We have had these fish for about fourteen years. Goldfish don't usually live this long. They have lived slightly longer than our previous two cats.(the kitties succumbed to the kidney issues of old age) I got them from the feeder tank at a local store. They cost 25 cents each. The white one has a crooked spine. The orange one is blind. They are less active than in their younger days but they still have a good appetite. They live outside, winter and summer. I never gave them names because I had had bad luck with named fish.

Just finished watching the Manchester City/Queens Park Ranger game. The EPL title was within Man City's reach but it looked like they were going to blow it. They were down two goals to one and QPR was putting so many bodies in the box you'd need a miracle or a tank to get through. But amazingly, Man City scored two goals in stoppage time to secure game and title. It was one of the most incredible endings to a sporting event I have ever seen.
Also, Joey Barton did his bit by getting red carded and proceeding to punch as many people as possible while being forcibly escorted from the pitch. (This must have brought a deep sigh of frustration from his psychiatrist.)
User pic note- Even though this shot is John Sim as The Master, I'm trying to refer to Sam Tyler who was a Man U fan. :-)

Yesterday was the annual spring open house at the University.  It used to be a family oriented,  picnic sort of thing where the students' parents would come up for a visit. But in recent years the obnoxious, drunken, party-till-you-puke crowd has taken over.  The local police department which usually has seven patrols per shift, has to be enlarged to one hundred officers for this one day.  I can't imagine any student who wants their parents to continue to provide financial support, would invite them to witness this spectacle. It would be bad enough in good economic times but given the state of the country and a trillion dollars in outstanding student loan debt one has to ask, what the hell is going on here?
 I'm not really interested in wading into the swamp of fear and loathing that the politics and economics of American public university education has become.  Suffice to say, as sacred cows go, this one is a very diseased animal. I'm more concerned with an entrenched culture of alcohol abuse.
Student drinking is a very old phenomenon.  If history is to be believed, university students have been making a nuisance of themselves in Oxford and the Latin Quarter of Paris for almost a thousand years.  We certainly have some of that traditional element. But there also seems to be something beyond and out of control in what we are witnessing these days.
To me it looks like people, who used to be looking to have a good time, are now desperate to have a good time. Having a few drinks and getting a bit of a buzz on will no longer suffice.  Drinking until you are seriously messed up is moving from a fringe activity to the mainstream.
 

I'm feeling very ambiguous about spring. It seems to be here. The sun is shining, it's getting a little warmer. But this has been such a long, cold winter, I was beginning to think it would never end. I feel like it has always been cold. I have forgotten there can be a world where you wear short pants and sandals. When the sun comes out, I immediately think, don't get used to it. It will shortly be grey and cold again. There is nothing unusual about being fed up with winter. But this year I feel beaten down, defeated by winter.

1. Husband has been very sick
2. Work has been very busy
3. Too tired to get anything together

I joined LJ years ago because I was dealing with a medical issue of my own. I didn't know if I would be in a position to maintain a web site anymore and this seemed so much easier. Also, if things went south, I'd have a place to say goodbye. I was a more open person then.
Now, instead of being a place to share, I'm seeing online presence as a place where one cooperates in the invasion of one's privacy. Instead of being a place where one socializes, it's a place where one is liable to get their pockets picked.
Or maybe I'm just being paranoid?

Earlier this month, someone very close to me was diagnosed with a very serious illness. Initially I was a bit numb with fear and shock. It was like I had made this little deal with life, do whatever you want to me as long as you don't hurt the people I love. But there was no such deal. It was just something I imagined out of a long stretch of relative peace and quiet.  
At first there wasn't much time to think, only figure out how to get from one day to the next. All the little distractions and petty hassles were pushed aside as we went into crisis mode. And when there was time to think, it was flooded with this longing for things to go back to the way they were before.  Fortunately, this little bit of self-torture faded.
If you live long enough, you become familiar with experiences like this. There is a border, a marker that you don't see until you have past into the new territory. You get a glimpse as it recedes behind you. You wonder will we be alright? Then you remember, yes, we will.