I have written before about the person I considered the best employee I ever knew, her name was Lani, she passed away yesterday.
I dont know how old Lani was, but when she came to work for us in 2000 I think she was late teens/ early 20s. She had a young daughter, was a single mother, came to work as a house-keeper for us in Gizo.
Over the past couple decades (and more) Lani made my family’s life a better place. She has helped raise no less than dozen of the Hemmer progeny. She is the most dedicated , willing, able, aware employee I have ever known.
I have spoke about Lani previously in relation to discussing why folks are motivated to work, and what motivates folks to be good workers. In Lani’s case, as a young mother, she loved her job because she loved her family, and her job very simply allowed her to provide for her family, including the payment of school fees.
I learned a long time ago that a faithful, happy, willing and able employee was a good thing. I learned long ago that a dedicated, long serving employee was what I wanted. And to entice and retain good employees I have traditionally offered the payment of education expenses as part of the employment package.
Lani had more kids, I think she eventually had 2 daughters and 2 sons. Lani was faithful and wiling and able for many years, ensuring her kids had a home and got a decent education. Just last year, Lani’s daughter graduated from University in PNG. Lani got to get a passport so she could travel to attend the graduation ceremony. She enjoyed her first only international trip, shared the Graduation with her daughter, came home and got to tell everyone about her amazing adventure. To me this single little story of success explained well Lani’s commitment and willingness.
Lani died, I am told, suffering an asthma attack.
Sad sorta statement on the Solomon Islands. People should not die during an asthma attack, but they do.
I am thinking of my youth. Specifically those years when you cease being a child, start learning things and being competent. Becoming capable, making choices, forming a mature personality, becoming YOU.
I have been political from a young age. Perhaps I should say I was politicised at a young age… A lot of politics got talked around The Family Table. My parents were modern liberals. They had very conservative yet held liberal ideals…
They were catholic and obviously did not practice birth control (I’m the middle of 9 natural births). Their marriage was consider “inter-racial” for the day… dad was German Catholic and mom was Greek Orthodox… my grandmother never forgave her daughter, my mother, for marrying out of the “church”.
As a little kid I went to the catholic school in a midwest, bible-belt town where catholics were a distinct minority. 1st grade to 8th saw less than 100 kids. We were a glaring minority… I never understood the slurs I heard. Still dont.
My father was a therapist in the V.A. medical system. He worked with folks from all walks of life, religions, nations, levels of education, sects and more… My brother and I reflect these days how our folks collected a number of gay and lesbian friends. We didn’t get it then but as we aged we realised that T.C. was a gay guy. Not just a single man… What did we know when we were kids?
Race, color, creed, nationality mattered not to my folks. All were welcome around The Family table.
When it came to politics, The Democrats Party was respected, the Republican Party not so much.
But all were welcome, showed respect, fed and watered equally. I never understood basic racism because I never learned it.
Many of those seated at The Family Table were clergy. Mostly catholic priests, some bishops, a couple monsignors, and one nuncio. Catholics felt comfortable around our Table. it was a very catholic Table. Catholic in our traditions and prayers and songs of worship. Many a family mass was conducted around The Table.
I think back… I can picture the large dining room with the huge Family Table.
Meals, meetings, arguments, card games, and more took place on and around The Table.
By the time I was 10/12 I knew I was a Democrat. By then I was coming-self- aware, I was modern, I thought I dressed and talked like a Democrat. I thought I was coooool….
I was 10 in 1967. Between 1967 and 1975, the year I came of age, I was educated well, indoctrinated well, conditioned well by all those gathering at The Table.
People read books back then. People talked about the books they read. I had access to lots of books and read many. Reading was something most folks did…. my mom read, my dad read, people I admired read books, discussed the books they read.
As a young teen I became politically active. My elder siblings and their friends were the 60’s era teens that were too young to vote, but old enough to die. Many were “activists”. I had first hand contact with “Nam-Vets”… Listened to their stories. I thought they were cool. I could only agree with hem support their “movement”.
I wore a used pair of “boony-boots”, and a duffle coat with genuine patches. I thought I was cool, informed, aware and cool. Did I say coooool?
in 1980 I joined the most Democrat organisation of them all, The US Peace Corps. Only liberal minded, modern, open minded folks joined the Peace Corps…. I was wrong…
Between 1967 and 1976 I’d “popped my cherry” when it comes to politics. I’d been involved with McGovern in 1972. Of course Nixon was bad, terrible. The war was bad, terrible. Republicans were bad, terrible… but when Anderson went independent in 1976, splitting the Democrat ticket and letting Raygun win… well hell! I refused to vote. I saw that it wasn’t the best and brightest running the DNC. It was dirty bizzynesss…It was a fight for power and Anderson lost, even with my support, and went rogue and fucked it all up… according to my youthful thinking Raygun was bad, evil…
I always and all ways considered Carter a fat cat of sorts. Sure he spoke homey n all but I always thought him to be a Republican in DNC clothing. Could not support him. But for some reason I thought Anderson was The-Guy… cant recall why.
As I was saying… in 1980 I joined the most Democrat organisation of them all, Peace Corps”. Only liberal minded, modern, open minded folks joined the Peace Corps…. I was wrong… My political position got beat up, shouted down, called names, and more.” I should not have been allowed in the Corps if I didn’t vote.”
Damn, can you say “intolerant”?
I was lucky to learn to question my team/ my party at an early age. I was adept at questioning the other party(s). So I went to work becoming a Centrist. After being forced into a corner by my then Peers.
These days I question everything.
Which leads me to my title for this piece….
All my youthful, tolerant, kind, well meaning democrat and democratic friends…
Saturday morning here. We’ve been getting rain, the ground is wet. Really need to do some mowing.
The skies are slate, dense, opaque. No radiant warmth getting through to the earth, noting it’s a muggy 24c/ 74f out. Its going to rain, again, soon…
I’m thinking of the waste, graft, corruption, misuse and abuse we are hearing about. Below is a list of items “discovered” thus far by the DOGE cowboys. But I need to walk down memory lane a bit, first:
Discussion Part-One…
I became an “Aid-Worker” in 1981. I swore-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) 3 months after Ronald Raygun was swore-in for his first term. I was a “gift” to the Solomon Islands, from the USofA. I was sent to a school to “teach” whatever they needed taught. My presence was free of charge to the Solomon Gov. I came with access to Aid-$$$. PCVs were expected to have a “project” or two.
My gig was a traveling circus type “Alternative Technology” workshop where I coordinated with other government departments and traveled to remote villages holding courses in areas like sanitation and water, outboard motor repair and maintenance, small business assistance, and more.
My PCV status gave me easy access to “development funding”. Organisations like IHAP (International Human Assistance Program) and FSP (Friends of the South Pacific), and others had funding for “projects”. I’d fill in the forms, jump through some hoops and get something like USD$2,000 to buy the fuel and consumables for a “tour”.
A “Tour” typically would include a government owned canoe and OBM with a driver. I’d buy the fuel and consumables. Get someone from the Ministry of Health to come along. Maybe someone from Agriculture. I worked for the Ministry of Education, so everyone was paid to be involved.
We’d take off and do a couple weeks traveling to predetermined villages. We’d hold a workshop where we might install a water-seal toilet, build a ferro-cement tank, offer some training on OBMs. We would target a village with a school. The new infrastructure assisted the development and expansion of the village school. Everyone won. It was a good program.
Full time I lived and taught at a remote boarding school. I used the school breaks and holidays for my extracurricular fun n games.
The Aid$$ was always “tied-aid”, meaning it was for a specific purpose. In this case “education”. I did this work throughout the 1980s, holding maybe 50 small (2-3day) workshops and maybe 10-15 large (2week) workshops.
I had to apply for the funding with a written proposal. Once the funds were approved they would be released to my Ministry. The $$ was disbursed to me on what in the old days was called Licensed Purchase Orders (LPO). I didn’t get the money, I got quotes for the stuff I needed then got the LPO to “buy” the gear. I’d take an “Impress” in cash for incidentals. All funds had to be “retired” at the end of the program.
My next discussion is about the “Food-Chain” of the money I had access to, that I spent …
Discussion Part-Two…
The organisations I sought funding from had offices in Honiara, and regional offices in Suva or Moresby. With, of course, higher up offices in DC. Most of the funding ultimately came from USAID, through the other orgs like IHAP.
I was a lowly PCV, I made around USD 2-3grand per annum. I got my housing, travel, and medical paid for. Peace Corps had staff in country offering good support. It all cost. The food-chain my presence represented was much, much bigger, greater, more expensive than just me.
The Bosses on the ground locally were pretty well paid. The higher-ups in regional offices made more. The folks in DC made much more. Some were/ are downright Fat Cats. I was just a PCV.
The USD2000$$ I spent on a tour probably cost 10x to facilitate. Or more. The Food-Chain of the Aid$$ I touched was long, deep, and costly.
I have worked closely with USAID. My programs were good, notable, so bigwigs often came to play. I was once nominated for The Rolex Award by a well meaning FatCat. I never liked these folks… They’d travel first class, wear lots of gold, stay in nice hotels, eat in the fancy restaurants, and spend more in a week than I touched in a year.
So when I see something like this… “$5 million for effort to treat eating disorders by “affirming” LGBTQIA+ patients’ sexual orientation and gender claims” … I am confident that very little actually got spent treating eating disorders. It all got consumed by the Food-Chain, top to bottom, that has a voracious eating disorder.
The waste, graft, corruption of what is suppose to be “Aid”… nothing new here…
My week in pictures…
$78,000 to Palestinian activist group whose chairman was photographed attending an anniversary event celebrating the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Palestine terrorist group
$1 Million for foreign DEI programs, including ‘indigenous language technology’ in Guatemala, per non-public funding docs reviewed by WFB
Nearly $1 million to Hamas-linked charity that hosted terrorist leader’s son, per report from the Middle East Forum’s Focus on Western Islamism
$3.4 million for Malaysian drug-fueled gay sex app
$5 million for effort to treat eating disorders by “affirming” LGBTQIA+ patients’ sexual orientation and gender claims
$1.5 million to address address racial, ethnic and income-based differences in vasectomy knowledge.
$38.7 million annually for DEI work in addition to the roughly $30 million it spends on its Office of Minority Health
Over $1 million on video game to help LGBTQ youth stop “binge drinking”
Up to $3 million to defund the police advocacy group to pursue “climate justice” for convicts
Nearly $500 million for Biden admin’s “environmental justice” advisors
$50 million to a coalition that includes an “immigrant justice” group that pushes voter registration for traditionally Democrat-leaning demographics
FEMA doled out $12 million in May 2023 to push “equity” and prioritize communities with high concentrations of racial and sexual minorities. Then, after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, fmr. DHS Sec. Mayorkas claimed that FEMA did not have the funds to make it through hurricane season
The Biden administration’s 2022-2026 FEMA strategic plan listed “equity” as one of its top goals, with the agency also emphasizing “racial justice” trainings and funding DEI studies
June study from Arizona State University found the Pentagon had turned into a “vast DEI bureaucracy” under the Biden administration, requesting a $114.7 million budget for DEI projects in FY 2024
DoD Education Activity (DoDEA) approved a $2 million consulting contract for “equity”-focused management consulting firm BCT Partners to create an “action plan” for Pentagon-run schools
$500,000 for research on “indigenous knowledge” – “a pseudoscience that posits native Indians possess unique insights into the workings of the universe”
Over $100 million between 2021 and 2024 on education programs related to “restorative justice, social-emotional learning and DEI”
Instituted an “equity action plan” in 2023 to “advanc[e] equity for historically marginalized and underserved communities”
Funded performances of play “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” in which God is bisexual and communists are good, in North Macedonia
Disbursed $15,000 to “queer” Muslim writers in India
Shelled out tens of thousands to create army of 2,500 LGBTQI+ allies
$1.6 million for the “Nancy Pelosi Fellowship Program” to diversify America’s diplomats
Sponsored a set of $10,000 grants to “uplift transgender” youth in Peru via a ballroom dancing program
Funded 31 programs across 23 countries to engage in “hip-hop diplomacy,” to promote “democratic values, boost climate activism and promote diversity”
Provided $70,000 grant to produce a DEI musical in Ireland
$500,000 to “expand atheism” in Nepal
$25,000 to transgender opera in Colombia
$2.5 million to electric vehicles in Vietnam
Gave $32,000 in funding for a Peruvian “LGBT comic book”
Provided $1.5 million grant to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities, by promoting economic empowerment of and opportunity for LGBTQI+ people in Serbia”
$2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
$6 million to fund tourism in Egypt
Spent $20 million on “Ahlan Simsim” – a new Sesame Street show in Iraq
Over $4.5 million to “combat disinformation” in Kazakhstan
Up to $10 million worth of USAID-funded meals went to al Qaeda-linked terrorist group the Nusra Front
$500,000 to group that “empowers women” in attempt to solve sectarian violence in Israel just ten days before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks
Awarded nearly $25 million to Deloitte to promote green transportation in Georgia (the country)
$4.67 million to EcoHealth Alliance – one of the key NGOs funding bat virus research at Wuhan Institute of Virology — in late 2021. Later refused to answer key questions about the funding.
$20 million for the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability through Investigative Reporting program which used the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) as its implementing partner. The OCCRP was cited four times in the whistleblower letter that led to the Russiagate impeachment.
USAID’s 2022-2030 climate strategy outlined a $150 billion “whole-of-Agency approach” to building an “equitable world with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions”
$7.9 million to a project that would teach Sri Lankan journalists to avoid “binary-gendered language”
$1.1 million to an Armenian LGBT group.
$1.2 million to the African Methodist Episcopal Church Service and Development Agency in Washington, DC to build “a state-of-the-art 440 seat auditorium”
$1.3 million to Arab and Jewish photographers
$1.5 million to promote LGBT advocacy in Jamaica.
$1.5 million to “rebuild” the Cuban media ecosystem.
$1.5 million for “art for inclusion of people with disabilities”
$2 million to promote “LGBT equality through entrepreneurship…in developing Latin American countries.”
$2.1 million so the BBC can strengthen the media ecosystem in Libya, “designed to value the diversity of of Libyan society”
$2.3 million for “artisanal and small scale gold mining” in the Amazon.
$2.5 million to promote “inclusion” in Vietnam.
$3.9 million to LGBT causes in the Western Balkans
$5.5 million to LGBT in Uganda.
$6 million to advance LGBT in “priority countries around the world.”
$6 million to “Transform Digital Spaces to Reflect Feminist Democratic Principles”
$6.3 million to men who have sex with men in South Africa.
$8.3 million for “USAID Education: Equity and Inclusion”
Another $16.8 million to a separate group in Vietnam for “inclusion.”
$15 million for “oral contraceptives and condoms” in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, per non-public congressional funding notice reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon (WFB)
A glorious Sunday morning this side of the planet. Weather has been pretty good. Only a couple inches of rain this past week. Have been gaining on all my projects. So far 2025 has been Okay…
Today we have a damn good UFC fight card. Doesn’t start until later so I’ll sit, ruminate, drink coffee and waffle-on…
One strange habit I have, watching commercial TV, puzzles those around me…
I do have “cable”, and am fully connected to all sorts of buttons on a couple different remotes that do things I am only partially aware of. My kids and grandkids go places and watch things I dont know about. But I like watching commercials…
In the 80s there was NO TV in the Solomons. It wasn’t until the very late 80s/ 90s that we got “video players”. I left the US in January 1981 and did not go back for a visit until December of 83. Upon re-entry to the US I found the modern TV with its modern commercials (and the whole cable TV scene) very interesting, very entertaining. I learned to watch the commercials to gain a handle on society. By watching what was being advertised, how it was being marketed, and whom it was targeted, I figured basic social confusions out.
The world had changed, the US had changed a lot in the few years I was gone.
People think I’m too old fashioned and dumb to learn all the buttons on the various remotes, but the fact is, I watch commercials. In many ways the commercials can be more creative, more informative, and more entertaining than the general programmes. Commercials are cool…And who isn’t waiting for the commercials to come in 24hours at the Super Bowl?
I am sitting in an O’Briens Glass workshop. Located in a big industrial zone north of Brisbane. I’ve brought the Holden Astra in to get new glass for Elora.
MissE arrives here early Monday morning to start her career as a University student. I’ve prepared the hot little 1.8LTurbo for her.
I enjoy being involved with young folks as they grow and gain their wings. MissE is 18, an international kinda gal with her father, my brother, being a Yank, her mother is Austrian, and she grew up in Germany.
Now she’s moving to the Land of Aus.
Go team go…
I’ll aim to help her gain her feet here. Noting that one English speaking country is not the same as another. It’s a weird thing but borders n time zones = a new land, a strange land.
I think of simple things, like coffee… when I went on my first big international trip, age 23, I had never considered that coffee could be so confusing, so challenging… I grew up with standard “black n hot”. I don’t think I saw anyone put milk in their coffee, in Iowa. So when I was asked if I wanted my coffee “white” or “white n one”, I simply did not know what to say.
But I was a simpleton Iowa boy. I know MissE is much smarter.
Still about coffee… in Iowa I never saw, used or knew about “instant” coffee. I learned quickly that a hot cup filled with dark, aromatic fluid, made from coffee-crystals is not coffee. It’s still a decent drink. I’ve learned to enjoy it. But do not confuse that hot drink with coffee.
So, here I sit. I grabbed a MacDonald’s flat white on my way here.
Here in Aus it is not technically MacDonalds… it’s “Maccas”. Here words get chopped n changed. Slang is a cultural tradition in this land. And the only country on the globe where MacDonalds isn’t MacDonalds…
Macca’s” is a nickname for Mcdonald’s. If you used the term Macca’s in the U.S. or Canada, you’d get some funny looks. But the term is very common in Australia. In fact, McDonald’s changed its name to Macca’s at stores across the country for Australia Day in 2013 – and still refers to itself as Macca’s today.
The office area where I sit is comfortable. It’s a busy place. I count 5 guys working, have seen 3 cars arrive, it’s 820am.
So I sit and watch the world n write n read…
One topic I have been working on is the fact that females in our modern world don’t need men. Females can live, work, propagate, raise a family without men. It’s been going on for quite some time. I’ve watched as legal systems changed to accept and cater to this female revolution.
I very much get it. I sat years back, with my Lesbian friend Debbie, talking it all through. She and I like women for the same reasons. She and Diane have been together for decades. They have kids grandkids. They didn’t need a Man… They never did.
But it was my Dad that gave me an example of what a Man was. Showed me both right n wrongs ways.
I believe children need a Father.
I believe much of our confused, rage filled, angst burdened, modern day youth could have benefited by having a Father.
The TV is on here, a morning news program is on. They are talking about a “singles tax”… new to me…
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), a one-person household can spend $2,835 per month on living costs which is 27% more than couples who spend a combined $4,118 per month, or $2,059 per person – a $776 difference.
A clear, crisp, blue skied day on this side of the planet. Things are sedate, the dogs are all quiet, the birds are not being too noisy, a gentle breeze chills the skin.
Ive been thinking (and mowing), and talking to a couple people I really appreciate, and disagreeing and pissing them off by being, they think, obtuse. I think I’m being an inquisitive centrist, asking questions, honestly trying to understand their position(s)…
It is the bane of a centrist to never have a team. Right, Left, Up, Down… I’ll listen, be respectful, and when I disagree I’m viewed as an enemy, as opposition.
My old buddy, DB, is rabidly anti-Trump. Nothing can get him to see any positives in what is happening. The old-stool concept of “the voting is done, let’s all work together until the next election” is rejected.
The electoral swing, according to DB, is false, those that voted on the “right” have shit for brains, listen to Fox News, are of very low IQs, and should be sterilised.
Another, RB, is firmly of the opinion that the path the US has taken is wrong, deadly, hurtful, damaging, and leading to disaster. Trump is “fucking everything up”. Which leads me to assume that the status quo before Jan20th was ok, in his mind. I cant figure this out…
As soon as I hear the sound of personality hatred I step back…
I’m not sure, and I fear the emotion in both my dear and valuable friends, clouds their ability. We end up at “Orange Man Bad, Republican bad”. Haven’t got too far, have we?
Both have little inclination to answer questions I pose. We are tru, good friends, valued friends, and I dont fear being cancelled for my questions, but I am pissing them both off. One of the hardest things to do is explain what you believe in, believe to be good and true.
As a centrist I dont have a position to defend, I’m still looking for “my team”. Benn looking for a long time.
One main topic/ issue is the DEI+A agenda that Trump has put a choke hold on. According to RB, the US is going to come to a grinding halt under Trump… Eggs will cost more than gold soon, all our agriculture will die because there will be no labourers in the fields. With an almost gleefully-diabolical laugh, he says “wait until we cant buy eggs any more”… waiting to be proven correct. Wishing upon a negative to be proven positive.
The DEI+A gig is something I dont really get. RB is an educated expert on the topic, as he says “Ive been doing this since the 80s”. Gives me his credentials to add weight to his words. He explained what DIE+A is… and I’m none the smarter.
AM I being obtuse? Perhaps.
With Trump cancelling all the DEI+A programmes, RB tells me the US will grind to a halt. (Even tho I still dont understand)
To me I see DEI+A as an added regulation on the workplace. And regulations require bureaucracies and departments and inspectors and rules and laws… its more than just a good idea to hire the needy kinda good idea… I think, I’m still not sure.
I did some research and and still confused…. allow me to drop some of the sage words I found on line…
“Diversity in the workplace is not a hiring manager handing an open position to someone because they are a member of a marginalized group. It’s about expanding the representation of who works in every industry, yes, but it’s also about creating goods and services with the elevated potential to be effective.”
Help me here… what does this mean “but it’s also about creating goods and services with the elevated potential to be effective.”
“Elevated Potential to be Effective”… hmmm, hmmm…
And… When I ask my online intelligence what specifically DEI+A is I get the results of a survey: “Of those surveyed, 56% percent say the term means “to be informed, educated on and aware of social injustices.” That includes not only three-fourths of Democrats but also more than a third of Republicans. Overall, 39% say the word reflects what has become the GOP political definition, “to be overly politically correct and police others’ words.” 56% of Republicans agreed with this view. The term will likely continue to be a point of contention.”
So we dont know what it means, we have no real definition, but we take a survey and attempt an explanation by poll… ???? And, of course the term will be a point of contention because we dont agree on what the word means.
And so, we argue and throw rocks discussing its meaning, effect, use, misuse…
Sunday morn here. Ive been working too hard, getting heaps done, so I’m buggered this morning. Been a long couple weeks of work. Have gotten a lot done and need to get a lot more done… rain and great growing weather and selling one house and deciding to build a duplex on another lot I own… Too busy for an old fart. I dont get a lot of days off.
Ive been too busy to be 100% uptodate with the US news but, what I see and hear is interesting, even inspiring… I get the vibe that the USofA aint a one legged invalid any more…
So, dissecting week one of Trump-Time….
Damn this guy is busy. For a dude almost 80, he sure moves a lot.
Inside reports tell us: the 20th DJT was inaugurated, partied, had fun and then worked 30 hours straight.
This dude do get shit done!
I am not going to trade broadsides over pardons or such. The positives of the past week surely outweigh the politics of the past.
This dude do get shit done!
The foolishness of the modern gender BS has cost too much $$and way too much time. It is not important to the mainstream population. Traans, LBQTSHIT represents less than 1% of the population. It’s good to see it begin to be de-regulated.
I like the JFK, et al gig. Will be interesting to see if anything of substance is revealed.
DJT has done no less than 3 major site visits… NC, Cali, Vegas.
All in a week.
And in Cali he wasn’t a big bully as I half expected. He appeared to be reasonable and intelligent. Something the Newsome circus cant pull off.
Trump is very well informed, prepared. He wasn’t pugilistic, but rather a firm, mature, male figure of support.
Cali is an interesting wake-up-call… We can now see, smell and taste what a too far left agenda gives us… Science of forest management, like social science and biology… all ignored, stupidly flawed, changed, modified for the common “good”, if not designed to be intentionally destructive.
I’m impressed thus far.
One interesting thing I see happening, and its not as it usually happens… big wigs from top industries are hopping on the Trump-Train, not because of the graft and influence and corruption that normally brings the vultures to carrion, but because its the right thing to do… I think of past appointees and and senior secretaries… they got where they were because of what they were or did, or knew, not because of their ability.
Meritocracy… a good thing.
I do think, see, feel that the DJT era will be good for the chaotic world we share…
One week of DJT and we see and hear recalcitrant state actors stepping into line.
The US Ship of State has been rudderless for too long. I won’t go into a big diatribe of how sad and spoiled and soiled the Biden Admin has been. The World is now, once again, starting to look up to the US, not look down of it for being so sadly screwed up.
Putin is willing to talk, Xi is willing to play nice, Canada is for sale, Iceland has a “take me home sign” posted in the front lawn, Australia is noticeably shifting right, Mexico is building camps to welcome back their people… and more… I heard Taiwan’s big sigh of relief. And, hostages being released.
This dude do get shit done!
The one thing I find sad, even regrettable…
When the time comes for this to all be a mini-series on TV, how will they find folks to play the roles of Tom Homan, Musk, Ramaswami and others… they are almost caricatures of what they are suppose to be… the tuff cop, the dyslexic genius, the billionaire dude with a nice smile…
They are back… the cage fighters are back. After a long Cmas break. Blood Sport Sundays are back and happening. Yippeeeee…
Today is a cool, clear, mild morning.
Last night we had big rains and high winds. 50mm/2inch of rainfall in a couple hours.
The rain has cleared the air. It’s a very pleasant morning. I sit with my blanket and coffee. Blood sports start in an hour or so.
It’s been a while since I blogged. Have been busy using the days of dry to catch up on mowing.
The valley looks very nice.
A morning’s worth of writing and ruminating is guuud.
Whatz the Newz, Whats the Bluez???
DJT will be sworn in soon.
Hamas is soon to return the Oct 2023 hostages (dead and maybe alive) as per a “cease fire” deal.
CALifornia is still burning, still hurting, still led by DEI incompetents.
Congress is saying they will withhold funds until CA pulls its head out of its arse and fill the reservoirs, and turn the power on and tend to its fire risks.
DEI is being jettisoned by the Corps and COs that joined the rainbow gang-bang to nowhere.
The Green Deal that aint green is being tossed out as fast as Hunter’s paintings.
The Biden Crime Family is on its way out. Damn, what would another 4yrears of this kleptocracy given us?
The Liberal left that danced around the Biden mob for so long, are all foolishly silent.
The likes of many Loony Left Liberal drum beaters (FaceBook is one) are coming out and saying how good it is to have the Biden Admin off their back. I call them Cowards.
The Loud Loony Liberal portion of the DNC (I think of the squad) are either staying quiet or are making fools of themselves, again and again.
The RNC, for the first time in a long time, appears to be united.
Both the DNC and the RNC have morphed, are unrecognisable from their old selves.
The Liberal Left Lying Media are all changing the tune, many once upon a time important voices (Don Lemon) are sinking into obscurity without dignity.
I must admit I dont get it… Invade a country, kill a few thousand citizens, take a few hundred hostages, hold them for over a year, killing many, selling others into slavery, then stand up and proclaim your victimhood, your sainthood (noting Mandela was a global saint in his later years) … Hmmmm, Hmmmm… Nope, dont buy it at all.
AntiSemitism is alive in well in Australia, and the Albanese Administration does little, nothing. But then “Albo” does little or nothing, all the time.
A Federal Election is due here in Aus this year. We need the pendulum to swing.
My recent days in pictures…
I took my super cool, super sleek, super fast 10cyl/ 600hp super car into town for coffee last week. A teenaged kid came up and told me how cool the car was. I said “Get In”… I took him for a good burn then drop him back to his family with stars in his eyes. He shall be forever changed.
In my youthful life I considered the WestCoast to be a “hot” place. A “cool” place. A “happening” place.
Los Angeles, for me and mine, has been a place of transit. LA was always the revolving door to and from the US. LAX is (in my mind) the most difficult airport. In and out of LAX was something I’d psych myself up for. One needed to go into training, mentally and physically, to “take-on” LAX.
I was 23 when I first met LA, LAX, Cali. I last visited in 2018, when I moved out of the Pasadena apartment we’d had for many years.
Over the 40+ years I’ve been stomping around LA/ So-Cal I’ve developed a mixed emotion for the place. A love/ hate relationship.
Of course there is sooooo much gooood about Cali. Sun and Sea and California-Weed. What’s not to like.
Between the age of 23 and 67 a lot changes.
In the youthful years I was prone to quick, shallow, ungrounded thoughts and opinions. The dope was great. The place was the fun. The excitement, the night life, the gorgeous girls, the snazzy cars, the glamorous lifestyles, all dazzled and blinded me. And I was high a lot.
There was soooo much fun and entertainment to be had between LA and SanFran. Sooo much fun.
When I decided to set up a base camp in Pasadena, I was looking to experience and enjoy what was on offer. Both in Pasadena and LA and SoCal, and more. I used the place as a transit pad for many long motorcycle adventures across the USofA.
And, importantly… Pasadena offers the worlds best New Years Eve party… it’s called the Rose Bowl Parade.
Our apartment was 2 blocks off Colorado Blvd. The city blocked off the streets around our apartment to stage and set up the parade. All night long, every NY’s eve, the Parade that kicks off early the morning of the 1st, and travels some 5 miles, lines up, prepares to march, on the streets around our apartment. It was and probably still is a great street-party… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Parade
Much now is gone, destroyed. Razed as only an intense fire can do.
The map does not really give us the scale of it all. It’s 50 miles from Pasadena to Palisades.
The LA area is known for natural disasters… earthquakes, mudslides, fires… nothing new here.
Not good. Not good at all. Poor, poor LA Country. It’ll be a long time before this will be managed, cleaned up, sorted out…
Sadly, almost criminally, it is the general, overall ineptitude and absence of Leadership we are seeing take place, that is mostly to blame. To blame for what has taken place and what is happening on the ground.
I think of the years of “follow the science” BS we’ve been fed by our liberal leaders. In SoCal the science of forest management and disaster preparedness has been rewritten by illiterates.
Sad, sad state of affairs for my old friend, California.
A glorious, sunny, cool, sound filled morning here. It got very cool last night. It’s 830am and Im still wrapped in a blanket. Very nice.
I have been looking to buy new batteries for my cordless tools… or I need to buy new tools. Both are costly.
I am loath to retire (throw away) the older tools. They still work. I haven’t killed them yet. But my batteries are failing. Im not sure how old these tools are. In the past 8 years (since I bought this farm) I have purchased two “kits”. Kits normally give you a selection of cordless tools with batteries and charging station. Here’s the 2 kits I have:
Plus, Ive bought stand alone tools with battery, and a few “skins”… tools without batteries. Ive got two charging stations, one in my garage and one in my workshop. Right now I’d say I have 8 batteries on charge. Its a rare day I dont use a cordless tool… And my batteries are failing.
I keep a drill/ driver around all the time. I use the impact driver a lot. The reciprocating “saws-all” unit is always in use. The cordless grinder busy, busy. The skil-saw is used less. The hammer drill used even less. I have a mini compressor/ tire gauge that gets a lot of use. There are other tools… the leaf blower, a decent work-light. Others… I tend to manage my batteries well. I know batteries have a memory and if we dont manage that memory well we can lose the battery pretty quickly.
All rechargeable batteries have a finite lifespan and will slowly lose storage capacity as they age due to secondary chemical reactions within the battery whether it is used or not. Some cells may fail sooner than others, but the effect is to reduce the voltage of the battery. Lithium-based batteries have one of the longest idle lives of any construction. Unfortunately the number of operational cycles is still quite low at approximately 400–1200 complete charge/discharge cycles. The lifetime of lithium batteries decreases at higher temperature and states of charge(SoC), whether used or not; maximum life of lithium cells when not in use(storage) is achieved by refrigerating (without freezing) charged to 30%–50% SoC. To prevent overdischarge, battery should be brought back to room temperature and recharged to 50% SoC once every six months or once per year.
Replacement batteries are very costly:
The batteries alone represent one-third of the cost of the kits I noted.
My tools are worthless without the batteries.
We know the batteries are “disposable”. And, very luckily, these tools offer replaceable batteries. I note some items (like my cordless vac, and other things) dont offer an easily changed battery. They appear to be completely disposable.
I note well that there is little or no market for used cordless tools. Pawn shops are about the only place one can trade-in used battery operated tools.
Which leads me to ponder the future of Electric/ rechargeable vehicles.
I had not really looked at it all from this point of view, but…
Golly, woke this morn to a lot of bad-newz, big bluez…
Another vehicle vs pedestrian rampage has taken place in New Orleans. Numerous dead. Evidence shows this was suppose to be a bigger “Terror Attack”. More deaths were planned. Hard to say but, might have gotten lucky, a bit.
And: A vehicle-bomb was detonated in front of the Trump Tower in Vegas. I say vehicle-bomb and not car-bomb because the vehicle was a Tesla CyberTruck.
Terrorism is not new, is not a modern concept. Fomenting fear, instability, societal unease and confusion is the aim of terrorism.
Blocking The Harbour Bridge, in the name of Climate Awareness, is terrorism. The raging and looting and burnings we have seen in US cities is terrorism.
Some terrorists are ideologues. Some are just confused and misled. Some are down right evil.
I have an old friend that had her life changed by an act or terrorism.
In December 2017…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2017_Melbourne_car_attack…. According to witnesses and police, the driver, Saeed Noori, an Australian citizen of Afghan descent who had arrived in Australia as a refugee, deliberately ran a red light then accelerated into an area with a speed limit of 40 kilometres per hour (25 mph), where he ran into the pedestrians. His car then hit a bollard beside a tram stop. The nineteen injured included nine foreign nationals: three from South Korea, and one each from China, Italy, India, Venezuela, Ireland, and New Zealand. An off-duty officer of the Victorian Police was credited with quickly subduing the suspect, who was wrestled to the ground, handcuffed, and arrested.
My friend is disabled these days, unable to adequately function, physically, emotionally, mentally.
The Terrorist in the Melbourne case was probably more confused, more ill, more delusional, than ideologically committed, to anything. Mental illness is real and very prevalent on our streets. But a seed of disquietude can go along way to pushing a mentally ill being over the edge. Being radicalised is basically the act of taking a confused, ill, sad individual and convincing them its OK to commit evil acts… in the name of God, Allah, Glowball Warming, Trans-rights…
We know little about what is what in both N.O. and Vegas.
Initially we see connections between the two incidents.
For some reason I cannot fathom – The current administration is loathe to state that these are/ were acts of terror. I hear them make excuses. The long standing policy to leave Islam alone (as much as possible) has leaders (National, State and Local) looking foolish. An ISIS flag in N.O. should kinda be enough to tentatively assume that, yes, this is an act of Islamic Terror.
What if… WHAT IF… the flag in the truck was a Johnny Rebel flag?
I dig the fact that the Tesla truck muffled the explosion in Vegas, made a big show but little blow. Even the glass doors at the Hotel did not blow out…
Yippeeee… I am smiling… one of the reasons I write/ blog is so I can come up with great titles.
1 of 1 is a good’un.
Wednesday morning here. It is a gentle day. Overcast, cool, muted sunshine through a cloudy sky, a brief breeze rustles the leaves on the olive tree outside my window.
My 2024 went out on a bit of a high… I made unexpected progress on my Medical Cannabis Grow Facility… dont look like much, I know…
I said it dont look like much… but… we’re looking at the site where we will build a large facility. This project, the work on this site has been delayed, deferred, forgotten for months and months… due to rain.
In October we had a window where the initial earthworks on the site got started. But the rains returned and we did not complete the job. This past week things dried out enough to deliver and layout 22 loads of recycled road base. Once the road base is complete the site will be weatherproof. Rain or shine we will be able to get onto the site.
As you can see, only about half way, but we’ve broken the back and will be able to finish the site-prep soon. Progress, even belated, is positive.
New Years Eve for me, here on the farm, was fun filled…
And the beat goes on…
Smiles all around and all the best in the New Year… 2025 has got to be better than 2024…
Morning on this side of the plant, 31 December, 2024.
I’m still “recovering” from my 2nd eye operation. More like “caring for” the eye, keeping it safe, ensuring it dont get injured or damaged, while its most vulnerable, in the 2weeks post-op. The 2weeks are now past and I can start “doing” more. Get off my arse and get back to work again. Lots to do. Always and all ways lots to do when you are a farmer.
On a positive note: The rains that were supposedly coming our way have not shown up, YET. I know many places around us are getting hammered. I’ll not feel too lucky, too dry, YET.
I did rush to get the ground water tank filled up. It’s been empty for a couple weeks… a mystery leak showed up out in the middle of the back field. Never knew there were water lines there, but, yep… a mystery line that is a mainline to the ground water system. What’s it doing way back there?
Over that past weeks the rains have kept the steam running high, and dirty. I was lucky enough to have a couple days where the water was running low and clean. Repaired the leaking line. Managed to get the tank on the hill pretty much filled up, the day before the steam rose.
I’ll hope for no more subterranean leaks, for a while.
The effort expended to plumb the pump in, get it primed and pushing water up hill is not insignificant. The pump has to be removed after use or the floods will drag it away. Every new install is its own event.
Funny that some times its goes reasonably easy. Primes up quick. Some times it simply dont go well. I wear my self out dragging pipes lines around, hauling buckets of water (to prime the pump) up the steep bank at the steam. I usually sleep very well after a day of pumping.
This old property has many miles of poly-prop-pipe criss crossing the property. Some in use, some not.
Large tanks collect the rain water from every roof. The 2houses on the property each live solely on rain-water-catchment. A couple other tanks under shed roofs are auxiliary. All connect onto the system by the mystery poly-prop labyrinth.
The tank on the hill is for ground-water that is pumped up from the stream, and reticulates throughout the property.
Once the big tank of the hill is full it lasts months. Unless it leaks out, again, because of faulty, lost, undiscovered lines.
Water is important to life. Managing water is a positive life’s lesson.
Only a couple days left. Only a few more revolutions on the axis. 2024 is almost dun. We’re getting very short.
A Saturday here. Ive been trying to get work done before the rains start again. Next week or so is suppose to be wet. More wet. We’re used to wet, and trying to manage within a wet environment. I’m well versed in dragging my stuck machines out of the mud.
Here we have a couple clips that fall under the title of “Mowing In The Free World”…
Its dusty n musty so I wrap up well… note the wet tire tracks…
I’m still nursing the new eye. We’re 10 days in and I dont want to task it too much. The left eye is 6 weeks post-op and feels great. It is nice to see well, again…
Pict taken immediately post-op. Their knock-out drugs are very good.
Get ready, not much time left, we are getting short… 2024 almost dunNdusted…
We have 11months and 25 days behind us. From my perspective, it’s been 11months + days and days and days of wet. Can use a bit of dry in 2025…
The past week or so has been dry so I have not been watching, reading, and writing much at all. Dont have the usual, long list of social complaints to rave about. The big “yard” looks great. Again. Still big areas that are too wet to get into to. The ground-water levels are still very high. It’ll take a few weeks for it all to dry out. So we mow around the wet, wait for the rains to come back, next week…
And watch the world turn…
And as the year ends, as the world still burns… I whittle on wood… here we have an ancient red-gum fence post. It was cut, worked, and planted probably 100years ago. I dug it out of the floods a couple years ago. I do a lot of laminated/ composite work so Ive cut this one and will glue it back together before I whittle it into a walking stick…
Wood, not war…
And… puppies are good… here we have 2pups, Dawn and Dandy…
Dandy is growing a lot, quickly… Dawn needs to exercise control a bit more.
Here is what Cmas afternoon looked like on the farm…
A sunny, breezy, pleasing morning here in the Land of Aus. For me, for now, it’s a quiet CMas morning. I’m alone, on my own for now. No tree or lights or presents or frenetic noise this morn. Gracie and the tribe are in Gizo. I’m tending the farm, gratefully getting some dry weather and catching up on the mowing. Paul and his girls shall arrive here mid-day. My quietude will end then.
So far it is a pleasant, sedate CMas morning. The dogs are happy…
I reflect back on my decades of travel and adventure, and the many places I have ended up, found myself on CMas morning.
Where I am now is a very good place to be found.
Ive got some magnificent steaks I’ll cook for the gang when they arrive. Im not a traditionalist when it comes to CMas dinner… and I live in the land of grass-fed beast. The steaks I buy at the local butcher are as good as it gets. I say such as an Iowa-boy… that dearly appreciates a fine cut of beast.
The sky is a “Simpsons” blue with fluffy white clouds hanging motionless in the air. A gentle breeze rushes the olive tree outside the window. A Crested Dove has a nest in the tree, just kicked 2 nice little Doves out of the nest. She appears to be much happier without the little ones. Noting they are hanging around. The mamma tries hard to ignore them.
The resident Kookaburra is keeping a watchful eye on the ground for anything that edible. It’s not breeding season so Mr Kookaburra is sedate, quiet. He can be very noisy.
And the beat goes on…
Here’s wishing all the very best. Enjoy those near. drink and eat to excess.
I know, I know… I writing too damn much about the rain. I complain too damn much about the rain. Because we have been getting way tooo muchhh damn rain!
I know that blaming glow ball warming is more of a joke than a fact. I know folks look at a single season of weather and think they can discern a pattern, a change, an effect and often, even a cause. Here I just see weather. It’s been wet for a solid 3years now. It was dry before that. Assume we’d see dry daze soon enough. Droughts are not good either, but…
But that is a different rant, a different tirade, a different discussion.
I am thinking today of my Father, Don.
As an old Iowa-guy/ farmer-by-birth he had a habit of recording all measurable rainfall. He had a “little farmer’s book”, the type given out by seed-corn companies, in which he would record the precipitation he dumped out of his gauge. He always had a rain gauge.
I have seen this same trait in farmers world-wide. It must be something in the genes, the need to know how much rain has fallen in a given period. AND, importantly, to be able to compare the current record with the historic record.
Instead of recording rainfall in a little book, I snap a picture. A visual contemporaneous note. I must be a modern old farmer guy?
I have noted previously the amounts of rain falling in my valley, and noting that the rain has set me way, way behind. Stoopidly behind. But that too is another story…
Today I think of my Iowa-Farmer-Guy father, when he moved to live in Gizo for a full year.
He and my Mother had decided to come live with me and my tribe in Gizo. When they spoke of coming for more than just another visit, come for an “extended” stay, I said they should commit 12 months. Make it a real adventure. And they did.
One of the things my Father did when moving in is set up a nice little JOHN DEERE rain gauge on the porch. It was a little thing, the sort of thing used in Iowa, but unsuited for the tropics. The aperture was only 1inch. The total measurable ability of this gauge was minimal. It filled quickly, too quickly, in the tropics.
Iowa has an annual rainfall of 30inches. The Solomons… well, lets just say the Solos gets a lot more rain than Iowa does… Annual rain fall for Gizo is in excess of 3meters, over 100 inches.
So, where were we… My Father sets up his little rain gauge and is quite excited when it starts raining. Gives him a chance to measure and record. Makes him happy.
Over the next month or so he emptied his gauge and made more notations in his little book than he’d normally make in an Iowan year. Mom laughed when he was trying to not loose the record, meaning the overflowing would give him an inaccurate record, so he worked, rushed to empty the little gauge regularly, often in the middle of a gauge overflowing rain event. Mom laughed when the old-dog would go out, get soaked, just to empty the gauge.
I do believe that after the first month and a bit, he lost his enthusiasm. The little rain gauge was on the back porch for ages and ages afterwards. No one paid much attention to it.
Here, my rain gauge is huge…
Need it with the amounts of precipitation we’ve been getting.
I had a fun, memory spawning incident today, but first I got a story…
Years back, as a young stand up comedian-in-life, I had a routine that started…
There is nothing funnier than a grown man shitting in his drawers. I should know! And… I’d tell my story and make people laugh… My story was about underwear (all ways funny), and shitting in your drawers (all ways sad – and very funny). My story was about a one-piece thermal underwear suit I wore as a young man being a nomadic fool…
My routine continued…
Those cold weather, one-piece long under wear known as a “union suit”, are a communist plot to make you shit in your drawers…
A Union Suit:
Doesn’t look communist until you learn the back-door is a slit you use when the need arises… You’re suppose to unbutton the flap, stick yer arse out the slit and do your business. Thats what you’re suppose to do… The slits are not cooperative… The suits are evil…
As a young fool, living nomadic and wild, I spent a winter climbing telephone poles. It was a cold winter. I’d spent the summer riding my motorcycle and needed work and climbing poles in subzero weather was an easy job to get, but not do.
It was a cold winter.
The work paid well, was demanding, both physically and mentally. The conditions gruelling. If it’s freezing at ambient, you better not expose much skin. We’d put a layer of vaseline on our faces. Everyone had thick beards. Wore multiple layers of insulation.
Its part of The Long Story of a Young Fool…
I knew how to work. An Iowa-boy in the later 70s knew hard work. Knew what Winter was… when a guy in my Dad’s Bar n Grill that gave me a number to call I got to learn to climb poles.
Climbing poles was something I learned on the job. I liked it. Not every day was sub-sub-zero. There were good times, good jobs, good experiences. Some of the jobs sucked…
Once I got recruited, got into the system… I’d get a call and be offered a job in, say, Joplin MO. 2 weeks max, 6-man crew. Starts Monday.
I’d drive to the site, meet the other guys. There would always be a Lineman. Normally, depending on size of the job, there would be a Journeyman (or two) and a couple labourers. There was always a supervisor who only talked with the foreman. There was always a tel-Company-Man telling what was what and where was where.
I’d show up do THE JOB, get paid and go wait for the next phone call. We’d all share cheap hotel rooms. Eat together. The jobs didn’t do days off. You accepted the job, worked the job to completion then went home. Some jobs had big crews. Some of the guys were real cool. Some total jerks. I did one job was just me and a Lineman. Shorty Williamson was an interesting guy.
It suited my foolish lifestyle. Being young and strong and foolish worked, then…
One day… the supervisor, after a confused start to the day… Big truck wouldn’t start. Nothing happening. Time being wasted. Everyone waiting around in the cold. Getting paid but not happy, just waiting. And it was cold.
One guy decided to quit and go home. Conditions were not good.
The Supervisor walked up to a group of us “labourers” and asked, “Who has a strong back and a weak mind?” He pointed to me and said, “You’ll do.”
I’d never climbed a pole but he strapped me up, gave me abridged instructions, and sent me up to do a job. My first and only climb-with-hooks lesson. Its not rocket science but it is high-wire work. And pretty cool. I climbed the pole. Tool harness’d up, ditty bags full of fittings, wrenches and spanners hanging and banging, ropes, lots of weight hanging. Hump up the pole, harness in, do the job, climb down… I’d seen it done. Knew what was happening. Had never done it before. I liked it.
When the Super told me to do it again, I said I wanted Journeyman’s pay for Journeyman’s work.
I became a Journeyman. I was the guy that climbed the poles. Drove the big truck. Told the labourers what to do. I’d only been at it all for a short while.
My first on-the-job promotion… Not because I was skilled and magnificent. More like it, because anyone with any skills and any brains had worked all summer and didn’t need a job in such foul conditions. Nooooo…. they were sitting home, warm n toasty. It was the fools who’d lived a glorious summer on two wheelz, chased girls, living in a tent, not worried about tomorrow that ended up working in the freezing cold.
Competition for promotion (or even the job) was minimal. I climbed the “ladder” / pole quickly.
My friend, Jan, had given me a union-suit for Cmas. It was mostly a joke, but very welcome. They did not come cheap and were a great tool to possess working outdoors in the Iowa winter.
It was on the Iowa/ Missouri border that I learned how evil the union-suit could be. What do you do when you just shat in the 2nd Layer of your 6 layer outfit? 1 was undies and long sleeve shirt. 2 was the union-suit. 3 was a general pair of long-johns, legs an upper. 4 was jeans with a thick flannel shirt with a hooded sweatshirt. 5 was full-body insulated coveralls. 6 was a waist length fur lined parka. I wore a pair of wool (army) glove liners with a monster pair of 3-finger fur lined mits. And a thick wool navy surplus watch cap. I wore 2 pair of thick wool socks with my “line-mans boots”.
I was always cold.
So, what do you do when… We know it’s going to be funny. Laughable. And sad. A grown man shitting in his drawers is funny and laughable and very sad. What do you do… when…
There are many variables. Location, nearness to amenities, distance to home and clean clothes, sooo many variables… who is watching… Once you have made the “mistake”, had your “accident”, it all must be managed. It’s all past tense.
I do have my sad, and un-tellable tale. About the time I filled my union suit in the most inopportune situation. I managed it all then, just like today…
I like to visit a local baker, in our small village. I have a coffee with one of their apple turnovers. The apple pastry reminds me of my mother’s baking. I must have a bad memory because a while back I took Gracie in for a coffee and turnover, she said it wasn’t very nice.
Must be the dim memory of moms baking that takes me back time and again.
Normally, when placing my order, I get asked if I want cream on my turnover. I always say no. Today I got one “with”. Without requesting it. A nice flaky piece of pastry… with about a pound of creme. 500grams, half a kilo (I do exaggerate) of thick, rich, sugary creme.
At first I considered my self perversely lucky. I quickly regretted it… the heavy dairy, the extra sugar, not what I normally consume. The ill feeling started as I did my shopping. The ill feeling stayed… For maybe a couple hours… I drove home…. did what I needed to do. All was kinda OK… but…
My son, Paul, is working on the farm with me. Lots of rain = lots of mowing. Paul was mowing while I was in town…
The rains are coming (again) so we’re putting the machines away… thats when it started… spasms, reflex, mitigation… then a strange infant like warm satisfaction… Yep… first instinct is to look to see who is watching… I wasn’t far from amenities and clean up, it wasn’t a catastrophe. All was managed without too much hassle… And I got the memory spawning event.
The Native Iowan 
thoughts and opinions