A very old friend of mine put her dog down this evening. I know how hard that was. Cali had a good life, and was loved. And she knew it.

Every dog owner has to face this eventually: dogs only live a few years. That doesn't make it easier.

In the Jewish tradition—in which I was raised, despite both my parents and me being devout atheists—we always acknowledge the sadness lurking behind joy. It's a Jewish curse to find the cloud behind every silver lining. We dip an egg in salt water at Passover to remind ourselves of this. Not to mention the not-so-far-from-truth Jewish joke about the widow at the funeral shouting "how could you do this to me?" So maybe it's inappropriately personalizing someone else's pain, but a friend going through this reminds me of how short Parker's life will be, and how important it is to cherish what he brings to me, which is absolutely no less than how much Cali's life brought to my friend.

So, Tink, I know what you're feeling. And I know Cali was a happy dog, and loved you unconditionally, and lived as long as she could. Nothing else really matters.

I just got back from an event in Chicago which convinced me that Obama will win the White House. 375 days, 12 hours to go.

In a completely unrelated vein, I am watching Parker try to destroy a Tyvek FedEx envelope. I think I've finally found a substance he can't destroy.

Update: Nope. He can destroy it just fine. I'll be seeing that Tyvek tomorrow morning.

Via Talking Points Memo.

Just now on Talking Points Memo: "At the moment, it's Rudy about 300 votes ahead of Ron Paul."

Stop the presses!

Today is already the warmest January 7th ever recorded in Chicago (right now 17°C), and if the temperature hits 19°C, it'll be the warmest January day ever.

Stay tuned.

Just three days ago, Thursday morning, the temperature in Chicago sank to -18°C, with a wind chill of -23°C. Right now, it's 16°C. Did I mention it's the beginning of January?

I'm so happy the U.S. has taken the lead against global warming.

"I'd rather be down here wishing I were up there, than the opposite." So goes the aviation axiom. But this morning, with its 3 km visibilities and 30 m—yes, thirty meters—ceiling, I have postponed a checkout flight for the third time in a row.

Here's how weather can be really frustrating. I kept track of my flights (or lack thereof) during the summer of 1999 when I was trying to get my certificate, and put together a Web page to chronicle the frustration.

Two notes about the page: first, I haven't maintained the page since 9 December 1999, so all the links to the actual flights are dead (I used to have an online log book, and I will again someday...); and second, information about anything in 2008 may not be current, like the flight school's rules.

I've had a number of conversations with friends recently about the 2008 elections. A couple are afraid we're going to repeat the 2004 elections, in which we Democrats believed the day before the election we were going to win, but woke up the day after to a brave old world.

Today we've seen the first hard number that shows, without a doubt, we're going to rout the Republicans this year: tonight, an all-time record 227,000 Democrats caucused in Iowa, almost double the number in 2004.

We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it any more.