Blizzard of 08

They've been telling us for a week that it was going to snow today. Oklahoma news media get all jived up about weather. This morning they co-opted the Today Show to do non-stop coverage of the snowstorm that hadn't really started yet. They had these poor, cold reporters out standing in the snow next to the road in Enid and Okarche, saying "as you can see, Bob, there's nearly a quarter of an inch accumulation. The streets are wet, but they're not slick. But they probably will get slick. It's a dry snow right now, but it may start to melt and freeze as the temperature drops...'

Blah blah blah. Come ON. There are people in Wisconsin laughing their asses off at us. It's six feet deep up there.

It has been snowing on and off all day. But it's not that bad.
It's pretty, though. So my office-mates and I went out to take our pictures in the snow at lunch. Krysten took this one of me. I wanted to look really miserable and cold.


It had stopped actually snowing, however, so Dejah had to help by shaking snow on me from the bushes.

It's supposed to be 50 degrees or something tomorrow, so it won't last, regardless of how much it snows tonight. Might not even last long enough for Grayson to use the new snow disc we got him a couple of weeks ago. Though I bet I'm out in the cold yard later tonight giving it the old college try with him...

A narrow miss and a sense of perspective

This morning on the way to work, I very narrowly escaped a fender bender. A woman pulled out from a side-street in front of me without looking. I braked and swerved, she slammed on her brakes, and we coasted by each other with about an inch to spare. I actually thought she had hit me at first, and stopped to check the damage. She stopped on the side street as well and I went over to talk with her. She apologized and I asked if she was okay. She said she was, but had to stop to "give herself a minute" to recover from the adrenaline.

I'm glad I was nice to her. I thought she had hit me and I was feeling pissy about it. But when I went around to survey the damage, there was none. We dodged the bullet. I wished her a good day and went on my way. It's not a nice way to start the day, but it was nice to get that reprieve. Sort of puts things into perspective for you. Makes you appreciate the travails you don't have. Like accidentally setting your alarm to go off at 6 a.m. on a Saturday. You're pissed that you got woken up, but it's so nice to hear the alarm and realize you don't have to get up, that it's almost worth it.

Perhaps in some parallel universe, I'm calling my insurance agent today. But not in this one. Not this time.

I had to drop off some bookmarks at the downtown library on my way to work for their summer reading program. So after my near-miss, I went on downtown, arriving in front of the library at 8:45 a.m. I climbed out, opened the back of my car and heaved this 40-pound box of bookmarks out in a 30-mile-an-hour freezing wind, staggering to the front doors with it while simultaneously trying to keep my skirt from pulling a Marilyn Monroe on me right there are Dean A. McGee Street.

Alas, the library does not open until 9 a.m. So I schlepped the box back to the car, climbed in out of the wind and waited. Over the next ten minutes, I listened to Eldest on cd and watched the homeless people converge on the library's entrance, waiting for it to open up so they could spend the day in the warmth, surfing the internet or sleeping in chairs. At 9 a.m. the doors slid open and we all entered together -- me and my box and the homeless people and their various knapsacks, plastic bags, rotten sneakers and all. Another opportunity for perspective on my lot in life.

Lately I've been feeling a little old and tired and used up. Chances are I'm not going to be rich or famous. Watching those folks congregating around the library entrance has to make you think about how spoiled you are. How lucky. Oh, was I agonizing about the meaning of my existence? I'll stop that now.

In Which I Meet Sandra Day O'Connor

I had the immense privilege of giving a speed-tour of the museum's Archaeology exhibits to former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor last week. She was in town for the investiture of a 10th Circuit court judge and presided over a huge evening event at the museum the night before the ceremony. Apparently the place made a positive impression, because she made a point of stealing a half an hour from the following day's luncheon event to stop by and take a peek.

Peter, the museum's Associate Director, and I gave her the tour. Before she arrived, I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs (as my father would say). But once she arrived, she was so perfectly charming and delightful that it was easy to be comfortable with her.

She took delight in the museum's glass elevator, was completely fascinated by the archaeology exhibits, and asked real questions as we tooled her around. She was friendly and warm and personable, and clearly had a real interest in natural history. Unlike a number of dignitaries I've toured who are clearly just following their tour schedule. She was wonderful.

Now we hear that President Clinton may be making a swing by the museum before or after his stump speech for Hillary on Wednesday. I thought my assistant was going to wet her pants when she heard that. She literally got red faced, started to giggle, and had to fan herself to cool down! I told her we would not allow her to meet President Clinton if she was going to giggle.

It would be very cool to get to meet him, however, and to tour him through the museum. I'll feel like such a big wig, with all this meeting of dignitaries.

Religion and the Real World Part 2

Okay, don't know if I'm sending out some kind of cosmic attractive field, but for the second time in a two weeks, I received an out-of-the-blue random Christian weirdness.

This afternoon I picked up the phone and had a brief conversation with a woman in Texas who thinks she has found the jawbone and teeth of a Xiphactinus, a ginormous fish from the Cretaceous period with wicked-looking fangs. I told her I could put her through to the vertebrate paleontology team and they could talk to her about what she found and help her identify it.

Then, a propos of nothing, she asks me, "Do you believe dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time?"

Half beat while I think "WTF?"

"No ma'am."

"But isn't there some debate about that?"

"Not in the scientific community, no ma'am."

Pause.

"Well, thank you! Good bye!"

And I ask again: what is it about me this week that is bringing out these random questions? At least she didn't try to debate me. I think I made it as clear as possible that the question was not up for discussion. But what on earth did she expect from a natural history museum?

Really, we don't get a lot of static from the Young Earth Creationist quarter most of the time because they know they are not going to convince or convert any of us, or cause the museum to change its exhibits. If people are offended by evolution, they're probably not pass up the natural history museum and go see the creationist museum instead. It's just not our bag.

There's a new book out by the National Academy of Sciences that gives their very well-thought out and reasoned explanation of why they see no conflict between religion and science. I have ordered it from them and anxiously await its arrival.

The National Council of Churches also has a nice essay out about how it believes science and religion are in no way exclusive of one another, and they quote the historic Dover I.D. judgement that "Repeatedly, in this trial, Plaintiffs' scientific experts testified that the theory of evolution represents good science, is overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community, and that it in no way conflicts with, nor does it deny, the existence of a divine creator."

This seems to be coming up repeatedly lately, like the parking token you keep trying to give away as a quarter.

Sick day

My kid is home sick.
Again.

Poor guy. We kept him home from school on Friday because he had a cough that sounded like a barking seal. Then he had a snotty nose, a cough and a fever all day Saturday. By Sunday he was down to just the snotty nose, which seems like an improvement. He was feeling well enough yesterday to spend most of the afternoon at his friend Sam's house down the street.

So I had no qualms about sending him to school this morning. Sure, he was still snot-nosed and stuffy. But that kid is snot-nosed and stuffy so much I don't really register it that much anymore.

But by 10:30 I got a call from Gray. The school had called and they were sending him home. Gray said they told him Grayson just "looked like he didn't feel well." Poor kid.

So Gray's at home with him today. No doubt playing World of Warcraft while Grayson watches cartoons and plays his Nintendo DS. So they're both happy.

Jury Duty and the Terrors Thereof

I had jury duty last week. A terrifying experience.

Now, I've had jury duty before ... have endured the long hours of boredom, the uncomfortable benches, the pencil-shaving smell of the courthouse, and the not-exactly-disappointment of being bumped out of the selection pool. But I have never had an experience quite like this one.

I got called for a criminal case and the judge began her series of questions to separate the sheep from the goats. What a lot of goats! If that jury pool was a cross-section of the citizenry of Oklahoma City, it was grim indeed. Fully a third of them had DUIs. There were a handful of possessions. But those were tame compared to what came up as the process ground on.

First there was the woman who "forgot all about" her conviction for embezzlement. Then there was the guy who told the judge about his assault charges, but failed to mention the drive-by shooting charges, and the 23-year-old who had four larceny charges before she was 18. And that was just the perps. There was a litany of victims, as well.

There was the man whose wife had been "brutally raped, resulting in the need for a full hysterectomy" 30 years ago. The girl whose grandmother was tied up and robbed just last week. The woman whose husband had been jailed for an unnamed sex offense. The girl whose mother in law robbed a bank. My god! Who are these people???

The jury was never selected because of a mistrial on a technical foul-up on the part of the clerk or bailiff. But before she released us, the judge let us ask some questions and held us in the courtroom chatting for awhile. I asked if this was typical of the process and was relieved to hear her say emphatically "No! No not at all. We've had everything but a spotted pig in this courtroom today."

I'm pretty sure we had the spotted pig, too.

It reminds me of the words of wisdom given to me by my old neighbor, King, many years ago. He told me I should keep my screen door locked if I was going to leave the door open when I was not in the front of the house. "Girl, I could be anyone!" He said. I told him, "King, you'd have to be crazy to come in here with all these dogs in the house!" At the time I had four big dogs, all lounging in the front room. King just nodded his head vigorously and told me "They out there. I could name you five I went to school with."

Clearly, King was right. They out there.

Giant Angels

On Friday I had a meeting with a sales rep. Regular guy. Middle-aged, balding, carrying a briefcase, trying to sell me advertising. We had a nice meeting and some pleasant chit chat and I told him a little about the new Paleozoic gallery opening up.

Then he said that he recently picked up a book of Bible stories and there was one he had forgotten about a race of giants created when human women "mated" with angels. And he asked me "Now wouldn't it be amazing to find something like that?"

I just looked at him for a second. Here I'd been having this conversation with this guy, believing he was sane and normal. Now this. A race of giant angels. I said "That would be quite a scientific discovery."

Generally, in my line of work, you learn to be diplomatic about these things. Especially when someone mentions the bible. When you work in a natural history museum, the minute someone brings up the bible you know they are about to say something outrageous: ask you if the dinosaurs were killed in the flood, or if you've found any dinosaurs with human skeletons inside them, or ask you to defend evolution, the basis of all biological study. So as soon as the guy said "Bible stories" I knew it was coming. But the race of giant angels was a new one.

I'm amazed at what people will believe, on absolutely no authority other than the church. I don't get it. I don't know why religious faith and the real world have to be so separated.

Well, I won't get off on that subject. But it was an interesting experience.

Yesterday we had lunch with Gray's mom, who was in town for the wedding of the daughter of one of her friends. We hadn't seen her in over a year. Not since the big fight last Christmas. I hadn't spoken to her in all that time until about a month ago when she apologized to me over the phone. Two words: "I'm sorry." that's really all it took. I had to wait a year for it.

The night before she did so, I had had a dream in which she died without us ever making up. It was a very sad dream because she had died without seeing Grayson again, and without him ever again having seen her. After the dream, I knew it was time for us to make up. And the next day she called and said she was sorry.

The lunch went fine. We spent about three hours together and then came home. I was worn out from being nice, but it went well. I feel like I have to be so careful in what I say. I must speak literally and cautiously, not make any jokes that could be misconstrued. Always be positive and complimentary about everyone. Makes me realize how much I rely on sarcastic humor to keep up my end of the conversation. Though really I think most of my jibes are at myself.

Anyway, it was good to get that first meeting over with. Things will never be as easy as they once were, I think. At least not for me. But at least we are speaking.

There's Nemo

 My kitty's back

I know I never mentioned my kitty being gone, but I'll mention here how relieved I am that he is back. Nemo got out the front door on New Year's Eve and was missing until Saturday when Gray discovered him skulking around the airconditioners in the back yard.  I just grabbed him and cried into his fur.  That fat lazy bastard. I love that cat.