Year of The Rabbit, Season of the Witch

Today marks the second day of the new moon, and the first day of the Chinese new year. It's the year of the Rabbit, which apparently means things will settle down a bit. Actually, I tend to think that will vary from person to person, but perhaps they're thinking in a broader sense. Last time I looked, Egypt isn't very well settled in. Our hopes go with them, that things will indeed settle down. Seems people do excel at looking at differences between each other- any reason to kill someone else. The human brain is arranged like that- when we see a brain, we see generally a big gray wrinkly mass- this is the cerebral cortex, the highest (literally and figuratively) center of human cognition. Spread across this wrinkled surface are billions and billions of neurons- the wrinkles are there to increase surface area- think of it as taking a big sheet of paper and wadding it up- same surface area, smaller volume needed to contain it. Below this is the animal brain, the amygdala. Most instincts come from here, as do patterns that don't require conscious thought. This brain structure is mirrored in animals, curiously enough. Below that, of course, is the brainstem. This is kind of the engineering section of the nervous system- here as well as below in the spinal cord are reflexes, such as pulling one's hand away when it gets burned. (this, it's been speculated, are due to the fact that nerve impulses have a shorter distance to travel). Here also are your autonomic body functions- blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, cellular metabolism, to some degree, and overall non-voluntary functions.

The point of this being, I find it interesting that our intellect is 'highest' in our brains, while our animalistic and violent tendencies, as well as food foraging and gratification instincts, are in the part of our brains mostly animal. If we did evolve, it looks like our brains kind of added on, like an old farmhouse- from the older, more primal areas there were added a massive cortex, capable of thousands of thoughts in the blink of an eye. Which one we use, it seems, is still up to us.

Today was a pretty interesting day, I finally managed to get the car unstuck, with much smoking of tires and at some point a cracked radiator. How this happened, I don't really know, I had never seen the like before. I've seen radiators split, or the coolant reservoirs or supply lines split, but that's usually wide open, resulting in engine failure. This was a smallish crack, resulting in a stream of coolant leaking out- like most liquids, antifreeze expands when heated, and found a convenient way to let off pressure, all over the ground and the engine. So, one dose of epoxy later, the crack is sealed up, though this will continue to represent a major weak point in the coolant system. Under ideal circumstances, I can swap out radiators with my old Ford and keep on chugging. Luckily I caught that before the pressure pushed the crack out even further, though. Hopefully there are no stray cats out there tonight, as they seem to have a taste for antifreeze. Antifreeze is also a potent neurotoxin, and I hear the convulsions it causes are quite painful. So don't drink it, guys and gals.

Apart from that, not much has been shaking lately. It was too cold to start most of the trucks, so we went out bopping around with a Tesla box (I've never heard the actual name of these, but that's what we call them). It's basically a big battery with jumper cables on it, designed to jump massive truck batteries. It works fairly well, actually. And the battle rages on between the 'higher-ups', as they're called, and us motor pool grunts. The higher ups tell us one thing, and we then proceed to follow the letter of the law... It reminds me a bit of that old fairy tale about the girl who was under a curse of obedience- whatever she was told to do, she had to do without fail. At some point, she figured out that she could kind of subvert the system; the cook told her to go get almonds- she does, one in each hand. Sometimes it's the small victories that get us through the day. Unfortunately, lacking any other productive use for our considerable talents, we have to go all F-Troop on their collective behinds. So be it, I still get paid the same.

My roommate is either in or on his way to the great state of Texas, for a much-needed (and much-earned!) vacation. Good for him! Strange how quiet the place is with only one of us knocking around here. But though I admit to a good deal of stress lately, I've found the ability to laugh and find humor in my situation again, and feel a joy I can't quite put a name to. Not bouncing-off-the-walls happy, (I have medication for that) but rather a kind of peace- the situation is really not that bad- could be worse, could be better. But it's my situation, and I'll do the best I can with it, and in the end, go to sleep at night knowing no man could have done more.

Complete non sequitur time- the antifreeze I put in my car bears a strong resemblance to the reagent used in the Reanimator movies. I don't know if it's a good idea to attempt to reanimate the dead with it, though. I bet they'd run well in any temperature, though. Besides, I really don't want to be 'that guy', who precipitates a zombie apocalypse. Come to think of it, there must be something about green fluid that brings dead people back to a semblance of life-the Return of The Living Dead movies had Trioxin 245, originally used as an herbicide, later discovered to be highly volatile and fatal to humans, who then came back to life as zombies, as well as having dead-resurrecting properties. Also a green liquid, though usually in a gaseous state at normal temperatures.
Well, probably not a good idea to use antifreeze or any other poisonous chemical for anything other than its intended purpose. (Safety disclaimer). I've heard horror stories of hardcore alcoholics drinking antifreeze when a more potable avatar of ethanol was not available. Death inevitably results. So where am I going with this? I don't remember, I must have antifreeze on the brain lately, ha ha. Well, the upside is it keeps the car running. This could be useful, as apparently Oklahomans are now preparing for Armageddon- the universal message I received from my coworkers- stay away from Wal Mart. Traffic has inexplicably increased a hundred times over, perhaps due to the large number of accidents popping up. This in part is due to no snowplows (...) but also to just plain bad driving. Does it make sense to gun your four-wheel drive-bigger-than-my-ego truck right out of a dead stop? No, predictably whichever tires lose traction go swinging wildly about, resulting in, yep, you guessed it, no control of the vehicle whatsoever. Results are predictable. But then, there is hope for the spring, if not better drivers.

Well, don't drink the antifreeze, Mad Dog, Night Train or Thunderbird (believe me brothers and sisters, it ain't the word), and stay well.