We had a pretty good wind storm on Thursday and lost our internet connection as well as our circulation database for several hours. It's really interesting to observe humans when there is no internet availability. They would come in, wander around with pained expressions on their faces, and either leave or come to the desk and ask questions we couldn't answer such as "When will the internet be working again?"

Today, on the last deadline for automatic extensions, Leonard and I filed our 2006 Income Tax Return and is our custom, we included a letter designating where we wish our tax payment to be applied. Yes, it’s true, we designate our tax payment and if you count the last 24 years that we’ve filed a joint return, the IRS has responded exactly the same way to our annual letter. That would be by totally ignoring us.

Forest-Shaded Howls is kept by Alex Nelson:

After over twelve years of loyal service, last weekend I unceremoniously sent my pager through the wash with naught but my jeans pocket for protection. The vibrating motor still works, but the LCD is definitely toast. Thus ends my stone age communication technology era, after losing its stride when the last corded phone in the house was thrown out ’round the turn of the millenium.

The Homeless Atheist:

I was sickened yesterday at a “We Agnostics” AA meeting. Even though We Agnostics meetings are mostly devoid of god talk, dogma, secret language (very cultish), and the higher power concept still exist. The topic of the meeting in Olympia, WA was “Relating to others who are not in the program”. This topic could be paraphrased to, “Relating to others who are not in our cult.”

Since my kids were little my wife has always made my kids costumes around Halloween time. I say “Halloween time” because we don’t actually celebrate the holiday, but our church always provides a great way for the kids to dress up and have fun. Call me a overly-cautious, but I am trying to teach my kids to not be afraid, to be strong but not violent and to not allow extreme violence and the “dark side of the world” to be become a source of entertainment, and this particular day contradicts these values I am trying instill- but I digress.

The way I see it, nothing is linear. Nothing is permanently fixed. Not politics, not the impact losing Bill has on me, not how I feel about having epilepsy. Nothing. And sometimes thank goodness for that, and sometimes thats too damn bad.