My Boring Life
It was announced on the official FB page today that Mike Briggs, Patty’s husband, died unexpectedly this morning. No additional details yet, understandably.
I got to meet them both several years ago at a Con. A wonderful couple, Husband and I had a great time chatting with them. I was quite horrified to read this on my feed this morning.
The news is all over Facebook. Ringling Brothers Circus will be closing, effective of May this year.
I’ve never been to the circus. I always kinda wanted to, but as I grow up my tolerance for crowds has dropped. I guess now I’ll never get to.
Reading the comments on FB I noticed a couple of major things lacking. Well, more than a couple, but two or three really stood out.
The assumption that circus = animal abuse, even though RB’s owning family successfully fought off every single charge, and in at least one case their accusers had to pay huge fines for being caught bribing people to lie.
The assumption that the animals now in the circus will have better lives. The Ringling Bro’s elephant retirement farm can take 13 elephants. But I can’t seem to find a reliable report that says that 13 is all that are currently touring with RB’s. And what about the rest of the animal crew? Elephants and big cats aren’t something you can take down to the local no kill shelter to find a new home for. Every report I’ve seen, that I consider reliable, says that RB’s current administration really does care about their animals, so presumably there IS a plan for all the animals, but if so it hasn’t been made public.
No one at all seems to care about the circus people. Did you know that RB’s brought in their first ever female Ringmaster in Dec? She made her debut performance on January 12th. Two days before RB’s announced they’d close down this May. The general public is cheering while hundreds and hundreds of people are losing their jobs. Jobs that many have been in their entire lives. How likely is it that these folks are going to find employment elsewhere? In today’s world of instant gratification the need for trained circus people isn’t going to be very large. And I’ll note that this could have local area impact too. This is one less event to be touring, one less event to employ local crowd control, one less event to use local property.
I find it disturbing honestly. This is a huge win for the Animal Rights crowd. Peta, and HSUS, and their crews. This isn’t a good thing. These are groups who’ve stated that they believe that we shouldn’t own cats and dogs, ever. Who believe that milking cows, who’ve been bred to produce such large quantities of milk that if we humans DIDN’T milk them they’d die of infection, is wrong. Who promote such stupidity as insisting that shearing a sheep of their wool causes that sheep serious harm or death. And they just won huge.
And I’m not the only one who’s watching this with worry.
So while you’re cheering on the fact that the circus is shutting down, take a moment to think about what is actually going on. And the repercussions thereof.
Yup……
I realize that discussions with abused family members isn’t the same as what happens in public…..or is it? At any rate…..
Dude…..
Not sure the finances are there. Unless we can get another local promo like we did last time. Arg…..
Cuomo to shut down Indian Point Nuclear Plant by 2021
The Indian Point nuclear power plant north of New York City has been supplying low-cost electricity to the metropolitan area for more than 50 years. But to hear Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo tell it, New Yorkers will hardly miss Indian Point.
Mr. Cuomo announced on Monday that the state had reached an agreement with the plant’s operator, Entergy, to shut it down by April 2021. He minimized the effects the closure would have on the power grid, electric bills, workers and the regional economy.
……
Still, other company executives and energy experts were left wondering how the state would replace the plant’s capacity of 2,000 megawatts, or about one-fourth of the power consumed by New York City and Westchester County. The state will have to do that while trying to meet Mr. Cuomo’s goal of having renewable energy account for half of the electricity delivered by utilities in New York by 2030.
………
Mr. Cuomo said the state would invest in wind farms and other renewable energy sources and add transmission lines to carry hydropower from Quebec.
No, I’m not in NYC, but if you think this won’t affect the whole state you’re not paying enough attention!
3 or 4 years ago I bought these gloves at Gander Mountain. If there was a logo or brand name on them I didn’t notice it then, and it’s worn away now. They weren’t horribly expensive. I know they’re not Carhartt, because that was what I actually wanted and I settled for these. What I can read off the tag (pictured) says they’re a size M, which means they’re either women’s size or boy’s size as my hands are tiny and they’re only slightly to big on me. The palm and fronts of the fingers are leather, the side of the thumb is black suede, the back of the hand is nylon.
Whatever they are they’ve held up to winter wear and tear (including stacking firewood) better than any glove I’ve previously tried, and kept my hands warm better than any other glove I’ve tried. Infact I don’t even need to replace them now, but I’d like to get another pair or two to stash away. And my husband would like a pair to fit him. An internet search with various search terms (including the number on the remaining tag) nets me lots of gloves, some similar, but nothing quite the same. Nor is there anything the same on Gander Mountain’s website.
Ran across an interesting article on long term storage of tomatoes in dry (sifted) wood ash. Digging around a bit more and it turns out that this isn’t actually a new idea, and that it actually works. Science abstract here (gotta track down the full text, they tried various levels of moisture). Additional info here.
Kinda cool. My problem with trying it here is the moisture content. I gotta see if I can track down the full article from the testing to see what moisture levels weren’t worth it. We tend to be pretty damp here through the fall at least.
The holidays went ok. My MIL has been diagnosed with one of the colitis’s (I’m drawing a blank on the exact name) and until it’s under control she’s staying close to a bathroom and not eating much. So the holidays themselves were fairly quiet, which isn’t a bad thing. We got another new Cutco knife, a set of flannel sheets, and lots of gift cards.
Course, then on Tuesday, while making myself a sandwich, I sliced off a nice sized chunk of the finger pad of my left middle finger (with the same knife I nicked myself with a few years ago in fact). Not quite sure what went wrong, I wasn’t in a hurry, wasn’t being stupid, wasn’t distracted, but the knife slipped and I was running for bandaids. I managed to get it to stop bleeding without medical intervention, and then had to figure out how to bandage it so as to keep it clean and protected at work, your average fingertip bandaid just not cutting it. Turns out there’s this nifty bandage type called a “teragram“, I’d used the padded versions several times, but never noticed the unpadded ones on the shelf (likely because they’re located with the actual wound-dressing bandages rather than with the regular bandaids). I have now added several boxes to the first aid kit. It’s basically a clear piece that almost looks like saran wrap, sticks to the skin but not the wound, waterproof but breathable, flexible enough to wrap around a finger tip without added bulk. A layer of gauze over that for padding and we’re all set! Its healing nicely, the only remaining issue is that it’s incredibly tender and without the gauze the slightest touch to it feels like someone is stabbing my finger. With the gauze light pressure is ok, but lifting and carrying (or, shaping bread loaves) is even more painful. Which is making work interesting. But I’m coping. Wish I’d found these over the summer when I got myself with that drill bit, but oh well!
We’re headed into the slow season at work, which means I’ll have lots of time off. I have a not small woodworking project planned, we’ll see how it goes. I intend to take lots of pictures so I can post about it when I’m done.
Winter wise we’re definitely in for it this year. We did have a thaw for Christmas, but then it promptly snowed again and everything is once again white.
Otherwise there’s not much going on. Quiet is good!