The Curmudgeonly Professor

In My Eighty-First Year: Gems of Wisdom for November 9 2012

By popular request (one person), here are the gems of inspiration and accumulated wisdom from the Curmudgeonly Professor for November 9 2012:

1. The weather forecaster said something about rain showers in the valleys and possibly a few snow showers.  The weather forecaster said nothing about six inches of snow.  Weather forecasters are no better than economics forecasters.
2. I am having withdrawal symptoms after the election is over.  What else is there to do?  Actually, the 2016 election jockeying began yesterday morning.  Will I be around long enough to go through another of these gifts of democracy?  I'm clearly too old to run, myself.
3. It's hard to watch losers flounder, no matter how much you wanted them to lose, whether in politics or sports or whatever.   It's especially hard to watch school kids on losing teams cry and hang their heads while their hated enemies are celebrating and whooping it up out on the floor or the field.  Then the excuses and blames start.  Best to just say, we lost.  They got more votes or points than we got.  Face it and go on.  And shut up.
4. My hearing aid batteries just beeped four times.  That means the stupid batteries died again.  The batteries are upstairs. I am downstairs.  The batteries are little bitty things that you practically need tweezers to insert.  The batteries are a royal pain, along with several other features of hearing aids.
5. We had planned to migrate to St. George about now, before the snow hit.  But the snow hit.  And now we are stranded, momentarily.  Snow is useful for watersheds and skiing.  I do not ski.  I do not need snow.
6. I remember the day that Truman beat Dewey.  I was in the seventh grade.  Students came to school repeating stuff they heard at home, such as "Now that rotten Pendergast gang will be running Washington."  And such.  No wonder kids not only typically inherit their parents religion, they also inherit many biases and political views that last for a lifetime, not to be confused with anything they might learn along the way.
7. I wonder some days what good I did teaching economics for 45 years when students typically hated it with a passion because they had to draw graphs, do long division, calculate formulas, and think logically and theoretically.  Not many really learned enough about it to do them any good, and our country is far worse for the fact that we bask in low-level understanding of basic economics principles.
8. Some of the real heros of this election are the people who waited in long lines for up to eight hours to vote.  I shed a tear for their unwarranted plight and congratulate them for their heroic and patriotic devotion to the sacred right to vote.  We owe you and honor you.
9. The only office I ever ran for was school board in Laramie WY where I got soundly defeated.  I decided I was not cut out for running for any office and gave up my ambition to become Governor of Wyoming.  At one time, I was actually offered the job of Administrative Assistant to the Governor of Wyoming, but deduced that the Gov was going to lose the next election, so I demurred.  so that is as close as I ever got to the Governor's Office in Cheyenne.  He lost. 
10. Congratulations to the women elected to office yesterday.  I think that if we can elect more smart and competent women, we men can sit back and watch things run more efficiently.  If we can elect women as smart as my wife is, we will definitely be able to watch problem solvers in action and stop dithering around.  Good luck to all.  And may your example stir many more smart and competent and knowledgeable women to run for office at all levels of government.

Meanwhile, it is still snowing, which makes me grouchy.  The new ice maker for my fridge, the third one in two years of a "new" fridge, has not come and probably will not be installed until next year.  The fruit flies have not died, as they are supposed to have done.  The TV was out this morning so my wife was late in watching All My Children.  We are out of milk and the roads are too slick to go to the grocery store.  BYU is playing Tennessee State tonight when they should be playing the University of Wyoming.  My granddaughter got an A in physical science, the monster freshman class at BYU, and announced she was sticking it "to the man," whatever that means.  She also says they are having continual sleepover parties in the dorm so I am not sure how she is studying, maybe by osmosis.  I still have a bunch of boxes to pack up in case we can ever get out of here.  Meanwhile, have a nice day.

Snow Scenes on November 9 2012 South Salt Lake UT Valley

red Tree Berries Before and After the Snow

Tree berries early this morning.

Tree berries a couple of hours later.

From Autumn Gold to Winter White in Less than Twenty Four Hours

How the landscape looked a couple of days ago.

How the landscape looked by 11:00 a.m. today.  The wind came along with a mighty whoosh last night and by morning all the trees were bare.

Snow Comes to the Wasatch Mountains Late October 2012

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In My Eighty-First Year: Accumulated Gems of Wisdom from Summer 2012

Accumulated wisdom at summer's end, while autumn dwindles, and winter lurks, cold, icy, and menacing:

• I asked my neighbor how he and his wife were doing.  He said, "Well, we can sit up and take nourishment."
• I criticized the leather jacket a female political commentator was wearing, whereupon my wife said, "I wouldn't think someone who wears a polo shirt 365 days a year is qualified to be a fashion commentator."  Ouch.
• Today is election day.  One can only hope for a constructive outcome.  But the air remains clouded with bile, hatred, bias, bad economics, and wishful thinking.  Fortunately, democracy somehow always survives.
• We had the second new freezer door installed on our two year old Whirlpool fridge two weeks ago.  The ice maker stopped working after a few days.  The repair guy came by today and ordered a new ice maker.  This is about the sixth or seventh service call we have had on this wonderful maarvel of electronic mediocrity.
• The green tomatoes I picked the night before frost have all ripened.  Now what to do with them.  I have already made three batches of wonderful fresh tomato soup.
• I saw on the internet that if you are tired of a zillion little fruit flies in your kitchen, take a quart bottle, put a piece of banana or rotten fruit and some vinegar in the bottom, make a cone out of a sheet of paper with the top of the cone large enough to close of escape, and voila!  Those pesky little devils are flitting around prior to their early demise.
• Sock lint remains one of the world's top menaces.  I am disturbed that no one mentioned the problem of sock lint in this presidential campaign.  I am more ticked about sock lint than I am with a zillion other pressing issues.
• I bought the Lion House soup cookbook a week ago and made chicken noodle soup, which turned out very well, and which I am still eating.  There are 69 more soup recipes in the book and I intend to make all of them the next year, no matter what ingredients our how wierd the soup sounds.  To get the book, go to deseretbook.com.  The Lion House originally was the home for Brigham Young's family which, of course, consumed gallons and gallons of soup.
• Unfortunately, I started playing Snood on my iPad.  I must get rid of it.  After playing just one more game.
• I am following my audiologists orders and am wearing my two thousand dollar hearing aids all day now, trying to get accustomed to noise, which reverberates through my head.
• My son Jim received a "we want you back" invitation from the History Book Club.  Four books for four bucks.  Trouble is, he has been forbidden from ever joining again.  So have I.  I returned so many books last membership that I have never received a "we want you back" invitation again.  
• With iPads and iPhones, one never need be sociable or converse with others.  Just sit around and rub thumbs over the screen and text everyone you know while playing Angry Birds, Words with Friends, checking email, etc.  

I know this list is long, but the Curmudgeonly Professor has accumulated vast reams of useful knowledge over the summer and feels compelled to pass it on to his readers.  I am sure I have omitted some gems of information which I will think of and pass along later.  Have a nice day.

More Light Tricks from the Golden Glow of Dusk on the Wasatch Mountain Sides SL Valley UT

Light Tricks on the Slopes of the Wasatch Mountains at Dusk Nov 4 2012

Sunrise in the South Salt Lake Valley Nov 5 2012

The Very Last Red Leaves on the Tree Outside My Window Nov 5 2012

Autumn Foliate on the Banks of the Jordan River in South Salt Lake UT Valley Oct 2012

Autumn Leaves in late October 2012

Alyssum

Starting with a little volunteer alyssum last year, these tiny white beauties have now taken over one end of my front door petunia patch.  What to do with them, dig them up and plant peteunias, or leave in a sure predatory little field of white flowers?