22 January 2008

a notable day


I tend to shy away from topics that are political in nature when it comes to writing in the blog-o-sphere. Everyone has their own leanings and I respect that right. However, this particular topic I will mention because, to me, it holds great strength, promise, and meaning. Today is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. So I say: Happy 35th Birthday, Roe v. Wade...and many more. Roe v. Wade is about: access to sex education, access to safe and legal abortion--as well as legal protection from forced abortion--, contraception, and fertility treatments.

I also want to thank Jennifer for reminding me of a wonderful poem about this very subject.

05 January 2008

a long winter's day


Having lived my life not (and this by purposeful design) in the byway of hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, or monsoons, I was quite impressed by the up-to-75 mph winds and heavy rain of two inches yesterday here in northern California. We have underground power lines, which protected us against power outages, but our fence took a beating. It has been on our very long list of things to replace, but, as a friend pointed out to us recently, we have a lot of "irons in the fire," so we have put off this task of the fence the past few years. It is (was) quite a distance down on our list of "wants" and "needs."

Don't you find that the line blurs between "wants" and "needs" sometimes? For instance, I want a new stove. The one I have isn't broken, per say, except that it is a low-end model that doesn't put out enough BTU's to heat pans at the temperature we want, has only four burners, has an oven which heats at a different temperature than is indicated by the dial, and is white with a black front. One of the best satisfying qualities of the stove is it's gas, not electric. I know what you are thinking...it still works, right? Sure, it works. Did you read my list of issues about it? Read it again carefully. It takes forever to heat a large pan/pot. It has only four burners. Anyone who does much cooking could see the need for at least five (I'm shooting for six) burners. What about large pots? Two burners can be covered by a large canning pot, which leaves only two other burners. Unacceptable. Baking usually requires even temperatures throughout an oven. In my oven, the back is hotter than the front, the temperature setting is 25 degrees off the oven temperature, and in order to "turn" the light on one has to open the door, causing precious heat to escape. It becomes a complex dance of timing and numbers to bake. Granted, the color of my stove could be the avocado green or gold of the 70's (I shudder at the thought personally), but the white looks...well, white and blah and average. The door is black glass, which makes it look like a replacement door. My "want" has so possessed me that it has become a "need." Here we have a fence down and we were out today looking (just looking) at new stoves.

Humm, I believe we have enough steel posts to temporarily put up the fence panels that fell. That should hold it for another year or two. Yes, I believe we can still keep the fence down on the list in the "want" category, while moving up the stove to "need."