Truth

"In a world congested with falsity, the anus becomes the final unimpeded outlet to truth, the last bastion of rebelllion where life force is stored and preserved. "

-- Han Shaogong, A Dictionary of Maqiao

Lazy Parents

Lily didn't get what she wanted the other day (gum for breakfast? Molly's special toy?) and had commenced her strategy of parental torture, hoping we'd give in. This entailed lying on her back in her pink fleece nightgown, whining as she scooted herself in circles around us on the floor. Shaun turned to me.
"Shall I put her in her room?"
"I don't know. She's not whining that loudly, and she is cleaning the floor."
"True."
"Although it would work a lot better if she were wet."

We didn't get to hose her down. I guess Lily picked up from our conversation that her tactics had backfired. She stopped whining and wandered off to play in her room.

Blind?

While I was in a movie theater, a blind woman walked past me down the aisle. I assumed she was blind because she had to use her white cane to find a seat. I found it rather odd. I had difficulty concentrating on the film (Syriana, which did require some concentration), because I kept wondering what she was experiencing. I left after the first two hours because I got bored with the film. She didn't.

Milk

We got lost in Chicago. We rented a car downtown and hit the road with a thumbnail map of the area around the rental car place and vague directions to the freeway. It didn’t take us long to drive off the map, miss an important turn, and end up in some distant neighborhood. If we didn’t live in the ‘hood at home, we might have been nervous. We stopped at a drive-through ‘restaurant’ for some edibles. Shaun ordered milk for the girls.
“Do you want white milk or black milk?” asked the (black) lady behind the counter.
“Excuse me?”
“Do you want white milk or black milk?”
“Uh… white milk, please.”
“We’re all out of white milk.”

I don’t think we passed her test. But we did get our food. And eventually found the freeway.

Resolutions

I didn't make any resolutions this year. I'm just going to keep on truckin'.

Ruby Canyon

Our train was ten hours late coming in to Chicago. One of our unscheduled stops was in Ruby Canyon next to an abandoned freight train.

Galesburg, Illinois

My family and I recently took the train from the Bay Area to Chicago. We passed through Galesburg, Illinois at night.

Sexy Trees

I thought tree faces would go the way of the haircutting umbrella – something you find in a catalog full of equally odd items that never reach mainstream. I was wrong. It seems to be catching on. Just google “tree face” and you’ll see. At first I was worried, you know, about where America was heading and all that. But then it occurred to me that this could be the answer to our deforestation problems. If the trees looked more like people, then maybe people wouldn’t cut them down. But it would probably work better if the faces were more attractive. And female. And sexy. That would give tree-hugging a whole new dimension.