Grasping at Grace

05 July 2009 @ 07:14 pm

At the End of the Day -
- there's still time to wish

laurel a very happy birthday; never let it be said that I don't get things done, even if it's usually a day late and a dollar short. Happy Birthday, and may this coming year be full of nothing but good things for you!

Tags: birthdays, fandom, good people, interesting people

Current Location: living room

Current Music: the noise in my head

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04 July 2009 @ 08:05 pm

America the Beautiful

The Best Place To Be
...Is with my Best Beloved, between the Dawes Park lagoon in Evanston and Lake Michigan. The band is playing Copeland and Bernstein, the sun has broken through after a rainy day, and a rainbow river of people are walking, listening, playing with their children being safe and happy together. In a little while, there'll be fireworks. Thank you, band; thank you, people; thank you, oh Sousa-loving BB. Thank you, America.

Tags: democrazy, family, holy days

Current Location: land that I love

Current Mood:

grateful

Current Music: Sousa

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04 July 2009 @ 03:58 pm

natal excellence

Belated Birthday Greetings
I send many, many such to

darkpike , who is, without doubt, one of the nicer rapscallions it has been my pleasure to meet on teh Intarwebs. Forgive my tardy felicitations, dear boy, and I hope July 3 was a peach for you. May your family be tractable this year, may all your shows run smoothly, and may love and happiness be yours for the taking! See you over at LINDA!

Tags: birthdays, dr. who, fandom, good people, interesting people, linda

Current Location: America the Beautiful

Current Mood:

cheerful

Current Music: the bubble and chuff of an oxygen machine

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04 July 2009 @ 01:53 am

Happy Birthday To Us

Worth A Thousand Words
I may have more to say about the holiday, but I don't think I'd be saying it any more eloquently than this, courtesy of a good friend I haven't seen in Too Long,

fishbliss .
Happy Birthday, America!

Tags: democrazy, holy days

Current Location: going to bed

Current Mood:

contemplative

Current Music: Shenandoah

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01 July 2009 @ 08:19 pm

Oh, Canada!

Happy Canada Day!

(with many thanks to TWoP motivatin' master acatmaylook)

Tags: democrazy, holiday fun, lovely things

Current Location: In the U.S.

Current Mood:

nostalgic

Current Music: world music

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27 June 2009 @ 06:07 pm

Fanfic

Title: Gossamer
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Nothing is so grand that it can't disappear, and nothing is so fragile that it's not worth fighting for.

This is dedicated to

cathica , who provided me (a surprisingly long time ago, I now realize) the one-word prompt "gossamer" as a dam-buster for one of my not-infrequent cases of writer's block. I write far too slowly, but eventually this meditation on eternity's foibles fought its way past the first few paragraphs. The thing holds at least a temporary title as the story of mine with the most whiplash-inducing series of emotional hairpin turns in the smallest number of lines. As always, I do not own these beloved characters. As if I could ... they are the property of the BBC, which graciously closes its all-seeing corporate eyes and lets me pass into the Whoniverse to play.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

( You know the drill; under the cut and ficophobe-safe. )

Tags: dr. who, fanfic, writer's block, writing

Current Location: living room

Current Music: the bubble and chuff of an oxygen machine

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24 June 2009 @ 08:53 pm

Hearts and Moons Recall the Truth

Chapter Nine
Title: Hearts and Moons Recall the Truth
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Love, silk, and memory, in shades of cold and dangerous blue.

The latest chapter, because I currently labor under the misapprehension that I can move this story forward. For those who are interested, here are the previous chapters:

Prologue and Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight

*** *** *** *** ***

( (Newest chapter under a cut, to protect the fic-phobic) )

Tags: dr. who, fanfic, writing

Current Mood:

hot

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23 June 2009 @ 11:59 pm

Hold the Presses

-30-
John Callaway has died, suddenly and too soon. His was the kind of television journalism I could respect - full of intelligence, accuracy, curiosity, care, wit, analysis, fearlessness, and style - and all full of the muscular solidity of the human touch, and the human heart. You can get a small taste of his excellence via clips here at HuffPost.

He was Chicago journalism at its best. I will miss his presence, and my condolences go to his wife, Sandra Callaway; his daughters, Liz Foster Callaway and Ann Hampton Callaway; and his stepchildren.

Tags: democrazy, good people, passages, reporting, television

Current Location: going to bed

Current Mood:

sad

Current Music: The AC. Oh, blessed, blessed AC!

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22 June 2009 @ 11:43 pm

Weather or Not

Simmer Time
I have a friend at work who loathes - usually with energetic and colorful expletives - weather in which the temperature rises above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I have another friend for whom the longest days of the year aren't complete until he has been able to bask in shimmering waves of 90-plus degree heat, like some gila monster spread out in happy torpor upon a flat desert rock.

If I tend to either end of the scale, it would have to be toward summer, because I have a distaste for winter that only a child forced to play in the snow because "it's good for you!" can muster. It's truly hard to appreciate the crisp and porcelain beauty of the season when one's wrists are wet and chapped with snow melted into uncomfortable ice pills inside one's mittens; when one's feet snap and ache with cold, and incipient chillblains.

Still, I must admit that coming to Chicago has changed me. Summers in Chicago are inevitably moist and oppressive - sweat-daubed and reeking with the fume-rich blanket of hot weather inversion that tans our particular urban skies too many days between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

In fact, ever since 1995, when a heat wave took hundreds of lives in Chicago*, (including my cat Rissa. Not, certainly, as tragic as the human victims, but a loss we mourned), summer has reminded me that spring and fall are really the only seasons I can truly love these days.

This is not to say that I don't occasionally still love summer. There's nothing like walking on a summer night and appreciating the cool and the summer stars. I also love barbecues, and I adore swimming, and those are most definitely summer time arts. But I don't get the chance to barbecue much these days, and I haven't been on a beach for decades. All of which is my own damned fault, but it does limit those few aspects of summer that I truly adore.

So why my anti-paean to hot and cold running weather?

Simple: I was reintroduced to Chicago summer today, caught in construction-clotted traffic in an AC-deficient car for oh, about a century at high noon, in 88 degree sunshine.

Oh, my, I do not like hot weather.

* This is how much that summer affected me.

( It's poetry. You've been warned. )

Tags: grumpy old bat, meanderings, poetry

Current Location: going to bed

Current Mood:

hot

Current Music: The AC. Oh, blessed, blessed AC!

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20 June 2009 @ 05:34 pm

The World is Watching

The Fire This Time
Right now, I can't talk about the revolution in Iran, beyond saying that that is what I believe it is, and that I believe it's very probably a good thing, even if the chance for success - or even what that success might mean to the millions of Iranians involved - is questionable. But I think it's beyond important to watch, if that's the only thing we can do. Every news outlet is important, but one of the best spots for general updating, at least for me, is here, on Nico Pitney's "Live-Blogging the Uprising," from HuffPost. The commentary, the links, the messages from inside Iran, are all remarkably important ways to witness this indescribably poignant and important ongoing event.

ETA: thanks to cygnia , who mentions this: Something that I saw on one of my friends' lists...
"Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches. If anyone is on twitter, set your location to Tehran and your time zone to GMT +3.30. The more users at this location, the more of a logjam it creates for forces trying to shut Iranians' access to the internet down.".

Tags: democrazy, good people, holy days, pain

Current Location: the world, changing

Current Mood: Watchful

Current Music: the voice of millions

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11 June 2009 @ 06:49 pm

natal attractions

A Belated Birthday Greeting
Many happy returns of the day to

time_converges , a fellow Whoniverse fan, appreciator of goof fanfic, and creator of same!

Tags: birthdays, dr. who, fandom, interesting people

Current Location: work ... ish

Current Mood:

tired

Current Music: nada

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08 June 2009 @ 12:39 am

me-me-meme

I Blame dameruth ...
     ... but only for the meme. I get a lot of these from you. Do you have a lending library of memes? Heh.
     My buddy Nick at work would simply roll his eyes if he saw this one.
     And I worked really hard on this one not to come up like this. I answered the sex questions all knowingly and sophisticatedly.
     Didn't work worth a damn.

Tags: meme, self-absorption, silly

Current Location: living room

Current Mood: geeky

Current Music: silence

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07 June 2009 @ 01:58 pm

Memes, so many memes.

Wall Eyed

I ganked this meme from

jlrpuck . Finally. After everyone else in the universe already had fun with it. Congratulations, jlrpuck - you finally convinced me to do it, too, with your eloquent ... uh ... eloquence. Yeah, that's it. Thanks!( Here it is! Under here! )

Tags: dr. who, meme, self-absorption, silly

Current Location: living room

Current Mood:

calm

Current Music: Barra MacNeils "Racket in the Attic"

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05 June 2009 @ 11:50 pm

Good People

Loving the Alien
I was alerted to this story via a post on the doctorwho community. It was, of course, sad, but I also found it surprisingly affecting. Perhaps the sweetest aspect of the story was the obvious love the young man's parents had for him, and their trust in what they thought would honor his memory. No parent should have to survive a child, and I have no idea how I could survive such a tragedy in my own life. But I certainly hope that I could honor the memory of my child in as profoundly knowing a way as these two people did their son.

Tags: dr. who, fandom, good people, holy days, lovely things

Current Location: living room

Current Mood:

impressed

Current Music: none, actually

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04 June 2009 @ 10:19 pm

Day After Day

Weird Thursday? No, not completely. But close.
      I covered the last village meeting on my old beat tonight; was happy to see there was a small amount of consternation amongst the folks there when I bid my goodbyes. Always leave 'em wanting more.
     Covering the meeting was practically the only thing I got done today. And I had hoped I'd get all sorts of work-related things done. Nope. Not a chance. My mind was all sorts of elsewhere, and it didn't leave a forwarding address. Tomorrow is going to have to be a whole hell of a lot better, professionally speaking.
    On the other hand, I did get to see the first Burn Notice of the season this evening. And a very good piece of summer entertainment it was, too. Anything with Bruce Campbell as a sidekick has to kick ass, and does.
     Also, I made an excellent egg salad: a small shallot, finely chopped cucumber, and curry powder.
     Well, I like it.

Tags: grumpy old bat, television

Current Location: living room

Current Mood:

drained

Current Music: Charlie Rose

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02 June 2009 @ 11:20 pm

Chicago, Chicago ...

Mobile Etiquette Lessons, or How Kaffyr Got Schooled
      So I'd just finished dropping off groceries at the house, pulling out of the parking lot - where we don't have a designated spot - to find a space on the street. My new Blackberry is lying on the seat next to me. It rings.
     Now understand, I tell friend, colleague and stranger alike that speaking on a mobile while ... uh ... mobile is stupid.
     But here it was, ringing. And all I could think of was that BB had just remembered something he needed. So I picked it up. While I was looking for a parking spot.
     Well, it wasn't BB. It was a contact I'd tried to get for a slightly unimportant story. She was calling too late to help, so, as I tried to maneuver very slowly up my street toward a parking spot, I tried to end the conversation by telling her I'd contact her later.
     A Chicago cop car drove past me and my internal alarm went *whingggggg.* "I have to hang up, I'm about to be ticketed for talking on the phone."
     I was.
     The very nice officer handed me a blue ticket and explained that it wasn't a traffic ticket. Go to court, he said, and there wouldn't even be a fine.
     Today was my court date. The el was slow, and I got started late, as usual, and then I got off at the wrong stop and walked in the wrong direction for two blocks. I ended up being half an hour late.
     It was no problem. A nice administrative aide ran into me as I walked into the little windowless court-ette (too small and cavelike to be a court room), smiled and took my ticket, then beckoned me into a side room.
     Had I been talking on my cellphone?
     Yes.
     No problem, she said. It's just a fine of $100, plus $40 in court costs.
     My usual response to shock (which I hate, but which I can't seem to control even after 53 years on this earth), set in. Tears - no sobs, just silent saline in rivulets down my cheeks.
     I guess the officer was mistaken, I said.
     Yup.
     My own fault, I allowed. My own fault.
     So I paid.
     I went back into the court-ette, sat quietly and waited until the Administrative Hearing Officer heard my case and gave me the bill to pay. Then he asked me how I was caught. "How are they doing it now? Did they get you for anything else? No? Just the phone?"
     Yup.
     I went out to the cashier. The cashier was a very pleasant lady. We chatted as she took my money; cops say things like that, like 'There won't be a fine,' she said. "So that they can get away from folks."
     Ah.
     I walked back to the el, came home, and ate a bowl filled with three flavors of ice cream and one flavor of sherbet.
     Here endeth the lesson.

Tags: life in the circus, pain, wtf?

Current Location: In some twisted tale of urban morality, it seems.

Current Music: "Arsenic and Old Lace"

15 comments | Leave a comment

01 June 2009 @ 09:16 pm

Felines and Family Health

Cats and Oxygen and Us
     The first doesn't have enough of the second, and the third has a whole lot more of it than expected.
     Which is to say that Our little ginger, Opie, has a head cold - the first cat of my acquaintance to be so afflicted.
     And afflicted is the word. When we realized late Sunday night that he was miserable, it was rather frightening. A mouth-breathing cat is a confused and unhappy animal, more apt to an unnervingly rapid heartbeat than is pleasant to see.
     A cat with a cold is also potentially in a hell of a lot of trouble, so off he went to the vet's this afternoon. He came back, courtesy of BB and FB, with a couple of appetite enhancement pills to be forced down his poor throat, and an intense desire to lay low. We'll coddle him as long as is needful.
     As to the rest of the household, we now have a large canister of liquid oxygen standing, frosty and intimidating - no, make that completely horrifying - far too close to the marriage bed.
    The LOX is there to fill up BB's brand new travellin' tank. A full six or seven hours of time for independent rambling. And a potential propellant for the inhabitants of CasaKaffyr to better the American moon landing record by one. (I eagerly await those of my friends who will hasten to assure me that LOX doesn't work that way. I know. Now hush; the irrational power of my fearful imagination is of far greater magnitude, and a hell of a lot more twisted fun, than all your fannishly and/or scientifically fueled realities. Heh.)

Tags: cats!, family, home stuff

Current Location: dining room

Current Mood:

groggy

Current Music: The Quiet Man

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31 May 2009 @ 08:31 pm

Natal Excellence

Where Are My Manners?
This day is almost done, and I have yet to wish the divine

belsum - rock and roller, Whofan, skiffy adventurer, fashionista, great mother of the Captain and the Rani, and in possession of the lucky man she married - a happy birthday. Regardless of birthday drama-llamas, regardless of the feared natal clusterfraks, you deserve nothing but the best for your birthday. May the coming year, too, be filled with nothing but joy for you. (And don't forget to drop by here, once Lifetime finally gets started with Project Runway!)

Tags: birthdays, dr. who, fandom, good people, interesting people, project runway

Current Location: living room

Current Mood:

cheerful

Current Music: PBS begathon stuf. Three priests singing in Armagh cathedral, actually.

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30 May 2009 @ 12:51 pm

natal felicitations

Happy Birthday
Happy birthday,

acidpenguin46 - hope the day is all you wanted it to be, and the coming year is even better than that!

Tags: birthdays, interesting people

Current Location: living room

Current Mood: awake

Current Music: the grunt and snuffle of an oxygen concentrator

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28 May 2009 @ 11:49 pm

aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

This Week in WTF

So, on Tuesday the California Supreme Court upheld - narrowly, the analysts assure us - Proposition 8.

I'm not a lawyer, so I won't say too much about the decision itself. It may indeed be the case that the CaliSupremes can give the legal equivalent of a disingenuous shrug saying, "Hey, it's that wacky California constitution. What can you do?" and follow it with the sop of saying, "But you 18,000 couples? Good for you - you won the It's Not Retroactive Lottery!"

If that's the case, I hope, at the very least, that this will force people in that state to turn a magnifying glass to the entire Prop model, and give serious thought to just how broken it may be.

When it comes to non-legalese, however, I know where I stand. This. Stinks. On. Ice.

You can find most of my thoughts here, but one other thing occurred to me this week.

( And it's here, under the cut because it's long. )

Tags: cultural dissonance, democrazy, grumpy old bat, rights for everyone, wtf?

Current Location: going to bed

Current Mood:

infuriated

Current Music: Bruce Cockburn "Love Song"

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