Politics

Nothing to say. Nada. Zilch.

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You may or may not have noticed that I’ve not been blogging lately. Either way, I guess the best explanation for my absence from the bloggosphere is to just fess up and admit that I’ve run out of things to say.

To get ideas, I spent the last hour or so reading posts from some of my favorite blogs. They’re fresh, funny, interesting, and full of bits of wit and wisdom and insight.

Me?

I got nothing.

No insight into the way of the world.

No ideas about how to live long and prosper.

Not even a wise crack about the presidential debates.

What to do?

Hmmm?

I know … fake it!

I’ve been on a quest.

I put my house (really a townhouse/condo) on the market about three and a half years ago.  I managed to get three offers and even two contracts but, alas, no sales. So, I decided a couple of months ago, finally, to finish unpacking and forget about selling for a few years.

Since that momentous decision, I’ve found all kinds of things I forgot I had. For example, an Oster Food Center that my mom gave me for Christmas about 25 years ago. She borrowed it from me about two months later and returned it about three years after that. Not being a domestic diva, I stuffed the big old box of food fanatic tools in the closet and forgot all about it until last week. Which is when I discovered that some of the pieces had gone astray, got melted, whatever. Anyway, it still works so my quest has been to find replacement parts.

Enter eBay. I can get a new turntable for the mixer part for about ten bucks. (Apparently, that part got too close to a stove at some point.) Not too much to spend to get this combination mixer/blender/chopper back to perfection. After pulling all the bits and pieces out of the box, though, I realized that the chopper bowl is missing.

Can’t help but wonder what happened to that. Is it stuck in some cabinet corner at my mom’s? I doubt it. She’s moved about a gazillion times in the last twenty years so I might as well look for that part on eBay as well.

Not so fast!

Both my sisters got the same gift from Mom that same Christmas. Last night’s chat with baby sis revealed that she has the chopper bowl and never uses it. So, it’s mine for the pick up. She also has the instruction booklet. Yeah! My daughter will be pleased.

You see, that’s what this quest is all about. Becky is really into domesticity. She makes pickles and jams. (Don’t worry. She’ll get over it eventually.) So, the almost vintage food center, once I have all the bits and pieces again, is going to her house. She can chop and mix and blend to her heart’s content.

And last, but not least, the food center can live long and prosper.

Yes, I really am this goofy. 🙂

 

 

All bets are off when it comes to bloggortunity!

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I’ve only been at this blogging game a couple of months but I can recognize that friends and relatives might become a bit cautious about what they say or do when I’m around — or else they unwittingly, or maybe it’s unwillingly, become a bloggortunity.

So what is a bloggortunity? (If you really want to know, skip on over to Kate’s page for the birth of the word!)

Tim Berners-Lee: The World Wide Web - Opportun...

Tim Berners-Lee: The World Wide Web (Photo credit: Fräulein Schiller)

For me, a bloggortunity is whatever anyone says or does, that I see or hear about, that piques my interest enough for me to make an observation about it in my blog. And, no, it is not limited to family and friends. It encompasses the whole wide world — particularly the World Wide Web. (What a ripe for the plucking tree that is!)

So, all you folks out there, be aware, be forewarned, and be on your toes — we bloggortunists are watching and we’re carrying notepads — or smart phones with electronic notepads.

Some of us just rely on memory, though, but you can’t be sure that we’ll correctly remember every word you say. And if we don’t we’re sorry in advance for misrepresenting your chatter. We’ll try to keep the misquotes to a minimum, though we can’t really guarantee that. You know what I mean? We’re not perfect, in fact we’re far from perfect. If we were perfect we wouldn’t be reaping blog fodder from our friends and relatives.

I suppose we should only reap words and deeds from strangers to feed our blogs. Or celebrities, but don’t get me started on them. They do ask for it, after all. I mean if they didn’t want everyone talking and/or writing about the silly things they say or do then they shouldn’t put themselves out there, should they?

We aren’t really invading anyone’s space, we’re just rattling along trying to create a post that makes sense and, on a good day, amuses the reader(s).

We can always hope for readers in the plural, can’t we?

Sure we can.

But why, you might ask, do we keep our eyes and ears peeled for a bloggortunity?

Well, it comes down to this — writer’s block. A blank page or screen just waiting to be filled can be such a bear!

If you don’t believe me, take a peek at The Uninspired Chronicles and you’ll see what I mean.

Enjoy!

A light bulb moment!

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You’ve probably noticed by now that incandescent light bulbs are scarcer than hen’s teeth. Yep, plain old light bulbs are dang hard to find these days!

Image via Wikipedia.

In 2007, George W. Bush signed into law the Energy Independence and Security ACT (EISA). This law set an efficiency standard for light bulbs with the first phase going into effect in 2012. I’m not going to bore you with a lot of info about the why’s and wherefore’s of this new law. I’ll just say that it appears that our elected officials were making a valiant effort to conserve our natural resources and let it go at that.

I have problems, however, with this new law — aside from the fact that I don’t like the Feds telling me what kind of light bulbs I can use.

Now, before all you environmentalists, including my own daughter, start yammering about the efficiency of compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) and what a jerk I am for mourning the demise of the incandescent bulb, let me state, for the record, that I’m fine with CFLs. I use CFLs. In some places. Like closets and porches and places where ambient light is appropriate and the laundry closet. (Oh, I already said closets, didn’t I?)

But, I have some issues. For example:

When CFLs first hit the scene a few years ago, I was excited about it. A new light bulb that would save energy and last much, much longer! I bought ’em, compared ’em. Now, not so excited. Incandescent bulbs created more light than the same watt CFL bulb. How much light a bulb emits is important to me. I read. A lot. And I need good light to do that until the wee hours of the morning. Why? Because I have something like 20-80 vision. Glasses help of course, but the cataracts make it more difficult. (I am having surgery to fix that little problem in a few weeks so maybe that’s not a valid argument.)

Incandescent bulbs are dirt cheap. CFLs, not so cheap. I’ve heard the arguments about how CFLs save money in the long run but I tested that when CFLs first came out, and I’m just not convinced. I am willing to concede, however, that there may have been improvements in the last 5-7 years, so maybe I need to retest. We’ll see.

Incandescent bulbs put out heat. My cats like sitting on the table with their little heads close to a warm light bulb. CFLs won’t keep their little ears toasty. And I’m pretty sure Ollie’s sinuses will stop-up permanently if he can’t melt them with heat from my reading lamp.  Aside from that, if the lamps are putting out heat, then my actual heating bill should be less. Right?

I have lamps (lots of lamps, well, three) with clip-on shades. Ever tried to get one to clip onto a CFL bulb? I have. It doesn’t work.

There is movement in Congress to delay the implementation of the EISA. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Will my clip-on shades survive the light bulb debacle of 2012?

We’ll see. Or, maybe we won’t. See, I mean.

And poor Ollie.

Oh the inhumanity!

Pssst, see that pic above? The one with the two light bulbs? That big ol CFL bulb wouldn’t allow the glass cover to go back over the light fixture in my closet so I had to leave it bare-bulb just to be more “green.”

How tacky!