Stray Thoughts On A Leash

Once Upon a Streetcar...

2011-11-07T19:21:00.000-08:00

Long, Long Ago... Back in his bachelor days, probably around the 1930's, my father was a motorman on San Francisco streetcars. The cars were run by the long-since-defunct Market Street Railway Company. In later years, it was taken over by the City, and became, and still is the San Francisco Municipal Railway Company, or "MUNI." However, I digress. Back in those days, streetcars had 2

OCCUPY!! Protest on Behalf of Our Pets, Too!

2011-11-07T18:14:00.000-08:00

No More Business As Usual Well, folks, as you may have learned from stories in the news, the corporations that manufacture our various consumer products are not always truthful about their effectiveness or safety. We've all seen the news about contanimants ranging from bugs and fecal matter to outright poisons. It was not so long ago that pet food made in China was full of things like melamine

Keeping Kitty and Wildlife Safe

2011-06-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

As most of my readers know, I am an avid spokesperson for animal welfare and humane treatment. To this end, I tirelessly promote and campaign for the concept of keeping one's pet cats exclusively indoors for their own safety. An indoor cat can live up to 3 or 4 times as long as one who is allowed to go outdoors. How much do you love your kitty? Would you like the companionship of your furry

A Moral Imperative

2011-06-03T00:13:00.000-07:00

There is a well-known adage, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." This is so very true, and in many ways it would seem that humans in fact, do not learn from their own history. Rather, they prefer to bury and ignore uncomfortable images from the past and go merrily about their own lives with no sense of responsibility regarding their own roles in perpetrating new

A Major Political Hoax is Making the Rounds

2011-05-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

For today's post, I am straying from my usual format of writing fully from my own thoughts, and instead have copied and pasted here an e-mail I received. I am not posting this e-mail to advocate its content, rather the opposite. I am posting it as a warning of a hoax that is currently making the rounds, and in which I got caught up myself. Please forward the link to this blog instead of the

Once Upon A Camping Trip, Part Two: Fun With Girl Scouts

2011-04-22T00:07:00.000-07:00

The camping adventures continued through the years. When my girls were in grammar school and junior high, I had them in Girl Scouts. That provides for a number of off-the-wall camping experiences, you may be sure. Three guesses who got to be the troop leader..(the first two don't count)...Right! At one point, I had two troops--a Brownie troop and a Junior troop! Oh, such fun. Welll.....

Once Upon A Camping Trip

2011-04-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

Once upon several camping trips, actually! There's a funny truth about going camping: something strange, funny, odd, or irritating is bound to happen. In retrospect however,even the irritations become laughable. Sometimes your memories are not your own--if you were very young, you recall only the funny stories told--often at your expense. My father was a very experienced camper, having been

Global Marketplace, My Foot!!

2011-03-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

I am sick and tired of hearing about the “Global Marketplace.” We do not have a global market. We have a one-way out-flow of cash and jobs. A global market would indicate free and equal trade between all vendors. Think of a bazaar or craft fair. There are numerous vendors each peddling wares in their own stalls. As often as not, however, those vendors find time to browse the other stalls, and

Confessions Of A Haphazard Cook

2011-02-03T23:50:00.000-08:00

It's the ultimate irony. Most of us like to eat; indeed, we must eat to sustain life. Eating involves cooking and other forms of food preparation. Many, many people find this process to be anything from relaxing to exhilarating. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those kitchen-happy folks.. I find cooking ranges from boring to exhausting. If I can open a box and start eating with no preparation,

Then and Now--That Was Then; This Is Now

2011-01-24T18:07:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you get a smack in the rear from life. The trigger can be most anything. In my case, I have inherited my mother's "flatsurfacitis" gene. People with this affliction are subject to suddenly finding there is no room to eat on the table, piled as it is with assorted stacks of "very important papers." All flat surfaces are fair game, be it a table, kitchen counter or dresser. These papers

Our Maddening English Language--Article Links

2011-01-22T18:19:00.000-08:00

Here, for easy reference and search is a single page of links here to my various articles on our crazy language. http://straythoughtsonaleash.blogspot.com/2010/01/every-day-there-are-more-language.html http://straythoughtsonaleash.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-on-our-crazy-language.html http://straythoughtsonaleash.blogspot.com/2009/03/words-and-more-lesson-2.html http://

Ghosties and Ghoulies and Things That Go Bump In The Night

2011-01-12T22:05:00.000-08:00

We have a spirit in our home. A real-live ghost. Well, not that a ghost is alive, but let's just say an actual presence. And anyway--who's to say what the ultimate definition of "alive" is? We are alive in our physical bodies, which when they wear out, and die, shed our energy, and release it into the universe. Energy cannot be destroyed..who's to say that's not a form of life? As a

Thoughts on Our Anniversary

2010-09-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

Time is a funny thing. It has a split personality. On the one hand, it can zoom by so that years seem like minutes, and on the other hand, it can drag on, seemingly turning minutes into hours and days. How often, as children did we all bemoan the slowness of time? "I can't wait to be all grown-up!" or "I don't think my next birthday will ever come around." Suddenly, all that is behind us,

Censorship Must Go!

2010-07-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

Censorship of so-called ‘bad’ language is both rampant and pointless. Everyone knows exactly what those so-called ‘bad words’ are, including and especially those who rant against them, and are in favor of censorship in the first place! When you see a TV show, and the ‘bad words’ are bleeped out, no one is fooled. Anyone watching knows perfectly well, or can make a reasonably good guess as to the

Parking Lots...Lots of Stupidity

2010-07-19T16:06:00.000-07:00

PARKING LOT DESIGN As we all know, in this day and age of the near impossibility of getting anywhere without a car, especially in 'the burbs,' parking lots are a fact of life and an expected facility at all shopping centers. Many, if not most of these lots are "beautified" with trees and plants, making a pseudo-oasis in the middle of the asphalt desert. The shopping centers that have

Letter to Myself at Age 22--Would I Have Listened??

2010-07-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Younger Self: At this point, I know it is already too late to caution you to postpone your childbearing until you gain further education as to what makes small children tick. Since you saw fit to get married and have your first child just shy of age 21, now, a year later, you are already stuck in the ‘mommy’ role for which you are so woefully unprepared. Let me give you some

Further news from the garden..

2010-06-27T15:26:00.000-07:00

Bell Pepper Cherry Tomatoes Eggplant finally has a flower or few... Lemon Cukes And last but not least, the corn is growing ears!! And it's even taller than before--taller than eldest granddaughter, and as tall as Grandson seen in post the other day!

The winnah!

2010-06-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

Is...the corn! My goodness! I never knew corn grew so fast! I can almost stand outside and watch it grow inch by inch! Now, I have a cluster of tassels at the top, and smaller shoots on the sides of the stalk. Having grown up in the big city, and never growing any corn before--in fact, never having seen corn growing at all at any closer distance than driving by a field--I don't know which

The Garden Grows Apace

2010-05-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

It would seem that my experiment with pre-sprouting some of the seeds has gone well. I now have some new corn coming up from that second planting, as well as a couple of the radishes. Yippee! Some of the tomatoes are starting to turn red already. I didn't bend over far enough to see if those were the "Early Girl" variety, but I would suspect so. However, they seem small. I don't know

That Whole Other Article

2010-05-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

The great promise of progress has somehow gone awry. Many great new inventions have come, and some have as quickly gone. Others have hung around, though I cannot fathom why. Some were crazy crazes, toys and games; some were household gadgets, meant to ease our work. Progress for its own sake alone, I think is foolish. Just because we can do something, does not mean we should!

Garden Update

2010-05-15T13:26:00.000-07:00

Things are a-growin' in the vegetable garden. Not as fast as I would have thought, but they are growing, and starting to make obvious progress. My eggplant is finally of a size to actually be seen in the plant pot, although, it seems something unseen is eating at its leaves. There is one corn plant that is really taking off skyward! It is now about as tall as the 12" marker flag next to it:

Men in the Kitchen

2010-05-03T13:22:00.000-07:00

Let me begin by saying that my hubby is a gem. Unlike many men, he actually enjoys cooking, and is more than willing to help in the kitchen, including with clean up. He even takes it upon himself to bake cakes now and again, all by himself. That said, he is oh, so like so many men in one particular way when it comes to operating in the kitchen. He is Tupperware-challenged. I don't know what

A Retrospective on Family...

2010-04-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

Once again, my friend Molly Campbell's blog has provided the spark for an article of my own. It is funny, how things in your past sit dormant in the file cabinet of your mind until you read something that makes you go, "Oh, yeaaahhh...I remember when...." Some of you will go read her blog via the link; some will not. For those who do click the link, you might want to skip the following

Spring Progresses--and So Does the Garden!

2010-04-17T23:25:00.000-07:00

Well, after much impatient foot-tapping, and wondering if I was going to have to start all over with the eggplants, they have finally decided to sprout! It only took about three times longer than it said on the package--what's up with that?!? Next, the radishes do us proud! They are doing the best of anything we've planted from seed: The corn is doing nicely, though still slow, and not all

Comment Form De-Mystified

2010-04-03T13:16:00.000-07:00

Greetings, one and all! I have had a fair number of people tell me recently that they have had trouble leaving comments due to difficulty ‘signing in.’ I actually have anonymous comments enabled on this blog, (as well as my other 2), so no sign-in should be required. Please bear with me--I tried to make this very simple, with illustrations, but for some reason, Blogger is not letting me paste

Poisson d'Avril.....

2010-04-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

....as they say in French...literally, "April Fish." If the Wikipedia article on the history of April Fool's is to be believed, the French tradition is one of attempting to attach a paper fish onto someone's back without their notice. I've not done a lot of research, and the list of historical pranks played was lengthy. Given what day it is, I also do not grant much credence to the

Spring Has Sprung--A Leak!

2010-03-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

Here we are, a week into Spring, and Old Man Winter is putting in a return engagement! How rude! Just when the garden is sprouting and thoughts turn to getting out-of-doors more often, it starts raining again. March, conventional wisdom says, "Comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb." Things are topsy-turvy this year: I think the weather gods got it backwards. March is leaving in lion

Garden Progress Report

2010-03-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

WE HAVE CORN!! Yay! After much waiting and watering and watching and hoping, the corn has finally sprouted! We now have shoots about half an inch to an inch tall. Yippee! In the first photo, at left, it still looks like barren dirt and sand, but in the medium-close-up, you can see a sprout or two. Finally, in the extreme close-up shot below, you can see that it is quite well sprouted,

A Field Trip

2010-03-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

Today, instead of doing garden work, or indeed, any work, I took a day off, and went to visit my daughter and granddaughters. (Ooops...by the time I got this posted, the trip was 'yesterday.' Heh, heh.) We took a trip of about 20 minutes from her house to visit the Hilmar Cheese Factory, in Hilmar, CA. I have an entire photo set posted on my Flickr page HERE . but within this blog I'll post a

Is There Yet Hope?

2010-03-19T17:05:00.000-07:00

The radishes progress apace: And the lemon tree is awash in blossoms: Next--the title bit--Is there yet hope? Is this a teensy onion sprout I see? (You'll probably have to click to enlarge to really see what I'm pointing at....) And finally, this last shot is not of the vegetable gardens, but one that I've somehow missed ever seeing before today: "So that's why they call it an '

Thursday, March 18th

2010-03-19T00:47:00.000-07:00

Today brings beautiful weather, and some frustrations. No photos, as there is nothing new to see. There are a few more radishes popping up, but nothing else has sprouted, still. Worse, while watering the corn and onions, the water started opening a hole, and draining downwards. OH, NO!!! A gopher hole!!!! And we put the garden where it is as we have not seen any gopher activity in that area

Monday--Lookee Here!

2010-03-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

Today is the beginning of the vegetable bounty! Upon going outdoors this morning, we discovered that overnight, our very first seedling appeared! Woo Hoo! This teeny tiny trooper is a radish. I kind of thought they would be the first to show up, as they are pretty quick growers, and can be used in salads even from the first thinnings. Here is a photo: And look at this--what showed up in

Sunday for weeding

2010-03-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today, I got the area all weeded. Nice to have such soft, sandy soil: the weeds come out easily, the rakes and weeding-claws work with very little effort. The down side: watering, watering, watering, as the soil is very porous, and the water drains through quickly. However, With the weeds all gone, it will be easy to keep up with the stray that poke their heads up. The thing about weeds

Another Day in the Vegetable Patch

2010-03-13T18:10:00.000-08:00

Well, Folks... It seems I got impatient waiting for things to sprout. We just happened to be at the "hardware" store (OSH--has a lot more than just hardware!), getting something entirely unrelated to gardening, and wouldn't you know, they had tomato plants out front. Hmmm. Must be a trap! LOL Hubby suggested I should get some, since I like them, even though he does not. At the prices

Foot-Tapping Thursday...

2010-03-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

Well, well, well. Yes, "deep" subject, I know! Had to water the veggie garden today, because even though it rained recently, our soil is very sandy, and water drains through very fast. In the middle of the hot season, I would not be surprised at having to water twice a day! There are no sprouts peeking out yet, and I am tapping my foot impatiently. The radishes and green onions promised "

A Break From the Garden for "A Commentary on Eating Out"

2010-03-08T23:37:00.000-08:00

Today, it rained, so there was no work in the veggie garden. Nonetheless, today's blog does deal with food. ;-) From time to time I watch some of these “chef shows” on TV—Chef Gordon Ramsey comes to mind off hand—I do not mean to pick on him, per se--only that he is the most recent I happened to see in a recent episode of the show, “Kitchen Nightmares.” For those who have

Back to the Garden

2010-03-07T23:21:00.000-08:00

Today brought very pleasant weather, and it was time to make it officially planting day! There was still some prep work to do, but it went fairly quickly, and in short order, I discovered that it was too warm in the sun for a sweatshirt. What a contrast to the last few weeks! Supplies at the ready? Check! Ready, set, TILL! The official start of Spring is just around the corner,

Some Thoughts on the Lighter Side of the Dark Side.

2010-03-03T14:26:00.000-08:00

Alrighty, then! For those of you who know me as the wise-ass and comic, this line of thinking will come as no surprise. For those of you who do not know me as well, you may be somewhat shocked, or possibly even offended by todays's thoughts. Not to fear--it's all in fun. As I sit here on my birthday, at the 'milestone' age of 62 years aboard this Spaceship Earth, the time has come to reflect

In Another Garden

2010-02-28T23:11:00.000-08:00

Today brought more pleasant weather. So much to to, but took a small break from the veggie garden side, as it is pretty much as prepped as we need...just a few minor weeds. All that remains is to stay on top of it, and wait for the rainy season to taper off, so cloudbursts don't wash away newly planted seeds. So, we turned our focus to some deferred and neglected items in the front yard.

Ah, Sunshine!

2010-02-25T14:34:00.000-08:00

Well, today finally brought some much-awaited sun and pleasant temperatures. Perfect for working out-of-doors. I took the opportunity to clean out the piles of leaves from the dead-limb removal project. My goodness, those were good-sized piles of leaves, considering the tree in question has small leaves! The rest of the branches, I just moved over to another part of the yard, where they will

More Weather Delays!

2010-02-24T14:57:00.000-08:00

Well, wouldn't you know! Just because I'm all ready to go, geared up and excited to start my new veggie garden, the weather keeps halting my progress. It poured rain again all day yesterday, and today is off and on. The sun is trying-- but I need it to try harder! Today, I was working alone on the ceramics bisque orders, cleaning the green ware. Because of being alone, I worked 2 hours extra

Sunday in the Garden

2010-02-21T21:35:00.000-08:00

Well, Actually, not. This is an update of sorts, only to report that I was stalled by the weather. It poured rain today, so I was unable to be outside chopping up dead branches. Ok, call me a wimp, if you must, but I only have 1 pair of tennis shoes that fit, and no rainboots. It's not sandal weather yet, so that was not a viable option. Oh, sure...I guess I could have brought the

GARDENING BY PROXY

2010-02-20T16:49:00.000-08:00

Spring is on the near horizon, and my thoughts turn once again to the garden and being out-of-doors. I have always loved a beautiful garden, but never seem to have the time or, frankly, the inclination to spend hours pulling weeds, fertilizing and watering. As a child, I had assorted 'gardens' in the backyard, dutifully tended by my mother. I tended them fitfully at best, usually by watering,

This is Too, Too Funny!

2010-02-08T17:19:00.000-08:00

DISCLAIMER NOTICE: I readily admit that I am neither the author nor the compiler of this collection of hilarity. It came to me in a multi-forwarded e-mail, and is purportedly from an article that appeared in the Washington Post newspaper. All attempts to research this piece and trace it to the source have failed. It does not actually seem to exist on that site. Google search came up with

Here we go again...

2010-01-07T15:28:00.000-08:00

Every day I am amazed anew at the very basic, elementary education that seems to be missing amongst adults who ought to know better. Frankly, I am shocked. This "Oh, well, so what? No big deal!" attitude is just plain scary. For if folks are that apathetic about their very language, then they are likely to be just as apathetic about what the government is up to--and that is extremely dangerous

Every Day There are More Language Confusions..

2010-01-05T12:21:00.000-08:00

Hello again!Today, there are two pairs of words, and another trio that I've seen as problem areas recently. In some cases, it is a matter of just not knowing the correct usage; in others, it may be simply carelessness or trying to type too fast. To determine which is the case, read on.I've begun by using the trio in my first paragraph. It is unsettling to some degree, seeing how often the three

More on our Crazy Language

2010-01-03T21:43:00.001-08:00

There are enough puzzles and bewilderments in the English Language to drive most folks crazy. At the very least, it seems that many folks just stop trying to bother with correct spelling and structure. While all languages do shift and evolve over time, such shifts happen faster in languages with so many different sources of confusion. Indeed, sources are the key problem, for English is a bastard

A WORD TO THE WISE

2009-09-22T16:50:00.000-07:00

This applies to you if you are on FaceBook, and play any of their games and/or ever decide to click an ad for an online game.WARNING: Below is the verbatim text as I sent it to Face Book as a complaint:"There are some 3rd-Party applications and games running on FaceBook, and then there are those which come up as ads. I believe this complaint falls into that category, and this is an ad/company

A Sad Day for Equal Rights

2009-05-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

Today, the California Supreme Court handed out their decision on the controversial Proposition 8, passed by voters last November. Their ruling, tragically, was in favor of upholding the proposition. In their edict, the justices stated that the actual ruling concerned whether or not voters had the right to amend the state's constitution, and in upholding the proposition, claimed that, yes, voters

Words and More, "Lesson" 2

2009-03-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

Among the hundreds of thousands words in this crazy language we call “English,” there are hundreds ready and willing to trip us up at every turn. In this edition of the exploration of rascally words, I’ll expose more of the tricksters. Some of the problems lie with an accumulated laziness of speech patterns, which seem to get worse with every passing generation. Others,

The Death of Manners

2009-03-10T14:15:00.001-07:00

The first hint that any society is in decay is a decline in manners and courtesy. Witness the upsurge of the "me generation" of the 1990's (and to some extent the 1980's), which shows no signs of abating, and is, in fact, increasing at an exponential rate. The folks who back then were so into "looking out for number one" are now raising (or have raised) children, and passing on those same selfish

A Joke

2009-02-06T11:28:00.000-08:00

There was once a sea captain who had a faithful cabin boy. When they would encounter hostile ships, the captain would say, "Cabin boy! Bring me my red shirt!"This happened on several occasions, and finally the cabin boy asked, "Captain, why do you always call for a red shirt when we go into battle?"The captain replied, "Because if I am hit, the blood will not show, and my crew will have the

WORDS, WORDS AND MORE WORDS

2009-02-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

A COMPENDIUM OF OFTEN CONFUSED, MISUSED, AND UNUSUAL WORDSIn the interest of making this more interesting and readable than simply looking things up in the dictionary, I offer here a random sampling of words that often seem to cause problems in both written and spoken English. To that end, nothing is in alphabetical order.Some of the problems stem from cultural laziness; taking shortcuts in the

Olympic Games, 2008 tardy posting!

2008-08-19T00:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, I agree: this posting is not timely...something happened, and it did not post when I first tried to publish it...so, my apologies for the unseemly delay.A forum for the world to set the best athletes of each country against each other in a fair and unbiased competition. Or so states the ideal. As we know, ideals are one thing, facts are quite another, and often fall miserably short of the

Ahh, Progress!

2008-07-11T19:29:00.000-07:00

We have seen a lot of progress since the beginnings of humankind. From cave dwellers to hut builders, to stone workers, on up through the industrial revolution and into the present day. Wonders of imagination and invention galore are presented for our wonderment.That said, let's examine the entire concept of 'progress.' Progress has been beneficial in many ways, not so in other ways. Put another

Fixing the Electoral Process

2008-01-21T20:29:00.000-08:00

Our electoral process is broken. People are staying away from the polls in record numbers. From being willing and eager participants who once thought they had an actual voice, they have now come to a place of feeling disenfranchised and stripped of that voice. Too often have they seen their vote amount to naught as the government does as it wishes despite the electorate--that populace which put

AGE IDENTITY CONFUSION

2008-01-20T11:32:00.000-08:00

We live in a society in which no one knows how old they truly are, vis-a-vis their "assigned" categorical identity. Think about it: we split folks up into 'age classifications' from birth. Children are called babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers. Once they get into school years, from kindergarten to about the 6th grade, they are then more commonly grouped generically as "children." In junior high,

Let's Have Some Comic Relief

2007-10-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

TOP 10 DEFINITIONS FOR "AN ACT OF FAITH:"10: Wearing a bikini anytime after age 259: Believing there is no film (or card) in the camera someone aims at you when you are acting goofy. 8: "Knowing" there is film (or a card) in the camera you grab for your kid's birthday party. 7: Jumping into a public swimming pool and trusting that no one .... welllll.. you know..... 6: Believing no one will

Silly Counting

2007-08-31T12:35:00.000-07:00

Have you ever stopped to consider the ridiculous ways many things are counted? We have many units of measure for counting everything from the passing of years to the water in a swimming pool, and the dimensions of everything.Smaller units have been grouped into larger units for ease of understanding and handling, reducing or eliminating the need to work with huge figures.Given this, it never

Corporate Greed--Just One Example

2007-08-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE BEING RIPPED OFF DAILY, AND SLEEPING RIGHT THROUGH IT!!!To Wit: We pay for cable or satellite TV "service," and for this "privilege," we pay to have a ton more commercials piped into our homes than are on the "big 3" networks. Why are we paying to watch commercials? Not only are there a LOT more commercials, but they grow daily more stupid and

Traffic Design

2007-08-25T23:50:00.000-07:00

ACCIDENTS BEGGING TO HAPPENContinuing the discussion of our traffic mess, let's take a look at the freeway system. The current design is dangerously flawed, causing traffic to snarl hopelessly as ongoing traffic is held up by vehicles crossing to exit, and by more cars entering the roadway. Not only does this cause traffic jams of epic proportions, it is also very dangerous. See Fig. 1 below, for

Observations on Traffic Problems

2007-08-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

Did you ever wonder why the traffic is so bad? We need look no further than our illustrious city planners, state highway engineers, and laws made but not enforced.While it is surely true that the traffic has increased many times from what it was even 20 years ago, that is only part of the problem. Many of the attempts to "fix" problem traffic areas are misguided, and do not even make sense on the

Reading..Make that REQUIRED Reading....

2007-08-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

At the moment, I am reading a very interesting book. It should be required reading for all citizens who wish to be intelligently informed about the choices they make, and how this country of ours came to be, and how all things political, governmental and corporate really work.The title is: Secret Societies of America's EliteFrom the Knights Templar to Skull and Bonesby Steven SoraThis book will

Welcome

2007-08-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

Greetings, everyone!This blog is a collection of random thoughts, idle musings, sudden flashes of brilliance, re-writings of rules as they should be and general societal commentary.It will have, most likely, a jumble of unrelated topics, observations and comments, the majority of which are the sole opinion of the moderator. I make no apology for that: that is what blogs are about.