30 | December | 2011 | Existential Ennui

Tags

Humor, Iowa, life in the meadow, vacuuming the brain

Well, we have almost made it to the end of the year. Only a few more precious hours to go before we turn the page. As Keith would say, “congratulations on making it through another year of this crap.”

Now, I am no expert, but I’ve long been of the opinion that most mental illness is caused by an inability to clear out the attic. And no finer time is there for that job than at the end of the year.

Because tomorrow, I’m gonna start making some goodies for the New Year (appetizers are my New Year’s day menu), I thought today would be the day to flick off pieces of lint that have been gummin’ up the old synapses.

So in no particular order:

I sympathize with the folks of Samoa who have skipped today and are moving on to Saturday. I mean think of all the havoc being played out. No doubt somebody had an appointment to having an annoying growth removed from their chin, or somebody was getting married or things of that order. What are they supposed to do? At my age, giving up a day is very serious business. I would have voted no.
I have to tell you, one of the reasons I have watched the GOP debates (which takes that whole subject to a new low) is to look over the audience and wonder who the hell are these people? Can they afford all those people they must need to dress them and feed them each day? Such people who look to any of that stage of stooges to lead them out of even a corn maze, are barking up the wrong tree.
It’s been unseasonably warm here in Iowa this winter. I’d like to think it’s a goodbye present from the state to me. I suspect it has more to do with global warming. To all those folks who claim that all they do is for their children and then say that global warming is but a hoax, I say this: I hope you live to see your children vilify you for gifting them with a dying planet.
I have one very serious compulsion I’ve never told you about. I want to make ciabatta bread–I mean the kind you get at the bakery, with gigantic holes. I’m on about my eighth attempt today. Terms like “pulling away from the sides” and “glistening like toothpaste” and “dimpling the surface” are old hat to me. Wish me luck.
I want to thank each and every one of you, both for being alive and visiting me often and entering into my madness. I want to thank all of you who blog and keep me laughing and thinking. I want you to know that there really are no such things as virtual friends. There are friends. And I count all of you as such.
Jesus was a pretty smart fellow. He knew that even among thieves and nere-do-wells, a certain honor existed and people paid their debts and returned borrowed lawn mowers. He often told his followers that to do as much was not enough, because “even the tax collectors do that much.” No, Christians, and indeed all of us are really judged by how much we step out of our own self-interest and do something for others. God knows there are enough folks out there in need. Children around the world, Muslims maligned for being Muslims, our LGBT friends, immigrants being threatened by draconian intrusive laws. Pick your poison and dedicate next year to helping your fellow human.
Never under-estimate the power of a pet to teach you things you are better off knowing. We still miss our Brandy terribly and a day never goes by when she is not thought about, or mentioned in our ongoing lives. She taught us a lot about being human, and that’s a pretty amazing thing for an animal to be able to do.
If you smile more than you frown you are way out in front.
Writing is nothing more than thinking with your fingers. So said Issac Asimov.
I have really had a lot of fun with my food blog. Mostly because I don’t do anything there except post recipes. I’ve been pushed, mostly by myself, to solve a lot of recipe problems. I now have the “perfect” lasagna, a to-die-for corn casserole, and finally I solved the “too-dry” mystery of mac and cheese. Maybe this seems inconsequential to you, but “hey, ma, I’m the queen of the world.” Well, not quite, I still have that stinkin’ ciabatta bread to work out.
One really good thing I learned this year? Crazy, sci-fi shows on the mainstream ABC<CBS<NBC stations are likely to be canceled in mid-story with no resolution, because they play to world audiences, and more money is at stake. The off cable channels, stick with the stories until they are resolved more often. So I ain’t gonna find out what happened on V or Event, but I am likely to get a resolution on Fringe and Sanctuary. Of course none of this matters if you are smart enough to avoid TV with regularity.
I continue to be amazed that so little in the way of intellectual capability is required to function in society in some fashion. I think that every time I get done reading Blaze and Daily Caller comments. I also realize how truly poor our educational system is, since most of these morons matriculated through our public education. The few who didn’t were homeschooled by idiots who had themselves barely escaped the public system with sheepskin in hand.
I trust scientists more than politicians, but then I trust hairdressers more than politicians. In fact I trust rhesus monkeys more than politicians. The only person I trust fully (Contrarian excepted of course) is Johnny Depp.