Resignation Day (plants, daughters, and dogs)

Everyone has epiphanies, but most don’t know they are having one when it comes: The epiphany itself happens when one sits back and considers the meaning of an event or circumstances.

Yesterday at work I threw away a plant I could not keep alive. During the Christmas season a consultant came by and gave all us engineers plants as holiday gifts. Who ever came up with the idea that the average technogeek could actually keep a plant alive is beyond me, but someone must have thought so. When I got the plant I followed the directions about caring for it. It’s never flourished under my care. Everyone else’s plants are thriving. It occurred to me that it wasn’t me but it was the plant that was on the blink. In the dumpster it went.

We have two daughters. The oldest is what I call the “Just add Water” child. I could have had five more just like her. Her attitude reminds me of a draft horse. She just plugs away at things at a steady pace and gets things done. She’s kind, thoughtful, and focused on her goals. When she comes home from college she cleans the house. No biggy, she just does it because she gets bored.

Then we have the younger high maintenance daughter. She’s always been, well, a pain in the ass. She’s talented, funny, and very intelligent. When she’s in a good mood she is way fun to be around. When she’s in a bad mood, get out of the way. She’s hard headed and has to learn everything herself. She NEVER takes advice. The last three years have been hell with us. She’s been in trouble with the law, is on probation and flunked most her college classes last semester. She hangs around with the creepiest bunch of goalless wonders I have ever seen. I keep thinking that she’ll wake up and get her act together but who knows? Yesterday I got a call from her ex-roommate's aunt who said they were pressing vandalism charges on my daughter for trashing, and I mean TRASHING the kitchen. My daughter denies that she did this, however does not have the gumption to get her alibi confirmed or even write down what she was doing the evening of the vandalism event. That is what irritates me so much: she is so lax about not seeing the long term consequences of what she does or does not do. My guess is she’ll end up in jail again and flunk her classes again. I will have failed as a parent.

The other thing that happened yesterday is that the dog that we rescued got away again. About a month ago we “adopted” this young boxer. We had him neutered and vaccinated and named him "bub." We bought him a bed, a couple dog toys, and all peripheral things dogs need.

Bub is a really nice house dog. He doesn’t chew on things. He doesn’t shed. He lies around and likes to be petted and talked to: The PERFECT house dog. About a week into having this dog I said, “I can’t imagine how anyone would want to get rid of this dog.” My husband said, “Well, someone got rid of him for a reason.” We soon learned the reason. We have what I though was an escape-proof kennel. It‘s a cyclone fence with cyclone fencing on the roof and floor. Dogs can’t dig out or climb out of this kennel. What we didn’t imagine however was that Bub was able to chew out of the cyclone. He’d work on the seams on the floor. When he got out the first time we spent a good half a day reinforcing the seam. When he got out the second time we reinforced it again. Yesterday he chewed through the re-enforcement and has not been back. I hope he stays gone. There’s pretty much nothing we can do to keep this dog kenneled. I hope someone says, “Who could part with such a nice dog?” Perhaps Bubwill find an owner that will never tie him up or kennel him. Then again the dog might just find himself as a “training victim” for the dog fighters around here or get hit by a car. I don’t have control over his fate anymore. I can’t think about it.

This morning when I was doing the outside chores feeding horses and warming up the car I walked over to the kennel and looked at the hole in the fence. It was then that I had the epiphany about my daughter. She’s like Bub who will not tolerate being kenneled. No matter what we do she’ll get out and run until she finds someone that will take care of her. She might find another temporary home until she gets sick of it, or she might land in a very bad situation, or she just might settle down and get her act together. I’ve resigned myself that I can’t control her fate. It’s not my fault she’s like this. It’s just the person she is.

Diamonds are Forever but they aren't Rare

Today is Valentine's day. Every time I turn on the TV there are commercials for flowers, chocolate, and diamonds. I was always told that diamonds are the hardest material on this earth. This I believe. Nothing will make an obnoxious cut in a glass window like a diamond. Quartz cuts glass, but one really has to press hard to make a mark. The problem I have with the diamond thing is this: They are supposed to be rare. If diamonds are so darn rare why does every Dick and Jane in my county have at least one? There have got to be billions of diamonds that have been mined. Most are used as abrasives or in industry. The really cool diamonds get weighed, cut, polished, and set in jewelry. The super cool stones end up in places like the Smithsonian.

Being the killjoy of romanticism that I am, I made a list of cool rare things I would like to get in lieu of a really expensive diamond ring. Actually I do have one of these items in my possession. See if you can guess which one it is: I could not figure out how to paste photos on to this Blog. Gotta work on that.

1.) A nice specimen of a Chrondritic Meteorite.

Meteorites are rare, and only about 5% of meteorites are made up of actual stone and volatiles. Most meteorites that we find are made up of nickel and iron, hence why it is so easy to find a meteorite with a metal detector. I always wanted to have something that has been floating around in space longer than life has been on this planet. Why not get the best?

2.) First Edition of George Lamsa's translation of the New Testament. Why not go from Aramaic directly to English? What do we have to read a Bible that went from Aramaic to Greek to English. Talk about "Lost in Translation."

3.) A pink diamond.

OK, the particular stone I was thinking of is retailing for $385,000. I like pink, what can I say? Most people however would mistake this for cubic zirconium.

4.) A Natural Alexandrite. This gemstone is the rarest gemstone on earth. They change color depending on the type of light that shines through them. I enjoy my "created" alexandrite ring, but I'd get a kick out of just seeing a natural one just once.

5.) A new 8' X 10' Tekke rug.

Someone said these rugs are addictive and they are correct. I have a small runner Tekke rug that I bought off e-bay from a seller in Turkmenistan. It came from Ashgabad with all these certificates and wrapped in a burlap sack sealed with an export stamp. I paid $40 for this rug and another $20 to get it to Idaho. The workwomanship (Women make the rugs by hand) is incredible. If you ever get one of these rugs you will be forever feeling every other Persian run to compare quality.

6.) A Marwari Horse.

There are only about 10-20 of these horses in the New World. They are rare to begin with and then one has to go through all the hoops to get them here. If they test positive for a couple nasty diseases they never get out of quarantine. They are from Rajastan in India. They just look like one smooth ride. I'd probably get my ass dumped quickly because I would not be able to quit looking at the unique ears of these horses. I was offered a trip to India to take part in an Endurance ride. I would have had the experience of riding one of these horses. I could have gone to India several times with the money I threw away on my youngest daughters tuition and rent. And I say "threw away" because she just quit going to class and got an "F" in every class. Oh well.

7.) A Contra Bass clarinet for my older daughter. She has a Bass Clarinet that she will probably keep for the rest of her life and even has it named. Two more months and I'll have the darn thing paid off. For the price of a couple trips to Rajastan, India I could probably buy her a Contra Bass Clarinet. We'll see.

OK, so you are probably guessing it's the Bible. I was going through my parents old books and stumbled on to the first edition. It was everything I could do to not to gasp when I found it. I just said, "Mom, this is kind of neat. Do you mind if I take Grandma's Bible home with me?" Thank goodness my mom said yes because it probably would have been stolen with all the other antiques at the estate sale. Or worse, my sister would have thrown it away.

Stupid Things We Buy

The other night I was watching the usual news fare and one of those commercials came on selling something via credit card. I think it was the same guy that sells the ShamWoW towels. If you watch Fox news you've seen this guy. He wears the phone head set like he's multitasking a phone call with his mom while summoning the "camera guy" to take a look at this.

The ShamWow towels appear to undo the first law of thermodymamis in that they appear take up more fluid than they have volume to hold. Anyway, the ShamWow guy was selling this other magic tool that chops and dices things with a slap of the hand. Golly, it's nice to know that when I get Parkinsons disease I will still be able to chop garlic. It looked like a handy device and I even took down the phone number and had my credit card number ready. Then I remembered buying the "chef'n revin chef" similar to the one linked below:

http://www.wrapables.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=A59906#MORE

This is not the actual P.O.S that I paid twenty dollars for. This is an impoved design on the one that I bought. The garlic miracle machine that I bought used a pull string to rotate the blades. It is still a magor pain in the ass to extract the garlic from, and when the objective is trying NOT to get garlic on the fingers, one would do better to just learn how to chop efficiently. So it got me thinking of the stupidest things I have ever spent money on. The funny thing that when I was making the purchase of these items, I just didn't feel good about it.

Here goes

1. The garlic chopper described above. The real insult was watching Alton Brown demo this on "Good Eats" as a joke. It was a joke alright as my husband never lets me forget it.

2. This vehicle:

The day we bought this "Vehicle" the horoscope recommended to rethink big purchases. I had the misfortune of experiencing an engine blow-up with this POS. And what did we do? We spent even more money putting in a new engine. It was hotter than hell to drive, shook, and got eight miles to the gallon. I called it "Shake and Bake." We sold it for $900. I was never happier to be rid of a lemon.

3. A cast iron Wok. I've had it for 20 years and have yet to use it. I'd like to sell it on e-bay but the shipping would cost way more than it is worth.

4. A trail saddle for my husband. He thought he wanted to ride so I bought a saddle and a horse for him. Now he doesn't want to ride. I love the old horse, but the saddle has got to go. I'm just not a fan of western saddles. Really though, we live together, we work together, we carpool together. I love him to death but I enjoy my solitude on my horse and I like to gab with my horsey friends. No biggy, just another thing that has value that I need to get rid of.

5. Everything in my youngest daughter's apratment. She trashed it all and it ended up in the dumpster when she thought she was going to move to another city with the looser boyfriend.

There's no escape

I used to be pro-Palestinian way back when I believed that the main stream media told the truth. I'm wiser now. More on that in later posts.

When I moved to Idaho, I foolishly believed that I had escaped the dreariness of green and flat Detroit for the freshness of the Rocky mountains. I got the fresh mountains, but there is no escaping the dreariness of Eastern Liberals. Case in point, Diana J. Peavey. Ms. Peavey married into a wealthy cattle/sheep family in Central Idaho. She wrote a book on this area and writes essays of the quaint life here in Idaho. I know she came from the East Coast or something to that effect. I wish she'd go back there. I've always found her pieces condescending and annoying, but I figured she was harmless enough.

Then she did this piece on the Gaza strip. This woman has enough money to fly to Israel so she can diss the Israelis. Bear with me on this and listen to her "essay" in its entirety. Bring along a waste paper basket if you have any inclination for vomiting.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/idaho/.jukebox?action=viewMedia&mediaId=814978

There is no getting away from the bombardment of Liberal drivel, even here in Idaho. Good Lord, BSU radio doesn't even have the gumption to even things out with a thoughtful Liberal.

Oh, How Quaint!

You will have to bear with me. I'm new to this blogging thing.

Why the name Probably Pabulum? It comes from the feeling I get every time I watch the watered down news, entertainment, and general media. It reminds me of bland baby food or pabulum. Like pabulum, most humans grow out of it and move on to more substantive foods. But with today's barrage of feel good blandness people have become used to getting badly prepared and thought out news, and most don't want anything else. So this is my little way of fighting back. Then again, I may be a little guilty of dishing out a little pabulum myself from time to time.

I grew up in Detroit when Detroit was a relatively fun place to be. There were dangerous places, but generally it was a cool place. In 1984 I moved to the Intermountain West, and I have been here ever since. Until last year, I' go back to visit my parents, but they moved to the western part of Michigan so I will never again be blessed with landing in Detroit Metro. Such a shame.

Being a transplant to a different part of the country has it's challenges: The US has a lot of differing "cultures." There were a couple things I had to get used to out here, but generally I made the changes and now I am an Idahoan, albeit a relatively liberal one. Just a small note here, when I say "Liberal Idahoan" I mean I would be a conservative anywhere else east of the Mississippi. Idaho is the most conservative state in the US. I don't mind this, but I do wish there would be a few more checks and balances, things just get corrupt when there is no accountability: it's just human nature.

What really sticks in my craw however is wealthy easterners and west coasters who move to rural Idaho and just can't get over how "quaint" we all are. They write about us in such a condescending manner. It makes me think of having to eat really bad fudge. They are usually wealthy, and have that guilt complex of how nasty all us white folks are. It's pabulum!! Like we are a bunch of unenlightened idiots that need the guidance of an educated easterner. I'll talk more about this later, there will be many examples. I'm sure there are many other rural areas in the US that have to endure the local transplant on NPR or get pissed at the columns of some of these idiots. Feel free to share.