More heat than light
Quarter mile to the sub shop and the same distance back, in 35 degree heat. That should count double for the trip to Rivendell. "We never had weather like this back home..."
(It occurs to me that there is something to the Fahrenheit scale. After all, that guy named Fahrenheit measured the coldest thing he could find (some salted ice slurry, if memory serves) and the hottest thing (his own armpit) and marked it accordingly that way, so you are, for practical purposes, never going to see a day below zero or above one hundred. It's days like this - or any day, if you're in Arizona - which put the lie to that old thing, though. For those used to another scale, 35 doesn't sound hot, until you realize that the weatherman is actually telling you that it's 35% of that which is needed to boil water, get out of the heat, you idiot.)
The nice lady at the sub shop's grill commented that I looked like Bill Gates. (Probably the general geek-with-glasses look.) I commented back that I'd rather have Gates's money than his looks, which prompted some reassurances from both the women there that they thought Gates was attractive, and would rather have Gates than Donald Trump. That's another one of those compliments that I'm not sure how to take, but I smiled and said thanks.
The news from the Middle East is unbelievably depressing. There are times when I watch things like this and how they play out when I begin to believe that just beyond my group of admittedly highly intelligent friends and acquaintances (all of you reading are included), the level of idiocy and lunacy rises dramatically...and it gives me this uncomfortable, fishbowl-bound feeling. In the middle of this, the Greens have been told to expect Jewish groups to petition our national convention at the end of the month because of our stance on Israel. Something is happening that should have caused them to take a step back and think hard about that which they are championing, and instead it's seeming to spur them on. I'm glad we will have a chance to talk to them - and I'm saying that honestly - but I can't say right now that I entirely understand where they are coming from. What I see in the Middle East is Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims, cheerfully marching ever faster to their own destruction. I may not agree point-by-point with every plank in the Green Party's policy towards Israel, but I'm very proud of my party for standing up and saying something different, something that attempts to bring sanity to an insane situation, especially in an election year.
(It occurs to me that there is something to the Fahrenheit scale. After all, that guy named Fahrenheit measured the coldest thing he could find (some salted ice slurry, if memory serves) and the hottest thing (his own armpit) and marked it accordingly that way, so you are, for practical purposes, never going to see a day below zero or above one hundred. It's days like this - or any day, if you're in Arizona - which put the lie to that old thing, though. For those used to another scale, 35 doesn't sound hot, until you realize that the weatherman is actually telling you that it's 35% of that which is needed to boil water, get out of the heat, you idiot.)
The nice lady at the sub shop's grill commented that I looked like Bill Gates. (Probably the general geek-with-glasses look.) I commented back that I'd rather have Gates's money than his looks, which prompted some reassurances from both the women there that they thought Gates was attractive, and would rather have Gates than Donald Trump. That's another one of those compliments that I'm not sure how to take, but I smiled and said thanks.
The news from the Middle East is unbelievably depressing. There are times when I watch things like this and how they play out when I begin to believe that just beyond my group of admittedly highly intelligent friends and acquaintances (all of you reading are included), the level of idiocy and lunacy rises dramatically...and it gives me this uncomfortable, fishbowl-bound feeling. In the middle of this, the Greens have been told to expect Jewish groups to petition our national convention at the end of the month because of our stance on Israel. Something is happening that should have caused them to take a step back and think hard about that which they are championing, and instead it's seeming to spur them on. I'm glad we will have a chance to talk to them - and I'm saying that honestly - but I can't say right now that I entirely understand where they are coming from. What I see in the Middle East is Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims, cheerfully marching ever faster to their own destruction. I may not agree point-by-point with every plank in the Green Party's policy towards Israel, but I'm very proud of my party for standing up and saying something different, something that attempts to bring sanity to an insane situation, especially in an election year.