So it was a Monday, and I could tell. It was pretty quiet at work today, which was nice…but in an odd way it’s also nice to have at least a small fire to put out on a Monday morning (just to jump-start the week). No such fire existed, so it was simply back to the mill.

Erik called me shortly before lunchtime and he ended up coming by the office to have lunch. It was a good time — something different for a change.

I ended up leaving work about a half hour early today because I hit one of those moments where I didn’t really want to get too involved with a new section in a project (only to have to stop and get going again in the morning). So knowing that avocados were on sale at Willie’s, I went and picked a few up with the intention of trying to make some guacamole — for the first time.

It didn’t turn out too bad, actually. I used a generic recipe and I was oddly pleased with the results. I don’t know that I’d use the same recipe again (it seemed to be missing something), but as I know now that it is possible to make reasonable guacamole at home…it will be worthwhile to look into more robust recipes in the future.

Kirstin was in a pretty good mood overall tonight. She goes through phases with her teeth bothering her, but she’s been really pretty good for the last several days. We’ve not had to give her Motrin prior to bedtime, so that’s been nice. But then again, her teeth have broken through (although not very far), so presumably the most painful part is over. I don’t know. We’ll see.

Minda called here tonight — and that was a good time. It’s always nice to talk to Minda and see how things are going. It’s not nearly like it was when she once lived directly below us, but it’s acceptable in a strange way. Although it’d be nicer to have her around more often…but that’s how life goes.

I managed to read a very poorly written argument today. To protect the ‘innocent,’ I won’t reveal the source of the argument (because its’ really not worthwhile), but basically the argument was very anti-illegal immigrant.

The basic premise: Signs should be in English since this is the United States of America.

First off, the US has no official language. Implied official, yes. Official official. No. This person linked signage in Spanish to ‘catering’ to the illegals.

Yeah. You read that right. Now, I’m all for having things in English. I don’t know Spanish, nor do I intend to learn. But having been to Canada enough, it’s not the end of the world to have signage in two languages. The Canadians don’t blame the ‘damn French’ for taking over their land (or vice versa).

So anyway, back to the story. He was taking pictures of signage in parks. He came across a park in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. The main side of the sign had information in Spanish, but the English-reading side had been defaced. Without providing any sort of proof at all, he automatically states that the minority of the Hispanic community (the ‘bad ones’) was responsible for the defacement.

WTF?

There was absolutely no information to even remotely back up this statement, aside from the fact that the park was in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. This sort of conclusion is ludicrous! While it’s entirely possible that a [subset] group of this local Hispanic community could be responsible, it’s just as likely that a completely different demographic/ethnic group were responsible.

I don’t claim to be the perfect, most moral person on the planet, but this sort of ‘racist’ material or implication just angers me beyond belief. And I call it racist because there’s simply no justification for making a claim like that without valid, relevant proof.

Anyway, that got to be a bit more of a rant than I wanted it to be, but it just goes to show that there are a lot of people out there stuck on their own ideology of ‘ethnic cleansing’ or purity when it comes to the country in which we live.

So that’s my bit for tonight. Since it’s getting late, I bid thee adieu. Until next time…

“The mistakes are all waiting to be made.”
– chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956) on the game’s opening position

–MZ