2001-04-18 - 9:09 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "Feels Like the First Time". Who does this? I'm asking Poindexter ... Foreigner!

So, people are complaining about the weather forecast. Snow. In mid-April.

I don't mind, for a couple of days anyway. A high temperature of 50 degrees is tolerable to me, even though it's not ideal. And I really like it when it gets cold at night. I sleep much more soundly when it's cold, and I like the heaviness of the comforter as opposed to the lighweight summer blanket.

Not to mention cold weather means nighttime spooning is cozy and warm as opposed to being unpleasantly hot. You can tell when spring has truly arrived when we switch from saying, "Oooo, you're toasty!" when one of us has warmed up the covers for the other, to "Ewww, you're hot". We had a few "Ewww, you're hot" nights last week and now we're back to toasty for a while.

Here is the source of my blood-pressure spike for the day.

Okay.

That this kid died was an incredibly sad thing. I can't imagine how the parents must feel to have lost their six-year-old boy.

But folks, what happened was an accident. Horrible as they are, accidents happen. You cannot use an isolated incident as an excuse to start making laws willy nilly. All the laws in the world aren't going to prevent accidents from happening, and you shouldn't prevent thousands of people from safely engaging in an admittedly risky activity just because one person died in a tragic accident. As crazy as it sounds to have a six-year-old riding a dirt bike, they can get into a lot of trouble riding a bicycle on the same road as cars, too. If you follow that logic, pretty soon we're going to have to outlaw every form of transportation except walking.

Also, I'm a little disgusted that the politicians are exploiting a tragic accident like this to get brownie points with their constituents by making new laws.

There's a good quote that expresses how I feel about the human predilection for making laws. From Peter Kropotkin, in Law and Authority:

In existing States a fresh law is looked upon as a remedy for evil. Instead of themselves altering what is bad, people begin by demanding a law to alter it. If the road between two villages is impassable, the peasant says, "There should be a law about parish roads." If a park-keeper takes advantage of the want of spirit in those who follow him with servile obedience and insults one of them, the insulted man says, "There should be a law to enjoin more politeness upon the park-keepers." If there is stagnation in agriculture or commerce, the husbandman, cattle-breeder, or corn- speculator argues, "It is protective legislation which we require." Down to the old clothesman there is not one who does not demand a law to protect his own little trade. If the employer lowers wages or increases the hours of labor, the politician in embryo explains, "We must have a law to put all that to rights." In short, a law everywhere and for everything! A law about fashions, a law about mad dogs, a law about virtue, a law to put a stop to all the vices and all the evils which result from human indolence and cowardice.

So, did I mention that I like to go barefoot?

While I don't have anything remotely resembling a foot fetish (and was quite surprised to see what kinds of other links turn up on the Google "ticklish pedicure" searches that bring so many people here to Franks and Beans!, people whom I am probably drawing more of with this entry), I do like bare feet in general, on me and other people. I think Poindexter is sexy as hell wearing jeans or cutoffs and going barefoot.

It's not the feet itself that are sexy to me. Feet are feet, like hands are hands. Maybe it's the ankles I like. When people put shoes and socks on and hide their ankles, it makes their legs look clunky. The whole calf-tapering-to-ankle thing is what looks good. That doesn't explain why I like jeans and bare feet, though ... must have something to do with the unfetteredness. I mean, imagine if people wore mittens all the time.

Last week when I stayed home from work, it was warm enough that I didn't need shoes. I was running around barefoot in the house, going to the ice cream truck, and running next door to give my neighbor Frances the package her friends had left with me when she wasn't home.

Frances looked down and saw my bare feet and exclaimed, "You're barefoot!" I hadn't really noticed. I said, "Oh, I'm sorry" and moved to the welcome mat. She said, "No, I don't mind, but you shouldn't be running around barefoot outside." Frances is a very motherly type, and was probably worried I'd catch pneumonia. I assured her that it was very warm outside and I'd been barefoot all day.

I remember when I was a kid, I had to ask my mom if I could go barefoot. The first day of late spring when she she said "yes" was a happy day, indeed.

Some people seem to be afraid to go without shoes. This is very perplexing to me, for the same reason I don't understand why people are afraid to be naked in the privacy of their own home. There's nothing WRONG with bare feet. The things that make feet gross -- athlete's foot, stinky feet, corns -- are caused primarily by WEARING SHOES.

I liked that track athlete, Zola Budd, who ran barefoot. Too bad she had to go and do a stupid thing like trip Mary Decker.

Anyway, given all this, you can imagine I liked this article a lot. I'd love to be able to go barefoot everywhere. As it is, I just throw flip-flops on when I'm going somewhere where bare feet are Not Acceptable.

Well, I FINALLY got the manual for my gun today. It didn't come with the gun for some reason and the gun shop guy had to order it for me, and then there was a snafu in actually getting it to me -- eventually he sent it with Billy to the range right near my office.

So I found the trick for taking it apart -- which was why I wanted the manual so badly -- and cleaned the hell out of it. Poindexter was impressed. My gun is very clean and pretty now.

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