It’s a sparkling Wednesday morn here in the Land-Down-Under. Weather systems by the score have been running through the area. Thunder, lighting, wind, and buckets of rain.
One place near by got 55mm/2inches of rain in less than 30 minutes yesterday. We got over an inch/30mm. It has been hard-driving rain. Ground thumping rain. Wind-driven, pounding rain where all small chinks in the armour are tested. Leave a window down a fraction and the water gets in. Let a door opened a crack and not only will it get slammed open by a giant windy jackboot, but the floors will get soaked in seconds.
It has been great.
And today is sparkling clear n clean.
I just drove from Pwoods to BNE International airport. Flying off to the US for a short week. Finally giving up the apartment in Pasadena. Our time spending Pasadena-time is at an end. Its been a good run. A very good run. But as with all good things, the end has come.
I will fly into LAX and start emptying and divesting. I plan to give pretty much all that’s left away. I’ll have the place cleaned and inspected and hand the keys back. I’ll fly back to Aus in a week.
So a change of address and a change of perspective, noting well that Pasadena is the kinda place I like to spend time. Pasadena-time been a good run for us.
There was a time the US of A gave me the willies. I permanently left the US in January 1981. I was young and uneducated and a know-it-all-know-nothing. I left and have never really called the US “home” since. Tho a good place to visit, and a great place to be from, I have habitually struggled to “fit in” in the US.
Perhaps it has been my sense/ need for adventure?
I like Uncle Teddy Selman’s line… “I read too many national geographics as a kid”.
I too read too many of those mags and fantasized too much to “stay on the farm”. Rudyard Kipling, RL Stevenson, Joseph Conrad, and many others influenced my feet. They planted the seed that has kept my soles itching now for over 6 decades.
I am sitting in the departure lounge for Virgin Australia. It’s a copacetic environment with quiet elevator type musak playing like running water in the background. The smiling and agreeable gals that wait n clean and assist are smiling and agreeable. an 8month old baby boy, big blue eyes and tousled hair is scooting around near by. On his belly, like a camando-under-the-wire crawl. He moves at a rate of knots making happy baby noises as his mom tries to keep up. He makes me smile and laugh.
And life is good.
Where are we with the Bluez-for-today… The general melee of this Kavanagh appointment has been interesting and frustrating to watch. I just saw a meme where an intelligent, sensitive guy I really admire stated something to the effect of “Kavanagh is guilty and if he isn’t it doesn’t matter because he is terrible”.
Other folks I know and respect actually believe the double-standard-bull-shit that the left-of-centre groups are shouting. I do not get it.
I personally luv the idea that every woman with a #metoo claim, by necessity of her gender and her claim, must be believed in the first instance. Noting well and fully that #metoo certainly did not help any of the female folk who got too close to slippery Willie Clinton, nor did it stop Ms bats-in-the-belfry Hillary from attacking and in cases destroying those #metoo claimants.
Do any of you recall President Slippery Willie’s televised query “… that depends what “IF” means…”? He proved himself to being a lying sack of presidential excrement then. What makes him golden now?
And what about the “Pay for Play” scam the Clintons had going when Ms batsinthebelfry was secretary of state? Come on… didn’t anyone but me see and question what was going on when the world at large was paying megabucks for “speeches”. A quick search shows that Mr Slippery and Ms Bats are both giving a lot less speeches and that the price paid per speech has been drastically reduced.
I have lived in the Solomons for decades and know well the game of “greasing” officials.
Honestly, that’s what is called in the Solos… “Grease”.
It is required to lubricate the way forward. To buy compliance or favours or receive a desired outcome from a government office.
And both Mr and Ms Clinton are as greasy as a butcher’s prick.
Another one… And this one really confuses me… The left-of-centre thinkers are still of a mind that those who supported/ support DJTrump are lacking in intelligence, deficient in worldly views, ignorant of life’s logic.
Well Hell! We not only attack the man because we do not like, in fact, for some inexplicable reasonings, we hate the orange bastard and by default we hate all those brain-dead deplorables who voted against virtue and wisdom and for the orange-man. And… AND… it was the Electoral College that got DJT elected. Not the intelligentsia of the electorate.
Give me a break!
I am frequently reminded that the average bird on the perch knows very little history and even less civics.
History: Mr Honest Abe Lincoln was a) a republican, b) abolished slavery on a national level in the USA. It was the Democrat Party that supported slavery and all its pros and cons.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it for a minute… The common delirium is that the Republican party is that of greed and dishonesty and human bondage. That the Democrats represent that golden promise of self betterment and freedom.
My views on politics and politicians is well-known. I distrust all.
Another delirium is that the Electoral College needs to be scrapped. That it is not the right thing for our modern age. That the popular vote better represents the spirit of the democracy we live under.
FYI: The presidential elections of 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016 produced an Electoral College winner who did not receive the most votes in the general election.
More History: At the beginning of our Nation’s existence some very clued-up guys put their hand to drafting a Constitution that could possibly stand the test of time.
A big “thing” all those long years ago was that of tyranny and being dictated. The European experience of the day saw the old modes of government cracking, being tested, failing. With the idea that mankind needed governance but not dictators these smart cookies in the new, new land of USA set about drafting a dream.
The whole foundation of the new, new country was to oppose unfair controls as placed upon the citizenry by the hereditary leaders. To gain something unheard of previously… self-determination.
One of the smartest things these dudes did was to create the Electoral College.
Here is the best explanation I have seen in regards to this discussion… “The Electoral College was created for two reasons. The first purpose was to create a buffer between population and the selection of a President. … The founding fathers were afraid of direct election to the Presidency. They feared a tyrant could manipulate public opinion and come to power.”
As I travel and study government processes I note that only 10 countries on our planet directly elect their leaders, President or Prime Minister… http://www.saveourstates.com/2010/the-electoral-college-versus-the-world/
The article is well worth the read and I note: Comparing America’s presidential elections to the world, we find what we should expect to find: a process that is more democratic than most while incorporating checks and balances in the interest of political stability and individual rights.
I could waffle on about how the Electoral College has the exact same representation as the electorate has at Federal Levels. 2 senators for each states and 1 rep to Congress for every 800 people. It is aiming, as I see it, for a fair balance of voter representation at a national level. And I think it works.
Done, 10 to 10 my time. 11am departure, 14 hours of small chair yoga to come.
And I am ready and hapi and life is undeniably very good.
More later
Potatoes n beast n pumpkin n veggies. It’ll suit the chilly weather well. I’ll let it stew for a few hours and enjoy it much later. I like my stew to be almost soup, but thick n chunky. This one will be killer when ready. And will last for several days. I am an economy cook and eater. Good food that I’ll add more good food to each day until its nothing but a chunky gravy I’ll add curry to and have on toast.
Gracie allowed us to attack her stash of “Hard Navy Biscuits” to celebrate the event.
Cooked a killer mess of beans n veggies n beast this week. Fed the household for a couple days.
taking steps to get my fire arms licence…
They are in the back 40 where there is more water and greener, sweeter grass.
He does not look big here but they are impressively large birds.
look closely: Two cages with dogs under the truck, two horses saddled and ready to go, two large rather feral looking cows… This guy is a mobile drover. Call him up and he’ll come out to your ranch and use his dogs and horses to muster and load your wild livestock, and deliver them to the sale yard. I thought this was way cool.
This route claims 991 miles… the rally would have been close to twice the distance. And considering that we (most the rally-ers) spent long periods of time lost, off the track, confused, frustrated, etc… the distance was long and hard to negotiate.
The day took 8 hours of hard-driving through totally indecipherable terrain. I eventually dead reckoned and got to Kyoto using old style map reading techniques. It was tough.
about 10% of the signs were in english… some undecipherable, some not…
We spent at least an hour lost in Tokyo. Drove past but could not find the off-ramp to the hotel no less than 3 times.
The Native Iowan 
thoughts and opinions