grrrowl

this evening, irritated beyond measure, i pop my head out the window and bellow at the kid who's  been yelling non-stop on the slope in the backyard, CAN YOU PLEASE STOP SHOUTING?

he snaps to attention, nods cheerfully and says yes! and i say, thank you.

he's a charming little imp and i'm crabby and middle aged. also, i would like to shout at the young pianist on the ground floor who murders mozart every night at ten o'clock.

open letter to google maps

in the spirit of the google maps traffic updates, here's a special request for a mrt traffic update:

• monitor the density and movement of cellphone signals
• superimpose on a map of the subway system

• green for cellphone signals moving along lines at usual speed
• red for unusually slow movements along subway lines

• circles to show relative accumulation of cellphone signals at subway stations
• red circles at unusually large accumulations of cellphone signals at subway stations

the objective being so that people can bypass depending on delayed official pronouncements and various angry commuters to update their facebook statuses and still get to their destinations on time.

iWish 2

my fashion ambition, i tell people, is to be wearing heels at seventy. there is something sartorially unacceptable about that modern septuagenarian affection, the sneaker. sports shoe companies need to start making nice-looking dress shoes for the discerning senior. and by nice i mean nice-and-sharp nice, not girl-next-door nice.

iWish

it occurs to me that a new app for the smartphone that monitors mrt train speeds and highlights unexpected slowdowns, would be very much in the way of a public service.

and clearly the app should not obtain its information from official sources, seeing as how these sources have consistently been the reason why people are caught unawares and in the jam, owing to fiendishly delayed decisions for action.

in any case we do not need an official breakdown. i simply need to know when the trains are running behind so that i can take useful action that does not include 19,000 other commuters.

getting to work on time is becoming a lottery these days.

nostalgia

a snow day today, HOM and i tell each other, would be nice. we would stay home wrapped up in robes with hot coffee and toasted bagels and cream cheese and watch the snow fall outside the picture window. the refrigerator would be stuffed with meals and the portable stove would be ready. the books and the ipads and the laptops would be pressed into service.

except, of course, we would have to shovel the driveway every two hours.

the empty nest years

it's back to the two of us, HOM tells me. do you remember the old days of ferrying J1 and J2 to chinese class? i do, as i remember their baby faces and their happy hopes and, as if it were yesterday, the many mistakes i would not make again if i could. i would, if i could, hug more and be interrupted more. i would tolerate more and demand less. i would spend their childhood on my knees, not in despair but with canny strategy.

God gives parents have a peculiar burden, i think. our years to parent an intact family are fleeting, and then we have many years of wistful reflection. perhaps this is why grandparents are so globally indulgent.

maternal reflection

J1 flies back to college. it's been a good 3 weeks. 

the big comfort, i'm afraid, is to realize that other mothers elsewhere are saying goodbye to their college-bound children too. there is much truth in old sayings about misery loving company and such. HOM doesn't count, of course, because we share the same boat and the same kid.

geek-speak

my first tech foray for the year,

which promises to simplify my life

and upgrade my efficiency.

the usual problem with previous forays has been that i forget i have forayed.

but i must say the green elephant is a rather likeable icon.

mismatch

things that do not go together, regardless of your optimism:

• silver bells at the mall parading cny ware
• blouses with wide cut-outs to show bra-straps
• that mohawk hairstyle on a live adult scalp

pernicious addiction

go to: youtube.com
type in search bar: [dog breed] puppies
watch
repeat

i tell HOM it's my substitute Dog.

photo attack

3 years after going over to the dark side i finally migrate our photos from the old hewlett packard. 14 years of digital family photos are neatly categorized in iPhoto, a mammoth achievement that exacts its due in a stiff neck and an awful rhomboid ache.

it is done, i tell HOM happily. although i confess many of the folders are labelled misc and random.

2014!!

let your work appear to your servants,

and your glory to their children.

and let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us,

and establish the work of our hands for us;

yes, establish the work of our hands.

- ps 90:16-17

i could post about how disconnected i feel from the aggressive exuberance in the air, but on reflection this prayer about sums up all i ought to feel, i suppose.