Caturday events

Old Henry likes to howl a bit during the nights and early mornings - then he's all worn out. Sometimes he's switch from one comfy spot to another one. Good way to face the day.

New DCCC ad

Someone needs to tell voters that the Republicans are only trying to stop government spending. Spending itself (OUR out of pocket spending) is going to go waaaay up.

Goin' South

Encounters at the End of the World
This film has been out for a few years but I only just discovered it and had Netflix send it over. This is a documentary by Werner Herzog about the South Pole, the people who spend time there, and the reasons why. We watched it first on the smaller TV with just the TV speakers, and enjoyed that but realized that we really needed to see it on the bigger TV with the sound system (like our second viewing). Make sure you do that. The visuals and the music in it are gorgeous, just stunning! (Don't watch it on your phone if you have other choices.)A few images from the film that I snagged online.
Science, adventure, art, culture, passion, eccentricity, extraordinary people, places and creatures. Lots of stories.
Human extremophiles, kindred spirits to Herzog himself. If you rent this, make sure you check out the extra features, especially Under the Sea and Over the Ice. Those are just trippy-beautiful scenic short features with great music in the background. Hope I remembered the names of those correctly.

There is a really good podcast from Wisconsin Public Radio that is on many of the same topics, called Polar Stories, which covers both poles. Our local NPR affiliate doesn't carry this show, called "To the Best of Our Knowledge," so I listen online occasionally. It's always an excellent program.

It is already in the mid-90°s here, so maybe all these icy stories are extra refreshing to us.

Fire stirs up questions

They have arrested the man who has claimed responsibility (and that is an ironic word to use) for the massive fire yesterday. He is a homeless man who started a fire (to cook some eggs) in this wooded, suburban area... then left the fire burning while he walked to a convenience store to buy some beer.100 acres was burned, along with many houses... at least 8, maybe 10 houses 100% destroyed, and many more that will no longer be habitable. The damage count varies, there were people who evacuated their undamaged homes last night to find them burned this morning. It is just very dry and windy - what they keep calling the perfect storm for fire. And then there was all the fire retardant that was sprayed everywhere via C-130......and the leftovers.
It's really hard to have clear feelings on this. There's a good post on the local paper's charity blog about all the issues surrounding this event. We are in extreme drought. There is a burn ban and there has been for some time - but do we think that homeless people know these things? I think that some do and some don't. I don't think you can make one true statement about everyone. It is certainly a terrible idea to leave a fire going where there's a lot of dead brush and it's windy. Was it arson? Was it stupidity? Was the result intended? They also mentioned on this evening's news that they found more than one of those campsites in there. The truly ironic part of this is that the man who started the fire now has a place to stay. It's jail, but it's still shelter. A lot of other people, on the other hand, now do not have homes.Anyone can become homeless. We are like chairs, take away a leg or two and we can, and probably will collapse. Some of the fire's victims will not recover, esp. if they had inadequate insurance, home-based businesses, or are now sans transportation.

Big fire

This is just a couple of miles from the house. This fire started up and turned raging fast - has (as of this writing) burned about 100 acres and 10 houses (destroyed), lots more houses damaged. On the news they said someone is a suspect. Not sure what that means yet.

We are in extreme drought here. That's the official term for it according to the US Drought Monitor. Humidity has been very low and was only 9% on Friday (can't even fathom humidity that low) plus this weekend it's been very windy. Perfect conditions for fires. With the beautiful temperatures we've had lately it's hard to imagine the hells of massive fires. It's going to be a long, hot, dry summer.

(no worries, we are not in any danger... not as this is being written anyway)

Record Store Day

Today is Record Store Day, so if you are fortunate enough to have a brick and mortar record store, get out there and buy something, dammit! There are lots and lots of exclusive and limited releases coming out today. Vinyl has been roaring back with a vengeance over the last few years!

We are going to head over to Waterloo Records to get some CDs signed by Eric Johnson this afternoon (and buy a few things in addition, plus The Toadies are playing afterward but that will be a zoo). He (EJ) is releasing his latest record, Up Close, on vinyl, and is doing an in-store (signing only). I am not planning to buy the vinyl version because - truthfully- I am not big on vinyl. Yes, I know that the sound of virginal vinyl is much better than digital can achieve. You need some good listening equipment for it, and the medium itself requires a music-lifestyle discipline that I have not been nurturing [for better or worse].

I still have most of my old vinyl, and when it gets played [by MrB - I don't play vinyl] it is a bit torturous. Popping, crackling, skipping, and that muffled fuzziness that comes from the dusty needle and just plain wear. I did not take care of it when it was in active rotation. Abused, is what it was. In the 60s I used to stack my naked vinyl in a dining chair (at least it was padded, and was, itself, vinyl) and would be constantly sorting through it feverishly to keep the music going for what seemed like a constant party... no time for or inclination towards tucking them back away in their sleeves for protection. Even now, knowing what I did wrong, I don't really want to start collecting vinyl again.

Still, I celebrate its return. Vinyl has a market, and will produce sales, and these things are a blessing to musicians as well as to the brick and mortar record stores. Huzzah!!

Cuuuuuuuuute

This is a few months old, but I just saw it for the first time today. Enjoy!

Wisdom from the BS Saloon

ummmm hmmmm.

Dark Matter

Ain't it the truth? I'm really going to have to check out some more of this channel!

More flowers and stuff

We are deep into Spring! It's been warm a lot lately, generally in the 80-90° range. Last month's Blackfoot daisies are joined by a bunch of Shasta Daisies.

The emergence of the gorgeous Red Yucca blooms have brought at least one hummingbird back into our little habitat. I had been feeling sad knowing that both store-bought hummingbird feeders had been routinely maintained for some time without any "customers."

 

No hummingbird photographic evidence available (all the birds leave ASAP when we go outside), but here's a weird bug that looked a little like a bee or a wasp - but after looking at those eyes I decided it had to be a fly. Turns out this is some kind of a Hoverfly (a.k.a. Flower Fly), and is beneficial for gardens for pollination and aphid control.

"Don't swat me... please??"

Not exactly IMAX

Does anyone out there watch movies on their phone? The ads that are shown on TV for phones and networks like to display a phone which is playing a movie - and the phone looks HUGE! I mean, it looks great because the picture is so big and so clear, and it makes you want one... but the phone they are showing is the size of the TV screen! Of course it looks big and impressive!

I dunno... I don't think Inception was designed to be seen on a 3 to 4 inch screen. What do you think?

A "Modern Spiritual" for your Sunday

Yes, DO watch it all the way to the end to hear Lawrence Welk describe it in those words. This reminds me of something that happened in this same timeframe (around 1971). I've had more than my share of really goofy aunts, uncles and cousins.

One uncle (call him "E") was quite a strong religious fanatic of the Pentecostal variety and married a woman named Carol who was made of the same stuff. She was a real corker. There she is, on the left, and don't you worry, her hair is not cut off, it's wrapped up in a bun like the Lord commanded. She went around tongue-wagging and bad-mouthing a woman, one of her cousins-in-law, for shaming herself and being indecent. The way she had shamed herself was by wearing a pantsuit - Pentecostal women were only permitted to wear dresses (and obviously this cousin was not of that strain of Christianity and was therefore of the devil). This complaint didn't sit well with much of anybody, so one day Carol was sitting in the front yard in a dress that was a little short - and my mother (who loved to stir the shit) and a kindred spirit of a neighbor across the street started hollering as loud as possible, "I see England, I see France, I see Carol's underpants!!" The other thing Carol was famous for was showing up at potluck dinners with no food - only empty containers to take food home - that, and showing up uninvited right at dinnertime with husband and 3 kids in tow. I guess Uncle E was just as much to blame for that one, but he was never quite right so we forgave him.

Some funny things from Uncle E

Once he was stopped by a policeman for running a stop sign. He told the officer that he knew good and well that he could not have committed that offense, and the reason he knew was because he was a Christian!! As the officer wrote out the ticket, Uncle E started to pray out loud "Oh Jesus!! Come right now!!"

Another time he was looking for work and had filled out some forms with an employment agency. One of the questions asked had to do with driving experience and he was supposed to estimate about how many miles he had driven. He put down "a million miles." When he got tired of having no luck in the job hunting department, he called up the woman at the agency to yell at her, and told her that maybe she should be looking for him a job on the moon because she wasn't doing him any good down here on earth!

Uncle E once showed up at our door with a religious tabloid magazine claiming that Richard Nixon was being falsely persecuted... JUST LIKE JESUS WAS! My mother had some real giggles over that one. Neither of us could stand Nixon, and my mother liked to say "He thinks his shit smells like pineapples!" (meaning Nixon, not her brother).

One day, the phone rang. I picked it up and said hello, but all I heard was that song playing, "One Toke Over the Line" by Brewer and Shipley. I held the receiver up in the air so she could hear too, and we were both very aware of the definition of 'toke' and were giggling like mad and rolling our eyes. When the song ended, Uncle E finally spoke up on the other end. He said he wanted to make sure we got to hear that song because it was about Jesus!

I still think about that and laugh when I hear that song, and apparently Uncle E wasn't the only one who was taken in by that Modern Spiritual!

Helloooo weekend!

First of all, life's too short for Coors Light. Second, be careful out there and don't drink and drive, text and drive, or drink and text. Third, always remember... you are probably being videotaped.

Have been working long days in the office all week, plus commuting. Feeling tired as hell and looking forward to not hearing the alarm at 4:30AM tomorrow. Next week is another crunch. Glad to have a job though. Glad to have a job... Glad to have a job... Glad to have a job... repeat. in. head.