Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Weather reports - past, present, future

Last evening of spring.

It seems summer intends to do that "in like a lion" thing - the National Weather Service forecast for Sacramento says
Saturday through Sunday night: Clear. Highs 102 to 110.
(Grass Valley* is scheduled to be a mere 94 to 104)

We at NCFocus are commemorating the change of seasons by being a curmudgeon.

Engaged in the obligatory annual Bluegrass Vegetation Sunday afternoon, catching the rays and decibels at the Father's Day Bluegrass Festival at the fairgrounds. View looked like this:
[Father's Day Bluegrass Festival in Grass Valley, 2006]

Be grateful, be very grateful, that I am too much of a luddite to have sound on my blog; you are thereby spared the incessant talk and giggles emanating from this:
[Father's Day Bluegrass Festival irritants (and karma) in Grass Valley, 2006]
which continued through the breaks
and through the MC's introductions
and through the upbeat songs
and through the applause
and through the quiet songs
and through my attempts at tactfully making clear the inappropriateness of said behavior.
(but finally taking the photo did seem to help)

I had an English teacher once, who reportedly improved the behavior of a talker at a classical music concert, by leaning over and thunking the offender's head while encouraging silence, but his is an approach best taken under cover of darkness.

I was thinking though...at the festival, would it be legal to carry a concealed weapon? Say, a small, loaded squirtgun; and 'reward' the offending behavior with a mysterious fluid?
(taking care, of course, to maintain one's rapt attention on the stage when the perp-turned-victim looks around for the source)

it's only a thought experiment, but I'd be curious to hear your feedback.


(disclosure: at their age I did the same thing, so it is karma, to be subjected to it now.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you ask the source of your ire to be more considerate?

Anna Haynes said...

See "my attempts at tactfully making clear the inappropriateness of said behavior."

And "ire" is way too strong a word for what was mixed irritation(80%) and amusement(20%).
(Just an FYI, Michael, I won't be hosting the oppositional-defiant stuff. You're on a tight leash)

Got a blog yet? What's its URL?

give my best to Debra -
Anna

Anna Haynes said...

A clarification, for this blog's more hys^H^H^Hexcitable readers -
the "mysterious fluid" remark was a harkening back to days of yore when a band of squirtgun-wielding thugs and thugettes made the rounds at a summertime Nevada City parade or two. And in summer, the water in a squirtgun warms up. And if one is then squirted, but does not see the squirter, one can think - as at least one did - that one has been peed on by a dog, in which case being squirted is not a refreshing experience.

I've felt bad ever since, for not having taken a moment to explain.

Anna Haynes said...

...and Michael, I would still like to meet with you.
(I've sent an email & left a msg on your home phone saying so; hope you received one or both, since I didn't hear back.)

Fear not; local conservative folk who talk with me describe the encounter as "unremarkable", "civil and colorless", "courteous, civil...", and - what did the most recent one say? - "very productive" or words to that effect.

Also - see Bob Crabb's *excellent* "It Takes A Village Idiot" today - there's a lesson there.
It's not healthy to stay cooped up behind one's keyboard; we learn a whole lot more if we get out and talk to people.

(which could explain why some don't want to talk...)