Batman Returns

Warning: Many stupid statements and assumptions ahead.

I have recently discovered that we have something of a bat problem. They've probably been there for a year an a half, off and on. We noticed droppings around that time, but I didn't give it much thought, because the droppings were outside of the house. I thought that it might be squirrels or something, but wondered how they were getting to the attic vent, around which there was staining, indicating some activity. The guy painting the house at that time let me know what I was dealing with, when he told me that he saw a dozen or so fly out when he went up to paint that part of the house. I figured that he scared them off, and that was the last we'd see of them. Yeah.

Last weekend, when I noticed that the droppings had returned, and sprayed a hose up toward that attic vent, whereupon about 20 bats flew out, and bat guana ran down the side of the house like Willy Wonka's chocolate river. I returned the next day with my hose, and chased the bats off again. I had hoped that being disturbed like that would cause them to leave for good. Yeah.

The good news is that they're not in the attic; rather, they're hanging out on the outside of the screen, but protected by the slats outside that attic vent window on the side of the house. I went online and ordered some Bat-a-Way to put up in the attic. The smell supposedly drives the critters away. We'll see.

The other side is that I hate to drive them away completely, because they keep the mosquito population down (though, if you walk outside our house right now, you can't tell that they're doing a particularly good job). I may put a bat box on one of the trees, and see if I have any luck moving them there.

A Reading for Afterdinner's New Play

Afterdinner's play "Cinnamon Girl" will have a staged reading in October. See this site for details. (Information on her play is on the bottom of the linked page.)

Our Great Nation

Click here:

I'm sorry if this sound and motion doesn't play for some of you.

The Holy Spirit

Recognize anyone, anyone?

Holy Spirit

Daddy Says

" Bill Cosby did not grow up in the projects, living in a rathole, dirt poor, with a father that beat his mother or wasn't there at all, not knowing where his next anything was coming from. Some of the things he said needed to be said by a black man who scratched his way up from these conditions. No matter what he says in the future, white biggotts will use his remarks."

Vacation Sundries

Everyone survived the trip to the mountains, and had a great time. I've got some pictures; I'll try to share some of them this weekend. We did lots of loafing, guitar playing, fishing (worm and fake worm drowning), hot tubbing, Password playing, beer and coffee drinking, grilling, red-meat and ice cream eating, swimming, exploring, and arson.

We did some boating, told jokes about boating, and about people who own boats. We made our somewhat annual trip to the drive-in, which is always fun. Spiderman 2 was a hit. White Chicks was, well, White Chicks.

Gock and I tried to burn down the cabin and surrounding area with our hillbilly pyrotechnics. Thanks go to Gock and Melanie for braving "One Armed Willie's" to purchase the implements of destruction.

The cabin was outstanding. Thanks to Koala for securing it; we hope to have it again next year. It was borderline luxurious: The hot tub was a big hit, the amenities were unbelievable, and there was lots of land to roam around on.

Dereliction of Dipity Duty

Forgive me if you've heard or read any of this before. It's just that I've felt it necessary to update alla y'all on my travel plans.

As it stands, I still haven't actually "booked" anything, as I didn't want to be stuck with something that I would've had to've changed because of poor planning. Since I'll be out of town for the next month, at a remote enough location, and occupied with responsibilies of a company nature most of the time, my net access is likely to be sporadic at best. I depart this weekend, and am to be back here on the 6th of August.

The plan:

to be in Chicago no later than Barry's wedding on my birthday, which should have me arriving between the 8th and 13th

to play a couple of dates

on or about the 22nd of August to either visit Gock, if Gock is da, and then head south; or if he's not there, go straight to the northern mountains of the great state of Georgia

to stay in A&W land for a week or so, whichever comes first

Any plans after this are subject to Carola's schedule, or her ablity to be there in the first place. Anyway, I'll keep you posted.

Directions to the cabin

The cabin:
A Fisherman's Retreat
650 Blackberry Drive
Mineral Bluff, GA 30559
706-374-7740

(from Loving Road/76)
1) Turn right off of Loving Road onto 76
2) Go to the intersection of 515/60. Turn left (North) onto Hwy 60.
3) Go 1.8 miles to Railroad Avenue, turn left.
4) Go .3 miles to Mountain Rivers Road, turn right. You will go across a wooden bridge. Stay on the main paved road for about .5 mile to Blackberry Drive, and turn right.
5) Go .6 mile to the dead end. There is a gate. Open the gate and continue to the cabin. There is a Tica Cabin Rental sign at the driveway.

I'll add a map in here tonight, if I can. You can pull one up in Mapquest if you need one, also.

The Camping Plan 2004

This is probably as good a place as any (if it's not too late) to coordinate the plan for the week, or at least update everyone on schedules, directions, etc.

Craig, Kristen and I will be arriving at Turner Road late Saturday morning. We can't check into the cabin until 3PM, so we'll go over and pick up the keys from the main office early Saturday afternoon. I'm trying to get directions faxed to me. If I get them, I'll post them as a followup. I'll leave a copy on the kitchen table at Morganton, also.

Daphne will be arriving on Monday late, as she's driving down from the Outer Banks. We'll all (4) leaving Friday for Norcross, as the kids have to be back at their mom's on Saturday AM.

I'm bringing a tent, an inflatable mattress, and a couple of sleeping bags for overflow of campers.

Does anyone have fireworks? I don't know what the vibe will be, but it would be nice to have them if we can use them. Koala dumped the stash that we had in a fit of paranoia.

Firefox - Gotta have it

I periodically read about "alternate" browsers, like Mozilla, and Opera, and think, "Ah, that's for teh geeks. It's prolly a pain in the ass, so I won't do that." This primarily because the people that tell me about the other browsers remind me of the Mac dorks that beat the Apple drum, or the Linux snobs.

Aaaaanywho, I started using Mozilla Firefox and I'm loving it. It doesn't cost anything, and is *very* easy to download and set up (it can automagically inherit all of your Internet Explorer settings, for example). There are a lot of cool things in it, like a built in pop-up blocker, but you can discover those on your own.

The reason that I'm bothering to tell you this is that I stumbled upon a feature that I haven't seen documented anywhere, and it's an excellent solution to the problem of knowing when this page is updated. In Firefox, you can choose the properties of any of your Bookmarks (Favorites) to include a visual and/or auditory notification whenever that page is updated, with an option to automatically open that page. I know for sure that I got a notification when King of Fools added her last post, and I think, but am not sure, that there is notification when someone adds a comment.

If anyone is interested, download from here, where you can get a lot of information on the product as well.

Such a Boring Post

My personal e-mail address is not working (and apparently hasn't been for a week). My man plans to call the powers and see if they can fix it this weekend. In the meantime, well, now you know why I haven't answered your messages (if you've sent any).

O Mr. Leonard: How did you see my draft post? I can't find it myself. I printed your message and plan to read it to the Smiths this weekend.

Nobody pick on Kristen next week. Nobody tire her out. Everybody make her week the easiest ever. Everybody.

Family Outtings

On July 3rd, 2004, the Alice-Lee-and-Joe-Joe-Smith family will gather at Ivy's for a reunion. This year will be the third annual reunion, and we expect the same fun (lots of it) as the years before. (If Mamaw's funeral counted as a reunion, would this year's be the third or fourth reunion? Anyway, we can never expect the same fun as provided at that event.)

Some of you are unable to attend this year. I would like to take some stories with me on your behalf, tell 'em around the camp fire. Eldest son, could you please clear up this confusion in my head about "Yeah, the winners, Bob and Jack!" and Joe Joe creating a tornado with his newspaper to blow down your house of cards?" Did these incidents occur at the same time? Was it really our beloved grandfather who crushed your artistic spirit forever?

Gock, how about you? Besides running from Mamaw after putting out papers, what did you do with your grand folks? Maybe you weren't running; again, I think I have my stories mixed up. You and Mamaw were pretty close, if I remember correctly.

And Daya Daya, surely you have the most to tell us, what with being their favorite and all.

At the moment, I'm seething

Melanie just spent a week with her aunt Marsha, part of which was spent with uncle Jack, as well (some of you can guess where this is going).

Melanie and I just got back from Wolf Park (more on this at another time), and, when we came back in the house, she saw the printed copy of Joe Conason's interview with President Clinton still lying in my printer, with Bill's face on the front page, and said "ew, Bill Clinton."

I didn't think I could have heard correctly, and asked her what she had said. She was reluctant to repeat it, but finally did. She went on about how she didn't like how his wife sat there with a frown, and how he fell asleep and President Reagan's funeral.

I explained to her that he was praying, just as many other people at the funeral were, and she got upset and left the room, as she does many times if she senses I am angry.

For now, I'm just mad as hell. I'm tempted to say "well, to hell with that, she isn't going to be visiting there anymore, if he is going to be filling her head with lies," but I'll reserve on that until I've had time to calm myself.

Back to your regularly scheduled program.

Update from Kristen's EEG

Some disappointing news today: Kristen's EEG this morning indicated seizure activity. The clinician (nurse, whatever) called this afternoon and gave us a prescription for 5 mg (a very small dosage) of Lamictal, (lamotrigine) which, according to that link, is used for "partial seizures", though we've not heard directly from the doctor whether this has been determined to be a partial or a Tonic-Clonic. We're going in next week to talk to him, and will know more at that time.

In the meantime, we're just doing homework to ensure that we ask the right questions, and taking care of Kristen, which consists of making sure that she gets back the sleep that she lost last night studying for the test.

Can the FCC fine C-SPAN?

Should C-SPAN fire Dick for his moral indecency?

DADDY SAYS...........

Since I've been printing your comments for him to read, your daddy
occasionally comes up with clever and humourous remarks that
he tells me to "tell them", which means on the blog.
From now on, when this happens I will put it as a comment here.
Anyone wanting to read yopa's latest witticisms can check here.

6/24/2004
Tell them If I die, they can open a window, just a very small
amount, but only if it's extremely necessary, and only after
I'm dead.

Daddy Prepares For A camping Trip etc.

1. Buys slew gobs of rib eye steaks, we're talking dozens.
2. Buys gobs, without the slew, of boneless pork chips.
3. Plans to take the rice cooker so he can serve rice with this
stuff.
4. Who knows what all he will have accumulated by the 3rd. Since I
leave for Ivy's on Wednesday he will have plenty of time alone
to shop. I think he is excited, although he would never admit to
such a strong feeling.
5. Does his rehab exercises 3 times each day. He saw a Doctor of
Naturopathy who gave him a list of exercises plus vitamins and
icky stuff to mix and drink each AM. Mostly it is all several
of the B vitamins, which are supposed to make the brain work better.
The exercises are rehab for disequilibrium related to the
labyrinth system. I looked on the net and they originally
came from an ear, nose and throat, (ENT) doctor who specializes
in this stuff. This is a good thing. Plus some other stuff the
naturopath recommends, such a brushing his body, except for
his abdomen and chest with a little plastic brush each time he
exercises. I get to do his back and the soles of his feet.
He, your pa, says at least all this will make him able to
function better even while dizzy. His attitude impresses me
and makes me feel something, admiration, humility, guilt,
because I think I know how horribly I would handle what he
is dealing with and how good he would be to me.
6. Enough! See some of you guys late on July 4th.
THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART
7. Somebody leave me directions how to get there at the house so
I can find you when I get home.

How many copies does one guy need?????

My attention has been called to a review of the re-release of Brian Eno's first four solo "pop" releases in a music publication called Pitchfork of which I had never before heard. According the this article, significant improvements have been made to the production quality in the remix. Thanks a friggin' heap. I think I've earned a gratis copy.

The publication also rubs more salt in my wound that I won't be able to attend the music festival in Austin in September. This is the second year I've been aware of the show and unable to attend, and it's one of those things that pains one. Maybe not as much as the Crossroads concert, but still. Look at that lineup, will you?

I like to think that next year I will be going, but with only two weeks of vacation a year....I have to pick my spots.

Kristen Update

We took Kristen to a Neurologist today, where she got a standard set of "raise this hand, walk on your toes, how may fingers am I holding up?" tests which didn't indicate any problems.

On Friday, we're scheduled to go back for an EEG, for which Kristen must be up all night the night before, so that she can sleep for the test. (Note to self: If I ever have to take this test, there will be no need for such preparation.) Since the cat-scan didn't indicate anything the day of the seizure, as long as there are no indications that she is predisposed to more seizures from the EEG, that will pretty much be the end of it. At that point, we're just to keep her out of situations where another seizure would be particularly dangerous (heights, baths, operating heavy machinery) for a few months, and to be aware of the proper course of actions should another one occur (lie her on her side, remove her glasses, keep her from hurting herself).

Should she have another seizure, we'd call the Neurologist, who would prescribe the recommended drugs. Should she have more than one within a few hours of one another, we'd take her to the emergency room again.

I'll update this when we have results from the EEG.

I discovered another victim

Same place as the first one - between the end of the love seat and the wall to the downstairs bedroom. It may have been there for a couple of days; I had long since stopped checking regularly, in fact, it's probably just my laziness that kept me from picking up all the traps. Prehaps I should put down some more.