There is nothing more exciting than to see a fresh green sprout emerge from a fire scarred forest floor. It is the beginning of life again. This morning I witnessed a sight which evoked a similar emotion for me, I saw a kid waiting for a school bus on the corner by my house. Most likely this was my first sighting because lately I have not been up early enough to see what is happening in the real world, but it affected me.
The signs of the retraction of COVID-19 are slowly beginning to appear. Businesses reopening, toilet paper on the shelf, school kids waiting for buses, you know all the stuff that disappeared when the virus hit.
This morning was also opening day for early voting. I laughed as I passed the library and saw the lines winding around the parking lot. All these people are voting early to get away from long lines at the polling places on the November 3 voting day. I have refrained from actively campaigning for my candidate until today. I decided I cannot remain quiet any longer. You will notice by the subject matter of some of my posts. Rarely do I post more than one article, and today this is my fourth one. What is it with me? Well, I got up early and have been running on coffee ever since. Maybe I should get up early more often.
At this point I’m ready for lunch. Normally, I don’t like to enjoy lunch until 2:00 p.m. I’ll fix myself a KETO wrap on lettuce as soon as I post this piece.
After lunch I’ll go for my walk and then take a long nap to make up for the sleep I lost this morning.
Last night I hooked into another series on TV, this one titled Mystery Road. It definitely has some potential to keep me coming back. Mostly because it is filmed in Australia and has aboriginal characters.
Condescending, arrogant, elitist, are some of the adjectives I will use to describe yesterday’s VP debate participant Kamala Harris. She reminded me of Obama at his most arrogant peak of power just after winning the presidency. The way he treated John McCain was atrocious. His reminding comment that elections have consequences rings in my mind with contempt. Yes they do, but why rub it in? In this case the election is not yet been held and the candidate is showing off her tendencies to be a bitch. Kamala Harris is not one whom I want running this country, or any country for that matter.
Somehow I can’t picture her standing up to Vladimir Putin with her attitude that she is better than he. I truly believe Putin would put her in place accordingly. Her comment that she will not be lectured by the Vice President of the United States about her pissy poor record as Attorney General of a district that made her position only one notch lower than that of the Attorney General of the United States is a powerful chest expansion that is only exceeded by the expansion of her head on the matter of her importance. Like I said, she is as arrogant as Obama was maybe even worse. I would not want her to become president only because I don’t want Obama to lose his title of the worst president we ever had.
My guess is that if we allow this travesty to occur that the United States will become the United Socialist States of America in her first month in office. How anyone can call themselves a person of faith, and allow innocent babies to be slaughtered in lawful abortions is clueless to the meaning of a person of faith. How anyone can accuse us of being racist when her record of prosecuting blacks was much higher in percentage than her prosecution of whites for the same crimes? Her support for Joe Biden’s plan to eliminate COVID-19 is merely a repeat of what Trump and Pence have already done, What makes their plan better than the one that was followed? Her proposal to implement the Green New Deal is based on taking away the people’s liberty. There have been multiple global warming cycles throughout the ages and still our scientists make their most educated guesses that we the people are causing this one to occur. Why? Because they learned that CO2 causes air to become warmer. How long will it take for all the CO2 being generated by our fossil fuel burning is a matter of pulling the answer out of the crystal ball. Does it really matter if we speed up the process and make it happen a hundred years sooner when the cycle is a half million years? Does she and her scientist friends really believe that if the USA converted all of our energy needs to wind, solar, and democrat gastric out put in one day that we would not be impacted by China, India, Europe, and every other continent of this world? Does she think that by China building all electric cars only that the Chinese would then magically develop electric charging stations that will be powered by the sun? Even if they did, the pollution caused by making the batteries would be more damaging than that of conventional cars. Politicians should never get into arguments involving science because the scientists also have political leanings. Scientists can be just as stupid as politicians when it comes to defending their livelihood and fortunes.
Taxing the hell out of Americans to reduce their carbon footprint is merely a political scheme to control the masses. As I have stated before my vote won’t make one bit of difference in a state whose population has been politically manipulated and brainwashed to believe that voting democrat is the best thing they can do for themselves. Just ask them what they will do with the money they keep by defunding the police?
Why do I need to make a reservation to visit the Lord? He was never that busy before to not let me in. This time, however, it is not because He is busy, it is because government thinks it is safer to stay away from Church. Safer? Since when did visiting with God depend on my safety? I would rather place myself in harms way than to avoid the Almighty. Dying may not be so bad after all. Isn’t that the goal of life is to die? Dying gets us to the pearly gates, it may not get us in, but at least we may get to see the gates. Who knows perhaps I’d get a sneek peek at God Himself when the gate opens for someone to enter?
Religion is not something I normally discuss out loud and never in public. Unlike politics, which I shoot myself in the foot with all the time. Politics is different than religion, thank God for that. It would be nice, though if politicians practiced their faith more when running for office. I too often get the feeling that I am supposed to forgive all the lies and deceit spewed by politicians as political rhetoric. Somehow lies become allowed when speaking politically. I would really like politicians to tell me their personal definition of a lie.
One of the most common arguments comes from taking a statement out of context and labeling it a lie. For instance. Back in January, he said the Chinese COVID-19 Virus is harmless.” three months later after science has proved that COVID-19 is deadly, we claim the speaker told a lie. Duh! At the time he said it he based his statement on the scientific evidence of the day. It wasn’t a lie it was a statement that has been proven wrong by time. Yet, I detect false claims of lies almost daily on the news.
Polls are another form of lie. Yesterday I reported counting yard signs along the highway in Wisconsin and took an impromptu poll. I reported that Biden was ahead of Trump in Wisconsin. Did my poll really prove that? No. Polls need data, lots of data that can be statistically calculated with some degree of certainty that the prediction is correct. I venture to say that six yards signs on a short piece of highway is not statistically accurate. When I worked as an engineer, I was always placed in a situation where I needed to come up with answers immediately. Most times I was trying to determine if a new design was better, stronger, etc. than the standard. With the time I had to do the work I used a method I had developed to make the assessment. Years later After taking a course in statistics I learned that my method was one of pure guesstimating. I had a fifty fifty chance of making an accurate choice between designs. Now, when I hear reports stating that a poll shows one candidate ahead of another I laugh and dismiss it completely. The trouble is that average citizens do not look at the statistical relevancy of a poll, they merely remember the result they hear reported. To me that report constitutes a lie, but the result is touted as the truth.
When I look at candidates, I try to assess them relative to past performance. If it is a new candidate who never had a political life before, it is harder, but I then look at the candidates character and his record in his current job. If the candidate has been in office before I look at his promises and measure them against his results. Did he keep his promises. Did I believe the promises he made were in alignment with my own politics? If he kept his promises then I would be prone to vote for him. If he made promises, but absolutely no effort to fulfill them I will not vote for him, he is liar using political rhetoric only to gain my vote.
The one thing I had against Obama was his promise to “fundamentally change America.”
“Into what?” I asked, Obama never really answered that but during the course of the campaign he let out little hints that he was heading the country toward Communism. One particular hint came during a discourse with Joe the Plumber at a rally.
Another political scheme is to use the free press as your personal propaganda machine. It was no secret that the Democrats control the political message. The lazy free press buys the lies they are fed hook line and sinker and never challenge any of them. To this day, the free press that the Founder’s said was necessary to keep politicians honest has chosen to become an integral part of the machine. They constantly manufacture news by manipulating videos, photos, and interviews to lead people to their way of thinking. All of it is a giant lie. It is hard to understand which news organizations meet the Founder’s concept of reporting fairly.
My choices for political office all boil down to whose message and reporting do I trust the most. Of course that comes only after I chose the candidate that most closely agrees with my own political ideology.
Some of you may have noticed that I didn’t post for a few days nor did I reply to comments. Last week I finally decided it was time to kick COVID down the road; I took a road trip to visit Wisconsin. Along the drive I began to notice yards signs for Biden/Harris. Not just real estate sized signs, but huge 4 feet by 6 feet signs. Being in farm territory the signs were big so people would notice. I was beginning to regret coming into such hostile territory when a Trump sign appeared, then another and another. I would say that Wisconsin is more for Biden. I also now know why we refer to them as cheese heads, and it’s not because of the Green Bay Packers either.
I stopped at a truck stop to relieve the pressure on my prostate and spotted a tall thin black man hawking tee shirts outside. The front of the shirt said “Biden Sucks”, the back of the shirt said “Nancy Swallows.” He was selling them like hot cakes. I resisted
Today I heard that our governor has declared Wisconsin out of bounds. Anyone entering Illinois from Wisconsin will have to self quarantine for fourteen days before making contact with the general population. What is a person to do? Sit in his car for two weeks? I say that decree is long past being effective because the COVID numbers are in decline. That announcement should have been declared on March first. That is what happens when we put the Governor in charge of protecting us. It is also an indicator of the guys ability to think rationally.
I found the people of Wisconsin in strict adherence with their state recommendations. They all wore masks, kept their distance and generally were friendly. The restaurants and bars were open for inside seating. The towns I visited were on lakes so most people wanted outdoor seating on the shoreline. Shops selling stuff had sanitizer at the entrances with signs asking people to please squirt some on your hands to kill any COVID you may have picked up at the last place you were in.
Tramping through tee shirt shops didn’t really turn me on and the only place I did get turned on was out of bounds for me, an art gallery. I saw two large oils that I would have popped for if I weren’t selling all my stuff to simplify.
Note the price difference. I thought it is hilarious.
To make my life easier, I self declared this a cheat weekend and KETO be damned. I ate stuff like a crazy person, bread, pastries, ice cream, and sugary fruits. Life is too short not to enjoy it. It was in direct opposition to my goal of losing the beer belly which I developed while enjoying life over the past twenty years. I hate my beer belly. It gets in the way of too many things, and since I can’t seem to keep food in my mouth lately the droppings always land on my belly and dirty a nice clean shirt.
There were not many people enjoying the lake on boats. I think because it is mid-September many of the boats have been pulled from the water already. The weather was ideal for water sports, in the mid-seventies, no wind, and continuous sun.
I woke up Saturday morning to find a Harvest Festival going on under my window. There was not a single warning sign anywhere about it, but the locals were already streaming in by 7:30 a.m. Everyone followed the rules. I stopped at the Lions booth to learn what they were selling: roasted corn and baked potato. Too bad I just had a huge breakfast.
One thing I found hugely obvious is the number of Mexican businesses in town; four restaurants, a western wear shop, smaller super mercados, a bar, and a barber shop that was open on Sunday all within two blocks on Main street. They have landed and are obviously not letting anybody get in the way of their making a better life for themselves.
The biggest mishap of this adventure was leaving the charger for my lap top at home. I was able to watch a single episode of my favorite series when the Mac died. That was really the main reason I didn’t post during the trip. It forced me to watch conventional TV, but the picture was not HD and I hated it. All my reading material is on the lap top, so I couldn’t read a book, I resorted to the Enquirer tabloid, but that only took thirty minutes to read cover to cover. I got sucked in by a headline declaring Michelle Obama was sick of Barrack and wanted to throw him off the roof. Inside, the story didn’t have anything harsh to say about the couple, In fact I thought they wasted the ink on it. I’m sure the Enquirer doesn’t give a rats ass about not delivering all they wanted was for me to drop the money for their tabloid, and they succeeded.
I sat in the quiet room on Saturday evening thinking it was only yesterday that I left home. It felt like a week ago. The getaway succeeded in taking my mind off the drone-like life I have been leading.
Oh yeah, the soy beans are yellow and the corn husks are beginning to shrivel like they are drying out too. Soon the bright green Deere harvesters will be smoking away in field after field stripping the ground of its summer output.
This summer has been wonderful, and strange at the same time. Weather-wise I couldn’t ask for anything better, but Labor Day weekend was a big disappointment. It felt like Frankfort celebrated a weekend off. For forty years we have had a Fall Festival on Labor Day weekend. This year it was cancelled because of COVID. We will eventually recover from this shock, but it may take a long time, like several years.
Suddenly, fall is sneaking in and the weather is changing. Temperatures are dropping rapidly. It seems like I just got acclimated to living in ninety degrees when all of a sudden today it was sixty. Next week we will have some warm days but in general the temps will swing downward. Fall is in the air, the leaves are dropping from the trees and changing color too. Flowers and plant life are withering from the recent drought. I called it sneaking in, but it seems more like a thud, and its here.
The weather change has me thinking about wintering in a warm climate. I haven’t had that urge for several years, but now I do. I need to get away and shock my life into something new. The one problem I have with this plan is that it is the stress of distancing that has caused me to want to seek out a new life somewhere else, and COVID will be with me anywhere in the world I might want to escape to. I have a lot of thinking and researching to do before I make any reservations.
One scary thought is that my friend base in Phoenix is smaller now than it was six years ago. Being alone will not help to improve my attitude at all. I read a short article published in September, 2020 issue of Departures magazine titled “Happiness” by author Eviana Hartman on how happiness affects people’s lives and one sentence stunned me.
“Happy people are less likely to catch a virus, and loneliness can be as damaging to physical health as smoking fifteen cigarettes per day.”
I quit smoking forty-two years ago, and it scares me to know that I can wipe out the benefits by feeling lonely. Loneliness is one of the biggest problems I encountered after each of my life partners died. It took a long time to be happy again, and I worked hard at changing my life in order to reach a happy state. So far, I haven’t reached happiness after Peg’s passing, but it’s only been fourteen months.
All I can say is that I’m working on it, and that is all I want to say about that.
