Friday, April 29, 2016

I Don't Think You Said What You Think You Said

I must be getting old and cranky. Either that or the bar for acceptable use of the English language has fallen to a remarkably low level, because everywhere I turn lately, glaring grammatical errors seem to be slapping me in the face.


Don't get me wrong, I'm not some sort of a grammar Nazi or something. I make plenty of mistakes myself - there are probably some in this very post. And I certainly don't think that people should be held to some level of perfection, especially in their day to day communications on social media or whatnot.

But lately I keep running into grammar fails that fundamentally alter the meaning of what is being said -- or should that be "which fundamentally alter the meaning of what is being said?" See what I mean about perfection?

At any rate, the misplaced modifier seems to be a biggie. Here's a headline I stumbled upon today:
Man Shot with Fake Bomb at Baltimore TV Station
Hmm... that's interesting. How exactly does one use a fake bomb to shoot someone? I assume what they meant to say was "Man with Fake Bomb Shot at Baltimore TV Station" but that isn't actually what they did say.

Then there's a commercial for a local furniture store, where some young woman proudly talks about her job as a buyer, and how gratifying it is to help people find products "in which they can find value in." Seriously? They paid to put that on the air? Perhaps it was approved by the department of redundancy department.

Then there are the missing or misplaced commas, periods, or other bits or punctuation.

Watch out for those slippery pedestrians!

Gosh, pedestrians really seem to be getting the brunt of the missing punctuation fails!

I've never actually met a disabled elderly pregnant child, but if I do, at least there's a toilet they can use.


I'm not quite sure how to categorize the next few, but I'm pretty sure the authors didn't exactly convey what they intended to.

How long do you suppose it takes to consume an entire African?


My father always said that religion would kill you , but I didn't think they were so up front about it!

And, lest we forget, there are the hilarious spelling mistakes.

Apparently that's how the store makes its money back?

Where bored executives go?

This is a tough call, but since I'm not quite sure what 'libety" is, I'm gonna go with tranny on this one.

They must be quite pleased with their exams

OMG... just O.M.G.

I hope it didn't hurt too much...

You are correct, it's not spelled "socilism"

Well, at least people won't be touching them!

I suppose I could go into some long rant about education, or the evolution of language usage or some other worldly topic, but it's late and I'm tired, so I think I'll just leave it at this:


So tell me, what grammar fails have you encountered recently? And am I the only person who yells at the television when someone says they've "grown wary" of something?



Friday, April 22, 2016

Happy Earth Day!

Well folks, Mother Nature delivered a fantastic Earth Day present for us here in the Mile High city... beautiful weather!

CatMan and I went for a ride yesterday and I swear my teeth got plastered with gnats because I just couldn't keep from smiling - how can you not smile when your surroundings look like this?


And I am thrilled to report that most of the blossoms seem to have survived the snow storm. Yay!




Today might be even more beautiful than yesterday was... it's already 70 degrees outside and projected to get even warmer!


The boys are pretty stoked about the warm weather too. This was the scene that greeted me yesterday when I returned from my ride.


Sun beams are sorta their "thing!"

Anyhow, there's big excitement here in Denver today. I don't know if this was coordinated to happen on Earth Day purposefully or if it's just a happy accident, but Denver's public transportation system took a huge leap forward today with the opening of the "A-Line" which will provide train service from downtown to the airport.


Of course, I haven't been on a plane in well over 20 years, but I still think it's pretty darned cool that I can now hop on a bus 2 blocks from my house and ride public transportation all the way out to the airport - it's downright civilized!

And of course, like any good fan of early jazz music, I can't get this song out of my brain.


They're actually giving free rides all day today, but I think I'd rather celebrate by taking my SLR out for a walk so that I might pummel you all with more pictures of the spring flowers.

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day?



Sunday, April 17, 2016

Spring Storm

Well folks, we got a fair amount of snow here in the Mile High city. It's finally starting to taper off, but it snowed pretty hard for about 36 hours. Fortunately it's so warm, that most of it melted on impact, so there's only about 8 inches out there... mostly on grassy spots.

Anyhow, I went out for a walk to snap a few photos for you. Not much accumulation...


The streets themselves are totally clear.


It was a very heavy snow though... this poor little evergreen looks a bit worse for wear.


But as I feared, the crabapple trees took the brunt of it. The neighborhood is full of scenes that look like this:



And those poor blossoms...






I hope some of the tulips will survive though...



And the squirrels don't seem to have suffered too much...



But my neighbors made the best of it...



And at least it's not like it is up in the foothills a few miles to the west where they got 3-5 FEET! Holy Kazoli!



But the sun's coming out now, and the melt is on!


I'm just hoping we don't get too much flooding. CatMan and I have been watching the river gauges on the USGS webpage, and so far it looks like it's only high enough for the bike path to be flooded out at one spot, so hopefully it won't get worse as the melt continues...


Anyhooos.... that's the news from the storm zone! Hope y'all are enjoying more spring like weather than we are!


Friday, April 15, 2016

The Fleeting Beauty of Spring

It seems like the only thing I ever post about lately is the weather. Well, you can be glad that I spared you the whiny posts about taxes - which have pretty much consumed my attention over the past few weeks - this year was a real adventure in that department, but I'm finally done...

... just in time for the snowstorm! Yup, you read that right. We're projected to get anywhere from 4 inches to 2 feet of the white stuff this weekend. Oy! Well, you know what they say... April blizzards bring May... um... lizards?


Or wait... maybe it's wizards...


No wait! I know! It's gizzards!


Well anyway... spring snow storms are nothing new here in Colorado - April is our second snowiest month after all, but honestly, I'm kinda ready to be done with snow for the year.

The worst part about it is that since we've had such beautiful weather for the past few weeks, all of the flowering trees are in full bloom, and the chances of the blossoms surviving the storm are slim to none. Sigh.

But, yesterday was beautiful. It was almost 80 degrees (26C) so CatMan and I went for a bike ride to soak up as much of the beauty as we could before the snow wipes it all away. 

We rode south along the Platte, where the trail is dotted with honeysuckle bushes. I spent the entire ride inhaling deeply, trying to fill my lungs with the sweet aroma before it vanishes for another year.

Then we stopped at the crabapple grove to snap a few photos and smell the blossoms. 








Those photos would have been better if shot on my SLR, but alas, it's kinda hard to carry on a long bike ride.

Anyhow, I put out extra food for the squirrels this morning because the females are all nursing babies. And then I went out to take a few shots from around the yard.





If it wasn't for Smoky the Destroyer, who will try to eat any plant he finds, I would have been tempted to cut a bunch of these and bring them inside. Sigh.

Honestly though, I think he's hoping for more days or warmth and sunshine like we had earlier this week:



Well, the rain is supposed to start soon, and turn over to snow tonight. It will be interesting to see how much we end up with. Could be exciting so I'll keep you posted!