Truth in geography

I believe it is seriously past time when we step up and call it like it is when we name anything on planet earth. Erudite people have long grasped the transience of our planet's crust, aka, where we all live. For example, the proper designation for an ocean beach is: temporary depositional feature. This is one of the few facts I retain from my college geology course (also, that going west into the foothills from Ft. Collins, you can identify the oldest formations easily as they are the grayest - but this is not universal).

This idea of being truthful popped into my head when I checked the NOAA weather site as I do daily. Often, in addition to asking for the Eugene SWAG (scientific wild ass guess) I also check out Florence as my dream of where to be during hot spells (aka, coming climate).

I was interested in the details underlying the Sunday-Tuesday high wind and coastal flooding alerts. This caught my eye under PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

"In southwest Washington similar conditions in the past have resulted in 

significant flooding in Raymond, erosion to homes and roads near Washaway

Beach along Highway 105 near North Cove, and/or erosion to campsites near 

Cape Disappointment."

NOW that's an honest, unadorned, and reassurance-free name for a beach! And likely a Cape.

We need a more honest name for Eugene such as:

Allergy Central, Hippie Dale, Gluten Gap, or Ungovernable?

But don’t worry about your address labels, we cannot agree to much of anything.

Frank and Ernest by Bob Thaves

See how much disappointment can occur with dishonest or poorly researched place names?
 

 

 

Losing another touchstone to my youth.

But first, think about the recent task force created by President Biden: "Supply Chain Disruption Task Force". Maybe it is just me, but it sounds as if their task is to further disrupt the beleaguered supply chain. Apparently clarity of intent is not only of little concern, it may well be deliberately ambiguous in case it's outcomes tilt toward a worsening of the identified problem. Actually, a necessary and convenient fall-back interpretation of what the task force was indeed tasked with. Much like tasking Jared (of the untroubled mind) with sorting out that pesky Middle East. It has, in some way, been maximally sorted; as women of Afghanistan will confirm.

Now to the larger scale problem at hand: my sole remaining college electronic device has reached an untimely end. Yes, perhaps, a stereo component having a problem-free useful-life of over 55 years may seem remarkable. And I bet it is. Will the more au courant versions of this component have even a quarter of this long and faultless life span? Probably not, as we now expect electronic thingies to prematurely age, become unsightly, and embarrass us in the company of Early Adopters (common name: Beta Testers).

But I am this to my very core: a lazy, frugal Luddite. I already have much more technology than I know how to operate. WHY would I speed up my relentless slide toward technological incompetence and penury? NO!  This girl just wants to be able to play her CD's. I despise streamed music as I don't have complete control of what I will hear. I want to hear my favorite albums in their published form without interruption, or worse, scrambled with some algorithm-identified tunes. ENOUGH! If I want an anarchy of undesired audibles, I will tune in a radio channel. 

The electronic old war horse I mourn today is my Marantz Model 1030 Console Stereo Amplifier

I tried to disconnect it entirely, but was unable to trace back to the wall plug. Here is a photo of it "in situ" but askew. I just googled that silly description and got this:

Scholarly articles for askew in situ

The distribution of estrogen receptor-β mRNA in … - ‎Shughrue - Cited by 237 In situ localization of sodium-potassium ATPase mRNA … - ‎Crump - Cited by 30 In situ monitoring of the effect of ionic strength and pH … - ‎Knobloch - Cited by 7

An old concern put to rest

In a blog post on February 9, 2019 I expressed some concern that the traditional Presidential Library might be a poor fit for the then occupant of the presidency. But I think this political cartoon from the WaPo has the answer: 

Cartoonist Mike Smith 10/2/2021

In addition to the rich trove of tweets, videos of incoherent repetitive  rallies of misguided fans, and combative reality-free press "conferences" from the White House,

THERE WILL ACTUALLY

          BE BOOKS

Perhaps not books that informed the Former Occupant, but absolutely on his favorite topic:   

 🎆🎉🎈HIMSELF 🎇🎆🎊

I am feeling disconnected.

Perhaps it is because I disconnected. I have failed to blog since early September. I have had many intriguing ideas, but of course I do not recall any of them. Hence I will spend this time on the many out-triguing thoughts that plague me.

First, I think I have finally deciphered Cleo's "love language". By this I mean her actions meant to prompt me to show her more love. 

When I am at my computer within a short time she will meow plaintively at the office door. This means: I am here waiting to be reminded how much you love me; please invite me to join you, and I will hop on the desk and pace back and forth as you coo and pet me until I am bored of it.  

I am lying in bed reading and she will meow plaintively from the living room. I will call to her to no avail to come join me. She will not come. This means: I know where you are, but I want you to come here. 

I sit on the couch for a read, or a "bit" of TV and she will sit near my feet and look up plaintively. This means: Of course, I know you WANT me to jump up there to snuggle with me, but I always want you to ask for this as if for the first time ever - so I know you do not take me for granted. 

And on and on. Neither of us seems to tire of this "love" dance.

A few weeks ago, before our blessed cool spell with heavenly rainfall, having HAD IT with getting dressed to go to Winco, I decided to go in my double layer of nightgown and house dress sort of garment. Many of you will know EXACTLY what this looks like. To top of this breach of decorum (who cares anymore!?!) I draped a refrigerated cooling shoulder wrap over the top of this outfit. I also had HAD it with sweating as I shop because:

1. I am over insulated as well as of running hot since birth and

2. I am wearing a mask that makes me feel as if I am in a steamy jungle.

I suppose I got some censorial glances from fellow shoppers, whose opinion of me stopped mattering a few decades and (on a higher scale) a pandemic ago. Later that week, I read some article which mentioned a NOW "hot" dress trend (of course they mean popular with trend zombies, but occasionally also very hot in the worst sense). I have not seen this yet in Eugene, but that does not surprise me. And TADA here it is: The "nightgown dress". Wow! I love it. Short nightgowns with gathering above my, you know, are marginally (very) flattering and bind no where, while allowing breezes to waft up and under. I do not intend to purchase such an item as I have this genre on hand. And now I wear it EVERYWHERE!

Many folks deplore the softening of public standards of appearance. Seriously? With the deliberate destruction of our democracy and the un-intended yet still active destruction of our climate and ecology why on earth would clothes matter?  My stand is: if YOU keep warming the planet, I will wear whatever is the least problematic for me!

 

Fall!

I am available for personal appearances at your home, place of work (possibly redundant) and social masked gathering. I will bring my unbounded enthusiasm for the best of all seasons and my signature:

"FALL" in an exuberant falsetto with both arms flung high to the heavens. Free of charge. 

small print: non-consensual; no request required

I am aware that we still have warm (and possibly too hot) days ahead of us, and the risk of smokiness until the season's rains can come to quell spontaneous combustion. At least this year is not as horrible as last year (yet).

 

 

Also guilt free binge TV!

On a sad, or just confused note: my squirrel friendly back yard is un- squrriled. Are they hanging out in your yard? Is this a seasonal shift? Have my offerings become passe? Do I need to stock some resident wildlife? 

There seem to be quite a few "domestic squirrels" living in homes with the blessing of the human occupants (from trusted source:YouTube). There would of course be some destruction, but boy oh boy would Cleo be more entertained and aerobically fit!

 

 

And finally, this little video depicting my "fall is here" emotional state. Hedgehog happy dance

Inquiring minds...encounter reality

Green looks bigger; purple feels heavier

 I am currently having my personal trainer come to me twice a week for a 30 min. session in strength(A), flexibility(B) and balance(C) as qualified below. For several weeks now, I have felt that my mismatched 3# weights are not the same weight with the purple one being noticeably heavier. This holds true even when I switch hands, which I do to ensure that one arm is not getting an advantage over the other. My body is a symphony of symmetry in which I want no discordant chords. Again, it was my frugality which led me to purchase mismatched weights at "Play it Again Sports" because despite the color difference they were both labeled as 3's.

Today I decided to reveal this deception once and for all (i.e. Twice in Eltonese - see 4/8/2019 post if unfamiliar with this usage of  "twice")

I used my cooking scale (mostly used to weigh envelopes actually being snail mailed) to weigh each weight. I then did a bit of dimension research due to the weighing results.

Here are the counter intuitive results: I was entirely wrong. A concrete example of what feels obviously true to me can be patently in error.

I should feel humbled, and I do. Reality is stubbornly insistent on being the final word. And we mortals always lose when we engage in a test with it (Her).

A. I am maintaining a decent amount of strength needed for every day tasks such as ambulation and  awkward but possible getting up in defiance of gravity.

B. My flexibility needs more attention over more time than I likely have left. But I persist.

C. Balance is not a concept I hew to as a rule. Physical balance is an on/off capability challenged by uneven ground, the prior day's pot party, getting up from seated too abruptly, and tripping on shadows.

And in closing let us celebrate the athletic and comedic styling of the humble squirrel. This video is somewhat repetitive and occasionally of poor quality BUT there are some gems scattered in to the end. If you can spare 7 min:
Quirrels!!  (misspelling intended)

John's Gourmet Pizza

I should have asked him if HE had a moniker for this creation. But I am fired up, in the mood to blog, and don't want to wait for his next awake period (currently under renovation). The enclosed photos were courageously taken by the accomplished chef himself while under the waning influence of our Tuesday night pot, (another p-word), and pizza party. While I was still pinned down by the cat he got a ladder to get  better photo angles. I would have stirred in the event of an audio alert from the kitchen. Really.

I was expecting the first photo to show a medium virgin Papa Murphy's thin crust half Papa's Favorite and half Herb Chicken Mediterranean Pizza. But I guess the idea to take photos occurred Post Pizza Perfecting and left us with:

All trimmed out and ready for the oven 

Here I have rotated the photo so Papa's Favorite half is in the Northern Hemisphere. 

On the cutting board you see the remains of slicing and chopping one entire sweet onion (this time smallish and from a friend's garden). 

Not actually discernible on the pizza are the rest of the pre-oven additions, detailed below.

This shot is the one where perhaps you can discern the various onion shapes created to either survive cooking, or placed on edge and sticking up in order to become singed in delicious sacrifice. 

Also a closer look as the culinary and medicinal inputs (left to right)

Beano - obviously medicinal and not a topping

Red pepper flakes - added later by each diner

Fennel seeds - generously sprinkled

Papa Murphy's Herb and Cheese Mix - VERY generously "sprinkled"

Gourmet olives John adds to his after cooking.

Right out of the oven. Now comes my contribution: cutting it into 8 unequal sizes so we will have something more to talk about.

Please forgive my poor photo editing. I have only mastered a few "fixes" and show scant inclination to expand this capability. Also note that incredible aroma and flavor do not photograph well

I have recently heard an apt description of my "falling quite short of expertise" condition in all undertakings: A Renaissance "Man". In my case this is: Aspiring only to the minimum effort my inner perfectionist/sloth negotiated.