Post Thanksgiving

So it's the day after Thanksgiving. I'm using Mary's iMac and missing those Blogger interface controls in Safari. Tara is on the treadmill behind me, watching the first Smallville episode with headphones on big plasma. Dawn is in the kitchen, teaching Mary about Buddhism's Four Noble Truths. Mary is an ER physician, and is the daughter of my grandmother Esther's sister Elsie's daughter Eve. We'll be taking off here shortly. The plan is to head for that Paul Allen rock and roll museum at Seattle Center, near the Space Needle. I expect it'll be crowded. None of us has ever been before. I uploaded my Thanksgiving pix via USB to iPhoto.

I spent much of the morning browsing Norm Stamper's Breaking Rank, his autobiographical insider analysis of policing in turn-of-the-century Gotham (e.g. Seattle, San Diego). He gives the unions some heat for shielding incompetence. If our society had a stronger homeschooling and community college safety net, i.e. if job loss weren't such a threat to basic survival, then it'd be easier to let go of those most in need of a new profession (many politicians included). A lot of people end up in jobs for which they're ill suited, and society pays a high price for that. I expect it'd be worth the collective costs to purge ranks in many walks of life -- think of it as a vast student exchange program. Unions would be more like professional guilds of old, upholding high standards and keeping their reputations for excellence well deserved.

Later the same day: At EMP, I learned Jimi Hendrix attended the same high school as Mom (Garfield High in Seattle). The SciFi museum was pretty good, especially if you're able to read English, but even if not. I'm home after driving about 600 miles since Tuesday. We reunited with our pets, I unpacked and installed the new Qwest modem for faster DSL. Dawn and Tara, inspired by the museum, are watching Star Wars V. Catching up on snailmail, email (over 3.4K spams) and news.