Halloween Recap

Halloween was three whole days ago and we're just getting the stories now? What gives? I wish I had a good excuse for you, faithful readers, but things just got a bit busy. I got wrapped up in watching football on Sunday (Farve's return to Lambeau Field as a Viking was given the amount of attention I would expect to be given only to Jesus going to Lambeau Field, but that's another story) and forgot to relay Halloween stories.

Over the past year I had forgotten how personally Alycia takes it if we don't have what she perceives to be an adequate number of trick or treaters. She sits by the door and jumps up at every knock and really seems to enjoy asking the kids about their costumes and handing out candy. She only acknowledged one minor faux pas - she told a little boy she liked his goat costume. He was actually Yoda. She was indignant.

"Isn't Yoda supposed to be green?" She demanded, "I thought Yoda was green? This kid was white. Maybe he wasn't white, but he sure wasn't green. Isn't Yoda supposed to be green?"

I sighed deeply, mostly because it disturbs me when the woman I love can't be certain about basic Star Wars facts, like what color Yoda should be. I tried to assuage her by suggesting that in the dark it was possible that she just didn't pick up the green color too well, or that maybe the kid was just light green, but she seemed to have none of it. I was almost sure she was going to track the kid down outside and either demand an explanation for why he wasn't green, or give him a handful of candy and apologize for saying he had cute goat costume.

After the Yoda debacle, the rest of the night went fairly smoothly, though we only saw 40-50 kids. I did take the opportunity to be neighborly and go across the street to chat with our neighbors to the North, the Moe's. This proved to be a fortuitous event for the Moe's as they had to stop by briefly to borrow some candy, buying some time to run to the store to replenish their stock of sweets. We had a good time chatting with them and enjoying the Halloween fun.

I'll post another entry with pictures of Shaak Ti in her costume. Can you guess what she dressed up as????

Smart Choices Program Suspended

I was at the grocery store recently and saw first hand the most recent terrible idea from the food industry - the "Smart Choices" program.

Under this program, created by a PR firm associated with food giants like General Mills and Kellogg, junk food a sugary cereals were labeled as "smart choices" and made to seem like healthy foods to choose. My wandering through the grocery store demonstrated the insanity and hypocrisy of this program, crap like Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes were given this alleged seal of approval.

Another abomination of processed food crap, Bagelfulls, which judging by what I saw in the freezer container was nothing more than some type of doughy stuff filled with cream cheese and corn syrupy jam. If crap like this qualifies as a "smart choice" than it's plainly obvious that such a program is useless.

Thankfully the public outcry over this program in the last few weeks has lead to the recent cessation (see LA Times article) of this program. We'll have to see if they try to roll the program back out, with changes? or with less publicity? or perhaps they'll put the program where it belongs, in the trash can.

Snow on the Way

Weather is probably one of the first things that you want to stay updated about regading our move to North Dakota. So you'll be happy/excited to know that our first decent snow storm is on the horizon. The timing and amount of actual snow (versus rain that could fall instead) is dicey, but for now it does look like there will be some snow on the ground come Friday morning.

Here's information from our local newspaper - the Grand Forks Herald:

"The National Weather Service says a storm is expected late today through early Friday across central and southern North Dakota, and in the northeastern part of the state late Thursday through Friday. The winter storm watch for Thursday night and Friday afternoon is primarily for counties outside the Red River Valley, including the Devils Lake basin.

Rain in northeast North Dakota is expected to turn into snow by Thursday night over a large portion of northeast North Dakota. More than six inches of snow accumulation is possible by Friday afternoon, with winds expected to increase late Thursday night and Friday morning, possibly reducing visibilities."

We'll see if and how much snow we actually receive, but we'll let you know, and if there is a blanket of snow on the ground, I promise to take plenty of pictures.

Morning in Grand Forks

Just a quick picture of the sunrise this morning to prove to you non-North Dakotans that this is indeed a pretty place.

It may not be a sunset at the beach (I grew tired of those anyways), but it's still fairly pretty.

I'm trying to get better at taking pictures, and haven't forgotten my camera as often as I did before. Previously it seemed that everywhere I went there would be some picture worthy event that I would curse myself for not having my camera. My commitment to show all the picture worthy events that occur back here and bring it to all of you out there, well that commitment remains strong.

It's another windy day today, gusts up to 30mph, leaves are blowing around like, well like leaves on a fall day. At least it's not too cold, mid-40's, otherwise it would be pretty unpleasant outside.

Quitting the Paint Factory

I read a fabulous essay this morning, it's actually a reprint from 2004, from Harper's magazine by Mark Slouka, and thought I'd pass it along for everyone to enjoy. Here's the link. I always enjoy cerebral justifications for my semi-retired lifestyle, and pieces like this really resonate with me, not because it justifies laziness, but because it validates my urgent need for regular time for quiet introspection.

There's also some interesting dicsussion of the perceived differences between leisure and idleness. Leisure being activity which is directed in pursuit of a goal - fishing, golfing, sailing, and idleness is directed in pursuit of doing nothing - resting, reading, thinking, or just sitting there doing nothing. Naturally you can guess which of these society deems morally good, and which is morally bad. "Idles hands are ___ (fill in the blank on this one, but it won't be a positive reference)".

Here's a quick passage from the piece that I'll leave you with:

Idleness is not just a psychological necessity, req­uisite to the construction of a complete human being; it constitutes as well a kind of political space, a space as necessary to the workings of an actual democracy as, say, a free press. How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the inner life (in whose precincts we are most ourselves) its due. Which is precisely what makes idle­ness dangerous. All manner of things can grow out of that fallow soil. Not for nothing did our mothers grow suspicious when we had “too much time on our hands.” They knew we might be up to something. And not for nothing did we whisper to each other, when we were up to something, “Quick, look busy."

Starry Starry Morning

It was chilly this morning, low 20's, the coldest so far this year. Saying that it was the coldest night of the year in mid-October is like watching a basketball game and stating after the first basket "I don't think the final score will stay at 2-0". What is John trying to say with this odd analogy? That it will most likely get colder as the days and weeks creep towards actual winter.

We're up early these days, and not because of cold puppy noses poking over the edge of the bed. Nope, we're actually slaves to the alarm, set for 6:00 am. We've got many tasks to accomplish- dog walk, dog breakfast, people breakfast, coffee brewing (this step is VERY, VERY important), and getting Alycia ready for her school day. The dogs would actually allow us to sleep in later if we didn't need to get up. It's a small measure or revenge to have to rouse Shaak Ti out of bed instead of the other way around, which happens 97% of the time. That small measure of revenge though does nothing to mitigate the unparalleled horror of having to be up that early.

So needless to say our morning dog walks are done while it is very much dark, and this morning was dark and cold and clear. Without the fluffy layer of cloud insulation to ward it off, the cold really sets in. Even in my sleepy state I appreciate the fact that we're the only ones out and about, parading our furry companions through the dark, and crunching the frost covered fallen leaves with slippered feet.

As I stumbled around in my multiple layers of clothing and fuzzy slippers, I looked up at the night, soon to be dawn sky, and marveled at all the stars. These stargazing moments were brief, as my shuffling demanded as much attention I could generate so early in the morning, lest it lead to me performing the popular "shuffle-shuffle-stumble-faceplant" maneuver.

There were more stars than I ever remember seeing in the light polluted lands of Southern California. And most folk around here will tell you that you can't see stars at all in "the city" (that would be Grand Forks that they're referring to) and that you need to get out into the country to really see some stars. I look forward to it.

A New Harness

The littlest sled dog (aka Shaak Ti) got herself a brand new blue harness today. The old one finally collapsed, much like the Bluesmobile at the end of The Blues Brothers (see it in the first 15 seconds of this clip), it just completely fell apart this morning. The buckle had slipped and became unbuckled a few times over the past week or so, giving the indication that total failure was imminent.

This morning as we put Shaak Ti in her harness, the buckle snapped completely. Upon closer inspection I also realized that a few of the seams were also almost completely torn off as well. It was a good thing because soon enough the whole thing probably would have failed, and Shaak Ti would have torn through it like Bruce Banner changing into the Hulk, shed her restraints, and raced freely after some poor squirrel or chipmunk.

The harness lasted for quite a while, more than two years, through hundreds of miles of walks and another few hundred miles of runs, through rain and snow and sand from so many beach trips. We humbly salute you, oh noble harness, you have served your purpose well.

New Poll

I posted a new poll, so check it out and cast your vote. It's very important that you do, if not, I may not have my finger on the pulse of what Halloween candy is popular this year, and I'll hand out something that kids hate, thus turning me into a social pariah. So please vote.....