Bad things happen in eights

This has been an, ahem, interesting past 24 hours or so...

1. Storms with 80+ mph winds blew through the area yesterday morning around 8AM. They took out the electricity at MPOW. When the lights came back on, one of the three transformers that serves the school did not. The transformer is so old that all three need to be replaced. Apparently, the new ones are coming via slow boat from China since it is not predicted that they will be in place until late today.
2. Our main Internet router and e-mail server for the district comes though this building, so no Internet or school e-mail currently district-wide. Dozens of computer training sessions to be rescheduled. No access to our finance system. No cheap or easy solution to moving the backbone to another location.
3. Power was knocked out at home. It was restored last night at about 11PM. No electricity means no water since we are on a well. No electricity means no recharging laptop batteries, no home Internet, no landline telephone, no television, of course.
4. Still no cable service this am.
5. We lost two great big tree branches. The chain saws are electric.
   
6. Took the boat out last night to survey the damage. The oil pump went out on the motor.
   
7. The transmission on my son's car failed yesterday. You'd think after paying $2000 for a '91 Ford Tempo, a guy'd get more than 6 years' worth of use out of it.
8. I have two speaking engagements next week. We have about 2 million relatives coming for my son's graduation party the following weekend. Work is nutty busy.
   

But it is all relative...

1. We all got our offices cleaned at work.
2. School is still out for the summer so nobody is hollering too loud.
3. The local coffee shop is a pleasant place to work.
4. Reading on the porch last night after a supper of grilled chicken, potato salad and fruit couldn't have been nicer. Silva's new book Moscow Rules is pretty good.
   
5. A bath in the lake can be refreshing.
6. The ice cream in the freezer didn't melt.
   
7. Our neighbor lost three entire huge trees in his front yard and his trampoline looks like a goner.
   
8. Lots of places lost roofs or had more serious damage.
9. A plane crashed nearby, killing eight.
10. My relatives will all still have a good time even if the boat isn't running.
    
11. My son is moving to New Zealand in a couple months and I didn't really want to store his car anyway.
12. My credit card company was beginning to worry something might have happened to me.
    

Overall, life is good. We'll see happens tomorrow.

The '91 Tempo (aka the Babe Magnet). Rest in Peace

A "Duh" moment

Why did it take me so long to figure out that I could add my favorite NYT columnists to my GoogleReader? Instead of scrounging online, hoping the local papers might pick up one or two columns, or trying to remember to go to the NYT website, I now have my own subscription to each of them:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/davidbrooks/?rss=1

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/maureendowd/?rss=1

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/paulkrugman/?rss=1

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/thomaslfriedman/?rss=1

 

Maybe I am a hopeless Digital Immigrant Idiot.

A second Thanksgiving Day

 curmudgeon: An ill tempered (and frequently old) person full of stubborn ideas or opinions - wiktionary

A not uncommon response when asking a Minnesotan how things are going is, "Oh, could be worse." Effusive, we're not.

The "could-be-worse" philosophy is one I personally need to remember more often. 

The LWW and I are spending a few days unwinding by visiting the beautiful Texas Hill Country north of San Antonio. It's been a busy summer and a few days of getting up late, reading and touring are welcome. Yesterday, July 4th, we took the whole day visiting President Lyndon Johnson's ranch and hometown of Johnson City.

While most of us remember Johnson as the "Vietnam War" president with chants of "LBJ, LBJ, how many babies did you kill today," I was struck by his efforts to create his 'the Great Society." It was under Johnson that effective civil rights legislation was passed. Medicare and Medicaid was enacted during his term. Money poured into schools with the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Thanks to Lady Bird, the environmental movement got started, and he added substantially to the National Parks domain. LBJ signed into law funding for the start of public broadcast. Any NPR listeners out there? 

Johnson was motivated by the experiences of his own childhood. He grew up poor, worked his way through college, and remained in close contact with his Hill Country neighbors and empathized with the disadvantaged. He was described as the last great "rural liberal."

 Anyway, something about LBJ and the 4th of July made me question my curmudgeonly stance on so many issues:

• I complain about aching knees when getting up in the morning when thousands of our veterans have no knees to ache.
• I grouse about my steak being over-cooked when I eat more in a week that others do in a month.
• I fuss about the seat pitch on airplanes when I can fly across the country in hours, safely.
• I moan about my grandsons living too far from home when they are healthy, smart and loving.
• I steam about a lack of funding for technology in schools when education in this country for both boys and girls is universal.
• I grumble about taxes, gas prices, and my 401K's performance when I am blessed with a job I love that allows me comforts unknown to 99% of the rest of the world.
• I despise the politics in this country yet I recognize that I live in a society in which its citizens enjoy more freedom and safety than during any place or time in history.
  

When it comes right down to it, what do I really have to complain about?  Perhaps we need two Thanksgiving Days in the US. Just as a reminder that many, many, many of us do indeed lead charmed lives.

Could be worse.