Random thoughts for a random day

Today did not turn out as I expected.  I had planned to do this and that, but ended up doing other stuff, and then dealing with a lengthy power outage.  I discovered that age has not dimmed my mother’s delight in clothes shopping.  After two hours, she was fresh as a daisy, and I was drooping like an old tulip.  I seem to have a more manly approach to clothes shopping:  I hate doing it.  When I do it, I get in the store, look for things that probably fit, buy multiple iterations, hope for the best when I get home, and then try not to do it for several more years.  My dislike for the whole clothes shopping thing is not helped by the fact that more and more stores are phasing out their petite departments.  They can phase them out as much as they want, but I’m not going to grow any taller in the near future — or even in the far future.

After the shopping trip ended, I embarked upon another activity that doesn’t thrill me — cooking.  For once, though, my timing was just right.  The power in the whole neighborhood went out just as I took the finished meal out of the oven.  I had eight or nine neighborhood kids over at the time.  At first they were discomfited, then they were thrilled, and then they got bored by a darkness pierced only by one flashlight and twelve candles.  They drifted back to their own homes, to be bored with their parents, while we settled down to read by candlelight.  I found it charming; the kids found it disheartening.  There was applause all around when the lights went back on.

Everywhere I look on the internet, I read about huge enthusiasm for the Romney run, and lackluster enthusiasm for Obama.  Twenty-eight thousand people show up for a Romney rally; two thousand drag their weary way to an Obama rally.  Glenn Reynolds says that this is a “ground glass election” — the winner will be the one whose supporters are willing to crawl over ground glass to vote.  Even with a poll that based upon a +11 Democrat turnout, CNN had to give Romney a 1 point lead. Considering that Dems aren’t the “ground glass” party election, I just don’t see a +11 Dem turnout.  People are writing about increasingly enthusiastic Romney voters, some in very unlikely places (such as yoga studios).  Newspapers are turning their backs on Obama.

What’s funny is that my own “real me” Facebook experience is entirely different.  On my Facebook, my liberal friends are getting increasingly shrill in denouncing Romney.  They’re not demoralized; they’re frenzied.  If I took my cues from them, I’d be pretty certain that Romney didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in Hell of garnering even a single electoral vote.  I don’t know how to account for their enthusiasm.

T0 complete this utterly random post, here’s a bedtime/finger play rhyme my mother used to play with me when I was little. She’d sing it in Nederlands Dutch, while the version below is from Flanders, so I can’t guarantee it’s identical, but it sounds very much the same to me:

“Naar bed, naar bed” : zei Duimelot (=duim),
“Eerst nog wat eten”: zei Likkepot (=wijsvingen)
“Waar kunnen we dat halen?”: vroeg Langejan (=middelvinger)
“In grootvaders kastje”: zei Ringeling (=ringvinger)
“Dat zal IK verklappen”: zei het Kleine Ding (=pink)
“To bed, to bed” : said Thumbelot (= thumb)
“First, we have to eat” : said Lickpot (= fore finger)
“Where can we find some ?” : asked Longjohn (=middle finger)
“In Grand-Father’s cupboard” said Ringeling (= ring finger)
“That shall I report” said the Little Thing (= little finger)