Friday, November 03, 2006

Casa de Novo de Buckethead

Darwin Award ContenderJust So You Know

At some point in the next few weeks, Casa de Buckethead will undergo a change in venue.  The current CdB is a modest but comfortable split-level suburban home south of Alexandria, with a nice big yard and a friendly neighborhood.  It has been a pleasant place to live these last three years.  While my parents have been extraordinarily kind to let us live there (the house was once the home of my stepgrandfather) they need the money that the house represents to more fully retire.  Mrs. Buckethead and I considered purchasing the house ourselves – not least because it would mean dodging a move – but as we pondered what it is, exactly, that we want – we realized that in most respects suburban life is deeply unsatisfying to us.

Suburban life is at best an awkward compromise.  You have most of the crowding of living in a city, yet none of the convenience of being able to walk to restaurants, shops and, dare I say, cultural activities.  A big yard may be nice, but if you’re going to have to drive everywhere anyway, why not live in the country and have a really, really big yard?  City life is fast-paced, exciting, and even mildly dangerous.  I’ve done that, and liked it, even if it was a relatively small Midwestern city.  Yet now, I have a wife, two kids, a dog and between one and three cats.  I am arguably in my mid thirties, but just barely.  I have little desire to live in the city myself, and none whatsoever to subject my children to that.

One of the biggest objections to the country is the commute if you still work in the city.  But for the last year, I have found myself in the ridiculous position of commuting over an hour completely across the Washington Metro area twice a day.  Since my commute is that long, why not use that hour to get out into the country?  Further, I’ve been able to work at home more and more, which would ease the commuting burden.

So, the country.  Having made the decision to get out of the city, and not to buy another suburban house, we were still left with many questions to answer.  How far out?  What kind of house?  And then Mrs. Buckethead asked one more question.  A Zen kind of question, the sort that when answered rearranges your whole outlook.  She asked, “You know that dream house you’ve talked about – is there anyway we can build it?”


Posted by Buckethead on 11/03/06 at 06:24 PM
Darwin Award Contender • Just So You Know • Permalink

Drama at the Breeders Cup?

Entertainment

Could be, based on an article in today’s Philadelphia Daily News, entitled ”STUDLY DO-WRONGS“ (subtitled “Some horses are standing dud").

The question du jour seems to revolve around the mating proclivities of the winner of the 2002 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

Now, since I sincerely, deeply, aggressively, and completely don’t care about others’ sexual proclivities, not even if the “other” in question is a supposedly well-known evangelist I’ve never heard of, it was initially looking difficult for me to give this story more than a passing glance.

The author enlightens about the mating habits of certain equine special interest groups, like so:

Curiously, War Emblem has been less than a star in the breeding shed. In fact, he has been a colossal dud. Shipped off to stand stud at Shadai Stallion Station in Japan, he has impregnated only a handful of the hundreds of mares who have been led to him. The problem has less to do with fertility than with libido, which is to say War Emblem has been decidedly disinterested in the fair sex. Given that homosexuality is not uncommon in the animal kingdom, some have wondered if War Emblem had an eye for the boys. That very question was asked by Outsports.com: “Is War Emblem Gay?”

Well, I don’t know about you, but in the highly unlikely event I have some future question about the world of gay sports, outsports.com would now be my “go to” source. As an added plus, it’s clear that they’re not limited to serving the needs of the two-legged, as they clearly cover matters related to quadripeds, too. So I’ve learned something.  In addition, I’ve learned that even in horses, it’s apparently common to deem one sex “fairer” than the other.  Noted.

Any good article has a hook, of course, and I found mine in this bit:

The bottom line is that horses are not unlike human beings when it comes to sexual behavior, which is to say that it is varied, capricious and given to an array of unforeseen obstacles. In light of the big money involved, it can be an utterly exasperating undertaking, especially if you happen to discover that instead of the second coming of Northern Dancer, the horse you have standing at stud shows up one day wearing an ascot and humming show tunes.

After seeing that line, I read the rest of the article, and even though it reached its zenith at the show tunes jab, I found it an interesting use of those couple of minutes of my life that I’ll never see again. Irreverance, it seems, remains the preferred hook to get and keep my attention.

[Wik] Speaking of both irreverance and gay evangelicals I’ve never heard of, this bit from Ace of Spades, entitled ”Biggest Story Of The Century: Some Guy You Never Heard Of Is A Homo“


Posted by Patton on 11/03/06 at 05:25 PM
Entertainment • Permalink
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