News and Updates

1. The thing I miss most about the Biden years was that for a brief shining moment politics was once again boring. The US had competent, sane leadership that spent time on actually solving problems rather than creating more of them, and whatever issues I might have had with their actual decisions I knew that the republic would still be there in six months. None of that is true today. I’d really like to focus on my own little world right now – finish my blogging about this summer’s travels, spend the time I need to spend writing a presentation I’m scheduled to deliver in three weeks, get my classes prepped and ready, grade assignments, and so on. But the increasingly direct and open movement toward Fascism and violence being engineered by Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump and his minions, lackeys, cronies, and slaves cannot be ignored. They have declared war – literally, that’s their word for what they’re doing – on their fellow citizens, and it is the solemn duty of every American patriot to resist.

2. But even during times of war, life goes on and should be recognized.

3. We had our family Labor Day event on the Saturday before the holiday because that’s when people could come. Holidays happen whenever you have time for them, and we gathered at my brother-in-law Justin’s house for smoked meats and other tasty foods, conversations, and general good times. We picked up Lauren along the way and she made her first appearance to the extended family since she returned from her summer travels and shared some of her stories. We’re already planning for next year.

4. That meant that the actual Labor Day was kind of quiet, and after a busy summer and a tumultuous year in general that was a welcome thing.

5. Kim and I have reached the point where we are starting to make serious plans for retirement. We met with the Financial Guy a couple of times in August, and while this isn’t imminent we are thinking about when exactly it will happen and trying to get ready for it. My problem is that I have no idea what I’d do if I get to that point, other than that it would be less than what I’m doing now and probably involve more traveling and getting back to a few long-delayed projects. We have one of those books about retirement goal conversations and I have to say that so far my contributions have been pretty minimal. There’s an old cartoon that I can’t seem to find right now that has a group of bank robbers in a vault, completely surrounded by police pointing guns at them, and the leader – clearly responding to a question from one of his colleagues – is saying, “I don’t know. I didn’t think we’d get this far.” And that’s about where I am on this. I’ll have to work on it.

6. Our barbecue grill tried to burn itself down the other day. I managed to shut off the propane before it became a much bigger problem and the flames went out fairly quickly after that, but the main temperature knob melted off before I could get things resolved. I have no idea how old this grill is – at least ten, maybe twenty years – so it doesn’t owe us anything at this point. But we’ll have to look at the end-of-summer sales to see if there is anything that looks interesting to replace it. In the meantime there will be no further cookouts for a while.

7. I’m trying to whittle down my tea supply these days, as it has gotten slightly out of hand, and I found an old tin of looseleaf tea labeled “Phoobsering,” and how can you not love that? Much to my surprise it was still good, and this morning I finished it off. Progress.

8. We went to see Spinal Tap II yesterday as a break from the horrors of American existence and it was well worth seeing. Most of the original cast came back – the ones who didn’t, as far as I can tell, had mostly passed away and couldn’t – and there were a lot of really fun cameos, some of which I wouldn’t have caught if we hadn’t watched the original the night before to get ready for it. It did a good job of capturing some of the silliness and set-piece comedy routines of the original, with more than a few callbacks to some of the best bits, while still being its own thing. Perhaps it is because I am older now than I was when I first saw the original at the TLA in Philadelphia in 1985, but I noticed an undercurrent of melancholy that I’d missed before. The original, for all its spot-on satire of the music industry of the day, was at its core about what it means for men to be friends and the sequel picked up on that theme and carried it into old age. These guys are relics now – holdovers from an era that has long vanished. They’ve moved on with their lives and then get pulled back into it, fairly unwillingly, where they have to fight battles that weren’t worth being won the first time. They’re at the age where they’re looking back, thinking of legacies, and summing things up rather than making things anew, and that’s a complicated age to be playing songs like “Big Bottom.” It’s a fun movie that works well as a lightweight comedy, but there’s more to it if you look and I think that’s a mark of a good film.

9. Down at Home Campus we are transitioning into several major new software packages all at once and it’s going … well, it’s going. People are putting a lot of work into making it all happen and it’s mostly happening but not quite. One of my several bosses has already cautioned us to examine with a fine-toothed comb every paycheck since June to check for errors and Kim – who isn’t even part of that subunit of the Overarching System – has already found some big ones when she did the same. I’ve found some small ones. And thus the depleted state of our finances makes more sense. Technology: what doesn’t quite work.

10. We had a lovely autumn and now it’s summer again. At least the vegetables like it. We harvested the first of the Nardello peppers the other day, for example. Nardello peppers were developed in Ruoti, the little hilltop town in Basilicata where my Italian ancestors are from, and this spring they were being sold at Trader Joe’s (and perhaps they are still!). We bought some, and then Kim decided to plant some of the seeds for the garden and they sprouted up nicely. They’re a long red pepper with no heat whatsoever and they’re really good. A little bit of Ruoti here in Wisconsin!