August 10, 2022

Yesteryear
One year ago today: August 10, 2021, a busy Tennessee day.
Five years ago today: August 10, 2017, buffalo chips.
Nine years ago today: August 10, 2013, I donated the TV.
Random years ago today: August 10, 2018, ain’t no such thing.

           It was a day of logistics and I’ve decided against the wood chipper for now. It is too easy to spend an hour cracking the twigs over my knee and contemplating how much older I’ll be before I can’t. A chipper brings that day closer because you don’t get as much exercise. So there, how’s that for talking myself out of it? But the real telltale sign of being over the hill is that tiller. A tiller is admission you can't keep your own yard up. In this picture I’m pointing to a situation. Note the big “pistachio” leaves around the base of the peach tree. I put them there.

           The reason is Florida weeds love the 10-10-10 citrus fertilizer. Weeding and mowing are tricky around the base of this tree and I’ve noticed the large flat leaves can cause a dead spot where they fall on grass. I’ve taken to placing them around the base of the tree and so far it has stopped weeds. Probably by blocking the sunlight, but hey, it’s certainly ecological.

           Every day, more reports of otherwise healthy people dropping dead. Today it was a Saudi ambassador. If it was due to climate change, I always thought people living in the desert would be first to know. Today I shop, in the end I spent $75 and $20 of it was for coffee. The airwaves are alive with Trump news, this raid was about the most insane stunt the radical left could have pulled. Even if their reasons are legit, nobody will believe them now. It will be Biden’s legacy and every government agency involved has lost all respect in the public eye. DC has assured Trump of victory and talk is after November they’ll never get another penny out of Congress.
           The waterpipe joints held, so just you watch. While not working great, the system is working well enough that it will take me months to get back to it. No word on the gas chain saw. I talked to the Reb, we both need a break. Can I get her to Charleson? Remember, the dogs complicate everything. Delays kept me on the road most of the morning, giving me time to reflect on “Darwin’s Radio”, the book about a virus that gives women miscarriages. I don’t follow so much technical lingo, instead I’m getting most out of what the scientists argue in this work of fiction. It’s insane that no matter how the facts lead away from it, there will always be a lot of scientist who insist on the cute version of things.

           My interest has long been the thousands of repeated genes in the DNA. Junk DNA, I think they call it, but I know it is there for a reason. Some proposed that each was the result of a disease or virus attack, which makes sense to me. I also speculate it may be the DNA playing the odds. If a trait was dependent on a single gene, then damage could cause horrible results. A pathogen that goes after one gene has little effect if there are thousands of copies. Again, I make no claim to being first on this, only that it is independently derived. I have no conscious knowledge of having known this from elsewhere.
           The mini-topic that has my current attention is gradualism. Dozens of theories exist on how evolution actually causes changes. The popular view is that it long process of trial and error, that tiny changes eventually add up to a large change resulting in things like new species. This is where the fossil record breaks down. There are huge gaps where no intermediate “designs” appear, known for humans as the missing link. An alternative theory, the one I like, is that the changes happen constantly but the DNA “stores” them up. Then, at some point an external event results in a sudden large change that draws on this store. The result is a favorable mutation. I could not pretend to know how the mechanicals work.

           The camel movie drags on. Another half hour and I will know the sound of a hungry baby camel for life. The violinist has finally arrived, by motorcycle. They have the violin thing tied with a silk “guitar strap” to the mama camel’s front hump. I think the wind is supposed to play the strings. No, now the guy is playing and the lady is making singing noises. All the other camels like the music. The two string violin has no frets. All the camels are burly-looking but they seem very well-tended. Ah, it is the mother camel that is weeping. So,now we know the little camel is a called a colt. Everybody has a cigarette. You know, the violin noises and the camel noises were not all that different.
           Now back in the yurt, it’s bowls of tea and the violinist is strutting his stuff with some Chinese toe-tappers. Of course, the youngest brother wants a TV, thinking it will work without electricity or broadcasting but if you look around the house has lots of tech. The finals scenes show some solar panels and a TV, with Dude outside adjusting the satellite dish. In Mongolia anyway, this is a happy ending. And everybody sings in Apache. It’s a good movie in small stretches, don’t pay much more than a dollar for it.
           It’s noon and I’m taking a break. I played some of the tunes I don’t know that well, including “Peaceful Easy Feeling”, which I have to change to D to sing. But it works as planned. On band I don’t care for is Alabama. It’s too contrived, like dozens of perfect musical clichés strung together. Even the lyrics are plastic and the recordings are so perfect you know you’d never hear this live. That’s an important element for me—can the show be taken on the road?

Picture of the day.
Seriously expensive coffee machine.
(Around $15,700 retail.)
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Every day, more reports of otherwise healthy people dropping dead. Today it was a Saudi ambassador. I’m going to make an assumption that for every one caught on camera, there are 200 that don’t get recorded. They just drop, no effort to turn or brace their fall, so they are dead before they hit the turf. All of them vaxxed. The few jabbed people I know used to crow about it, now they’ve been silent for a year. You might say dead silent. Serves them right, not only did they lie about protecting others, by getting vaxxed they supported a narrative that harmed all of humanity.
           Another closure means I have to drive 22 miles return to pay my phone bill, but it’s across from a shopping plaza. The green new deal is being pushed on you at the retail level. It’s $27 for a package of lightbulbs with false claims on the cover. And they [still] make incandescents at 150W and over—but not coated inside so you get only harsh glare. If even the smallest shopowners are playing the game, why shouldn’t we shop at Wal*Mart? I hope some clever chap finds a way to sell all those things Americans really want.

           And fellow blogsters, we were right. No matter how justified the Trump raid was on paper, it is what it looked like that counts. It looked like a politically-motivated Gestapo tactic endorsed by a Judge with TDS and timed to prevent Trump from running because they know they cannot win. The raid is being condemned world-wide. But be aware also that the tactics of the left are already beyond the desperation level and destined to get worse as the deadlines approach. The radical left have been caught in a whirlpool of their own making.
           Myself, I’m pro-America. That means I support the side that leaves America the most free and nowadays that is Trump. He makes too many mistakes for my liking, but the other side makes every mistake in the book. I sum it up by thinking the D-party had a whole stockpile of tactics to use against political enemies in office. But they completely overlooked an enemy who is a civilian. Using the same tactics on a civilian makes no sense. They are following a 150 year-old playbook and simply lack the IQ to come up with anything different. This raid marks a turning point from which they will never recover.
           Worse, they shunted Trump’s lawyers out of the building so they could not be observed, refused to produce the warrant, and held his wife back while they spent some 13 hours going through her wardrobe. For this, they will never be forgiven. I don’t take sides but that doesn’t mean I don’t have sympathies.

Last Laugh