I am never in uptown Waterloo between 4:30pm and midnight, but today I walked home late in the afternoon -- enjoying the sultry air and the slowly easing humidity -- and I was shocked to find that a group of cool, wonderful people were congregated on EVERY CORNER.
I talked to one group of long-lost acquaintances, walked another block, and then talked to another group. All of us were part of a long, lazy line of good-natured chattiness.
What uptown Waterloo needs is a string of affordable sidewalk cafes.
Somebody has finally cleaned the fountain in the park beside the retirement home. For the last two months that fountain has been a stagnant pool of wet duck feces. I did enjoy watching toddlers try to climb into it as their parents screamed in terror, but I will enjoy it much more when it is sparkling and bubbling and cheerful again.
Until somebody puts dish soap in it.
Speaking of pranks, some happy-go-lucky hooligans have hung six pairs of shoes on the George St. power lines, presumably to practice their bolo-tossing skills. This is one of those enduring acts of vandalism that surely causes a headache for city workers, but which always looks sort of jaunty and harmless on the surface.
Bullet points look terrible in this blog template. That's why I'm writing in full paragraphs with bolded words as separators.
Yesterday at lunch I noticed that something was stuck in my teeth, and after a bit of wrestling I pulled it out...and it was a tiny chunk of enamel. Since I didn't eat a "bacon, lettuce, and enamel" sub that day I could only assume that it was from my very own teeth, and I scheduled a dentist appointment for today.
They looked in my mouth and confirmed that, yes, a piece of one of my molars had chipped off. They considered this to be strange but didn't seem particularly worried. I stopped being worried too once I found out that the repair would be covered by my insurance.
I am still waiting for my new iMac to arrive, which I ordered almost three weeks ago. This is like anticipating Christmas but having people keep moving the date back, until by Valentine's Day you don't care much anymore.
If anything, my cat's morning "yowl-a-thon" is growing all the more intense. She is, in fact, yowling at me right now. I really do think that this is a function of her age, as suggested by Eli in the comments.
Thank goodness the American Democratic primary is finished. I was seriously losing sleep.
7 comments:
So Hillary or Obama? I was supporting (vicariously!) Obama as the true outsider, before I came to know he seriously distorted the work he did in New York (potraying himself as nobly kicking away a high flying, suited-booted investment banker job when in reality he was a relatively low-paid researcher for one of the obscure financial journals)
Or what about that Professor at Harvard? Indulging in this level of window dressing just to make himself look better than he really is shows a disturbing lack of maturity in the next US Prez.
Do you have any links to those discrepancies? Considering the amount of hype that flew around during the primaries it's not surprising I missed those two. I'd like to check them out.
Sadly, Mrs. Clinton was also guilty of the same sort of things...most notably her "sniper fire in Bosnia" thing which was a turning point for me. Previously I didn't care who won, but at that point I started to take some of the anti-Clinton charges seriously.
Actually, it was her whole "3am phone call" period that REALLY did it for me. It's okay to criticize your opponent, but not to imply that the REAL opponent -- John McCain -- is BETTER than your primary opponent. Especially when that person doesn't know a Shia from a Sunni.
I live in the land of Clinton--the original LOC, which is Arkansas, not New York--and I voted for Hilary in our state's primary. I like both the Democratic candidates for once, and have no problem with Obama getting the nom--in fact I like his idealism and hopeful speeches a lot, feel that on the issues there was little difference between the two; what made my decision at primary time was that I like Hilary's health care plan a teensy bit better.
But I also tired of her sniping, as it was just maddening to see her doing McCain and the GOP's job for them.
Anyway, I'm pleased with Obama, will gleefully support/vote for him, and will be biting my nails nonstop until November in fear that somehow all the horror and disappointment of the last couple of cycles will repeat itself.
>>Indulging in this level of window dressing just to make himself look better than he really is shows a disturbing lack of maturity in the next US Prez.
jj, have you checked out the CURRENT US Prez?
I don't hold that too much against him, nor the sniper comment against Hilary. Sad as it is to say, that kind of thing is pretty much par-for-the-course, a manner of political resume-inflating. And in the grander scheme of things I think it's pretty minor. I would hate to see the debate get fixated on nit-picking incorrect statements about non-issue topics and once again have folks forget to consider things like health care, energy, environment...
Yup, it really does seem that resume-inflating is par for the political course.
Now that we have YouTube I wonder what will happen...probably not much, because people have an amazing ability to avoid information that is contrary to their beliefs.
Why don't you ever find yourself in Waterloo in the evening? That must change, my friend. Nothin' beats people watching while sitting outside the gelato place eating a strange new flavour they've hatched up.
And in case I don't find more info on your blog, where did you save the ducks this year? I saw a pic of some of them that the folks at Evilbucks I mean, Starbucks, had. They said there was a family in their planter but that they made it to Waterloo park...no duck sandwiches on the menu that day so I'm assuming they're telling the truth. They likely are. They don't recycle there, so I'm doubting they'd do so with cute fuzzy animals.
Sorry. 3 am and not totally awake.
vicarofvhs, my problem with the resume inflating is precisely because he is so magnificent a speaker/writer. When he does that, it betrays that he is not confident about who he is. With a Hillary, all that assertive "I am so damn competent" spiel is something that most sane people will approach with a sackful of salt. But Obama has the potential to make lemmings out of people. :)
You're right, Tanzi, I SHOULD spend more time relaxing in front of the Gelata place. They had a wonderful HOT treat there a few weeks ago, with a name reminiscent of the Aztecs. I forget what it was, but if you see something like that, give it a try!
Better than rum & raisin any day. :)
The duck-rescue happened at my workplace near the creek...it's nice to know that Starbucks is getting in on the operation, and also important that our duck isn't the ONLY dumb one.
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