did some pop art for my cards friends (see below) as i have been trying to listen to the games or watch them on computer (one play at a time, coming through chat, in what's called "gameday")...however on the day they socked out texas the radio worked fine, and in the other two evenings when they were being cruelly and ruthlessly shut down by texas pitching i couldn't get the radio at all and am thus led to believe that these two chance circumstances are somehow related. the series has been a welcome diversion from the regular heating up intensity of strike, ordinary term teaching, twin-pregnancy in the family, various ailments and hospitalizations in the family, etc. baseball is good for that. i'm a little ambivalent about the cards themselves, but i will say that they are colorful, have great fans and play so well in october that they're worth it just for that alone...and, in fact, i hate texas more than i love st. louis, but not more than i hate the yankees, but even then you're talking about a baseball kind of hate, which isn't quite serious, and acknowledges the fact that you really don't know these people at all. if you do, you're in way over your head.
the world of cat rescue is another welcome diversion but no sooner than i was pretty much totally diverted, having caught three cats under the house of my son and his roommates who had somehow inherited this cup-overflowing kitty-litter scene, than my wife, who really needs diversion much more than i do, more or less took over. she knows cats more than i do, and she cares more, and knows how to tame wild cats and even how to handle them and make sure they'll get basic care with whomever they are given. i however would have been much less particular, just giving them to any friendly face who would agree to walk the other way; this might doom them to inexperience, or improper care, but we'd be rid of them sooner, without all the talking and scaring the poor victim out of agreeing to take them. given the whole story, of how they ruin your furniture, sleep in your laundry, sneeze on your head in the middle of the night, bring a mouse in for your dining pleasure, etc., it's a wonder anyone with the facts would ever take one in the first place, but if they do, my philosophy is, don't hang around asking questions. one cat rescuer tried to get me to get recommendations from their vet in order to be assured that they at least take cats to a vet once in a blue moon (we do, for example), but once again, i say, don't even grill them, just unload the poor things. they are surely likely to have a better life in one place than the other, and in fact, if one doesn't know a cat rescue, they are pretty much doomed at the animal shelter and that's where they'll end up. on top of that, you have these ads on craigslist and elsewhere of people willing to take your cats, but there's this suspicion that these people sell them to animal labs, or even eat them, people being desperate and of as little principle as you can imagine. no, i don't know this happens, but i shudder at the suggestion.
so we saved a teenager (black, sex unknown), and three tiny ones (two grey, one black)- gave away one grey one, it appears, successfully, but failed, in spite of having two or three homes lined up, to unload any of the others. we have some promises and some possibilities; we're working on leads. the little ones at least may be claimed very soon. there's a question of a black cat on halloween...is it true people will use these for demonic purposes? if so we saved him(?) just in time...and maybe we can get him through the holiday...then again, maybe not. how long will it take? my wife sauys that some people in the country are always willing to take another barn cat. she says, this is bad for the birds, it kills birds. but i say, sounds like the best life we've heard of so far. he might be hungry, might have to eat a mouse here and there, but at least he wouldn't be dead, or in a no-kill shelter that reportedly has 400 already, but they live in cages, and, though they could find room for one more, it might take a while. it's an ongoing drama, but, it's in my wife's hands, more or less. her network isn't quite as wide as mine, but it's more reliable, in that she is more likely to tell them all the facts right off, and they are more likely to know and care about kitties, rather than be the bilingual but feckless types that fill up my department...
i was trolling around the occupy sites, occupy cleveland, occupy wall street, and making pop art, and using the pictures by saturating and posterizing colors to make pictures less clear, more dramatic, when it occurred to me that, like frogs in a steadily heating cauldron, the whole thing is heating up slowly but considerably and generating, picturing, glorifying, or provoking conflict of any kind is really somewhat distasteful especially since we're in the middle of a strike negotiation and the conflict is boiling toward an inevitable climax which should be happening here in the very near future. it's a matter of conflict wherever we turn, where, on the one side, it's, you stop working, you go off the job, you lose your insurance, you lose your vacation, you lose your seniority, the strike might last quite a long time, all the classes will be covered, there will be a plan in place, life will go on as usual, except that everyone that goes out will be frozen out, stay out, out of work, out of luck, out of the loop, etc. on the other side is this hankering that, having been insulted, slapped in the face, disrespected, treated as marginal groups that aren't needed, there is but only one solution, and that is to walk out, all together, in unity, and watch them writhe in their own hollow words. so it's conflict left and right, storm on the horizon, possibility for ripping lives asunder not to mention friendships, marriages, collegial work relationships.
so, in order to avoid all such conflict, or at least not think about it constantly which is bad enough, i take to saving kitties, or working on colleagues to help in the effort, and i also, by the way, cut and harvested kohlrabi, turnips and radishes, all this in the morning while i was making three lunches, getting kids dressed, getting homework and pens collected for the ride in, the usual morning routine with hot coffee and a wary eye outside at the changing weather. they say a cold rain is coming in, which is typical for this time of year, in fact usually socks game six and game seven as it's a pretty regular turn of the earth and letting the world serious get a little too close to halloween it's pretty inevitable that there will be some pretty bad-weather baseball, and all when players have played right through june july august and september, all of which are pretty dry. around here this late october deal means that the birds eat the ornamental berries out in the front, get drunk, and come crashing into the front window, though my wife finally took a highlighter and put thin lines on it, which the birds can see and we don't. and the gingko tree: it's due to drop all its leaves on a single day, but we're not sure which day that is, maybe tomorrow (i doubt it), more likely a little closer to the big holidays. halloween is what, monday? then the saints day, and all souls day, then strike day, guy fawkes day and sadie hawkins day all in the matter of a couple of weeks. stunning, the gradual change from the bright splashy yellows, to the mellower browns, the soft peace of early winter. the high holy days, so to speak.
conflict is like this: each side gets madder and madder. they can't really communicate. they know it's better to work it out, that letting it turn to full-scale war will be the ruin of everyone, that it's gone too far already. but they get into bad habits of perception: they begin to see each other as the enemy, they begin to be unable to see each other in any other way. now you might think that i'm thinking here of the unions and the administration, well i guess you could say that. or maybe the occupy protesters and the police, who have been going at it in various cities, though i've avoided that whole scene here, and didn't even drive by it today though i might have had a chance if i'd gone around. or you might think i'm talking about divorce, which i thought of for a minute, because here two people who told the world they loved each other are all of a sudden screaming and yelling and unable to think of each other as anything but enemies. but no, i'm actually thinking of the cards, who are in the entertainment business, so therefore see their texas brethren as enemies, only insofar as they have to beat them in an athletic contest, and win or lose the people are entertained, and pay the big bucks, and dress in red and such, and everyone wins, that is except the dude who fell from the upper bleachers and a couple of other random victims. it's much more wholesome, thinking about baseball. maybe i'll write a story, or make some music. i've got to get out of this vicious cycle.
the world of cat rescue is another welcome diversion but no sooner than i was pretty much totally diverted, having caught three cats under the house of my son and his roommates who had somehow inherited this cup-overflowing kitty-litter scene, than my wife, who really needs diversion much more than i do, more or less took over. she knows cats more than i do, and she cares more, and knows how to tame wild cats and even how to handle them and make sure they'll get basic care with whomever they are given. i however would have been much less particular, just giving them to any friendly face who would agree to walk the other way; this might doom them to inexperience, or improper care, but we'd be rid of them sooner, without all the talking and scaring the poor victim out of agreeing to take them. given the whole story, of how they ruin your furniture, sleep in your laundry, sneeze on your head in the middle of the night, bring a mouse in for your dining pleasure, etc., it's a wonder anyone with the facts would ever take one in the first place, but if they do, my philosophy is, don't hang around asking questions. one cat rescuer tried to get me to get recommendations from their vet in order to be assured that they at least take cats to a vet once in a blue moon (we do, for example), but once again, i say, don't even grill them, just unload the poor things. they are surely likely to have a better life in one place than the other, and in fact, if one doesn't know a cat rescue, they are pretty much doomed at the animal shelter and that's where they'll end up. on top of that, you have these ads on craigslist and elsewhere of people willing to take your cats, but there's this suspicion that these people sell them to animal labs, or even eat them, people being desperate and of as little principle as you can imagine. no, i don't know this happens, but i shudder at the suggestion.
so we saved a teenager (black, sex unknown), and three tiny ones (two grey, one black)- gave away one grey one, it appears, successfully, but failed, in spite of having two or three homes lined up, to unload any of the others. we have some promises and some possibilities; we're working on leads. the little ones at least may be claimed very soon. there's a question of a black cat on halloween...is it true people will use these for demonic purposes? if so we saved him(?) just in time...and maybe we can get him through the holiday...then again, maybe not. how long will it take? my wife sauys that some people in the country are always willing to take another barn cat. she says, this is bad for the birds, it kills birds. but i say, sounds like the best life we've heard of so far. he might be hungry, might have to eat a mouse here and there, but at least he wouldn't be dead, or in a no-kill shelter that reportedly has 400 already, but they live in cages, and, though they could find room for one more, it might take a while. it's an ongoing drama, but, it's in my wife's hands, more or less. her network isn't quite as wide as mine, but it's more reliable, in that she is more likely to tell them all the facts right off, and they are more likely to know and care about kitties, rather than be the bilingual but feckless types that fill up my department...
i was trolling around the occupy sites, occupy cleveland, occupy wall street, and making pop art, and using the pictures by saturating and posterizing colors to make pictures less clear, more dramatic, when it occurred to me that, like frogs in a steadily heating cauldron, the whole thing is heating up slowly but considerably and generating, picturing, glorifying, or provoking conflict of any kind is really somewhat distasteful especially since we're in the middle of a strike negotiation and the conflict is boiling toward an inevitable climax which should be happening here in the very near future. it's a matter of conflict wherever we turn, where, on the one side, it's, you stop working, you go off the job, you lose your insurance, you lose your vacation, you lose your seniority, the strike might last quite a long time, all the classes will be covered, there will be a plan in place, life will go on as usual, except that everyone that goes out will be frozen out, stay out, out of work, out of luck, out of the loop, etc. on the other side is this hankering that, having been insulted, slapped in the face, disrespected, treated as marginal groups that aren't needed, there is but only one solution, and that is to walk out, all together, in unity, and watch them writhe in their own hollow words. so it's conflict left and right, storm on the horizon, possibility for ripping lives asunder not to mention friendships, marriages, collegial work relationships.
so, in order to avoid all such conflict, or at least not think about it constantly which is bad enough, i take to saving kitties, or working on colleagues to help in the effort, and i also, by the way, cut and harvested kohlrabi, turnips and radishes, all this in the morning while i was making three lunches, getting kids dressed, getting homework and pens collected for the ride in, the usual morning routine with hot coffee and a wary eye outside at the changing weather. they say a cold rain is coming in, which is typical for this time of year, in fact usually socks game six and game seven as it's a pretty regular turn of the earth and letting the world serious get a little too close to halloween it's pretty inevitable that there will be some pretty bad-weather baseball, and all when players have played right through june july august and september, all of which are pretty dry. around here this late october deal means that the birds eat the ornamental berries out in the front, get drunk, and come crashing into the front window, though my wife finally took a highlighter and put thin lines on it, which the birds can see and we don't. and the gingko tree: it's due to drop all its leaves on a single day, but we're not sure which day that is, maybe tomorrow (i doubt it), more likely a little closer to the big holidays. halloween is what, monday? then the saints day, and all souls day, then strike day, guy fawkes day and sadie hawkins day all in the matter of a couple of weeks. stunning, the gradual change from the bright splashy yellows, to the mellower browns, the soft peace of early winter. the high holy days, so to speak.
conflict is like this: each side gets madder and madder. they can't really communicate. they know it's better to work it out, that letting it turn to full-scale war will be the ruin of everyone, that it's gone too far already. but they get into bad habits of perception: they begin to see each other as the enemy, they begin to be unable to see each other in any other way. now you might think that i'm thinking here of the unions and the administration, well i guess you could say that. or maybe the occupy protesters and the police, who have been going at it in various cities, though i've avoided that whole scene here, and didn't even drive by it today though i might have had a chance if i'd gone around. or you might think i'm talking about divorce, which i thought of for a minute, because here two people who told the world they loved each other are all of a sudden screaming and yelling and unable to think of each other as anything but enemies. but no, i'm actually thinking of the cards, who are in the entertainment business, so therefore see their texas brethren as enemies, only insofar as they have to beat them in an athletic contest, and win or lose the people are entertained, and pay the big bucks, and dress in red and such, and everyone wins, that is except the dude who fell from the upper bleachers and a couple of other random victims. it's much more wholesome, thinking about baseball. maybe i'll write a story, or make some music. i've got to get out of this vicious cycle.
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