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| Posted by: Bogon, 2:14 PM GMT on January 05, 2013 | +2 |
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Page: 1 — Blog Index
Even hired MoPeds in S.E. Asia to get around.
But you make some good points here:
What goes up must come down and vice versa.
Optimism - can't tell you how I miss it.
Maybe it has something to do with passing retirement age and still bothering to read news headlines.
It's hard to ascribe any actual benefit to moping, though. Moping doesn't materially improve your situation, and it can become habit-forming. Optimism, on the other hand, can motivate you to keep trying, to keep chipping away at the intransigent things bothering you, until the cyclical things begin to reverse. If, by chipping, you manage to make actual headway, then you have made the world a better place.
We only have about three weeks until the winter cycle begins to improve noticeably. Groundhog Day marks the turning point, when days begin to lengthen, and the darkness gradually recedes. (For those of you in the southern hemisphere, hang in there; it's about to get cooler.)
I fancy the daylight already lasts a bit longer in the evening. I haven't seen much change in the morning, but I'm seldom at my most perceptive by the dawn's early light. I could ascribe the lingering gloom to the fact that at that hour I haven't yet absorbed my morning coffee. Instead I'm going to blame the analemma. Between Halloween and Groundhog Day the sun swings east by several degrees, which has the effect of delaying both dawn and dusk. In early February the eastward motion reverses, and the northward motion, which started at solstice time, accelerates.
The analemma image was familiar but I had never investigated. Good link.
Moping: a little goes a long way around here. If Tloml catches me at it she has instant access to a ToDo list or makes a up one right away.
The satisfaction of surviving was good enough, methinks.
The apparent north-south motion of the sun results from the tilt between the earth's axis of rotation and the plane of its orbit. It is this motion that affects the lengths of day and night.
The east-west component happens because the earth's orbit is not perfectly circular. In early July the earth is farthest from the sun (aphelion) and moves more slowly in its orbit. We just passed perihelion this week, when the planet was moving faster. The uneven speed of orbital revolution means that the seasons are not of equal length, and it causes a sundial to gain and lose time throughout the year.
Funny how a wife can change the dynamics of the male animal. If I see my wife moping, do I hand her a TODO list? Heck no, I get her some flowers and chocolate.
Ylee - Always the practical approach.
Being busy can distract you from your frame of mind, but it doesn't necessarily change it. If the life of the caveman was too miserable and insecure, seems to me that moping might be the normal everyday state. There might have been few occasions when conditions improved enough to foster optimism, let alone happiness.
In the days of the Neanderthal and even in the days of subsistence farming 100 years ago, people worked from dawn to dusk and, if they had candles or lamps to burn, they worked longer than that. They hunted and/or planted crops. They tanned leather, spun wool, wove flax. They made clothing and tools, preserved food. Life was tough, and then you died. It probably was quite depressing, but there was no spare time for moping.
So by that benchmark, one might postulate that moping is a luxury. If you've got spare time not spent just trying to survive, you must be well-to-do. You can afford luxuries. Does that mean one should feel lucky if they are able to mope?
On the other hand, the fingers are different. Moping implies pouting, unhappiness, even depression. That doesn't sound like a good thing. But if you didn't have the luxury of spare time, when could you fit in some quality moping time?
Sounds like a paradox. A glass-half-full/glass-half-empty sort of thing.
Now I'm all thinked out for today. You figure it out. And then, if you've got time left over, you can maybe squeeze in a bit of moping before the day is done. Hmmmm. Could be.
>&^)
And a chocolate bar!
Looks like another gray, rainy day coming up.
I have been moping around Mom's house this week. Got started on the process of winding up her affairs. The necessary paperwork had to be signed and shuffled in the county where she resided.
This house is full of memories. We've started cleaning out the drawers and closets, pantries and refrigerators. It's a big job. It's amazing how much stuff a family can accumulate over the years.
Most of my parents' clothes and personal effects have been carried off. First to go were the hospital bed, oxygen machine, canes, walkers and wheelchairs. The house has returned to a state resembling what I think of as normal.
Wife and I, along with other close family members, must decide what to keep and what to unload. Carpets and furniture. Books. Dishes. Tchotchkes. Most of the stuff will have to go, because we don't need it. We have our own stuff, which doesn't leave room for tons of keepsakes.
Too many loose ends to tie up. Bills. Credit cards. Subscriptions. Even at the age of ninety-five Mom maintained a lot of connections. That snarly ball of yarn lands in my lap now. I've got to contact all those entities to reroute or shut 'em down.
The state decrees a period of ninety days during which I am charged with administering Mom's estate. With the responsibility comes freedom. At the end of ninety days anyone wishing to make a claim on the estate will be out of luck, and the residuum will pass to me.
The wet dreary weather I reported in my last comment has followed me eastward. The weather service has an acronym for it, CAD (cold air damming). The temperature outside is in the mid forties, because clockwise circulation around a high pressure system to the north is driving chilly air against the Appalachians. It pools here in the Piedmont.
In South Carolina it's warmer. West of the mountains (in Tennessee) it's warmer. It's supposed to be warmer here tomorrow, when the backdoor cold front retreats northward as a warm front. During the weekend outdoor temperatures may approach or exceed indoor levels.
That could be my cue to go work on the lawn. There are various dead things that need to be cleaned up. I want to whack the butterfly bush. I'm sure that, if I go out there, I will find other chores pending.
On the other hand, there are several interesting ballgames on the tube. The NFL is building toward its annual climax, and the ACC basketball season is heating up.
It's good to have choices.
On the other hand, even when you think you're done with it all, you may not be. I had one last set-to with one medical provider who was engaged in a little chicanery. I know this with some certainty, because Mom had died before the date services were said to have been provided!
But it's not always a hassle. Last week, a check from her health care plan showed up. I'm not really clear on all the details (simply because I didn't want to read two pages of tiny-font legalese) but they had been calculating this and that, and she was due $300 in premium refunds. OK.
Times like that are when it's good to have a local bank and be on a first-name basis with everyone. All I had to do was ask the teller to pull the bank copy of the death certificate, put the number on the check, get approval from the manager and then I signed it and was $300 richer. And yes, I did say, "Thanks, Mom!"
It's lovely-warm here tonight, but a front is coming. I'll work tomorrow if it doesn't rain, and then stay inside Sunday while things rip through here. I don't think we'll hit freezing, but it will be cold.
While I was looking around tonight for a little Robert Earl Keen, I found this. A little bit of NC for you!
Gotta say I'm not looking forward to tracking down all of Mom's loose ends.
Other than that, I'm not sure what to expect during the next three months. Unless we're somehow professionally involved, each of us has to deal with this situation a maximum of one time. We have little opportunity to accrue expertise. I'm thinking that wherever there is a population of tyros, there are probably vultures ready to swoop down. Such is the sorry nature of the land we inhabit. I very much wish I could say otherwise.
Wife and I have decided to sell Mom's place, because neither of us wants to live way out in the boonies with all the maintenance issues that ownership of such a place entails. I have mixed feelings about that.
1) Mom's house is rent free. The principal expenses are upkeep and (rural, comparatively low) property tax.
2) There are positive aspects to country living. Fresh air. Nice neighbors. Natural esthetics. Peace and quiet.
3) Mainly it's personal. The house sits on land that belonged to my grandfather. I've visited there all my life. Once we sell it, that's over. I'll be pulling up anchor and sailing away, never to return. That's hard.
The decision to sell was not so hard, though. Wife and I want to take it easy when we retire. We're thinking condo. We also want more immediate access to the amenities of civilization. From Mom's house it takes an hour and a gallon or two of gas to get just about anything. Wife and I are thinking walking distance would be about right.
The good news is that we needn't hurry. I want some time to reflect. I think we can keep the place together for a while, if we must. It will serve as a vacation home until we find a buyer. It's really too big for that purpose, though. It needs full-time occupants, folks who'll enjoy that lifestyle, as my parents certainly did.
* * *
I woke to thick fog this morning. The fog settled by lunchtime yesterday and persisted throughout the night. The sky seems to be brightening, though. The forecast calls for warm, gentle southwest wind starting right about now.
Great-grand father's other request for that land is troubling & is beginning to come to pass. He said the only thing worth a damn of that land was the mineral rights & to hold tight til the day the energy companies came. Well they are here & want to frack the crap out of it. This is the family I was adopted into. But being the good land stewert was the one that has been appointed to care for it til now..It was split through the years so family with the same instructions surround. Even if I could convince my siblings all would be ruin by my uncle & cousins.
Of course, when you're listening to Bogon, you might need the Lenat.
I think beauty meant little, atleast when it came to land.
I also need to do some homework to find out what a fair asking price (in dollars) would be. Land sales are not something that I've ever been plugged into. I'm going to need advice and information. I have to take the deal seriously, because a fluctuation of, say, twenty percent one way or the other could make a significant financial difference to Wife and me.
Skye, I doubt my granddad would have used the word ‘beauty’ to describe his land, either. If he beheld beauty there, he probably wouldn't have let on. For him it was a working farm. His view was utilitarian. My memories paint him as a gruff and stoic old man. He might not have taken the beauty of the surrounding mountains entirely for granted, because I don't think he would have wanted to live anywhere else.
Now most of the pastures and fields have returned to forest. The natural beauty of the place is evident to me. I will miss it.
The word 'climate' implies a period of relative stability. We don't have that. The earth and its atmosphere are not in equilibrium. All we shall have in this lifetime is change.
Help! I'm melting!
Thanks to webcomics author Christopher Wright, I spent a good part of the weekend devouring a web serial created by M. C. A. Hogarth. I realize that a story of this kind will not be everybody's cup of tea, but I enjoyed the trip enough to pass along the linkage.
BriarCraft, I just spent a couple of hours searching for a suitable something to post back atcha. What I ended up with is a compromise. This group contains one part Carolina Chocolate Drops and one part Polecat Creek. Not the best recording quality, but I can certify that the venue is local (Greensboro).
I know these guys.
And, yes, I graduated from that high school. :o)
I did that to ya? Ha! Maybe I should call that Ylee's Revenge, for sucking him into a web serial.
Nah. He's a grown man. He can handle his own revenge.
Instead, I'll just say I'm glad. Glad that you liked my post enough to go searching for a "back atcha". Glad that you had a good time on your search (you must have had a good time, else you'd have gotten disgusted and quit). Glad you found that get-together with Rhiannon and Laurelyn (they do sound good together).
----------------------
I was thinking about what you said in #14. You know, there is another alternative to selling the old homestead. You could become a landlord. Yeah, the thought of having to deal with tenants and repairs is not something I would want to do, either. That's why there are Property Managers. Since the place is paid off, even with maintenance of an older home, you should still have a nice supplement to your retirement income after expenses. It being inherited, you've got a stepped-up basis, so for income tax purposes, you would have a nice depreciation deduction to offset some of the taxable income. Between tenants and maybe at other times, you'd still be able to walk the woods and have a picnic. Maybe something for you to think about...
It could be worse, and it probably will be before it gets better. The trough in the jet stream that brought cold and snow to the west coast last week has arrived... almost. North and west of here there is big rain and, behind that, serious chill. So far an Atlantic high pressure cell has managed to hold the worst of the wintry weather at bay.
Another name for that pattern is the Bermuda High. If it persists, it will guarantee a hot, dry summer season, strained electric utilities and bad air. All our rain will go up and over, causing flooding in the mid-Atlantic and a heat island in the Southeast.
Our forecast says that by tomorrow night an impulse riding the edge of the front will break down the ridge and allow the front to clear through. By Friday we should see sunshine again. Until then we can expect more rain and, maybe, a snow flurry before it's over.
There'll be a hard freeze Saturday morning. Bring it on, say I. It's midwinter. If not now, when? The gardenia in our front yard looks great so far this winter, though it is subject to damage from freezing. I would trade a few brown leaves on that plant for enough cold to knock back the bugs.
Briar, I've been keeping an internet eye peeled for a video of Polecat Creek suitable for posting. Wife and I have watched the band perform on a couple of occasions. Unfortunately there's not much in the Google-verse that does the artists justice.
Same for Warren, Bodle and Allen. These guys are not nationally famous, and they probably don't want to be. They have day jobs and families. They show up for fundraisers and free shows. I include them here because they are the most local of local talent. If you integrate their performances over thirty-plus years, they have surely touched a lot of lives — which is a different kind of fame.
I appreciate the accounting advice regarding Mom's place. We'll keep it in mind. Frankly, that option rates way the heck down my list of preferred outcomes. Even if it's only item number two, it's a very distant second.
Here is a program from the Long Now Foundation called "Deviant Globalization". I just watched it (again), and I love this guy. Sorry if it shatters your illusions. That's pretty much what I'm all about here. :o}
That picture was when it was still pretty, before the snow got all tracked up. By now the city snow plows have come and gone. The street is mostly black again.
Woo, the sun is really bright. Looking east makes me all squinty. ;o)
Haven't seen the sun since Sunday, actually, so I'm way out of practice. My vitamin D levels are surely low.
The snow looks good on trees. Since snow fell after rain, it stuck to everything. Got that winter wonderland look going on.
Otherwise not so hot. In the literal sense it's 30°; in the figurative sense, there's only about an inch left on top of the picnic table out back, and that's all pocked and dimpled. The precipitation must have transitioned back to rain and/or winter mix at some point.
I say that a) because of the mottled radar presentation during the night, and b) because I estimated two inches on top of my car when I carried my camera outside midway through the storm. At that time the snow layer was unblemished.
The weather service says three to five inches fell in a streak from Guilford County (Greensboro) to Granville County (north of Raleigh). Depending on how broadly it was drawn, that swath might include my house. Most likely the snow looks better a few miles northwest.
The next major change in the weather comes direct from Canada. Monday night winter stages a comeback. No rain or snow this time, but serious chill is definitely on the menu. The weather service promises 25° for starters on Tuesday with a high temperature barely above freezing. Tuesday night the mercury could drop into the teens. We're talking about -8 C.
Not looking forward to Thurs. night; possible sneaux!
The weather service mentions chances for wintry mix in our Friday forecast right here. That surely puts an end to Wife's travel aspirations. Looks like it will be Monday before the temperature tops 40°.
Probably a good idea.
One uncle drove logging trucks year round in the Okanagan. He said that when the driving wheels would not slow the load all you could do was start back up through the gears again.
Front wheel and all wheel drive vehicles are better in certain situations but they perform the same as a rear wheel drive light pickup in a skid if the brakes are locked.
The paved hill to our driveway can be fairly treacherous in snow or freezing rain. Most neighbours simply park on the lower level in bad conditions and walk in but often they leave their cars very close to the bottom of the hill and not very far off the pavement.
Since I had (I thought at the time) learned to drive in snow I lined up the two wheel rear drive crew cab with the gauntlet of cars and put the hammer down. Almost made the turn. Then the truck started back down the hill as I tried to push the brake peddle through the floor. Uncle's words popped into my head and I popped the transmission into reverse and stepped on the gas somehow missing all the other cars and slowing before we went across the T junction. Like I said: Luck.
As the last light of afternoon fades into night, it appears that we got about a quarter inch of crunchy sleet on the sidewalk. It's not really slick. Wife needn't have worried. Still, I'm glad to have her safe at home rather than facing Friday afternoon traffic on dicey roads in temperatures that remain well below freezing.
NWS forecasters predicted that a "warm nose" would result in transition to freezing rain as this low passed. So far there's no sign of ice anywhere except on the ground. Weather radar indicates precipitation is ending. We may have dodged a bullet.
After that, I did learn one trick -- from the tow-truck driver. Tire chains don't do much good on ice. If it's really slick, he told me, let air out of the tires. Mushy tires grip the ice better and with some treads, even form little suction cups. I did try that a time or two in similar conditions. It does help.
It's always fun watching videos like #38 on the evening news when Seattle's or Portland's hills get icy. Of course, scenes like that are best enjoyed from your living room, and not from your car.
Local TV news showed ditched cars and a tow truck appeared. The driver stopped, set chocks under the wheels and started walking down the slight grade to plan his action. The first thing he had to, however, was to leap aside as his truck slid past chocks and all.
BriarCraft's story reminded me of my first accident.
After an extended hot dry spell this inexperienced driver was hurrying from his work to pick up his mother at her office. An intense downpour washed the dusty windshield clean and a farmer in a pickup ahead was poking along so I swung out to pass. The car kept on swinging no matter what I did with the steering wheel.
The insurance adjuster stated that those conditions: Rain on dusty oily road are equivalent to Glare ice.
I think that's a good tip about letting air out of your tires. Somewhere I read (or watched on television) about guys in Iceland recommending the same thing. I figure Icelanders probably know a thing or two about driving on ice.
The article (or program) didn't say whether the Icelanders were equipped to reinflate their tires when they got back to dry pavement. You need to do that, or tire damage is likely. Of course, if you need to drive on ice, the risk of tire damage can be offset against the risk of damage to the entire vehicle and its contents.
Good morning, ycd. Thanks for halting the slide. It probably wouldn't hurt to let some of the air out of my blog. :o)
My first car accident also included rain-slicked pavement as an extenuating factor. There was a flat tire thrown into the mix to boot. This was a case where letting the air out did not improve traction.
Today the sun is shining. I went out to run an errand at lunchtime, and I was quite comfortable in a t-shirt. I'm hoping to find time for some sorely needed recreation later this afternoon.
This balmy January weather comes at a price. The bill from the piper comes due tomorrow, when the next cold front arrives. Because of the large temperature gradient across the front there will be high winds and a chance for tornadic storms. Behind the front there's more winter chill.
Oh well, enjoy it while it lasts.
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