1. The Fair is now over and all the animals are back in their respective places – much to the annoyance of the roosters, who have been forced to accept that they are not the only rooster in the pen once again. Roosters are just goofy that way. They will likely end up as soup at some point soon so we’re not going to worry about it very much though. The art is put away. The houseplant is back doing whatever it is houseplants do in their off days. It’s a strange thing to know that our last County Fair as an exhibitor family is over and that this is, therefore, the end of an era.
2. If you ever want to see what controlled chaos is like, show up to the County Fair at precisely the moment when it is officially over and hang out by the animal barns to watch load out. There are carts, dollies, wagons, boxes, and entire trailers hauled by vast pickup trucks that would be conclusive evidence of their owners’ shortcomings if they weren’t so transparently useful as working vehicles, all converging into an area designed for maybe a third of that traffic, each cart, dolly, wagon, box, and trailer filled with livestock ranging from 3lb rabbits to full beefer steers. Darting in and out of all that are 4H kids with artwork, plants, sewing projects, and other crafts. It’s a symphony of motion and noise.
3. It’s August, apparently, which means that all of the things I meant to do this summer and haven’t yet even thought about starting will probably just get pushed back to some other more convenient time like 2035. There’s a list of these projects, to be honest, and I suspect that someday I will die with more or less the same list still to go.
4. I do need to get the bills paid, however. The last thing I need at this stage of my life is to have several large men named Vinny knocking on my door and politely inquiring as to the state of my kneecaps.
5. There are two more weeks to go on my summer class, and we’re barreling toward the end now. I’ve only got one more lecture left to give – the Philosophy guy has another, the Physics guy is done, and there’s the final exam next week. So, almost done. I’m enjoying being in a classroom again. I hope this fall is similarly good that way, though with the Aggressive Stupidity of the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers out there I would not put money on that. We may already be returning to full indoor masking again this week, vaccinations or no.
6. When Kim and I were at the grocery story the other day they were having a closeout sale on some varieties of jerky that apparently didn’t sell well enough to keep. I love that sort of thing, so we bought a few small bags as a treat. The Korean BBQ turkey jerky was my favorite, but they were all good (and they all came with a flosser inside the bag, which I thought was a nice touch). I did take a chance on the “Severe Heat” variety without reading the label too closely though, and only when I got home did I realize it had ghost peppers in it. I no longer regard spicy food as a personal challenge so usually I avoid stuff like that, but I do like spicy food and I hate wasting things, so I’ve been working on it one quarter-sized piece at a time. They actually did find a nice balance between flavor and heat – it’s actually tasty, not just spicy – but even so it’s really, really spicy. I am bound and determined to finish the bag, though. I’ve already had all the children I plan to have, so I figure I’m good.
7. In the midst of all this I’ve been keeping an eye on the House committee investigating the Trump Insurrection that took place last January, and so far it has been a sobering look at just how close this country came to a Fascist coup succeeding. This country has had peaceful transfers of power for over two centuries – from 1801 to 2017 – and then these people happened. And the more we find out about the efforts by der Sturmtrumper and his minions, cronies, lackies and henchmen to overthrow a free and fair election and have him installed as an American dictator the more infuriating it gets.
8. Isn’t it amazing, though, listening to the right-wing reaction to the testimony of the Capitol Police officers, how quickly all those “We Back the Blue” blowhards switched over to “Fuck the Police” when it came to defending the Trump Insurrection? It’s almost as if that slogan was never anything more than just a cover for cheering on white supremacists attacking non-white protesters, right? Hello? Is this thing on?
9. I have now trained my Instagram search feature to show me nothing but funny memes and historical photographs, and this is how I survive in modern America. You need a break from it all now and then, or at least I do.
10. Here in Our Little Town they’ve decided that this is the perfect year to rip up a third of the roads in the city and redirect traffic … somewhere else? Over there. No, wait, not there. There. Ah – perhaps this way instead? No, go back and turn … no, can’t turn that way … well darn. On the one hand, these roads needed to be repaired and I’m glad they’re doing it. On the other hand, I strongly suspect they could have phased these projects more carefully. There have been times where I have simply given up and gone back home rather than try my fourth alternative route to somewhere. Oh well. It will all be done soon enough and then won’t the roads be nice for a time?
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6 comments:
These hearings are totally useless. In the end, the Republicans will swear these police were lying or seriously exaggerating and so are the other witnesses to come. They will anoint Trump to sainthood and nominate him lifetime king of the country. Why do we do this to ourselves?
In the fond hopes that some good will come of it, I suppose.
I am hoping that enough of the story will emerge to make him radioactive to many of his supporters - the diehards will always support him (there's people out there who still support Hitler and yes I know the dangers of a Nazi analogy but it does have a certain appropriateness to it in this case) but there may be enough people who will walk away to matter in the long run.
And if nothing else, I want it on record.
2. No thanks. I live in a state of (somewhat) controlled chaos. That’s enough.
They released the schedule for Our Little County fair on July 5th, due to start the last week of August and run through Labor Day.
It was canceled on July 23rd due to concerns over excessive community spread. Sigh. At least they didn’t wait until August 19th to make the announcement.
3. 2035? Being a little overly optimistic, aren’t we?
4. Don't pay no attention to Vinny. Worry when Guido shows up. Guido much worse than Vinny. Guido don’t inquire, he just do kneecap. Second one no charge.
5. Our mask mandate for indoor has already returned. We do have nearly (but not quite) 1 in 3 people in this county that has been vaccinated. Nearly 2 in 15 are complying with the mandate, though.
6. I love spicy, hot food. I like my food to bite back. However, hot just for the sake of hot doesn’t work. If all I wanted was pain I’d just take to eating Carolina Reaper peppers dipped in a Ghost pepper sauce. Has to have an appealing flavor or I abandon it pretty quick.
and last …
10. I’ve got seven work zones on the Interstate that I have to travel through every morning. And every afternoon, on the way back. Three of those are in excess of 10 miles of single lane 55 MPH ‘cause nobody’s actually performing any labor there. There are six more work zones on the service streets in town - just so the townsfolk don’t feel left out - that change very nearly hourly. Trust me - there is no way to get there from here (and it doesn’t matter where here or there are, either)!
@Katherine: ”Why do we do this to ourselves?” David tends towards overt optimism at times [see #3 above]. I believe, simply based on observable evidence, that the correct answer to your question would be ‘masochism’. I could, however, be mistaken. Hope so …
And, David, the record won’t matter much when it all goes up in flames. Jus’ sayin’.
[insert appropriately sarcastic emoji that Blogger would utterly fail to render here]
Just had to spend $830 getting my wife's dog patched up after he got attacked by a Pit Saturday night. The vet managed to save the leg and Thor* is expected to make a full recovery in about two weeks. Very much unlike my bank account.
Lucy
*All of the animals in this household are named after a Viking, Greek, or Roman diety (except one - the Tuxedo cat is named 'Tux' - no imagination there!).
2. Sorry to hear about your Fair, though I'm not really surprised. I suspect we got ours in under the wire.
3. Well by then I may well be past caring, so maybe?
5. Our county has about 55% vaccinated last I heard, though there are enough idiots to render that meaningless. I made the mistake of reading one of the community FB pages tonight where masks were being discussed and it was enough to make Gandhi take up the axe, it was.
6. Flavor is good. I like spice, but I like flavor better.
10. One of the things I enjoyed about the whole "working remotely from lockdown" phase of the last year and a half was not having to worry about any of that.
I hope that the attacking dog will not be making a similar recovery.
All the animals here were named sort of randomly, though for some reason most of them ended up with names that start with M. We didn't plan that. I suspect the one exception (one of the rabbits) was deliberate, though I'd have to ask Lauren about that.
The aggressor didn't have a mark on him. That's how we kinda nailed down who the aggressor was - Thor wasn't actually biting the other dog - I had to choke the Pit Bull into unconsciousness to get him to release his hold on Thor.
Deep muscle damage, crushing injury, two serious puncture wounds, and a gash about ½" wide x 2½" long x ¾" deep - but the infection was the most serious aspect. Once we get that cleared up he'll mend up just fine.
The other dog belongs to our granddaughter-in-law. We're working on a solution to keep these dogs separated so this will never happen again. Gotta tell you, though, I came very close to killing that dog ...
[/hijack]
Lucy
You know, I wouldn't have blamed you if you had. It's clearly a threat that needs to be dealt with and that option is still on the table.
Good luck to Thor.
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