In the air

Fall is here. I’ve been feeling it for several weeks now. The morning funk has set in &#150 a heavy weight I have to fight to get out of bed in the morning. It’s not the cold, but the dwindling hours of sunlight. I leave the house before the sun pokes over the horizon, and the sun is already on a rapid decline when I drive home.

I drive to work in a sweatshirt now, and the sandals have been put back in the closet where they will collect dust until Spring. My jeans have replaced my shorts, and the long-sleeved shirts are slowly coming out of retirement. My one joy in the morning is a hot cup of chai.

It’s not all bad though – the blankets have returned to the bed, so the cats have, too. They’ve started snuggling on the couch again.

But it’s not enough to combat the overwhelming feeling of dread that comes with fall. This year, after suffering for the last seven years without much relief, I’m going on medication for my winter depression. Let’s hope I start to find more that’s not so bad about fall….

Tags: health, suckitude

Maybe this…

Cowboy hat fountain

Originally uploaded by rhombitruncated.

Tags: trip report

It doesn’t get much classier than this!

Cheesy hologram crucifix seen at El Charro in Tucson.

Tags: trip report

Airport Blogging

Dear Dallas-Fort Worth Airport:

I don’t care how shiny and new your hallways look. I don’t care if you have interesting-looking shops for me to waste my time and money in while waiting for a connection. I don’t even care if you have lots of fast-food restaurants so that I can grab a bite to stave off hunger during my cross-country trek.

What do I care about, then, you might ask? Clocks. For goddess sake, put a freaking clock or two around the concourse. I’m not asking for much. Just a display of the local time on a wall somewhere on the concourse other than the “departure” or “arrive” schedules (on which I couldn’t actually see the time — I assume it appeared at the bottom, which would only have been visible from a good twenty feet away, and then likely illegible at that).

This might come as a shock to you, but unlike shoppers at a random mall in middle-america, it is not a good thing for your customers to lose track of the time. I understand that shopping malls want their customers to lose themselves at the mall — spending for hours and hours without realizing that the sun has long since set and the moon is high. However, when customers to your shiny-new stores get lost in time, they delay flights.

Sure, the flights may not actually wait for the passengers, but in this post-911 age, there are rules about luggage flying to destinations before their assoicated passengers. So, in the worst-case scenario, should someone get lost in time, and completely forget about their flight (or, more likely in the D-FW case, have no access to the current time) they will cause the baggage handlers to locate the errant passengers’ luggage in the already packed cargo bay. In the not-so-worst-case scenario, said passengers will arrive, huffing and puffing, onto the plane late, and expect that their space in the overhead bins is still free.

Of course, setting aside the worst-cases, it is just nice for your passageners to know what the time is, so that they can feel free to wander through your interesting stores and grab a bite at your numerous fast-food joints, and not feel rushed to return to the gate 30 minutes before boarding just because they don’t have a watch.

So, I implore you, and many other airports across the country…nay, across the world…to feel free to liberally install clocks throughout the terminal.

Sincerely,
A not-so-worldy traveller

Tags: rant, trip report

$2.95 per gallon !$%^!

Up $0.40 from last week.

Some stations in Atlanta were trying to charge as much as $6/gallon

What are you paying and where?
(come on, I know there are a lot of lurkers out there — let’s hear from you, too.)

Overheard

At Starbucks last night:

Mom (looking in ~6 month old baby’s mouth): He’s got paper in his mouth.
Brother (~5-6 years old): He’s trying to take the Eucharist already.

Tags: oddness

Grad Life: The “grad stigma”

My non-science friends are impressed by the fact that I’m a grad student in astronomy. Perhaps they’re more impressed by the fact that I’m doing my thesis work with a scientist at NASA. The same goes for my family. However, in my workplace, it’s not so special to be a grad student.

This might be my imagination, but it feels like there’s a stigma attached to being a grad student. Whenever someone calls me a grad student, it’s usually accompanied with an attitude that comes across as “she’s just a grad student”. Every time I hear someone refer to me as a grad student, I feel diminished.

I think this comes from the fact that most of the people I work with are PhDs (or “phuds”, as my friend Lorna might say). This means that they were grad students themselves once. They probably remember that they were a bit clueless when they were a grad student.

I’ll happily admit that I’m clueless about a lot of things. I’m still working my way through a lot of what I need to know in my field of research. The larger problem comes because I’m a part-time grad student – I’m also a part-time support scientist-slash-web developer-slash-e/po specialist. Whenever I’m introduced as a grad student, it makes me feel as though I’m also “just” a support scientist, or “just” an e/po specialist.

Whenever I introduce myself and what I do, I try to keep the grad student part last, to make it seem trivial compared to what else I do. In that way, I try to diminish the grad stigma.

Tags: grad life

Animal Shelters

I was recently involved in a discussion (or, rather, a heated comment exchange) on another blog relating to animal shelters. This is one of those topics where its hard to get any real information out of people because they have such strong feelings about shelters. Buried in the comments on the blog post, there were a few useful nuggets of information, but there were so many hate messages that any opportunity for education was lost in the noise. To prevent that the discussion from going to waste, I’m going to summarize some of the useful bits here.

Where to get help

I’ve been fortunate enough to never have had a pet that I felt I couldn’t control or needed to give away. I have one cat who is quite trying at times, but it’s never entered my mind to give him up or have him put down for his behavior. I do realize, though, that there are pets out there who have emotional problems, and there are times when current owners feel that they just cannot cope any more.

There are a lot of bad reasons to get rid of a pet, and only a few good reasons. If you feel that your family is in danger from your pet, either because he or she has gotten very aggressive, has started growling at family members, or has even bitten a family member, that might be a good reason (though, if you can, you might want to consult a professional animal trainer while keeping the pet separated from the family).

For other problems, your first resource should be your veterinarian — they have a lot of experience with animals, and may have some very specific advice for how to handle behavioral problems. There are also a lot of on-line resources, such as Can We Help You Keep Your Pet?, NOVA Animal Hospital, and Humane Society of Missouri Helpline. Don’t give up quickly on your furry friend – you chose to have them in your life, and made a commitment to their well-being when you took them into your home.

Alternatives to Shelters

There are alternatives to the municiple or humane-society shelters. One of the best resources you might have are animal rescues. These are oraganizations who take in dogs and/or cats, often of a specific breed, and place them in foster homes until permanent housing can be found. By contacting a rescue organization, you know that your pet will not be put-down, and will find a loving home, as most of them (all of them?) require potential new pet-owners to go through an interview and home-visit before placing a pet in their home. They strive to match households with to the animals’ personalities, such as those who would do well with children or those who need to be the only pet in the house.

Animal rescue resources:

• Petfinder – this page is a national registry with available pets from all over the country and a listing of local shelters
• Pets 911
• Dog Rescues
• There are a lot of local rescues, so a good way to locate one is to do a web search for “breed your-state rescue”

In addition to rescue organizations, there are a few no-kill shelters around. These are places that will not put down any animals left in their care. However, since there are more stray animals and unwanted pets than these no-kill shelters can house, many of them are full to capacity.

Some no-kill shelter resources:

• Petfinder – this page is a national registry with available pets from all over the country and a listing of local shelters
• Hearts United for Animals – this is a national no-kill organization
• There are many no-kill shelters around, so to find one in your area, check the phone book or do a web-search for “your-city/state no-kill shelter”

If you have to use a shelter

There are some cases where you need to get the pet out of the house and other resources have failed or are too slow. If you must use a shelter (and please, please, please explore the other alternatives first), keep in mind a few things.

• When a government-owned shelter takes in a stray animal, there is usually a set amount of time that they are required to keep those animals so that owners are able to track down their lost pets. However, when an owner brings in a pet, there is not required waiting period. If the shelter is full, your pet might be put down that night. Make your pet as attractive as you can, so he or she has the best shot of finding a home.
• Bring along the veterinary records of your pet
• Bring along your pet’s favorite toy. Note that some shelters will not let you leave anything with your animal (I even heard of one place that would not let a dog keep his flea collar), but it’s worth a shot. Also, bring along a box of treats, and ask them to share them with the other animals. Again, they might not allow you to do that, but it’s worth a try.
• Make a donation to the shelter; it’s the least you can do.

Donate, donate, donate!

This advice goes for everyone, not just those thinking about leaving their pet at a shelter. Rescue organizations and no-kill shelters usually run on donations, so every few dollars you donate will buy another bag of food or perhaps another place for an animal to live.

Post Comments

I’d like to invite anyone to share either a success story about a shelter animal you’ve taken in or to advertise your favorite rescue organization in the comments.

I know that this topic elicits strong emotions – I don’t like shelters, either. However, I will be monitoring the comments closely, and any abusive or hate-filled posts will be deleted and the IPs from which those comments originated will be banned from leaving any future comments on this site. This is my playground, and I get to set the rules.

Tags: causes

To the cock-sucker^* in the black “truck”

You know who you are. You’re the one in the shiny black “truck”. I use the term “truck” loosely here, because it was one of those trucks with a full cab and a tiny bed — the kind of “truck” bought by someone who really wants a car, but buys the truck-version to look cool.

Here’s a clue: darting into a space that’s already barely large enough for you in front of an accelerating car without signalling is a stupid thing to do. Second clue: when that accelerating car honks at you and slows down to make sure you’ve gotten the message, that is not your invitation to start back into the lane. Perhaps you shouldn’t be surprised when that car honks at you again.

Then he got over one more lane, and since he was behind me, honked. Yeah, he honked at me. I waved.

Sadly, his lane advanced on mine, so he passed me. He rolled down his window so he could give me the finger (since, of course, the windows on his pretend truck were tinted). Me? I smiled and blew him kisses.

(Thank you, Suzanne, for teaching me that wonderful response to the finger!)

^* Ordinarily, I don’t really see “cock-sucker” as an insult; after all, I, myself, am a cock-sucker. However, this was the type of guy who looked like the kind of asshole who would be very insulted by this epithet.

Tags: rant

Yay Vienna!

Hey! Vienna, VA, the city Andrew and I live in, was named the fourth best place to live by Money Magazine. How cool is that?

Tags: life in the city