The Next Dark Age
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Winter Work
Weekend Assignment # 352: Winter Work
Now that the new year has begun, most of us are back at work, with only a few holidays to look forward to over the next several months. Most of us in the Northern Hemisphere wake now to cold, dark mornings, and may see little or no daylight on our morning and evening commutes. What is this time of year like for you? Are you more productive in the bleak midwinter, less so, or neither? What is the weather like where you are, and do you enjoy it?
Extra Credit: Are you still working on unfinished business from last year?
I live outside of Chicago and I have, historically, had a problem with mid-to-late winter. In school, third quarter always netted my worst grades of the year. I get cabin fever pretty easily and February always feels like the longest month of the year.
I used to have some winter milestones – Christmas being the first. Then in early January, I have Big Work Meeting. A couple of weeks later is the Super Bowl. Then there is nothing to look forward to until Spring, which I marked by a certain conference in April. I don’t attend it any more, so I will need a new “OK, We are Done Now” marker.
Last year, for the first time, I took a real Winter Vacation. I will be doing it again next month and hopefully, that will get me through to the Spring.
Like many people, a lot of my work is cyclical. By the calendar. So there aren’t many things i categorize as “unfinished” for the New Year. I am sure I have some, though.
The Witches of Eastwick, by John Updike
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0449912108&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrBook One
When John Updike published the sequel, I was reminded that I’ve been meaning to read The Witches of Eastwick for years. Loved the movie, though it has been years since I’ve seen it. Like Updike. I had heard the novel was really different, but had not heard a consensus of opinion on whether “different” meant “better”.
And I still couldn’t tell you. It really is different.
The film version, as I remember it, had these three women with some exceptional talents have something absolutely magical happen. Which leads to a few more magical things. The magical things go very, scary bad and how do our heroines fix it?
In the novel, our heroines are not really heroines. They are not even particularly likable. And they are true witches – actively practicing magic for their convenience or their spite.
What the novel has is a really interesting portrayal of witchcraft. Part of it was explained so quickly, I almost missed it – that any woman that had left or been left by her man had this power. Whether she developed it was up for debate.
Also interesting was the rather careless way the magic is tossed about until toward the end when a clear line is crossed. The last section is even titled “Guilt”. That feeling gave the book a bit more heart than the film. But the film was more fun. So take your pick.
OMG with the Peach Cobbler
Last night, I just ate in the hotel restaurant. Fabulous shrimp and corn chowder. Lame grilled cheese. Good peach cobbler. For lunch today, all of my colleagues wanted Chick-Fil-A. I don’t get it, but they do have Diet Dr. Pepper from the fountain.
Tonight, I was with a group at Mary Macs Tea Room. All Southern cooking served family style. The peanut butter pie blew Baker’s Square so far out of the water I don’t even want to talk about it. And again with the peach cobbler.
I tried to take a picture outside, but the neon sign turned out terribly so I am not putting it up here.
I wondered if I could keep this up all week – try the peach cobbler in a different restaurant every night. But I am pretty sure the reservations are for Italian tomorrow.
I shan’t push my luck.
For the 1,000th Post on This Stupid Blog
I have absolutely nothing to say. I know some people that do an “Ask me any question and I will answer it” when they get to such milestones. But my mother reads this thing.
Another January, another annual meeting.
I felt very busy while I was on vacation, and now that I am back on the road I am thinking of all these things that I didn’t get done:
- Allergy shot
- Take car for oil change
- Pack up CDs for storage (I am nearly all-digital!)
- Eyebrow wax (Sorry. Different mirrors in different lighting make these things more important.)
- Leave instructions for the Care & Feeding of my pets
- Take magazines to Library
I Don’t Mean to Get Political on You
But MSN had an interesting article:
“The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that police can search the cell phone of a person who’s been arrested — including text messages — without obtaining a warrant, and use that data as evidence.”
Apparently, the Court thinks that because the phone is an item of property on the person at the time of an arrest, the phone’s data history is fair game to search without a warrant. A former Justice Department employee was interviewed about it:
“In fact, I would be shocked if police weren’t getting instructions right now to do just that,” he said.
By applying the “personal property on the defendant’s person” standard, Rasch said, the ruling could logically extend to tablets or even laptop computers, he said.”
Blogging Communities
I like Blogging Communities, because that’s where you find..you know..people that like the same stuff that you do. Since Thirty Something Bloggers seems to have gone inactive and Chicago Bloggers seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth, I started looking around. I have an account with Blogher, but that community is a bit..intimidating.
Miss Busy pointed me to Book Bloggers. I can’t really call myself a “Book Blogger”, since I write about lots of other goofy stuff. But several of the people on Booking Through Thursday participate, so I signed up. Badge to the right.
Sigmund and Cobalt
I don’t remember if I mentioned that in addition to Sigmund, I brought home Cobalt, a darling lovebird from the Refuge, to foster for the holidays. Boarding pet birds is a major source of revenue for the Refuge, and it gets very crowded. At my house, Cobalt was sure to have more time outside of the cage and it is one less bird for the volunteers to care for when we are already really busy.
Cobalt spent four or five weeks at my house. She is extremely flighted and really fearless. She flew from room to room and perch to perch to see what all the other birds and people were doing. It made Kiwi crazy. Sigmund got used to her:
Excuse the terrible camera-phone picture. Cobalt was foraging in Sigmund’s dish. He put up with her on the perch. He did not put up with her landing on his cage. She does not like to be handled, and did not step up for me once, but after a few weeks, she understood when it was bedtime and I didn’t have to chase her around too much to get her to fly back to her cage all by herself.
I am returning Cobalt to the Refuge tomorrow, as I leave for Atlanta on Wednesday. I am sad to see her go and hopeful that she will find a “forever home” soon. Cobalt is up for adoption and you can find her profile here.
Note: I just realized that the profile refers to Cobalt as “him”. So I could be wrong about the gender. Charming bird, either way.
Year End Whatever
I waited too long to do a proper reflection on 2010. My head is already back at work. I have two days in the office before I leave for our Annual Meeting. After that I have four weeks in the office before my official Winter Vacation, which has been booked since August.
There is a lot that I want to accomplish this year. I have goals up to my ears at work. Here is some of the rest:
- At the Refuge, we have all agreed that we need to start organized fundraising efforts. I spent a few hours researching grants that might be available. Of course, I’ll have to learn how to write them.
- At the Library, we have talked a lot about how to keep all of the volunteers better informed. It is really hard to keep everyone on the same page when we are all working one-at-a-time. I owe our director an e-mail on the instructions regarding onsite sales of Amazon listed books.
- I mentioned that I am beginning to contribute blankets to Project Linus. I am not sure how active I can be in the local chapter, but I think I am halfway through my second contribution.
- I was disappointed that I only made it to 50 Books read in 2010. However, it seems to be a reachable goal, so I’d better stick with it. I will commit to reading every book that my Book Club selects, even if I am not able to attend the meetings.
- I am not going to commit to visiting any place new in 2011. The winter vacation is a repeat, and unless I have a much better idea, I think I want to go back to New Orleans this year.
Holiday Reading Challenge Wrap Up
It seems I forgot to do a wrap up for my Holiday Reading Challenge. The five books I read were all in my TBR; I did not make any special purchases. The only re-reads were in the short story collections. The conclusion that I came to from this small sample is that in a holiday mystery, the holiday generally has very little to do with the story. The links are to my thoughts upon completion of the books.
- A Christmas Memory, et al, by Truman Capote
- Hercule Poirot’s Christmas: A Holiday Mystery, by Agatha Christie
- Benjamin Franklin and a Case of Christmas Murder, by Robert Lee Hall
- A Different Kind of Christmas, by Alex Haley
- Christmas Classics from The Modern Library
The Next Dark Age 