life AND times

This morning I saw a dead praying mantis on the front porch. All green, folded legs, dispatch late abdomen, head so small you don't even notice the killing jaws. I wonder if the cold killed it. Ironic, if so, because today it is supposed to reach the middle 70s.

Krispy Kreme has sunk to new depths. It has abandoned even the pretense of flavor. Years ago I started eating only the filled doughnuts, filled with jam, filled with what pretended to be custard, but wasn't really any more. But yesterday, I ate one of those and it didn't even pretend to have custard inside. It was pretending to have whipped cream inside. What a waste of calories: fat and sugar. That's all Krispy Kreme sells anymore. And some people swear by it. I'd rather eat plain saltine crackers. Actually, that was always true, but you know what I mean. Now, all you can say is that Krispy Kreme is still better than the Winn-Dixie store brand. Dirt is better than that, so you're not saying much. Winn-Dixie thinks corn syrup can pretend to be a glazed coating. I suppose it can, but who does it fool? People who thought that Romney stood by his principles?

What else has happened. My supervisor retired. I ate way too much good seafood at his retirement dinner. Temperatures finally became reasonable again, if only for two days. Warmer than 70°F, warmer than 20°C (I know those are not exactly the same).

For the last two days I have felt bad. At first I felt really bad and it seemed that I would have to go to the doctor, if not actually the emergency room. I had symptoms. But, the symptoms went away, and today I feel pretty good. Finally what I did was switch from the not so good seat cushion to the better seat cushion. This should not really be enough to make the difference, but maybe the not so good seat cushion has acquired a patina of even more entropy. If anything happens I will let you know.

I have gone from summer to winter hairstyle. I grow my hair and beard as long as my wife will let me get away with, and trim my mustache when it threatens to get in my food. I do stay warmer this way.

Right now, none of the eight geological publications I have been working on are on my desk. Yesterday, I actually had to decide what to do at work. Then I came up with several things, and was busy all day. But for a few moments....