a real winning streak

That's the glass from my car window -- now on my seat. At least the bastards didn't get the radio they seemed to be after.

What was I saying yesterday about trying to fight the chaos?

the absence of entropy

The past month has brought a lot of chaos to our lives -- unexpected bills, ruinous weather, surprise changes at work, sudden phone calls from the hospital. So to cope, we have had to create our own sense of order -- have had to apply it to those things which we do have some control over.

Hence, the abandonment of the old black-and-white minimalist Web design.

Also hence, the replacement of the overflowing standpipe in the laundry room; and the repair of the long-jammed garbage disposal.

And the installation of the new light switch in the bedroom. And the hanging of the photos we had framed half a year ago.

We did it all this weekend. And to tell the truth, we didn't set out with the explicit purpose of making a stand against entropy. But once we got started and realized how good it felt, finally, to put things right again -- to make progress even -- we just couldn't stop.

Not that all the other issues aren't still waiting for us tomorrow. But for now, if just for one night, we're going to bed with that restfulness that comes with knowing we've got it under control.

small gods revisited

Remember those small gods I was referring to the other day? The ones that are supposed to keep snails from getting underfoot and umbrellas from popping inside out?

I forgot to mention the little god who keeps trickles of rainwater from finding their way inside your kitchen wall and slowly building up until it ruins all the Sheetrock and forces you to knock down most of that wall you had just repainted a few weekends earlier.

And they're forecasting even more rain for tonight, lasting through the week.

We're not the only ones the gods have abandoned, either. Jeff's house got hit, too.

below the gumline

In an article about the discovery of a 9,000-year-old dentist's drill, which was used without anaesthesia:

Dr. Richard Glenner, a Chicago dentist and author of dental history books, wouldn't bite on the idea that this was good dentistry.