Eight Feet Deep

The Earth has been known to eat its own but things are getting out of hand. A mere 30 miles west of where I sit is a large sinkhole that threatens to devour the entire city of Daisetta, Texas, and perhaps will swallow up Houston if we’re real lucky.

The local daily catches the excitement of the hungry phenom with this comment:

“We haven’t had this much excitement since that lady down the street killed her grandson,” Paula Collins told The (Beaumont, Texas) Enterprise, referring to a murder that happened two years ago not far from where police cruisers again are assembled en masse, this time enforcing a barricade.”

Personally, I would have liked better a quote saying: “We haven’t had this much excitement since the hogs ate little brother.” All of which reminds me of a quaint saying that I heard this morning which I hadn’t heard in years while watching The Beverly Hillbillies. Granny told the fetching Ellie May to do something and she asked: “What fer?” Granny replied: “Cat’s fur to make kitten britches.” All of which has nothing at all to do with the growing sinkhole of Daisetta.

The biggest question I have other than what to eat tonight is what will they do with the sinkhole once, and if, it stops growing? Perhaps it can be used for a subterranean kitten britches factory. Or maybe it will remain just a big, deep hole. Either way, if it eats Houston it will have the gratitude of a lot of people. Although I will miss the Astrodome.

It is really staggering to think about the number of deaths from catastrophes such as the cyclone that hit Myanmar or the great tsunami of 2005. It seems like wherever extremely poverty-stricken people gather en masse they sooner or later get wiped out by huge storms or other acts of nature. To a lesser extent in numbers of lives the same could be said about residents of trailer parks. A cynic much greater than I — if you believe he or she exists — would say that perhaps these people are getting punished for being so poor.

Of course, poverty does play a big part in why so many die in these events. They are overpopulated for various reasons. They live in close proximity with each other in great numbers. They are usually deprived of the technology or modern systems which could get them safely evacuated. So when **it hits the fan these poor folks find themselves being naturally depopulated.

It will be interesting to see if the great brain trust which heads the Myanmar government will allow aid in from the U.S. and our military. We can only hope so because a lots of folks need help and fast.

Thumbs are, in the human realm, a pretty important item to have in the anatomical tool box. Thus spake Wikipedia:

“The thumb, unlike other fingers, is opposable, in that it is the only digit on the human hand which is able to oppose or turn back against the other four fingers, and thus enables the hand to refine its grip to hold objects which it would be unable to do otherwise. The opposable thumb has helped the human species develop more accurate fine motor skills.”

And when we speak of motor skills, we don’t mean the ability to tear down and rebuild a GTO engine. But, I mean, for some that is a perfectly good skill.

When one’s digits are unavailable either permanently or temporarily, as my right thumb is the latter, one can more thoroughly appreciate the digit’s value. A few weeks ago I stupidly stumbled and came to rest for a microsecond on my right palm. Luckily, this occurred on the job or else I probably would still be waiting to see a VA specialist. But instead I did go to a Doc In The Box and later to a bone and joint clinic where a specialist said my thumb was sprained. He also said: “Something, something else,” and even more of something else regarding the possibility of one day needing surgery. Yikes!

Nonetheless, I have to wear this wrist brace for another couple weeks and it is going to continue making for very frustrated typing because the extra weight from the brace often violently reacts with various light keyboard keys and all kinds of things happen such as muffing your passwords to losing whole blocks of text.

So while I have now written a good bit I think that I shall stop lest I lose what I have here. I don’t know why I have just written what I have written. Perhaps it’s therapy or maybe it is tempting fate.

Or maybe I am just a geek. There are all sorts of possibilities out there.

If rainy days and Mondays really brought Karen Carpenter down then she would have been truly bummed out today where I am in Beaumont, Texas. That is because, one, it’s raining and it is also Monday. But alas poor Karen, we barely knew you.

Not to beat a horse but the terrible involving Eight Belles Saturday at the Kentucky Derby was definitely a bummer. She had run a good race and might have won had not Big Brown been such an awesome specimen of horse flesh. One could only wonder how horrible it would have been had Eight Belles won and then broke her two ankles and had to be put down.

Does it seem I am going for a theme here? Things on a rainy Monday to really bring you down. Here is definitely a downer: Oil at $225 a gallon?

If I had just trusted my instincts and stayed in bed this morning when I first heard it raining …

I will be quick today. I am off work today and trying to get a few things done. My typing hasn’t been too groovy the last couple of days anyway. I got a new brace for my thumb yesterday and I am having a difficult time getting used to the feel of it on a keyboard. I don’t know why because it is identical to the first brace I got about two weeks ago.

In one of those freak accidents, I tripped over the sidewalk while working and fell, catching myself with my right palm while keeping hold of my work laptop. The Doc In A Box I went to said it was only a bruise but it kept hurting so I went to an orthopedic type yesterday who said it was a sprained thumb so I got to keep this brace on for another three weeks. I suppose I will finally be comfortable with the brace by the time I stop wearing it.

A good weekend to all.