GDAD's Ravings: December 2012

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Workers

On the early dog walk this morning, I saw the fire engine leave the Fire Station that is near us. It started me thinking about all the people who don't get Christmas Day off.

Obviously, the firemen don't get the day off and of course, policemen also are out there protecting us (since thieves also don't take off, but I don't feel sorry for them).

People that work at Electric Generation Plants are required to be there every day. Paperboy/men work every day.

The most important group that work on holidays is the military. They often are away from home and work most days (of course, not everyone who work in the above work on all holidays, but a subset are required to work).

THANK YOU for your sacrifices to keep us safe or supply needed services!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Lack of Truth

Yesterday we watched a movie called, "Christmas Kiss". It was a very predictable in that the Good girl ends up with the guy after various tragedies which gave an impression that the Bad woman was winning. The movie was OK since we like happy endings.

But part of the premise of the movie was that the good girl kept thoughts and actions from the guy that would have helped him to realize that she was the right one for him. And I was thinking how often keeping secrets or outright lies are part of the reason that movies last beyond 10 or 15 minutes.

If only the people wouldn't lie or keep thoughts to themselves there would not be a plot.

If in real life we would always tell the truth and not try to hide things, our lives would be much easier and happy!

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review. (Just a fun quote!)

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Winter 2012

( This was written 12/21 but had blogger problems getting it in) It is the first day of winter. Yesterday we got the first measurable snow in 9 months. It was not very measurable, maybe 1/4 inch or so. This morning on the dog walk, the wind was blowing at about 30 mph. So neither of us were willing to walk far.

With Frisbit's unsteadiness on his legs, it appeared he was going to be knocked over when we were directly in the path of the wind. But he managed to remain on his feet.

It is nice to see snow on the ground, the last few days we have been getting rain and it was dreary. Snow gives a nice contrast to mud.

One thing I have noticed with our new ( still seems new after close to a year) car is that it attracts frost to its windshield. Our old car did some but not as much. Of course, the new car has a smaller windshield so it is not as hard to clean.

I have always thought that cold was better than hot since you can always layer on clothes and there is a quick limit to amount of clothes you can remove in company. It is hard to get use to the cold, after a while 20F seems OK but the first few days it seems toooo cold. I guess we will survive!