Winter is Upon Us

     Yesterday (Monday the 21st), was the WInter Solstice:  the shortest day of the year.  From here on out, the days begin to lengthen again, so in a very real sense, Solstice, and not January 1st, marks the 'beginning of the New Year'. 

     I had planned a nice little Solstice celebration, complete with burning a small Yule log in our portable firepit, but the weather had other ideas:  it rained!  Fine!  So I came inside, and turned on my battery-operated, cat-safe "candle," and drank a glass of egg nog.  Gotta be flexible!

     As the year winds down, and we all reflect on where we've been and where we're going, I thought I'd finish my blogging for the year with some stray thoughts to clean up some mental 'loose ends' as it were...enjoy my rambling nonsense:

     It occurs to me that every time I think of some new trend in inventions, someone beats me to it--probably because I don't have the means (or know-how, in many cases) to design and create a prototype, and finagle my way through the legal hurdles of copyrighting said idea.  None of these things have anything to do with crafting, so I present them here simply as entertainment.

      I do follow auto circles to some extent, and I enjoy watching races.  I've also followed the development of solar, and seen the very bulky solar-powered cars that race through the Australian outback.  The biggest drawback to solar always seems to have been the inordinate weight imposed by all the battery packs required.

     My thought, going back several years, has always been, "Why not have the photo-voltaic solar cells just drive the motor directly, and eliminate any need for batteries?!"  Lo and behold, on TV yesterday, there it was!  My idea, come to fruition!  Oh, man!  (Slaps self on forehead.)

     One of my previous such frustrations includes, "If we can put men in space, and return them to earth without being 'cooked' on re-entry, then why can't we make a toaster that doesn't get hot on the outside?!"  Sure enough, a few years later, there they were:  cool-touch toasters!

     I'm going to stop voicing my ideas--someone must be stealing them!  ;-)

     Next, I'm going to actually invent something for my cats.  Purrhaps it will let me reclaim my bed at night!  Hee hee hee...oh, I forgot:  the cats allow us to share their bed!

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     I have the solution to the country's economic mess:  just print more money, and pass it around!  Hee hee!  Our money isn't backed by the silver standard anymore.  It really is not worth much more than the paper on which it's printed.

     So, just print up a cool million for every citizen over the age of 18, and they will all go out and buy stuff, or pay off bills, and the economy will be all better!

(Well, I can dream, can't I?--I warned you, today's blog was for entertainment purposes.  Please don't take me seriously today!)

     Hmm..you know, it's not just the end of a year, but the end of a decade. We're now all 10 years older! HA! I just had to bring that up, didn't I?!  (Ducking)

     In one of my modes, I am a stand-up comic:  I used to belong to a comdey improvisation troupe.  If you have ever watched "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?" on TV's Comedy Channel, you've seen the kind of thing I was into.  In fact, I'll tell you a little secret, here.  "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" actually began as my stage name!  I liked it, and decided to keep it as my online personna.

     Sadly, there is no such group where I now live, and I miss it greatly.  It was a lot of fun...and sometimes, I just run in that mode, and my online friends and acquaintances reap the "benefits."  Some of them may not realize I'm just being a wiseass...a professional wiseass, at that.  ;-)

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     And with that, I'll close out this blog for 2009.   May you all have a very Happy Holiday, whatever one you celebrate, and a prosperous New Year!