Rapt for the Rapture!

A lot has been written, posted, billboarded about today.  The day of purported Rapture.  It is now after 5 p.m.  I've been keeping an eye out all day, just in case.   My guy at Starbucks just informed me that it is supposed to occur at 6 p.m. today.  So I have about 40 minutes to write this!  It (being the Rapture) is all very fascinating.  Having been brought up in a non-religious household, I only really know about this event as quoted in Revelation of the Christian Bible and as reported to me by others.  I'm curious about several things.

First, when Rapture occurs, do our bodies leave this current existence along with our souls, or is it simply a matter of our souls leaving?  If it is the latter, there are going to be a LOT of empty bodies lying around for those "left behind" to clean up.   If it is the former, as some of my friends suppose, then yes, it will be a LOT easier to get around in the post-Rapture world.  No lines at the check out.  No lines waiting to get in anywhere.  And it should make driving in formerly congested metropolitan areas a breeze!  Funnily enough, well over 80 percent of my friends are expecting to be "here" after the Rapture.   Obviously the delights of congestion-free living far outweighs the possible delights of the Rapture for them.  I kind of agree with them, though I am firmly waiting to see what if anything happens.   I've got 30 minutes according to Starbucks guy.

There's also the possibility, you know, that the Rapture has been happening in stages.  It could very well be that the man who predicted the Rapture in 1994 was indeed correct!  If you take the premise that the Rapture's happening in stages, it is very possible that a good chunk of the human population disappeared back then. After all, that was before the worldwide coverage of the internet and smartphones and the "no place to hide" world that we have today.   17 years ago it is very possible a large number of people could have been "risen" without the rest of the world knowing. 

So, that could have been Stage 1.   Today, could be Stage 2.    And even tho' it is more tricky to get people "disappeared" these days (as any visiting aliens may have discovered), there are still some remote areas of the world where electronic communication coverage does not exist.   Stage 3 could very well be December 12, 2012 - the end of the Mayan calendar.  Though what the Christians were doing talking with the Mayans - who knows?  At the very least, the Rapture is a fun distraction from the throes of human living.

On the other hand, if it happens, and I'm one of the chosen, and you still have the internet, and you don't hear from me.  Well, it's been fun.  If it happens, and I'm still here afterwards, I'll be curious to see what happens next.   Cheers!

Thank Goodness for Sex Scandals!

Why? They're so titillating, interesting and as long as we're not the named parties, so much fun to watch all the press coverage, and judgment lobbed at these people.  The government must be thrilled to have so much sex on headline news these days.   Well, sex and extreme weather - not that they go together or anything.  The government thrilled?  Why yes.

Sex and weather and reality tv shows.  They've become great distractions from gas prices that are reaching $5/gallon; a national government which is threatening to go into bankruptcy; a national debt which is mind-bogglingly huge;  continued profits by the very companies which inflicted us with a severe recession;  increased layoffs by city and state municipalities; food prices which are spiralling upwards so that some folks can't afford to eat, much less travel to work to pay for the food they can't afford.

The reality tv shows - be they the soap operas of the rich, dance shows, singing shows, dating shows, "how low will you debase yourself for money" shows are all reminiscent of the dance marathons and competitions of the 1930s' Great Depression.  The big difference being that instead of a Dust Bowl, our poor Mid-West is partially drowned and very soggy.  It's also a little like the Romans and their Coliseum.  Keep the public distracted, throw various, carefully selected people to the media outlet wolves. 

I am all for entertainment, and sex certainly sells.  I just wish someone was making more of a concerted effort to see the real life challenges before us - and come up with some concrete, workable plans to alleviate the public's cost of living in today's world.  Distractions do work for a little while - just like sex.  But after that - what next? 

A Morning of Mulch

Yesterday morning, I joined a number of other intrepid souls to help cleanup the center of our little city.  The cleanup basically encompassed picking up trash, loosening dirt underneath sidewalk trees and around the flowering ivy planted underneath, and adding lovely, new mulch.  Mulch is the landscaper's cure-all to making a garden look fresh for Spring. Our scope was limited only by the amount of donated mulch, willing hands and patches of earth. 

The former city center has been hard-hit by economic reverses, the move of the city hall across the river, and the police station to the south end.  Esp. with the recession, there has been a steady loss of  business here, and even the City doesn't seem to be interested in looking after it.  So we did.  Happily, it's not an ugly area.  There's just a lot of litter and somewhat neglected plantings and trees.  All the volunteers brought tools, gloves and muscle.  In return, the organizers brought mulch, litter picker uppers and bags in which to put aforesaid litter.

The donated mulch was fabulous.  There were about 20 large bags for us to use, and we used them all!  The only drawback was that the bags were as stiff as boards!  The bags of mulch must have been at the bottom of a great pile, because not only were they hard with compression, there were ice granules in the middle of each!  Made carrying them about really hard.  I gave up trying after a while, and let the guys show off their superior strength while I made helpful suggestions as I picked up litter. :) 

One of the men, Ted, turned out to have a way of breaking up the blocks of mulch with his bare hands.  Most impressive.  He said they were really cold.  I didn't believe him.  They were!  There was ice in there!  Then he reminded me that way, way back in the early 20th century blocks of ice used to be kept in wood shavings for delivery to home iceboxes.   The wood shavings kept the blocks of ice from melting before they were delivered.   The joys of early refrigeration.  Who knew? 

After about 3 1/2 hours of tidying, mulching, digging, raking and entertaining passing pedestrians, we retired to a local restaurant/coffee shop for some well-earned food, discussion and rest.  Not only was the work satisfying to our souls, it also gave all of us the chance to hang out with some cool folks.  Afterwards, yes.  The mulch really does make the plots of land around the young trees look nice.  And hey, a litter-free street.  Looked really great.  So.  I am a new advocate for the judicious use of fresh mulch in the Spring (and strong hands to break it up if it's frozen!).

 

Magic Sunglasses

I drove to the park the other day to get a solid walk in without neighborhood Andrettis threatening my well-being or choking me with diesel exhaust fumes.  The sun was shining, the sky was blue with a number of wispy clouds floating overhead, and the temperature was perfect.  As I drove in to the parking area, I happened to glance up, and nearly fell out of the car. 

Up in the sky was the most delightful smear of cloud reaching from one side to the other, full of color.  It's not a rainbow, it was a huge smear of color.  The greens, amythests and yellows were all reminiscent of the delicate colors found in fluorite crystals.  Yet they were strong enough to stand out against the sky.

This particular cloud was different from those around it.  It was the only one with color.  I looked all over.  No.  This one was special.  It was as though a fragment of the northern aurora borelis had torn off, and been blown down to my part of the world.  It was very delicate, yet the colors were distinct and beautiful.  I was curious though why only I seemed enchanted with this sky display.  There were lots of folks about, the weather guaranteed that.  But no one seemed to see the colors.   After all, many folks will stop for a rainbow, why weren't they stopping for this colorful cloud? 

Could it simply be my sunglasses?  So I removed them.  Instantly, the depth of color disappeared.  The color was still there in the cloud, just very faint.  Actually, they didn't disappear totally, it's just that whatever "they" do to sunglasses to protect our eyes, magnified and deepened the colors present in the cloud.   Sunglasses back on, the colors reappeared! Cool!  On, off.  On, off.  Magic glasses! 

Just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating - after all, anything's possible. :)  I asked a woman walking by in her sunglasses if she saw the colors.  She looked up, and stopped dead.  She had magic glasses, too!  Then when I explained, she peeked without her glasses and confirmed that the colors faded away.  The colorful cloud stayed around for a while, then gradually shredded away into the blue sky.

So there you have it.  Sunglasses are magic.  At least, mine were on Friday.  Beautiful.