Never was there a tale of more woe...

Than that of Michelle and her dryer-o.

I have been blessed with craptastic dryers my entire life. We didn't have one as a kid. All the clothes went out on the line. Which was fine with me, I loved to play tents out in the clothes. Except in the middle of winter, when they mostly just froze, and we had to hang them in the bathroom to let them thaw and finish drying.

I was 6 when we got our first dryer. It was so warm and toasty. I would just sit in front of it, and feel the warmth. That was my last good experience with a dryer. Now granted, most of it is my own fault. I did my own laundry as a teenager, and managed to shrink almost all of my clothes. Then, going to college, I don't know how many bras got stolen out of the dryers at the laundromat. But again, my own fault for not staying with my clothes. After marrying Dave, we used to take our clothes to a little laundromat down the road from us. One that was popular with creepy dudes. You never knew what you were going to find when you took your clothes there.

So you can see why, when Dave finally commissioned, and we moved into our first real house, with our first real washer and dryer, we were ecstatic. Too bad it left blue streaks all over our clothes. Wah-wah-wahhhh. That was when I swore off dryers. I went back to the clothesline of my youth. But when we moved out of that how, we got a new dryer, and it's convenience beckoned once more. And we had a pretty good relationship, me and that dryer. Until we moved again, and the top got smashed in. It still worked, but now it was damaged goods. Our new house came with a wonderful dryer, which worked beautifully, for all of 2 weeks. Then we were back to using our damaged dryer, which in addition to being dented on the top, now had a malfunctioning timer. You had to set a kitchen timer, and go turn the dryer off when the time was up.

Now we are in another house. And in addition to the dented top, and malfunctioning timer, the dryer has taken to shocking me every time I touch it. Yes, that's right, before it was satisfied with merely being annoying, now it has resorted to outright hostility. Oh, and it only gets hot when it's cool outside. If it's hot outside, the dryer refuses to work. Sigh.

We have plans to get a new washer and dryer when we get to California. However, I don't have high hopes. I've been hung out to dry one to many times...

(That was corny. Sue me.)

Creepy? Um... yeah.

So, during my shower today I was thinking about how sad I was that my new neighbor had died before I got a chance to get to know her. My landlord told me that she had been sick for a while, and it wasn't unexpected. But it's still kind of sad. But then I started thinking about the neighbor at our other house here in Dayton that had died. And then about our neighbor on base in Cali that had died. Then our neighbor off base in Cali that died. And I came to a sick and horrifying conclusion. In the past 6 years, we have lived in 4 houses. And at every house, a neighbor has died. No joke.

-California City House-

We moved in, we saw an old lady out a couple times, and then she was gone. Come to find out, she died in the house, and her son found her 2 weeks later.

Death number 1.

-Edwards AFB House-

Everything was fine while we were there, then the day we moved out, a Marine 2 houses down shot his wife and himself. They had just moved in.

Death numbers 2 and 3.

-Beech Tree Ct House-

An old lady across the street, died in her sleep one night. She had been really healthy, but one night, she just died.

Death number 4.

-Tomberg St House-

The nice older lady just next door died of cancer, within months of us moving in.

Death number 5.

To quote the Bhagavad Gita, "Now, I am become Death."

Please don't be my neighbor.

Watson's win doesn't scare me

So, some people are all freaked out about Watson winning at Jeopardy. Not me. Here's some background, just in case you aren't a Jeopardy freak, like me. IBM wanted to see if they could build a computer that could beat the two best Jeopardy players ever. Ken Jennings (the man I crushed on through out most of college) and Brad Rutter (a bastard). They made a big deal about all the other uses for Watson, but really, I think they just wanted to see what they could do, just to do it. Anyway, so Watson won... by a lot.

Now the internet is all weepy about the end of humanity... blah... blah... blah...

I disagree. Here's why. It's not that Watson won. Computers are smarter than people. I figured that out in 1996. It's HOW he won. He won by being a computer. The final Jeopardy question was, "this city's largest airport is named after a WWII hero, and it's 2nd largest is named after a WWII battle". Well, obviously, the answer is Chicago. Ken got it right, Brad got it right, and Watson got it WRONG. Now, he had $33,000, Brad had $5000, and Ken had $2400. Watsone only risked $900. ONLY $900. Watson doesn't know how to play the game. And that's why I don't fear for humanity.

There is so much more to being human than fact recall, or being able to answer questions, it's being able to risk it all. Watson wasn't able to grasp that what makes Jeopardy so great is that in the end, you roll the dice and no matter how much you calculate, you still might be wrong. Watson doesn't feel the adrenaline, he doesn't feel the pressure, he plays the same game whether he's sitting in your living room or in the studio. He doesn't care. And until a computer can feel an emotion, I think humans will remain the dominant life form on this planet. Because when it's all on the line, a human will risk everything, even in the face of overwhelming odds, and you can't win big unless you're willing to risk it all.

A computer can calculate the odds, but if the payoff is worth it, a human doesn't care, and the human spirit can't be calculated.

Drug Induced Rambling

So. I broke my back. Well, I fractured a vertebra. Doesn't that sound fun? Yeah, it's not. I was coming down the stairs, lost my footing and fell flat on my back. And apparently, when the edge of a stair hits a vertebra, it can crack it, leaving the person in agony for 2 days until they figure out that it's probably more than a bruise and ought to seek medical attention. Of course by then, we were in the middle of icepacalypse, so I slid down the driveway, twice. With a broken back. Lots of fun. And before icepocalypse, I went to Kroger with 3 kids for grocery shopping, with a broken back. I was pretty miserable the entire time, but it's kind of funny what you can accomplish when you convince yourself that you're just being a pansy. And I have a long history of this, like getting strep and just taking Motrin for 3 weeks because, "it's just a cold, you pansy!". Until the bacteria spreads to your eyes and you can't see. Most people get sick, go to the doctor, and get better. I get sick, yell at myself for being a pansy, then either get better, or get so bad I have to be forcibly taken to the ER. And even when that happens, I still usually feel like a pansy. Although, I will give myself some credit this time. I tried to go to the Doctor. I even made an appointment, but I couldn't find childcare so I just told myself I was being a pansy. That's what I get for trying to be normal. But I do get a sexy back brace and a lot of good drugs.

This icepocalypse is cray-cray! We lost a tree, but thankfully, it didn't hit anyone's house. And luckily, we have buried power lines so we didn't lose power. I know some people have had some crazy stuff go down at their houses, so I'm especially grateful we're snug in our house. Even if we can't leave it. Although honestly, I think Heavenly Father knows that I couldn't handle any more being thrown at me right now. *She said as the power went out, and a tree crashed into the roof*. Dave has even worked from home for the past 2 days, which has been super nice. We love having Daddy home, especially when Momma is most comfortable laying in her bed.

In other news, Dave got into Test Pilot School! Yay! Now we're moving back to Edwards. Yay. That will be weird, moving back to a place we've already lived. I've moved 30+ times in my 28 years, and I've never moved back anywhere. I'm just glad this time it will be for TPS, so we don't have to worry about where to live. And since we already did our time there, we probably won't be staying past a year. Hopefully we'll be headed to Florida. But there's always the Cold Lake assignment. That would be like icepocalypse from October to April. No thank you. But TPS is 11 months away, which is stupid. I hate knowing a year in advance that you're going to move. Been there, done that, and it blows. That's just way to much time to think about things. Especially if you're me, and have to plan. The good news is that we'll probably be out of our house this summer, so that gives me something to plan for within a reasonable time frame. Now we just have to finish fixing up the house to get it ready to rent. But that's one more thing on hold until my crack heals.

I have a lot of thoughts, but most of them are fueled by the drugs, so they don't make much sense. Some people say that narcotics make them feel all fuzzy in the head. They make my mind race. It's like it go 150 mph, then crashes and I sleep for 3 hours. I'm getting close to the crash. Which is not good because it's almost dinner time. Falling asleep while cooking is not a good thing. I've done it before, and I don't recommend it. I'm sure I'll have more drug induced thoughts later, but I'm not much of a writer so we'll see what makes it onto the blog.