Friday, January 03, 2003
Hey Everybody!
Here is your chance to vote and be heard. The new design for the California Quarter is being chosen. You know how they are working on making 25-cent pieces now for every state?
You can affect the process! Go to THIS website, and be heard.
As far as I can tell, you do not have to be from California to vote. Heck, I don't think you even have to be american.
Just imagine how pleased you will be to find that your choice ends up being on a quarter.
Let your voice be heard!
posted by Murphy 1/03/2003
Hey, My archives had disappeared!
Thank you for visiting my site anyway. I was looking through the visitors, and I realized a lot of them were going to a really old post.
When I checked, I saw that was the only one of my archives available. Thank you for your patience, and come again.
The rest of the posts are up now.
posted by Murphy 1/03/2003
Tuesday, December 31, 2002
It's cold outside, and my coat smells like a skunk farted on it.
I noticed the smell yesterday. I've been wearing the coat for months. It's a nice warm wool blend coat, grey and tailored to just above my knee. Very cute.
But as I was waiting at the bus stop, I smelled it. The bus came right then, so I was distracted.
The smell came with me on the bus. Now, powerful smells on the bus are not such an extraordinary thing. With all the people riding, you learn to let these things pass.
The smell came with me to work. It was undeniable now.
WHAT was that smell coming from? I was wearing a cute vintage blazer. It's vintage, maybe it smelled.
I sniffed it thoroughly. No, it didn't seem to have a strong odor. The most I could detect was a slight dusty smell.
The smell I smelled had strong sheep tones. It had to be my jacket. I smelled and smelled and resmelled the collar. I couldn't seem to find the source of the powerful stench that surrounded me when I wore it.
The only explanation I could think of, was that it was the kind of smell that faded with deeper sniffing. Like, you could really smell it when you weren't paying close attention, but if you sniffed harder it lost the edge.
I decided that I would sponge the coat down with some ammonia. That would un-stench the coat nicely.
I checked every cupboard in my house. I have furniture polish, copper polish, Tilex, some cleaner a guy sold me door-to-door, PineSol and scrubbing baking soda. But no Ammonia. I swear I had a big yellow gallon of it. II must have thrown it away when I moved.
So now I am wearing the stinky coat again today. It's cold outside! This close proximity has given me more opportunity to search for the source.
Eureka. The left front, starting under the armpit and moving forward. It's not on the right side.
It's unmistakable. I had been limiting my sniffs to the collar area, around my head. I didn't think of the pits.
I suspect the cat may have played a part in this extreme centralization of stink.
Maybe not, though. It smelled much more sheepish than cattish.
Perhaps it was damp in that one area and some kind of sheep-stench bacteria set in.
Well, what's to be done? I'll be celebrating the New Year in a skunk-fart coat.
posted by Murphy 12/31/2002
Sunday, December 29, 2002
The holiday season is almost over, and it’s been wonderful. Presents, decorations, yummy food and all that.
And let us not forget: TIME WITH OUR FAMILY. I love my family so much. My mom and dad, and my brothers are really great people. They are intelligent and exuberant about all kinds of things.
But they still drive me crazy, and in ways that could only work between just us. No one else would be so irritated at that casual remark tossed off about my job, or choice of living arrangement.
I remember that I spent years in my early 20s convinced that my parents were supremely strange and inappropriate. I alone suffered under idiosyncrasies and impossible, illogical standards for behavior.
I’m sure you all can see what’s coming. I began to share my rants with other people, and discovered that this parent difficulty is nearly universal. Everyone is made crazy by their parents.
Some people are more softhearted than I am, and handle it more graciously. God will reward them, I am sure.
But in the meantime, I have a fantasy scenario that will solve the problem.
Let’s all switch! Take one step to the side, and take the parents of someone else.
Since most parents are benign and the irritating things they do only annoy their own children, the substitute children will be unaffected. The arsenal of time-honed barbs will bounce off the hide of the substitute. The oft-repeated jokes will have fresh ears, and become amusing once more. The weekly question about how to work email (yes, the same one) will not have built up into the spluttery incomprehensible answer now doled out on a weekly basis. The new child will simply answer. Perhaps even, from a new mouth, the answer will be retained.
The child-provided needs of the parents will be met much more efficiently and with better good will. I know I would take care of another person’s parents admirably.
As for my own….
posted by Murphy 12/29/2002
