Tuesday, May 12, 2009

A Sord of Mallards

When I get tired of being a nurse, I sometimes wish I had another sort of job. One in which my pay would put me in the highest of tax brackets. One in which I could always be wrong. One in which I could just make up shit and get paid for doing so. I suppose what I want then is to become a Republican political strategist.

People had many pets roaming about in their Medieval castles. Scottish deer hounds, cats, wolfhounds, Borzois, etc. These animals would shed, but in those times there were no vacuum cleaners. The shed fur piled up, only to be stomped down flat as people and pets walked about the inner courts. Thus, carpets evolved.

In the future we will mine what are presently junkyards.

An insomniac, I lay awake at night. Hour after hour my thoughts chase me. I think of things that I hate, counting these like so many sheep.

Over the years a faint ringing has developed in my ears. I should probably see a specialist about it, but it's so handy. It just happens to be a high C (assuming A=440Hz.) I use it as a reference note so that I can identify pitches. I do not have perfect pitch, but I can readily determine musical intervals and such.

From middle school on through college I took courses in musical theory, ear-training, sight-singing, transcription, and such. I play games in my head in which I musically notate things that I hear going on around me.

The thing that bothers me is that the ringing note is a C. I would rather that it were E-natural.


I called Senator Max Baucus' office and after five minutes on hold I spoke with a very nice-sounding young lady. I told her that I was a nurse and a member of CNA/NNOC (California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee) though I worked in Phoenix, and I support single-payer universal healthcare insurance. I asked her to pass that along to Senator Baucus and she said that she would gladly do that. Then I wished her a good week.

There are people who never do anything themselves. They always get others to do stuff for them. The ones who never do things; well, they are never really happy. Not much. At least that's been my experience. They tend to be miserable fuckheaded louts.

1 comment:

Eli Blake said...

I once had lunch with Baucus.

I was a student at the University of Montana in Missoula and the college Democrats were hosting a big lunch with a number of elected officials. I ended up being seated right across the table from Baucus and we had a pretty good conversation.

He asked me (since I had come up there for graduate school) whether I wanted to stay in Montana after I was done with school. I said I did, if I could find a job there.

Only I left school before finishing my Ph.D., and when I looked for a job the only one I could find was in Phoenix.