Sunday Morning

A new day has arrived…and I’m just a little bit sore from my efforts at the Bidwell ½ Marathon yesterday. Or maybe it was what I was doing after the marathon. I had promised Gary to help him load some books after the rummage sale at the fairgrounds. I thought he said to meet him at 2, but when we arrived, we learned that the sale wasn’t over till 3 and Gary was nowhere in sight. So we decided to box up all of the books and then we were pressed into service (politely) to help with the dismantling and folding up of tables and other items. To be truthful, I had a premonition this was about to happen, but I ignored it. When we first walked up to the building, I noticed a group of 4 women, struggling to load a stove onto a pickup truck. I told Laurae, “Oh, oh…don’t look over there. I don’t want any part of that!” Of course, as soon as we entered the building someone said, “Look. There’s a man. Maybe he can help us…” And I was soon engaged in stove moving. It was all downhill from there. For the first half hour I was the only man in the building and fair game for anyone who needed heavy lifting done. I learned later, from Gary, that the men would only show up after 3…OK, lesson learned.

My news aggregator has been working hard all night and there are dozens of interesting stories to read.

• A strong storm is expected to bring heavy rain and possible flooding Sunday in Northern California…

• David Hibbett goes to California, buys marijuana, mails it to himself in Hawaii, the cops put a tracker into the box, follow him, then bust into the wrong house, and arrest the wrong couple, in the process of doing this, they injure a man who is using a walker…

• Reuters - The U.S. military in Iraq said on Sunday media reports that America and Britain planned to pull all troops out of Iraq by spring 2007 were "completely false," reiterating that there was no timetable for withdrawal...

• Pressure mounted Sunday on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to give up his bid for a new term amid anger over a recent surge of sectarian killings that have complicated already snarled negotiations on a new Iraqi government...

And of course the news is filled with Oscar stories. And I still don’t get it. The Oscars are awards given by the industry to the industry. Why are we supposed to be interested? Brokeback Mountain is supposed to be the most popular film this season and in line to receive an Oscar for Best Picture. How did it become so popular? Hype. Voting for Best Picture? I vote with my wallet and that’s still the best way. Oddly enough, I just bought a movie that I have always loved, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and it was directed by Ang Lee, the director of Brokeback Mountain.