Book Commercials & Misanthropic Observations

Quite posssibly the best post ever!

these dogs are wonderful! check them out.

http://www.petfinder.com/shelterSearch/shelterSearch.cgi?shelterid=MN99&dateid=0

Literary Rubbernecking

Recently Hannah was kind enough to let me add to her library. Why was it kind? Because she listened indulgently while I excitedly explained to her my favorite chapter in War & Peace: all the selfish individualism that lost the battle, and took a copy I gave her to read.

I also enthusiastically informed her that the grace and compassion I observe in Hannah was so like the character Sonya in Crime & Punishment that she MUST read it. She agreed- But it wasn’t on my bookshelf! Augh!!

So after all that, instead she let me give her Anna Karenina. – Which brings me to my topic: literary rubbernecking.

When a character’s life in a great novel is a total car wreck I find complete joy in rubbernecking and exploring the consequences of mind bogglingly bad decisions without actually having to deal with the total drama of experiencing it real life.

I highly recommend the practice and the 2 best novels for such diversions are Anna Karenina and The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby can be read in a few hours, so give it a try; dip your toe into the water of vicariously experiencing blatant materialism, utter self absorption, complete ignorance of consequences and melodrama. If you like the Great Gatsby, give Tolstoy a try- you may fall in love with the Russian novelists as much as I have. They are not as easy to read as F Scott Fitzgerald, but just as delightful.

And another wonderful recommend: All you coffee shop lovin’ postmoderns will love the long discussions of the meaning of life in The Brothers Karmazov. There’s plenty of dysfunction to enjoy in that one too.

Addendum to Vista 64 and Palm OS post

I am still happily using bluetooth to sync my Palm Centro to my vista 64 machine, and have learned to ignore the “install driver” window that pops up every time I instert my bluetooth adatpter. Completely ignore it- don’t shut it down, or the computer will decide the bluetooth doesn’t work. Just go ahead and sync your palm; it will work fine. When it’s done you can close the install driver window.

This doesn’t bother me, its a workable work-around. I know it will frustrate some who think things ’should just work right the first time’. I’m posting it to help anyone who is dealing with the same setup as I have.

Like cold water splashed in my niave face

I won’t name the store- I contacted one of the managers who is a friend, and I am giving him a chance to handle this.

I’m still flabbergasted. It was around 2:30 in the afternoon, at a self checkout registers.
The woman at the self-checkout in front of where I was standing was black, and she was confused or doing something wrong- like i have done many times and the employee actually yelled at her that she was doing it wrong- was so rude- I have never in my life been spoken to like that by any staff at a store; and I have needed help at those self checkouts up to 3 times in one checkout session. I really felt like she was scolding a dog for peeing on the rug.

But the worst part for me was that when the employee looked at me, she changed her demeanor 180 degrees. Smiled, walked me to the next available register, and did that nice little thing where they puff open the plastic bags a little to get you ready to bag your groceries. It was really nice and I should give her credit for that, but I just wanted to cry, I was so embarrassed to be treated so well in front of that black woman who had been mistreated.

As I left I looked behind me at the black woman who was still managing clumsily to check herself out. I myself have been in her position, but was always helped by the wonderful staff- she was just being ignored now. I wanted to tell the black woman how sorry I was, or catch her eye and give her a smile to be kind, but didn’t know if that would just make it worse.

So instead I shuffled off, did nothing, and cried in my car.

PS- the management at this store took my complaint seriously and reviewed the episode on their security tapes. I was so glad to hear they were going to do a follow up with the employee.

Lillian

IMG_1995.jpg

Originally uploaded by Brandy Dopkins

isn’t she pretty? she’s the more delicate of the two- hides more. But she comes right out to the front when you start talking to the tank. they both respond to voices really well and will look at you and then go over to the feeding ring and back, hoping you put something there for them.

Getting to know my neighbors on Facebook

Lily the LLama

As much as I prefer solitude, living on Clint’s trail for the last 8 years has had one quirk. I’m sad about how little we know our neighbors. I mean, we’re all friendly (there are only 3 houses) and they are very, very nice. We always wave to each other, and know each other’s dogs on sight, since dogs are quicker to ‘visit’ than people.

The one real interaction I had with our neighbor across the street, Chris, was the time I hit Paul’s motorcycle with the lawnmower and it was toppling precariously but hadn’t hit the cement yet. It was gonna do some damage when it did, but I wasn’t strong enough to pick it up myself and Paul was gone. I ran across the street and Chris actually interrupted a shower, got dressed and fixed my emergency. He would have had every right to be annoyed, but he never showed it and I was very grateful. Sometimes I see Chris at the end of the driveway and ask him things like his kid’s names or his new dog’s name, or how his latest tree planting project is going, but that’s it. Paul likes Chris too, and has invited him to a barbeque or bonfire, but well, we all have full adult lives already and so we just wave as we drive by.

So imagine my delight when Paul told me that Clint, the 3rd house on the street and obviously its namesake, is now on Facebook. It’s been so fun to find out that he has 3 children (I’ve only ever seen one) and their names. His daughters are beautiful and Tanner, the one we’ve met but whose name I found out from Clint’s photo album, is so adorable. We also thought that there was just one brown dog on the street named Emma, but now know that there are 2; Woody and Emma, who look a lot alike to us. And Lily, my favorite neighborhood animal, but I didn’t know her name until I read it on the title of the page. She came to visit once as I was unloading groceries from the car. Clint must have fixed the fence after that, but I would gladly have her over anytime.

I also feel like the Facebook wall gives me a great way to communicate with Clint, a channel we never had before and won’t feel like we are imposing. I really like social networking and for those who say it’s not real community, I couldn’t disagree more. I can give you dozens of examples of people I am able to connect with in person because of the Facebook connection.