Category Archives: BLOG (2009-2010)

Chica plays with electric razor

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Chica likes playing with my electric razor, which I really don’t use because I shave with a blade.

Actually, I think she has a love/hate relationship with the machine because she seems to want to discipline it with vigorous swats when I turn it on and put it on the floor.  I think the hair between her paw pads, which is fairly long, also gets a trim when she touches the razor before giving it a good pounding.

I’m not sure how to interpret her striking attitude toward razor except maybe there’s a little anti-luddite reproach happening?

chica and the electric razor

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One of Chica’s favorite toys is my rechargeable neck trimmer.  I didn’t offer it to her on this occasion so she didn’t seem very interested in the electric razor.  But it was, perhaps, an interesting “existential” moment.  I’m not sure if she WAS contemplating anything except maybe why her “human” couldn’t do a better job of satisfying her play needs!

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Sweet Rhythms

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The weather has been wet and cold the last three days, so I’ve mostly been hangin’ with Baldo, Chica, and Mingo while doing stuff around the house. Today, though, I felt the need to reassert my fly fishing mentalite by watching whatever I could find on the internets.  I found one treasure of a video unlike most of the ones that are insistent on displaying fly fishing mastery, i.e. showing either multiple catches and/or hooking into the bigguns. A lot of noise, they are. (Thanks Yoda…)

I really like this one because it’s a laid back, humorous look (about 18 minutes long) at a couple of old-timers experiencing common fly fishing struggles related to choosing the right fly, getting tangled, and maybe even becoming a little impatient.  The nicely timed and appropriately tuned commentary by “The McGlynn,” whoever he is–I checked out the associated website: good, committed critical politics which is a nice plus.  I thought it was simply a promotion for a fly fishing retreat–was perfect. Continue reading →

The Fence II

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My little fence repair project is finished. I stained it this afternoon. I like it given that I kept the posts that were already in place, one of them–the big rough-looking post–being, as my brother reminded me, originally part of barbed-wire fence that bordered a wonderful horse pasture. It enclosed what would now be considered a wetland. Back then we called it a swamp because it had a ditch running east to west through the middle of it and it was soft and gooey and full of life. Continue reading →

The Fence

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So much work that can and should be done around the yard and house, but I try to do one thing at a time within a limited time frame so I don’t get bored and the work doesn’t get tedious. So this afternoon my project was fence repair on two sections of the front yard section of the east fence. I included a couple of “before” photos where I happened to catch the dilapidated, sad east sections. After a few hours of work with some help from Domingo–el viejo alcanza a los noventa y dos años el 26 de este mes– holding the slats while I pounded nails, I was finished by 7:00 pm. Now neither of us can stop looking at the two sections of happy, lovely, renewed cedar fence. We both like the beauty of the natural cedar slats so much we’re tempted to simply apply a clear stain and eventually replace all the older painted slats with new, wider slats like the 5 1/2 inch ones we installed today and simply stain them clear. (BTW. Not bad for a renegade scholar, social critic, and trouble maker, eh?) Continue reading →

Best friends…

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A week ago Monday I got that annoying little tickle around my adenoids and I muttered to myself, “s–t…”

It progressed quickly and soon overtook my body.

The flu–I got the seasonal flu shot early last fall–reminded me how the body goes its own way at times, most of the time, despite our best intentions. Continue reading →

Tiger’s press conference

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I just finished watching Tiger Woods’ press conference.

Unlike those television commentators I have listened to so far commenting on Tiger’s “A+” performance at his Masters’ press conference, I wasn’t very impressed with Tiger’s performance and the quality of the questions asked by the journalists in attendance. (Weak, fearful questions.)

I didn’t see much of change from his written statement to this unscripted questioning. (So how much have you paid Elin to stay in the marriage? How much have hush money have you paid to your non-marital sexual partners? Does Elin support your return to the golf tour to play in The Masters? You reference your therapy a lot, but can you be more specific about how Buddhism will help you clarify and recenter your life? You say you weren’t in that “place” before your crash to deal with your pathology properly, but honestly, if you hadn’t crashed/been caught, would you have acknowledged your need to change? Why should we believe you are committed to changing since you didn’t initiate the process on your own?) Continue reading →

Tidying Up a Bit

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I continue working outside and around the house, performing a variety of manual labor.

Yesterday I dethatched, overseeded and fertilized the back lawn which struggles to thrive because of competition for sunshine and ground nutrients from numerous trees. I hope the extra care will effect positive growth.

I repaired a toilet leak that my father noticed in our half bath. Couldn’t find the right gasket to replace the one that wore out, so I replaced the entire fill valve (which didn’t cost much more than a new gasket or would have).

I reshafted a few golf clubs–two Ping hybrids and two custom wedges–in preparation for the upcoming golf season.  Previously I reshafted two drivers and two three woods (Ping G5 and Cleveland HiBore XLS).  The metals were reshafted with Rapport Ultralites (regular flex, 60 gram, low bend, med-soft tip), a nice shaft for $14.  I used the new UST iRod graphite iron shafts for the two custom wedges (r flex, 74 gram, mid bend, med-soft tip, 3.9 torque). I just need to put on the grips for the wedges and hybrids today. Continue reading →