive burglar alarms*********; local food production area**********; and much, much more. $175,000 or higher offer.
*where the dishwasher used to be
**without a dishwasher, you have to wash the dishes by hand, in the sink
***yeah, we took out the dryer, too, so use drying racks or the outdoor wash lines
****a reel mower with dull blades
*****all plants need watering weekly
******you provide the window fans
*******thanks, out-back mega-market
********you bring the sidewalks
*********they bark with the slightest–or no–provocation
**********swampy only part-time, shaded, upstream from the dogsBlissful Nnapping
Chair for Sale
The comfortable gliding chair we bought at a yard sale several weeks ago is today up on the auction block, so to speak, if my pickup’s tailgate parked along the street counts.
We should have known not to buy it in the first place, since the lady selling it lit up right in front of us, but it was only $20, and, out in her yard, the cushions’ smoky aura really didn’t seem that bad. And we should have known not to buy it because we’ve done this sort of thing–claimed as our own cheap or free used furniture–before.
For example, the free couch I received for helping a cat lover move really had looked like it could be cleaned up and left to freshen in the summer sun, but I ended up putting it out along the road with a big “free” sign on it.
The same thing happened when we brought home a nice-looking swivel chair that someone gave us. The soon apparent smell, we eventually figured out, came from the gobs of cat hair under the cushion. Vacuuming it all up didn’t help either, except to spread the bad smells all over the house whenever we vacuumed. A “free” sign worked again, for that.
Today is a little bit different, however, since the sign I pinned to the chair says “$25.” A little profiteering won’t hurt us, will it?
Except for the fact that so far, the chair is still ours.
But wait–just now some other neighbors have returned from their camping trip, and I’m excited to know that they have a teenage son who just might want the chair for his room…
UPDATE five hours later: A man rang our doorbell half an hour ago, introduced himself, and said he’d like to buy the chair–and handed me five fives. I saw a friend of the neighbors’ teenage son help him load it up, and return a bit later, presumably after helping the man unload it, too. I’m guessing the buyer is the friend’s dad.
The funniest part? The man lives on the very street where I bought the chair in the first place.
N at Campfire
Something about lapping flames made N laugh this weekend, out in the cold mountain evening with her cousins.
NPR has reported that “
I’ve been told that other area schools have slashed their unnecessary end-of-year schedules, too, for “environmental” (ahem, budgetary) concerns, and this doesn’t bother me one bit. After all, the last several days of school are filled with uneducation anyway, and so every year schools should just cut off the last four days whether or not a solar-powered bus fleet has been activated. Jesus would probably agree.
