Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"So, if we've found feet of clay on yet another hero, we've also made the hero larger. For, like Lincoln, Darwin's genius was his ability to let his mind take him where he had not meant to go. Darwin inherited the full set of 19th-century prejudices. Then he created a new scientific vision that laid waste to those very beliefs." -- John H. Lienhard, "Darwin and Racism" (Engines of Our Ingenuity, no. 617)

"So, if we've found feet of clay on yet another hero, we've also made the hero larger. For, like Lincoln, Darwin's genius was his ability to let his mind take him where he had not meant to go. Darwin inherited the full set of 19th-century prejudices. Then he created a new scientific vision that laid waste to those very beliefs." -- John H. Lienhard, "Darwin and Racism" (Engines of Our Ingenuity, no. 617)

Oh, no wonder I'm so [expletive]ing tired.

I just added up my afternoon/evening: 5:10 out of the house, 2:15 of which was Doin' Stuff (ATM, nail salon, stores) and the other 2:55 of which was travel.

Importantly, the 2:55 of travel consisted of about 0:55 rolling and 2:00 standing in the cold with my toes freezing waiting for buses, or walking to/from various bus stops. (That 0:55 of vehicular travel would have been 0:45 in a private car, but that's not a big enough difference to really worry about. The walking would have been negligible, and that is a consideration, especially on a day when I started out not feeling really great (up to walking, obviously, but if everything I had to do today could've waited another day, I would've avoided walking so far today) and especially in this weather.) I did have a refreshing conversation about politics with an eighteen-year-old at one bus stop (a major Obama fan; not as well informed as I'd like, but come on, she's only eighteen, she gets some slack -- and I don't think knowing everything I know would have changed her opinion of Obama a bit, or her opinion of Clinton very much) but that didn't mean my fingers and toes were any less cold.

It's slippery out there, and it got slippery early. I slipped four times, fortunately only experiencing translations, not rotations. On the second occasion I was translated vertically as well as horizontally (curbs are extra slippery) but not far enough to matter. But the last bit of walking was uphill on a (fortunately textured, not perfectly smooth) sheet of ice, and by the time I reached my street my ankles ached from the gait I had to adopt to compensate for the lack of traction and travel opposite to the direction gravity was urging. Vertical surfaces are covered with rippled ice as well -- not just cars, but light-poles, the risers of steps, etc.)

The grass is slippery, as other people noticed as well (including one using a cell phone to cajole someone into picking her up instead of making her walk home). Each blade glazed, all leaning over to push the pedestrian in one direction.

[How long does it take a sweet potato to bake? I'm smelling sweet, vaguely-almost-vegetable smells but more like halfway between bread and cake, and I'm on the third floor and didn't think the brightly coloured tuber had been in the oven all that long.]

Some brave soul with a helmet and elbow/knee/bum pads might enjoy sliding down the sidewalk of Fulton Ave. standing up. Had I the protective gear[*] and fewer aches, I might be inclined to try it -- aiming for the lightpole on the corner to grab onto, of course, to avoid sliding clear 'cross Pratt St. through traffic.

I'd thought when I left that we were just going to get flurries, or their equivalent in other phases, all day, and that there wouldn't be so much water coming through my roof. But while I was out it picked up (still at the "gentle" level, if it's acceptable to use "gentle" to modify "freezing rain", but more than the mistflurrysprinkle I'd seen earlier) so, sho' 'nuff[**], I came home to the sound of running water from the third floor. Two buckets were close to overflowing, so I dumped those before putting away groceries. And this time I remembered to use the sabots from the start.

Tired, so tired. My ankles are starting to recover but my back and wrist are killing me and my fingers ache all the way back through the metacarpals.

I know I was going to say something else, but it's gone out of my head (and in a different direction than the keyboard).

[*] Well, I do have something that'll serve for one of those pads, left over from my Hallowe'en costume, but I lack the other gear.

[**] That does seem to be the only proper way to transcribe that, but it's always seemed awkward to me to have that apostrophe-space-apostrophe sequence in it.

Oh, no wonder I'm so [expletive]ing tired.

I just added up my afternoon/evening: 5:10 out of the house, 2:15 of which was Doin' Stuff (ATM, nail salon, stores) and the other 2:55 of which was travel.

Importantly, the 2:55 of travel consisted of about 0:55 rolling and 2:00 standing in the cold with my toes freezing waiting for buses, or walking to/from various bus stops. (That 0:55 of vehicular travel would have been 0:45 in a private car, but that's not a big enough difference to really worry about. The walking would have been negligible, and that is a consideration, especially on a day when I started out not feeling really great (up to walking, obviously, but if everything I had to do today could've waited another day, I would've avoided walking so far today) and especially in this weather.) I did have a refreshing conversation about politics with an eighteen-year-old at one bus stop (a major Obama fan; not as well informed as I'd like, but come on, she's only eighteen, she gets some slack -- and I don't think knowing everything I know would have changed her opinion of Obama a bit, or her opinion of Clinton very much) but that didn't mean my fingers and toes were any less cold.

It's slippery out there, and it got slippery early. I slipped four times, fortunately only experiencing translations, not rotations. On the second occasion I was translated vertically as well as horizontally (curbs are extra slippery) but not far enough to matter. But the last bit of walking was uphill on a (fortunately textured, not perfectly smooth) sheet of ice, and by the time I reached my street my ankles ached from the gait I had to adopt to compensate for the lack of traction and travel opposite to the direction gravity was urging. Vertical surfaces are covered with rippled ice as well -- not just cars, but light-poles, the risers of steps, etc.)

The grass is slippery, as other people noticed as well (including one using a cell phone to cajole someone into picking her up instead of making her walk home). Each blade glazed, all leaning over to push the pedestrian in one direction.

[How long does it take a sweet potato to bake? I'm smelling sweet, vaguely-almost-vegetable smells but more like halfway between bread and cake, and I'm on the third floor and didn't think the brightly coloured tuber had been in the oven all that long.]

Some brave soul with a helmet and elbow/knee/bum pads might enjoy sliding down the sidewalk of Fulton Ave. standing up. Had I the protective gear[*] and fewer aches, I might be inclined to try it -- aiming for the lightpole on the corner to grab onto, of course, to avoid sliding clear 'cross Pratt St. through traffic.

I'd thought when I left that we were just going to get flurries, or their equivalent in other phases, all day, and that there wouldn't be so much water coming through my roof. But while I was out it picked up (still at the "gentle" level, if it's acceptable to use "gentle" to modify "freezing rain", but more than the mistflurrysprinkle I'd seen earlier) so, sho' 'nuff[**], I came home to the sound of running water from the third floor. Two buckets were close to overflowing, so I dumped those before putting away groceries. And this time I remembered to use the sabots from the start.

Tired, so tired. My ankles are starting to recover but my back and wrist are killing me and my fingers ache all the way back through the metacarpals.

I know I was going to say something else, but it's gone out of my head (and in a different direction than the keyboard).

[*] Well, I do have something that'll serve for one of those pads, left over from my Hallowe'en costume, but I lack the other gear.

[**] That does seem to be the only proper way to transcribe that, but it's always seemed awkward to me to have that apostrophe-space-apostrophe sequence in it.