Logan

Logan is settling in it seems. He's growled a low growl to assert his male dominance over Kooper. Has stared down Zelda (the cat) over several faceoffs - those end up as draws mostly with Logan slowly advancing until Zelda hisses and spits. He has tried to flush out Lucky (the other cat) from beneath our bed with no luck yet. Lucky will come out eventually. She always does - it's a phase she goes through with any entry into the household.

Logan is very wiggly and an enthusiastic greeter when I come into the house after being out awhile. And he seems to greet the morning with a wiggly small tail and a wiggly body and smiling, licking, snorting face. Trying to wiggle his way into bed and get me up and awake for the day.

We've gone for quite a few extended walks through the neighborhood. Just got back from one down to the River. Logan is very friendly with other dogs and people. He keeps his nose low to the ground and does a lot of sniffing in traditional spaniel style.

He eats well too. And fast. Gets two and one-half cups of food mixed with vanilla yogurt for his daily meal. The yogurt is reported to help forestall ear infections, which springers are prone too.

We're about to settle in to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins play their second Stanley Cup playoff game against the Detroit Redwings. I think Logan is a Penguins fan.

Tomorrow is a Stranger

If Tomorrow is a Stranger
Then Yesterday is an old far-away friend.

In the moment
Yesterday singes me with regret
She tickles me with pleasant memories.
He fills each step with caution
And roots me in what is Real.

Yesterday brings Wisdom to the Now
And whispers
Don't worry about the Stranger
Or fret
Or anticipate
Or hurry to his arms
Tomorrow will be soon enough

And soon become an old friend.

Stop Requested

The express bus (11Y) that I take to and from Alexandria each weekday talks to me. I don't mean the way the gods talk to saints or the devils talk to sinners or anything like that. I mean in a very soothing feminine voice, she announces which stops are next. "Constitution Avenue." "Abingdon Drive and Slater's Lane." That kind of thing. And, when someone pulls the cord for a stop, she says, "Stop requested." Much nicer than a buzzer or ringer. Then the bus stops and people get off to go and do their own things.

When I got off the bus and walked to work today to do my own thing, there was this new twist of climate irony in my daily climate news briefing: the Republic of Palau, which says its very survival is threatened by climate change and the accompanying rising sea levels, is about to embark on a mission to become a major supplier of oil and natural gas, which are among the chief culprits behind greenhouse gas accumulations. The tract to be initially explored is found in the waters of Palau's Kayangel state, located on the northern edge of the 300-mile long island nation. Officials say the area is likely home to one of the world's largest oil fields. For money's sake, Palau wants to pump that oil. For us to burn and exhaust greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. To melt the icecaps. To raise the seas. To drown the low-lying archipelago of Palau.

In the meantime a group of nine Nobel laureates will announce today that unless the world starts reducing greenhouse gas emissions within six years, we face devastation. Canada has announced that it will delay greenhouse gas emission reduction efforts for at least six years. And a Chinese analysis of US and Australian carbon dioxide emission reduction plans says they are inadequate and inconsequential.

"Stop requested."

Reality Bites (DC)

When Bravo announced Tuesday that the cable network was launching "The Real Housewives of D.C.," it was the first official confirmation of whispers that have circulated around Washington for months: Like it or not, reality TV is coming to the nation’s capital.

Although Bravo is out first with an actual announcement, three production companies have taken steps in recent months to create five different Washington, DC - based reality shows.

Half Yard Productions of Bethesda is behind "The Real Housewives of D.C.," which will focus on Washington's established elite, and "Inside Washington," which would be aimed at the younger party set. Los Angeles-based 44 Blue Productions has been working on two ideas - "The Hill," which would chronicle the lives of young political types, and "Women of Influence," which would focus, as the name suggests, on the capital's most powerful women.

And the CW network has greenlighted "Blonde Charity Mafia," a "docu-series" that follows some of D.C.'s most avid 20-something party-goers as they trot through the cocktail-and-charity-event circuit.

I'm just waiting for the show "Policy Analyst Studs." I'll be first in line!

One Plus One

We're getting a second dog-person in the household. On Saturday we'll drive down about half-way from DC to Norfolk, VA and meet the foster mom of Logan, a stray, about six-year-old English Springer Spaniel who will come back with us. He'll be added to the mix of Kooper, Lucky and Zelda, and Kate and Mark. From the description of him on the Mid Atlantic English Springer Spaniel Rescue group, he sounds like a sweet dog.

Logan was picked up as a dirty, scroungy stray by animal control folks in North Carolina. They know when the stray is a Springer Spaniel and when they can't find its owner to call the rescue group, who takes the dog in (to one of the foster homes), gets it cleaned up, neutered, doctored and settled in, and then matches the dog with a new home that is a good fit. Logan gets along good with other dogs, and cats, and people, too. He's apparently a couch potato and a wanna-be lap dog. Sounds like a good fit.

Two dogs are more than twice the work as one. It's a bit harder to walk and coordinate poop cleanup with two. A bit harder to keep food allocated equally and to make sure the one doesn't eat the food of the other. A bit harder to keep them both active and entertained.

But two are also a lot more fun than twice as one.

SCOTUS

The word spinners whose emails I get each morning are reporting that the White House will announce President Obama's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court at 10:15 am today. The Intrade political futures markets predict Obama will pick Elena Kagan, followed by Diane Wood, Sonia Sotomayor and Jennifer Granholm.

This will be the big news in DC today.

Not the soaking rain that I walked through to get from the bus to work (my shoes will take awhile to dry out).

Some day the nation's capital will get its priorities straight: the news of the day should always start with an update on the weather!

Memorial Day

I hate cars in general. One hit Zoe earlier today in Meadville. She'll be missed.

Morning Walk

It's so quiet here on Sunday mornings that Kooper and I usually go for longer morning walks. The noise isn't nearly as relentless and droning and invading. So we did this morning. Walked down to the Potomac River and back. Saw a few dogs. Saved a few worms.

[as an aside I should mention that I often do that. When I see an earthworm wriggling on the dry sidewalk I'll often pick it up and toss it into the wet grass or underbrush. If it's a rainy day and the sidewalk traffic not too treacherous for worms I may let the worm on its own to squiggle across the concrete to the other side. But on a dry day with the sun sitting on the edge of the horizon, today wasn't one of those days. Any earthworm would soon face desiccation and oblivion if left to its own devices. I figure not only will the worm appreciate the lift - in a metaphorical sense of appreciation - but I may be saving just the worm whose genes are passed on to future worm generations which triggers an evolution into a new branch of worms which evolve into creatures heretofore unknown to the universe which later (by "later" we are talking millions of years) evolve into the most perfect sentient beings on the planet.]

So. Being a quiet Sunday morning, Kooper and I took a long walk today. Down to the Potomac River and back. And in doing so, changed the world for all time to come.

Chaos Theory

Everything tends toward chaos. Life - whatever that is - works against that trend. Literally. Using energy to move mass into orderliness. For a little while. Then chaos reigns again. Humans being one example of life - sometimes at least - have institutions that mirror life's tendency toward order. Maybe that's why human institutions for the most part seem to be designed (intentionally or not) to maintain the status quo or - if change is allowed - to promote more order. Less chaos. Stronger interpersonal bonds. More community. No killing (that's death and chaos). Lengthen life. Reduce death in general - or at least make it less random and more ordered. Less fighting (or - if fighting happens - to make sure our side remains in an orderly state while the other is sent off into chaotic hell).

We tend not to like things that throw our lives into chaos. Wars. Separation. Crashes. Illness. Killing. Destruction. Loss.

But in the end everything succumbs to the relentless pull of randomness. And the energy holding us together as a person or as a people is overcome by the energy pulling us apart. We contribute our molecules and atoms to the greater good. Only to be re-ordered in some other fashion once again. Maybe that's reincarnation. Or nirvana. Or heaven.

Time shift

Now I know how all those time travelers feel in the science fiction movies. Disoriented. And they are jumping days or years or eons. I just jumped 900 miles or so and one-hour in time zone difference flying back to DC from Minnesota yesterday. Last night was fine. I was up late-ish. Fueled by the adrenalin rush of a Pittsburgh Penguins playoff hockey win over the Carolina Hurricanes. But this morning I didn't want to get out of bed and my mind is in a fog.

I think a coffee will open up the capillaries and wake me up. My morning coffee usually comes at work now. I'm the first one in and I grind some Guatemalan medium roast beans and brew a pot first thing when I get in. In fact, my first cup (usually of two for the day) is down before most other people walk through the door.

At some point the fog will lift and I'll be back in this time zone again. Unless somehow the plane warped into a new dimension during its flight east yesterday and I'm not really in my old dimension anymore. I could be trapped in a new reality! Maybe there will be a peaceful world and no one pollutes anymore and camping is all done by backpack and the Yankees win each year! No. That would be too good to be true. But at least maybe it really is Friday. And that's good enough for now.

Mariah

The wind in St. Paul yesterday was ferocious. Like in a blizzard but it was sunny and hot. A cold front was draped over southern Minnesota and the wind along the front was steadily in the 25-35 mph range with gusts that would drive you back up the street if you were walking into it. I don't think I've ever experienced that degree of wind on a sunny, hot day. I've been in blizzards with gusts to 80 mph and a storm once on the Gulf of Mexico where the wind would have blown you off the ship's deck if you weren't lashed in. But never a strong wind on an otherwise fine day.

The front was slow going through the area so the wind kept it up all day long and into the evening, when it passed onto the east. Accompanied by no lightning or rain. Just a few clouds. So today - this afternoon - we'll fly through the front on my way back to DC. Then, later I'll get to experience the front passing through again. I bet it's different by then. More mature. Maybe having picked up some moisture from the Gulf and slowed down a bit by the Appalachians. Won't be the same.

Saint Paul

St. Paul, the story goes, found religion on the road to Damascus. I'm on the road. In St. Paul this week. I've found a nice region here. Nice people. Lots of green and more trees that I thought there would be (don't know why I thought that). A lot of water. About as much as I thought. Lakes all over the place - small to biggish. And then there's the Mississippi River, which is a fairly wide river by the time it gets here. Not huge like the upper Ohio or lower Susquehanna. But it has a long way to go to the Gulf of Mexico. This is the view out of my 14th floor hotel room looking north up the River.











There's been a lot of heat too! 90 yesterday. And again today. A cold front is coming through tonight. So it should be cooler tomorrow. Then I'm on the road again. Back to DC. Maybe I'll be blinded by a bright light. And find religion.

American Independence at Work

Americans are far less likely to use public transportation than residents of other countries, according to the National Geographic Society's 2009 Greendex report. Only five percent of Americans surveyed report daily use of public transportation, and only seven percent report taking public transportation at least once a week. 61 percent of Americans report that they never use public transportation.

Internationally, 25 percent of respondents in the 17-nation survey report using public transportation daily, and 41 percent report using it at least once a week. Even Canadians are more than twice as likely to report weekly or more transit usage than Americans; Germans are almost five times more likely to use transit at least weekly, and Russians are over ten times more likely.

You can calculate your own personal "greendex" here, and find out how you can improve your score. I haven't filled out the questionnaire yet, but think it involves things like doing more backpacking and less cooler-campering.

Political Trivia

Just because you may want to know some day:

Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME) is so popular that in 2008 the town of Bethel, hoping for a record, built a 122-foot snow woman and named it "Olympia."

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) once threw a party for other Ben Nelsons. Twelve people from Nebraska, 10 from other states and one dog attended.

Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-IL) is the only politician to ever defeat Barack Obama in an election -- a 2000 Democratic primary for the House.

Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL) is perhaps best known as the grandson of Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney. As a youth, he spent summers working as a ball boy. He went on to play football at Washington and Jefferson College and Syracuse University.

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick's (D-AZ) parents ran a general store in the middle of the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. Kirkpatrick said the first words she uttered as a child were in Apache.

Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) was married in 1999 at Bally's casino in Las Vegas with 19 bridesmaids to attend to her -- among them Dina Titus, who became her Democratic House colleague in 2009.

Monday Routines

It was a nice weekend with some good dog walks and people walks. Three come-from-behind-last-inning victories by the Yankees. And time off from the routine of into DC/work/home/sleep. This week will be non-routine too. Heading northwest to St. Paul, Minnesota for three days of meetings.

New towns and people bring a nice change to the routine. But the newness isn't as meaningful as the connections of home after a short bit. It eventually wears off. After a day or two. Or hour or two. Or a few minutes. Then I'll miss the routine.

Tidbits

It's cooler today. Much. A front went through and it feels like Fall rather than yesterday's Summer.
It's interesting how peanut butter sticks to things. Unlike dairy butter, which doesn't. If butter is the common word, it must not mean "sticks to."
Chrome, retro-style toasters toast faster than newer toaster ovens. I guess they knew how to toast things better in the retro days.
This week I'll be in Minnesota for three days and nights. Maybe I'll run into some people who talk like they do in Minnesota. Like in the movie Fargo.
Last evening a thunderstorm to the west drove us home from our walk toward downtown Alexandria. We never made it downtown. The storm never made it to where we were walking. Except for a few drops.
Kooper is looking at me like he wants his second morning walk. There is no church today for Kate, so maybe she can take him out.

Or maybe not.

I can never resist that look.



Goodbye.

Sherlock Holmes

War has a funny was of marking the passage of time and the importance of men (I use the male noun here on purpose). I say that because Sire Author Conan Doyle is a "Sir" because he was knighted - not because he invented and developed the character of Sherlock Holmes and all of the mysteries and other characters and rich world surrounding Detective Holmes - but because he wrote a pamphlet in 1902 in defense of British actions in the Boer War. The pamphlet was titled “The War in South Africa: Its Causes and Conduct.” The nice little pamphlet justified all of the British activity during the war, including the establishment of “concentration camps,” which Doyle contended were really humanitarian refugee camps.

George Bush, the Younger used tales and stories to justify the war he started, and its torture and concentration camps and spying on US citizens. As did Donald Rumsfeld. And Paul Wolfowitz. Dick Cheney did the same. Dick is still doing it. Making the talk show circuit in an attempt to justify his actions and subvert the current regime in DC. At least George and Donald and Paul and the the others (we need a Ringo in there, too) have had the courtesy and diplomacy to be silent and let the winners govern now. Mr. Cheney has not.

Maybe Mr. Cheney should write a pamphlet and call the war a patriotic crusade to keep the homeland safe. Maybe someday he'll be knighted like Sir Author Conan Doyle. Wars have a way about them. A way of warping our mass intelligence into mass delusion.

It's a mystery.

Miracle

Fox renews Dollhouse for 13 shows in the Fall! Click here.

The Eyes Have It

It was great to see the Pittsburgh Penguins win game seven of the eastern NHL semi-finals last night. They beat the Washington Capitals. Even though I had to put up with the local, DC Comcast television announcers, who are okay but very homey. The game was pretty much a blow-out from the first period, so there wasn't the usual excitement and tension that only a game seven in the hockey playoffs can bring. As much as I love baseball, playoff hockey is the most exciting sport I know. Especially if you have a team you can pull for. Like the Penguins. Especially if it's a game seven. You can't blink. Every second is that critical.

So, even though the game was still on we avoided marital discord at 9 PM when the season finale of Lost came on. Confident that the Penguins had the game and series well in hand, Kate could watch Lost (and I could too), without worrying what was happening in the playoff matchup.

Lost was a two-hour season finale. ABC promoted it at three-hours. But the first was just a Heinz hour. As in ketchup. As in catch-up. So, the finale really didn't start until 9. But I missed a few minutes of the first hour as I nodded off on the couch. The excitement was killing me! By 10 PM I gave in to my steadily closing eyes and hit the sack. Never saw the end to the finale.

I'll catch up on-line or on my iPhone with a download. Sometime when there's no Penguins playoff hockey game on. Sometime when my eyes can stay open for the duration.

New Post

This is a new post. That's what the button said that I clicked just before I got to this editing window. So I'm posting and it's new.

Originally to post meant to mail but now it's more commonly applied to an electronic message of some sort.

And new. What's that anyway? Not much of anything is. If anything is at all.

We're all recycled. I'm basically just repackaged stardust and so are you and so is every thing else when you come down to it. These computer keys. The electrons carrying the message through the Internet ether. The photons flowing from the screen to the retina. Our thoughts even? Maybe, in the sense that they, too, are electro-chemically induced.

All coming out of some big bang eons ago. Or if not that then some other thing or event or discontinuity far beyond the grasp of our puny brains. What are we but stardust trying to comprehend stardust.

So I guess I'm posting. But I doubt that any of it's new.

“And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.” -- T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)

Hot Chai

I'm sitting here drinking hot chai - a mix I got from the grocers - Trader Joe's. I bring that up because I have the door open to the back patio and there is a bit-of-a-cool breeze wafting in to where I'm sitting - on the living room couch. And it's a quiet Sunday morning with very little traffic or other noise. Just the once in awhile jet passing by from Reagan National. Now, at this point you may be asking yourself, "why are you telling me this?" Well. Let me tell you. In the next paragraph. Down below.

I'm mentioning that because it brings back memories - nice ones - of sitting with friends in the early morning with a bit-of-a-cool breeze sipping coffee (not chai but close enough) at a camp site next to Forked Lake in the Adirondack mountains.

All that I have to do is to close my eyes and sip my chai and listen to the birds chirping and (if I block out the occasional jet noise and car horn) I can practically hear the quiet conversations around a newly smoldering camp fire. Quiet because some are still asleep in their tents. I can almost smell the bacon crisping on the Coleman stove inside the big kitchen tent of the "Cooler Campers" contingent. Big because everything associated with Cooler Camping is big. I can practically hear the loons splashing and hoo-ing in the distance. I can almost see the morning group of ducks swimming along the shore from campsite to campsite. Looking for handouts. I can imagine if I stepped outside right now within ten yards or so I could slip into the clear waters of the Lake for a morning bath and swim.

Good times. Now for another sip of my chai. And then a shower. And then another dog walk. And then church.

And then . . . after a few more months of showers and dog walks and church visits . . . a chance to sit next to a lake around the campfire with friends again and sip chai (I'm bringing my own this time).

Alarm Clock

I have my cell phone set to chime at 5:30 each morning. A nice bell tower ringing wake up call sort of thing. But I rarely get to hear it. Kooper has been making sure that I don't need those modern sort of conveniences to wake. He typically stands at the bottom of the first floor stairs and barks. It's usually around 4 or 5 or so in the morning. Sometimes before. Rarely later.

He either wants one of two things when he does that. Go out. Or get up the stairs to the second floor and his water and food. He can't do the first without help. But he can certainly do the second. And often does by the time I get downstairs. By then he's overcome his fear of steps and has made it up into the kitchen and is slurping away at his water. Other times he just might need a little verbal nudge. "Get up there you dufus!" That kind of nudge.

This morning it was the "I want water" bark that woke me at 5 AM. We have put the water bowl downstairs at night sometimes. Then, the bark shifts to the "I want out to pee" variety.

Dogs are social beings. And after six or so hours he's ready to socialize. I just think he's lonely. I've never known any other alarm that gets lonely.

Political Trivia

I tend to be more plugged into these things nowadays. Here are some interesting DC political factoids:

A new Hays Research poll shows Alaska Republican Gov. Sarah Palin now has 54% positive rating and 42% negative rating among Alaskan voters. That's a dramatic change from the 86% positive and just 9% negative a year ago.
Today is budget day, when the Obama Administration releases the details of its next fiscal year's budget.
Republican and Presidential wannabe Mitt Romney is making his primary residence at the family home in New Hampshire, the site of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary.
The Maine Legislature yesterday gave final approval to a gay marriage law. And the governor signed it into law (that last part was a bit of a surprise).
In 1669 Cardinal Richelieu had the tips of his dinner knives ground down when he saw a dinner guest picking his teeth with a knife tip, marking the first time dinner knives had rounded tips (okay maybe that isn't a current bit of gossip but it's interesting anyway, in a Sarah Palin sort of way).
Alpha is Alan Tudyk (okay well that's not at all related to politics old or new but it's still very cool and you all should be watching the season finale of Dollhouse this Friday at 9 PM, and click HERE to get all caught up).

Phone?

I changed cell phones from a regular cell to an iPhone. Work offsets the cost some. And I wanted something that integrated better with my Mac computer.

To say it's a phone is simplifying a bit. Phones are morphing into other beings. As are computers. And televisions. And movie theaters and cars. Everything is evolving. Maybe we get tired of the slow pace of human evolution and want to spice things up with some induced evolution in the things we make.

So my "phone" does almost everything my computer does. Just a bit smaller. I can go on Facebook and Twitter and watch video and listen to music and do email and messaging. I could also probably blog here, too. In fact I know I could. And - oh yes - I can even talk. With my mouth. That older form of communication.

Get Caught Up on Dollhouse in less than a dozen minutes

PG Porn

Well, okay maybe R-rated, because of the use of the word that must not be named. And maybe it's not porn, really. But it's funny. And it stars Alan Tudyk.

Click here <----- Yes! Right there!

Week Ends

Sunday, and the beginning of a new week. Or ending of an old, depending on your view. Or your calendar.

My Mother heads home today. To hers in Pennsylvania from ours in Virginia. I'll drive her part way there. A few miles up Interstate 270 to the Shady Grove station. Last station on the Metro Red Line. Then she's going solo the rest of the way. But my part of the drive north will be the hardest part. Through what little Sunday morning traffic there is. Around the tricky beltways and ramps and exits. To the straight concrete ribbons that connect and head eventually northwest.

Then she will go that way and I will go this way. Back down the Red Line to DC. Then the Blue or Yellow to Alexandria.

We've had a nice week. Good dinners and walks and, last night, Hadyn's Creation at the Kennedy Center. Die Schöpfung. A nice rendition of a "beginning" to end the week. And the visit.

Whiskey

I totally missed it. Last night. On Dollhouse. One line. "Whiskey."

I mean I heard the line. And then moved right on. I didn't make the connection. Didn't connect the dots. He was looking at Dr. Saunders. Right after he looked at Topher and said "Topher." Right after he looked at Adelle DeWitt and said "Adelle." Then he looked at Dr. Saunders. Ready to give him an injection. And he said "Whiskey."

The NATO and aviation radio call word for the letter W. Like Echo and November and Sierra and Victor.

And Alpha, too.

May Day

Today marks the beginning of May. It used to be a day of celebration in the old Soviet Union and other communist countries around the world. Aren't too many of those left anymore. So I don't know how much celebrating there is going on today in the communist block. Maybe in Cuba or China or Viet Nam. Communist countries celebrate May Day because of its labor connections (it's commonly known as international worker's day or labour day (which is not the same as the U.S. Labor Day because it's missing the "u" and happens in September)).

When you look way back, May Day has its roots in the Celtic (not Boston Celtic) Beltane celebrations and the Germanic Walpurgis Night (the W is pronounced like a V). And in pre-Christian Europe, May 1 was the first day of summer.

Then there is the mayday radio call signal for help. But it has nothing to do with May or summer or labourers (with a u). That actually comes from the French venez m'aider, meaning 'come help me.' Which is a call we might be hearing from some of the former communist and not so former communist countries these days. A lot of people being in need of help.

Happy Beltane!