2 more hours

not that I'm counting. or anything.

I was already told that it would be cheating to observe East Coast time.

sigh.

5 more hours

It's nobody's fault.

People are just too busy to fragment their modes of communications between email and facebook and phone and realtime.

Facebook makes it easy to kinda keep in touch with little postcards from your life or by posting an article you found interesting or infuriating. It's still a glimpse into who you are, even if it's not a 10 paragraph email about your day/week/month.

That said, I'll always prefer a letter or email for "real" communication. I just have to remember facebook's role - it's not a substitute for real life, and a "friend" on facebook might really be just an acquaintance or random connection. Unless that relationship gets developed, which requires mutual participation.

What I did like about this month is that it got me writing and exploring interesting blogs on the interwebs. There are a lot of interesting and creative people in the world and I hope to continue to happen upon them.

Morning Observation

The "Bachelor" desperately needs a haircut.

No! I don't watch the show! I am occasionally subjected to random promos. They make my eyes bleed.

52 hours...

Not that I'm counting.

But approximately 52 hours until I can don my walgreen's readers (duane reade to you new york types) and scroll through pages of posts... How long would it take to read a month's worth of status updates? And if I followed all the links, listened to every song (which I rarely did anyway), read every article, looked at every photo... What's the facebook etiquette on commenting on a post that's 4 weeks old?

How to approach 12:01AM March 1st? Do I post right away? Should I sneak on and be wunnadem lurkers? Slip in quietly in the wee hours like nuthin' happened, like a teenager who has stayed out far past his curfew?

I met a friend tonight for a short supper and a beer and some nice conversation. She asked me about my month off. I've been pondering it for the past several days. I'd have to say it's been eye opening and somewhat disappointing. Facebook has replaced ordinary email (which replaced ordinary snail mail) as the means of communicating. The world of communication has been reduced to bits. Shorthand. Snippets of conversations.

The people who always emailed me still emailed me. A few picked up the old keyboard and responded to emails. Some said thanks for letting me know - see you in March. And plenty didn't notice or didn't have the means to contact me because my email disappeared. A few realized later that I was gone and sought me out (thank you!). And a few followed me here (yay!).

It has been an interesting experiment, but I'll be back on facebook, just not as much. I don't think I'll shout so much into the wind.

I hope I can resurrect those scrabble games. I was winning.

Baby Shower cakes

Please indulge me while I return to cakewrecks.com for an update. (click the post title to take you there, too).

false spring

Every year about this time, we get a little warm spell. The sun shows its first warmth towards us, as if the cherry trees had brought forth their blossoms in an atonement for some long forgotten offense and the sun favored us all with warm forgiveness.

It was a call in sick kinda day. A let's go to the garden store any buy seeds and bedding plants day. All the little plants get put in the ground. Peas and beans get planted and poles and strings assembled.

About 3 days later, it's 40 degrees and raining and the little pea sprouts are frozen in their tracks. Germinating seeds get stunted and nothing will grow beyond 4 inches.

Duped again.

Morning Observation

Toothpaste caps batted around on a hardwood floor at 3:30AM make more noise than at other times of day.

I. am. in. the. wrong. gear.

It's just too bad you can't see how blindingly fast I'm going while climbing La Honda out of Woodside, up towards Skyline. It's also a crying shame you can't feel my legs cramping, wondering when we'll be at "the top". Because, after all, we're climbing to Skyline Boulevard. A scenic road that follows the ridge line from Highway 92 South to god-knows-where, but farther than I've traveled on it.

Ergo, Skyline is the top. I've already climbed 3 miles in this photo and I'm ready for My Downhill, Mr. Deville.

At least there were porta-potties (Andy Gumps, as they're called in some parts of the world) as an excuse to stop.

I said to my riding companion as we remounted our trusty steeds after our mini-break: I'm pretty sure Skyline is just a bunch of rollers. 3 minutes later, I confessed to lying, saying I had wanted it to be true as much as she did.

Because we actually had about another 4 miles of climbing before PAGE MILL ROAD - those magical three words that meant: descent. coast. hover over the breaks. worry about going too fast vs going too slow.

Did I mention the fog and wind on Skyline? The road that promises views of the Bay and East Bay hills in one direction and glittering views of the Pacific in the other direction? The fog enshrouded the top of the immediate climb ahead of us. Which was probably a good thing. Because the top was always a lie. turn the corner and oh. more hill.

As Coach Jim reminds us, the Death Ride is "only" 65 miles of climbing. The other 65 miles is downhills.

At last, we reach Page Mill Road. I shift into my highest gear and settle in for the des---

WTF?

We haven't gone a half mile and there's this *thing* ahead of us. The road appears to RISE. I. am. in. the. wrong. gear.

my legs rebel. they say, "We are coasting now, dear. We are not pedaling." I overrule them, making all sorts of promises of rewards in the After Ride. They are unimpressed.

Mentally, I adjust. Look! We're below the fog! Look at the view! See how high up we are? See how far we've come? We do get to go down, even if there are little interruptions along the way. We can do this!

Only 30 more miles!

new beginNings

This morning, I grabbed a clean fleece out of the laundry basket to wear under my bike jacket.

On Market Street, my arm gave birth to a sock.

ummmm. is this wrong?

http://www.breadedcats.com/

Rain

And how was YOUR morning commute? Mine was fantastic!

Cake Wrecks

The photo blog of professionally made cakes gone horribly wrong.

It will make you laugh until fondant comes out of your nose.

http://www.cakewrecks.com/

Sponge Returns and brings temptation.

The return of Sponge was almost enough to get me to sign in to facebook this morning.

Your faithful correspondent has a dog, two cats and sponge that doesn't like to stay put. Sponge tends to move under cover of night, when the dog is crated and the cats feel free to roam and play.

Instead of the usual contact lens case (or any other small item I happen to leave out) being batted into the bathroom sink, larger objects get relocated. Wine corks, chap stick and ... Sponge. My challenge is to find these before the dog eats them when she is released in the morning.

A random series of photos of Sponge in new locations became a fun game on facebook, with friends who had been there since the beginning appreciating the Sponge updates (I hope), and the new additions thinking I'm totally insane. The pictures were posted with no back story.

March 1st seems a long time away right now.

It's the Madonna!

When you live with an art student, you find art popping up all over the house. Here, it's cooled crisco from a batch of fried chicken.

Who's doing the appointing?

“Today, unelected judges cast aside the will of the people of California who voted to protect traditional marriage. This decision does not end this fight, and I expect it to go to the Supreme Court. ...  I will protect traditional marriage and appoint judges who interpret the Constitution as it is written and not according to their own politics and prejudices.” -- Mitt Romney [emphasis mine]


So Romney's unelected judges are just fine, but the one appointed by George H.W. Bush (Vaughn Walker) isn't.

It's pulling at me - Day 8

I'm in the danger zone. TV is useless. I'm alone here, except for the critters. It's too late to *start* anything.

What if my dog just checked HER page? Would that be so bad? M posted a picture of her earlier today. What if I just went to see if anyone thought she was cute. It's not like I'd camp out there and read 8 days worth of posts and pokes and, if I'm lucky, cute puppy pictures.

Is it so wrong?

Morning Observation

Beyond the sprouting of facial hair and deepening of the voice, the biggest shock of my boys turning into men was going into their rooms in the morning and seeing hairy man-legs peeping out from under the covers.

Ode to the Desert

I love the desert. The broad expanses of nothingness. The subtlety. A monochromatic landscape from afar that turns into a sun washed spectrum of nuance up close.

On the first day of a desert visit, everything seems brown. Lifeless. Muted. But the human eye demands stimulation, and if one is patient, one will find it. On day two, the desert floor appears greener. The low-lying vegetation, clinging close to the sand sprawling its thin tendrils outward. Desert plants don't have broad leaves and thick plushy stems. The definition of adaptation, successful plants and shrubs play it close to the vest with skinny branches and needle-like leaves. On day three, heralded by birdsong, the early dawn pinkness plays tricks on the land. Tiny shadows form around microscopic ripples in the sand. Footprints straddling a single line show where some small reptile has been; the shadow makes it visible. At high noon, the tracks are invisible. And tiny desert flowers open to sell their wares to any available pollinators.

But, oh, oh the desert nights....

"My" desert is bordered to the west by mountains - the sun sets early. From Font's Point, a high spot on the desert floor that overlooks some badlands, you can watch the sun set. The sun dips behind the range and you'd think the show is over, but it's really just beginning because the sun still has a long way to go before kissing the Pacific. Firy oranges and pinks, corals and peaches paint the clouds. You watch the shadow of the mountain steal across the valley floor, enveloping the small desert town, the golf course, the RV park, and rolling over the badlands towards the East.

The sky turns, in gradations from East to West from pinks, to turquoise, cerulean, indigo and then ink.

And then, by god, it's dark. Blindingly dark. On the Point, there's no ambient light. And the quiet is as noiseless as the darkness is black. A deprivation chamber. You hear the blood in your ears and the breath in your nose. Your heartbeat. Your companion's heartbeat. For a city girl, it can be a little creepy. Who's that driving up? Is it a serial killer?

Then, million by million, the stars begin to poke their little fingers through the night sky, creating holes - small, big, conjoined, clustered - for their light to shine through. Some are too antsy to just sit still anymore and streak across the sky as if late for an interview.

The article below talks about the loss of wildlife and habitat from solar plants being built in the desert. But it doesn't talk about the light pollution from 24 hour operations. The loss of night. The loss of stars. I'm torn. Renewable is good. But isn't there a better way? Panels on every rooftop. That creates self-sufficiency and doesn't put money in corporations' pockets. This feels like the Monsanto of solar energy.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-solar-desert-20120205,0,7889582.story

Think I'll go back for a visit before my desert is gone. Maybe Chrissie Hynde can sing a song about the Mojave. That'll make it all better, right?

How's the Weather?

The biggest drawback to being facebook free is not knowing what the weather is doing in the rest of the country. Like I'm gonna tune in to the weather channel?

How to Park Your Car, Lesson 1.

I live in a good size city with limited parking. Parking lots at transit stations are non-existent. In some areas, local conditions are conducive to relatively close parking assuming everyone participates in furthering the common good of close parking for all.

In this episode of How to Park Your Car, we will treat the unique situation of finding close parking along a street in which you are actually driving away from the destination.  Parking participants arrive around the same time so it’s not the hunt for an open spot. 

The general rule is

The closest spot is at the end of the string of cars parked, which is farthest away from your destination.

This rule is important to keep in mind for two reasons

1 – you don’t need to drive 5 mph hoping a parking spot will magically appear before the end of the line of cars already parked, and

2 – the closer everyone parks to each other, the closer ALL participants get to park to the final destination  AND (bonus reason!)  more people get to park.

There is a proper approach to this style of parking. As you can see below, the desired method is to pull past the parking spot and align your car with the curb. Then, reverse slowly (unless you’re very proficient) to within 1 to 2 feet of the car behind you. This will allow the car behind you to exit the space and give you some maneuvering room should the person who parks in front of you decide to kiss your bumper. [not that this is likely, considering the need for this entry]

The illustration below shows the wrong way:

Pull in and only reverse a little, if at all, leaving between 6 and 8 feet between you and the car behind.

When this method is utilized, over the course of 4 or 5 cars, at least 3 parking spots are lost. This is not in accordance with furthering the common good of close parking for all.

Another group participation exercise is two or more cars approaching the same line of parking. The general rule is

The car in front gets the closer spot.

Car A pulls in according to Diagram 2. Car B, trailing behind Car A, then pulls in front of Car A. Car B waits until Car A has performed its complete reverse positioning prior to completing its parking and exiting the vehicle. Otherwise, unsightly gaps appear. Once Car A has come to a complete stop, Car B reverses as indicated in Diagram 2.

In NO circumstances should Car B try to scoot in behind Car A in the gap that Car A has temporarily created while performing proper parking methods.

There will be a quiz next Friday.

© Kestrel, 2012

Morning Observation

Eating large lentil burgers laced with kale two meals in a row is not recommended.

Poof.

Day 2 without facebook?

It's easier than I thought.

I miss a friend who operates her page like a salon, often asking questions of a personal nature and seeing how people respond. It's always interesting and her friends are sharp and thoughtful, too. One of my favorite things about her is that she changes her profile picture every day. Whether it's a funny cartoon, something of historical or current political significance, or a photo of something or someone from her life, I'm always interested to see what the next day will bring.

If she were to deactivate her account, all that creative intelligence and insight would be zapped in an instant. I couldn't go find that picture she posted on August 23rd - you know, that funny cartoon with the whale in it? poof.

The 30 comment threads on the first album you bought. poof.

Or, in my case, my brief announcement that I was withdrawing from facebook for the 29 days of February. If you missed it, it's not there any more and maybe (hopefully?) you're wondering where I am and what happened to your scrabble game. poof.

If you were off busy having a life and my little two line status was too far down in your queue and you didn't scroll far enough... poof. It's gone. I didn't un-friend you (what a weird word). I still like you.

So my pictures are gone and my status updates and my notes. poof.

I'm not sure if my snarky comments on your posts are still there. I think I'll talk to someone in real life and find out.

Bumperstickers....

When political bumper stickers are taped to the inside of a car window, it's the equivalent of a vote of no confidence.

Facebook Free February

I've deactivated my facebook account for the month of February. Maybe longer.

I was definitely hooked. Facebook can be a nasty habit. But there's more to my month long abstention than my little web addiction. (see? Here I am blogging. except HERE, I know no one is reading it...)

I joined facebook to reconnect with old friends and stalk former high school classmates. C'mon. Doesn't everybody? And reconnect I did. College, high school, former co-workers, old neighbors, childhood playmates and their neighbors...

My dog has her own page.

And three years ago, facebook was definitely more personal. A few businesses had pages, but mostly it was people telling funny stories about their day, or their kids. It was a personal connection. A pithy turn of phrase, a string of puns. Fun exchanges.

My dissatisfaction began gradually. I realized I was voluntarily being advertised to - inviting spam into my "news" feed by "liking" businesses. Sure, I "liked" the business, but it doesn't mean I care if the business owner walked her dog that morning and it had a runny poop. So now, while I "like" hundreds of businesses, 75% of them have been hidden from my basic view.

And friends started posting less about themselves and more links to articles (which are interesting, especially when good discussions follow) and even more links to music videos and such.

I began feeling like I was putting out pieces of myself to the great unknown. Did the recipients care? Did they value my sharing of myself? Did they hide me? All I felt was, they weren't reciprocating. Sure, I'd get a few good comments on some posts - sometimes from left field - people I was certain weren't reading my stream. Others could be counted on to comment on *everything*.

Often I wanted to do a weeding post - HELLOOOO! Are you reading this? and delete everyone who didn't respond. But then I get scared that maybe no one would respond. And then I'd be a facebook loser.

But I knew I had people who followed me because they'd say something to me about a post even if they didn't comment. The Lurkers. And those are the ones I'm most disillusioned with. I added them as friends as an extension of our friendship. To enhance our friendship. So I could learn more about them and they could learn more about me. But it all felt very one-sided, with a few wonderful exceptions.

I have a few gems on my friend list that I've grown to know much better through facebook. And they're the reason I'll probably go back on March 1st. They keep it interesting, and I hope I give back to them in the same way.

Keeping in touch in a post-facebook February will take a bit more effort. I'll send more personal emails (letters??!) and maybe even pick up the phone.

Crazy talk.