(no subject)

I hadn't commented on the gubernatorial primary before, but I'm glad (though surprised) that Deeds won. I think it's far more likely that he will get elected than McAuliffe (or even Moran), and that is important. I think he's going to resonate a lot more with Virginia voters in the general election that someone who's identified more with the farther-left portion of the party.And while I don't see Virginia as being a critical bellwether state, it's being hyped that way by a media that has temporarily run out of scandals and horse-races, so it's best to hold onto it if possible.

Plus I really think Deeds is part of the new attempt at bipartisanship, or at least less violently partisan politics, that is typified by many of the "new" Southern Democrasts and that Obama reached out for in his campaign. If we're going to survive the next 50 years with anything like a polity, this country needs to reject the bitterness that was the hallmark of the Republican Right over the last 8+ years and that some Democrats have been adopting. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, as the bumper stickers say.

50books: good lord, I'm really getting behind (in blogging them)

More books. ( Read more... )

itching and wheezing

I don't think I either drink so much or have cut back so much suddenly that I would be having the DTs, but I hardly know what else to make of it. Lately I've become plagued by a feeling of something tickling its way over my skin, or a sudden itching like a bug bite. At first I thought I might have picked up fleas from the pets of friends that go outside, but I very carefully survey the tickly itchy bits when the feeling comes up, and there's nothing there. I've lived in a house with fleas before (our dog used to get them every summer when I was a kid), so I know well what fleabites look like, and I don't have any. A few things here and there that look like spider bites (at least, that's what we always called them when I was a kid--like chiggers, but much, much smaller--BTW, did you know, all the stuff they always told us about chiggers getting under your skin and breathing through a hole that you could seal with nail polish: totally false! By the time you see a chigger bite, the chigger is long gone.) So, it's a mystery. I notice that after I shower and right after I wear clothes I've recently washed I get itchy, so I wonder whether it's something in the water. What could I possibly do if it is?

And lately on several occasions friends and acquaintances have remarked on my being out of breath, making a joke out of it but in a way that suggests that I exhibit extreme signs of respiratory distress. I know I'm a bit out of shape, but I'm kind of surprised that they seem to think I'm so alarmingly out of breath. It seems natural to me that one would be panting a bit after trotting briskly up several flights of stairs or running up a hill to reach a meeting one is late for. I'm always out of breath when I take the stairs at work (two sets of three flights from the ground floor to my office) and when I stride briskly up the stairs in the parking garage at the end of the day (three sets of two flights). Maybe I need to go get that lung x-ray after all...

OK, time for bed. Got to sleep before 1 on Monday, maybe I can get to sleep before 12.30 tonight...