Wednesday random

[gurdymonkey]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/15/BASA1FEE6R.DTL
Senator Mark Leno counters with a proposed bill to make PG&E shareholders responsible for costs due to negligence b y PG&E.
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It's September. Once again, two hours before the eye exam which has been on the books for a year, I get a phone call from the nitwit at Dr. T's office telling me she has to reschedule. Now this ridiculous ritual is going to eat a couple hours of my Saturday afternoon, which pisses me off. If I'm told I need new lenses, I will demand they be fit into the older of the two sets of old frames I will be carrying with me. They pulled the you're-covered-so-we're-going-to-sell-you-new-glasses routine on me last year, refused to mount lenses in my old pair, insisting I HAD to have a spare, then tried to bill me for more than I was quoted because The Nitwit didn't know the lenses wouldn't fit the frames I picked and more expensive lenses would be needed. This racket is wasteful, stupid and costly to both me and my insurance company. I actually take care of my glasses, I'm not vain about them. I do NOT need three pairs of prescription readers.
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Taiko kicked my ass last night, but in a good way. The new piece we've started work in is challenging, I don't have all the bits memorized yet and Sean-sensei is pushing us through a lot of it at a time.

Thanks to prevailing wind direction and the subtle change in elevation that only appears to be noticeable to Old Slow Me,  the ride home is always easier than the ride out. You'd think I'd be more tired than less, but it feels good. I actually kind of like riding after dark too. Traffic is fairly light most of the way, the streets are decently lit, there are traffic lights to cross with at the busier intersections and I like the atmosphere of the neighborhoods I ride through, even at night. I've been waved at by folks watering lawns, nodded at by other bikers, waved through intersections by motorists with eyes. Even the knot of teenagers hanging out in front of an apartment building or by the 7/11 is likely to wave or call "Hi."
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Finished reading Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried at lunch today. If it didn't say right on the cover that it was nonfiction, I'd believe it was true. Maybe it is in its way. Read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, (another Dad recommendation, because "the protagonist lived in your old dorm!") before that. Actually it's got a great deal more merit than the Rutgers connection and it's a terrific novel, but I'm due for something light. Yeah, like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Oy.

Comments

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

You would not believe the profit margins on glasses, particularly frames. It's almost obscene.

Back when I was living in Des Moines and still working for the insurance company there, I had to attend a meeting with some representatives from the company that sub-contracted the eye insurance parts of our policies.

They flat-out told me that the eyeglass companies were working towards making plastic frames fashionable, so that they could not have to deal with so much metal. The plastic frames were much more profitable: a pair of those could be made for less than $1, but sell for $60 or more.

Within two years of me hearing that, lo and behold, nerdy plastic frames became really popular.

[katerit.livejournal.com]

Oh - The Things They Carried is largely based on actual experience, but O'Brien is playing around with the concept of story truth vs happening truth and the reasons for telling stories. It's a great book on a number of levels. We'll probably be doing it in the spring.

By the way - a very different book, but a lovely one, is A Gracious Plenty by Sheri Reynolds.