All good things eventually come to an end

Well okay, I'm not sure if I should classify this as a good thing or not.  But yesterday I withdrew from a discussion forum in which I have been a member since it began 20-something years ago.  When it started, we were still doing email on something called Pine....which I bet 99% of people reading this will have no clue what that might be.  This was the internet and email pre-gooey interface.  However you spell that.  I'm having a bad spell day today.

Lately the group has been beset by what my son (who is 20-something) calls trolls. They have spoiled the enjoyment of the discussion for a lot of the group members, and yesterday they just got so insanely vituperative against someone I consider a friend, I pulled the plug.

I decided some time ago that I don't need that kind of negativity in my life, and I've taken steps to eliminate a lot of the more negative people and things I had been dealing with.  This group, though, I have given many, many "second chances," and I am kind of sorry to see it come to this end.  BUT....I see no valid reason they went off on my friend like they did, and they have done this same thing repeatedly over the last couple of seasons.  It's no use trying to say anything, that only opens me to attack, as well.  I don't need that kind of nastiness in my life. Especially since there is no reason for it.

I'm trying to figure out my reaction to shutting these people out of my life.  I not only signed off the list, I also deleted all the 9,000-something old posts that had accumulated in my email inbox over the past several years.  It's done, finito, fini.  Das ende. 

It's not withdrawal I am feeling.  I think it's disappointment.  Disappointment that a group of people who came together because they all purportedly love the same thing could turn so ugly.  My faith in the inherent goodness of people is a little shaken, I guess.  I'm not liking that feeling.

OTOH, I will get over this, and I will survive.  And life will get more positive, because I just deleted a large black cloud from my sky.

Picture of the day

Yes, we're sorta back to that.  It's a grey, gloomy day, even the dog didn't want to go far, so we walked around the block, and visited the river.  It's one of those days when the sky is about the same color as the water, and they kind of merge together if not for the bridge, which I've gotten used to, but still don't especially like.  I much prefer the old bridge, it had character.  The new one is just new.  That's about all I can say for it.

So here's the picture, just shrunk a tad to get rid of the trash/recycle can:

I didn't really check to see if my horizon is straight.  Looks pretty straight to me, but then, I took it with the phone, and those tend to come out pretty straight.  Probably because my nose doesn't get in the way....I've got a pretty big one, as noses go.

I think I prefer the river in the winter, same way I prefer the beach in the winter.  No people, just nature.   It looks better to me that way.

Here's the old bridge, shortly before they tore it down to build the new one:

This was taken from about the same place, but with a real camera, and the zoom lens.  Doesn't hurt that the sky was beautiful that day, just about twilight.

Funny thing about being here.  It's the same view all the time (which is not a particularly bad thing), but it looks totally different on any given day.  Progress happens, in the form of a new bridge, or changes to the houses, or whatever, but the river is always pretty much the same, except that it wears a different color every day, and sometimes several different colors in the same day.  If I changed that often, I'd have to spend my life doing laundry.  Nature is much more efficient that way.

It's the economy, stupid

Or is that the stupid economy?  Or is it simply that our expectations have been so inflated that we expect miracles in a time when miracles no longer happen?

Case in point:  look closely at the photo, which I scanned from an ad I received last week from a certain store where I shop once in a while.

It's the Christmas special on the latest Barbie-mobile.  A VW Beetle.  In pink, of course.

When I was a kid, back in what now seems to have been the golden age, Barbie drove a Corvette.  Back then, real people could afford to drive a Corvette, they weren't any more costly than the average family sedan.  Now, you have to be one of those 1%-ers to even consider a Vette, nevermind feed one.  I looked it up.  The 2012 Vettes appear to start at an MSRP just a hair's breadth short of $50k, and run up to the Centennial Edition ZR1 at a whopping $127,970.  Plus tax and title.  And then there's the insurance.

No wonder Barbie is getting a Beetle.

A few weeks ago, I was standing in a will-call line at the Washington National Opera, waiting to pick up my free dress rehearsal passes.  The woman behind me in line was bemoaning the fact that she'd had to trade in her Vette, and settled for a mere Infinity, in her view a major slide down the social ladder.  From the way she was dressed, I would've sworn she was one of those 1%-ers.  Maybe even they are feeling the pinch, just a bit.

But the tragedy of Barbie driving a Beetle is being difficult for me to get over.  My youthful dreams have been shattered.  Barbie is part of the disappearing middle class!  What's left for little girls to aspire to?