Yay for Internet at home again. At least until tomorrow.
Query: Take a look at the "Lamp on a Stand" analogy in Luke 8. I've always assumed the lamp represented your faith. But then when you read carefully the two following verses, faith doesn't necessarily seem to fit the puzzle. Wealth almost seems a better fit to me... almost. Here's the whole passage:
"No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him."
As for the "there is nothing hidden," why say that about faith? Now wealth doesn't seem to be a good fit either. And the "whoever has" doesn't seem to fit faith either. Maybe talents/gifts?
T minus three/four days left until packing must be finished. Why do you always have more crap than it seems like? It all has to fit into tight spaces... Freaking hangers take so much space. I filled almost a third of a box with them.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Monday, August 28, 2006
You know those study Bibles where half the pages are notations and a gutter of letters and numbers separates the columns?
Of late I have been ignoring the notes for the most part. Half the time there isn't a note about what you're curious about -- because it's an interpretation you're looking for -- or the note will upset you because you can see the opinions behind their writer. Or you didn't understand the verse and you don't understand the note, either. Or, how do you read the passage with the notes? Sometimes I'll read the passage and then the notes, but by the time you get to the end of the notes you can't remember what the passage was about.
ANYWAY,
Yesterday, trudging through Luke (another story), one note made me write "wow!" next to it.
I forget the exact context. Jesus and some guys were off praying on a mountain when Moses and Elijah appeared and they were talking about the "departure" he was about to make. The note noted that it was Joshua who finished Moses' work when Moses left supernaturally after helping deliver his people, and it was Elisha who finished Elijah's work when Elijah left supernaturally afer helping deliver his people (from their wicked ways), and Jesus left supernaturally after helping God deliver his people from their sins. Joshua, Elisha, and Jesus are all forms of each other in Hebrew. I like patterns. Sometimes we get carried away with them (i.e. End Times), but at other times they give us comfort that God really is in control with complex plans.
Of late I have been ignoring the notes for the most part. Half the time there isn't a note about what you're curious about -- because it's an interpretation you're looking for -- or the note will upset you because you can see the opinions behind their writer. Or you didn't understand the verse and you don't understand the note, either. Or, how do you read the passage with the notes? Sometimes I'll read the passage and then the notes, but by the time you get to the end of the notes you can't remember what the passage was about.
ANYWAY,
Yesterday, trudging through Luke (another story), one note made me write "wow!" next to it.
I forget the exact context. Jesus and some guys were off praying on a mountain when Moses and Elijah appeared and they were talking about the "departure" he was about to make. The note noted that it was Joshua who finished Moses' work when Moses left supernaturally after helping deliver his people, and it was Elisha who finished Elijah's work when Elijah left supernaturally afer helping deliver his people (from their wicked ways), and Jesus left supernaturally after helping God deliver his people from their sins. Joshua, Elisha, and Jesus are all forms of each other in Hebrew. I like patterns. Sometimes we get carried away with them (i.e. End Times), but at other times they give us comfort that God really is in control with complex plans.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
media -- don't be too quick to judge
When it comes to covering the goings-on of Iraq, I think people are too quick to judge the media.
"The media is doing a horrible job of covering Iraq," soldiers reporting back home say. They're not reporting on all the good things happening. They're biased. They're harming the efforts there. They're money hungry -- and all the implications in that.
Granted, I have never been to Iraq and especially not during this "conflict." I'll also be the first to admit that I am not as informed as I should be about what's going on over there. But, today as I listened to a soldier share about his experiences over there, I was upset by these accusations he made -- among others -- and not just as a journalist.
I agree, yes, the media likely does go overboard on the bad things happening in Iraq. Yes, by and large journalists are liberals. Yes, sometimes they get itchy to scoop their colleagues and might not think about security issues. Yes, their publishers and owners are often money-hungry. (Journalists themselves are not money-hungry, it should be noted, or they would not be journalists. Journalists who are not Katie Courics might as well be working for their keep.)
BUT, we should all take into consideration when pointing fingers,
A: The media is covering a WAR. War means people are killing other people. That is the main action of a war. The building schools and infrastructure are sideline actions. By the nature of covering a terrible thing like a war, the vast majority of war stories will be bad news. And should be, probably -- we need to remember that though war may bring good ends, it is not in and of itself a good thing.
B. Soldiers are not neutral observers of what's going on in Iraq. They are over there working for the government and are by and large on the government's side. Like most journalists are probably liberals, most soldiers are probably conservatives. This is not to say that journalists have a more neutral view of what's going on but that we tend to trust the word of a soldier before we trust the word of "the media." This is also not to say that what soldiers are saying is not right.
C. Yes, good things are happening in Iraq because American soldiers are there. But building a school and building an electric plant cannot be top stories on the national evening news. Would you watch the newscast if the teaser said, "Up next: American soldiers add another layer of bricks to the the school they're building in the desert"? Maybe you would once, but you wouldn't every night. The good things that are happening are mostly features and not news. Features are usually not top stories. And you can't feature the same thing every night, so yes, the good stories will come less frequently.
D. While not a point I like to add, the media is trying to give the people what they want... and people like bomb news more than water plant news... If you don't like a news outlet, stop giving them your business or let them know what you think. If enough people don't like their practices, believe me, they will change -- the bosses are the ones making the money from the customers, and they will give the customers what they want.
E. In contrast to that point, one of the reasons for unbiased journalism (which probably isn't 100 percent possible) is to keep a check on government -- the Fourth Estate, if you will. If the government says "we should be at war," the media will ask the question, "should we really?" and in order to look unbiased and not take the party line from the government, they almost have to have many stories about "is the government right?"
"The media is doing a horrible job of covering Iraq," soldiers reporting back home say. They're not reporting on all the good things happening. They're biased. They're harming the efforts there. They're money hungry -- and all the implications in that.
Granted, I have never been to Iraq and especially not during this "conflict." I'll also be the first to admit that I am not as informed as I should be about what's going on over there. But, today as I listened to a soldier share about his experiences over there, I was upset by these accusations he made -- among others -- and not just as a journalist.
I agree, yes, the media likely does go overboard on the bad things happening in Iraq. Yes, by and large journalists are liberals. Yes, sometimes they get itchy to scoop their colleagues and might not think about security issues. Yes, their publishers and owners are often money-hungry. (Journalists themselves are not money-hungry, it should be noted, or they would not be journalists. Journalists who are not Katie Courics might as well be working for their keep.)
BUT, we should all take into consideration when pointing fingers,
A: The media is covering a WAR. War means people are killing other people. That is the main action of a war. The building schools and infrastructure are sideline actions. By the nature of covering a terrible thing like a war, the vast majority of war stories will be bad news. And should be, probably -- we need to remember that though war may bring good ends, it is not in and of itself a good thing.
B. Soldiers are not neutral observers of what's going on in Iraq. They are over there working for the government and are by and large on the government's side. Like most journalists are probably liberals, most soldiers are probably conservatives. This is not to say that journalists have a more neutral view of what's going on but that we tend to trust the word of a soldier before we trust the word of "the media." This is also not to say that what soldiers are saying is not right.
C. Yes, good things are happening in Iraq because American soldiers are there. But building a school and building an electric plant cannot be top stories on the national evening news. Would you watch the newscast if the teaser said, "Up next: American soldiers add another layer of bricks to the the school they're building in the desert"? Maybe you would once, but you wouldn't every night. The good things that are happening are mostly features and not news. Features are usually not top stories. And you can't feature the same thing every night, so yes, the good stories will come less frequently.
D. While not a point I like to add, the media is trying to give the people what they want... and people like bomb news more than water plant news... If you don't like a news outlet, stop giving them your business or let them know what you think. If enough people don't like their practices, believe me, they will change -- the bosses are the ones making the money from the customers, and they will give the customers what they want.
E. In contrast to that point, one of the reasons for unbiased journalism (which probably isn't 100 percent possible) is to keep a check on government -- the Fourth Estate, if you will. If the government says "we should be at war," the media will ask the question, "should we really?" and in order to look unbiased and not take the party line from the government, they almost have to have many stories about "is the government right?"
Friday, August 25, 2006
(nameless?)
A new conundrum shall come to a head in seven days: My blog is called "The Edge of Iowa," and, for the first time in (more or less) five years, I will no longer be living on the edge of Iowa... At least in the physical sense.
Thus rises the issue at hand: The renaming/re-evaluation of the blog situation. I will not be living on the edge of Minnesota; since I decided not to live at home I cannot say I live on the edge of town or the edge of the county or the edge of the area code as I could have there.
The edge of Iowa did have multiple senses: the first, of course, was physical; the second was psychological -- kind of one foot in Iowa-sanity and the other dangling over the edge in to the Chasm-Without-Reason; the third was the hip sense of living on the edge -- not knowing what's coming next. (It was originally named during my turbulent first month out of college when I moved twice and started at three new papers and a roommate and a sister got married. Whether that sense applies now is highly debatable.)
A second lingering question which many bloggers face: What on earth do I have this blog for? What's its purpose? Is it just littering the Information Superhighway?
My brother said they had baseball-sized hail at home yesterday afternoon. A friend near there had her new car all dented up, as I guess did most of the students who had cars in the college parking lot. The Strib cited hail big as grapefruit. There was also a tornado in the area -- it was funny listening about it on the Sioux Falls news because they kept mispronouncing and spelling "Nicollet County." Or maybe I mispronounce it. But they definitely had it spelled wrong.
And there was a tanker explosion in Sioux Falls today, too. The TV stations actually had news to cover today because there was another tornado near Huron.
Thus rises the issue at hand: The renaming/re-evaluation of the blog situation. I will not be living on the edge of Minnesota; since I decided not to live at home I cannot say I live on the edge of town or the edge of the county or the edge of the area code as I could have there.
The edge of Iowa did have multiple senses: the first, of course, was physical; the second was psychological -- kind of one foot in Iowa-sanity and the other dangling over the edge in to the Chasm-Without-Reason; the third was the hip sense of living on the edge -- not knowing what's coming next. (It was originally named during my turbulent first month out of college when I moved twice and started at three new papers and a roommate and a sister got married. Whether that sense applies now is highly debatable.)
A second lingering question which many bloggers face: What on earth do I have this blog for? What's its purpose? Is it just littering the Information Superhighway?
My brother said they had baseball-sized hail at home yesterday afternoon. A friend near there had her new car all dented up, as I guess did most of the students who had cars in the college parking lot. The Strib cited hail big as grapefruit. There was also a tornado in the area -- it was funny listening about it on the Sioux Falls news because they kept mispronouncing and spelling "Nicollet County." Or maybe I mispronounce it. But they definitely had it spelled wrong.
And there was a tanker explosion in Sioux Falls today, too. The TV stations actually had news to cover today because there was another tornado near Huron.
Monday, August 21, 2006
The following is the story that went with the corn picture below. As clueless as I felt with them, I really enjoyed interviewing the brothers. I know nothing about farms – why do they feel like a home I was separated from at birth? Is it that farming is really in my blood? (Doing genealogy work, it's been very rare that a grandparent wasn't a farmer. They lived in the midwest – go figure.)
---
The summer of 2006 has brought on the worst growing conditions Denny and Lyle H have ever seen: weeks without rain enough to even settle the dust, the stretches of 100-degree heat…
But the brothers, who grow corn, soybeans and alfalfa on their farm south of I*, are trying to keep in mind that things could be much, much worse.
“This is where my grandpa lived and my dad lived, and Lyle just lives a mile down,” Denny explained. “Everybody talks about 1936, and Dad talks about 1955 and how bad 1955 was. But these hybrids and seed genetics in both corn and beans have come so far. Like in ’55 or ’36, if we had (their) same genetics (now), yeah, we probably wouldn’t have anything either.”
And the H's are far from having nothing. Their 1,200 acres of fields – about half corn and half beans – look full and relatively lush to passersby after recent rains.
“These last rains, you can see that the beans have shot up a little bit more, a few more pods, a little more growth spurt on them,” said Denny. “Corn, the ears are pretty well set. The stuff we have looked at, seems everything’s pollinated pretty well – the ears seem to be a pretty decent size. What the whole field’s going to be like, we don’t know.”
Recent rains will give the corn a chance to fill its kernels and take on greater kernel density, all helping the test weight at the end of the line. The brothers normally begin harvesting corn the second or third week in October and beans at the end of September, though drought conditions could push that up a week to 10 days.
“I believe that the beans, if the weather stays reasonable like this, the beans could get near to an average crop yet. I think the corn will be somewhat below average, but it’s hard to tell how much,” Denny said.
Their 40 acres of alfalfa produced two good cuttings earlier in the season. No rain fell between the second cutting and the third, which the H's said was down quite a ways. They’re hoping the improved August conditions will mean better things for the fourth cut.
“We were in real good shape through May, probably got a little bit dry the first part of June, and then June 15 we had a real nice rain and we were sitting good again then,” Lyle explained. “But from June 15 to the end of July, we probably had maybe a half-inch of rain in three different shots. Never really soaked anything up – it doesn’t get down to the roots or anything.”
They’re thankful at least that the dry spell didn’t begin any earlier than it did. If June had been as dry as July was, they guessed, the plants’ growth may have suffered even more seriously – corn may not have thrown a tassel, pollinated or thrown an ear even.
“If we keep weather like we have in August, we’ll make everything we can out of the corn at least, from what we had to work with,” Lyle predicted.
What they’ve had to work with is a hodgepodge of quality from plant to plant. Denny showed two ears of corn pulled from side-by-side stalks – one that had pollinated well and had kernels all the way out to the end, and another that either hadn’t pollinated or had aborted soon afterwards, leaving almost a dozen rows without their plump yellow kernels.
A crop of the full ears – about 16 rows around and 38 kernels long – could yield them about 175 bushels. Fields full of the poorer ears could easily cut that by 20 to 40 bushels, they said. Which type they’ll find more of in the end remains to be seen, though they have noticed that crops planted earlier – which had more time to put down roots – are doing better.
“I think this year when you start going to the elevators you’re going to find there’s going to be stories all over the board,” said Denny. “If you happened to catch a rain, or it didn’t get as hot, or soil conditions – it’s all going to be varied.
“And it varies from here to H*,” he continued. “We talked to someone over in H* (last Wednesday) that says there’s places where they’ve got ears that didn’t pollinate north and east of H* there.”
You don’t have to drive too far west into South Dakota to find conditions even worse, they said, and you don’t need to go too far south, either. Strong winds accompanying the needed rain near C* and A* left many cornfields flattened. Sandier soils are seeing more trouble, as are fields planted later.
The H's have found their own brown patches, too, especially in the lighter soils.
“Some days you think the world’s going to end, and the next day you realize that you can’t do anything about it anyhow,” Lyle said.
“If you keep yourself busy, you don’t think about it so much. Like Lyle says, there’s nothing you can do about it, so you’ve got to kind of realize you’re in the business of that, and you’re fully dependent on the weather all the time,” Denny added. “So hopefully the Good Lord will provide, and, you know, away you go.” ---
---
The summer of 2006 has brought on the worst growing conditions Denny and Lyle H have ever seen: weeks without rain enough to even settle the dust, the stretches of 100-degree heat…
But the brothers, who grow corn, soybeans and alfalfa on their farm south of I*, are trying to keep in mind that things could be much, much worse.
“This is where my grandpa lived and my dad lived, and Lyle just lives a mile down,” Denny explained. “Everybody talks about 1936, and Dad talks about 1955 and how bad 1955 was. But these hybrids and seed genetics in both corn and beans have come so far. Like in ’55 or ’36, if we had (their) same genetics (now), yeah, we probably wouldn’t have anything either.”
And the H's are far from having nothing. Their 1,200 acres of fields – about half corn and half beans – look full and relatively lush to passersby after recent rains.
“These last rains, you can see that the beans have shot up a little bit more, a few more pods, a little more growth spurt on them,” said Denny. “Corn, the ears are pretty well set. The stuff we have looked at, seems everything’s pollinated pretty well – the ears seem to be a pretty decent size. What the whole field’s going to be like, we don’t know.”
Recent rains will give the corn a chance to fill its kernels and take on greater kernel density, all helping the test weight at the end of the line. The brothers normally begin harvesting corn the second or third week in October and beans at the end of September, though drought conditions could push that up a week to 10 days.
“I believe that the beans, if the weather stays reasonable like this, the beans could get near to an average crop yet. I think the corn will be somewhat below average, but it’s hard to tell how much,” Denny said.
Their 40 acres of alfalfa produced two good cuttings earlier in the season. No rain fell between the second cutting and the third, which the H's said was down quite a ways. They’re hoping the improved August conditions will mean better things for the fourth cut.
“We were in real good shape through May, probably got a little bit dry the first part of June, and then June 15 we had a real nice rain and we were sitting good again then,” Lyle explained. “But from June 15 to the end of July, we probably had maybe a half-inch of rain in three different shots. Never really soaked anything up – it doesn’t get down to the roots or anything.”
They’re thankful at least that the dry spell didn’t begin any earlier than it did. If June had been as dry as July was, they guessed, the plants’ growth may have suffered even more seriously – corn may not have thrown a tassel, pollinated or thrown an ear even.
“If we keep weather like we have in August, we’ll make everything we can out of the corn at least, from what we had to work with,” Lyle predicted.
What they’ve had to work with is a hodgepodge of quality from plant to plant. Denny showed two ears of corn pulled from side-by-side stalks – one that had pollinated well and had kernels all the way out to the end, and another that either hadn’t pollinated or had aborted soon afterwards, leaving almost a dozen rows without their plump yellow kernels.
A crop of the full ears – about 16 rows around and 38 kernels long – could yield them about 175 bushels. Fields full of the poorer ears could easily cut that by 20 to 40 bushels, they said. Which type they’ll find more of in the end remains to be seen, though they have noticed that crops planted earlier – which had more time to put down roots – are doing better.
“I think this year when you start going to the elevators you’re going to find there’s going to be stories all over the board,” said Denny. “If you happened to catch a rain, or it didn’t get as hot, or soil conditions – it’s all going to be varied.
“And it varies from here to H*,” he continued. “We talked to someone over in H* (last Wednesday) that says there’s places where they’ve got ears that didn’t pollinate north and east of H* there.”
You don’t have to drive too far west into South Dakota to find conditions even worse, they said, and you don’t need to go too far south, either. Strong winds accompanying the needed rain near C* and A* left many cornfields flattened. Sandier soils are seeing more trouble, as are fields planted later.
The H's have found their own brown patches, too, especially in the lighter soils.
“Some days you think the world’s going to end, and the next day you realize that you can’t do anything about it anyhow,” Lyle said.
“If you keep yourself busy, you don’t think about it so much. Like Lyle says, there’s nothing you can do about it, so you’ve got to kind of realize you’re in the business of that, and you’re fully dependent on the weather all the time,” Denny added. “So hopefully the Good Lord will provide, and, you know, away you go.” ---
Sunday, August 20, 2006
yellow things grow on farms
Two brothers talked to me this week about the state of the crops on their farm. Here, one brother is explaining how ears on adjacent plants pollenated so differently.
It's sunflower season. (Where do our seeds come from?)
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
the best game you never heard of
Something today reminded me of my favorite DOS-based computer game, BushBuck. So many hours dedicated to it... it's addictive. And highly educational, though now highly outdated (in terms of not only graphics but political geography).
I knew I still had a copy of it, but remembered it being on a CD bearing the contents of my computer three or four hard drives ago. Went through all my CDs to no avail... and found it on a floppy. :) They seem so funny now -- 1.44 MB capacity. :) Couldn't even hold one photo from my camera...
I knew I still had a copy of it, but remembered it being on a CD bearing the contents of my computer three or four hard drives ago. Went through all my CDs to no avail... and found it on a floppy. :) They seem so funny now -- 1.44 MB capacity. :) Couldn't even hold one photo from my camera...
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
a, b, c, d...
A. Reading French: It's like riding a bike.
A friend recently returned my long-lost French textbooks. I was flipping through them last night, just reading the introduction to a section... and I realized the whole paragraph had been in French. And I knew what it said.
I used to love French, even thought about majoring in it. There's just not a lot of use for it in my everyday life, unless I'm reading Russian lit.
B. Things Fall Apart
Heard that was a good book. I like the title. It's funny how quickly they do fall apart, though -- the duration of a phrase, even.
C. When I Grow Up
Took a career-exploration quiz yesterday, just because I saw the link. It was only 24 questions that I thought were obscure -- you know how you can usually figure out how the quiz works? Thought I had this one figured out, but it was shockingly accurate. It detailed my "personal style" and said I'd make a good accountant, tax lawyer or engineer -- all options that probably would have been appropriate for me. Funny -- my sister's an accountant and my dad's an engineer. And I was almost pre-law. (But I can never figure out my taxes.)
D. Epidemic
Today I encouraged my co-workers to quit -- not to spite the bosses, but because it would be in their interest to be elsewhere. There seems to be a quitting epidemic, as there are apparently others in other offices also considering it.
E. Ha, ha.
A friend recently returned my long-lost French textbooks. I was flipping through them last night, just reading the introduction to a section... and I realized the whole paragraph had been in French. And I knew what it said.
I used to love French, even thought about majoring in it. There's just not a lot of use for it in my everyday life, unless I'm reading Russian lit.
B. Things Fall Apart
Heard that was a good book. I like the title. It's funny how quickly they do fall apart, though -- the duration of a phrase, even.
C. When I Grow Up
Took a career-exploration quiz yesterday, just because I saw the link. It was only 24 questions that I thought were obscure -- you know how you can usually figure out how the quiz works? Thought I had this one figured out, but it was shockingly accurate. It detailed my "personal style" and said I'd make a good accountant, tax lawyer or engineer -- all options that probably would have been appropriate for me. Funny -- my sister's an accountant and my dad's an engineer. And I was almost pre-law. (But I can never figure out my taxes.)
D. Epidemic
Today I encouraged my co-workers to quit -- not to spite the bosses, but because it would be in their interest to be elsewhere. There seems to be a quitting epidemic, as there are apparently others in other offices also considering it.
E. Ha, ha.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Thursday, August 10, 2006
welcome back, boxes
I've been in one place five months... time to move again.
Really, moving is among the activities I'd rank with writing baseball stories and washing the dishes -- and probably lower still. But it just keeps happening.
This move, though, is the most drastic in several years -- back to the cities.
So today I quit my job and got another one. I dreaded telling my boss, and I feel awful for leaving the paper down a third of its staff, but... hey. There are times that it is right to look out for number one, horrible as it feels to think that way. My boss is clearly not happy, but my co-workers (whom I see far more often) are supportive and happy for me. I wish I could take them with me... mostly.
It's not that this job is so terrible, but this job opened up in my hometown and it would have been stupid not to take it. It's going to be very challenging but I'm excited (the good way and the bad way).
Other challenge -- living at home (Hi, Fluffy). This I will do for an undetermined amount of time until I find something reasonable and/or have saved up some extra money for a car or a paying off a loan or whatever. It's been several years since I've lived at home and living in that kind of setting after living on my own for a year and a half will be an adjustment -- but it will have its positives. My mom is thrilled and has already started (no doubt with aid of her friends) brainstorming about who she might match me up with eventually. Already named on the list are two divorcee-sons of family friends. Yay.
In short, I'm nervous, but excited on the whole. Three weeks till the ol' switcheroo.
Really, moving is among the activities I'd rank with writing baseball stories and washing the dishes -- and probably lower still. But it just keeps happening.
This move, though, is the most drastic in several years -- back to the cities.
So today I quit my job and got another one. I dreaded telling my boss, and I feel awful for leaving the paper down a third of its staff, but... hey. There are times that it is right to look out for number one, horrible as it feels to think that way. My boss is clearly not happy, but my co-workers (whom I see far more often) are supportive and happy for me. I wish I could take them with me... mostly.
It's not that this job is so terrible, but this job opened up in my hometown and it would have been stupid not to take it. It's going to be very challenging but I'm excited (the good way and the bad way).
Other challenge -- living at home (Hi, Fluffy). This I will do for an undetermined amount of time until I find something reasonable and/or have saved up some extra money for a car or a paying off a loan or whatever. It's been several years since I've lived at home and living in that kind of setting after living on my own for a year and a half will be an adjustment -- but it will have its positives. My mom is thrilled and has already started (no doubt with aid of her friends) brainstorming about who she might match me up with eventually. Already named on the list are two divorcee-sons of family friends. Yay.
In short, I'm nervous, but excited on the whole. Three weeks till the ol' switcheroo.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
name that politician
This was the last of several photos I took today at a (boring) press conference (out almost under a tent on a rainy day). When I got back to the office and sorted through them, this one freaked me out. Anyone know who this federal official is?
Monday, August 07, 2006
You know that knot in your stomach you get when you’re nervous?
It’s not so much a knot, but it’s tension for sure, right where your upper and lower halves joint. Like you have your hand clenched in a fist that for some reason you can’t release.
And you wonder: What would it take to pry that tension open?
It’s not so much a knot, but it’s tension for sure, right where your upper and lower halves joint. Like you have your hand clenched in a fist that for some reason you can’t release.
And you wonder: What would it take to pry that tension open?
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Friday, August 04, 2006
misadventures of Dolly and Ariel
Dolly and I went for a ride east today. (Of course, by finally naming my car, I am condemning her to an imminent death.)
Some of the things we saw:
Jacki Bardole and her week-old baby girl
A silo painted like a 7-Up can
A person dressed in an ice cream cone costume
The beautiful city of St. Peter, Minn. -- lots of historic buildings
Too much road construction
The traffic on I-90 through Minnesota today -- enough said. The fact that there was any, as Wynia can probably attest, is bizarre. It was evident that Sturgis is either ending or beginning -- there were motorcycles going both ways. Who knows where the cars were going. Seriously -- the majorest city west is Sioux Falls, then Rapid. The majorest city east is Madison, with La Crosse beforehand if you count that. What cars from Missouri and Pennsylvania are doing out there is beyond me.
At one point we encountered not only the traffic but unexpected road construction. So we took a gamble and got off the interstate. I knew the road headed north, just wasn't sure how far it was to any east-west road I knew. It was quite a ways, but probably not longer than the construction route would have been. Ended up in Mankato (and, ironically, back on Highway 60) and took a scenic route that goes along the Minnesota River. You think, "Gosh, there are so many trees." Not because there aren't trees in Iowa, but because there are just so many suddenly.
On the radio, the announcer said, "Coming up: 'Over my head.'" Greg Scheer's on major secular stations now, I thought. :)
Some of the things we saw:
Jacki Bardole and her week-old baby girl
A silo painted like a 7-Up can
A person dressed in an ice cream cone costume
The beautiful city of St. Peter, Minn. -- lots of historic buildings
Too much road construction
The traffic on I-90 through Minnesota today -- enough said. The fact that there was any, as Wynia can probably attest, is bizarre. It was evident that Sturgis is either ending or beginning -- there were motorcycles going both ways. Who knows where the cars were going. Seriously -- the majorest city west is Sioux Falls, then Rapid. The majorest city east is Madison, with La Crosse beforehand if you count that. What cars from Missouri and Pennsylvania are doing out there is beyond me.
At one point we encountered not only the traffic but unexpected road construction. So we took a gamble and got off the interstate. I knew the road headed north, just wasn't sure how far it was to any east-west road I knew. It was quite a ways, but probably not longer than the construction route would have been. Ended up in Mankato (and, ironically, back on Highway 60) and took a scenic route that goes along the Minnesota River. You think, "Gosh, there are so many trees." Not because there aren't trees in Iowa, but because there are just so many suddenly.
On the radio, the announcer said, "Coming up: 'Over my head.'" Greg Scheer's on major secular stations now, I thought. :)
If you click on this it gets bigger. What I like about it is you can kind of see how the land goes on forever. I love driving down the hill I live on because it always strikes me how 3-D it is. You can see through the row of trees across the river to another row of trees to another hill and another and another (while you try not to hit oncoming traffic).
Thursday, August 03, 2006
August: a commentary
Oh, sad.
August used to be the month we waited for the mail to come.
(I've had that line-to-begin-something rattling 'round my brain about a week. Let's run with it.)
August used to be the month we waited for the mail to come. Experience had shown that letters revealing your fate for the year -- your homeroom teacher's name or your class schedule -- could arrive as early as August 1. By this time of year the days were dragging by because we had played every game and written every story we could think of by July 25, and we could barely wait for school to start. Needless to say, we sat near the window and kept an eagle eye on the mailbox beginning at the earliest conceivable time each day the mail lady might arrive.
August was the month that nothing ever changed. It was like a stock month they threw in to every calendar to pad out the summer a little. Only since they couldn't add half a month, they had to put a whole one in. And it was agonizingly long.
But since high school graduation, August took on a new face: the time for major change. Logically this had to happen because all my friends were college students and college students move to college in August. And even friends who weren't in college -- they were teachers moving to new jobs starting in August, or they were married to teachers or grad students...
Now I'm out of school and August is still a month for drastic change. Friends are moving to Japan, California, England, Ohio, Bahrain. It seems that August will continue to mark the annual life shift for a while yet. It still entails some frustrating waits, too. But overall, August is still a really long month. It at least matches January in draginess. (Though July seems to have taken forever this year, too. The Fourth of July was only a month ago?)
P.S. It's my grandma's birthday. Grandma 'Lene. And her twin sister. My sister and I used to get tongue-tied if we were telling a rushed story about Grandma 'Lene and Grandpa John and we'd say Grandpa 'Lene and Grandma John. And we'd laugh hysterically. It was almost as funny as the times in First Grade I'd talk about what I did in Art and Gym and my dad would pretend he thought Art and Jim were people.
August used to be the month we waited for the mail to come.
(I've had that line-to-begin-something rattling 'round my brain about a week. Let's run with it.)
August used to be the month we waited for the mail to come. Experience had shown that letters revealing your fate for the year -- your homeroom teacher's name or your class schedule -- could arrive as early as August 1. By this time of year the days were dragging by because we had played every game and written every story we could think of by July 25, and we could barely wait for school to start. Needless to say, we sat near the window and kept an eagle eye on the mailbox beginning at the earliest conceivable time each day the mail lady might arrive.
August was the month that nothing ever changed. It was like a stock month they threw in to every calendar to pad out the summer a little. Only since they couldn't add half a month, they had to put a whole one in. And it was agonizingly long.
But since high school graduation, August took on a new face: the time for major change. Logically this had to happen because all my friends were college students and college students move to college in August. And even friends who weren't in college -- they were teachers moving to new jobs starting in August, or they were married to teachers or grad students...
Now I'm out of school and August is still a month for drastic change. Friends are moving to Japan, California, England, Ohio, Bahrain. It seems that August will continue to mark the annual life shift for a while yet. It still entails some frustrating waits, too. But overall, August is still a really long month. It at least matches January in draginess. (Though July seems to have taken forever this year, too. The Fourth of July was only a month ago?)
P.S. It's my grandma's birthday. Grandma 'Lene. And her twin sister. My sister and I used to get tongue-tied if we were telling a rushed story about Grandma 'Lene and Grandpa John and we'd say Grandpa 'Lene and Grandma John. And we'd laugh hysterically. It was almost as funny as the times in First Grade I'd talk about what I did in Art and Gym and my dad would pretend he thought Art and Jim were people.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
The doorbell rang early this morning. I was still in bed, enjoying a sound night of sleep without waking up sweating every hour and a half. My AC failed to produce cold air beginning last Friday, and last night was the first cool one since.
Irony: I was wakened from that peaceful slumber by the repairmen, who finally had time to look at my AC. :) They brought it back in the afternoon and left it on. The high today: just barely 80. Ah, well -- it's bound to heat up again soon.
Irony: I was wakened from that peaceful slumber by the repairmen, who finally had time to look at my AC. :) They brought it back in the afternoon and left it on. The high today: just barely 80. Ah, well -- it's bound to heat up again soon.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
the rains came down (and the floods came up)
The rain is finally here. Here, so far anyhow, it isn't enough, but at the very least it ushered out the heat.
It's bobbed around 100 the last three or four days. Add that to the .54 inches of rain we got in July... and things are getting rough. The three towns north of here share a water system, and it sounds like things are getting severe -- absolutely no lawn watering, no car washing, full dishes and laundry loads only, limiting showers... Most towns around here are still at limiting lawn watering to twice a week during off-peak hours.
A few people have mentioned that what the farmers really want right now is heavy hail. Crops are insured in case of hail, so they'd at least get some cash. Particular fields of corn are fading browner by the day. The beans don't look awful yet. I'm told they can hold out longer and still do okay if rain comes eventually.
We're actually in a Flash Flood Watch tonight. It just might rain hard enough that the parched, packed ground won't soak it in fast enough. That possibility looks slim to me -- we haven't even made it up to a decent downpour yet. This morning the National Weather Service was saying some locations could get 4 to 6 inches! I think we'd be thrilled with anything that'll form puddles.
No matter how it adds up, it's brought in cool air. It feels incredible and fresh like nothing has in weeks. Tomorrow it's not even supposed to get to 80! :)
It's bobbed around 100 the last three or four days. Add that to the .54 inches of rain we got in July... and things are getting rough. The three towns north of here share a water system, and it sounds like things are getting severe -- absolutely no lawn watering, no car washing, full dishes and laundry loads only, limiting showers... Most towns around here are still at limiting lawn watering to twice a week during off-peak hours.
A few people have mentioned that what the farmers really want right now is heavy hail. Crops are insured in case of hail, so they'd at least get some cash. Particular fields of corn are fading browner by the day. The beans don't look awful yet. I'm told they can hold out longer and still do okay if rain comes eventually.
We're actually in a Flash Flood Watch tonight. It just might rain hard enough that the parched, packed ground won't soak it in fast enough. That possibility looks slim to me -- we haven't even made it up to a decent downpour yet. This morning the National Weather Service was saying some locations could get 4 to 6 inches! I think we'd be thrilled with anything that'll form puddles.
No matter how it adds up, it's brought in cool air. It feels incredible and fresh like nothing has in weeks. Tomorrow it's not even supposed to get to 80! :)
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