Last Ride
Listening to: Ally McBeal Volume 2
Reading: Soft Focus Jayne Ann Krentz
Weather: 60, rainy
Trivia: Why don't people ride zebras like they ride horses?
To paraphrase a commonly held aphorism, a zebra may look like a horse, smell like a horse, even sometimes act like a horse, but it ain't a horse. Unlike horses, which have had centuries of contact and domestication with mankind, the zebra's attitude toward humans is not one of great affection. Put simply, you don't see zebras under saddle or in harness because their inherent disposition is such that they are not particularly amenable to training by people. People who have attempted to handle them like a horse have described their behavior as "obstreperous, incorrigible, unpredictable, and dangerous." Zebras will kick and even bite if restrained or in close quarters and are pretty much regarded as untrainable. This is not to say that they're too stupid to be trained - indeed, they have a strong sense of self-preservation and tend to protect each other. It could be said that the zebra is the cat to the horse's dog. And there are such things as trained zebras. However, such creatures have typically been raised from infancy by humans. But, they may actually be seen being ridden about as one would a horse. The amount of work involved in such an endeavor is rather large, though. So long as there are mules, oxen, and, yes, horses, it's doubtful that there will ever be much of a push to turn zebras into beasts of burden.
Cool word:tamper [v. TAM-pur]
This word is almost always followed by "with." To tamper with
something is to interfere in a harmful way, or to meddle in a rash or
foolish way. Example: "On examination of the hatch, it was obvious
that someone had tampered with the locking mechanism. "Originally, to tamper and to temper were the same thing. After the lineage split, to tamper clay was to mix it with water, making it suitable for use. Somehow, the idea of mixing changed to interfering, and by the end of the sixteenth century to tamper with anything was to interfere with it. The original root of both tamper and temper was the Latin temperare (to temper), from tempus (time, season), root of other modern words including tempera, temperament, temperate, and temperature.
I took one last ride tonight to look at what was left of the Christmas lights. I hate to see them go. I do wish we’d had at least a dusting of snow so they could have had that added sparkle.
It always amazes me to think about the amount of work that people put into decorating their houses, and how they run extremes from tasteful to tacky. Some of the houses have really ugly plastic figures of the nativity (often near an equally tacky plastic Santa). They look pretty good once they are lit up and the harsh light of day isn’t there to emphasize the tackiness.
The ones that are perfectly outlined in tiny lights or that have icicle lights hanging from the roof are my favorite. There is one little area of town where a family owns three houses that are in a semicircle around a single driveway and each of these houses is perfectly outlines. One in white lights, one in red, one in green,the trees are also festooned with lights and scattered on the lawn are other ornaments like candles and reindeer. It is just lovely. I’ve driven by this house at every opportunity and have even pulled over to the side of the road so I could look at it for a while.
This is the one that I am saddest to see go dark. I’ve enjoyed this display.
The reason that I took this last ride was because I had to drag myself out to get more special food for the cat, who is running my life. I can't figure out what's going on with him, as he seems to be back in good health but has now decided to not use the litter box. I may be sending him to a Chinese restaurant for use as the main course if he keeps this up....
I wish I knew why he was dong this, but nothing is different around here. It’s making me crazy.
I seem to have become obsessed with datebooks lately. The kind that have interesting art work or notes or designs in them. I bought yet another one today this time it’s called "The Dodo Pad".. It’s the best selling datebook in Great Britain.
Did I need this? No. But I saw it a couple of days ago and had to go back to get it. I have way too many of these datebooks now, I could keep a minute by minute account of my life if I chose to, but then wouldn't be doing much living if I spent all my time doing that....
I have no idea why I'm so into these things all of a sudden. It's like all those blank books that I continue to buy and buy.....
I'm sending my leave of absence letter to the chorus director today. If her reaction is anywhere near as unfeeling as her reaction to my emcee resignation was I'll be depressed for days.
Enough procrastinating about those reports I need for tomorrow morning. I need to clear my head and get writing.....
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