Winter doldrums

We've been using the heat pump the past few weeks, wearing warm slippers and sweatshirts, sleeping under the winter duvet Grumpy brought home from Ireland. Some days the high temp is only in the 50's and nights in the 40's. Brrrrr! In the backyard, grapefruits are ripe and juicy.

In Uganda, death to homosexuals! Head spinning. Sometimes we need a reminder that there are places in the world a whole lot crazier than us. In the U.S., we've rejected universal health care (too scary to even talk about). We just love our parasitic insurance companies getting between us and our doctors to keep health care down and costs up. But they've cobbled together a monstrous (in size) health care bill that nobody really likes but it's all the fear mongers will let us have -- and that on the backs of women's rights with its virtual exclusion of coverage for abortion. Amazingly, it prevents insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, but it doesn't limit what they can charge for covering them! What the hell is that? Oh, it does include some improvements, but when you think about what they could have done, it's depressing. Hopefully a wiser future generation will modify it or replace it. (I heard that when Canada got universal health care, the bill was only seven pages long.)

Two weeks with no poetry classes! I should be working on poems, as I've accepted an invitation to do a 20-minute reading on January 12, and I'm not even sure I have enough poems to fill that amount of time. Maybe I can tell some jokes. ha-ha.

Lady fattened up so much she lost her waistline, but lately she gets so much exercise at the dog park that just a hint of narrowing behind the ribs has re-appeared. Tonight she ran like a maniac in figure-eights while a plaintive beagle pup tried desperately to keep up by cutting corners (corners?). They stop to catch a breath, facing each other, until the beagle yips and off she goes again. I'm trying to teach her to chase a ball. It shouldn't be so difficult. Everydoggy else does it.

I'm spending way too much time playing Spider solitaire while listening to NPR. Writing here again is my strategy to break the habit of passivity.