The Daily News

1   I think it's time for everybody to stand up and boycott gas.

2   I'm serious.

3   I think that beginning Monday, we should all make a pact to spend no more than twenty bucks on gas for the entire week.

4   Not practical for some, but quite practical for many.

5   The oil companies are out of control, arbitrarily warning us that for no reason whatsoever, it is okay to start making prices climb, since we are such a bunch of suckers.

6   I've done this every time they start their shenanigans.

7   It isn't that difficult. And I could do it for two weeks if they keep this stuff up.

8   Think of how often we travel unnecessarily.

9    And don't get me wrong. I LOVE going for rides. It's the one thing that I will allow myself to do. And I LOVE the T000000NDRA, because it is a Disney ride, no matter where I go. Anybody who knows me knows this.

10  But the only way to make those guys keep prices more reasonable is to boycott. And the easiest boycott is to travel less and spend less on travel.

11  It's also goin' green.

12  So I'm not going to be the guy to begin a national boycott, but beginning next week I am going to refuse to spend more than twenty bucks on gas.

13   Pretty simple, pretty grassroots. Anybody can do it.

14   So do it. Monday through Friday, twenty bucks only. And even after that, never put more than twenty bucks in, and cut back on your driving.

15   Who's down?

16   Moving on, Part the First: Who's down. Ha.

17   I'm down.

18   I love all that Facebook talk.

19   So strange. Who ever said, "Too cute!" before Facebook? Or "Too funny."

20   Or "Woot!"

21   Or "Nom nom nom nom"?

23   Too wid.

24   Oh, that's mines.

25   Moving on, Part the Second: Did you know that people who say, "That's mines." actually think that "mine" has an "s"? I used to always think that it was just a cute form of "mine". My guess is because the possessive form of some pronouns tends to have an "s" at the end: his, hers, ours...mines?

26   Nope.

27   Most of the incorrectness nowadays has made its way into what we used to call "the vernacular", which is to say that it's now what people say.

28   I've brought this up before, but it bears repeating.

29   The word "dude" used to mean a city slicker who tries to dress up like a cowboy or a ranch hand.

30   As far as I know, that was the only definition of "dude".

31   Years ago, I had a paper turned into me that had a sentence that read, "So I said, 'Hey do, let's chill!' "

32   I looked at it around twelve times before it dawned on me that the guy meant, "dude".

33  Nowadays, EVERYBODY calls EVERYBODY "dude."

34  I don't mind, because I think it is now an endearing term. I call everybody dude.

35  But students have no idea that they are calling one another a city slicker who tries to dress up like a cowboy or a ranch hand.

36  Here is Dictionary.com's def: Dude: ( Western US ), ( Canadian ) a city dweller, esp one holidaying on a ranch. It is actually of unknown origin. It later came to mean any fastidiously dressed man.

37  It's earliest traces of a manner of addressing someone came "circa" 1970 when it surfaced as a surfer term for "man".

38  From there, I'm not sure. I would need to go to the Oxford English Dictionary, which I'm not about to do at 4:30 a.m.

39  My observations are that people started impersonating surfers, and it eventually came down to be simply a manner of addressing anyone, man or woman, boy or girl.

40  When my cat howls, I often say loudly, "DUDE!"

41   Yesterday a student said, "You didn't tell us we needed a rough draft on our paper!"

42   It was clearly on the handout.I clearly announced it.

43   The guy kept squawking, and I looked at him and said, "Dude."

44   He sheepishly gave in.

45    Moviing on, Part the Waters: Well, hey do, it's either way late or way early, but I think this ol' cowpoke is going to hit the hay.

46   Have a good day, and let's boycott us some gas.

47   Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Daily News

1   Dad's okay. He had stuffs, but he goes through a procedure today that will have him home today.

2   Whew.

3   I still pray. I hope you get that. It's sort of what I do.

4   He's my Dad, man.

5   Anyway, he's okay once again, and once again, he's the man.

6   I wish forever that I could be half the man he is.

7   That's about all I have for you on that one.

8   Thanks for the prayers.

9   They still seem to work.

10   Moving on, Part the First: I sort of watched American Idol last night.

11   Holy Moly.

12   I caught three guys in my dizziness who managed to come through big time.

13   James Durbin came on and kicked my booty, which is hard to kick.

14   This cat named Jacob Lusk was next, and kicked me even further.

15    And finally, this guy named Casey Abrams brought it home.

16    You all should tune in to Am Idol.

17    Enjoyable, GREAT night.

18    It is living up to its hype. And I seldom say that.

19    Good times.

20    I missed a coupla early birds, so I might be leaving some guy out of this, but what I saw impressed me.

21   And I'm not easily impressed.

22   I was all ready to cook some huge dinner, and realized that I was more interested in watching than in eating. This is a good thing. Good diet. I wound up having a garden salad for dinner.

23   The trouble with all of it is I was pretty unprepared to take notes and stuff, so it really unfolded sort of magically.

24   Most stuff nowadays is contrived and not worth my time.

25   When Charlie Sheen somehow dominates the news, it isn't news. It's made-up news.

26   My conspiratorial nature figures it's just the Man trying to control everybody's thoughts so that everybody agrees on things.

27   My conspiratorial nature is usually right on the money.

28   It's nice being older sometimes.

29   Moving on, Part Two: This week is moving pretty swiftly. It began with no sleep Sunday night, went into massive worry about Dad on Monday, and huge technical failures on Tuesday.

30  I had planned on using my laptop to throw some Renaissance music out to my students while they worked at their desks, and suddenly the sound stopped working completely.

31   Today my plan was to teach Shakespearean language, and then let the students read along with a CD so that they could hear the poetry and all.

32   I usually use my laptop for that. In fact, I no longer even own a CD player. I have my school laptop with an audio out to an iPod deck when I need CD's.

33   Well, my laptop audio is fizzled. My home laptop is in emergency at the Geek Squad. I stopped at a couple of stores yesterday iso a cheap CD player that has an audio out. The only thing I could find was a clock radio with an audio in.

34   Sign of the times. It also had a book that was a half-inch thick on how to program it.

35   Looks like I'm going to do a staged reading of Shakespeare for forty minutes today, each period.

36   The thing is, I bought a class set of Romeo and Juliet a few weeks ago in anticipation of today, so the students wouldn't have to lug huge books to school. They're paperbacks, and in dandy shape.

37   I've nursed them to this point, and today was supposed to be the day that it all connects. Remember, they are mostly freshmen, and around ninety per cent of them have never read Shakespeare before. So it's always a great connection when it finally happens.

38   Who knew that TWO laptops would go down?

39   Ah, whatevs.

40   If that's my only concern, then I have no real concerns.

41   Moving on, Part the Third: Even though it's 3 a.m. as I concoct this boushit, I still managed to log in four hours of sleep, with three to go. This strange means of going to sleep early and awakening, then going back has kept me really alert and on things lately, with the exception of Sunday night, and my worry about Dad on Tuesday.

42   Moving on, Part the Fourth: Non-concocted news is the recent surge by the Sharks. Their recent simbiosis with goalie Antti Nieme is no fluke. They signed him to a four-year, $15.2 mil contract. So I should be able to lie down and get back to sleep in a nice, dreamy fashion.

 43   So I'm going back to bed, and OOOOOPS! My LOUD cat is yelling, "OW! OW! OW! OW!" which he manages to do EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. I'm going to job him out to Satan so that sinners can suffer their foolishness, I swear to you.

44  He doesn't really want anything. He claims he needs me to get up and turn on the faucet in the bathroom, because water in bowls just doesn't work for him.

45  So I get up, turn on the faucet, and he usually shuts up. Except EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. And he will jump down, leaving the faucet on, since paws can't turn faucets off. And then he will howl again for no reason.

46   I've learned to ignore it and sleep, but tonight, the very second I wrote that I was going to get a little sleep, he got his Jimmy Page thing going on. I think he's as old as Page too.

47   Yeesh.

48   Sorry to bother you with all of this. It's a nightly ritual, and he is LOUD. He's quiet now, because I dosed him with some hardcore Ny-Quil. He's sleeping like a panda now, plus his sinuses are clear as can be.

49   I'm gonna conk out now, wake up later, and wish you a good day.

50   For the record, I didn't dose my cat. It was a poor attempt at humor. Won't happen again. I swear.  <yew dun belief me>. I wouldn't.  = )  <------sideways smile dude.

50   Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wisconsin Solidarity Rally 5-6 p.m. TODAY MLK Library!!!!!

The Daily News

1   So...my Dad somehow bled from his bladder yesterday and called a cab to get him to Kaiser. We're not even sure if the blood was from his bladder. It was early in the morning, before his medical assistant came.

2   He has been being watched over by the VA, not Kaiser.

3    As far as we know, he's doing fine.

4    But I have suddenly been thrust into wondering what the heck is going on.

5   He's a fighter, lemme tellya.

6   And yet news comes to me from so many fronts.

7   Right now, he rushed himself to Kaiser, even though the VA has been watching wonderfully over him.

8   So he seems to be in good care right now.

9   But I am in massive stress, despite all of my folderol about always keeping it together.

10  He's a champ, as I have always been happy to report.

11  But dudes.

12  It's my Dad.

13  And my hero.

14  AnywayZ, my sister's huz called me last night, and things ain't what they should be.

15   He''s safely arrived at Kaiser, but it is still not what we would want to hear.

16   There's confusion because the two hospitals need to talk with each other.

17   Sometimes it's tough enough to get information if it's only one hospital.

18    So as of now a whole bunch is up in the air. The only thing we know for sure is that he is in good hands.

19    As of now, one hospital has yet to communicate with the other. After years of Kaiser, Dad finally moved his stuff to the VA, which has been awesome.

20   He just saw some blood and panicked, so hopefully the reports will be okay. It is purportedly from the bladder, but we'll see.

21   It's a rollercoaster my entire family has been riding for a few years now.

22   He's a tough cookie.

23   I'll give you more as the story unfolds.

24   Meanwhile, there wasn't much I could do, so I got to sleep early. My sister Gayle is with him.

25   Hopefully we'll get more news today.

26   The feeling is that he is okay, and just wanted to get himself to a hospital just to be sure. So as of right now, we just have to wait.

27   It's funny though, on Sunday night I went to bed super early so I would be bright and sunny for my students and wound up awakening at around 1 a.m. I couldn't get back to sleep. I tossed and turned all night, even though everything seemed pretty bright in my life.

28   Maybe we just sense things; I dunno.

29   Yesterday afternoon I was exhausted because of it, but never napped. The phone call came around 7 p.m.

30   Yeesh.

31   Anyway, Dad's in good hands; my sister Gayle is with him, and as of right now all we can do is wait.

32   It's 2 a.m. and I woke up worried, as always.

33   Anyway, it's an ongoing deal. That guy is a tough guy, and I must give him props. He's so used to going to hospitals that he called a cab instead of an ambulance. Smart thinking. He probably save about a grand. I wouldn't be surprised if he tipped the cabby five-hundred bucks.

34   AnywayZ...

35    I looked over the news and not much more to report. In my own life, anything having to do with my Dad is more important than guys who are high hosting the Academy Awards.

36   Honestly.

37   So that's the news. Not good, but not necessarily bad when you consider my Dad's consistent strength. He has a wedding to attend this summer, and has already talked about a Tahoe vacay, so his thinking is right where it ought to be.

38    Still...we are all praying, once again. This year I have broken my all-time record for saying prayers, not just for Dad, but for a whole bunch of people, many of them my DN readers. I prayed like crazy for one of our custodians, because his wife has had health issues, and he was gone for almost a month.

39   He's a HUGE Giants' fan, and on Sunday night he was in the line-up for prayers, and I said a few extra while watching the DVD's of the season and listening to the newer games.

40   Yesterday while returning from lunch, I saw a cart and a Giants' cap, but was too distant to see if it was him.

41   He saw me, and I heard, "How about those Giants?"

42   I walked over and smiled, shook his hand, and we immediately got into a discussion about Brandon Belt, and the pre-season, which has been sun and fun. I asked him how he was, and he said it was rough, but didn't say much else. We talked baseball and a part of me thought that yet another miracle had happened.

43   So prayers seem to work. Always have. I don't know if it is a religious thing, or a particles thing or what, but I have always leaned on prayers.

44   So keep praying. It's a nice thing to do.

45   I'm gonna go now.

46   Keep praying. Not just for my Dad. For everyone.

47   Moving on, Part the First: The San Jose Labor Council sponsors the Wisconsin Solidarity Rally TODAY at the MLK Library, 4th and San Fernando from 5-6. Come out and show your support!

48   Peace.

 

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington