Lyme disease.

Current Mood: impressed

 First posted to Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to flout

I never met the man.  I read some of his poems and remember being impressed by an 
outstanding article in the UU World.  But no blog alleging to discuss Unitarian 
Universalism, poetry, andsocial activism could fail to note the passing of this remarkable 
man and voice. 

As a UU layman who occasionally occupies a pulpit despite a lack of a degree 
or credentials of anykind, a poet and an activist, I especially am impressed by how Ric 
Masten, by force of personality, energy, dedication and talent battered down the privileged 
gates that reserved the Unitarian  Universalist ministry to the learned graduates of seminary 
and college.  He was admitted to that closed club and then given an extraordinary charge to 
become a minister at large.  It is said that in his wide travels he spoke at more than 500 UU 
churches, fellowships and societies.  

Of course as soon as he was let through, the gates were firmly nailed shut behind him and the 
very category of his ministry abolished so that no other misfit  could ever sully the pure and pristine Fellowship.  I am sure that the Unitarian Congregational Polity purists still gnash their teeth that 
such an outrage was ever possible. Our Universalist forbearers, on the other hand would have 
welcomed this inheritor of the saddle-bag missionary tradition writ large.

I don't work Fridays - I have a 4x10 schedule, so I put in my full 40 hours Mon-Thurs. Fridays are generally filled with chores, trivia, and amusement. It's often my day for a massage at the local massage school, and I had one scheduled for today.

Unfortunatly, I also had a work-related training class to attend - only available today - so I left the house to attend that at about 9:30. My class was at 10. I got there on time, and turned off my cell phone as per the standard request from the instructor.

At 10:30, someone broke into our house. They got in through a laundry window (double-paned, so tough to break, but not impossible). Once the glass is broken the 'lock' on the window is easily manipulated - it would still have been a tight squeeze.

There is a large sign in our front yard. It says in big letters ADT - that's supposed to clue the burglars in on the fact that the house has an alarm. I've discovered though that a lot of people have disconnected alarms, and maybe the thieves thought ours was. They tried to be clever, by going around the back of the house, and turning off our power at the breaker box (I guess assuming that would silence any alarm we had). That doesn't work, thankfully.

My guess is they were watching when I left. Then they went to the front door and rang the bell. When there was no answer they turned off the (actually non-functional) breaker at the front of the house, then went to the back and did the same again at the rear.

The hallways and main spaces on both levels of the house are alarmed with motion sensors; as soon as the first person stepped out of the laundry room into the hallway, a deafening alarm would have greeted them. It was enough to scare them sufficiently to run out the back door downstairs. This has a security screen on the outside, so they didn't try coming in that way. Fortunately, the key was in the lock on the inside, so they easily fled through that door. That's what you want really; you don't want a confused and scared criminal trapped inside the house - the purpose of the alarm is to scare them into leaving.

I've survived three break-ins now in three different houses. After the first, I was paranoid and barely able to leave the house for weeks; I was sure 'they' would be back. The second was easier to bear, as was this latest intrusion. I have to remember that the alarm did it's job (I insisted on an alarm when I moved in with Bill - I would never be comfortable living in a house without one). Yes, strangers were in the house; no, it's very unlikely this was in any way personal; and thankfully, they seem to have been reasonably professional. That last is important. I know that there are generally two types of break-in; one where the people know just how to do it, what to take, and to get away quickly; and the other amateur break-in, which often results in huge amounts of vandalism as well as theft.

We'll be a little more careful about things for a while; we might add some more security measures. But the bottom line is that break-ins do happen; that anything stolen is just 'stuff' and that anything damaged can be repaired. It's hurtful and upsetting, but it's not a trajedy, as long as no-one is hurt. (Except the burglars - if they cut themselves on the glass and bleed out on the laundry room floor, I'm more than willing to put up with THAT mess!)

Just a reminder that Gary-aoke is next Thursday, 5/22, at 7pm. Let me know if you weren't on the Evite and would like to be added (please provide email address).

Showtunes around the piano. Birthday cake. Hot tub.

It's the afternoon of the third day, and I think the air conditioning is finally switching on.

At least, I'm pretty sure.

Even though I am risking another attack by the Pollen King and his rampaging hoards of Fluff and Dander, It’s far too nice to be cooped up in an office all day. So…

Current Location: Outdoors baby!
Current Mood: working
Current Music: Lonely Soldier Christy Moore and Damien Rice

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Well, I finished my writing last night so I got to set up my scope. It took a surprisingly long time to put the base and IntelliScope stuff together, but I got it done around dark. I took it outside and learned, again, the primary lesson of observational astronomy: it's a lot better to go somewhere dark! My nice 10" scope is even better than my 90mm at pulling in light pollution. That said, I did see a couple of neat things. The Moon was spectacular, if not a little blinding (next time I should really use my neutral density filter). Saturn was beautiful, although at 300X magnification it didn't stay in the eyepiece view for more than 5 seconds. I'm going to have to get used to hang-guiding a little more smoothly.

Generally speaking the Orion XT10 is very well made. It only took me seconds to perfectly align the finder scope. This morning I used the Orion laser collimator, which was extremely easy to use, to perfectly align the mirrors. It only took a minute or two once I figured out what I was doing.

Now I need to find some time to drive it to a dark location and stay up late to see what I can really see.

...technitium-99. (This is for a triphase bone scan.) The half life is six hours, so in a day I'll be back to normal background; in the meantime I shouldn't try to fly at a commercial airport.

Naturally this got me wondering about the medical supply of an isotope whose half life is six hours. El Camino Hospital probably has a moly cow. I get to go back for the bone portion of the scan in a couple of hours, so I'll ask.

I love asking medical people about things. Techs either love me or hate me. :-)

Current Mood: amused

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Current Mood: cheerful

I think my co-workers may get sick of me using the word "fiance" today.

Today was my last day of Jury Doody – And I got out of serving on the trial. Here’s what I did to get out of it
( Last day on Doody - cut for size )