What a wonderful weekend.

In addition to all the tsuris of the last week, I’m starting to have the sort of computer problems that are nothing but dire portents — sudden freezing, crashes, you know the drill. If I were a conscientious person, I’d have spent a chunk of Sunday at the Apple store. But you know what I did instead?

I went to the pool. First I did yoga, then rode my bike to the pool. I swam no laps, but practiced my back float and lazy sidestroke. I was haphazard with my sunblock, so I have some rosy spots here and there. Then I came home and Alan fixed me a Moscow mule. It was delicious and precisely what I needed. The last 10 days have been all work. I needed a little play, and I got some.

And now I have a new car, the Grosse Pointe mommiest car possible — a 2006 Volvo XC70 wagon. Five cylinders, meh gas mileage, but safe and all-wheel-drive, which after last winter feels like pulling into a safe harbor. It’ll hold all the DVAS plus most of their gear. It’ll hold a bike or two. It’ll hold a lot of stuff. That’s sort of what Volvo wagons are known for — their holding capabilities. That, and their safety features. This thing has everything but an iPod jack, but I’m going to call around on that today and see what the damage is to have one installed after-market. I’m sure, in 2006, the Swedes thought this iPod thing was just a fad and there was no need to alter their world-famous design to accommodate such a silly gewgaw.

And on top of everything else, we had comp’ny Friday night, although it was J.C. and Sammy, who are always welcome. We took them out to meet some of our Detroit friends, and a good time was had by all. At least I think so. How bad can an evening be when everyone unites in shared hatred of the waitress? She treated us like we had ebola. Of course I tipped her 20 percent.

Fortunately, I have some great bloggage.

If you asked me if I would like to read a mid-length essay about a man’s love for his cat, I’d have said, “Why, no, but thanks for asking.” Which is why I’m glad I overcame my snap judgment to read “A Man and His Cat” on the cover of the NYT Sunday op-ed section. It’s a stitch:

I’ve speculated that people have a certain reservoir of affection that they need to express, and in the absence of any more appropriate object — a child or a lover, a parent or a friend — they will lavish that same devotion on a pug or a Manx or a cockatiel, even on something neurologically incapable of reciprocating that emotion, like a monitor lizard or a day trader or an aloe plant. Konrad Lorenz confirms this suspicion in his book “On Aggression,” in which he describes how, in the absence of the appropriate triggering stimulus for an instinct, the threshold of stimulus for that instinct is gradually lowered; for instance, a male dove deprived of female doves will attempt to initiate mating with a stuffed pigeon, a rolled-up cloth or any vaguely bird-shaped object, and, eventually, with an empty corner of its cage.

Although I can clearly see this syndrome as pathological in others, I was its medical textbook illustration, the Elephant Man of the condition. I did not post photographs of my cat online or talk about her to people who couldn’t be expected to care, but at home, alone with the cat, I behaved like some sort of deranged arch-fop. I made up dozens of nonsensical names for the cat over the years — The Quetzal, Quetzal Marie, Mrs. Quetzal Marie the Cat, The Inquetzulous Q’ang Marie. There was a litany I recited aloud to her every morning, a sort of daily exhortation that began, “Who knows, Miss Cat, what fantastical adventures the two of us will have today?” I had a song I sang to her when I was about to vacuum, a brassy Vegas showstopper called “That Thing You Hate (Is Happening Again).” We collaborated on my foot-pedal pump organ to produce The Hideous Cat Music, in which she walked back and forth at her discretion on the keyboard while I worked the pedals. The Hideous Cat Music resembled the work of the Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti, with aleatory passages and unnervingly sustained tone clusters.

I’ve never had a cat, but all of my dogs have had approximately 7,000 diminutives. You all know Wendy, aka Wendall, Wemberley, etc. Enjoy.

Coozledad sent this thing, a sketch of life aboard the custom jet used by Led Zeppelin, Elton John, the Rolling Stones and others during their ’70s super tours. Take a look at that fake-fur spread on the queen-size waterbed and imagine what it would have looked like under a UV light. Ew.

Finally, another NYT link, for which I apologize, but it was a good Sunday paper for August: Missouri is considering adding right-to-farm to its state constitution. What a…terrible idea. Those of you who don’t live in an agricultural state cannot know how wealthy and powerful these farm-advocacy groups can be, all the while poor-mouthing about the Plight of the Farmer. And why is this happening?

…(A) coalition of state farming groups and major agriculture corporations have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take aim at the Humane Society, which led a successful fight in 2010 to regulate inhumane dog-breeding practices in Missouri.

Backers of the amendment are wary of laws that have passed in other states, like California, where voters in 2008 approved roomier living conditions for hens, and Oregon, where a rural county’s ban on genetically modified crops was overwhelmingly passed in May.

…Opponents have protested that the amendment would be a boon for large industrial farms that would like to avoid potential laws controlling their treatment of animals or the environment, allowing them to pollute the land, extend the use of genetically modified crops and freely experiment with the use of antibiotics in livestock, a trend that has concerned scientists.

As someone who lives in an urban area a lot of people are hot to farm (and are farming), I can tell you these laws are all written to favor rural landowners and their interests. If I lived in my native state (St. Louis born!), I’d be voting no.

Seriously. You know why half a million people in Toledo are without water today, why it can’t even be boiled to safety? Algae blooms caused by agricultural runoff. Imagine these folks with a constitution backing them up.

But I vote yes on this upcoming week, and hope yours is wonderful. I sure hope mine is.

Posted at 12:31 am in Current events, Same ol' same ol' |
 

53 responses to “What a wonderful weekend.”

  1. Deborah said on August 4, 2014 at 4:24 am

    Looking at the link with the rock stars in the jet, I still maintain as I said a few days ago that Jimmy Page looks so much better now in his old age. Just check him out on Google images and compare, I plugged in “Jimmy Page, older”.
    .

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  2. Deborah said on August 4, 2014 at 4:43 am

    Loved the “A Man and His Cat”, link. I do so many of those things with my nearly 17 year old cat. Too embarrassing to mention the names I call her. Right now she’s sitting on my chest as I type this in bed on my iPhone. I will miss the feeling of her body on mine when she’s gone.

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  3. ROGirl said on August 4, 2014 at 7:04 am

    My kitty names: Pooper Cat (when I’m cleaning out the litter box), Monkey Butt (when walking away), Pill Cat (when attention must be paid, no matter what), Schtinkerpoo (I like the way it sounds), Baby Cat (when curled up and purring sweetly). Pablo is the name I give the vet, but it’s like one of those pedigreed show dog names that no one uses.

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  4. coozledad said on August 4, 2014 at 7:39 am

    There was two full-time stewardesses aboard the Starship. Susie, a pretty eighteen-year old blonde, and Bianca, a fun-loving brunette twenty-two year old.

    I hear this in Bob Hoskins’ voice.

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  5. beb said on August 4, 2014 at 7:58 am

    Last threat DavidC asked: “ice-downed samples”?

    I didn’t find a reference to this in the link that followed but I am a little familiar with water sampling protocols. For biological samples you want to cool down the water to about 4 degrees C. (circa 40 degrees F) to minimize any biological activity between sample collection and it’s arrive at the lab for testing. The cold doesn’t effect the water in any way, it just slows down any reactions with the environment.

    Detroit gets its water from the Detroit River. I’ve never heard of an algae bloom upriver. In fact we don’t test specifically for algae toxins. My heart goes out to the city of Toledo. They are — currently — royally screwed.

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  6. Charlotte said on August 4, 2014 at 9:14 am

    Nance — I just had the battery, trackpad, hard drive replaced on my 2009 MacBook Pro (and added some RAM). All for just under $500, which is certainly cheaper than buying a new one. Works great — not like a new machine, but just like the one I’ve been using all these years that worked. No more freezing up, or ghost cursor, or spinning Apple wheel.

    Other than that, no real news. Walking Hank the adorable puppy, who is 12 weeks old now, about 8 miles a day. Which is doing wonders for the fatness that crept up on me when my old dogs got too old to walk trails. We’re having a little trouble with morning whining, so let him out of his crate/playpen to do his business, and put him back in with a kong stuffed with frozen peanut butter and kibble. So far, so quiet.

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  7. Connie said on August 4, 2014 at 10:13 am

    I hadn’t really thought about the consequences of the Toledo no water event, except for its impact on homes and families. I head this morning that every restaurant in Toledo is closed. Think about the economic impact.

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  8. brian stouder said on August 4, 2014 at 10:17 am

    This throws into question Nancy’s assertion (which I have used several times since reading it here) that the boring ol’ Midwest has a very great natural treasure going forward – that being the fresh water of the Great Lakes

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  9. LAMary said on August 4, 2014 at 10:40 am

    Smokey the Lab is also known as The Family Smokester, Meestair Smokee, and Smokes. Max, huge honkin dane mix seems to like to watch Say Yes to the Dress and Project Runway. He is sometimes known as Maxine. I think he would be a drag dog if he could.

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  10. brian stouder said on August 4, 2014 at 10:50 am

    And he would say “Do not hate me because I am beautiful”

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  11. Julie Robinson said on August 4, 2014 at 11:03 am

    The other great natural resource of the midwest is farm land, and how horrible that the one is affecting the other. But it’s also horrible what’s happened to the family farm, the one that used to rotate its crops (including one year fallow) and fertilize by using the wastes produced by the variety of animals. One set of grandparents raised dairy, the other beef cattle, but both also had hogs, horses, and the occasional sheep and goats. Now both of the farms are corn, corn, and more corn. No animals. In other words, factory farms that are no doubt contributing to the runoff problems in their area. It breaks my heart. Michael Pollan is right.

    Not to be twitchy, but shouldn’t it be “there were two stewardesses aboard the Starship”?

    Speaking of drag, over the weekend I saw Kinky Boots, and what a great movie it was. I hadn’t known it all until the Broadway show came out and a friend told me it was based on a cult movie. It’s streaming now on Netflix.

    Hoping to get out of work early today to enjoy the wonderful weather some more, so back I go.

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  12. Deborah said on August 4, 2014 at 11:09 am

    I call it the cornification of America. On my recent travels from the west to the midwest, as we got closer to the midwest it was corn, corn and more corn. What do they do with all of that corn?

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  13. brian stouder said on August 4, 2014 at 11:18 am

    Julie – speaking of movies, Pam and I give Step On Up (the James Brown movie) two thumbs up.

    The movie likes to jump forward and back in time – which at first I found a little jarring – but it works

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  14. Linda said on August 4, 2014 at 11:19 am

    I read the NYT article with Rocky laying across my chest–aka Rockstar, Grayby, etc.

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  15. Joe Kobiela said on August 4, 2014 at 11:27 am

    While the Algee bloom in Lake Erie is a tragedy, you have to ask yourself, where do you draw the line. With a ever growing population and a ever shrinking acreage for farming the yields on the farm land in use has to be increased and it’s done with fertilizer and pesticide. It’s amazing the stuff that corn and corn oil is used in along with soybean oil. Just google it, i wonder what the cost of all your grocery bill would be if we were farming the way we did even 25yrs ago. I hate the way farming has gone from family to factory, but what would you be willing to pay to have it go back the other way? There needs to be a balance. If you see the country like I do, from 8-10,000ft you would wonder like I do how anyone could go hungry.
    Pilot Joe

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  16. brian stouder said on August 4, 2014 at 12:03 pm

    Joe – indeed.

    When we went way-west, I expected to see cattle, and indeed, we saw lots and lots (and LOTS!!) of cattle; and more round-bales of hay than I’d have imagined; and lots of green green countryside (until we got to western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming and Colorado)…and then I read that Cargill was closing a major beef processing plant (involving hundreds of jobs) – owing to a cattle shortage! Apparently the draught we had affected the herds to the extent that lots of producers are hanging onto their cattle, as they rebuild their populations.

    Was it Will Rogers who expressed wonderment that we’d be the first civilization to starve to death inside a warehouse stacked full with food?

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  17. Basset said on August 4, 2014 at 12:20 pm

    Our first cat came from someone I used to work with who told us “we got a litter if kittens under the house, come and getcha one but you have to name it ‘Alfalfa.'”

    Current one is “Pikachu,” named by Basset Jr. When he was a lot younger. Next cat we get, I want to refer back to the old Cheech Wizard comics and call it “Turdball.”

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  18. Sherri said on August 4, 2014 at 12:42 pm

    Close to 80% of the corn crop in the US is used for animal feed and ethanol, not for human food. Animal feed, of course, indirectly leads to human food, but not necessarily efficiently or healthily. Ethanol is just a bad idea that won’t go away because of the peculiarities of our political system.

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  19. Deborah said on August 4, 2014 at 12:52 pm

    Do we really need all the things you can make with corn? Do we need more plastic gizmos? Yes, better made from corn than petroleum but hows about we just not make more things out of plastic altogether? There are millions of gewgaws that we really don’t need, just look at all the crap on sale at dollar stores that get used for a short time and then thrown away.

    When I read Nancy’s post I thought she misspelled gewgaws but just now when I tried to type it the way I thought it was spelled geegaws, it autocorrected to gewgaws.

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  20. Dorothy said on August 4, 2014 at 12:54 pm

    brian I believe you saw GET on Up, not STEP on UP. I am anxious to see that movie. A girl I went to high school with was absolutely in love with James Brown. I think she actually went down to Georgia and got to meet him and hang out with him. She had connections.

    Tomorrow we plan to go see Boyhood, the movie shot over a 12 year span. Has anyone seen the Roger Ebert documentary yet? That came and went at the Neon and I was so wrapped up with rehearsals for my FutureFest show I didn’t get a chance to see it.

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  21. coozledad said on August 4, 2014 at 1:01 pm

    Mitch McConnell gets his bloated, empurpled ass handed to him. Grimes could just run her speech on a loop, and his sorry ass is out of here:
    http://wonkette.com/556197/alison-lundergan-grimes-calls-mitch-mcconnell-a-useless-douche-to-mitch-mcconnells-face

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  22. coozledad said on August 4, 2014 at 1:20 pm

    The idea that agricultural combines grow food is ludicrous. They wheel from cash crop to cash crop. That corn is for the high fructose corn syrup that makes Americans fat and stupid.

    Fly over North Carolina sometime and look at how much of that formerly beautiful agricultural land is given over to the production of tobacco. You can’t eat that shit, no matter how much I wish they’d force feed it to the Republicans who still push it as a “heritage crop”.

    Food is expensive in a free market. what Joe and all other Republican dingleberries are arguing for is a command economy that holds food prices low by producing low quality garbage. That poison has made half the country retarded and sick, and now you can’t drink the water.

    When they’ve finally fucked everything up, they’re going to say the same thing Joe says- “Whayul, whut else wuz we gunna do?”
    Dinosaurs, idiots. Don’t know fuck all about food or farming.

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  23. Sue said on August 4, 2014 at 1:29 pm

    Little, tiny waves of concern around the ocean of agribusiness, as we begin to realize that phosphorus is a finite resource.
    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140203083830.htm

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  24. Charlotte said on August 4, 2014 at 1:35 pm

    I have a childhood friend managing his family’s huge farm on the Wisconsin/Illinois border. He successfully pitched converting several hundred acres to organic and starting a CSA to the board — his argument is that they have this huge resource, which is land that can grow food (not just corn and soybeans and horses) so close to a major city. His CSA and egg business is going great gangbusters, and they added pigs and an orchard a couple of years ago. Took me on a tour — mostly I was so jealous that they get rain. Rain. You can grow a lot of stuff when you get rain.

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  25. Linda said on August 4, 2014 at 2:02 pm

    I hate to sound so cynical, but when I hear defen inkdhers of agribusiness talk about “balance,” I think it’s because the jig is up and they are cornered

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  26. Dexter said on August 4, 2014 at 2:17 pm

    Oh My Gawd. What a clusterfuck in Toledo this AM! The mayor goes in front of cameras to read a script, trying to answer questions about what neighborhoods now have safe water, what people may or may not have to do with all their filtration systems…and the city workers are apparently unclear on what they have to change out or just flush out…really, I am convinced that nobody knows how to get safe water flowing throughout the system, and then yes, levels of the toxin are variable for every neighborhood.
    Yet the water is now safe to DRINK! Yes, yes, go ahead and drink it! As Ralph the dishwasher told Cowboy Joe Buck in ‘Midnight Cowboy’, “I don’t know, Joe…I don’t know nuthin’ a-BOUT it.”
    Of course, as nance alluded to, the farmers are in full denial…”not our fault!” I do not understand their reasoning, and I do not expect them to alter one goddam thing in their methods. OK, I’ll throw a jab at mega-farms now. Just three miles or maybe less from town here, there are chicken farms, big uns fersure. At times, the wind gently blows “backwards”, east to town, and this place stinks. Sometimes the wonderful perfume of DumDum suckers cooking over at Spangler Candy Company can’t mask the odor of those horrid egg factories. And here’s a funny one, the AL Texas Rangers employ a ballplayer named Rougned Odor. Yep, Odor. They call him “Oh-DOOR”, but they should have changed his name at immigration, right? I was in the army with a guy named Raper. I don’t know which is worse.

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  27. Dexter said on August 4, 2014 at 2:45 pm

    Your readers are pleased with the Volvo, as we recall a few harrowing drives you made to Lansing during the past brutal icy snowy winter. My Volvo wagon was also just fun to drive…it had a four-speed manual transmission with an OD button. Hold onto the day job, repair bills on Volvos produce shock, believe me. I figured they were about three times what my domestic car repairs were. But then maybe you’ll get lucky and it’ll run perfectly forever. 🙂 My Volvo

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  28. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 4, 2014 at 3:34 pm

    So, I’m curious about yoga. As a guy who has the flexibility of a blacksmith’s anvil, how does one even get started into the practice? What little I know and see around me or on line, the first step is being able to put your hands flat on the floor without bending your knees, and the second step is putting your foot behind your ear. The basic ideas of balance & flexibility & breath awareness are attractive to me, but I get the sense that a) it’s like trying to meander over and join the folks in line for a marathon not having run three miles since boot camp, and b) this is not at all true.

    What does getting started in yoga look like, anyhow, said the anvil?

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    • nancy said on August 4, 2014 at 3:40 pm

      Sooner or later, a beautiful woman walks up to you as you sweat through a beginner class, perhaps laying a hand on your shoulder, and says, “Yoga meets you where you ARE, Jeff.” And it does. You don’t have to put your hands flat on the floor (although I can, but I’ve always been able to — it’s a matter of proportion). The rest of it is mainly slowing down, breathing, awareness and slowly, slooowwwly, it starts to work. Yesterday I did a plow pose without even trying that hard.

      Seriously, though: Try a drop-in “slow flow,” “gentle flow” or other beginner class. You might be surprise.

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  29. Connie said on August 4, 2014 at 3:41 pm

    I’ve been having the same yoga thoughts. I want the class to be called yoga for fat out of shape klutzes.

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  30. Charlotte said on August 4, 2014 at 3:47 pm

    I can’t put my hands flat on the floor — I always bend my knees. But I like the twisty poses where you can feel your whole back unkink.

    So — in the news, James Brady has died. I have a dear old flame who worked at O’Hare for years, and once found Brady wrangling his own bags down in baggage claim (his wife had gone to get the car). John got his bags for him, chatted while they waited for his wife and the car, and wound up doing a lot of work for the foundation after that. Just loved the man. Was so horrified that he was down there alone in the bowels of O’Hare trying to get his own bags.

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  31. brian stouder said on August 4, 2014 at 3:47 pm

    Connie – if you find that one, let me know, and I’ll try it, too!

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  32. Julie Robinson said on August 4, 2014 at 3:50 pm

    Because of my stupid feet I have to do a lot of PT and a lot of it looks like yoga. Maybe someday I will try a class. Our nephew’s wife has a studio in Pasadena where they do hot yoga. Hog yoga=room temp is 105. Yes, they swear by it!

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  33. nancy said on August 4, 2014 at 3:50 pm

    I’ll say this: I spent YEARS misunderstanding yoga. I thought it was just a bunch of stretching and for the life of me couldn’t understand how it could be considered exercise. I still misunderstand it, but I’m groping toward the light. I think it’s best if you consider it complementary to whatever else you do. If you’re a runner, it will ease the tightness in your hips. If you’re a downhill skier, it will calm and focus your mind. And if you’re just a desk jockey, it will de-kink your back (YMMV) and do other good things for your posture. Today I was able to turn around and watch behind me as I backed out, a deeper and easier twist than I’ve been able to do for years. Gotta credit yoga for that.

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  34. Sue said on August 4, 2014 at 4:16 pm

    MMJeff, I start most days with chair yoga. Not being able to afford a class or the time, and being too embarrassed to do anything in front of anyone, I found some chair yoga videos I like on youtube. Some of them are pretty matter-of-fact, some of them assume you’re a true believer in all the finer points shall we say. Check a few and give it a try. That will help you decide if you want to join a class.
    “Wherever you are is where you should be” is the comforting philosophy of my chair yoga video instructor, quite appropriate at 5:30 a.m. when I’m working the kinks out. I love doing the modified sun salutation poses, they’re the best morning stretch.

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  35. brian stouder said on August 4, 2014 at 4:49 pm

    I remember the day of the RWR shooting, and the guy on ABC (something Reynolds) lost his cool (as much as a professional at that level ever really loses their cool) on live TV – when he learned that Brady wasn’t dead, after having had a moment of silence at the “news” of his death.

    I think he growled something like ‘godammit – we have to get the facts, and not rumors’ – or some such

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  36. Sue said on August 4, 2014 at 4:52 pm

    So…
    In Toledo you can’t have water because of pollution which is necessary to Big Ag and therefore something we must live with, and in Detroit you can’t have water unless you can pay for it.
    Non-agricultural use of pitchforks may become popular soon.

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  37. alex said on August 4, 2014 at 5:51 pm

    Plow pose? I thought that was strictly a gay porn thing.

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  38. Connie said on August 4, 2014 at 5:55 pm

    Dexter, Under the Dome is on tonight.

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  39. Scout said on August 4, 2014 at 6:01 pm

    I had a yoga teacher who said “Yoga is for every body”. And it’s true, it is not required to touch the floor without bending your knees, but if you stick with it, one day you might find yourself there. Avoid teachers who want to manually adjust you into places your body can’t go without pain. The best ones can convey what you are striving for without ever laying a hand on you.

    The cat thing made me want to leave work RIGHT NOW and go home and get some kitty love. Mine also have a huge variety of names and they each know which ones are theirs. The comments following the NYT piece were really great too, so different from the poison you usually encounter in most comment sections (this blog excluded of course!)

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  40. Deborah said on August 4, 2014 at 6:05 pm

    As I’ve said here before, as a female I’m really leery of yoga because of public queefing. Not that I’ve ever experienced it, but don’t ever want to.

    On a completely different note, Little Bird put a pink streak in her hair before I got back to Santa Fe after the road trip. It’s permanent and very bright. It looks good.

    It’s raining a lot in Santa Fe and Abiquiu since the Monsoon season started, we have about doubled the average for rainfall, which is fantastic. Our land in Abiquiu has never looked as green as it does now since we bought it in 2000, not to mention all the wildflowers that are showing up. That doesn’t mean we are out of drought danger yet because it will take awhile for everything to catch up. We lost a lot of Juniper bushes this past year, which is really sad, they just couldn’t hang on until the rainy season. A few years back we lost a all of our pinions because of the bark beetle, which I noticed hit hard in Colorado and even South Dakota on our recent travels. The drought and global warming made the pines more vulnerable and not able to withstand the infestation, they say it went all the way up into Canada.

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  41. brian stouder said on August 4, 2014 at 6:18 pm

    Deborah – I have learned another new word today; and – it got me laughing!

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  42. brian stouder said on August 4, 2014 at 6:21 pm

    http://www.rebellesociety.com/2014/03/05/queefing-101/

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  43. David C. said on August 4, 2014 at 6:35 pm

    Beb @ 5. What I meant was shouldn’t it be iced down, rather than ice downed samples?

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  44. MichaelG said on August 4, 2014 at 6:40 pm

    Do any nn.cers live in Toledo? It sounds confused. Do they have water or not? Or do just some have water? The source of the problem doesn’t sound like something that can just be removed in a few hours.

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  45. Kirk said on August 4, 2014 at 8:43 pm

    Dexter@26: Tom Raper, Midwest’s biggest RV dealer, in Richmond, Ind.

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  46. Sherri said on August 4, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    You know, I suppose it’s possible that there’s an independent evangelical mega-church that isn’t an ego-driven cult of personality, but Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill sure is.

    http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/why-the-mars-hill-faithful-have-started-to-question-mark/Content?oid=20257920

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  47. Suzanne said on August 4, 2014 at 9:58 pm

    I tried to do that plow pose last week, but was unable, sadly, to get my rear end to rear up and off the floor. That sucker is much harder than it looks. I’m impressed that you could do it.

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  48. basset said on August 4, 2014 at 10:17 pm

    So I can take my out of shape self to the traditional gym and let overmuscled gym rats laugh at me, or I can go to a yoga class and let women with their hair tied back laugh at me. Might even hear “outa the way, fatass!” again. No-win situation.

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  49. basset said on August 4, 2014 at 10:23 pm

    Meanwhile, Volvos. We had a 940, that’s how much money you’re supposed to bring every time you open the hood, and Mrs. B. totaled it. Just a fender-bumper, actually, but enough to make the repair more than it was worth with so many miles on it.

    Then we got a S60 or maybe it was a S80, she totaled that one pulling away from a stoplight. Didn’t think it was too bad, I even drove it up on the rollback, but when you turn in front of someone who’s just getting underway from the other side of the intersection and you get hit in the right front at about twenty miles an hour, well, that’s where all the computers and wiring nexuses are and it’s easier for the insurance company to write it off than take a chance on having to chase all kinds of intermittent electrical troubles later.

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  50. Colleen said on August 4, 2014 at 11:18 pm

    I took yoga for awhile and really enjoyed it. Should do it again, but my work schedule makes it difficult if not impossible. The thing I liked about my instructor is that she met you where you were, and constantly emphasized “No competition, no judgment”, usually when I was berating myself for having to modify a pose. She helped me get my focus back.

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  51. Dexter said on August 4, 2014 at 11:20 pm

    Kirk, yeah, I had to watch Tom Raper commercials on TV for years before we were switched to all Toledo stations by the cable company and they cancelled the Fort Wayne TV stations for us. The guy I knew was John Raper from SoCal.
    Pilot Joe, Ben Davis the car dealer died the other day. He was in his 70s. (Ben Davis owned both the Chevy and the Ford dealerships in Auburn, Indiana. )

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  52. Dexter said on August 4, 2014 at 11:24 pm

    MichaelG…you oughtta see the Lake Erie water surrounding the Toledo water intake shack off shore just a little ways. It’s hideous. It’s yellowish green and thick, like sludge. Officially, safe to drink, but when we go meet our great granddaughter Saturday, you can bet I am taking another case of water with me. No way am I going to drink that stuff.

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