Internal Compass

Of late, I wonder what has happened to people's internal compass. I'm talking about that little voice in your head that tells you right and wrong. I have one, and I thought everyone had one, even if they didn't listen to it.

But then the Debacle in DC happened, and I saw many otherwise normal Americans lose their internal compass. They broke doors and windows and attacked police. They participated in murder. All of the crowd in DC who attacked the Capitol are accomplices and conspirators in the commission of murder.

My internal compass and, perhaps, a watchful guardian angel, have kept me on the straight and narrow. That's how I see it. There have been times when I might have gone off the rails. But that didn't happen. Not because I never did anything stupid — I just never did anything that stupid. That's called having an internal compass.

How do people let themselves be brainwashed, or radicalized — choose your label — into doing something evil while thinking that it is not only good but necessary? I never understood Nazi Germany or how decent people could choose such a horrible path, but I understand it now. I'm not saying that what happened here and what happened in the German Reich are anywhere near equivalent. Certainly they're not. But watching the Capitol rioters left me with some insight into just how far people will go to have their way.

Recently there was an event in Florida called CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) at which Donald Trump made an appearance. They also had a "golden" Donald Trump statue. As Trump spoke, the audience interrupted his speech to shout "We love you!" again and again. It was almost Biblical. It really reminded me of the Hebrews who worshiped the Golden Calf.

Trump has sued and been sued so many times, there is a Wikipedia article listing his lawsuits. He twice lost the popular vote for president, never broke 50% approval, lost the House and the Senate, and may yet go to prison for criminal activities that are currently under investigation. He encouraged an insurrection that failed but may send many of his people to prison. Yet his followers worship him.

People get what they deserve. Karma is real. My advice is: be a responsible human being. Listen to your internal compass. And if you choose to do something really, really stupid, think twice before you (a) video yourself doing it and (b) put the video online for the world to see.

The Applebee Chronicles

I got up at 4AM. Now it is 6:30. I sent a friend a WhatsApp message. Soon we moved to Skype and continued for 2 ½ hours. What did I do before video chatting was invented? 

Oh, I remember. I had a life. I used to go to the bar at Applebee's where I knew everyone and I talked with people face-to-face. Those days are long gone. I even had a blog at the time. That was in 1999, about the time the word blog was invented. At some point in history I moved the blog to Blogger. If you read it, begin at the beginning, which is the earliest post. There are about ten posts per page, and you'll have to go to the bottom of the page and click "Older Posts." You'll have to do that several times to get to the first post so that you can begin reading at the beginning. 

I called that blog "The Applebee Chronicles." It's posted here. But as I said, don't start reading it there. Begin at the first post, which is the earliest post. The earliest post is here. It will be there for as long as Google exists, I would imagine, inasmuch as Google owns Blogger.

That blog was written about an Applebee's in Roanoke, Virginia. When I later moved to my current home, I began visiting the local Applebee's about once or twice a week. I got to know some of the bartenders, and I knew one especially well. Knowing your bartender makes lunch or dinner or just having a beer at the bar a lot nicer. I think anyone who has been a "regular" at a restaurant will understand what I mean.

There's nothing happening today. Cloudy, with rain this afternoon. More rain this weekend. Temperatures will be 60° Saturday and 67° Sunday. I'll be inside, studying Spanish. Which reminds me, I haven't answered my last two homework assignments. I have to do that and email them back to my Spanish tutor. The Spanish lesson I take each day lasts from two to four hours, depending on how long I can take it before I flake out. The homework usually takes an hour to do. So altogether I spend three to five hours per day on it. 

Why am I learning Spanish? I think as we get older we need to use our brains more to keep them healthy. I studied engineering for years, but I don't use that knowledge any more. I think having it helps me to think more rationally about all kinds of things, but I don't need it. There was a time when I took flying lessons in a small Cessna, but I don't need that knowledge now. There was a time when I built a ham radio station and got a license and operated it using Morse code. There was a time when a friend and I built and operated what was then called a "pirate radio" station, operating on both the AM and FM bands. Fun, but what did it do beside make some memories?

So why not learn Spanish? I started in high school with two years of study. Maybe I will finish that now. If you choose to read The Applebee Chronicles, I hope you enjoy them. I enjoyed writing them.

Blue Sky

Mother Nature is smiling on my city today. The town looks very different from the way it looked ten days ago.

<<<

A frozen tree in a nearby park ten days ago. The ice brought a power outage that lasted for about 24 hours. 

---

>>>

This is today, a pretty day with nary a wisp of cloud in the sky. The high temp was 68°F.

February is usually like this in central Virginia. We can have an ice storm one week and blue sky a week later. Young men with long shorts and young women with short shorts are riding skateboards on the paved walking trail in the park.

But the weather can change quickly. Rain and colder temperatures are on the way. Tomorrow, Thursday, will be partly cloudy, then rain and cold will arrive Friday. Soon it will be March and most of the winter will be behind us. 

When the rain gets here, I'll turn down the central heat and fire up the kerosene stove. I'll put the stove near my computer table so it warms me while I use the computer. A polished metal panel behind the heat chamber reflects warmth into the room and onto me. It is soothing, but can make me drowsy. It makes a good contrast with the cold rain outside.

I have food in the freezer and drinks in the fridge. There's nowhere I need to be now. I'll watch YouTube videos and play music. I'll take Spanish lessons and maybe write a blog post. Most importantly, I'll stay warm and dry. I hope my readers are doing the same.

Immigrants

I am thankful I was born in America. I could have been born to a poor family in a Central American country like Nicaragua, Honduras, or El Salvador. Those are very poor countries, and the people born there were born under an unlucky star. They didn't do something bad to be born there, any more than a random family in the Congo without medical or educational facilities, often without food and clean water, did something to deserve it. 

In Africa, people die from starvation. People die from diseases that, in the West, would be cured with antibiotics. People in Central America are fleeing conditions that are intolerable. To stay would mean death, or worse, and coming to America seems their only option. I'm very lucky to be here, and to have a right to be here. I didn't earn it. I didn't do anything special to get it. I was born in a country, at a time in history, where food and water and housing were available to anyone willing to work 40 hours a week. Many people in this world were not so fortunate. I was fortunate and I know it.

Those Americans who want to keep out immigrants were also fortunate to be born here, and did nothing to earn the right to be here. It was luck, like winning a lottery. They are Americans by birth and have many blessings they did not earn and do not appreciate. Most immigrants, whether legal or illegal, are honest and hard workers. 

Those Americans who want to deny desperate people the chance to have a life in America will one day learn a lesson. They will learn how it feels to be denied opportunity simply because of someone else's intolerance. They will learn how it feels to be denied freedom, a fair shake, a fighting chance at having a decent tomorrow. They will learn that lesson because the Universe must balance. A famous proverb states it this way: "What goes around, comes around."

I ask intolerant Americans who act hatefully toward immigrants, are you also atheists? Do you believe that turning your back on your brothers and sisters will be okay with the Infinite Spirit? Do you believe that you will never have to explain your actions? If you do, you are wrong. There will come a day of reckoning. People in need are also God's children. Remember the words of St. Francis of Assisi: "For it is in giving that we receive." 

Or choose not to believe me. Continue down the road you're on. I've made my choice. Now you make yours.

Quit

In my previous blog post (Facing Reality) I talked about how not facing reality has killed many people in Texas. But Texas is far from alone when it comes to not facing reality.

There is a kind of person (I think the current terminology for them is "Qcumbers") who are widely known to be far-out conspiracy believers. When I first heard of the crap being spouted by their leadership, collectively known as Qanonsense, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Surely these people don't really believe that Democrat politicians are Satanist pedophiles operating child sex rings in the basements of D.C. pizza restaurants? Plenty of people in this country are half brain dead, but no one is dumb enough to believe in that kind of nonsense. Satanist pedophiles? Child sex rings? Come on, people. I was sure someone was yanking my leg really hard.

But as time went by, I discovered this Qanonsense was more than a very bad joke. Some people really believe it. And those people are the Qcumbers. A bunch of Qcumbers recently decided it was their job to overthrow the U.S. government. They tried their best to do it, but the joke was on them. It turned out all the Qanonsense was just made-up bullshit. Baloney. Hogwash. Bunk. Rubbish. Poppycock. As all people with a functioning brain already knew from the get-go.

Long ago, I read about a man who claimed he had contact with space aliens. Or—a space alien, to be precise. He claimed a flying saucer landed in his backyard and an alien got out of it and approached him while carrying a plate of hotcakes. The alien gave the plate of hotcakes to the man and then returned to his saucer and away they went. The man was left befuddled, but with a nice, warm plate of hotcakes.

Sure, that happened.

You cannot make up a story so crazy that a lot of people won't believe it. Because they will. Believe it.

I think these Qcumbers have watched too many sci-fi movies and too many TV shows that depict a lot of impossible stuff. They have been brainwashed to believe anything is possible. We really do live in an amazing world but folks, anything is not possible. Not yet, and likely not ever. 

The solution to defective thinking is to educate people, beginning in childhood. But that concept has gone out the window. I have friends who teach school, and according to what they tell me, schools are basically daycare for the kids of people who have jobs. Many kids don't even try to learn, and their disruptive behavior prevents other kids from learning. The education system is failing, and Qanonsense and similar ilk is the result. The Qcumbers thought they were the saviors of democracy, when in reality they were more like the gunk that gets trapped in your car's oil filter. They're being held in jails now on minor charges like trespassing, but we all know that more serious charges, like sedition and conspiracy, are even now coming their way.

People. Wake up. Think. Don't sit at your computer and let yourself be radicalized. Before you act, stop and ask yourself, "Am I about to do something incredibly stupid that could send me to prison for years?"

Then, turn off your computer and go outside and take a walk around a nearby park. Sit on a park bench and take slow, deep breaths and count to one hundred. Then go home and throw your computer out the window, buy a new computer, and never again visit places on the Web that try to fill your head with rubbish. There's a world out there with lots of cool places to visit and neat things to do. Love your fellow humans and never again let anyone fill your head with hate. You can do it if you try.

Facing Reality

You cannot protect yourself from things that are real if you cannot acknowledge they are real. You cannot protect yourself from the consequences of false beliefs if you cannot acknowledge they are false.

People in Texas are freezing to death while politicians blame the disaster on wind turbines, as if this is some kind of newfangled technology that no one really understands. Here are a few facts. 

The first known wind turbine used to produce electricity was constructed in Scotland in 1887.

The first known wind turbine used to produce electricity in America was constructed in Ohio in 1888.

Wind turbines are currently used to produce electricity in 43 American states, including almost all the states on our border with Canada. Wind turbines are used in Canada, coast to coast. Wind turbines are used in Antarctica.

Wind turbines produce electricity in countries around the world in every kind of climate. By 2012, 100 countries were using wind turbines to produce electricity. 

In fact, there were 341,000 wind turbines in the world as of September, 2017. Among all countries, the United States has the second largest number of wind turbines as of 2019, generating 15% of its electricity. The country having the most wind turbines is China, with wind turbines generating 45% of its electricity. If you consider the European Union as a single country, then they would be number two and the US would drop to third place.

Yet Texas politicians claim the turbines don't work in winter. And it's not only politicians, it's all the True Believers on the right who would like us to believe that Texans installed over 10,700 wind turbines in their state before discovering they don't work in winter. But wait, it's not just wind turbines. Half of the power plants operating on oil, coal, and gas have also gone offline. And a nuclear power plant had to partially shut down. Have Texas politicians proven that all these technologies will not work in cold weather?

Or have we demonstrated that electric power plants in Texas, like power plants elsewhere around the world, must be properly winterized in order to operate in snow and frigid conditions? 

One more thing: if Texas operated its power grid like the other 47 contiguous states, they could have drawn electric power from the North American Power Grid, the same grid that provides power to 400 million Americans and Canadians.

The fiasco in Texas is human-made, the result of people refusing to face reality. Those who blame wind turbines are still not facing reality. I wonder how shivering people in Texas felt about one of their top politicians escaping to Cancún with his family as the disaster unfolded and people froze to death. Some heads should roll in Austin, but I bet they won't. If Texas wants to yank all their wind turbines out of the ground and sell them on the second-hand market, I bet there will be plenty of eager buyers looking for a good deal. And if and when this kind of disaster happens again, who or what will the politicos blame then?

Bad Weather

Bad weather is on the way. Again.

I blame Texas. That's where this crap has been starting. Not in Los Angles. Not in Las Vegas. Not in Albuquerque. No, rumor has it that the center of the outage is some place north of San Antonio. Possibly in a small village called Bulverde (verde means green in Spanish). Or maybe a little bit further north, in a wide spot in the road called Spring Branch. Or maybe it's called Spring Break. It's what I hear.

Texas has its own electric grid. Texans are a proud and independent people. They were sure that one day America's electric grid would go down and they wanted to be independent and keep their electricity turned on. Their state motto is, "We don't need your stinkin' electricity." I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time. But unfortunately for Texas, when demand went up the grid went down because they couldn't draw extra power from the big grid. 

That's not to say that we always have electricity here in Virginia. A hurricane or an ice storm can bring down tree limbs, breaking electric wires and causing power failures. But the power failures are localized. My power can be off and a few blocks away the power is still on. Electric power failures are spotty.

I feel bad for the Texans without power. I really do. I just went through a weekend with no electricity, and it wasn't fun. And the temperature was just below 30°F, which is really not that cold. It's a tad below freezing, but not so cold that you would worry about your water pipes freezing and bursting.

Today is sunny, the temperature now is 30F° and the high temperature will be around 40°F. But tonight, tomorrow, and tomorrow night will be when trouble may come knocking at my door. We're supposed to get a "wintry mix" for 24 hours followed by a night of freezing rain.

So last night I bought food. I also bought five gallons of kerosene. I have a kerosene space heater, which won't heat the house but it will heat a room. I've used it many times as a supplement to my primary heat. It feels good to have a "hot spot" in the house.

I've prepared. Now all I can do is cross my fingers and hope for the best. I'll cross my fingers for those shivering Texans, too. I hope they come through this new cold snap without further loss of life. In 21st century America, no one should die because of bad weather.

Generosity

It's 11:30PM on February 15, 2021 as I begin writing. Today is (was) a holiday that used to be called Washington's Birthday, but now it's called President's Day. I don't know why the name was changed. It might be that Washington is no longer politically correct, what with owning slaves and the baggage that goes with that, so maybe he's been consigned to the dustbin of history, along with Jefferson, and their names shall no longer be mentioned.

However, I am wandering. I had a topic in mind when I started this blog post. The topic is generosity.

People feel good for different reasons. And one thing that makes people feel good is doing something nice for someone else.

Maybe doing something nice makes them feel important. 

Maybe they feel blessed and also feel that sharing their blessings with others is a moral imperative.

Maybe they feel indebted to another person and want to pay back that debt. (You've done nice things for me and now I want to do this for you because I feel I owe you and I want to pay you back so we'll be even.)

Maybe they cherish the other person as a family member, or as a boyfriend or girlfriend, or maybe as a good friend they know can depend on. Maybe they just want that other person to know they are valued.

But there are generous people who simply won't accept generosity. With them, generosity is a one-way street. And to them I want to say these few words.

If you enjoy doing things for other people, do you think it's fair to deny other people the same enjoyment?

It's good to be generous. And it's okay to say "No thanks" to an offer of generosity. But sometimes the right thing to say is "Thanks," and let the other person feel good.

Adele

The song of the day is Set Fire to the Rain from the 2012 album 21 by English singer-songwriter Adele (Adele Laurie Blue Adkins).

Ice Storm

The weather forecast was for icicles (see previous post) and boy, did we get icicles. Central Virginia got an ice storm. The power went off, and with it, my home heating system. Also not running: my fridge. The electric stove was not usable. The electric water heater was not working. I walked down the street

to my friend Butch's house. His power was off, but he had a fireplace and just as important—firewood to burn for heat. I have a fireplace with a wood-burning insert, but I had no wood to burn in it. I'm now re-thinking my no-wood policy.

About 5 hours later, the electricity came on again. That lasted 15 minutes, and the electric power went off. Butch's house was getting cold, but the room with the fireplace was livable. I was wearing a heavy, long-sleeved shirt and jeans over long johns, and I was comfortable. Darkness fell and the room was illuminated by candles and the wood fire. It makes a nice picture, but no electricity meant no TV and no radio, and when our cell phone batteries ran low on charge, we had no way to recharge them so we powered them off to conserve battery.

The night grew late, and I lay on the sofa under a heavy blanket, while Butch slept in his chair under a blanket. I was comfortable. Butch got up several times during the night to put wood on the fire. The night passed uneventfully.

The next morning, power was still off. When a power outage occurs over a wide area, such as central Virginia, service is restored according to a schedule. Power plants, high-voltage transmission lines, and substations are brought online. Then, power is restored to essential services and facilities critical to public health and safety such as hospitals, nursing homes, fire and police departments, and water systems. Then crews are dispatched to repair lines that will return service to the largest number of customers in the least amount of time. Finally, individual homes and small groups of homes have power restored.

I decided to take a nap—my go-to inactivity when I have nothing to do. I awoke at midday, and looked at the clock. The red LED digits were blinking "12:04," meaning the clock had been powered on for four minutes. Holy cow, we had electricity again!

We allowed the fire to die down to red coals, and we put a firescreen in front of the fireplace, and we drove to get something to eat. We first went to McDonalds. The lights were on and there were people inside, but they were closed. Earlier in the day, they were the only restaurant open for miles, and now they were out out of food.

We drove on, and we ended up at Arby's. This wasn't just any Arby's. My small city has the world's largest Arby's restaurant. From where I was dining, I snapped a photo of a totem pole inside the restaurant, because totem poles are cool. I sent the photo to a friend who lives in another country and ten seconds later I received a reply. Modern times!

We ate our meals and Butch drove us to our homes. First to my home, where he dropped me off, and then he continued to his own home (I presume).

The heating system was running. I could hear the boiler running in the cellar, and the radiators were hot. The house was warming up. I checked the freezer compartment of my refrigerator. The frozen foods were still frozen and the ice-maker was full of ice cubes. I survived, the house survived, and neither of us seems worse for the experience.

I'll have to ponder what lessons to take away from this. I have a 9800 BTU kerosene heater that I used to use in winter. Maybe I should clean the wick and keep a few gallons of kerosene on hand for it. Maybe I should buy a home generator sufficient to power the boiler in the basement and the fridge. The question boils down to how much money do I want to spend on something that may not happen again in the time remaining to me, however much or little that may be. As I said, I'll have to ponder that question.

For those who want to see more local photos of the storm's aftermath, visit this link.

Stay warm and stay safe!

Icicles

Forecast: icicles.

Reality: icicles.

(Picture taken this morning. The icicles have only grown longer during the day. The temperature has not risen above 30°F today, and melting snow from the roof -- the roof is warmer than the air, thanks to the heat in the house -- has run down to the awnings and causes the icicles to grow.)

The weather guys and gals nailed this forecast. They said it would be cold. It's cold. They said it would be wet. It's wet. 

Cold + wet = ice.

How is your weather? Count your blessings if you never see icicles when you look out your window. I am trying to remember what a sunny day looks like.

The forecast looks the same every day into the future. Except, Sunday might be rainy. Then Sunday night resumes with the icicles.

At least, these are puny icicles. I've seen icicles three feet long hanging from eaves of roofs. Killer icicles. If one of those falls on you from a second story roof, you're dead. 

This forecast won't impress my friends in southwest Virginia. They've seen worse. Of course, I've seen worse, too. I'm thankful I don't need to go outside today. Ice can be treacherous. Oh, I could tell you stories—personal stories. But I will tell you a story that happened to a friend.

He was driving on US 460 east of Roanoke, headed to Roanoke. His car hit a patch of black ice on the road, and it lost traction. It spun around in a complete circle, and just as the black ice ended, his car was pointed in the direction he had been traveling. So he continued down the road as if nothing had happened. A mile or two later, a car that had been behind him pulled up and flashed its headlights. So my friend stopped his car. The other car's driver walked up to my friend's car window and handed my friend a hubcap he had lost in the spin. Very nice of that driver!

An incident that happened to me when I lived in North Carolina stands out in my memory. I was driving down my street, headed to work. At the end of the street there was an intersection and a stop sign on my street. I knew there would be ice, so I was driving very slowly. I guess I was going maybe three miles an hour—walking speed. As I neared the stop sign, I tapped the brakes. Nothing happened. I tapped the brakes again. And again. And again. Each time I tapped the brakes, my car seemed to go faster. I passed the stop sign at a leisurely walking speed and came to a stop in the middle of the intersection. Thankfully, no other cars were traveling on that road.

I'll tell you another story. I was walking across a black asphalt parking lot and I stepped on some black ice I didn't see. I went down on my left side. My left hip and shoulder hit the pavement hard, but I slapped the pavement hard with my gloved right hand to prevent my head from banging into the asphalt. I was successful, and got back to my feet, bruised but uninjured, and continued my journey. Black ice is treacherous because you don't know it's there until it's too late. Yesterday, in Fort Worth, Texas, there was a pileup of cars and trucks on an interstate highway that involved 100 vehicles. Six people were killed. Ice hits without warning. One moment you're driving normally, and the next moment your vehicle is out of control. 

Stay safe, folks. Stay warm and stay safe.

Season of Malaise

"And Winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!"
—excerpt from "Work Without Hope" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Those lines of poetry floated through my brain as I assembled a ham sandwich in my kitchen. I had been online, studying Spanish with my tutor, and I needed to take a break for midday nourishment. After lunch I returned to my computer and resumed the lesson until 5pm. At that point I quit the lesson in order to eat a small supper. Tonight, supper was two bowls of Brunswick stew.

It's gloomy outside, as it has been all day. The sun is setting and darkness will be here soon. I will take more Spanish lessons before I quit for the day. I'd like to go to bed early tonight. When I stay up late I want to sleep late, and that is not something I want to make a habit of doing. I manage to squeeze in an hour of TV entertainment each week. I watch NCIS (the original, not the spinoffs) when I remember it's coming on TV. But I'll watch no TV entertainment tonight.

I call this time the season of malaise. Not only is it often cloudy, cold, and raining, but there's a pandemic out there. If only Coleridge were alive today, he would be writing a poem about this pandemia, in which emotions often mirror the weather.

Yet, I know that Spring will come. Winter will go back into hiding, the birds and bees will return and the amaranth will bloom again. We can pretend, for a while, that we are in a normal world, even if we are not. Especially if we are not.

Spanish Two

It's midnight and I should be in bed. Yesterday I went to bed at 2AM today. Or to say it another way, I didn't go to bed yesterday. But yesterday, I was online with my Spanish tutor for 5 hours, then she sent me two quizzes to complete—about 4 pages each. 

Today's online session was about 4 hours. I can study for only so long before I begin experiencing brain fog. As one of my readers noted in a comment, verb conjugations are tough. English has 12 tenses; Spanish has 14 tenses. But there are three main tenses: present, past, and future. Pick a verb tense, and for that tense there are first person, second person, and third person, for both singular and plural uses of the verb. That's a lot to learn and recall. But I'll keep truckin' and see how far down the road I can get. Even with beginner grammar skills, Spanish speakers hopefully will understand what I am trying to say. Communication will occur. "I go now" or "I eat now" will get my point across.

I've also identified some Spanish-language TV shows online that are designed to teach Spanish. I'll give those a try. Watch TV and learn. Certainly, many people have learned English that way.

In the middle of this, I have to paint the bathroom and make some faucet repairs. And I think one of the heating elements in the water heater has gone out; the hot water goes from hot to warm much too quickly. I have a list of little jobs that have to get done. Now it's 1AM, meaning tomorrow has become today, and I must get into bed and try to get in a few hours of sleep before morning. ¡Hasta luego!

Spanish

I'm studying español, as you know if you've been here recently. Some words I encounter one time and I know them. Other words I encounter again and again and regardless of how many times I look up their definitions, I still don't know their meaning the next time I see them. I suppose that will change, eventually.

I have a Spanish tutor now. A teacher instructs a class; a tutor instructs one person at a time. My tutor is a native Spanish speaker, so Spanish is her first language. She watches my lessons, notes where I have trouble, and emails me lessons in the form of quizzes. She doesn't grade the quizzes. She writes them to help me learn words and phrases that are giving me trouble.

I studied Spanish for two years in high school. That was long ago, and I've forgotten most of what I learned, but I remember some of it. Now I'm studying it again. What else can a person do with his time? Besides watching fútbol americano on the telly? I blog, partly because I enjoy writing and partly to stay ocupado. I've posted 1600 articles on this blog since I began writing it. My blog posts are not all gems, but some of them are at least as good as anything else I've read in the blogosphere. (If I say so myself, and I do.)

Speaking of football, I watched most of last night's Super Bowl. The halftime shows used to be entertaining, but they've become increasingly bizarre of late, so I tune them out. I watched the Super Bowl from my computer desk, where I was mostly concentrating on Spanish lessons. From what I saw of the game, it was so-so. Not "super," but I didn't expect it to be. So it met my expectations: just a hard-fought, gridiron football game. But I don't think Americans expect a super football game. The purpose of the Super Bowl is to have a reason for people to get together and drink alcohol and party. Americans love to party and will use any excuse to do so. For example, New York City has the oldest and largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the world. Before covid-19, the parade would typically have about 150,000 participants. And St. Patrick is Ireland's patron saint!

I seldom watch television. When I was younger I had little time for television. I thought most of it was lame. Almost anything was more interesting. The word "television" in Spanish is televisión. Note the accent mark. The Spanish are fond of sprinkling accent marks throughout their language. Somehow, the Brits and the americanos trudge along, speaking and writing books in English with nary an accent mark except for some foreign-language words. I wonder about Portuguese. It's similar to Spanish. At least, it looks similar on a page. Does that language use a profligate quantity of accent marks? I bet it does.

You might think accent marks are important, but they're not. The excuse for using them is to distinguish between words with the same spelling, and to show which syllable is accented in a word that does not follow the rules for accenting. But the spoken language doesn't use accent marks and people understand words from their context. Obviously, written words can also be understood from context, as that is how English works. But Spanish speakers refuse to give up their accent marks.

If I go to a Spanish-speaking country, I will have to carry notes in my pocket to refer to when I'm trying to communicate. Of course, there are translation apps available for phones, but for me, notes are quicker to use. There's an app for that? No, there's a note for that.

When early April arrives I'll have Spanish-speaking visitors arriving and living with me for a while, so I'm cramming the lessons now, trying to get up to speed on the language. I would like to be able to communicate, at least on a basic level, with people living with me. I'm sure we'll find a way to communicate. People always do.

¡Ten un día maravilloso! ¡Hasta luego!

Termites

Today is February 4th. The year is still 2021. This year is really passing slowly. I'm taking a Spanish lesson every day, thanks to a website called Duolingo. Learning Spanish is easy. After only three months, I have already learned how to say the word "No" in Spanish. I estimate that I will be able to speak Spanish like a two year old in another 75 years. I recently had the following conversation.

Spanish-speaking friend: "VirtualWayne, say something in Spanish."

Me: "Cookie."

Friend: "That's English."

Me: "Hmmm. Let me check something on my phone. Da-da-duh-da-hmmm-hmm-hmm-hmm. Got it. Galleta."

Friend: "That's biscuit."

Me: "Bizcochito?"

Friend: "That's  cupcake."

Me: "Damn it! How about...(thinking hard)...bollito?"

Friend: "Never mind. It was a trick question. Spanish doesn't have a word for cookie."

Me: "Are you sure?"

Friend: "I'm Latina. Have you ever seen me eat a cookie?"

Me: "No."

Friend: "There you have it. Cookie doesn't exist in Spanish."

Me: "What about computer cookies...those short text files that a web browser can save?"

Friend: "They're called browser biscuits in Spanish."

Me: "Ay, chihuahua."

Getting back to reality, today is 50°F and sunny. I went to the grocery store yesterday, and when I came back to my car, I noticed my left rear tire looked a little bit low. So after I got home and put away the groceries, I checked the air pressure in the tire. It was less than 15 psi. Normally, I keep the tire inflated to 30 psi. I pumped up the tire with the noisiest air compressor in the world. It's a little thing that pumps tire pressure to as much as 200 psi, though I have no doubt it would take a week to do it. It took 15 minutes to go from 15 psi to 30 psi. Then I topped off the other 3 tires.

While I was doing that, I noticed termite tubes on one of the 2x4 shelving supports next to my vehicle. This was new. If you don't know what termite tubes are, they are mud tunnels termites make to travel above ground to a new place to eat your house. Wingless termites exposed to fresh air or sunshine will die in a couple of minutes.

Termite tubes look like this: (the hum-Beep is in the audio track. Sorry.)

 

"Why don't I just call an exterminator?" I hear you thinking. I probably will, and I need them to crawl under the house and check for termites there, too. One problem: the last time I had a pest control company check under my house, the guys knocked off the insulation protecting the heating system pipes. Meaning, I would have lost a bunch of heat (read: money) under the house. Not only that, but it is possible the heating pipes could have frozen. The thing that really bothered me was that they didn't tell me. I had to go under the house a few weeks later for some other reason, and discovered the damaged insulation. Damaging it and not repairing it was bad. Damaging it and not telling me they damaged it was indefensible. So now I don't trust them. I'll probably crawl under the house with them.

Once upon a time, people took pride in their work. A job well done was almost a point of honor. Now its all about the benjamins. Get to the job, do it as fast as possible, and get to the next job. Who can you trust to do a good job? The number of workmen who do a good job seems to get smaller year by year.