Not a terrible day. Got approval today to buy a new desk chair for my home office, and expense the sucker. Yes! This is the working life I always dreamed of. (Used) Aeron store, here I come.
Seriously, I have the worst office chair in the world, and I can usually last half a day before I have to move to the chaise in my bedroom (Ikea, not appreciably better) or our shameful recliner, or — even better — a stand-up rig at the kitchen table I do from time to time. Of course, I should be shoe-leathering it on the streets, but you have to write the damn stories sometime.
That was good thing No. 1. I also had time at the end of the day to take Wendy to our dog park, the Nancy’s Office Chair of Pointe dog parks. It seems every household here has a dog, but when it comes to welcoming them to the places you expect to take a dog — city parks — they all have NO DOGS ALLOWED signs posted. In order to take Wendy to our remotely located designated dog park, I had to first get her licensed, then present proof of at least $100,000 household liability insurance and pay $20 for a separate, bar-coded pass to the main park. It is four miles away. So to let her run, I first have to drive her there.
Needless to say, it’s not a very popular place:
Where are my friends?
She sorely needed some romping today, though. She got it, playing the Crabapple Game for the better part of an hour. By herself. Even the lame Labrador, the only other dog who’s ever been there when we were there, didn’t show today.
It’s a dog’s life.
So, any bloggage? A little:
The case for punishing parents — via charges or lawsuits — who refuse to vaccinate their children.
Why do peahens dig peacocks? Now we have an idea.
Watch the video, and tell me if “Jesus Christ” is an appropriate reaction.
And I’m thinking I’m going to catch up on “The Newsroom,” so over and out.
Dexter said on August 14, 2013 at 2:19 am
https://www.rovercomeoverdoggydaycare.com/
The link takes you to the place we boarded our dogs when we went down to the Redneck Riviera (Florida Panhandle) a few weeks ago. ‘Spensive but they kept our pooches safe and ever’thang.
A lady moved back here from California a few years ago full of plans to build a dog park , working with the city. Of course they delayed every aspect of the project and everybody quit on it…damn, they couldn’t even decide on a site! Oh well. I really would love a dog park because my Labbie is a runner, an escape artist, and I wish there was an area I could let her run free. đ
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ROGirl said on August 14, 2013 at 6:27 am
Was Larry David behind that bar mitzvah production? He should have been.
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ROGirl said on August 14, 2013 at 6:39 am
Or Mel Brooks, when he was at his funniest.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 14, 2013 at 7:02 am
I’m not sure “Jesus Christ” is ever the appropriate reaction to a bar mitzvah, no matter how non-kosher. Maybe “Rabbi Freakin’ Akiva!” would do.
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Joe K said on August 14, 2013 at 8:02 am
Oy vay,
Pilot Joe
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Julie Robinson said on August 14, 2013 at 8:21 am
Putting aside for the moment the whole issue of wildly expensive bar mitzvah parties, which is a whole ‘nother discussion*, Sam looks ready to join his natural habitat, the world of theatre. In their own over-the-top way, Mom & Dad are being supportive parents who help their son explore his interests. What’s the difference between that and the crazy sports parents who travel every weekend for yet another middle school tournament, all in the misguided belief it will lead to college scholarships? And how long has it been since you saw such bliss on a kid’s face? The default expression I observe these days is ennui.
*For their Confirmation, our kids got casseroles and cake with family at the house. Which seemed sufficient, since it wasn’t any different from their friends.
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Julie Robinson said on August 14, 2013 at 8:22 am
And I bet Sam got all his vaccinations.
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nancy said on August 14, 2013 at 8:25 am
While you never want to make judgments about children, I got a snerk out of this comment on the Gawker thread: First I hoped this might work out like that scene in All That Jazz, where the young song-and-danceman Fosse is teased by his friends that burlesque strippers just before going on stage, leaving a glossy white stain at his crotch. Then I realized any 13-year-old who moves and dances like Sam don’t have no interest in the chorus girls.
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brian stouder said on August 14, 2013 at 9:16 am
One of the larger impressions that San Diego made upon me is, it’s a very dog-friendly place. Even in the heart of downtown, you’d see lots of folks walking their dogs (and indeed, the plural applies in both senses; two or three dogs leashed to one person was fairly common).
one “stand your ground” law I could support would be – if I’m walking my (leashed) dog, and you encroach upon me, the dog is free to do whatever
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4dbirds said on August 14, 2013 at 9:46 am
Move to Northern Virginia. We have lovely dog parks and we could have coffee every now and again.
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Dorothy said on August 14, 2013 at 9:55 am
We have two dog parks within 4 miles of each other in this little town. We don’t use them anymore since we moved to our home and have 3 acres for our dogs to run around. But they sure are popular. I’m glad Wendy gets to run freely.
I love my Ikea chair in my sewing room. I am up and down on it when I’m sewing so it’s not the kind of chair you need to be uber comfortable on. But when my butt IS in the chair, it’s a happy butt.
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brian stouder said on August 14, 2013 at 10:19 am
I think Dorothy has the post of the day, no ‘if’s, ‘and’s, or (happy!) ‘but’s about it…
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Deborah said on August 14, 2013 at 10:22 am
I’ve had an Aeron chair for over a decade, it’s in our place in Chicago, my husband uses it now as the place is his architectural studio. There are models and piles of construction drawings everywhere. Hopefully he will be moving his office to another location soon. Sometimes I wish I had an Aeron chair in Santa Fe too, but I spend a lot more time outside when I’m here.
Nancy, you haven’t mentioned your eye for awhile. Is it back to normal?
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Julie Robinson said on August 14, 2013 at 10:34 am
At my last job they made a big deal of ordering everyone Aeron chairs, and I tried two of them in different sizes, but they made my legs hurt. Of course I couldn’t just go to a store and pick out a chair that was comfortable for me, because Aeron chairs are the BEST! Hmmpff.
My experience with chairs at IKEA is that you get what you pay for. The cheap ones haven’t been comfortable for long periods and also haven’t lasted long. The pricier ones have been great.
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Charlotte said on August 14, 2013 at 10:39 am
One of my many jobs in the party business when I was in college (family connections) was building those huge light-up letters for Bar/Bat Mitzvahs — spray glued and diamond dusted within an inch of their lives. Took me weeks after that job ended to recover from the solvents. And I too was prepared to be snarky about Sam — but look at that kid! He’s so happy — I’m with Julie. Go parents.
Okay journalist types — what do you think about the big NY Times magazine story this weekend? http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/magazine/laura-poitras-snowden.html?ref=magazine
While I thought it was a good and terrifying read — I have to say, I’m a little disturbed by the trend of turning the reporting of the story into the story, rather than the content of the issue (not just here, was my bitch with Chasing Ice, and everything Werner Herzog has done in the past 10 years).
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nancy said on August 14, 2013 at 10:54 am
My eye is healed, I guess, thanks for asking. The air bubble is gone and I assume it’s OK, although I haven’t had my final check with my ophthalmologist, which may be my last. All in all, I would call this whole procedure a wash. I no longer have a hole in my central vision, but I do have a slight distortion — not as bad as the hole, but not perfect. However, my overall vision in that eye is markedly worse, and I’m told the cataract is already in progress. I was prepared for this whole procedure with a pamphlet and a hurried appointment with the retinal specialist. (They’re all hurried, because this guy’s typical day at the office is 50-60 patients. I know because the receptionist heaves heavy sighs when I check out and tell her I need another appointment in four weeks. Sometimes she reveals the exact number of other people he’ll be seeing that day. Last time it was 56.)
All of which is to say, if I had it to do over again, I’d ask a lot of different questions and might put it off entirely. I feel like I traded one vision defect for another, at considerable expense. However, I learned a great deal about the American medical system c. 2013, and that’s worth something. This is the first time, excluding my childbirth, that I’ve been a patient in any serious way; I’ve always enjoyed good health, and my experiences with doctors have generally been preventative, diagnostic and no-biggie. I will be a different patient in the future, I can assure you that.
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brian stouder said on August 14, 2013 at 11:08 am
Nancy raises a very interesting point, with regard to patient load. The local right-wing lip flapper, who I catch a few minutes of after 5 pm on the way home, has gone back to attacking Obamacare every single day. One of his newer lines is âYou donât want all these newly insured patients crowding your doctorâs office, do you?â. Iâll give him ½ a point for his brutal honestyâŚhe seems to believe in the rightwing version of the âdeath panelâ â which is to say âgo to hellâ right up front, and lock people out of the doctorâs office altogether
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Kim said on August 14, 2013 at 11:12 am
We have Pawster Park over in a remote area of Foster Park. It is a 1/2 acre or so of fenced in grass. No trees- no anything that dogs like to sniff and investigate. There is a bridge they can go over. I’m assuming that is the agility course. There are some do-gooders who pick up after the dogs whose owners can’t be bothered. The part that gets me is the owners who DO pick up after Rover leave the nicely bagged shit hanging on the fence rather than put it in the trash can provided.
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MichaelG said on August 14, 2013 at 11:16 am
For sure those parents who donât vaccinate their children to the later detriment of another personâs child should be held accountable.
So, Nance, now youâre getting a cataract on your affected eye? And you will have to have cataract surgery in a year or two? Why didnât they just eliminate the middleman, pass on the procedure you just underwent and go straight to a lens replacement which is what cataract surgery is? Would that have solved the problem?
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nancy said on August 14, 2013 at 11:20 am
As it was explained to me, the cataract was a “possible” side effect of the surgery, which would likely arrive years later. The doctor spotted it at my two-month checkup. When I WTF’d, he said, “Well, everyone is different.”
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Beverly said on August 14, 2013 at 11:27 am
Celebrating “becoming a man” with an in-your-face sexually charged performance is kind of disgusting — especially when you consider the “man’s” age.
The kid is adorable and his joy is contagious. Had he performed, with a group of friends (same age or close), a professionally choreographed, costumed and staged extravaganza, the performance might still have become an internet meme, though without the ick factor.
I’m guessing his parents handed over their debit/credit card, turned their backs, covered their ears and shut their eyes during preparations. The only other explanation is that overwhelming (overindulgent?) love for their son momentarily rendered them insane. No doubt their sanity returned shortly following the celebration.
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adrianne said on August 14, 2013 at 11:28 am
Poor Wendy, she looks so lonely!
Thanks for the link to the Slate article on non-vaxxers. As you know from previous comments, these folks drive me crazy and their unvaxxed kids pose a serious public health threat. Maybe a few lawsuits for wrongful death will cool their jets.
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Heather said on August 14, 2013 at 11:52 am
Ugh, Nancy, I’m sorry to hear about your eye issues. I went to a new doctor last month (new vision insurance) and she was much more thorough than the previous eye doctor at Sears. Which means that she discovered issues (veins growing into my corneas, etc) that meant I need different contacts that cost twice as much as the old ones. And she asked me about a history of heart disease/stroke/high blood pressure in my family after looking at the veins in my eyes. I’m going back next week to have my pupils dilated and I’m a little scared about what else she’ll find.
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Judybusy said on August 14, 2013 at 11:52 am
That is the saddest dog picture ever. We have many dog parks in our metro area, including one that is acres and acres of woods along the Mississippi. There is a waterfall and meandering trails studded with wildflowers in the spring. You have to have your dog licensed (and to get that, prove you have vaccines!) and then an additional $35 off-leash license for the year.Best entertainment value in the cities. I’ve also made some great friends at the DP, and know of one couple who met there and later married.
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brian stouder said on August 14, 2013 at 11:54 am
Speaking of cooling jets – this headline drew me:
Appeals Court: Obama Violating Law on Nuke Site
And here’s the lead:
WASHINGTON (AP) â In a rebuke to the Obama administration, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been violating federal law by delaying a decision on a proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada.
This rang some bells, and as I continued, there were a few more flashing lights in the article, such as:
In a sharply worded opinion, the court said the nuclear agency was “simply flouting the law” when it allowed the Obama administration to continue plans to close the proposed waste site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The action goes against a federal law designating Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear waste repository.
and
“It is no overstatement to say that our constitutional system of separation of powers would be significantly altered if we were to allow executive and independent agencies to disregard federal law in the manner asserted in this case by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” Kavanaugh wrote. “The commission is simply defying a law enacted by Congress … without any legal basis.”
But of course, there was another detail – one that was finally reported in the 17th paragraph of the story, wherein the chief judge of the three judge panel gets a quote:
Garland, the chief judge on the appeals court, said in a dissent that Congress has already spoken on Yucca Mountain by rejecting funding for it. The court’s decision in the case “will indeed direct the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do a useless thing,” Garland wrote.
http://www.chem.info/news/2013/08/appeals-court-obama-violating-law-nuke-site?et_cid=3422924&et_rid=44004269&location=top#.Ugujq5LVBic
Same shit, different day
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Jeff Borden said on August 14, 2013 at 12:06 pm
Chicago has a number of small dog parks that are double-fenced, but Cosmo doesn’t like them. They’re all gravel and asphalt. The best pooch place is the lakefront. There are at least two dog beaches within two miles of home, where any canine can frolic on the sand, or dive into Lake Michigan for a nice, cooling swim. Cosmo swims like Michael Phelps.
We break the law pretty much every night at the neighborhood park, where many of us gather between 4 and 6 p.m. and let our dogs off leash, despite signs warning of a $500 fine. I realized recently that my “third place” is the dog group. I’ve made many new friends while watching my dog racing back and forth and have come to look forward to that 90 minutes or so of hanging with them. We’ve even begun convening on late Sunday afternoon with small coolers of beer and wine and snacks. Bliss.
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Jeff Borden said on August 14, 2013 at 12:06 pm
Chicago has a number of small dog parks that are double-fenced, but Cosmo doesn’t like them. They’re all gravel and asphalt. The best pooch place is the lakefront. There are at least two dog beaches within two miles of home, where any canine can frolic on the sand, or dive into Lake Michigan for a nice, cooling swim. Cosmo swims like Michael Phelps.
We break the law pretty much every night at the neighborhood park, where many of us gather between 4 and 6 p.m. and let our dogs off leash, despite signs warning of a $500 fine. I realized recently that my “third place” is the dog group. I’ve made many new friends while watching my dog racing back and forth and have come to look forward to that 90 minutes or so of hanging with them. We’ve even begun convening on late Sunday afternoon with small coolers of beer and wine and snacks. Bliss.
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alex said on August 14, 2013 at 12:20 pm
Brian at 17–
So that’s where that absurd meme comes from. I’ve been hearing people repeating it quite authoritatively, and it’s kind of a letdown to find out they’re either a) stupid or b) a member of that audience or c) both, which goes without saying.
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LAMary said on August 14, 2013 at 12:39 pm
Happy expression aside, that bar mitzvah video bugs me. The money spent, the full grown women doing sexy moves. Ick.
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coozledad said on August 14, 2013 at 12:55 pm
LA Mary: It’s the vulgarity. That’s more stage setup than Yes had on the Tormato tour. And that was vulgar, too.
I wonder if they had glace luxury ice cubes in the drinks at the party?
It’s the dinner with Trilmachio. Nouveau riche and their natural tendency to trashiness.
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LAMary said on August 14, 2013 at 1:18 pm
The answer to Wendy being lonely at the dog park is: get another dog. She needs a friend.
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Jolene said on August 14, 2013 at 1:47 pm
I watched the bar mitzvah video several hours ago and am still stunned. The comments associated w/ the video indicate that the parents are very rich (surprise, surprise), and it is, after all, Texas.
They’re hardly alone, though. Kid events of all kinds have gotten more elaborate over time. When I graduated from high school, my mother served coffee, cake, and sandwiches to a gathering of my grandparents, aunts and uncles, and assorted cousins.
Now, in the same small community, people hold open houses after the graduation ceremony with tons of food, photo displays of the graduate at various stages of his or her young life, and a table of athletic trophies or whatever other accomplishments the graduate has to show off. I have to admit that I really enjoyed the events held for my niece and nephew–great picnic food and a chance for short visits with people I rarely see–but any kid whose parents didn’t put on one of these shindigs would certainly feel deprived.
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Scout said on August 14, 2013 at 2:08 pm
That was an “awwwww” kind of picture of Wendy, and I was feeling bad for her until I remembered that she was a shelter dog who now has the ideal fur-ever family. Still a win!
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brian stouder said on August 14, 2013 at 2:30 pm
Here’s the article of the day; the headline grabbed me, the lead made me laugh, and then…
here’s the headline:
Powerball winner: ‘I might just disappear into the woods’
and the lead:
With his outspoken manner and long, shaggy hair and beard, Will Seeley resembles a reality-TV star. But donât expect this new millionaire to show up on cable television â or remain in the spotlight any longer than necessary. âWeâve only been like this for a couple of days. I donât know if I want to go through this for the rest of my life,â he told TODAYâs Matt Lauer on Wednesday about all the recent attention showered on him. âI would rather be in my cabin up in the woods.â
but then there’s this photo caption:
Video: Will and Donna Seeley are two of the 16 members of an office pool who hit one of the biggest jackpots of all time. Will says his father now has ânothing to worry aboutâ in terms of paying for his cancer treatments.
http://www.today.com/news/powerball-winner-i-might-just-disappear-woods-6C10916516
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Prospero said on August 14, 2013 at 2:45 pm
No dogs allowed. Surely, this is what you meant.
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Julie Robinson said on August 14, 2013 at 3:29 pm
Heather, I hope your new doc doesn’t find anything else, but it sounds like you’re in good hands. I have three different weird eye conditions and it’s reassuring to have that annual checkup with a competent doc. Thankfully all have been stable for the last few years after a time when I needed new glasses about every eight months. When I’m tempted to gripe about the cost I remember how fortunate I am to have such good care available. Besides, getting your eyes dilated equals a sanctioned daytime nap. Can’t focus on anything, so you might as well snooze.
We didn’t do anything fancy for food when our kids graduated, but we did pull out some photos and programs of plays and concerts they’d been in. They made for a lot of great conversation starters and remembrances.
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Basset said on August 14, 2013 at 3:53 pm
Cooz @30, wasn’t the Tormato tour the one with the rotating stage? Saw them in Kalamazoo with that setup.
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brian stouder said on August 14, 2013 at 3:57 pm
Our fine young son is a senior this year, and Pam learned (some time ago) that if you want a pavilion from the Fort Wayne Parks Department, you can reserve one a year in advanceâŚand no more than that.
So â being a Type-A person, she stayed on it, and as soon as she could, reserved a pavilion at Foster Park (I think the smaller one, before you go around the corner onto Old Mill Road*)âŚand we will no doubt do the photos and trinkets, just as Julie described, and all yâall will of course have the standing invitation to stop through and grab a pulled-pork sandwich (or whatever)
*being a type b person myself, I actually have no idea where the event is slated to be held. But on the appointed day, I will be there, icy-cold Diet Pepsi in hand
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Deborah said on August 14, 2013 at 4:04 pm
The bar mitzvah extravaganza reminds me of a story in George Saunders latest, “The Tenth of December”, the story is called “The Semplica Girl Diaries”. A dad goes to great lengths to throw a party for his daughter that attempts to match one the girl attended by one of her peers. It made me think about those women dancers in the video, what must their lives be like?
Here’s a link to a New Yorker interview with Saunders that kind of explains it:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/10/this-week-in-fiction-george-saunders.html
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adrianne said on August 14, 2013 at 4:52 pm
Brian, where is your oldest heading after graduation?
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Prospero said on August 14, 2013 at 4:56 pm
Way back in the day, my ex and I attended a Bar Mitzvah which hac little lamb chops for HORS DâOEUVRES and break dancers for entertainment. whooeeee, a good time was had by all. Rich Newton lawyer for dad, Ed Shultz that does the dangerous toy list every Christmas. The party went until morning and breakfast was served, with fresh copies of the NYT. We went to several in the course of about a month, and it was all competition, all the time. Great parties, though. Baruch adanoi.
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brian stouder said on August 14, 2013 at 5:01 pm
Well, he gets free room and board if we go for IPFW.
He seems to be a reader, and is good at math (despite hating it). He expressed some interest in law, but that sounds to me like a sure road to under-employment.
I think the key is to continue in school, challenge yourself, learn how to think, and (with regard to what comes next) cross your fingers.
Shelby, our 15 year old freshman, really got a huge kick out of a day-long class trip to Eli Lilly last year, and she loves chemistry….so we’ll see how things progress for her at Wayne New Tech
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Rana said on August 14, 2013 at 5:04 pm
I have become absolutely dogmatic on the vaccination issue after having nursed DanB through a bout of whooping cough several years ago. Nasty, scary disease – and that was in an adult who’d been immunized as a child (we’ve since both had additional boosters). The thought of an infant too young to immunize contracting it is horrifying.
Since the anti-vaxxers seem to be complacent at least in part because they’ve never actually seen what these diseases do to people* I’m perfectly fine with substituting some other form of penalty for their carelessness and selfishness if it causes damage to some other family’s children. Maybe the reality of a fine, a lawsuit, or jail time will get through their thick skulls in a way that descriptions of the diseases they’re so blasĂŠ about don’t seem to.
*I’ve noticed this attitude about a lot of other issues too – it’s almost as if the previous few generations did too good a job ameliorating various social ills – too many of the current population have clearly reached a point of taking things like a healthy population, good roads, public libraries, decent schools, etc. for granted, and resent having to pay now for their upkeep and maintenance. It’s like people who’ve never known a famine eating up their seed corn and whining about how difficult and time-consuming farming is.
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alex said on August 14, 2013 at 5:42 pm
Looks like Esquire’s been had. These days how can any journalist be so lazy when so much information is readily available at your fingertips?
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coozledad said on August 14, 2013 at 5:50 pm
Basset: Yup. Jon Anderson in green pajamas with a miniature harp. I was in an accident on the way there and was still picking automotive glass out of my scalp during the show.
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Bob (not Greene) said on August 14, 2013 at 7:09 pm
Cooze and Basset, I also saw Yes on that tour at the now-demolished International Amphitheater in Chicago. I don’t remember the green pajamas and harp, but I do remember the rotating stage and the fact that Rick Wakeman was back with them at the time (it was 1979 or 1980 or so, no?). The guy I went with was laughing the whole show because he dropped some acid at the show and later was paranoid at the pizza place we went to afterward. Not long after that I pretty much stopped listening to Yes, replaced by the blues, ska, punk rock and rockabilly. Haven’t missed them much.
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coozledad said on August 14, 2013 at 8:40 pm
Bob(not Greene): The thing that was unusual about the harp was while it was the size of a small Celtic harp, it was chromatic, with miniature pedals. He only picked it up for a song or two, but Yes songs being what they were, twenty minutes was a long time for him to shoulder that burden.
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basset said on August 14, 2013 at 9:57 pm
Bob (not Greene), looks like it was September 23 or 24, 1978:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Yes_concert_tours#Tormato_Tour
and in Kalamazoo on April 9, 1979. Thought I had some photos of that show here but they must be in the storage locker, can’t find ’em. Wakeman mentions in one of his autobiographies how they had to walk through a kind of portable tunnel to find the stage, the crew finally got sick of having to deal with it and ran them straight into a blank wall one night a la Spinal Tap.
Tormato was the last Yes album I had any interest in, aside from the various reunions, live shows, and repackaging of old stuff, but I have Topographic Oceans and more on my phone right now… listened to Starship Trooper from Yessongs on the way in to work this morning, that big 3-chord repeat end section. Cooz, the chord for that is a C shape with your pinky adding a high G, play it from the 9th fret, then 4th, then 1st. Any idea what those are actually called?
Saw them in Indianapolis, Louisville, and Cincinnati in the Topographic Oceans and Relayer days, then in Kalamazoo on the Tormato tour and just a few years ago in Nashville with Benoit David singing and Oliver Wakeman on keys… pretty much their own copy band on that last one, I suppose it’s a paycheck though.
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