Day 39

Taxes just mailed.  Airline ticket situation for flight to Houston/Puerto Rico soon to be resolved.  This morning is going to be about TCB.

In Herodotus last night I read a description of how the Egyptians catch and kill alligators.  It was similar enough to the way I described earlier in Swamp People that I want to find and excerpt the passage here.  According to Herodotus, the Egyptians, having pulled the alligator from the Nile, would smear mud on its eyes before they killed it.  Presumably that made it easier?  Except wouldn't getting the mud on the eyes be more difficult than just killing it outright?  Herodotus also relates that Egyptian prostitutes used to smear alligator dung on their faces to keep them looking young.  When it fell off, their faces collapsed into looking old again.  On the other hand, they no longer stank of dung.  So, it kind of evened out.

I watched Obama's budget speech yesterday afternoon; not intending to watch the whole thing, I found myself sucked in.  He was a little vague on some of the details (we're cutting Social Security and the Military, but I'm not sure how) but overall I found it impressive.  Maybe not the plan so much as him.  He seems like an adult, maybe.  That may not sound like much, but a fair number of his contemporaries often do not.  (On both sides of the aisle.)  I trust him, I guess.  I don't see how anyone will beat him in 2012.  There's talk now Trump will run.  First Palin, then Trump.  What has happened to the Republican Party?

Ah well.  California has its own problems.  I thought of them (well, some.  There are too many to think of briefly) while writing my check for my state tax payment.  After living in Texas so long, it always strikes me as an injustice to have to pay STATE income tax.  Especially when the state is as wasteful and incompetent as this one is.

The play deadline has been pushed back another month.  I will have done by then, however.  I will.  Act I--the real problem for the last few weeks--is finally starting to come into shape.  I've inserted a massive car chase right in the middle, and given all the characters lasers.  I think that's really helped pick things up.