bye, loved it, thanks so much, best in the future for all

moving to blogger
annieroses
my rich inner life
http://annieroses.blogspot.com/2011/03/is-there-life-on-mars-goes-to.html

is there life on mars? goes to the smithsonian

as always traffic was terrible. when we finally got there, to the hold up I mean, there was only one lane open with four lanes converging, no wonder. do amphibians have traffic jams, do you think? I'll take the orange line to the smithsonian stop and we'll see what we will see. it's grey and overcast, but not windy, like the cherry blossoms a few years ago.

food here at the natural history cafe isn't half bad, which is more than I can say for the zoo. pity the poor pandas. I miss my 50% discount though, not to mention my diet taking a serious hit. the gemstones are located on the second floor so I'll go there next. those are my childhood favorites.

the gemstones were nice, but my special favorites, the green jade carvings, were not on display, probably in some curator's office. curators can be so selfish. a brief look at some colonial bones, forensic archeology is the new thing, very interesting, and then on to the mammals, the kids' request. I think my counterpart on the senior planet must be a schoolteacher, as they are all very young, and never seem to age.

amphibians think the whole mammal thing is very weird and hard to believe. reptiles find it a little easier to digest somehow. the museum didn't seem to reduce their skepticism any, nothing ever does. then on to the dinosaurs. it wouldn't be much of a visit without looking at the dinosaurs, now would it? all in all, a very pleasant afternoon.

sensing a lack of harmony
hearing a slight discord
reaching up my fingers to tighten
the strings gone sadly out of tune
so surprised to find fingers
reaching back at me

please we say lord and thank you
for all that you give
now please and thank you
are ringing in my ears
and echoing through my days

time and labour are the most fragile, the most perishable of commodities

my life is lettuce

only a few people work in food production these days, and only a few people trade goods and services directly to farm workers.  most people have jobs that have nothing at all to do with food.  yet most people expect to live in an economic system that lets them find an economic niche that lets them eat each and every day.

adjusting the tier one capital ratio may be a way of bridging the gap.  too low and a cold economy might leave food rotting in the ground and pickup trucks stuck in detroit.  

or maybe it's too high and all that hot money leaves a banker's son driving his new sports car into a tree while, amazingly and inexplicably, a fruit picker's child can barely afford shoes.

sadly, the federal reserve, so careful with the prime interest rate, was not so cautious with the tier one capital ratio.  or it could have been the treasury department that was so happy go lightly.

I remember when I learned to drive a stick shift, it was much harder than it looks.  all those knobs and gears and pedals need to be coordinated.  no throttle these days, but you still have to listen to the engine to time the shift.  there was a red light on that one hill, so humiliating.