Short Feed

Blogs and Blogging...

If you are a reader of this blog's RSS feed, you've probably noticed that the feed has changed. I've read a little about splogs that use blog feeds to create content for their Google ad farms, and I've decided to go back to the truncated version. I apologize for the inconvenience, and I hope you'll click through to the blog to read the posts.

I have noticed several instances of my recipes turning up on splogs, though I haven't come across anything from this site yet.

Talented Photographer

Blogs and Blogging...

Lane Hickenbottom of Grand Island, NE, a photographer at the Grand Island Independent, has a great photo blog: View. I think you'll enjoy it.

I like the rural tone of many of his photos. Ladies may this find this photo amusing. And here is a beautiful shot of farm life.

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photo blog
Lane Hickenbottom

No Big Storm Here

All In The Family... Some Interesting News...

The much-hyped three-day rain event didn't materialize in this part of Kentucky. We've had occasional rain since Saturday, but nothing that the streams couldn't handle. I don't suppose we've had more than a couple inches of rain total.

For my sister, it's been a different story. Charlotte lives about 50 miles north of Springfield, Missouri, in the little village of Wheatland. I talked to her on Friday night. She said that school had been dismissed a little early because the roads were getting icy. She had washed some clothes because she was afraid the electricity would go out (due to the accumulation of ice breaking the power lines.)

Last night I looked at her weather report and read that the entire county has no electricity. Ice up to an inch thick has coated everything, and night temperatures are going to be in the single digits the next two nights. On Thursday, daytime temperatures will finally be above freezing.

The National Weather Service report contains suggestions for keeping the water pipes from freezing in houses without electricity, and states that the Senior Citizens Center is open for those who have no heat.

Today is a national holiday, so Charlotte and her husband didn't work. Charlotte is an elementary school teacher, and I doubt if she'll have school tomorrow. Her husband is a rural mail carrier, and he's going to have a really bad week.

UPDATE:

I called Charlotte last night but her cell phone just rang twice and sent me to the answering machine. So I called my brother in south-central Kansas and chatted with him. West of Wichita, Kansas, they just got a couple of inches of snow pellets -- no ice.

Dwight mentioned that his parents-in-law in south-central Nebraska had just got electricity again after two weeks without it. It went out in the big ice storm after Christmas (December 29-31, 2006.)

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ice storm
bad weather

Casper the Climber

All In The Family...

Casper has climbed a few feet up some tree trunks before, but he outdid himself this morning. When we were ready to leave for church and wanted him to come inside, he was nowhere to be found. Then we heard his distressed little kitty voice high in the old maple tree.

Of course, we could have gone on to church and he probably would have scrambled and clutched his way down eventually. But instead, we spent the next 15 minutes, standing under the tree, trying to coax him down.

Finally, he inched down the slanted side of the trunk far enough that Isaac could reach him by standing on the step ladder. We put him in the house and zoomed to church. We were only five minutes late.

This seems to be a rite of passage with kittens -- they just have to climb to some place that they can't get down from. I remember that we had to get Skittles off the roof of the house when she was a kitten. Apparently, she jumped to it from a tree branch and then she didn't want to jump back. Kitty got onto the neighbor's roof somehow and had to be rescued.

Casper hasn't been on the roof yet, but it wouldn't surprise me to find him there. It's probably a good thing that we have caps on the chimneys.

This is Casper's third appearance in the Carnival of the Cats.

Messiness Defended

Some Interesting News...

A new book by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman, A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder, claims that a degree of disorganization is a good thing. The authors think that keeping things in perfect order reduces efficiency and wastes time. They also think a messy home is more nurturing for children.

"There are people who spend all day keeping things in their places who really wish they had time to do other things," Freedman says. "But they feel obligated to do this."

Source: Clutter: New book strikes a blow against the cult of über organization, an article by Valerie Finholm, The Hartford Courant

The quote above reminds me of a basic principle of organization that I read in some book: Always put every single thing on any project away, even if you are going to work on it again tomorrow. To me, that seems a perfect example of excessive neatness being a waste of time.

I appreciate the permission to keep various reference materials stacked around the computer, even if it does look messy to the unaccustomed eye. I think I had better continue to strive for some order in the house, though. The stacks would get pretty deep around here if I just embraced my messy tendencies.

If this topic speaks to you, you'll enjoy one of the interesting book reviews currently in the news: "Embrace the Clutter", by Penelope Green of the New York Times.

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messy
clutter
organizing
Eric Abrahamson
David H. Freedman