All in one day: Lincoln Davis says he’s running for Governor (in 2010), and Harold Ford Jr. announces that he’s chosen a bride.

Despite rumors that have circulated for months, he chose today for what reason?  Couldn’t be speculation over the last few years about his preferences, could it?

The irony of the timing is a hoot.

This arrived in my inbox this afternoon, and seems worthy of sharing:

I believe –
. . that just because two people argue, it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other.  And just because they don’t argue, it doesn’t mean they do.

I believe –
. . that we don’t have to change friends if we understand that friends change.  Remember that!

I believe –
. . that no matter how good a friend is, they’re going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.  Even if you think you can’t.

I believe –
. . that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.

I believe –
. . that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.

I believe –
. . that it’s taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

I believe –
. . that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I believe –
. . that you can keep going long after you think you can’t.

I believe –
. . that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I believe –
. . that either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I believe –
. . That heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

I believe –
. . that money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I believe –
. . that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.

I believe –
. . that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you’re down, will be the ones to help you get back up.

I believe –
. . that sometimes when I’m angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn’t give me the right to be cruel.

I believe –
. . that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you’ve had and what you’ve learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you’ve celebrated.

I believe –
. . that it isn’t always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I believe –
. . that no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn’t stop for your grief.

I believe –
. . . that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

I believe –
. . that you shouldn’t be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.

I believe –
. . two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.

I believe –
. . that your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don’t even know you or by people that you don’t even know.

I believe –
. . that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you – you will find the strength to help.

I believe –
. . that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.

I believe –
. . that the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon.

Punk HP raised an interesting topic Saturday evening, as he captained a delightful moonlight cruise.  Maybe it was the moonlight sparkling like diamonds off the surface of the lake that brought the topic to mind, but it’s certainly thought-provoking.

There’s been much uproar over Putin’s claim to the arctic circle, due primarily to the wealth of natural resources including oil, natural gas, and diamonds.  But wait — those are all fossil fuels and carbon derivatives, meaning that they were formed from decayed organic matter very long ago.

This would seem to indicate that at some point, millions of years ago, there were plants and animals in the arctic circle.  Although there is life in the arctic, it isn’t plentiful — seemingly not enough to generate these large deposits of carbon-based natural resources.

There seems to be evidence of prehistoric global warming.  Since there were no cars, no CFC-powered spray cans or coolant, or the myriad other things said to cause global warming, could it be that this is simply part of the earth’s natural cycle?  And if it is, does anybody really think we can stop it?

For those who haven’t had to put up with me in person over the last 3 weeks or so, my air conditioner has been on the blink.  That makes me cranky.

No, I didn’t call a repairman; I already know that I need a new system (this one’s 15 years old).  I’m just not prepared to spend the $8k-$10k it would cost to replace it right now.  We had it recharged in June and it worked for several weeks, so I’m fairly sure there’s a leak.  That, and the last serviceman who took it apart did a sloppy job of putting it back together, so the insulation was all torn up and not sealing the unit, such that it was sucking in hot outside air and mixing it with the cooled air to blow in the house.

Over the weekend, HWTFM borrowed a recharge kit (some gauges and a tank of R-22 refrigerant) from a friend, and taught himself a little something about HVAC systems.  [Reason #457 why it’s good to be married to a farm boy/engineer] 

We now know, for example, that the vapor point of freon is about 100 degrees, so putting the tank in a bucket of hot water greatly assists in getting the last bit of freon out of a less than fully-pressurized tank.  We know that the coils are probably a little dirty and less than fully efficient, because the pressure differential between the "low side" and the "high side" was off just four or five pounds — not enough to call for a $$$ triple-digit repair, knowing that we’re going to replace it anyway next spring.

We’ve also figured out that it would probably be a good idea to put in an auxiliary duct fan on the west side of the house, because the HVAC system is on the east side, but the kitchen is always too hot in the summer with those west-facing windows.

My family’s gotten tired of the "if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen" philosophy, since I’ve refused to cook on a good number of these recent nights.  A gas stove is a lovely thing in January, but not when it’s 95 degrees inside.

Do-it-yourself home repair isn’t for everyone, but for us, there’s significant satisfaction in learning how stuff works.

No cash for Ophelia: thankfully, there is a judge in Memphis with some sense.

There’s something unethical about these required ethics classes for lobbyists.  It’s just the latest in a long line of what appears to be profiteering from required training or testing that seem to yield little value.  Is there something magical about charging $150 for a class or test required by the state (especially one where the participants feel like they didn’t get anything out of it, and couldn’t even have a cuppa joe to keep them awake)?

A candidate’s worst transgression (the last of many, it seems) loses him a vote (tip: Kleinheider).  As more people switch to cell phones in place of landlines, this could really impact polling and politicking.  Already, polls are skewed toward the older voter, who is more likely to 1) have a landline, 2) not screen their calls, and 3) be home to answer it.  I do realize that older citizens are more likely to vote than their younger counterparts, but that could change — and when it does, tactics will have to change with it.

Happy Thursday (for those of us on a 4×10 workweek: Functionally Friday)!

For an hour and some this evening, Mother Nature provided an enjoyable show via the Perseid meteor shower.

Alpha, Mathman and I found the outfield at Big Turtle Park an acceptable viewing location. Not great — there are streetlights on the turnpike, in the parking lot, and otherwise nearby — but it was the best place we could find close to home.

The narrowing of our viewing area provided another educational example, as the cooling night air after midnight brought about a rising fog over a low lying field and stream to our east. It was not like the nights over Northern Michigan (which has several times the number of visible stars simply due to clearer air and less light pollution), but it was a lovely show nonetheless.

One more for the list of great things to do at no cost whatsoever.

Finally, a Bachelors degree for women only:

[USA Today]  NASHVILLE — The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary offers coursework in Greek and Hebrew, in archaeology, in the philosophy of religion and — starting this fall — in how to cook and sew.

Southwestern Baptist, one of the nation’s largest Southern Baptist seminaries, is introducing a new academic program in homemaking as part of an effort to establish what its president calls biblical family and gender roles.

It will offer a bachelor of arts in humanities degree with a 23-hour concentration in homemaking. The program is only open to women.

I’m not making light of knowing how to cook and sew — nor how to home-can green beans without the risk of botulism, how to bake a perfect cherry cobbler from fresh fruit and basic ingredients, to make a quilt strictly by hand from scrap fabrics, nor how to keep a family together for a couple of decades… those are some of the most important things I know.

I didn’t have to pay tuition to get it, though.  My tuition went for the study of computer science, which is much more difficult (though not impossible) to teach one’s self.

Certainly, I grew up watching my mother and grandmothers do most of those things (although I have begun teaching Mom to quilt).  Unfortunately, since my mother was so skilled at the home arts, I didn’t have much opportunity to practice those skills until I was on my own and had to learn out of necessity.

That the Baptists feel a need for a Bachelor’s degree in homemaking seems to me transparently laughable:  it’s not a BA program, but the path to an "Mrs."  Or, perhaps to create a pool of appropriately knowledge-limited women who might make suitable wives for those who aren’t up for a little intellectual challenge now and then.

I love my husband, I respect my husband, but to defer to him intellectually at all times would be doing him such a disservice.  He would be thoroughly bored.   As would most outside the world of the Taliban.

Disclaimer: I love books, and movies made from books seldom measure up in my estimation.  There’s just no way to fit the hundreds of pages of rich detail into a couple of hours of film. and any story with a plot is lessened by the omissions.  However, as a family of serious Harry Potter fans, we donned our character wigs (Tonks and Ginny Weasley) and headed out for the show.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (or Odor of the Phonics, as I’ve sometimes teased) is a marvelous tale — the fifth in a series about a teenage wizard engaged in a witty but perilous battle of good and evil.  There’s a noticeable change in the fifth book, as Harry begins to exhibit the first real signs of teenage angst.

The Sunday Mirror has a good, non-spoiler review.  Among the highlights are Dumbledore‘s battle in the Ministry of Magic, Imelda Staunton’s portrayal of Dolores Umbridge (very much as I had imagined her from the book), and the inimitable spectacular pranks of the Weasley twins.  The blending of this group of teens behaving very much like real teens with the taking on of hefty life-and-death responsibilities is priceless.

On the downside, too much was left out for the movie to be the only segment of the story.  There were no quiddich matches, an integral part of the story since Harry’s prowess as a quiddich player is very much a part of his character, and the games a key element of his life at Hogwarts.  Tonks plays only a bit more than a cameo role in the movie, but held a somewhat higher profile in the book — as the youngest of the Order of the Phoenix (a group devoted to battling the evil forces), there seemed to be a greater bond between Tonks and Harry in the book, influencing who or what he will become in the future.

Definitely see the movie, but if you have not read the book, read it afterward.  After all, it’s summertime — what better do you have to do?

Punk HP is 43 today… a very good year, if I do say so myself. And I do.

Much fun was had by all, including a passel of young ones (and all our kids).

There was considerable flipping, diving,  and other stunts by the revelers, along with a couple of impressive cannonballs courtesy of PunkHP himself.

A fair quantity of delicious eats were consumed, including two kinds of birthday cake — one for the Irish kid who’s camping out with Punk HP and RealtorChick for a couple of months,and the other for the birthday boy himself.

Of course, as is customary for the Irish kids and their hosts as part of the Ulster Project, there was some other activity scheduled such that he had to leave and hang out with all the other Ulster kids and their hosts.  It’s a shame — he missed a good party.

Yet another of my offspring have attained that Holy Grail Dixie Cup of teenagerdom: the official, state-sanctioned learner’s permit.

A few months ago, we purchased the Tumormobile with the purpose of it being the car that Gamma will learn to drive, as well as the one that she will drive once attaining the official license next summer. Henceforth, it will be known as the Mousemobile, though it still bears the BlueBerryFarm URL on the back window — a tradition that will continue simply because I think Damama and Bisc are a couple of cool folks who raised some really good kids, so I don’t mind advertising for them.

We’ll be beginning driving lessons this afternoon, so you might want to stay clear of the ORHS parking lot.

I admit to having a bit of fun tormenting her on the way to Clinton, noting that she’d studied so little that she was bound to be the first of our family to flunk a driving test — written OR road. That said, her father does still hold the record in his hometown as being the only one to ever put the driver’s ed car on two wheels — WITH the instructor inside.

I hope Gamma would never do such a thing.

UPDATE:

Okay, the Volvo must have the most forgiving clutch on earth.  She only killed it twice — and both times not trying to start moving, but forgetting to clutch when stopping.  We lapped the ORHS parking lot enough to wear some new grooves in the pavement, then made a left turn onto  North Tulane, another left onto Providence Road (behind the high school), and parallel parked (okay, we were the only car, but still…) in front of the pool, where she got out and went on her merry way.

Perhaps tonight, we’ll head out to Horizon Center to drive the wide, smooth vacant roads.