Because Time Machine Parking Sounds Hokey

And I do so admire Wheaton's attempt at luring those from the future to buy into it's moribund real estate market.

Rolene Porubsky (1937 - 2009)

Born in Lake, MI on December 11th, 1937. Died in Mt. Pleasant, MI on Semptember 18th, 2009.

My last Grandparent.

Description of her life to follow in a week or two.

Don't Say No One Ever Told You

In case anyone does not know, Kyeorda is pregnant!

Arrival is slated for April.

Año

Three years and counting....

Happy Anniversary Kye!

Enforced Energy Conservation

We have since settled into our apartment and discovered it comes with a handy built in feature that has been helping us save energy. I'll explain how you too can use this feature and save! It's pretty straight forward, really. First, install the old fashion style screw in fuses. These usually come in 15 Amp or 20 Amp varieties. Be sure to use the 15 Amp variety.



Second, your entire residence will need to be rewired. Here is the crucial step. Be sure to include as much of your residence as possible on a single fuse. And not just any fuse will do here. You are really going to want to use a single 15 Amp Fuse. Note, this may violate building codes in your area. Violate such codes at your own risk.

Once this is complete, you'll need to adjust to your new lifestyle. No longer can you waste energy by running two appliances at once. Want to use a dishwasher and microwave at the same time? Think again! Do you ever try to use a microwave and toaster at the same time? No longer will you be so spendthrift with energy. Do you keep your refrigerator plugged in at all times? Do you ever leave it plugged in along with ceiling fans and a TV? Well, your days of killing kilowatts is now at an end! Before long, you'll flinch at the idea of even turning on a light! And the energy savings will follow.*

*Note, price of fuses not included in savings estimate. Fuses cost $2.00-$4.50 depending upon location. Taxes not included in quoted price.

On Colors

I spent my childhood submersed in blue. Deep blue shag carpet covered a good portion of my childhood home. Intense, blue plaid-patterned wallpaper stretched half-way up the walls of my bedroom; light blue paint stretched the rest. I would have made the ceiling blue given the chance. This could only have gone one of two ways, of course. I would either love or hate that color. I adopted it. As a teenager, the oddity of having a favorite color dawned on me, yet, I still orbited blue. I covered myself in it. From blue Converse, to the common blue jeans, to the plain blue T-shirts. Nearly everyday, from head to toe, I wore blue. I did this with such regularity, a few friends regarded it as my uniform. Really, it was a fascination with the color. I remember having my mind race when I heard of Picasso’s “Blue Period”. I envied him; I wanted such a momentous phase. Despite this obvious pattern, I refused to admit I had any such thing as a favorite color. I would explain that I didn’t believe in favorite colors. Nobody took me seriously on this and rightly so.

Since then, I seem to change colors with regularity. In college, I adopted a new color, slowly drifting towards dirty, army shades of green. This was mostly unconscious. Old blue T-shirts went threadbare and mostly green ones seemed to take their place. I donned an army green trench coat and would trek across campus with my green backpack. People had to point out the trend before I noticed.

Towards the end of college, orange came into style. I first met Kyeorda in my orange transition (oddly enough, I dyed my hair blue the day I met her). I recall telling her I was immune to favorite colors. She pointed out rather incredulously that I had a seven foot burnt orange couch taking up most of my bedroom and how orange objects seemed to litter my room such as a picture of Jupiter with orange trim which hung from the wall.

Fittingly enough, orange has changed to brown. There are occasional days where I’m dressed entirely in brown. Socks, shoes, pants, baseball cap, shirt, sweatshirt. I do not plan this, I simply feel comfortable at this particular moment dressed in this particular color. Kyeorda pointed out my new trend before I even noticed. This may seem unlikely, but I really am that unobservant.

It may seem absurd that I put such thought into something as trivial as favorite colors, but something about them bothers me. The mere fact of having one is not the issue. I think people adopt a favorite color when young as a way of creating an identity. I have no issue with that. It is the static aspect of it that bewilders me. But I’ve found it irritates people when I change even in small ways. Why should a matter of favorite colors surprise me? Running into high school acquaintances during college, I would hear surprise that I was not dressed in blue. A college friend got upset during my wedding reception because the wedding trivia quiz reported my favorite color as orange. A similar quiz during a wedding shower outraged family members. Not blue? Really?

I happen to enjoy my chromatic fickleness. Each color seems to fit neatly into a particular phase in my life, each one having a meaning to me. But it makes me wonder, what next? I can speculate, but the change will likely escape my attention.

FUTURE SPAM

I've noticed a disturbing trend recently. Much of the SPAM I get on my Rochester email account arrives from the future. It arrives from the year 3610 to be precise. This leads me to two conclusions. One, apparently time travel is possible, at least in email form. Second, the future is our enemy. It seems it's filled with people just waiting to steal our credit card numbers.

But here's the part that just doesn't fit together. In the distant future, won't all of our credit cards be expired? Clearly these futuretonians have not thought this through.

But in all seriousness, why doesn't spamassassin tag emails with such dates in the message header as SPAM?