a split-second difference

i think the death of the young luge athlete is sad. here you are, doing this sport that your dad and uncle have done and taught you about, that you have prepared for, and because of one miscalculation, or a poorly engineered run, or those low walls, while in sight of the finish line, your life is suddenly cut short.

i watched the video. i don't consider myself one of those people who has to slow down and look at a gruesome accident, but i am one of those people who needs to know what happened. and how it happened. and what caused it. so i watched the video. and would have watched it in slow motion but the capability wasn't there. it wasn't bloody. it was curious. he was too high, then was tossed to the other side, then swooped off the edge and his trajectory led him to connect with a steel support beam. something flew off to the right, and his faceplate bounced back onto and down the track. he hit that beam really hard. it looked like he probably connected from his neck to his tailbone, probably shattering those bones, and his internal organs, at that speed, probably ruptured. i don't know medical stuff. but it helps me, having a mental image of what happened.

don't ask me why; i've always needed to know.

youtube has apparently pulled their videos of it. i'm not sure i agree with that philosophy. the video isn't grisly, bloody, scary, dirty, or any negative. it's just real and it's sad. the video on nbc's olympics site is still there. and the new york times had a good presentation of what happened.

this isn't hollywood or tv or made-up. life is fragile...use it wisely.

let's have FUN!

i'm up this morning needing to do some things and wanting to just ignore everything when i get an e-mail with this attachment from my wonderful ex-boss lady from oklahoma. it's delightful!

nature whoops it up

did you hear about the dust storms down in australia? check out these pictures that people took -- whoa!!!

take a deep breath and think...

i had an interesting experience the other day, by which i mean disgusting. i had googled some stuff and i didn't notice until after i had clicked on this one link that it did not have the little green checkmark which google uses to say they think a site is clean. i tried to stop the link from filling in, but i had closed-in the window and didn't have the red x showing.

at any rate, up popped a whole bunch of warnings that a virus was infecting my computer and a screen came on which looked authentic, kind of like an explorer screen, and a couple of icons kept rapidly blinking and a little box which said microsoft on it said to click OK to save my computer and all i could think was, why should i do that when i've got norton, but all the same it was really hard to keep myself from succumbing to the urgency and clicking that little box.

so i brought up the norton screen and told it to do a check and closed everything else. it turned out there was nothing wrong with my computer, but i have no doubt there would have been if i had given in to the panic-type situation that link had tried to engender and had clicked OK on that box.

so .... beware. get norton or some other internet security, and try to not panic if something urgent happens. honestly -- some people are such bastards.

dum, duhdum, dum, daaaaaaaahhhh....

i went in to my Nexus appointment the other day. getting a nexus card is a lot like getting a passport -- you fill out paperwork, they check you out, you talk to them at the appointment and give them your fingerprints, they give you advice, you get your card in the mail.

i like the idea of having a nexus card because there's a special nexus lane at the border which is usually quite a bit faster than the regular lanes.

BUT.

when you have a nexus card, EVERYONE in the car must have the card. i knew that when i went to the appointment. what i didn't know was that you must have nothing in the car which is not yours or your traveling companion's!

now that scared me. if i run up to canada and get something from costco, then come back in the nexus lane and they see the husband's boots in the car which are obviously not mine, they can take away my card. and man, that's a permanent condition. you NEVER get your nexus card back. they are so hard-nosed about that it's not funny.

well. when they explained all that to me i got so nervous. i mean, cripes. am i going to remember to search my car before i run up to canada? shit. i'm going to have to. honestly -- well-intentioned, decent people aren't used to not getting a second chance.

damn those terrorists!

don't take them for granted

we received a report from our commissioner this week. i know there are people out there who think Customs and Border Protection is a joke, and they do endless carping about long lines at the border, being wrongfully searched, and so on. just so you have an idea, here are the latest statistics:

we apprehended over 1 million people at our ports of entry and between them;
we seized just less than 3 million pounds of narcotics;
we apprehended more than 200 people with serious criminal records including for murder, rape and child molestation;
we continued to safeguard commercial trade through enhanced enforcement actions, which grew to more than 19,000 seizures valued at $351 million;
we accomplished all this despite increasingly difficult and dangerous conditions as 1,413 incidents of border violence were recorded.

rather than diss our officers, we should give them unconditional support.

i, of course, do .... every work day!

hmmm...

happy birthday to the husband today. he says it's just another day like all the others and for us to ignore it. uhhh, okay.

but what kind of cake should i make and what kind of present should i get?

one more thing to worry about

i saw a couple of reports, today at work, about the problems that have started cropping up with lasers. people who are clueless, as well as criminal types, can cause considerable problems for aircraft if they are aiming laser pointers or other laser devices up in the sky.

apparently a green laser is a lot more dangerous than a red one, but either one is bad. if laser-light shines in a cockpit, it can blind and disorient pilots.

the articles were interesting, in a driving-slowly-past-an-accident kind of way. it wouldn't occur to me to shine a laser pointer toward an aircraft; it makes me nervous for anyone to be using one in a presentation, even. they just seem to be quietly evil.

regardless, be aware this is a new potential for malicious mischief. if an idiot can aim one toward a plane, he can aim one toward a car, too. hopefully we won't have to deal with that kind of thing on a personal level.

gees.

midwestern tradition

yesterday was sadie hawkin's day. did you remember to chase the boy of your choice? you only get one chance in four years to do that, you know.

i found a high school picture of a couple of my girlfriends and our boyfriends going to a sadie hawkin's dance. funny how i can't remember the girls' names, but i remember bing. he was my first love. and he had red hair.

yay nebraska!

a co-worker, who went to school at doane gave me this:

larry the cable guy says you know you're from nebraska if ...
your local dairy queen is closed from september through may,
you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time,
you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number,
you know several people who have hit a cow more than once,
you've gone from 'heat' to 'a/c' in the same day and back again,
you drive 75 mph through 2 ft of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching,
you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked,
you carry jumpers in your car and your wife knows how to use them,
you design your kid's halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit,
you find 10 degrees 'a little chilly',
driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow,
the i-80 speed limit is 75 mph but you're going 90 and everybody is passing you.

long live life in nebraska!!!

he yelled

my boss yelled at me yesterday. well, one of them did -- i have at least five bosses. there are other people who'd like to think they're my boss, but i take them with a grain of salt.

anyhow, i was typing away when i heard a rather loud "KAREN!" so i said loudly back, "What?" as locked my computer and jumped up to go see what was the matter -- after all, i know which side the butter's on. "THIS THING'S SHUT OFF!" he continued shouting (i get a kick out of this guy). as i rushed into the copy room, ala the lone ranger, i hurried past said boss straight over to the new fax machine, wondering how in the world it had been shut off.

"No, this thing, the copier," he said as i turned back, astonished that the fax wasn't the problem. i walked over to the copier and pointed to the large label pasted on the machine and repeated what it said, "After 4 hours of inactivity, machine shuts down. Press button to restart." i grinned at him. "You mean no one's used this thing for four hours?" he said. "Well, you've been in a meeting all morning," i pointed out. "Oh yes, that meeting," he said as he momentarily laid his head on his arm. but that's another story.

i love my job. and the people.

the way-back machine

spanky
ah-oooooooga
duck and cover
esther williams
mr. green jeans
the wayward wind
buck rogers
the tramp
helps build strong bodies twelve ways
cherry mash
green river
saddle shoes and bobby socks
pinafore
iron lung
vacuum tubes
test pattern
his master's voice
sputnik 2 and laika

not my problem anymore

well, that was interesting.

shopping online is usually not a hassle for us. until this one.

i ordered 6 items from Serengeti catalog, associated with NorthStyle catalog, on the 8th. when i checked the order just now, thinking it surely should have arrived by now, it was still in the warehouse.

hmmmm, still in the warehouse. WTF??!

so i called and the gal put me on hold. then she switched me to customer service. then he couldn't figure out why the order hadn't gone out. so i asked for the supervisor. she was one of those types who kept interrupting me. she finally said she would send it out overnight. fine, i said, but what about the trouble i had trying to place this order online (it wouldn't take the credit card -- which has NEVER happened with any other company before -- i'd had to call in the order). i must have been typing something in wrong, she said. WTF??! this has been my problem?

fine, go ahead and send the order, i said, then take me off your mailing lists. fine, she said.

fine.

joie de vivre

i chanced across the sweetest dog this evening. i'd run over to a neighbor's to water her plants while she was out of town for a few days. as i was walking across her driveway toward home, i saw a brown sandy-dog peeking around the fence looking at me.

i said, "well, hi puppy. where did you come from?" his tongue hung out and he wagged his tail, making little happy-jumps, one time lunging at my hand with his nose and quickly retreating. he wanted to play!

but i had no idea who he was or where he'd come from so i decided i needed to ignore him and go on home. there were two cars in front of the nice heretofore unrented rental house across the street, so maybe he was theirs. in which case i'll get to see him again. maybe.

anyhow, it was fun to see his joy and for awhile i wished i was part of it.

hot!!

and this is what that very same sweetie looks like now ....

well, actually, that was about three years ago.

now he looks like this:

business (continued)

what a 5th grade plasma-astro-physicist looks like:

and these are his chosen school clothes!

the business of play

when he was little, My Younger Son was very serious about his work.



and when he took a notion to get serious, he was serious. for example, during the whole year of his 5th grade, he decided to wear a button-down shirt and tie to school. it was just a regular school with no dress code. i had to wash and iron shirts, and buy ties for my 5th grader. impressive.

uh ... what?

i had an odd experience at work today. one caller asked about a specific procedure. i gave him the spiel i have to give everyone including that if he wanted that office's e-mail address i could give it to him.

so he copied down the phone number, fax number, and said yes he wanted the e-mail address. then we talked a little more and i realized he was looking online expecting to find a web site. so i gently mentioned this was an e-mail address and he said, oh, that he hadn't done any e-mail before but that he'd give it a try.

so he opened a new message, typed in the address (which i realized he had not spelled correctly), then put in a subject, then went on to the body. we talked a little bit about what he could say and i suggested he might also want to leave a phone message, too, to cover all his bases. i also made sure he knew to push the 'send' button on his e-mail.

when i got off the phone, one of the downstairs supervisors who had been waiting to talk to me said, 'i didn't know there was anyone who hasn't ever done e-mail' -- it was a strange and gently funny situation. i wonder if he was pulling my leg.

so many choices...

remember jean? she had the restaurant where we helped out, then she decided to move home to atlanta.

she's moving back!

she's not happy down there, even though her place is making some money. so she wants to move back up here, try again with her ex, and see about getting an ordinary job.

i'd like to see her find a good job, a steady relationship, and happiness. more later --

score!!

tired of criminals getting away with things? then fight back! although it won't surprise me in the least if the thief sues the 72-yr old for beating him up.