Went to a summer festival this weekend with my friend G. There were were, among the strolling, carefree crowd, lugging these big saddlebags of gear.
G. and I are very different people. She’s a short, beautiful, church-going, civic-minded, family-oriented workaholic professional. I’m a tall, plain*, skeptical, Outlaw layabout who gave up family as a bad job 20-some years ago. She’s a staunch Republican conservative who worries about deteriorating morality and sports a “Hillary for Jail” bumper sticker on her vehicle. I’m an anarchist libertine** who’s v*ting for Sweet Meteor O’ Death.
But we are alike in that both of us, everywhere we go, haul these hefty bags of gear. In a pinch, if we needed to, between the two of us we could feed the multitudes keep ourselves fed and watered for a day, perform minor first aid, cut off a seatbelt, find magnetic north, call for help with a spare device, see in the dark, and have a good chance of preventing a bad situation from turning worse. Thanks to my new compact binoculars, I could even spot a rose-breasted grosbeak if some grosbeak-related emergency arose.
Oh wow. Did you know about this? Anybody seen it? Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk have a new series that plays on their roles in the late, much-lamented, still grand-and-gloriously freedomista Firefly.
Speaking of rip-roaring, libertarianish fiction, Larry Correia’s latest Monster Hunter book is coming out Tuesday. An unusual amount of buzz around this one. Preorders now accepted on Amazon.
Twenty years ago, libertarians were “lunatics” for wanting to end the drug war. Now … mainstream. Twenty years ago, libertarians were “crazy and irresponsible” for wanting to end zoning laws. Now … the idea’s being discussed on Bloomberg.com.
Every four years, the Olympics cost cities, regions, and countries more than they earn. Every four years, a new athletic supercomplex begins to crumble into ruin. Every four years thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, of poor people and small businesses are brutally displaced for the sake of an international show. Why do so few commentarors realize and write about the obvious?
Suspicions confirmed: the U.S. has only one native wolf species. The other two “species” are just the result of coyotes and wolves doing some … er, heavy partying.
My neighbor Andy built a number of pet coffins. He did this first for a neighbor’s 19-year-old dog. Then he started more to sell on eBay. Then one fine day he had a stroke and was gone like that.
His widow, J., let me choose among the smaller boxes for Robbie’s ashes.
“Smaller” is a matter of perception. One box was a clear standout despite being only partially finished. That box I brought home. But small it’s not.
I filled the nail holes and cracks yesterday and now am contemplating its decoration. Andy would have stained and sealed it. I have something more elaborate in mind. Something along the lines of the Modigliani table (finished table here) or “Doorway to the Sun.”
Soon as I saw it in J’s basement, it reminded me of two things: the miniature stone pagodas in Japanese gardens and a ziggurat.
Stone pagodas not having much color potential, I proclaimed it a ziggurat and am now seeking out sources of ancient funerary art to inspire me. Ziggurats were Mesopotamian. What did Mesopotamian funerary art look like? Does anyone even know? (Yes, apparently they do.) Search engine time is ahead. If all else fails, I’ll end up with quasi-faux-Victorian-parody Egyptian. Never know, starting out, exactly where these projects will carry themselves.
The other thing that struck me about the Ziggurat Urn is that it’s not only large enough to hold Robbie, but also Jasmine. And … ulp, ultimately me. So there it is: the urn for my (hopefully long in the) future ashes, to be mixed with those of my heart dogs.
Is that weird, or what? But what could be better than to spend my immortality, or what passes for it, in a box made for dogs?
Well, I don’t know which is more depressing: presidential candidates who’ve never succumbed to any vices or those who have but lie about it.
Rigidly straightlaced people rarely make empathetic “leaders.”
—–
It’s definitely depressing that America’s blood-dancing hoplophobes will still fail to notice a) that it does happen in other countries and b) that an evil guy with an agenda can kill more people with a truck than with a firearm.
—–
And why do so many people consider it somehow “better” if the Nazgul preserve an appearance of impartiality, even when they clearly have agendas?
This is like the dysfunctional family that thinks as long as nobody talks about the problem, there is no problem.
—–
While clearly there’s a lot in the world to be pissed off about (and there always has been, right from the time the first finny thing ate the first one-celled squiggly thing), I had no idea until Joel mentioned it that today is supposed to be a national day of rage.
Which is good. Because so far, as of early afternoon Pacific time, I haven’t yet managed to get beyond a good ennui.
Still, there’s time. Even if one can’t manage more than a state of mild vexation today, perhaps a touch of contumely toward one’s presumptive rulers, The Brunett warned recently of a dangerously mad summer to come.
Could be. I don’t share either the fear or the rage, but then I live in a peaceful, pleasant backwater, where the people around me are actually, you know, nice. And many of them reasonably self-sufficient and busy enough with their lives not to set aside public time for rage and riot.
(ETA) Thus it was almost a relief to learn from wise commentors that no one’s seriously demanding that we get all enraged after all. At least not today. Whew.
Still, does anybody doubt that we’re only seeing the beginning of dangerous times?
—–
As for me, since Robbie died, I’ve been taking extra walks with Ava. Sometimes our walks are just the usual thing, a mile or two in the morning or afternoon. But we’ve done more than our share of hilly trecks that (speaking only for me; I don’t know about Ava) get the heart rate going and produce a happy soreness in thighs and calves. I think both Ava and I have lost a little weight this last week on this routine.
But to heck with getting overly healthy. We’ve also earned our indulgences. Yesterday after one such hike, we stopped at the little tienda in town and bought a fat slice of tres leches cake (swimming in thick cream!) and a Jarritos tamarind soda. Took them both over to the waterfront and enjoyed them there. Ava got to lick the cake carton.
I don’t like carbonated beverages and rarely ever have soft drinks of any sort. But I love how these fruity Mexican sodas boast of their gloriously high, and pure, sugar content. In this age of low-cal/no-cal everything, when even the worst sort of junk food masquerades as healthy (often because it’s filled with distinctly unhealthy manmade ingredients), it’s refreshing to see sugar proclaiming itself so cheekily from the side of a bottle. A bottle that, BTW, still requires a churchkey opener that’s hung from the side of an old-fashioned refrigerator case.
The tienda also has incredible tacos — handmade soft corn tortillas, folded over seasoned meat, avocado slices, crema, and fresh cilantro, among other goodies. But I’ll go back for those another day.
—–
In the meantime, don’t feel you absolutely have to go out tonight and, on command, work yourself into such a righteous rage that you forget to enjoy your Friday and your weekend. :-)
Because the MSM (and of course most of the gunblogosphere) is currently “all murder, all the time,” I thought a bit of good news was in order (courtesy of MJR).
Seems recently the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife “requested” access to a creekside property to survey for some frog you’ve never heard of.
The homeowners said yes. That is, they said yes … BUT.
Just past the halfway mark of my six months without home Internet. Not too painful so far, right?
Its original purpose of lowering monthly payments to clear last year’s home-improvement debts kind of went kablooey when Dave quit paying for the blog. At that point, I emptied savings to clear nearly all that debt, figuring any unnecessary monthly payments would not be a good idea right now.
Kept a small emergency fund, of course. Always keep a small emergency fund unless you’re living in your car and eating out of Dumpsters.
I love my neighborhood. In many ways, it’s like what we think neighborhoods were in the olden days (but probably really weren’t).
I had an “olden days” moment yesterday. Not in the idyllic sense, but in the sense that anybody in the neighborhood can give a troublesome kid what-for and parents will back that up.
I was sitting in the sun room, enjoying the respite after a day of painting and ripping down old siding when — whap! — something thumped the wall next to me.
I knew immediately what it was and who did it. Sure enough, I went outside and there was a baseball in the grass. Looked up and there he was, a tall, blond adolescent boy in the neighbors’ yard. The three boys who live there (all younger and smaller than this kid) were outside, too. But having had my house pelted several times last summer with hardballs, and having seen the tall, blond kid every time, I knew it wasn’t their doing. (They lob balls into my yard frequently, but never get near the house and nearly always use nerf or whiffle balls.)
Without giving it a second thought, I stomped over to the fence, pointed, and called, “You! Blond kid!” And proceeded to give him a piece of my mind and a warning that if he broke a window, hurt an animal, or damaged my property in any way, he’d be in deep yogurt. Then I tossed the baseball over the fence and went home.
A couple minutes later, the father of the three boys was at my gate, full of apologies and concern.
“No, no. Your little boys are so sweet and polite,” I said. “You don’t need to apologize for anything. It’s that other kid. It’s almost as if he’s aiming at my house. He needs a good talking to from his parents.”
“But I’m the dad,” my neighbor said, as if that explained everything that needed to be said about his responsibility.
—–
Later I got to feeling bad about raising a ruckus. Maybe I should have just gone over there and had a quiet talk with everybody. Maybe I should have gone to Dad and let him handle his guest.
This morning I took the family a peace offering of apple pie (storebought, sorry) and ice cream. Dad was off on a volunteer fire call, but Mom and two of the boys were there. I assured the boys I wasn’t upset with them in any way. I apologized to Mom for the undiplomatic way I’d handled the situation and asked her to pass that on to her husband.
She made it clear that she and Dad had had a very serious talk with all the boys and that no peace offering was necessary. “That kid is a good boy,” she said. “But … they’re having some troubles right now.” Not excusing, just explaining.
Only nerf and whiffle balls from now on, she assured me, taking the pie and ice cream that I finally had to force into her hands.
Get businesses freaked out enough about “discriminating against the disabled” and they’ll fall for anything.
12 lessons to learn and hang onto forever. (Especially for business, but plenty have applications in the rest of the world, too.)
Just to cheer you up, here’s the latest report on global-catastrophic risks. I confess not to have read it yet. I don’t need that kind of “cheering up” right now. But just in case you’re interested. (H/T MJR)
Assume your state government is in big trouble if one, single taxpayer saying goodbye could have this much impact.
It seems more lefties are realizing their fellows have become high-handed elitist snobs, and that it happened when the left parted ways with the working class.
Meant to get to the library for blogging earlier. But it was a good morning for burning. Just enough rain last night to keep the ground damp but not enough to soak the wood. And hooboy, have I got wood.
Last week a minion came and spent a whole day breaking down and stacking all that deconstruction rubble and since then, I’ve been getting rid of it the good, old-fashioned, no-dump-fee way.
Today was my fifth construction-rubble fire. These aren’t exactly bonfires, but couldn’t pass as humble little campfires, either.
BUT. In addition to getting rid of the unsightly rubble heaps, I’m making other progress. You recall the two unsightly exterior walls I bemoaned not long ago. Here’s one of them then:
Now take a look at today:
The door trim and shingles are my work. I got carried away. I’d figured to make that wall my main summer project, working on it an hour here, an hour there. But I love shingling. Took just five days even though I was sick for the first several of it. Still need to put up a fascia board and some edge trim and to paint the eaves (which of course I should have done before shingling, but I plead brainfog from that endless cold I had. I forgot.
The new wall with the T1-11 siding is courtesy of The Wandering Monk. And if it looks like just any old wall, take my word for it, it was more of an engineering project than you can imagine. Perhaps I’ll give you the full true-confession story on that wall next time I’m ready to make fun of yet another weird quirk of Ye Old Wreck. But for now … progress!
Now off to repay your patience with a couple of blog entries …
—–
UPDATE Okay. I have posted a few more things today and in addition prepped three more blogs for posting between now and the end of the week. So you’ll hardly know I’m mostly offline. I also read and will be thinking about your blog-related suggestions. Big thank you for those.
However, I didn’t get most of my email answered. Will try to catch up on that within a few days, but for now I’m tired, my eyeballs need a break from this screen, and the dogs are calling me home. I can hear them sighing and whimpering all the way from the library.
Today it’s been exactly two months since I had home Internet. Four months to go and I confess that when Comcast comes back on August 20, I plan to binge my little heart out streaming Amazon shows, forum browsing, and even indulging in a whole bunch of disgusting news reading. I’ll surf until my brain turns soggy. When November comes, I’ll follow 16 live blogs of every dismal, depressing election result and love every second of it.
That said, I generally haven’t missed connectedness that much and am looking forward to a summer of getting lots of small things done on the house (no big projects this year) because I’m not chained to my computer.
There’ve been some inconvenient moments and a few minor aggravations, but mostly it’s simply been no big deal. And those house debts I need to pay down are getting paid just that much faster without that extra $40 going to Comcast every month.
The few PITAs have been unexpected ones. Last week when I was sick, I blogged less because I didn’t have the oomph to drag myself to the library and didn’t want to pollute the other patrons. If I’d had home ‘Net, I’d likely have blogged much more than usual because I’d be drowning my sorrows in cyberspace.
The library itself has sometimes been … interesting. On one of the four days its open, it hosts thundering herds of children. Not exactly an aid to concentration. And there are a few grownups whose company I could do without. There’s one man — he just left a moment ago as I write this, so the memory of him is vivid — who must pour a full bottle of cheap cologne over himself every morning. Now, I am not somebody who has scent allergies or even a particularly sensitive sense of smell. I rarely even notice people’s perfumes. But when this man is 20 feet away from me, as he was just now browsing a shelf, I’m not only assaulted by the reek of him, but can literally taste his chemicals with every breath I take. Worse, he likes to use the library computer terminal that sits just over the wall of my carrel. The one-and-only carrel for plugging in a laptop.
I swear, whatever he’s putting on himself must be outlawed by treaties against chemical warfare. Thank heaven I only encounter him about once a week.
Still, it’s mostly pleasant here in my little corner of the library. The librarians are nice when they talk with me and even nicer for leaving me alone. This is a good time.
But it’ll be nice as summer fades and fall darkness closes in, to warm myself with home Internet again. And enjoy the quiet and the aroma of wet dog and hot tea.
Yesterday The Wandering Monk came by to pry some lengths of 2×4 off the exterior walls of Ye Olde Wreck. They are among the last traces of the monstrous not-a-garage. I’ve never had any idea of their purpose. They had zero structural function. They were as far from decorative as could possibly be. The only use I could imagine for them was for hanging tools, but there was no sign they’d ever borne hooks or any other hanging devices.
They were just … 2x4s. Extremely long ones. Nailed high up on the walls.
It baffled me that I’d been unable to make headway prying them off myself. But since they were large and potentially dangerous if they crashed down from overhead, I figured I’d leave them to a pro.
Here’s the reason they were so hard to get down:
The nails on the left — some of them nearly 5″ long — were holding up those useless trim strips. Dozens of the things, pairs every couple of feet. This is only a sampling.
For contrast I give you nails of the size the geniuses who built my house used for crucial structual functions. On the right are 6d and 8d nails like those they used to attach both the enclosed porch and the entire back wing to the original one-room house. These are not the actual nails, which were all rusted and bent from the stresses of the house pulling apart around them. They’re just nails I keep on hand for light duty applications — like nailing up trim.
I don’t know when the cancerous not-a-garage was built. It was clearly a boozy afterthought. But the useless 2x4s the monk removed yesterday were true dimensional lumber, from back in the day when 2×4 really meant 2×4. That puts them solidly in the time when the original builder was still living there.
Somebody really had some amazingly whacky priorities.
Anyhow, now that the 2x4s are gone, the only remaining trace of the not-a-garage is 1/4″ fiberboard that covers the original tongue-and-groove siding. And those my prybar and I are more than capable of doing away with.
It started raining again Sunday evening. Just a soft, unserious, springlike shower, followed by a few more days of the same. But knowing it was coming, I put in several hours of outdoor work, then prepped for an indoor project.
Since there was not a lot I could do inside until The Wandering Monk arrived to help me drywall a ceiling, I wandered across the little one-lane road and tried to make more progress cleaning the empty lot that will someday, if all my plans and dreams come to fruition, contain a gravel path with steps down to a homemade pergola, a small picnic area, a few fruit trees, a firepit, and maybe some chickens or even a goat or two.
It’s a long way from most of that and I’m beginning to despair.
.
