FIVE SECOND STORIES

In the Neighborhood:

9/3-4: Rain days! It has been quite a while since we have had such weather. A cold front is swinging down bringing storms ahead of it. The morning of the 3rd brought dramatic skies as storms arrived. Here is a shot taken in NW Jackson County showing a cloud formation that storm chasers refer to as a Mothership:

It is caused by a powerful, rotating updraft within a severe supercell thunderstorm combining with warm, humid air rushing upward. The photographer estimated that the top of the mothership reached up to 10 miles.

We got a good rain out of this storm. Later in the afternoon, another system arrived with big winds and a lot of thunder. Little rain though, we happened to be in a dry slot between storms. The big blow created this curious sight: our street was filled with leaf litter. But, on MI Ave., a 2 laner with a 3rd turn lane, only the turn lane had debris. Cars driving blew out stuff in their lanes leaving a road with clear blacktop with a "green" lane in the middle.

Overnight, storms arrived around 5 am with a lot of thunder and downpours. These occurred on and off most of the morning. Total rainfall for the two days was little over one inch.

9/5-three doors down across the street, a new roof was being installed with long periods of staccato nailing. From time to time, one could hear some music the crew had on-it was Mexican. Made me smile, considering there's a couple of MAGA households up the street from them. Yeah, we're here. Build a bridge and get over it. 

C got some more lawn signs: El Sayed and Lawrence. Rather than placing them near the roadside, I brought them in the middle of the lawn. You wanna be a prick and go after these expressions of 1A? Well, then you can add trespassing to malicious destruction/petty theft to your crimes.

9/6-beautiful day-mostly sunny, 70's after a chilly start in the 50's which brought heavy morning dew. While doing yardwork, I noticed the gold finches had returned for a late summer treat: echinacea seeds still on the stalk, which sounds like a menu item at a fancy-schmancy restaurant. They also enjoyed the feeder:

The tomatoes are pretty much finished being one of the worse growing seasons in recent memory. Saw a huge spider web that was attached to one of my cages with a thin line going up to the eaves:

Meeting up with an old friend? I spotted what I thought was a new squirrely at the Diner so I grabbed some peanuts.His reaction was curious: now, most new squirrels when they even hear the slider open will flee or catching sight of me on the deck. In this case, I went out, said howdy to Buddy who was chilling on a deck chair cushion and flung the peanuts in the direction of the squirrel. Not only did he not budge seeing me, he calmly continued to eat a sunflower seed as peanuts rained down around him. Odd I thought-this one either knows me or is astonishingly fearless. 

Definitely a mature squirrel, a long skinny tail. Doesn't have any stripes on it nor does he holler like Frank. Not part of the BigTail clan. While he is enjoying a peanut, MamaC has caught wind that peanuts are now available, for a limited time only today, while supplies last, no substitutions on the Buffet. I frequently see her in this spot-she keeps an eye on things.

Instead, she opts for grazing on a sunlit spot on the berm imbibing some freshly mowed grass.

Eventually, she changed her mind and waddled over to the Buffet. The new squirrel was still there, quietly munching on a seed. MamaC is shocked to see that the squirrel hasn't fled for its life-not uncommon for them to do so. He's not budging so she pivots to face him. No reaction. With a quick squeal (or whistle) she charged. The squirrel jumped back about 4 feet:

By the time he pivoted to face her, she had already moseyed away in search of peanuts!

Since then, new squirrel has taken on LG who was none too pleased about his presence. LG charged him as well and the two flew into a classic squirrel circle chase with the new guy whipping off towards Johnny's like a comet swinging around the Sun.

9/9-another rainy day. No storms, no drama, just a nice rain on and off most of the day. Nearly another inch of rain!

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Living with cats

In the afternoon, when I hear Bud come through the portal after hours of being on patrol, he will pass through the library, check out the couch and enter the kitchen looking for me. If not seen, he will mew "Where are you, Dad?" He will expand his search, listening for a reply and mewing. Whether I am in my office or on the can, I'll holler. In the latter case, I have opened the slider a bit and Bud will walk up. I'll say "hi, I'm using the litter box and will be right with you and serve your afternoon tea. He'll come in, tail my leg and adjacent shelving unit, often not stopping-just passing through. He has made known his wishes and is just giving me a feline brotherly greeting. After enjoying his tea, he'll come hang out with me, do his toilette and curl up.

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Buddy came bounding in through portal with something in his mouth. It was a sparrow. He does this sometimes with his kills rather than eat them outside. There are other times, he is presenting us with a gift: ooohhh, I wuv you and Mom sooo much, I will give you the pleasure of the kill.

And he let the bird loose. 

The poor thing flew around many rooms with me unable to trap it by myself and it whipped in behind a bookcase in my office. I couldn't get to it. When C got home from work, she were able to put a towel trapping it in one end as we ran to take it outside. I am happy to report that it safely flew away. We were not happy with His Lordship for a bit but soon forgave him. The event made me think of this tune from 2006:

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Seen in the garden: I believe I saw this guy with a blue body:

Meet Mr. Pondhawk Dragonfly

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Such has been this Summer that I only visited this place in my dreams.

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In Memoriam: Gloria Steinheim-3/25/34-9/2/26

Gloria Steinheim with Dorothy Pitman Hughes in 1971. Hughes passed in 2022,

 

Amidst a sea of notable men of the modern era, she was one of the women who helped change history. I've been lucky to have been alive during this extraordinary period where women across the country and globe, stood up and changed the world. Part of the mess we're going through today is a backlash against Steinheim and the movement she helped create. 

I am quite proud that my Mom joined the ranks of these women early on.  Despite not being able to drive, armed with a manual typewriter and a telephone, she worked on a number of things.

In the early 60's, while my brother Mike was in high school, she and Dewitt Public Librarian Faye Hansen went on a lengthy campaign with the Dewitt Public School Board asking them finance a library in the Dewitt High School. Mom had some leverage being the mother of one of their students and took lead. Faye was well-respected in the community and provided expertise. Their argument was that books would greatly benefit the kids. The world is changing bringing new and different job opportunities in the coming years. Isn't our job to give them a helping hand? Well, as I was told later, the long- time school Superintendent, C. H. Fuerstenau relented, saying-well, Bette Kristin, you have your library. 

As the 60's progressed, Mom was involved with civil rights-writing and calling her elected employees about a number of policy concerns.

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Fun vids:

Interesting vid: why don't we remember our dreams. Weird isn't it that we are built to remember stuff in waking life (a curious attribute to begin with) but not dreams? 

The Elephant Whisperer:

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We were watching a film where an unusual restaurant in Paris was featured: https://paris.danslenoir.com/en_GB/-where patrons eat in complete darkness and the servers are blind. C knew of it but never visited.

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Very original and strange film-Lars and the Real Girl from 2007 starring Ryan Gosling as a traumatized young man having a tough time with life in a small MN town. A buddy from work orders him an artificial silicone female doll (not a blow up) who is anatomically correct so he has a companion. Nothing raunchy at all here as he is quite the gentleman. Worth dipping into.

Available on several streaming companies.

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Clever sign from Oxfordshire, England:

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“Adopting cheerfulness as a strategy does not mean closing your eyes to evil; it means resisting our drift toward compulsive dread and despond.” -Garrison Keillor 

I ran across this quote while checking up on what he's been up to since his cancellation. We were devoted fans, tuning into A Prairie Home Companion every late Saturday afternoons for years. The quote is from his 2023 book, a reflection upon entering his 80's. 

FUBARland

With all that needs to be addressed in this country and world, what was a major topic amongst our leadership this week:

Does god have a penis? 

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This week Roach, in response to dwindling beef supplies, told the American people that he will allow 300,000 metric tons ground beef and beef trimmings to come in duty free. Already derided as "mystery meat", with the summer's cyclospora outbreak fresh in everyone's mind, we gotta ask:

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Roach, angry about not being allowed to give a speech at the 25th anniversary of 9/11 event, won't attend. It's all about him. His staff, despite the v bad optics, have got to be relieved. Who knows what irrelevant, crazy shit will come out of his mouth in such a speech. Here's a good prediction market bet: he'll blame Biden.

Update: Roach gives speech at Ground Zero and embellishes his long-standing claim that he was there with a new spin: he was pulled out of the rubble by a couple of beautiful, burly firemen.

Joke: he also claims to have survived the Titanic and Hindenburg disasters.

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The independent Treasury oversight watchdog issued a lengthy report showing that for this year, the IRS revenue is down 35% vs a normal year. You can thank Muskrat and his Doge boys who axed nearly 30% of IRS auditors and staff. Couple this with the ballooning deficit now at 40 trillion, during a REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION. Huh? These fuckers have been whining about it since the Reagan era. 

Well, moving forward, Dems need to verbally bitch-slap any idiot who returns to this tired argument to deny help to the people and tell them to shut the fuck up. Where were you when Roach caused it to balloon? Coward.