We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
I am taking a brief, several day break from my morning link duty (not to worry - we have hired a sub at great expense) to give me a little time for various things, family and personal refreshment.
Therefore, I will dump what links I have right now to clean up my screen.
She's a fun chick ... or was.Everybody does stupid things when they are young. The wise youth stay off the front pages.Perhaps not off the police blotter, but off the front pages.
"Don't Buy The Hype, College Education Is Not An Investment"
The article is referring to an expensive Liberal Arts education. However, most American higher ed does not involve the elite and expensive private colleges. Much higher ed is career-oriented at community colleges, for just one example.
Many colleges, even prestigious universities like Cornell, have a multitude of career-oriented colleges. Even Agriculture and Hospitality colleges. You can go to college to learn how to maintain golf courses. Such grads get instant jobs with big future potential.
I said I'd grab a few more pics of my late parents' home before we hurriedly plan to empty it out this week. Here's their living room. I think it is very pleasant, airy and and simple. Cathedral ceiling. A serene feeling. My Dad designed the whole house, and he was not an architect.
Large, wall-length fireplace on the left, with a raised hearth doubling as a bench, and with a 4'X4' antique oil portrait of a prize cow hanging over it.
No TV of course, but a radio for WQXR and a CD player on a bookshelf. Plus a piano in case you really love music enough to try to make some.
Can walk from there to our country 1763 Congregational Church. A nice 20-minute walk in any season, any weather.
Rehab can keep you away from whatever you abuse or are addicted to for a few weeks or even months, and introduce you to various programs, but rehab cannot help build or maintain a life of sobriety and sane behavior.
Neither rehab, nor AA, nor any other program "works." The person has to "work the program," and work it as if their life depended on it. Often, it does.
The questions of whether a program or plan "works" premises a medical patient model, a passive model, as if addiction and abuse were like pneumonia, curable by the best antibiotic. They are not. You do not "go through rehab" any more than you "go through AA."
It can take a lifetime of effort to climb out of the abyss of substance abuse, and a lot of it does not feel very good at all. I have seen plenty of people make the deliberate and conscious choice to live lives of substance abuse. It's a free country. I just resent it when they do it on my nickel.
- Ethanol-free gas (100% gasoline) for power tools is now available in some Home Depots
- For smaller trees and stumps, cut them to ground level with a reciprocating saw. I have a cordless Sawzall (wonderful tool), but the thought never occurred to me to do that. Chain saws can never touch dirt, but a Sawzall don't care.
I have a lot to catch up with after over a week in Wyoming, riding the ranges and the foothills with She Who Must Be Obeyed. Got lost a few times. High prairie. I always carry a compass in the great outdoors. A compass, the sun in the sky, and a pocket knife. A pocket GPS is cheating. Next time, I'll carry one anyway rather than following a fence line to nowhere.
After a few days, I can begin to adjust a bit to Western-style riding. Still, I do find it strange. Loping, galloping - different gaits from our refined Eastern style but at least the saddle has a handle! We saw Pronghorns, some Mulies, a few Golden Eagles and a Prairie Falcon. And lots of cattle, steak on the hoof.
Friends sometimes ask me why I never take photos. I never, ever, take pictures, even at Christmas. My eyes and brain are my camera; my hippocampus is my photo folder. Taking pictures can become a goal in itself, I found long ago, and interferes with fully "being there." So, rightly or wrongly, I quit it.
But on to today's link. I started college as an English Lit major. I liked talking about books. I liked writing essays. After a year or two, I began wondering why I was making my Dad spend money so I could do what I would do anyway in my spare time, so I switched to Chemistry. I love chemistry, but was not smart enough to make a career in it.
"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge; I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers."
John Adams, Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law, 1765
Zinn had contempt for America, but he would never leave.He was one of our Wellfleet neighbors. He made many millions on his anti-American, anti- free-market screeds.
12-20 hummers at the feeders - Rufus and Calliope. The Rufus migrate from winter breeding grounds in southern Mexico to summer HQ in southern Alaska. That's a female Rufus with the little red throat patch.
As my lad and I reviewed the jewelry and silver components of my parents' estate tonight, I happened to notice that he was not wearing a watch. He said that a watch in the summer just gets sweaty and, besides, who needs one? You just pull out your iPhone, and there's the time.
Just like an old-fashioned pocket watch, I observed. Then I pointed out one of my Grandpa's gold pocket watches on the jewelry list.
Then I had a thought. Why don't these modern phones have some clip-on chain-type things like the watch chains of the old days? It could be a new/old fashion, and useful too.
Which, of course, led to an email exchange in which we fit Animal House quotes to the event. If you're a fan of Animal House, or baseball, try it. As my brother says, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.
"Rodriguez, we've given this a lot of thought, your Delta Tau Chi name is "Juicer""
Found in the back of Dad's garage during clean-up and clean-out. It's a fairly old machine but in good shape. With his mild Parkinson's, I doubt he had used this saw for at least five years. Still, it tried to start up and then sputtered out.
Brought it in to my excellent local power tool guy. There was water in the tank. He blamed that on the ethanol in the gas. Had to clean and flush. Needed a tune-up and a new blade. Cleaned it up inside and out so it looks like new, too. I do know that, for power tools, it is best to drain the gas tank if they will not be needed for a few months. I just run 'em until they empty the tank. Only occasionally do I have a job that needs a full tank, so I rarely fill it up.
This lightweight Huskie will be a good alternative to my heavy Stihl Farm Boss, for smaller jobs.
11:1 He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
11:2 He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
11:3 Give us each day our daily bread.
11:4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial."
11:5 And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;
11:6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.'
11:7 And he answers from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.'
11:8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
11:9 "So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
11:10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
11:11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?
11:12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?
11:13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
View from that bed I posted yesterday. Our family camp is at the extreme end of a 40-minute dirt & rocky single-lane road. About 90 hard minutes and 2,500 vertical feet further up that hill, you can intersect the Pacific Crest Trail on the ridge barely visible through the trees. My dad's ashes are scattered on that rock ledge center left.
There are deep subtleties in the sexual peccadillo qualifications for public service. It's difficult to keep track of the changing rules. I think gay peccadillos are OK now, but it's difficult to be certain anymore. I think it all depends on R or D, or where you fall on the D spectrum.
"I think it is just terrible and disgusting how everyone has treated Lance Armstrong, especially after what he achieved, winning seven Tour de France races while on drugs.
When I was on drugs, I couldn't even find my bike."
I am taking a brief, several day break from my morning link duty (not to worry - we have hired a sub at great expense) to give me a little time for various things, family and personal refreshment.
What's the best Champagne in the world? My chef friend claims it is 
12-20 hummers at the feeders - Rufus and Calliope. The Rufus migrate from winter breeding grounds in southern Mexico to summer HQ in southern Alaska. That's a female Rufus with the little red throat patch.
