For a few years when I was little, Ohio was having a larger than normal number of tornado warnings and touchdowns.
When I was seven, we were at my brother's little league game when the clouds began to darken ominously. Just as the coaches were conferring about calling the game, a HUGE gust of wind whipped up out of nowhere. My mom was hugely pregnant at the time, and was trying to hurry to the car with lawn chairs in one hand and my hand in the other when the wind suddenly got VERY intense, and I was very nearly blown off my feet. Somehow, my mom, who was not only enormously pregnant but also challenged with one bad leg that never let her be able to run, managed to keep both me and the lawn chairs from blowing away. It was the most harrowing 2 block ride home in our station wagon, and I would have sworn to you that the picture the next day on the front of the Columbus Citizen-Journal was of our house with the tornado not quite touching down on it.
When I was eight, we began to assume in the spring and fall that dinner would be eaten downstairs around the workbench in the northwest corner of the basement because there would be a tornado warning precisely at dinnertime.
My older brother and his friend would sneak out on their bikes if they could manage it, and try to identify and "follow" funnel clouds. I thought this sounded fantastic, but I wasn't allowed to go with them. Probably just as well.
When I got older, I realized how foolish this was. I volunteered as a teenager at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI), and one of my favorite places to get assigned in was a real, working weather station. We would do presentations about the weather, and the finale was shooting a pencil through a long "tornado gun" at wind speeds comparable to a tornado--150-200 miles per hour. A pencil could go straight through a piece of 2 x 4. We also had a piece of wood siding that had been pierced by a playing card that stuck halfway out of it which had been done by an actual tornado. It really brought home to me that you don't want to mess around--get somewhere underground and reenforced!
When I moved out to California, friends that had lived there all there lives were in terror of tornadoes and wondered how midwesterners could live with that as a threat. I used to joke, "Hey, you guys have earthquakes! I rather have tornadoes, at least you can hide from them!"
The pictures and stories of the supercell of tornadoes that went across the south yesterday are gut-wrenching. The loss of life seems like it should be unheard of in this century. However, an F5 or three of that caliber is hard to keep safe from, and in the south they never seem to get that they need to be more serious about storm shelters. So many people had nowhere to go even in their own houses. In all the rebuilding that is doing to have to happen, I hope that they will have the foresight to add decent storm shelters in their new plans.
And I fervently hope that there weren't any boys or girls caught out too far from home while riding around on their bikes playing 'storm chasers' or at least that they were able to find somewhere to hide.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Sharing a beautiful TED Talk
If you haven't wandered over to the site, Ted.com, you should, to hear some of the most amazing speeches on a wide range of topics. Some of them are so inspiring, and many reduce me to tears.
This one is one of my latest favorites to spring into tears by:
This one is one of my latest favorites to spring into tears by:
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Murphy's Irish Stout. Oh, I am in love again.
Tonight Dan and I went to an Irish pub in Barrington called McGonagal's Pub, just to try someplace new. It ended up being really very nice, and definitely a place we will go back to.
The atmosphere was nice, lots of wood on walls and floor, lots of room, so even though it was crowded, it wasn't overbearing and we could hear each other.
The menu was interesting, and the appetizer (smoked salmon wrapped around crab on top of a salad) and the spicy curry fries were really tasty. There is a lot of really good looking food, but we will be back to explore it more later. Tonight we were peckish.
My favorite thing on the menu though, was Murphy's Irish Stout. They had a marvelous keg of it there, properly dispensed, and it tasted like the beer you get in Ireland or Great Britain.
Murphy's is a sipping beer, one that you love to have play all over your tongue. The foam on top is extremely creamy and very thick, and the beer itself is chocolately and deep and not very fizzy at all, yet it doesn't taste flat. It could be a meal in itself, and I just loved it.
I am very excited to have found it well served nearby, and even had the rest of the restaurant experience terrible (which it definitely wasn't), I would still return for a such an authentic tasting, well-poured glass of Murphy's Irish Stout.
The atmosphere was nice, lots of wood on walls and floor, lots of room, so even though it was crowded, it wasn't overbearing and we could hear each other.
The menu was interesting, and the appetizer (smoked salmon wrapped around crab on top of a salad) and the spicy curry fries were really tasty. There is a lot of really good looking food, but we will be back to explore it more later. Tonight we were peckish.
My favorite thing on the menu though, was Murphy's Irish Stout. They had a marvelous keg of it there, properly dispensed, and it tasted like the beer you get in Ireland or Great Britain.
Murphy's is a sipping beer, one that you love to have play all over your tongue. The foam on top is extremely creamy and very thick, and the beer itself is chocolately and deep and not very fizzy at all, yet it doesn't taste flat. It could be a meal in itself, and I just loved it.
I am very excited to have found it well served nearby, and even had the rest of the restaurant experience terrible (which it definitely wasn't), I would still return for a such an authentic tasting, well-poured glass of Murphy's Irish Stout.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Making Changes, Working a Program (or app)
I have made mention of the fact that I am often not pleased with my weight or spongitude of my muscles in the spring. Usually my solution has been to train to run a marathon. However, I have decided to be a little gentler to myself this year, and instead I am using the wonders of technology to keep my diet and exercise in check.
For the past two weeks, I have been using two android apps in tandem--one called Cardiotrainer, and the other is called Caloriffic--to work towards increasing fitness and decreasing what I am eating.
Caloriffic puts foods into three different catagories; green yellow and red. I bumped it up from its free version to make it calculate out my calories for weight loss goals. It's extremely easy to use, and things are catagorized in such a way to make entry easy and quick and pretty accurate. It's a great way get a reactive effect from self reporting, and makes me more mindful of what I am putting into my mouth and when.
Cardiotrainer I have been using for almost a year, and it's great for using the GPS to tell you how far you have gone, and how fast. I love that there is a little British "man" who announces my times, my calorie burns and how long I have been walking or running or biking.
Since I have upgraded part of the apps to work together, I now get a listing of how many calories I have burned this month, and how many miles I have gone. So far in April, I have matched my total for all of March. I am shooting for 10,000 calories burned in April. I am halfway there.
Is it working? It's too early to say. It has only been two weeks, and I have worked out all but one day. My scale is very old and isn't giving accurate numbers--either that or I have gained 6 lbs. off and on this week, sometimes in the space of minutes. I do believe I will be working from the "scale of pants" until I get a replacement. The Scale of Pants says that things are fitting a skosh better, but nothing visible yet.
For the past two weeks, I have been using two android apps in tandem--one called Cardiotrainer, and the other is called Caloriffic--to work towards increasing fitness and decreasing what I am eating.
Caloriffic puts foods into three different catagories; green yellow and red. I bumped it up from its free version to make it calculate out my calories for weight loss goals. It's extremely easy to use, and things are catagorized in such a way to make entry easy and quick and pretty accurate. It's a great way get a reactive effect from self reporting, and makes me more mindful of what I am putting into my mouth and when.
Cardiotrainer I have been using for almost a year, and it's great for using the GPS to tell you how far you have gone, and how fast. I love that there is a little British "man" who announces my times, my calorie burns and how long I have been walking or running or biking.
Since I have upgraded part of the apps to work together, I now get a listing of how many calories I have burned this month, and how many miles I have gone. So far in April, I have matched my total for all of March. I am shooting for 10,000 calories burned in April. I am halfway there.
Is it working? It's too early to say. It has only been two weeks, and I have worked out all but one day. My scale is very old and isn't giving accurate numbers--either that or I have gained 6 lbs. off and on this week, sometimes in the space of minutes. I do believe I will be working from the "scale of pants" until I get a replacement. The Scale of Pants says that things are fitting a skosh better, but nothing visible yet.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Random Thoughts
I am working on my first actual essay in a long while, but in the mean time, while it's cooking I thought I would jot out some of the dross that is cluttering my brain
To the friend who does not know how to come back after a grievous mistake, just come back. Be present. We know who you are. And we know what's influencing you. Stop avoiding us. We'll tell you you're stupid, which you know already, and then we will be happy you're back in our lives. The end.
Finding the excellent job really is all about who you know. I need to get to know a lot more people.
Computers eat life.
The more the religious right asserts itself as a political concern, the more I viscerally hate religion. I don't self identify as christian anymore. God is still cool, but those people on the religious right don't seem to know Him, and too many of them preach in churches.
To the GOP, I look at your budget proposals and think--are you effing kidding. Really. You may be all about serving the corporate masters that pay for your campaigns, but remember, it's still us "little people" that vote. The real drivers of the economy are NOT the upper 2%, but the rest of us who buy and sell and work in this nation. If we are not thriving, the country cannot thrive economically, or in any other way. Also, putting the deficit reduction on the backs of the elderly and disabled and the poor while giving free money to rich people who don't need it really makes you as a group look like a bunch of self-serving, rich entitled assholes. Oh wait. Gosh! Almost all y'all in Congress are! And here is a lovely article that explains why you are such shitheads to the lower quadrants and does it all so much better than I can right now.
Everything going on in the middle east, the continuing genocides in African nations like Sudan, the never ending wars that we never should have let ourselves be LIED into, the ozone depleting 40% over the poles this winter, Japan's many crises, and the stagnation of so many things that we know really need to change, like finding energy sources that won't kill off the planet as we know it...it gets so depressing. It gets so large. I don't think most people can put their heads around it. It's all so frightening and complex. No wonder people get so easily distracted by Charlie Sheen acting like he's imploding for the masses, or Jersey Shore. It's stupid, but it's simple. It's also incredibly sad that so many people latch on to crap like this like it matters while the world is threatening to disintegrate around us.
To the friend who does not know how to come back after a grievous mistake, just come back. Be present. We know who you are. And we know what's influencing you. Stop avoiding us. We'll tell you you're stupid, which you know already, and then we will be happy you're back in our lives. The end.
Finding the excellent job really is all about who you know. I need to get to know a lot more people.
Computers eat life.
The more the religious right asserts itself as a political concern, the more I viscerally hate religion. I don't self identify as christian anymore. God is still cool, but those people on the religious right don't seem to know Him, and too many of them preach in churches.
To the GOP, I look at your budget proposals and think--are you effing kidding. Really. You may be all about serving the corporate masters that pay for your campaigns, but remember, it's still us "little people" that vote. The real drivers of the economy are NOT the upper 2%, but the rest of us who buy and sell and work in this nation. If we are not thriving, the country cannot thrive economically, or in any other way. Also, putting the deficit reduction on the backs of the elderly and disabled and the poor while giving free money to rich people who don't need it really makes you as a group look like a bunch of self-serving, rich entitled assholes. Oh wait. Gosh! Almost all y'all in Congress are! And here is a lovely article that explains why you are such shitheads to the lower quadrants and does it all so much better than I can right now.
Everything going on in the middle east, the continuing genocides in African nations like Sudan, the never ending wars that we never should have let ourselves be LIED into, the ozone depleting 40% over the poles this winter, Japan's many crises, and the stagnation of so many things that we know really need to change, like finding energy sources that won't kill off the planet as we know it...it gets so depressing. It gets so large. I don't think most people can put their heads around it. It's all so frightening and complex. No wonder people get so easily distracted by Charlie Sheen acting like he's imploding for the masses, or Jersey Shore. It's stupid, but it's simple. It's also incredibly sad that so many people latch on to crap like this like it matters while the world is threatening to disintegrate around us.
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