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Monday, May 31, 2010

What to do... what to do....

Ok, we have absolutely nothing to write about. A complete blank. Our brains are as empty as the pinata at a party full of fat kids. The news is again about the B.P. Oil spill, we keep reading about how Obama is failing in his dealing with it. What do they expect him to do? Take a sponge and try and mop it up himself? It just amazes us here at The Crazy how much in the news is opinion couched as news, and not just Fox news although they are the most blatant about it. We miss Walter Cronkite, the man brought some dignity to the news, and when he had an opinion about a story you would know it. He would end a news story with "and that's the way it is" and then the date. If he didn't say "and that's the way it is." it's because he was about to do an opinion piece. The man understood the difference between straight news and opinion. But he was the face people saw when the Cuban missile crises happened, also when President Kennedy was assassinated, (also Bobby Kennedy.) He was the main source of news about the Vietnam war and most people would not know he believed the war was wrong. He was there again when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, (he later mentioned he wishes he had been more professional during the broadcast as he smiled, rubbed his hands together and said "Whew boy!" during the broadcast.) He was the main voice Americans heard during the Watergate fiasco. He once pointed out that America was one of only seven nations worldwide that did not give free airtime to political candidates. Anyway we guess we have done enough for a day when we had nothing to write about. But in closing we would like to give a little nod to Walter Cronkite who died in 2009. And although this is decidedly an opinion piece we will end it with... And that's the way it is on May 31st 2010.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

What was that?..........Zoom......whiz.....


Just a quick note to inform you of a recent speed record set by the United States Air Force. They have just successfully tested a new aircraft called the WaveRider. (The image is used with permission of the U.S.A.F.) It traveled at 6 times the speed of sound or about 5000 miles an hour. (So traveling from New York to California would take less than an hour.) It's called the WaveRider because it is designed to ride the shockwave it creates during flight. Just pointing out that America is still in the forefront of technology in many areas. What can be done with this new technology? Who knows, but it's cool isn't it? Ciao for now.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Too hot.... brain not work...

Wolfie and me are alike in many ways. We have similar interests in music, television, and reading, when it comes to books anyway. I however, am the newshound of the family. But there is one area where we are decidedly different. I come from Nordic stock, we Finlanders (people of Finnish descent for those of you who may not know) are from the north land. Wolfie's people however are Mediterranean, she likes the heat, seems to thrive on it, whereas I melt like an ice cube on a hot griddle. The hotter it gets, the dumber I get. The recent heat wave is good example of the differences in our genetic makeup. When the temperature reached the 90's my effectiveness as a human being quickly approached the null zone. And although neither of us achieved much in the way of work, she seemed to thrive on it. She spent the day in the hottest part of the house upstairs, where the heat intensified to Sauna(pronounced s ow na if you are of Finnish descent.) like levels of searing heat. Whenever I ascended into the steam bath we call the upstairs it was like a descent into hell. Can't breath, gulping air, dripping sweat. I would not have gone up there at all if it weren't for the Angel who was residing there. No I spent the day hiding in our air conditioned living room. Blankets blocking the doorways to upstairs and the kitchen to keep the cool in. Like some sort of cro-magnon video game freak I spent most of the day out of the light in vampiric fashion. Trying not to melt into a puddle of pink goo and watching as Wolfie would pass through my only slightly air conditioned domain on her way to the kitchen. She was thriving on the heat, I think she would cheerfully glide through hell itself with a smile on her face that would melt the devils heart. Where I long for snow... and stinging cold air, and wish that I could think, but my brain is not built for this heat. So if this heat wave lasts a while you know where I will be, sitting in my living room waiting for the cool dark to come. I don't want to suck your blood, but I might steal your ice. Ciao for now.

Friday, May 21, 2010

And now a little philosophy...

We at the crazy have our bad days, when it seems nothing goes right. When no matter how hard we try time and nature and the world at large seems to be working against us.
It's happened to all of us. We get overwhelmed by events, or loneliness, or illness. And these things all require our full attention. And we forget to pay attention to the important things in our lives. Sometimes we find that when the world get's out of hand, it helps to focus on something else. Ghandi knew this. He would often ask his aids, "Did you have a good bowel movement this morning?" Which on the surface seems silly, but there is a point to be made. A simple thing can make a huge difference in how we deal with the world. The next time the universe slaps you down, if the problem seems insurmountable, stop and take a step back, focus on something else. Something eternal perhaps like the stars, or something fleeting like a spring flower. And just maybe your mind will find a way around the problem. At the very least you will have a moments respite, which can never hurt. Spend some time focusing on loved ones, (that is always good advice). Or find a simple problem to fix (a dripping sink perhaps) and fix it. The hundred years or so of our lives are made up of small moments, and although the major catastrophies (or as wolfie calls them "cat ass trophies") of our lives pull our focus, it's the small day to day moments that really fill our hours. So be sure to notice them as they pass and, if you can, have a good bowel movement this morning. Ciao for now.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

No wonder we've been feeling a little dizzy...

Feeling a little dizzy. You should. Even though you are sitting here reading this, (Mwah ha ha ha we know where you are!) you are also out on the end of what is called the Local arm, or Orion arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. Living in the suburbs of one of the larger galaxies known to exist. If you feel like you are moving sometimes when you are sitting still it might be because our Earth is moving through space at about 67,000 Miles per hour. But don't sweat the small stuff, because our Galaxy is moving through space at an estimated 1.3 Million miles per hour. If you are 30 years old you have traveled over 450 billion miles. Seems like we should be getting somewhere by now. But the distance between our galaxy and the nearest neighbor is about 25,000 light years away. (The Canus Major Dwarf galaxy, which our Galaxy is currently devouring.) Which means that if we were to survive until we reached that galaxy. (that's if any of it is left by the time we got there). We would be 150 Trillion years old (a very rough estimate). Of course our sun would long since have become a black dwarf. (No it won't supernova, it doesn't have enough mass. Although who knows what will happen in the ensuing 5 billion years.)Just thought we should point that out. Going to try to make it to the kitchen now to do the dishes. (Maybe hanging on to the furniture will help.) Good luck to all my fellow speed demons, hang on tight. Ciao for now.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Ah...... Freedom......

Recently Apple computers pulled all of it's advertising from the Fox network. They did this because they felt that Glenn Beck is going too far in his anti Obama rhetoric. And while Glenn Beck keeps saying that we are losing our freedoms, and becoming a communist, socialist, Marxist nation. (He better pick one soon though as they are pretty much mutually exclusive.) We just wanted to point out that Apple computer's business decision is in no way censorship. Glenn Beck can still spout his insane inanity from any pulpit that is willing to let him. This is after all a free country.
Glenn Beck is free to say as he pleases. Apple computer is free to advertise with whomever they wish. I am free to call Glenn Beck a psychotic rambling nitwit with a god complex. Our readers are free to call us empty headed left leaning liberal morons who wear our asses for hats. (We would tend to disagree with that assessment however.)
The constitution gives us that right, we would hope that we would all use that right for a higher purpose. But alas, America is full of Glenn Becks, and Rush Limbaughs, and Keith Olbermanns. (Although some of us here at the Crazy like Keith Olbermann.)
But next time someone spouts cow doody about our freedoms being taken away. Could you please ask them which specific ones and get back to us. Seriously. We would certainly hate to lose a freedom without knowing what it was. Oh by the way, the preceding statements were a political opinion held by some of us here at the crazy. O.. P.. I.. N.. I.. O.. N.. it would certainly be nice if Fox news would label the majority of their programming as such. Maybe a few people would understand their agenda. Ciao for now.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

A long way gone.... and still going...


Just a quick mention of one of NASA's more successful endeavors. It seems that the Voyager 1 and 2 Spacecraft have reached the edge of our solar system and found some interesting discoveries. Also a mystery or two. For those of you who haven't kept up on the science behind the missions, (and we know who we are don't we.) Let's focus on Voyager 2 as she has recently done some unusual things. She was launched on August 20 1977. (The Bee Gees "How deep is your love." was on the charts, and Star Wars was breaking box office records across the country.) Her mission was to get a flyby of Saturn, but like many other NASA experiments she was an overachiever. She went on to do a flyby of Neptune, and Uranus. (Discovering ice geysers erupting from pinkish hued nitrogen ice that forms the polar ice caps on Triton, a moon of Neptune, also discovering the 1000 mile an hour winds that blew on that planet.) Since then she has been traveling toward the edge of our solar system, and here is where a bit of a mystery has occurred. Voyager 2 is currently about 8.6 billion miles from Earth. Traveling at 35000 miles an hour. She is traveling beneath the eliptic of the plane of the planets, while Voyager 1 is traveling above the eliptic. They are about 10 billion miles apart and not agreeing at all in what they are experiencing. The space where Voyager 2 is flying, is different than the space where Voyager 1 is flying. She has found an interstellar cloud that physics say should not exist. Solar winds are slower, the temperature is lower than expected, and as of April 22 she is starting to send back unintelligible bursts of data followed by normal transmissions. NASA officials are not sure what to make of it and what is happening with her we may never know. Voyager 1 is leaving our solar system, and still functioning normally, and as it leaves our suns influence may discover new things about our universe. If anything happens to either one we will never know what it was as it takes 13 hours to communicate with them, and another 13 hours for the data to get sent back home. (Communication at the speed of light.) Officially a part of humankind has left our solar system. The batteries on both craft will only last for about 800 years, so neither one will ever send information back about another solar system. They will be dead derelicts in space hundreds of thousands of years before that may happen. But we at the crazy just love that we are getting information from a craft launched over 32 years ago. And also a little comforted by the fact that long after we are dead a small part of us (humankind) will still be floating in deep space. So raise a glass to NASA and the voyager spacecraft. And think about the stars. Ciao for now.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Snow? Again......

Welcome to the U.P. on May 7, and guess what, snow in the forecast. Up to five inches expected. Spring is being put on hold for a little while, and mother nature is rinsing her hair. (And she has ice cold dandruff we guess.) So today (Friday) and tomorrow we can expect cold rainy/snowy days.
And then on Sunday sunny and fifty degrees or so the national weather service is saying. Our plans for the weekend haven't changed, however we may be spending more time indoors than out. (We are putting up a small pavilion over or near the fire pit to try to keep us dry but we can only guess how that will work.) If we are dry and comfortable we will be staying outside, if we are wet and miserable we will be coming inside. Only time will tell. In the meantime, Connal is feeling a little better. (less mucous than before.) And we are looking forward to having friends and family over for a while. Because life is best when shared with others. Just a quick note, ciao for now.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

And another week nears an end...

Thursday morning at the crazy is usually about putting out the trash, we've mentioned it in an earlier blog entry. For some reason the first thing that pops up in the brain when the Thursday morning alarm rings is TRASH. The city recommends we have our trash out by 7:30 am on Thursday, but that is not only unlikely but downright unreasonable. Coffee first, peanut butter sandwich, then we peruse the morning news. Possibly look at the Fortean Times website. And then finally, when we can't put it off any longer. Trash. Garbage. Refuse. Rubbish. Litter. Junk. There are certainly a lot of names for it. It's amazing to us how much trash a household of three people can put out in a week. (Of course this week also involved a lot of work in the yard, the shed, and the garage. Oh and by the way, did you know the city won't take bags of grass or yard detritus, whats up with that? Oh hey another trash word detritus, that's a good one. How about Discard, Waste, Debris, and Scrap. What's interesting to us is how you could keep something for years let's say a lamp perhaps and call it a lamp. And then one day suddenly it's not a lamp anymore, it's drek.
(Ok, we cheated a little on that last one "drek" is a yiddish word for trash.) Well we got that off our chests, and sometime in between the beginning of this post and the end we managed to get the trash out, so the first Thursday chore of the day is done, now it's time for a little laundry. Don't get us started on that! Ciao for now.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Sick House....

Haven't had much time to do the blog this week, Connal is home sick. If there was a market for mucous production we'd be rich. This is the kind of sick where he is chock full of energy, happy as can be, but too sick to send to school. (Other children in his SMI class might not handle a mucous intensive cold so well.) At any rate, we have been as busy as we can. Got called into Jury Duty yesterday, sat in the courtroom for about 3 hours but never even got to the jury box. But civic duty is done for the year and they assured me, "You won't be called again in 2010." Too bad, would have liked to mess with the judge and mention "jury nullification" which is the idea that even if the defendant committed the crime the jury can find him innocent due to the belief that the law is unjust. (Particularly interesting thought in tax and marijuana cases.) Spend a little time trying to get the fire pit ready for use this weekend, (if the burning ban is lifted by then.) Other than that, just trying to get things done around the house. Just a quick update, have a good Wednesday everyone. Ciao for now.