I can’t build a whole body today. None of my thoughts are gelling into a whole post. Speaking of which, EW used that word this week and spelled it “jelling”. Huh.
1.Aunt B. has a good post today about the Myth of the Reasonable Discussion. It’s about the immigration thing and it is in refutation to a post by Kleinheider, the thesis of which seems to be that if some people would just calm down a little bit we could make some progress on the immigration debate. Now, as a person who HATES emotional appeals in arguments (even when I make them, as in the health care stuff) I kind of get where Kleinheider is coming from. But I still can’t get around the fact that certain things DO make people emotional. Such as being told you aren’t worthy or welcome. Or as good as someone else. Yes, over the years I’ve found myself modifying my stance on immigration. That’s happened not because of appeals from the other side–which has some activists I find loathesome–but because of the “side” I was initially on. I can’t brook a discussion where someone from another country is referred to as “an illegal” and painted as someone less than human. It veers to close to the language used here for hundreds of years to enslave.
2. I can’t decide if I should be flattered or concerned. But last night my mom went on and on to me about something she’d read in a magazine. After about two minutes I figured out that she was recounting to me an article she’d read…on my blog. Yes, I’m flattered that she thinks what I write could be a magazine article. Yes, I’m concerned that she doesn’t remember I wrote it.
3. I guess we’re in a Season Of Replacement here at Villa Gorilla. Because yesterday, out of the blue, our twelve-year-old vacuum just stopped working. Although whether or not I can say ‘out of the blue’ when that thing was electrical-taped together within an inch of its life is debatable. So we finally broke down and spent the vacuum money we’d saved up. It feels weird to do all this saving up for so long and then to actually go SPEND the cash. We aren’t spendy people…we’re savey people. The spending seems both deliciously wrong and decadently filling. Anyway, that’s how we’ve ended up with a Dyson. And why I spent time yesterday watching the new vacuum suck up dirt. You know, that “cyclone technology” looks not unlike a cotton candy machine, with dirt whipping in thin, circular threads into the canister. I may never eat cotton candy again.
Just Another Pretty Farce 
As to your prologue: is “jelling” not correct? Jelly jells; why not thoughts?
Oh, and congratulations on your Dyson, of course. I want a Roomba.
I guess the dictionary says “jell” is a variant spelling. But since the process is to “make something gelatinous” or to “form a gelatin”, I’m far more comfortable with “gel”.
We had several Roombas for several years. They aren’t good if you have a lot of hair or pets with hair. The hair wraps around the ends of the beater-bar and burns out the motor.
Granted, the iRobot corporation was very good at replacing them for us. But we just got tired of having to call customer service every few months.
I know how you feel about spending money. Feels like we have been hemorrhaging money recently. It’s all money that we have accounted for (House down payment and new fridge: life insurance dividends I cashed in, new bed: housewarming gift from my parents, new windows: first time homebuyer tax credit, etc.), but it’s just strange to have all this money going out.