Student-run restaurant, Jury duty, ‘My Lobotomy’, Air-soft adventures, “Uber Goober”
(posted from home)
(this post covers 15-22 November)


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Wednesday, 22 November-

It’s the day before Thanksgiving and another good day for a motorcycle ride. I spent much of it continuing on my search for a scope and I picked up some shooting supplies. I also bought a little air-soft pistol and a target/BB-trap today. The $20 air-soft gun shoots plastic BB’s and is a replica of a Walther P-22. It’s just what I’ve been looking for. I’ve been reading on the owner groups about using an air-soft gun to train your eyes for both-eyes-open shooting. Back home I set up the target/BB trap across the living room and was about to give it a try. But Labashi saw what was going on and sent me to the basement. For some reason she’s concerned about the lamp and the mirror in that corner of the living room. As it turns out, her fears were well-founded. I shot two clips-worth in the basement, then came back up and told Labashi I had no problem hitting the target. An hour or so later she was in the kitchen when I decided to try an instinctive-aiming technique (HAH!) and blasted a BB off the frame of the target and around the living room. She was VERY impressed. (Fortunately, the BB didn’t hurt anything.)
That evening we watched “Uber Goober”, a nice little documentary about Dungeons and Dragons-style gaming. It’s clearly aimed at fans and assumes a little too much knowledge about Dungeons and Dragons coming in but was very entertaining. We particularly enjoyed footage of fundamentalist preachers describing how Dungeons and Dragons is the Devil’s work.

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Tuesday, 21 November-

Today I spent much of the day on the Concours. I love riding the bike in weather like this. The bike’s engine likes the cooler, denser air and it’s running great. I was just cruising around doing some shopping errands. Primary mission for today was to check out some possible scopes for my newly-repaired .22 rifle. I’ve been doing some reading on the web about scopes and I’ve been surprised to see how expensive a ‘cheap’ scope is. One site claims the cheapest scope worthy of consideration is a $150 one (http://www.charm.net/~kmarsh/scope_rec.html). Well, in that case I’m just going to have to live with a not-worthy-of-consideration scope; my budget is $40. I quickly learned that one of the problems with finding a scope in this price range is they are packaged in blister-packaging so you can’t get a look through the scope. I had gotten a look through a Barska 4 x 32 mounted on a new rifle for sale at Gander Mountain and liked that one but they don’t have the 3-9 x 32 version I’d like to see. Then at Dick’s I found a Simmons 3-9 x 32 and almost bought it. But I lucked out—I noticed the blister packaging had been slit open by someone and it was far enough open to pull out the scope. I pulled it out of the packaging and looked through it; it was terrible.
Wal-mart’s web site advertises the Barsaka I was looking for but the local Wal-Mart doesn’t carry them. Bottom line: keep looking!

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Monday, 20 November-

Today was jury-duty day. I didn’t sleep well last night and the night was a long one (though I did get some good reading in). I was surprised to learn that I was one of three-HUNDRED jurors in the pool. We gathered in the giant jury assembly room and after receiving our instructions, most of us read or did puzzles while awaiting the jury calls. At 1030, some 25 people were called to duty. We broke for lunch at 12 and I walked to Samuel’s Café for a coffee mocha, then took a leisurely walk around York’s square. I remember first moving to this area in the early 80’s and finding a blighted downtown and many empty stores west of the square. Today, most of those empty stores have been taken over by county government agencies and non-profit community-service organizations.
After lunch we again went back to our reading and puzzles and jury calls. There were two more calls around 1430, again taking about 25 people each. By 1500, those of us remaining sensed we’d be sent home shortly given that it was unlikely additional juries would be established that late in the day. Then we heard a surprising announcement. For the first time in the long experience of our jury-assembly clerks, the requirements for all cases for the week had been met on the first day and our services were no longer required. We were free to leave.
So I completed my jury duty without ever entering a courtroom. I’m not eligible for another jury call for three years.
That evening we watched ‘Down in the Valley’, a very flawed movie starring Edward Norton as a drifter cowboy/criminal in the San Fernando valley. The first half of the movie is pretty good but the second half gets completely lost. This would be a great film for students to understand some of the many things that can go wrong on a film in its journey from concept to celluloid.


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Sunday, 19 November-

Things are finally starting to dry out a bit after our recent rains so today we did the final lawn clean-up for the year. Labashi raked and I mowed. Later, I continued researching podcasts and trying to determine the best way to equip Mocha Joe for them. We tend to travel in areas where we have a limited selection of interesting radio programs. I considered satellite radio but lost interest when I realized the stations I’d like to have are spread across both Sirius and XM. I’m very reluctant to subscribe to ANY satellite radio service at all so if the answer is I can’t get what I want, well, that makes it easy; I’ll take neither. Unfortunately, even when we do have public radio stations, we don’t often hit them at the right time. But I’ve been finding some pretty interesting podcasts and it occurs to me that time-shifting is indeed the answer. All I need to do is take along a selection of podcasts to listen to when we’re bored with driving or want something to listen to on those long evenings.
That evening we watched ‘Tarnation’, a gritty film well worth our attention. It’s a film by a young gay boy/man whose mother received hundreds of shock treatments for her mental illness, yet she’s an integral part of him. He was raised by his grandparents who also had their challenges. The film’s images and music are remarkable and unforgettable.


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Saturday, 18 November-

This morning we had fun replacing light bulbs in the ceiling fan in our foyer. It’s in the oddest place. We had to bring in the extension ladder. That’s plenty high enough but it can’t be placed in such a way that you can reach the light with both hands. Removing the glass globe one-handed was tricky, replacing it impossible. We had to shift things around several times and finally Labashi pulled off a minor miracle by replacing the globe while seated backwards on the steep extension ladder and extending both arms out to the light.
In the afternoon I continued my Christmas research and happened upon a podcast on NPR.org called ‘My Lobotomy’. It’s the story of Howard Dully, who as normal 12-year-old boy was given an ‘ice-pick’ lobotomy in the Sixties. It’s called an ice-pick lobotomy because a surgical-version of an ice-pick is pushed into the brain by aligning it along the nose and inserting the point under the eyelid, then pushing it through the orbital socket bone and into the brain. There it is twirled (‘like an egg-beater’) to sever nerve connections within the brain. The story is told by Howard, who, in his Fifties, went searching for the reasons why this was done to him.
That evening we watched ‘Dateline NBC’ and yet another ‘To Catch a Predator’ city, this time Petaluma, CA. Later, I read that the series has become controversial since the suicide of an assistant district attorney in Murphy, Texas. He had solicited a 13-year-old boy for sex and shot himself when police arrived at his home to serve a warrant for his arrest. It’s an amazing thing to read the reactions of some citizens of Murphy. Many letters to the editor of the local papers complain that the stings should be stopped because they affect property values in the communities where they happen. Some complain of perverts being brought to their communities (though many of those arrested ARE from the community). Some complain that the alleged criminals should not be arrested because they hadn’t done anything; they weren’t actually caught in the physical act of abusing a child (they only showed up at the child’s house with the intention of abusing a child!!!!!!!!!!!!). My thoughts are pretty straightforward on this one. The complainers are foolishly writing out the first thought that occurs to them and if given the chance to understand the law and the implications of these men showing up at children’s homes to abuse them, they’d react differently. I’d bet some would even volunteer to allow their homes to be sting sites.


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Friday, 17 November-

I spent most of the morning preparing the documentation for my Florida non-resident gun permit for mailing and in studying Florida’s gun laws. I also did some searches on the web and learned that two states, Michigan and New Hampshire, honor Florida-resident permits but not Florida-nonresident permits. That’s not a problem for me in Michigan since my Pennsylvania permit is good there but I’m out of luck for New Hampshire. The application requires five documents, each of which can lead to a rejection. I was ensuring the package is complete and correct and making copies of everything before sending the package off by certified mail this afternoon. The application instructions say my application will be processed within 90 days and that will be about right for my winter trip plans.
Today’s mail brought the parts to repair the safety on my .22 rifle so I went ahead and disassembled the rifle and fixed it. The safety is now working as designed.
I also spent an hour today reviewing the paperwork for my jury duty which begins Monday.
That evening we went out to dinner. We went to a very nice little part-time restaurant in York. It’s run by students of the Yorktowne Business Institute as part of their Culinary Arts program. We’ve talked about trying this restaurant for several years but it seemed we’d only think of it when the students were on some type of break or we’d think of it on a weekend and the restaurant isn’t open weekends. Even this trip had its moments of doubt. The web site said the restaurant is closed for break but then we realized the posted date for re-opening was already behind us. A phone call got us a reservation tonight-- and it turned out we had selected the last night of service before the Thanksgiving break.
Our meal of seafood Newburg (me) and mahi-mahi (Labashi) was excellent. Service was a bit uneven but certainly not a problem. Our waiter was a 40-something guy who (when we asked) said he was a second-career student and had been working at the restaurant for seven months. He had been a human-resources specialist for a large retail store in his first career. When we asked how it’s going, he said the restaurant business was a little too much like his previous experience in retail. We’re not sure if that meant he’s unhappy or not but his body language when he said it suggests he’ll be embarking on a third career sometime fairly soon. Cost was $23.95 per person and may be a bit high but with the excellent appetizers it seemed reasonable to us.
Back home, we watched ‘Game 6’, with Michael Keaton and Robert Downey, Jr. This movie is another marginal one as far as quality. Again, it’s a labor-of-love for the director and one which took years to fund and make. Unfortunately it doesn’t have the ring of truth to it. It looks more like a challenge-exercise in a film-writing class. “Your challenge today, class, is to write a script tying a playwright’s fears for his play possibly being reviewed by a savage critic on its opening night to Game Six of the 1986 World Series, which happens to be played on the same night”.
Puh-leeze. I do like both Michael Keaton and Robert Downey, Jr., though.

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Thursday, 16 November-

Today’s another rainy one and in fact a record-setting rainy day for many communities in this area. We had our own excitement today when we noticed a rush of water running through the trees at the edge of our property and threatening our storage barn. We rushed outside in the heavy rain and grabbed tools from the barn to clear the storm drain grates on our hilly side street. We’ve seen this before. The grates were jammed by leaves and branches, as happens to some degree each Fall; this is just a bad one. Water on the street was up to a foot deep on the street and overflowing the curb onto the neighbor’s lawn at a low point. From there the water was accelerating rapidly downhill and through our property at the tree line, carrying away the mulch and exposing the landscape cloth as it roared into the little stream below us. We had a heck of a time even finding the two grates in the deep water. Fortunately, Labashi had selected a pitchfork as her tool-of-choice and found the grate-slots through the two-inch-thick layer of leaves. After a few minutes of digging we had whirlpools going over each of the two grates and in twenty minutes had the situation under control. It was actually kind of fun; very much like two kids playing in a BIG mud puddle. One of our neighbors came home toward the end of this little adventure and gave us a big smile and a wave as she drove through the rapidly-draining pool of water.
The other thing I did today was write a letter to our state district representative. We had attended a community meeting Monday evening about a proposed plan for property tax relief. The plan is to shift the school-tax burden from property to income by offsetting a property-tax reduction with an additional income tax burden, either as a higher ‘earned-income’ tax or a new ‘personal-income’ tax. Either one would be good news for me since neither one taxes pension income. I’d get a four-hundred-dollar reduction in my school taxes. However, I don’t think the proposal has any chance of passing. Charts in the presentation show a breakeven point of $41,000, i.e., if your income is less than $41,000 your overall tax burden is reduced. If over $41K, then you would have to pay in. I can’t imagine anyone voting for ‘property tax relief’ if it means their overall tax bill goes up. And given the demographics of the district, most people would be paying more.
My letter, however, addressed two issues. First, the tax board says they plan to recommend an increase in the Earned Income Tax (as opposed to the Personal Income Tax) because the state has not told them how a Personal Income Tax would be collected. That seems like a cop-out to me. Any decision about which tax is fairer to the citizens shouldn’t hinge upon the mechanics of collection. Secondly, the tax commission failed to include any gaming income. The recent approvals to allow gaming in the state were based on a promised billion dollars in gaming-taxes providing property-tax relief. The local tax commission says the state has failed to identify how they would receive so they didn’t include it. That means the charts showing the break-even point are artificially low and citizens voting on the referendum question of whether or not to adopt the new plan will have inaccurate data.
That evening we watched ‘Survivor, Cook Islands’ and a PBS program on Iran.

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Wednesday, 15 November-

Today was a rainy day and I spent most of it on the web. I spent the morning blogging and emailing and the afternoon researching some Christmas-present ideas. ‘Nuff said on that…..