Chez Louise

It seems that the day after every garbage day, there's a new round of litter on my lawn. I guess it's been a windy winter! Most of this litter is paper matter, like newspaper and flyers, and is often my own local paper that has been left on my doorstep and blown around by the wind. Today, cleaning up the latest round of "gifts" brought in by the wind, I picked up a sheet of paper from my front walk and it's both funny and sad at the same time.

I don't know which of my neighbours this is from, and don't care to know, but it's blatantly an attempt by a highly-organized mom to get her teenage sons in line. There is a table for each day, with two columns: one column for tasks, and a blank column, I guess for checkmarks to show completion. This may not be so bad, except that the way the tasks are written just drips with the frustration of the mom. For example, one "task" is: "I expect you to be at school everyday, on time, all day accompanied with your completed homework. I don't want you missing school unless you are physically vomiting or have a fever. Tiredness does not count." This kind of made me laugh - I can just imagine what went on behind the scenes in the last few months to arrive at that statement! There's also a line item that says, "No computer until chores are done.", with the following added in handwriting after the fact: ", and they have been checked by me." (I guess her sons discovered a loophole there. They seem pretty smart.)

Now, while I admire the thought the mother has put into this, trying to hold everything together and train her sons to be helpful and responsible, I can say I'm glad my mom never tried to slap a checklist like this on us. The tone of it is almost as if it had been written by the teenagers and shows no trust in her children whatsoever. I definitely wouldn't have been inspired to help out, either then or now, when instructions are worded this sarcastic way, and I'm not even the sort of person who's allergic to chores. If this is the general tone of the household, I can see why there's so much trouble going on. Respect sure goes a long way. I hope things start to go better for them soon.

Today, as I do once in a while, I read through a forum where the current topic of discussion is, or rather, is supposed to be, "How can economies balance economic development goals against carbon reduction goals?".

The reason I don't spend a lot of time reading forum posts is that they tend to get off topic quickly, and frequently result in flame wars, ego-boosting tirades, or just plain ignorant talk. The reply I read today, though, is so out there that I'm not even sure which logical fallacy this would fall under. I'd have to brush up on my fallacies. The comment was in response to some other posts, but it doesn't really matter what those were, as this seemed to come more or less out of nowhere and can stand alone.

You seem to draw your own conclusions from whatever the data and how they were taken about 'burning of fossil fuels and plant decay' before asking for reason, as seems to be en vogue with the scientific community. You should realize that there are very few labs out of millions or more in 'the scientific community' that even start their tests with right ingredients. They order from catalogs that are in the business of making provisions for testing equipment and supplies. Usually, the 'scientists' don't even know where their equipment or supplies come from, or how they are produced. Why, then, should I accept the authority of the origins of the data that such equipment and supplies generates when the scientists themselves don't even know the origins of their own equipment and supplies?

Now here's someone with an axe (looks like any axe will do) to grind. From what I can gather, you can't trust scientists because they buy (as an example) glassware from glassware suppliers without tracing the glass back to the sand dune it came from, and therefore any results obtained by using such glassware can't be trusted. Huh?

Wow, I can't believe so many months have flown by since I last wrote. I need to learn consistency! But never fear, I am going to try to resurrect my blog, if only I can think of something to say. After all, since I last wrote, I've only bought a house, taken up fiddling, and started college certificates in both technical writing and graphic design. Plus the usual suspects of dance, orchestra, and extra concerts this time of year... Same old, same old - nothing much to write home about. :-)

I need a vacation! And maybe a car.  I have a nice little house but I live waaaaaay out in one of those brain-shaped suburbs with few sidewalks, and I don't have a car. Possibly not my best move. I have a big corner lot, and I have a push mower (and some biceps now). (And a neighbour who is suggesting I should mow my lawn and even offering me the use of his gas mower. My lawn's not that scraggly!) I have all these grand visions of what I would like my garden to be, and fantasies of puttering around in it, checking on the lush greenery and plump veggies, but right now, I barely have time to read a seed catalogue and the only thing growing lush and green lately is the chickweed in the front garden... oh well.

Will write more soon!