Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

I just got through reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It took me about 4 hours to read. I feel a bit gypped when I finish a book that’s supposed to be one of the best written in years that quickly.

It’s about a girl who was raped and killed and who narrates the story from heaven. The first part of the book was very interesting, the second part was long and drawn out with constant, seemingly unrelated, and extraneous scene shifts, and the last part was simply bizarre, as if the author wasn’t quite sure where to go with the story.

I wouldn’t recommend buying the book, but you could borrow it from a friend or the library.

The top books that I’ve read in the last year are still Boy’s Life, by Robert McCammon; House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski; and From a Buick 8, by Stephen King. Any one of those is worth the purchase price, most especially Boy’s Life, where the prose is nearly as melodic as Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles.

To the surprise of everyone, especially the vet, Gus is looking a little perkier today. I went to visit this afternoon and he stood up and head-bumped me, paid attention to what was around him, and purred and purred. The vet says he’s going to just let him be until Friday, when he’ll check his bloodwork and see how it’s doing. Thanks to everyone for your kind words!!

I have nothing against protests. If you need to burn a flag, go ahead. I may not think it’s the coolest thing ever, but it’s your right (although burning the symbol of your right to burn the symbol of your right is a bit like the snake that eats itself, but I digress).

No, my problem is that people are co-opting a legitimate distress signal into a protest symbol. Now if there’s a ship at sea that’s taking on water and lost its radio and its only option for a distress signal is an upside down flag, is it going to get ignored?

How often do you pay attention to car alarms anymore? How abouy the winshield cardboard that says “Need help, call police”? To me flying the flag upside down to protest a war is akin to calling 911 and saying, “Help! Help! The president’s talking about war!”

“The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.” Flying a flag upside-down is a signal for any passing military member to come and help. All the dolts who think they’re cool by flying their U.S. flags upside down are actually undermining their own damned cause.

I don’t think that the sentiment of “Fuck Bush” represents extreme danger to Everlasting Blort’s life or property.

Life’s too short to link to nimrods.

Gus is the Cat at the Theatre Door.
His name, as I ought to have told you before,
Is really Asparagus. That’s such a fuss
To pronounce, that we usually call him just Gus.
His coat’s very shabby, he’s thin as a rake,
And he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake.
Yet he was, in his youth, quite the smartest of Cats –
But no longer a terror to mice and to rats.
For he isn’t the Cat that he was in his prime;
Though his name was quite famous, he says, in its time…

-T.S. Eliot

Gus is not doing well. He is less than 4 pounds now, and can barely stand up. It looks pretty hopeless, and I think tomorrow will be a very unhappy day.

To recap the day’s events:

1 y.o. is still sick, feverish and crapping and puking everywhere, with the added bonus of being really lethargic and scaring us.

I put up a forum for people wanting to discuss their Featureprice (sucks) experiences, over here.

The cat’s really not doing well; he’s been in the hospital over the weekend with an IV in and his numbers are not going down enough. He’s also not eating, and the vet says that if he doesn’t pull through by Wednesday, he probably won’t pull through at all.

We were supposed to drop off the kids in Houston and go to the ranch this weekend, but since one is dreadfully ill and the other hasn’t gotten sick yet, it’s looking really doubtful.

On the plus, or minus, side – I joined Weightwatchers Online last Wednesday. My weigh-in day is Monday, and as of this morning I’ve lost 2 pounds.

Eagle-eye super sleuth M. called Featureprice (sucks)’s tech support number today and discovered that instead of three minutes of belittling “customers suck” rant, it’s now a slender 60 seconds of “please”.

Damn, I knew I should have recorded the old one while I had the chance.

Hub woke up feeling lousy this morning. Now the one year old is barfing and crapping everywhere, and I don’t feel so well myself.