QOTD: "To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness." - Anonymous
Reading: Laurell K. Hamilton, Narcissus in Chains
Listening to: still making copies of the mix tape
Decluttering accomplishments: handled assorted paperwork
I'm rather mystified by the people who are talking about the outcome of this week's election as if it were the end of the world. While I'm not crazy about the results, it's hardly as if the Republicans have such a big majority that they can radically alter the country. There are still some moderates in the GOP and politics will still involve lots of deals and compromises. It's not any worse than other administrations we've survived.
Not that I could have helped much. I did vote, but the Democrats didn't even bother to put up any opposition in my district. It's pathetic enough that the Republican incumbent for Congress here was running essentially unopposed, but the Democrats didn't even have a candidate for Senate in Virginia. There were a handful of opponents, but a quick read of their web pages suggested that they were largely of the lunatic fringe sort. I'm not opposed to third parties in principle - I was even an ardent supporter of John Anderson in 1980 - but I'm not about to vote for people whose entire platform is that income taxes are immoral.
There were a handful of bond measures here, but the really interesting measure was the proposal to raise the sales tax a half per cent to fund transit projects. Alas, the usual anti-tax fervor prevailed and it didn't pass. The argument against was largely that improved transit would increase sprawl. Every time I drive west, I see plenty of sprawl as it is. And a quick read of the real estate section of the Washington Post should convince anybody that developers will continue to build starter mansions in what used to be countryside whether or not there are wider roads and more rail. It seems like there is still going to be an attempt to extend the metro to Dulles, but funding it will be tougher. This one seems like a no-brainer to me, what with all the people I know who commute from Herndon and Reston, but obviously not everybody sees it that way.
Incidentally, we had touch screen voting here, which was new to me. You press the screen and little red lights come up to show your vote. Then you press a green button to record your votes. What I don't like about this is that there doesn't seem any way to do a recount if there were some question. And how do you know that the people who program the system aren't rigging it?
I spent the rest of the work week in California, with meetings in Los Angeles on Wednesday and Sunnyvale on Thursday. I'm really glad not to have any more business trips coming up, as I find these coast to coast jaunts to be exhausting. I did have some free time on Thursday afternoon, as my meeting ended about three. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain, so I went to a movie. "Sweet Home Alabama" was a cute, but predictable, romantic comedy. Reese Witherspoon was very good, but Candice Bergen seemed quite flat to me. Since I was using a free movie coupon, I minded the imperfections less. I also attempted some retail therapy (i.e. shopping), but didn't see anything that I liked particularly. I really need some new shirts. I suspect that I'm best off just ordering stuff, rather than schlepping around to the malls. It's not like I need anything fancy - just ordinary Oxford cloth stuff to wear to work.
I did make one purchase, actually. I live in dread of running out of reading matter on planes and picked up the paperback of Laurell K. Hamilton's Narcissus in Chains. I'm only about two thirds of the way through, but I'm rather annoyed. I know I've said in the past that Hamilton writes good sex scenes, but her previous books had more of a plot to them. In the 400 or so pages I've read so far, there's maybe 30 pages of story. And the sex scenes are a bit more violent than I'd have preferred. A menage a cinq involving two vampires, a werewolf, a wereleopard and our heroine is just a bit too much. And why are the swans the only non-predators werecritters? Why not a wereseal, for example? (Hmmm, actually seals are carnivores, so perhaps they do qualify as predators, rather than prey.) On the other hand, it was good that I had enough to read with me, since the flights back were delayed due to weather. I barely made my connection at LAX, but they put us on a ground hold after boarding. The problem was supposedly mostly the wind, not just the rain. At least I had the comfort of a business class upgrade for the LAX to Dulles leg.
Back home, we've had amazing weather. This weekend was perfect autumn weather - cool and clear and far too nice to stay inside in. Yesterday, I went to the National Zoo. Mostly I wanted to take a walk and I figured that walking around pandas and cheetahs was as nice a prospect for a walk as any other. One of the giant pandas decided to climb a tree while I was there and I was very amused by the oohs and aahs this generated. Personally, I like the red pandas better, since they have really cute ears. All of the big cats were doing standard cat in the sun behavior, i.e. lying around not doing much of anything. And I discovered that the zoo is, alas, somewhat bear deficient. (Not bear free, but sloth bears just don't measure up to polar bears in my personal animal hierarchy.) On the plus side, the ring-tailed lemurs are adorable. They look less human than most primates, so I find them less disturbing. Overall, I don't feel the need to go to the zoo again for a long time, but it was a nice outing.
Oh, great, I just combined thoughts in the last two paragraphs and now I'm contemplating werepandas. Better lock up your bamboo come the full moon.
Copyright 2002 Miriam H. Nadel