Dreaming of a white whatever

 The first thing to remember is that yesterday it started raining in the morning and never really let up. It got heavier and lighter, but never stopped.

This morning I got up late, so had to hurry through my routine. I did notice that the ground was still wet, and that more was coming down. But more what? It wasn't until I was running to the bus stop in a panic that I noticed that snow was mixed in with the rain. It became dominant later in the day.

It's weird to see snow piled up on trees when their leaves are still partly green. I talked to an older gentleman about this while waiting for the bus home. He says he could remember a big snowstorm that happened on Mother's Day. So you never know.

Talking to strangers at a bus stop. Little things you might not have expected to miss, but are a relief when they come again.

Call it odd, call it weird

 Here's an interesting little eventlet. I've been working on a story recently. How's it going? Oh, the very definition of fits and starts.

Anyway, one of the characters is a sleepwalker, and sleepwalks in the story. Me, I'm not really known to sleepwalk. So there goes the "write what you know" thing that I don't really believe in.

HOWEVER, a couple of nights ago I got up and took a shower in the middle of the night when I wasn't really aware of it. The next day I could have forgotten it completely or written it off as a dream. Bu there were pieces of evidence showing me what I'd done. Didn't seem right to dismiss it.

What's up, doc:

 I was walking down the hill where I live this evening. I walked past someone's house/apartment building/you get the idea. There was a rustle in the bushes ahead of me. The cause turned out to be a little bunny either foraging or just stretching its legs. It wasn't a pet bunny, I'm pretty sure. Just one of God's wild creatures, out on its own. So yeah, I was kind of honored by that.

Outrageous

 It never impresses me when a politician or news article asks "where's the outrage?" over this or that. Like I forgot to be indignant about something and I'm going to thank them for reminding me. Maybe my outrage reflex is just burned out through overuse. Wouldn't be surprising. 

In general I find it creepy when they try to dictate certain feelings. It's the very opposite of empathy.

Long lost relatives

 Interesting article here on the question of the extent to which Neanderthals did or did not live in caves. The word is in some circles synonymous with "caveman," and they may have lived in caverns moreso than did early modern humans. But then, a sheltered dwelling like that will preserve remains―human and otherwise―more than the open-air places they might have lived. We do know that their hunting habits required them to be rather nomadic.

But learning more is a challenge for paleoanthropologists. For humans a few centuries is a long time. Civilization as we know it is only a few millennia old. And we're talking about something like 100,000 years ago. There's a lot left to learn, but there will always be a lot to imagine. And that can be good.

Collecting speech

American English is very different from UK English--almost a misnomer in itself, as there are so many British dialects--and about anything else. English accents pop up all over the them, usually being attributed to somewhere else. Yet American and Canadian English have a tendency to build up melodrama.

EDIT

Okay, I have no idea. I do remember having an idea for something I wanted to say when I wrote the above. But as to what that something was? Nope, no clue. But you never know when it might come back.

News & weather

 I had a gander at this article the other day and found the central premise to be an interesting tidbit. Apparently incumbent President Donald Trump is polling considerably better with black and Hispanic voters than he did in 2016. Conversely, his support among non-college whites has collapsed.

The second part is fairly easy to understand. Trump sold himself last time as being a go-getter who would take charge and force Washington to do things his way. He hasn't quite lived up to that. I sort of figured his base, or at least some of them, would turn on him, and it looks like it's happening.

I can understand the other part as well. Four years in, black and Hispanic voters have tasted Trump's bite, and found that it's considerably less severe than his bark. For the most part the changes have been aesthetic. And there have been positive steps like the First Step Act.

As well, this is undeniably the COVID-19 election. The virus is less lethal than its reputation, but for middle class voters who saw nothing to prevent them from becoming centennarians, it's earth-shattering. Working class voters, most of whom are non-white, may be better equipped to put risks in context, and so be less prone to panic.

Funny flies

 Lewis Carroll was great at throwaway details. I mean, on first glance everything in the Alice books is a throwaway.

The insects that the Gnat describes to Alice are a case in point. Bread-and-butterfly, Rocking-horse-fly, and Snap-dragonfly. While the Disney adaptations use at least one of them, Carroll only needed them for that one chapter, that one passage. To show that we're playing by his rules now. The Snap-dragonfly is inspired by a mostly forgotten game, one that sounds intriguing.

John Tenniel was a painter and a political cartoonist. He serves Carroll well as an illustrator. These creatures look like they're from a nature book of the period, albeit with absurd features.

Make it stop

 The laundromat I usually go to has a tendency to play awful daytime talk shows when I do the wash there. Not real edifying, but it doesn't affect me all that bad.

But they close relatively early, and have been closing even earlier during the quarantine. And I've been working the past couple of weeks, which is mostly good.

The thing is, I've had to go to a different laundromat the last two times I've done laundry. And this one has been playing the evening news. NBC I think. And please, give me the talk shows back. Those insult my intelligence in a less horrifying way.

What you see is what you see

Разговорное время

 My old wristwatch had a tendency to have its glass broken. This can be a big problem as far as it's working goes, as you might imagine. Especially if there's a chunk of the crystal blocking one or both arms. Even if the arms still go, it's ugly to look at.

I replaced it recently. The replacement arrived today. It's Russian. Feels pretty good on my wrist. One thing that seemed like an issue was that I didn't know how to set the time and the instruction booklet was―no big surprise, I guess―in Russian. But I found English instructions online, and it turns out to be pretty simple.

End of the day

 

Chopin's etudes are―at least sometimes―a good way to finish off the day. Individually they go by quite fast, everything being quick impressions. I was going to say that they avoid bombast, but given the above video I'd be making myself a liar. But it is in its way a peaceful peace.

Lay thine eyes upon it and thou shalt see that it is barren.

Maher's whole shtick―which some people purport not to get―is that he's a self-absorbed asshole, but one whose eyes are open to perceive something crucial about what's going on. Take it or leave it. At this point he must have lost count of how many times he's been cancelled. Enough times not to care anymore, which frees him up to say things on COVID-19, for example, rather at odds with the other leading political comics of the day.

Although I have to admit that like Howie, I prefer shoes without lace. Has nothing to do with germs, though. Laces just come untied and break all the time.
 

In theory

 According to Wikipedia, theory of mind is "the ability to attribute mental states such as beliefs, intents, desires, emotions and knowledge, among others, to oneself and to others." They also say it's "necessary to understanding that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one's own."

Well, I do understand that, so it's not like I entirely lack theory of mind. It could well be a little underdeveloped in me, though. That's probably one of the reasons I read a lot of reader-friendly psychology books. I'm always on the hunt for clues.

Of course having a well-developed TOM doesn't mean that it's going to be right. You've probably had the experience of having someone attribute a totally inaccurate motive to you.

A new man