The Misanthrope – Sunday’s Lighter Side

Here of a Sunday morning
My love and I would lie,
And see the coloured counties,
And hear the larks so high
About us in the sky.
A. E. Housman (1859 - 1936), poet

Day-to-Day Luxury. The Misanthrope had a fire going all day last Sunday. It was a chilly southern California day, which is not that common, mid-60s for the high and dropping to the low 40s in the evening. It was delightful. Since it was the last day of two weeks off, we wanted to completely relax, so the fire was kept going throughout the day. The Misanthrope purchases wood at almost $40 a trunk full, which is generally enough wood for several weeks of short duration fires while watching a movie. Last week’s marathon fire made The Misanthrope realize that firewood is a luxury item. We burned through the entire pile by the end of the night. What if that was our only way of keeping warm? This is a long way of pointing out the insidiousness of inflation. Higher prices for everything are creeping up much more rapidly than government statistics reveal. The cost of almost any item one can think of has gone up, in many cases substantially. Meanwhile, economists discuss inflation in term of tenths of percentages, but we feel it in dollar and cents everyday. Unfortunately, the single parent working for a smidgen over minimum wage finds it harder and harder all the time. And what is government’s solution – tighten bankruptcy rules.

Innovative Art Idea. A Painting a Day on a Paintingblog by Duane Keiser is not only a creative idea, the paintings are rather nice. As his bio says, he lives in Richmond Virginia and he is striving to make a painting each day (and The Misanthrope thought writing everyday was challenging). He paints them on a modified cigar box as his canvas. We viewed his pieces and our favorite was the Baseball, of course, it and everything was already sold. The Misanthrope applauds Duane’s brilliant idea. Thanks boingboing.

Let it Rip. The Misanthrope just discovered the wonders of ripping music to the computer. We have burned CDs, but the idea of having the entire CD collection on the computer is a treat. We cannot wait to make our playlists. B2 has a number of songs on his computer, he accomplished this a while back. We could even consider an Ipod, if all goes well. The Misanthrope is certain the daughter will read this and immediately place her order, but the key word here is consider. But, The Misanthrope being slow to embrace new technology thinks it may be nice, but not essential, however it could be one of those necessary luxuries, until we consider the cost of everything (see Day-to-Day Luxury). In the meantime, ripping The Misanthrope's collection is another distraction from stacking the latest pile of firewood and planting the dying trees.