9-11

Forever and always, never forgive and never forget...

I didn't see the 1st WTC  tower fall.  I saw the 2nd.  I FELT the Pentagon explosion right up through the floor where I worked in Washington DC.  I didn't know the cause of the THUD at the time, but I learned soon enough.

Everyone was evacuated.  I saw the traffic jams outside, so I stood on the roof of the building while there were rumors of another suicide plane.   It crashed in Pennsylvania due to the bravery of the passengers.  I won't forget that either.

When the traffic vanished, I drove home.

"Embedded in the memories of everyone who lived through it, this was the day four jet planes were hijacked and crashed into the New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, causing the deaths of 2,977 people. The fourth plane (United Airlines Flight 93) was directed at Washington DC, but its passengers bravely attempted to take back control and it crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania."



Never forgive, never forget...

Random Thoughts And Observations

It has been so rainy here lately, the slugs are crawling up on the front steps to get out of the wet.

The moquito larvae are drowning in the grass.

Rice is growing wild in the lawn.

I used an umbrella to get the mail 3 days ago and set the umbrella to dry in the garage.  It is still wet.

The cats found a fish hiding in the basement!

My Civ2 game declared all my land units drowned.  But I have lots of Subs.

The local gas station is giving away free water with every fill-up.  And if you take away 5 gallons, they give you a gallon of gas free.

The local dowser turned his forked stick upside down trying to find dry spots.

A dry spot appeared in the sky and everyone cheered.    And took pictures.

Local Republicans are acknowledging "Climate Change" and blaming local Democrats for not doing something about it.     Local Democrats are denying they ever liked "rain" and proposed a Bill banning it.  President Trump is denying it is raining.  He says it is "fake news".

The cats insisted on going outside but they got tired of swimming in the lawn and came back inside.

Rain

Not that we have had all THAT much rain compared to Houston or India, but we got more than usual here for 2 months...  I have never seen such huge mushroom here.  Those are standard 22" flats next to them...

And the rain gauge nearly overflowed...

House Anniversary Day

Yeah, I know it is Labor Day, and that is a meaningful Holiday here in the US.  But for me, it the day I moved here.  First and only owned house, 31 years ago now.  I never would have expected to be here so long on that day I moved in!

Every year, about this time, I think about moving.  Before I retired in 2006, it was because of the traffic.  I live in a town where The Highway comes through, and traffic was bad then and worse now.  But being retired, I can avoid most of the traffic now, shopping at 2 pm Tuesday-Thursday.

The past 5 years, it has been because the neighbors have let trees grow all around my property line, and the loss of sunlight makes gardening harder. 

But I know every square inch of the yard and I could walk around the house in complete darkness.  I really like the room arrangement too.  You walk up a half-flight of stairs and the kitchen, living room room, and TV room are connected in a circle.  A hallway goes off one side and leads to the main bath and the 3 bedrooms.  And the neighborhood has buried electrical lines, which are great.

When I saw the floorplan 32 years ago, I knew it would work for me.  I can see the TV from where I prepare food in the kitchen.  And since I spend a good bit of time doing both, that is great!  I don't like the basement though.  It has a staircase right through the middle of it, which makes arranging my woodworking equipment awkward.  I chose to have a built-in garage.  I wouldn't do that again. 

If I moved, I would want the same floorplan above basement without the built-in garage below and would want the garage to the side (2 car garage if possible - 1 bay for a boat.  2 acres of land to assure sunlight for the garden.  City water and sewage.

But for now, again, I will stay...

But 31 years, hurray!

This Is A Weird Post

Forgive me, this has been an odd week so far. 

Monday, I woke up to find no water pressure.  Hmmm...  Maybe there was a water main break.  Well, OK, I got a letter from the water company 2 days before and should have opened it, but I assumed it was the regular quarterly bill.  Maybe it was a notice of repairs.

So I opened it.  It was a notice I was Past Due and they were shutting off my water Monday morning.  Oh great!.  I lost the regular bill among the junk mail.  It happens every few years.  Its the only bill I can't set with automated payments that matters.  Well, the Property payment comes once a year, but all THEY can do is add 1% after 3 months overdue. 

The County shuts off your water after the bill is due.  And they will not arrange for direct billing to my bank account.  They do it because they can.  You can't live a life without water.  I went through 4 hours of no water while I arranged a telephone payment and THEN called another office to get the water turned on again.

I actually have some odd tools that would have turned it on again, but that is probably a hanging offence.  But they did respond quickly to turn the water on again.

My week went along til last night.  I visit some forums most of you wouldn't.  Religious, political...  Gets me really worked up sometimes.

So last night, after spending 6 hours at them and burning through 2 packs of cigs, I suddenly wanted to listen to a particular piece of music.  I don't know the name of it and I can't display musical notes, but is it the standard piece used for charging horsemen.  You would know it if you heard it.

I couldn't find it, but I found a lot of music I liked.  "I Will Wait For You" always gets me.  I've found that site by accident before.  There are other versions.  I listened to them all.  And for some reason, the site suggested darker songs. 

Black is Black, House of the Rising Sun, Eve of Destruction, Smoke on the Water,  When the Bullet Hits the Bone, etc.  I spent 4 hours going from song to song.  I am in a black mood...

This has happened a few times.

"I Will Wait For You" by Connie Francis sounds lovely, but to me it is when Fry in Futurama discovers his long-lost dog fossilized in the  future and it could be resurrected,  He chooses not to because he only knew 3 years of the dog's life and it lived to 15.  So he (wrongly) stops the resurrection. 

And then we see the dog after Fry disappeared.  It spent the last 12 years waiting for him faithfully.  You see him waiting patiently waiting treated well by the people working around the spot. 

He was waiting for Fry.  And when he could have been ressuurected to rejoin him, he wasn't.

I cry every time I see that and the Connie Francis song comes on...  And I spent 4 hours listening to versions of that and then to darker songs, all tear-jerkers. 

I think I will go to those other sites I visit and be mean... Get it out of of me for a while.

More Political Stuff

I'll be getting back to normal yard projects again soon.  In fact I got some starts today; the weather is cooler and less humid here and that always gets me going.

But today it is political...

First, I have to relate a general conversation I overheard (but was not part of) while standing in line at a store just a few minutes ago.  It was between two 20-ish guys.  They were discussing the recent eclipse, which was the only reason I paid attention.  I'm science-oriented and thought maybe I could join (it was a slow line).

I was horribly disappointed!  One guy mentioned that he saw no dimming of the sun Monday.  Then added he saw a  crescent moon as he came into the store, and therefore "it couldn't have covered the whole sun anyway here".  His friend agreed and said it sounded like "fake science" to him too.

Then they got started on "fake news, lying media, and fake medicine" (the latter was not detailed, but probably about anti-vaccine ideas).  And then talked about how Trump was "fixing all that stuff".

There were no details about any of that, just general "yeah", "you're right", and then some family stuff.

I felt sick.  In some situations, I would have spoken up.  But not in a convenience store and not where the parking spots outside are dim...

They thought the lit part of the moon was all there was at the time!  Yes, it doesn't take a lot of thought to realize that the whole moon is always there sunlit or not, but they were also talking about fake news and media.

I'm not saying all Trump supporters are like that!  I watch enough political channels to know that some Trump supporters are educated and articulate and I disagree with them for debatable reasons.  But some are real idiots...

So, speaking of Trump, I heard some interesting news tonight.  Trump has been on a real speech roller coaster lately.  He decried "“this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides.”  Suggesting that the counter-protestors were as violent as the Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists. 

When his staff demanded he read a more balanced statement, he did read their prepared statement " that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred, and of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, Neo-Nazi, and all extremists groups.

That lasted a day...   Then Trump encouraged the idea again that "both sides were equally violent" in spite of the fact that some of the Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists were carrying torches, clubs, police-quality plexiglass shields, and AK-47s and other guns.  By comparison, they point to one leftist NUT who lit an aerosol hairspray can which lasted 5 seconds before he had to drop it from the heat.

False-equivalence is an argument from weakness.

I mention all that to say this.  With one of the worst hurricanes landing on the coast of Texas and expected to stall there, dumping a predicted 2-3' of rain with 140 mph winds on one area for a day, Trump posted 2 tweets.

One involved not allowing transgender people to join the military even if they pass all the physical and skill tests.  The other involved pardoning Sheriff Joe Arpaio a possible jail sentence on Friday by pardoning his conviction for routinely violating the civil rights of anyone who looked "mexican", violating court orders to stop the practice.

"Sheriff Joe's" habits included "Ordering some immigration patrols not based on reports of crime but rather on letters from Arizonans who complained about people with dark skin congregating in an area or speaking Spanish."

Congrats to Trump.  He made his 1st Pardon a person who is simply insanely racist and glorifies in being one.

MalDonald

MalDonald has got to go.

I was convinced of it months ago, but he has really done it this time.

You can't not say bad things about Nazis and White Supremists.  He tried.

He equated a bunch of Nazis and White Supremists who were carrying heavy wood torches, batons, bats, police-quality shields, and AK-47s with those who were unarmed and protesting the demonstrations.

He defended people who arrived lethally armed at the removal of a statue of a traitor who were dedicated to prevent the removal of the statue,

Let us not ignore that Robert E Lee fought in rebellion to the Government.  He made a very conscious decision to rebel.  That may seem admirable in an age of State Rights, but keep in mind that 40% of the Southern Generals did make that same choice.

Robert E Lee did not start the war.  The Governors of the Southern States did.  THe Confederate Constitution specifically stated:

Article I, Section 9, Clause 4 prohibited the Confederate government from restricting slavery in any way:
"No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed."
Article IV, Section 2 also prohibited states from interfering with slavery:
"The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired."
Perhaps the most menacing provision of the Confederate States Constitution was the explicit protection Article IV, Section 3, Clause 3 offered to slavery in all future territories conquered or acquired by the Confederacy:
"The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several States; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States."

So let it not be misunderstood.  The Confederate rebellion was all about maintaining slavery.

There has been some argument I've seen lately that other people have had slaves.  And that African tribes captured people of other tribes to be sold into slavery.

Slavery has existed from ancient times.  My own ancestors were English serfs and essentially slaves.  The Romans captured losing armies and enslaved them.  Asians did the same.  Everyone has done that in the past.

But it was never a racial assumption of slavery based on the idea of complete inferiority until the modern age of European colonialism.

And even then, when all other civilized nations had given up the idea, realizing that all people were equally human, equally capable of thought and education, the US South held on to that idea.

And the Southern Generals held onto that idea with dedication of mind and military action.   The South said Africans were incapable of thought and culture in spite of the examples of literate and erudite Africans in the North.

And Robert E Lee was their leader.  He chose to fight for Southern States that declared in their Consitutions that slavery was good for Africans.

He was a traitor to his country and it is past time we acknowledge that.

There should not be one single statue commemorating him.  Not one commemorating Stonewall Jackson, JEB Stuart, or any other traitorous Southern general.

Robert E Lee and every Southern General should have been hung as traitors.  That might have stopped the emerging KKK in it's tracks, but that is another post.

And President MalDonald thinks the South was right!

The Garden

My enclosed garden has been a bit of a bust this year.  The beans were slow, the cukes didn't grow tall, the melons stay short with no fruits.  The tomatoes and unproductive.

So I was reading an article in the Washignton Post magazine Local Living section.  There are articles bout gardening and cooking included there.  The gardening article today was about nurturing the soil and the various micobes, fungi, and insects that live in the soil. 

And I realized that I had gone away from all that lately!  I got casual the past few years.  Bad move...

I used to pay attention to all that stuff.  Time to start doing that again.  "Feed the soil, not the plants".  Grow cover crops in Winter, encourage worms.  Don't fertilize the soil, grow the soil.

TGey say not to dig the soil, but after I rebuilt the framed beds, they had large amounts of bad soil in clumps and that's not good.

So at the end on this season, I'm double digging the framed bed soil to mix it up, adding worms, adding shredded leaves and some kitcken peelings, some healthy soil from the old compost bin (for microbes and minor insect life, and covering it with permeable landscape fabric (to let rain in). 

Time to start re-building the soil...

Diplomacy

A little dark humor...

Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump are on the telephone reluctantly "diplomacizing"...

Kim:  You attack us, The Greatest of Nations, and we will level Seoul with our mightly artillery!
Trump:  Yawn, not our problem...

Kim:  We will atomic bomb Guam!
Trump:  Is that ours?  Well, hold on 30 seconds...  OK, I just sold it to the Japanese.

Kim:  Then we will nuke California!
Trump:  Go ahead, it's all Democrats.  Besides, it's only our 10th biggest State.  Besides, you probably couldn't hit it.

Kim:  Well we'll hit SOMETHING!
Trump:  Sure go ahead.  You'll kill a bunch of Mexicans picking grapes in Napa Valley.  Then I won't need a wall at all...

Kim:  But think of the destruction!
Trump.  Actually, we have laser satellites.  You won't get a missile into reentry.  Wait, hold on 30 seconds, Bannon is yelling in my ear.  OK, he says I shouldn't have told you that.  Forget I mentioned it.

Kim, Then I will send a nuke in a container ship!
Trump:  Go for San Fransisco, thats where all the LBGTQIAs are.

Kim:  WHO?
Trump:  Google it.  Oh wait, you don't have internet there, HA, HA, HA!

Kim:  I will send an skilled Korean assassin to work at Mar-A-Lago!
Trump:  I only hire Mexicans, no matter what South American country they come from! 

 Kim:  Then I will post a sniper in the woods of your golf course.  You slice terribly!  He will know just where to wait.
 Trump:  That's a body double.  I have a dozen.  I'll put a bomb in Dennis Rodman's basketball next time he visits you.  BOOM!

Kim:  You would blow up the Great Dennis Rodman?
Trump:  In a NY second.  He has better hair than I do.

Kim:  Then I will nuke Japan!
Trump:  Please do, that will improve our tech industry profits.  But as a favor, do it while Rodman is there on his way to visit you.  Two birds with one stone.

Kim:  OK, I would never nuke Japan or anyplace where Dennis Rodman is...
Trump:  I know.  Well, guess who just got named the Ambassador to Everywhere, travelling secretly and with 100 body-doubles in all embassies ...  GOTCHA!

Kim:  Dennis Rodman HAS no body doubles!
Trump:  You haven't been following the South Korean DNA experiments lately, have you?

Kim:  I thought he was a ET!
Trump:  You watch too many movies.  BTW, we have The Avengers and they have The Hulk.



Kim:  Well, um, I think you are weak.  I can pole vault 32', run a 3 minute mile, I shoot par golf, and, um,  throw a shotput 60'.  My Secretary-General of My Athletic Skills says so!  Or at least will tomorrow.
Trump:  Yeah, I have one of those too.  I can throw a football in a tight spiral through a swinging tire, hit a baseball 500', and have a 0 handicap at golf!

Kim:  Really?
Trump:  Of course really!  Would I lie to you?  Come to Mar-A-Lago anytime and I'll prove it.

Kim:  Sorry, I'm busy that week.
Trump:  Well ANYTIME is fine, I play golf all over the country at my 100's of resorts.  On government time and cost.  Name a day...

Kim:  Sorry but I am an booked up through 2025.  Really busy here.

Trump:  Well, yeah me too.

Kim:  (Whew, escaped that exposure)
Trump:  (Whew, escaped that exposure)

Kim:  You are insane!
Trump:  Funny, I was just thinking that about you.

Kim:  You have ugly hair!
Trump:  My hair is HONORED on the internet!  Have you seen the "Trump Your Cat" pictures?  It show they love me.  Hugely!  Beat that...

Kim:  You're FAT.  Too much hamburgers and french fries.
Trump:  Not much to look at yourself.  What are you?  4' 6" and 225 pounds?  I bet you don't get there on just rice.

Kim:  I am the most well-fed person in the country.  I am 7' tall and a trim 250!
Trump:  I'm 6'6" and 275.  Won the Presidential Wrestling Competition in 2016!

Kim:  Really?
Trump:  Would I lie to YOU?

Kim:  You know, you are an interesting person.
Trump:  Yeah, we think alike.

Kim:  Maybe we could exchange some emails.
Trump:  I'm more on Twitter, but emails might be good...  I'll ask Hillary how that works...

Together:  "I want you, I need you, I love you"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRRmm0d7VcA

A Person Died

I only knew because his sister posted a message on the forum.  And she only did that because he had a list of places for her to tell.

I didn't know him all that well.  He just posted poems sometimes.  I liked his poems enough to have his page bookmarked.  We emailed a few times.  He wasn't a happy person, and his poems showed it. 

I told him I admired his poetry.  He appreciated that. 

He killed himself.  I don't know the details and don't have to know. 

I have always planned to make a similar list with passwords and sites to tell if I die.  Just so people know why I vanished.  And I sure don't plan to die anytime soon.  But there is always that surprising skidding semi-trailer or a piece of beef or a little too little blood to the brain, ya know?  Maybe I would have really made the list the day after I die.  One day late.

My youngest sister just fell down dead from a brain artery thing one day.  She was only 44.

A sadly appropriate poem from his site:

   _______________________________

"Inconsolable"

Solomon Zorn

No sadness more

Profound

No absence more

Permanent

A human

Cannot be replaced

A heart in mourning

Will accept no comfort

Promises of heavenly reunion

Offer soothing

For a pain

That cannot be soothed

Death is tragic

Death is final

Death is painful

For those who survive

But survive they will

And build on the

Legacy

Of the one who died

The same fire

Which burned in that soul

Continues

In those who were touched

Eventually time heals

Survivors move on

But not today

Today we are inconsolable

   _________________________________

I think I better get started on that list...

Home Improvements.

I really have to sit down and make a list of things to hire someone to do.  There are some things I could do "well enough" myself but just haven't for years.  There are some things I could do "barely" but would not be as good as a professional.  There are some things I realize that I'm just not up to any more.  There are some things it is just too hard for one person to do on their own.  There are some things that require some destruction to get to new things and I can't even figure out where to start. 

I was braver about home and yard improvements when I was younger.  Between 37 and 42, I built a 2 level deck, a toolshed, a 350' fence with 2 gates around the backyard, a 2' deep 9' diameter pond and 40' raceway, panelled most of the basement and added electrical outlets and a hanging acoustical ceiling tiles and lights. 

I cleared about 500 sq ft of underbrush, vines and junk trees.  I built framed gardening beds, roto-tilled a couple hundred sq ft of flower beds, installed edging and border stones, and planted some fruit trees, shrubs and a hosta bed. 

And then I pretty much wore out!  In the mid 90s, I decided my yellow walls and "bitterweet orange" carpet had to go.  Don't laugh too hard, the carpet should have just been a deep gold, but I was into bright colors at the time and I was stuck with the yellow paint by the builder (it was white by contract but when I complained a bit, the builder said he had lots of yellow and I thought anything was better than white).  And I hated the 1" mixed tile in the bathrooms.

So I hired a general contractor to change some things.  Well, *I* sure couldn't do those things.   So I had a general contractor remove the carpet and install oak floors, add baseboard and crown molding, and connect the 2 around all the room openings with wood and side molding.  I had the bathroom floor and wall tiles changed to 4" cream tiles,  I had them stain all the unfinished doors moderately dark, add a fold-down attic stairs, and some stuff like that.  

Afterwards I painted almost all the walls new colors.  Dining room, cardinal red; living room, hunter green; bedroom, Aztec Rouge; Computer and Guest rooms, Blueberry Mist; Kitchen, Bright White (a mistake); and left the bathrooms yellow.  I even painted the stipple ceilings in the living and dining rooms and hallways/stairs a very pale version of the wall color.  I liked the way it looked like the walls were reflecting onto the ceiling.

I left the kitchen floor (brick linoleum)  and counters (butcher block laminate) alone.  I liked then then and like them now.  30 years and they are still in great shape.  I don't get bored with good colors...

But I did replace the cheap appliances in the kitchen.  Energy efficient, well-rated Consumers Reports models, all black. 

The changes were WONDERFUL!  I was thrilled.  And that was when I realized that (except for painting), I couldn't do those things.  So I stopped for years.  Well, I liked what I had, so why not. 

And then it got harder to do things myself.  Professionals could always do it better.  So I spent years improving the yard further.  That's a never-ending job, so I was happy.  Having a sense of accomplishment is good.

But the home improvements were 22 years ago, and there are changes I want to make in the house.  I wish I had extended the crown molding and baseboards and frame covers into the kitchen.  I want tile walls in the kitchen around the oven and sink and counters.

I had the bathroom tiles and tub last year by professionals (cheap original tub with a failing surface that couldn't be cleaned properly) and tiles falling off.  They did that, and I painted the walls a Soft Moss color.  The whole deal.  Removing all the fixtures (towel bar, outlet covers, lights etc).  Cleaning the walls with TSP, rinsing them 3 times, waiting a week for utter drying.  Taping all the edges.  Painting.  Reinstalling fixtures. 

And discovering it needs a 2nd layer of paint...  Argh!  Well, I can do that easily enough.

But I want to have more done.  Extending the crown and base molding (I mentioned previously) in the kitchen, and wall tiles for easier cleaning (and I might consider mirror panels).  But I can't figure out a mix of tile colors (want varied ones in a color group) that will go with the existing red brink linoleum and butcher block counters.  Red/oranges? Or golds?  Or something else?

But that is only part of the changes.  When I panelled the basement, I added a 1/2 bath.  Dumbest idea ever.  Total waste of space.  It has to go.  So I need professionals to rip it out, extend the hanging ceiling to match the existing ones, cap off water pipes, etc. 

Plus, there are few things less welcoming to visitors than an ugly garage door a front door.  Those a probably things I can do myself.  The question is the color.  My house siding is a medium green.  My shutters are a dark green.  I'll color the inside of the house to suit myself, but I should probably make the outside pleasing to the neighbors and visitors.  It is already unique, being green with a mixed brick foundation in a sea of beige siding houses.  So this is about trying to match some colors. 

The garage door and front door are white.  I'm bored with white.  I'm thinking of making the front door match the shutters.  Maybe the garage door too.

But I keep seeing these stick-on fake pictures for garage doors and can't escape loving the idea.

I need to make a list!