Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

WEEKLY RUMINATIONS

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Can’t believe it is Friday again.  We have made it through another week already.  This week saw the election of a new Pope, testimony on the hill from military rape victims and DiFi told Cruz to shut up.  The sequester continues and the CPAC is so full of dumb that I have trouble reading or watching anything about it.  Hope you are all well and that there are no major problems in your lives.  But, if there are, we are here to discuss whatever you feel like discussing and will be happy to lend an ear if you need one.

So, lets get to it.  What are you ruminating on this week?


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/ 42 Comments

42 comments

  1. Jk2003

    1.  Taking my daughter on her first plane ride on Monday.  We are going to Oklahoma to visit my aunt who has just finished chemo and is starting her radiation treatment for breast cancer.  I am a huge baby about flying.  Other than Bloody Marys, anyone have advice for staying calm on the plane with a very excited 5 year old.  I am hoping that her excitement and wonder will rub off.  I hope so at least.

    2.  After I published this diary I really had to make sure that it was Friday.  Ever since I left fulltime work, I have no idea what day it is.  I thought I had embarrased myself by posting my Friday diary on the wrong day.  Luckly for me, it is actually Friday and my husband has the weekend off!!!

  2. Melanie in IA

    They’ve been up from MS for the week. Though we haven’t seen them a lot, it’s still much more than usual.

    He’s coming to move the REST of his stuff in this afternoon, then staying for supper and overnight. Tomorrow they’ll head back.

    Good luck with the plane ride. As to staying calm, think a lot about your breathing. Notice when you are breathing easily and when you are holding your breath. Be deliberate. Have the 5-year-old breath deeply in and out with you. It will calm her, too.  

  3. slksfca

    I really, REALLY hate being made to do things even when I know I will benefit.

    For example, I keep wishing all these home visits from nurses and therapists would just end, and that they’d let me just go about healing in my own way and time. Pure stupidity, but there it is.

    And of course I’m typing this as I wait for the nurse to show up, who just called me an hour or so ago — just when I was all set to grab a nice satisfying nap. Heh. 🙂

    As for the larger world’s larger problems, I just haven’t been able to make myself care much. But that makes me feel a little guilty as well, which then makes me mad at myself. I can’t win. ;-p

  4. JanF

    This morning, after addressing the first wave of client issues, I started my morning ablutions. I was surprised to find that no matter how far towards H I turned the shower control, the water would not get more than lukewarm (this was tested, by the way, with full immersion which is a really really uncomfortable way to start your day).

    So I went into the basement and discovered that the water heater had shut itself off because of an issue with something called the ECO monitor. It has done this two times in the past so I had instructions on how to reset it. When doing so, I heard the lovely sound of the gas igniting and knew that hot water was soon to warm my still-chilled self. As I was leaving the furnace room, though, I thought I detected the odor of natural gas (actually not the gas itself, which is odorless, but a mercaptan added as a safety measure). I thought it might be a residual from the water heater being off but it bothered me enough that I went back downstairs after about another half hour to see if it was gone. It was not. Gas company called, they sent a technician out and he put the nozzle end of this device on the pipe joints:

    When it finds gas, it emits a ticking sound followed by a siren.

    One of the joints on a pipe that had been in the house forever was leaking gas and probably had been since we had moved in (no repairs or modifications had been done in the furnace or hot water heater since the house was built).

    The technician brought in his pipe wrenches and wrenched it shut and while he was waiting for the residual gas to disperse, tested all the other joints in the basement. When he came back to test the repaired joint, the detector was silent.

    That was the first time I ever called the gas company on a “smells gas” issue and I was quite pleased that the gas company has people on call to come out and fix these problems. And grateful that a gas leak was detected and eliminated before it became a problem.

    From that link on why “smell” was added to natural gas:

    The history of gas odorization had its beginnings in the 1880s, when ethyl mercaptan was added to

    natural gas, which was manufactured as “town gas” at that time. Town gas was odorized primarily because of its toxic carbon monoxide content. When natural gas was initially used as a fuel, its sulfur compounds-which are common components of pipeline natural gas-often resulted in a detectable odor. However, concentrations of natural sulfur vary from different gas sources: some natural gas sources do produce odorless gas. […]

    In 1937, a tragedy occurred at the New London High School in New London, Texas, that spurred a complete revamping of the practice of odorizing natural gas. New London High School used odorless natural gas, which was provided by a pipeline located in their oil- and gas-rich community, for heating and cooking. A leak occurred at the school that went undetected until the moment an electric sanding machine in the woodshop was unplugged causing a spark that ignited the accumulated gas. The explosion killed 239 people, mostly children.

    Household emergency averted (except I am still chilled from the unexpected blast of cold water) … and I learned something, to boot.

  5. Melanie in IA

    He’s moving the rest of his stuff here today.

    Supper: beef hand pies, with butternut squash, onion, garlic, potato, mushrooms. Not sure what else is in my concoction. Jim teases me for my concoctions, but usually they’re pretty good.

  6. LeftOverFlowerChild

    The union my husband belongs to was allowed to create a plan to deal with the cut backs. As a group each of the union members is going to give up a half an hour of work making it possible for the two newest hires to stay on the job. Kudos to them. I’m so glad they found a way to work together.

    Looking forward to the sheep to shawl workshop tomorrow. I’m not doing the sheep shearing demonstration so it’s all good from where I am! lol Really looking forward to playing with the dye pots! We use all natural dyes: onion peelings, pecan hulls, beets…fun!

    Ren faire season in Texas has begun, my sons are already talking kilts and highland games…By June it will be all about the Dallas comic convention. You’d think they were teenagers instead of grown men! I guess it’s the whole you’re only young once thing in play. Lay on MacDuff indeed…

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