Random Fluff

A couple of depressing items in the news today: 1) A new study has reported that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rose at an unprecedented rate in 2005. I've thought for a long time that we're going to drive ourselves into extinction - the one species with the capacity for collective conscience - and I'm wondering increasingly if I'll see it beginning in my lifetime. 2) Pat Robertson is apparently even more explicitly trying to incite a holy war. No big surprise, but it's distressing that he's given so much attention (and hence, power) when he commands the devotion of less than one percent of the population. When he dies, I wonder which god's punishment it'll be.

On a somewhat more uplifting note, I read a post from Leigh Witchell about meeting Zacarias Moussaoui's mother on the subway. It's good to see some hope coming out of such ugliness - both the 9/11 attacks and our government's subsequent witch hunt. The government has been so hellbent on finding someone they can fry, when all it will do in the end is increase the death toll by one and create a martyr. What due process?

My own day has been fairly mundane. I went to the doctor's office and had blood drawn. Results should be back in about a week, but I won't be sweating it. Then came home and made an appointment to see an acupuncturist on Thursday. It's been nearly 16 months since I was last needled, so I'm really looking forward to it - makes a big difference with my back pain. This afternoon I went to the gym to swim and plan on going back when David goes this evening to do a bit of work on the weight machines. On the way home, I stopped first at the Fresh Market across from the gym to get some oat bran and was ecstatic to find that they also carry Scharffen Berger chocolate, one of my absolute favorites. I also stopped at our local library and checked out a couple books - Accounting for Dummies and Ginger Luters's Module Magic. Then, because the weather had turned so nice, I stopped at the town wharf and snapped this photo:



In the background are the Whaleback Light (click on the fog signal link to hear what I get to hear on foggy nights) and the abandoned Coast Guard rescue station. They look like one building complex at this angle, but they're actually on two separate islets. I love that I get to live someplace so beautiful.