in the midst of life

Was it a foot?  I remembered it as an arm, but at least it was a limb, sort of.  I recommended that to Old Dog and he liked it, and that's what made me think he would like Bottle Rocket, the kind of absurd dumb and dumber aspect, but apparently he didn't.  Nevertheless I am going to recommend a movie I saw Saturday, The Insult, about how a petty incident grows and grows in Lebanon, between a Palestinian and a Lebanese Christian.  How do people get along in a country where your neighbor's ilk massacred your ilk in response to an incident where your ilk massacred them?  Lots of courtroom scenes for those who like them.

My Dinner with Andres got rave reviews, but I was reluctant to see it, I mean just two guys eating dinner, I didn't know.  But I eventually did see it and it was pretty good.  One guy was an optimistic new ager type and the other guy more of a cold scientist type and that was the way the conversation ran, though it was more nuanced than that.

I wonder if Old Dog has ever been to Architectural Artifacts on Ravenswood, not far from his house, room after room of gorgeous and odd junk to roam through.

Beagles's admiration of Trump's achievements makes me think of an Italian in the thirties admiring how cool it was because the trains were running on time.  I suppose the present situation is better than when Trump and Jong Un were were hurling insults at each other, but  how long will it be until they are back at it when nothing comes of the negotiations (though it seems that Jong Un has already received the gift of no more war games in exchange for, well, nothing)? 

I suppose my friend could pay medical bills by putting that eight hundred in the bank, but some medical facilities won't deal with you if you don't have insurance, and if something major happened to her she would never be able to pay that off in her lifetime.  Most indications are that Obama had to jettison single payer and cozy to the insurance companies because the reps would never give him single payer, nevertheless Obamacare was better than what came before and certainly better than Trump No Care which is now in ascendancy.

Nice photo of young Bambi frolicking in the sylvan wonder of Beaglesonia.  Is that the junkyard just behind the trees?

I remember the feeling of roadkill.  Way back when I owned a car, I think it was a squirrel, paused in crossing the interstate right in front of my car, sidled this way and that and in the end dashed right under a wheel.  Thump.  I had picked up a hitchhiker a few miles previous and we had been chatting but after that we rode in silence for a half hour.  And the same thing happened to me and Ruby Dew last summer.  Again with all of life and its riches in front of it, the critter dashed right under the wheel.  Thump.  In the midst of life we are in death says the man of the cloth.

So do either of the Dawgs boycott anything?

Up in the air

Mr. Beagles mentions living next to a junk yard and I'm curious as to the type since there are all kinds.  Sanford and Son depicted a nice little business but I've always associated junk yards with auto "bone yards" where you would grab your tools and go scrounging for that obscure part you needed.  The prices for parts were something the owner just pulled out of thin air most of the time depending on his mood.  Fun places to visit with plenty of odd characters just hanging around and they usually had the part I needed  Transmission cross member for a '65 Bonneville?  No problem, and one of the employees would even pull the part for you for a minimal charge.  The north side had a couple of good bone yards but they're all gone now, shut down completely or moved out to the suburbs.

There has been a new type of junk yard but they don't call it that; they are businesses that deal in "architectural restoration."  When older homes are demolished a crew will show up and strip out the oak floors, doors, windows, cabinets, hinges, fittings, sinks, bathtubs, cabinets, and just about anything that can be removed.  There is a big demand for all that old stuff because of the quality and the simple fact that none of it is being made anymore, at least not at an affordable price.

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I've never heard of any movie about a guy who bought an amputated arm and it started to  drive me crazy because the idea of exhibiting a severed limb was familiar.  Then I remembered a documentary I saw about a guy who found an amputated foot in something he bought at a yard sale and tried to earn some money showing it off.  The movie is Finders Keepers and is available at the usual places you find movies these days.

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I know you guys don't care about motor sports but bear with me.  The 24 hour race at Le Mans was this weekend (Toyota won with an electric hybrid) and it got me thinking.  The road course is almost eight and a half miles long, situated in the French countryside, and what do they do about critters?  Not much, apparently; those swoopy cars just toss them in the air as in the case of this unlucky deer.

Under the Bus

It has occurred to me that Trump might throw South Korea under the bus like Nixon did with Taiwan.  That's the trouble with Trump, he's a loose cannon, nobody knows what he's going to do next.  If you remember, I said that about him before he was elected, and he hasn't changed much since then.  Nevertheless, he has done some things of which I approve.  It's like that old saying, "Even a broken clock is correct twice a day."  I still believe that his main purpose in life is to give the Republicans a bad name, which is why I intend to vote straight Republican this fall.  Well, I probably would have anyway, but this is one more reason.  One thing I like about Trump is that he drives the liberals and the RINOs nuts.  I watched with dismay while Obama drove the conservatives nuts for eight years, and turn around is fair play.

Eight hundred dollars a month is way too much to pay for health insurance.  Uncle Ken's friend would be further ahead putting half that much in the bank and paying her own medical bills as they come up.  If she has a major health problem before she can build her account up, she could pay for it by installments.  She might be paying those installments for the rest of her life, but that's would be better than paying insurance premiums for the rest of her life.  I said in the beginning that Obamacare was nothing but a sweetheart deal for the insurance companies. I thought the Republicans were supposed to be the friends of big business and the Democrats were supposed to be for the little guy.  Well, I suppose one way to keep the little guy little is to soak him for insurance premiums, so I guess that makes sense.

I have heard it said that you're better off hitting a deer than trying to swerve around it, but I'm not so sure about that.  I think what causes people to lose control is when they try to brake and steer at the same time.  One thing I learned from driving on snow and ice is that you can brake or you can steer, but not both at once.  I suppose you would get he same effect on pavement if you were going fast enough.

Well, here's a more cheerful photo of Bambi. You can see that he's alarmed because his tail is up, but he is not in any real danger.  I probably spooked him when I opened the curtains in the morning.  I didn't see him at the time, but my trail camera did.  You can see from the photo that we are not fussy about lawn care in Beaglesonia.  That's the nice thing about living next to a junk yard, nobody can say that I'm ruining the neighborhood.

 

Roadkill

I was surprised to read about the number of deer-related traffic accidents; Lady Luck was smiling on Mr. Beagles.  Most accidents aren't caused by hitting the deer but by the loss of control when trying to avoid them.  I guess it's instinct to slam on the brakes or jerk the steering wheel but that will put you into the ditch before you know it.  I've been lucky in that regard and have hit an animal only once, a poor rabbit in Alabama.  It was at night and the damn thing was sitting in the middle of the road, a very rural and poorly paved piece of pavement and I wasn't going very fast, maybe forty.  I was mentally shouting "Don't move! Don't move!," thinking I would drive over it, avoiding it with the wheels.  But the rabbit wasn't psychic and didn't hear me so, at the very last moment, he decided to make a break for it.  I didn't see him move but I heard a loud thump inside the right front fender, and that was that.  There was no apparent damage, steering was fine, so I didn't stop.

Critters and traffic don't mix, a fact that us city folk tend to forget when we travel through the hinterlands, especially at night.  You're usually fine if you stick to the interstates but if you travel the state and county roads you really have to be on your toes, especially on a motorcycle.  Hitting anything, regardless of size, could prove fatal to both you and the animal.  There was one time in northern Wisconsin when I was ripping through the Chequamegon State Forest at a brisk seventy or so (it was daytime) and I saw a porcupine about a quarter mile ahead.  Quite a big animal, I thought, and hitting one of those at speed would not be a good thing so I slowed down a bit.  Testing the results of high velocity porcupine quills upon tires and the human body is something I chose not to pursue.

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I found Bottle Rocket online and started watching it but bailed out after thirty minutes or so.  I didn't recall anything from my first viewing and it didn't seem worth it to keep watching.  There are better movies out there.  I think I'll give My Dinner With Andre a try, heard it was pretty good with just a couple of guys yapping in a restaurant.  It might be interesting.

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There was a humorous little side item from the G7 summit and the French guy, Macron.  When they first met a year ago there was a big deal made about their handshake and how it went on and on, like they were trying to crush each other's hands.  Or was that Trudeau I'm thinking of?  Anyhow, after this year's summit there was a post-handshake photo showing white marks on Trump's hand from the mighty grip of Macron.  Score one for the EU as Trump finds solace in the comforting embrace of the little Kim, a smart guy, a skilled negotiator, and a great leader of his beloved people.  Even his generals are worthy of a salute from our Commander in Chief.

boycotting

I suppose a deer that doesn't get hauled away quickly is quickly eaten by critters and nature takes care of itself. 

So I had lunch with an old chum yesterday.  She's one of these gig workers you hear so much about  these days, she does some work here, she does some work there, altogether it is a good enough living, but a good part of her wages go to health insurance.  Thank god for Obamacare she says, and the waitress passing by says, right on for that, because she too is on Obamacare.  But it is not cheap, eight hundred a month and a six thousand dollar deductible.  And it keeps going up.  Eliminating the mandate has certainly been a factor in that, and there is more of that sort to come from the Republicans whose method of fighting Obamacare is not to provide an alternative that allows people to get affordable healthcare, but to raise the price of Obamacare so high that nobody can afford it.  This is what I mean by Republicans not actually aiming to put people into poverty, but not minding at all if this is the result of their policies.

She is thinking of looking for a full-time job, but  who knows what  kind of insurance they will offer.  And now the Republicans are coming after insurance companies having to cover pre-existing conditions, which she has, so maybe even if she gets the job the insurance can refuse to cover her.

Well it was just a few minutes conversation until we got to Trump.  In addition to all the terrible things he has done, he has dominated our true blue chats, because once the conversation gets to Trump it is a litany of outrages and there is no time left to discuss literature and art and philosophy like we liberals like to do.

What are you gonna do?  She was speaking of boycotts.  I don't know, I am not a big fan.  I avoid Amazon when I can because I think Jeff Bezos is trying to take over the world, but then Trump hates Bezos too. so maybe I should support Amazon?  Outside of the fact that I think boycotts in general are ineffective, I don't like the blunt force aspect of them.  It goes against the grain of The Liberal Agenda which says we should bring people to our side by reason, not by force. 
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Blunt force can be used by anybody on anybody for any reason, but the sweet voice of reason can only bring people to the right side.  Am I right?  Am I right?

Happy weekend guys, I hear it will be a scorcher.

Not My Department

I think that you're supposed to call the cops when you hit a deer, but some people don't because they've been drinking or something.  There is usually some damage to the vehicle and, if the driver wants to file an insurance claim, the company will want to see the police report.  Also, if the car goes into the ditch or otherwise becomes undrivable, the tow truck driver is required to call the cops.  Likewise for the ambulance driver, if anybody is injured.  If you want to salvage the deer, you are required to get a permit which, I believe, is free.  I think the DNR as well as the police can issue the permit.  If you are caught transporting the carcass without a permit, you can be charged for illegal possession or something like that.

Disposition of unclaimed deer carcasses is a bit of a problem around here.  The cops, the DNR, or the County Road Commission people will drag it off the road if it constitutes a traffic hazard, but that's as far as they will go.  After that, it's Mother Nature's responsibility, or the property owner, if he cares.  Deer that are hit in the winter usually become buried in snow and are not noticeable until spring. That's when people complain about it, but nobody does anything about it.

I knew a guy, not far from here, who had a deer hit in front of house, which is in the city limits.  The injured deer stumbled into his yard and laid down, but it didn't die.  The guy called the city police, the county sheriff, the state police, the DNR, and the humane society, but none of them would come out.  The guy then called he city police back and asked them if he could shoot the deer in the head to put it out of its misery, but they told him it was illegal to discharge a firearm in the city limits.  After trying unsuccessfully to dispatch the deer with a knife and a hammer, he called the cops again.  They told him it wasn't illegal to shoot a bow and arrow in the city limits and, as luck would have it, archery season was open at the time.  The guy didn't have a bow, but he knew somebody who did and called him up.  The archer came over, shot the deer with his bow, an put his tag on it.  End of story.

movie talk

Sometimes I forget why I put a movie in the queue.  It might be because I liked the trailer, maybe the queue was low and I went out scouting for the best movie of 2016. 15. 14, whenever, and sometimes I take a shine to a director, or actor.  I was wondering why I put this one in my queue, and then I saw that is was directed by Wes Anderson and that's why I put it in,  It has a dumb and dumber aspect that I thought might appeal to Old Dog like that movie where the guy buys another guy's amputated arm and tries to make money exhibiting it which strangely doesn't come up in response to 'movie about a guy who buys another guy's arm.'

I used to go to a video store called Video Shmideo, by State and Ontario that was like the store Old Dog speaks of, it gave you kind of an insider feeling chatting the guy up.  Those Blockbuster kids, they didn't know or care about anything.  But Blockbuster is gone now too, and I am surprised that Netflix is still going on in its snail mail hardcopy manner.  I don't pay any attention to its recommendations, mostly they seem on the level of if I watch a movie set in Australia, it thinks I like movies about Australia.  There doesn't seem to be a category for movies where the good guy is not that good and the bad guy not all that bad, with a lot of talking, no car crashes or explosions, and the ending is not  all that happy, it can be upbeat but I don't want to see all the good guys rewarded and all the bad guys punished. 

There is this thing, maybe the current version of AI, where they select things for you because other people who have watched or bought what you have watched of bought also watched or bought them.  Something sinister in that like separating us humans into similar tribes.


As an artist I refuse to read an article about dogs playing poker.  If there is anything interesting in that article Old Dog should have presented it in the body of the post rather than have me scrambling through Artsy,net and trying to dodge its request to sign up.  We have this woman in the building who gives art talks that consist of her talking about some artist who did this and that and maybe people laughed at him, but nowadays people pay piles of money for his paintings and this proves I assume, that he was a great artist.  And I am like what does one have to do with the other?  Why should I care?


You notice on that G7 thing Tump didn't diss our allies until he was on the plane.  I don't think Trudeau would have punched him in the mouth, or Macron stomped his toes, or Merkel, I see her giving him a sharp jab in the gut, but Trump, being a coward bully, obviously fears this so he never insults to the face.


Perhaps that incident on the country lane could have been worse for Beagles or for the white pickup guy, but I don't think it could have been any worse for Bambi.  When I was in Missouri Ruby Dew was pointing out all the deer carcasses.  I had never noticed them before, but once I was looking there were a lot.  Do you have to contact someone after you do that so they can haul it away, or do they just pick them up as they come across it?  Isn't there some deal where you can take it home and butcher it?