Flushed with pride

That was a fine summary of a septic system, Mr. Beagles, and I like the fact that electricity is not required if the elevations are correct.  Modern day waste treatment and water management are nothing short of miraculous, I think.

And then I think of the aqueducts built by the Romans and my mind wobbles.  Those guys were smart, really smart, and I have no idea how they sat down and figured it out.  There must have been a lot of math involved but have you tried doing advanced calculations with Roman Numerals?  Aghh!  Can such feats be accomplished today with the same tools and techniques of past millennia?  Where do you begin (besides having thousands of slaves at your disposal)?

 

Rural Septic Systems

Before I get into the septic system, here is a copy of the last paragraph in Uncle Ken's post of November 19, at least this is the way it displayed on my browser:

 And there were young people like me working in the hospital and they all liked to drink beer and smoke dope and listen to music, so

Funny thing, it came out like this when I copied and pasted it just now:

And there were young people like me working in the hospital and they all liked to drink beer and smoke dope and listen to music, so we carried on the revolution in the trailer I rented.

Another funny thing, Uncle Ken and I agree on Trump, even though we disagree about most other political issues.

Okay, the toilets and all the other used water drains into the septic tank, usually a concrete chamber of about a thousand gallons.  There it naturally ferments causing most of the solids to eventually liquify.  Until they do, the solids form a sludge that floats on top.  There are no chemicals involved, unless you count yeast as a chemical.  There are other products you can buy, but yeast works just as well and costs less.  When the tank gets full, excess water drains to the drain field through a pipe located below the normal sludge line.  The drain field is a network of pipes that disburses the water into the soil.  When the system operates correctly, there is no smell or visible water above the ground.

If you build on a site that has poor drainage, usually due to a high water table or impermeable soil, you are required to install the drain field on top the ground and back fill with sand.  The puts the drain field too high for the water to flow to it by gravity, so it needs to be pumped out of the tank.  For this type of installation, the septic tank has two chambers, one of which collects the water that is periodically pumped to the drain field by a sump pump.  If the sump pump fails and the water in the tank rises above a certain level, a warning light turns on, and you have a day or two to get the problem fixed before your house drains cease to function and your toilet ceases to flush.

This brief summary is all I have time for tonight.  I need my beauty sleep because I might have to plow snow tomorrow.  We've been lucky so far with only a few inches on the ground, but more has been predicted.  

.

Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden, free at last

 Just one more thing as Colombo is inclined to say just as you are about to slam the door and flop into the LaZ Boy with a big Phew!

This is from a letter I wrote lately and I wonder if either of you guys have an opinion on it.

This outrage over his pardon is bullshit.  The idea that Joe should be purer than Caesar's wife while Trump is wallowing in sin and leave his son at the tender mercy of the savages he is appointing is crazy.

Sorry to bother you but I am watching CNN alone with nobody to yell at but my cat who refuses to discuss politics.

septic tanks and drain fields

 I can always tell that Beagles is ok because he likes my paintings on fb, usually on a Sunday, and I assume that he can tell I am okay because I make those posts every Monday.

I can't find the incomplete sentence which he cites, but I am wondering about the last line on his post:  happend totop

My post was going to be about the feeling that my people are in charge sometimes and sometimes it feels like Beagle's people THEY are running things.  I was thinking of how I feel lately like an alien presence has taken charge.  Well Trump yes, and his merry band of savages, but what about the murky folks in the hinterlands that put him there.  Why did they do this, what do they want?  

I started it with my Berkely Barb selling days and was going to trace the events between then and now, but I only got as far as my days in Southern Illinois when it was getting late in the morning for me and I titled it with the 1, and was thinking I would continue it with 2, but I never got any kind of response and it was like when you are talking to somebody else and think that your conversation is sparkling and informative and then you look up and you see that they have left the room.

But wait, septic tanks.  I have been out in the country and seen them and talked to people who use them.  But not in much depth because, you know, icky.  I understand when you flush out in the country it goes down some pipe and then into some tank which is sometimes buried and sometimes standing out there in the open, like Pancho's gun, for all the honest world to see.  There are some chemicals in there that I guess sweeten the liquid, and then what?  I know it goes somewhere, but where?  I guess a pump makes sense, but the idea of a drain plain is intriguing.  How far away is it.  Is it a foul smelly plain where no plant dares to raise its head, or it full of luxuriant, well-fed flora.

Mr Google is pulling on my shoulder whispering of information just a few clicks away, but I would rather hear it from Beagles in his storytelling manner. 

I will respond to Old Dog's comments on misposting that watercolor post soon with a long and meandering and mostly pointless recount of my Artistic Journey.  Stay tuned.

The Joys of Rural Living

Thanksgiving went well, until it didn't.  After the guests had left, we noticed the high-level warning light for our septic tank was on.  That means the pump that pumps the used water out of the tank into the drain field was not working.  If this problem was not addressed in a few days, our toilets and drains would cease to function.  These pumps usually last 20 years or more, but this was the third one to go bad on us this year.  I left a message on the septic guy's machine, and he called me back the first thing next morning.  He came out and fixed it straightaway, but it failed again in less than two days.  When I called the guy, he said that this was not normal pump behavior and that something else must be wrong.  Turned out that the pipe that leads from the pump to the drain field was broken, and the water was going back into the tank faster that the pump could pump it out, which caused the pump to overload and shut down.  The septic guy's assistant assured me that it's fixed now, unless something else is wrong, we'll have to wait and see.  I seem to remember that the city sewers in our old neighborhood in Chicago used to back up and flood people's basements from time to time.  The only difference was that that there was nobody you could call to fix the problem.

The good news is that the big lake effect snow event missed us here in Cheboygan.  We got barely a trace, and most of that has melted.

Uncle Ken's last post was disturbing.  It cut off right in the middle of a sentence, and there has been no "part two" to follow his "part one".  I hope this doesn't mean that something bad has happened to him.  Do you know anything about this, Old Dog?

 happend totop

Chilling out

Finally, some seasonably cold weather much to my liking.  The lower double-digits are fine when you're out and about and moving; quite invigorating, maybe not so good if you're stuck in one place and can't get out of the wind.  Builds character, does it not?

-----

Thanksgiving has come and gone; I trust my colleagues had some familial gathering.  No turkey on the menu in my neck of the woods; nobody likes it so there was chicken and roast beef instead.  I wouldn't have minded some dark meat with gravy but making gravy is a lost art, it seems.  The stuff in the cans just doesn't work for me but I'm becoming more "old school" as the clock keeps ticking.

-----

Be careful what you wish for, Uncle Ken.  You might not like the sparks from a few new posts regarding your watercolors.  I've already given you the benefit of my constructive criticism (years ago!) and I'll leave it at that.  You don't need validation from me or anybody else as long as you find value in your efforts, so keep on keeping on.

Living under occupation 1

 The Berkeley Barb was one of those alternate newspapers that flourished in the heady days of the counterculture, less peace and love than most of them and mostly calling for revolution and disorder.  It came off the presses on Thursday night and we vendors would line up on the stairway up to the offices waiting on it.  When it arrived we would spend all our ready cash on a bundle and take it out on the streets where we would sell it for twice what we paid for it.

It sold well on Thursday nights but most of the business would be on Friday morning.  Late Thursday night and the wee hours of Friday morning would find every corner of south campus town occupied by a vendor waiting for the sun.

And then something happened.  A couple blocks down the cops (pigs) were busting one of us.  Well not a vendor, but a young long-haired guy.  The word that went out was that they were busting him for selling dope which was certainly not wrong to us people who lived along Telegraph Avenue.  If you walked down The Ave midday on a weekday you would hear the soft refrain, "Pot, LSD, Uppers, Downers." all down the street.  It was no big deal.

So why were the pigs busting one of us right on our territory?  It was outrageous.  We should do something to protect our surf.  We muttered among ourselves but in the end of course we didn't do anything.  Nobody wanted to get cracked with a night stick or get jammed into the squad car and taken to the station.

But we were pissed.  We were oppressed.  We were occupied.  We didn't like it one fucking bit.

calI was dodging the draft by skipping out on physicals by moving around.  I returned to Champaign and discovered that my buddies had rented out this cool big old house where we could drink beer and smoke dope, and listen to music all day long.  I decided to make my stand and take my physical.  How hard could it be to flunk a physi?  Too hard for me it turned out.

But then I got a CO and was sent down to Herrin in southern Illinois, a town of about 10,000 folks who I assumed to be those angry rednecks of hippie lore.  But you know they weren't, they were barely aware that a war was going on.  I remember overhearing one of them tell his companions that he hadn't been out of Williamson County in twenty years, and they all nodded approvingly.

Their congressman was Kenny Gray, a democrat who proudly wore the moniker of many other proud politicians, The King of Pork.  Mining was in a slump and the land was south of the glacier and didn't grow corn near as well as it did up north.  But Kenny Gray brough a shitload of projects to the area and they all loved him.  

Now that whole area is ruby red.

And there were young people like me working in the hospital and they all liked to drink beer and smoke dope and listen to music, so we carried on the revolution in the trailer I rented.  

OOOOPS

 That prior post, five more, was meant for my watercolor class blog, put it up by mistake, but I think I will leave it there because what the fuck, also it might spark a few new posts.

five more

 That tree is way too dark, the petals of the flower are way too heavy.  Those three cone flowers are, well I call it whimsical, and the hedge is lively.

the week

 Election day 2016 I settled in with beer and chips and a jaunty attitude to watch the returns come in and went away muttering "The horror, the horror."  2020 it was just beer and I was full of trepidation and came away wiping sweat from my brow and muttering, "Well I'll be doggone."  2024 I reeled from that terrible debate, but when Kamala stepped in my heart soared like a hawk as did her polls soon afterwards.  But as the days wore on that lead steadily faded away.  Just before election though Kamala picked up and Trump was ranting increasingly wild and I sat down in front of the tube assessing my mood as cautiously optimistic.  The blue wall held until about ten when it was swamped over.  The horror, the horror.

Tonight it will be a week.  I have recovered to a state where I can get back to my routine, but I don't always tune into CNN and I gloss over the newspapers afraid of burning my fingers.  They are full of dems pointing their fingers at each other.  What the fuck difference does it make?  And they are full of those rubber tongued reps, the Trump Whisperers, explaining what Trump really meant when he issued his latest screed.

I heard one of the pundits say there was a republican theory going around during the last days that there are lots of voters who had never voted in their lives who were marginal people who would be susceptible to crazy talk.  Note how Trump got crazier than average at the end.  Anyway a lot of them showed up at the polls and a large majority of them voted for Trump.  

I haven't heard that theory again though.  The one I most commonly hear was that it the economy and immigration, but I dunno, if it's hot and sweaty on the beach do you head for the shark infested water?

I agree with Beagles that if Trump got in it would break the country to the extent that there might not be any more elections, and he shows no signs of pausing for sweet reason.

My only hope is that he hires a crazy crew that can't get much done and that his appointees are so busy fighting each other and again can't get much done.  In his last term there were thankfully some decent men in the deep state that stood up to him, this time he will be getting rid of all of them he can.

I guess that is as cautiously optimistic that I can be these days.

Early November, a week later

Yikes!  Didn't see the big numbers going the way they did, not a close one at all.  I anticipate a lot of agonizing reappraisal and gnashing of teeth but say what you will, a certain party looks like a bunch of chumps.

...I'll be glad when it's over and we enter a new phase of conspiracy theories.

Did I say that?  Huh.  Let me make another prediction: the time has come for the creation of a viable third party.  Conservative Democrats and Liberal Republicans are going to come together in some way, maybe unofficially, but they need to form some kind of coalition.  The Judicial and Executive branches of government are beyond redemption; Congress is our last, best hope.  Or not.   Keep your powder dry!

Who'd-a-thunk it?

 One of the interesting things about being old is, every time you think you've seen it all, you find out that you ain't seen nothing yet.  "Too close to call" they said.  "Razor thin margin" they said.  Experts! What do they know?  You know what I think?  I'll tell you what I think.  I think I should have voted for him.  You know why I think that?  I voted against him in 2016, and he won.  I voted for him in 2020, and he lost.  I, therefore, have no reason to doubt that he would have lost this time if I had voted for him.  My vote is the kiss of death for presidential candidates.  It's the only explanation that makes sense.  Okay, I did vote for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984, but that's just the exception that proves the rule.  

Well, the people have spoken, and it's all over now but the shouting.  So be it.  I think one of my old paper mill colleagues said it best back in 1972:  "The trouble with majority rule is that the majority is stupid."

I am adding this to yesterday's post because I thought it would be of interest.  

Trump’s win and why shy voters still won't speak up

Early November

A fine tale about your uncles, Mr. Beagles, and easy to visualize a couple of kids hiding in the mud after their little stunt.  I think Ah-nuld did the same thing in the movie Predator and he got away with it too.  I doubt that the .22 caused any damage to the plane but the pilot didn't know that; maybe all he saw were a couple of figures and some smoke from a long gun.  But at a distance a couple of kids with a .22 could be mistaken for adults with a 30-06, hence the immediate response.  Better safe than sorry.  Think those boys needed a change of underwear?

-----

Tomorrow is a big day for some and I'll be glad when it's over and we enter a new phase of conspiracy theories.  This is the first time that I've seen such a large amount of early votes, more than 75 million so far; that's got to mean something.  And I wonder if some folks are taking a longer view in case something would happen to the new president.  The notion of a President Vance does not give me comfort.  There is a bright side to all of this political darkness, though.  I don't think I'm the only person looking forward to the sentencing of a certain individual with 34 felony convictions.

Democracy what is it good for?

 

 If we elect Harris and she does not live up to expectations, we can always vote her out in four years.  I'm not sure I could confidently say the same thing about Trump.

I couldn't agree more with Beagles' analysis and decision.  I remember way back to I think it was the winter of 2015 during the primaries.  The reporters of CNN were way out in Bumfuck, New Hampshire I think.  It was a cold and snowy night and from their copter they showed a line of headlights all down the road, and as the copter flew over them there were more, and still more, and still more after that.  

They were all going to the polling place.  What a tribute to American democracy I thought.  How proud I was of my fellow Americans.  And then I realized they were all lined up in the cold gloom of the night to cast their ballots for Donald J Trump.

Ah Democracy, one man one vote, the voice of the people, the American way.  How proud we are of our peaceful exchanges of power.

In the 60s when Europe was setting its African colonies free the word of the land was democracy.  Let them enjoy the fruits of democracy and their enlightened countries would join the rest of the world in peaceful cooperation.

But there were some other voices who were saying maybe these countries aren't ready for democracy.  This caused a hew and cry.  Why you racists are you saying that Black people aren't capable of having a democracy.  Why you miserable racist!

But the fact was that these Black people living in the colonies had no experience in self governing.  The colonizers made all the decisions and they had no say.  There were no native leaders, there were no institutions.  There was just a bunch of tribes.  When they voted everyone just voted for their tribe, usually by a picture on the ballot.  The biggest tribe won of course, and the smaller tribes were resentful and raised a ruckus and I think that is still going on.

Well we are Americans we are educated, we can tell what is going on because we have access to the facts and can make decisions based on that.

Used to be that way.  Now we have facts that aren't facts, and true facts are ignored and we are not that removed from the colonized Africans in our outlook.

Democracy is part of The Liberal Agenda.  There will be schools, there will be traveling, there will be newspapers reporting just the facts Ma'am.  The people will wisely and deftly steer the Ship of State past the shoals of destruction.

6:37 am now.  I guess I will be doing my stuff around the house listening to CNN as I usually do, but not that closely because it is all speculation.  Too close to call, but then they go on and discuss indicators.  Which sex is voting early in greater numbers?  How will the disabled Puerto Rican lesbians Methodists vote?

Tomorrow morning I will go down the stairs to the polling place just minutes after six, likely will be the first voter and walk out with one of those proud silly little stickers that say I voted.  I took part in Democracy.

A Tale of Two Uncles

 Uncle Emil wasn't really my uncle, we just called him that.  He was actually my Uncle Eddie's brother, and the only reason Uncle Eddie was my uncle was that he was married to my mother's sister.  

One day, when the two uncles were kids back in the 1930s, they were fooling around with a .22 rifle in that big prairie that used to be by Midway Airport.  According to my map app, there are no big prairies by Midway Airport anymore, but there still was when I was a kid back in the 1960s, so I'm pretty sure there was back in the 30s.  The big prairie I remember was about where the Orange Line links up with the airport today.  

Be that as it may, one of the two uncles took a pot shot at an airplane that had just taken off from the airport.  Uncle Eddie always said that Uncle Emil was the shooter, but when Uncle Emil told the story, he said it was Uncle Eddie. I'm sure they did not intend to damage the plane, they were just two dumb kids fooling around.  Normally, an airplane in flight would be out of range of a light rifle like that, but this plane had just taken off and had not gained much altitude yet.  Indeed, my uncles could see the pilot, which means the pilot could also see them.  The plane promptly turned around and went back to the airport, where it promptly landed.

The prairie was swarming with people in a matter of minutes.  Some of them wore uniforms and some were dressed in suits like you would wear to church.  They were coming at the uncles from all sides, cutting off any hope of escape.  The uncles, however, managed to evade capture by hiding in a jungled up mud hole, almost completely immersing themselves in the mud.  There they remained until long after dark, when all those people finally gave up and went away.  

The uncles got into trouble for coming home so late and for wrecking their clothes, but they never divulged what they had done until decades later, when Uncle Eddie told the story at a family gathering.  I heard Uncle Emil's version sometime later and, like I said, each uncle identified the other uncle as being the actual shooter.  Both uncles have since died, so we will never know which one was telling the truth.

Woman's Work is Never Done

As my wife's health has deteriorated over the years, more and more of the household tasks have fallen upon my shoulders.  Of course I am no spring chicken myself, but I'm still in better shape than she is.  It is a running joke between us that many of these jobs "only take a few minutes".  The thing is, though, that those few minutes add up throughout the day and, before you know it, you run out of day before you run out of jobs.  I know that I haven't been posting a lot for some time for other reasons, but the current situation has not helped.  Speaking of help, we have agreed that we need to hire someone to help us keep up with the daily grind, and we intend to do it as soon as we get the time.  

I did all my own housekeeping when I was single, while holding down a full-time job, and I never gave it much thought, assuming that all single guys did that unless they were still living with their parents.  Then one evening, I brought a girl home with me, and she refused to believe that I did all that by myself.  She accused me of having a wife or girlfriend that I wasn't telling her about.  Apparently, she had been inside more guy's living quarters than I had and assured me that none of them was as clean and well-ordered as mine.   I also had plenty of time for hunting and fishing in those days, as well as pretty active social life. 

As I mentioned previously, I plan to grit my teeth and vote straight Democrat next week.  I certainly like Trump's agenda better than Harris', but they both might be lying through their teeth anyway.   If we elect Harris and she does not live up to expectations, we can always vote her out in four years.  I'm not sure I could confidently say the same thing about Trump.

Speaking of politics, I noticed this year that both candidates seem to be holding a lot of rallies, with the audience going nuts like they might do at a sporting event or a rock concert.  Those people seem to already love the candidate.   This could be called "preaching to the choir" or "preaching to the converted".  What do they hope to accomplish by that?

Uncle Ken's post about the old neighborhood reminded me of an old story that circulated around my family while I was growing up.  I don't remember whether or not I have ever posted it before.  Did I ever tell you guys about the time one of my uncles shot down an airplane with a .22 rifle?  

The Eve of Destruction

 Beagles is still with us.  He liked my last fb art post as he does every week.  And I see where our short term buddy, Free Tim has begun his old blog.  Think I will give him a comment sometime after Halloween.

When I was writing about the trip to Gage Park I was thinking about Old Dog who I believe has always lived in the same hood except for when he was serving his country.  I wondered what that was like.  Are there people there who he has known boyhood who he runs into from time to time?  Can he turn a block and suddenly see 60 or 70 years back in time?

The blog began in 2012 and I think Beagles and I were exchanging emails for two years before that which would take us to midway in Obama's first term when hope was still fluttering in my liberal heart.  Beagles didn't like Obama.  If memory serves me well, which is not a sure thing, he thought Obama was a muslim, and I was able to point that out to him.  I believe that is the only thing in Beagles' mind that I ever changed.  

But even if Beagles did not like Obama he was more sanguine about the political situation than myself, a pretty rabid partisan when I was in the mood.  Sometimes he said something on the order of there will be another election in a couple years (Obama beat Romney who was rather a flip flopper, but I liked him for that, better to have someone who didn't have strong opinions than somebody who had passionate opinions that I loathed).  Sometimes Beagles' guy would win, sometimes Uncle Ken's would, it all sort of worked out, neither of us got all that we wanted, but then we never lost everything either.

2016 was different.  The rough beast came slouching to the white house and to the dread of my ilk and of myself made himself at home.  This was not the give and take which the country had become used to.  Then he was vanquished, and now he is coming back stronger than ever.  

I have read that both sides now believe this will be the last election if the other side wins.  I don't see how Kamala, a run of the mill liberal, will change the country that much, we have seen her likes before.  I guess if some crud like Ted Cruz was running I would despise him and all, but I would be thinking who would we be running in four years.

But Trump?

The votes of me and Old Dog don't mean a thing here in topaz blue Illinois,  Only Beagles has a vote that counts and last I remember hearing he is not voting for Trump and is even thinking of voting for Kamala.  I hope this is still true.

Idle speculation

It's nice to see a new post, regardless of how long it takes.  I could have posted earlier but then it would look like I had two posts in a row and I don't want to hog all the glory.  Thanks, Uncle Ken, for letting me off the hook.  I wonder about the welfare of Mr. Beagles but no news is good news, isn't it?

-----

...and then I was back downtown, noisy, smelly, hurry up downtown...

Good observations about the annual trek to the old 'hood and the differences in our realities can be glaring.  I'm only three blocks down the street of my childhood home and as I wander about I can easily see what has changed but much more has stayed the same.  The stability is remarkable despite gradual changes in demographics; if anything, the area has become much more upscale which I find amusing.  Another change is the number of neighborhood associations, groups that get together and do clean-ups, the planting of native flora, stuff like that.  And as I type this I can gaze out my window and see the murky haze of downtown past the colorful treetops.

-----

What an entertaining election year!  It looks like our democratic process could use a lot of work, in my opinion.  There was a time when folks could disagree without being disagreeable but such is not the case today, it seems.  There are plenty of issues that can (and should) be addressed, such as the limitations of the two-party system, the downsides of Capitalism, and the financing of political campaigns.  I'm keeping my thoughts to myself; now is not the time to go on the record; who knows what the algorithms will conclude?  Meanwhile I can grab a snack and enjoy the show.

-----

The Institute, whither will it drift?

Downstream.

 

The Trip to Gage Park

 Two moons now, the song of Beaglesonia has not been heard in this troubled land.  And the land has become more troubled than ever.  Russkies are getting the upper hand, Netanyahu has unleashed his big guns and is shooting up the place.  Those fierce Death to America Arab, Muslim types turn out to have been paper tigers and are now cowering under drone and missiled skies shooting popguns against heavy armaments, and we are awaiting the assault on Iran.

Oh, and at home we are at each other throats, both sides thinking that if the other side wins the election it is the end of the country as we know it.  The miracle of Kamala has faded and now the dark scowl is seen across the land.  I can hardly stand the squalling on CNN.

And Monday I took my annual trip to Gage Park.  A warm fall day, pleasant to the feel and the smell. I got off the train at Kedzie.

There once was a huge Kmart at 51st and Kedzie abuzz with Mexicans coming in with money and coming out with colorful goods, household necessities and big colorful toys for their kiddies.  It has been empty now for at least 5 years, a big concrete hulk crumbling into its huge parking lot.  There are signs pasted up on it announcing stores that will be opening up there soon, but the signs are dusty and crusty and there are no new stores.  The neighborhood around it is still bustling.  Maybe it will come back.

The next stop is 55th and Kedzie, the four corners.  The restaurant is now a Walgreens, the drug store is now a Mexican deli, Talmans, the huge savings and loan that was the anchor of the community has been torn down and a motley assortment of fitness centers and Starbucks and suchlike have taken its place.  St Gall, the spiritual center still stands, 2,000 years and still going strong.   

West on 55th Street, a few empty storefronts, but things are bustling.  Four blocks down is what we used to call the tracks.  There is only one track now and the wide and long prairie has given way to a spiffy well-groomed park.  There is a fancy baseball diamond with some small bleachers.  We used to play amid bumps and rocks and bases marked with the remnants of cardboard boxes.  But it was fine.  Still fine now I imagine for the little leaguers that play there now.  Baseball.  150 years and still going strong.

The house on Homan Avenue still stands in its place among the rows of bungalows. All of them neat as a pin.  

Enrico Tonti is now Monarcas Academy, Enrico having been found lacking in the eyes of the political correctness police.  The big gravel playground of my youth is filled with out buildings.  The place is busting at the seams.  Some kids were out at recess, attended by some adults.  We never had anybody watching us and we had a ball, the oldster in me complains, but still the kids were ignoring their overseers and having a ball just running around and screaming at the top of their little lungs.  Human beings, 200,000 years and still going strong.

Past the crumbling hulk of the Colony where we kids watched technicolor movies in air conditioned comfort.  An Italian beef, sausage combo at Nickys, packaged in styrofoam and those styrofoam like McDonalds fries, but still delicious. 

And you know all the while I was walking through the neighborhood I had this feeling that I used to have on summer vacations when you would wake up way early in the morning and realize that it was summer vacation and you didn't have to do a thing all day, just walk around in the neighborhood and see what is going on.  I guess the hood is still going strong.  

Got on a Kedzie bus to the train and then I was back downtown, noisy, smelly, hurry up downtown, but the summer vacation mood stuck with me all day.

The Institute, whither will it drift?

Post Labor Day post

I hope I have caught up with my suddenly chatty colleagues...

Ha, Ha, define "chatty."  Joke's on you!  Seems to me that there is a lack of will to keep up with the posting business.  I'll not speculate on possible reasons but things change and grow and if it's time to move on, it's time to move on to other things.  Fair enough?

catching up with the gang

 Well it's great to see the old gang back together in a flurry of posts critiquing the Zeitgeist of these days and their place in it.  Good to see The Scourge return and showing that he is not just after cleansing errors from small potatoes, but is willing to also take on big political websites like The Hill.  And naturally I don't think I agree with his characterization of Beagles and I seeing only in black and white.  Some topics, like Trump, have no grey.  And isn't he himself seeing Beagles and myself only in black and white?  We have depth Man, no really.

The worst thing for me about smartphones is their tiny screen and my big fat clumsy fingers.  Not so hot for doing anything complicated.  Not so good for outgoing which I generally save for the computer when I get home, but pretty good for incoming, pretty good for catching up on the news, which I do way too often.  A shiny object for idle moments which might be better spent on plumbing the mysteries of the cosmos, but where did that ever get anybody anyway?

It's great for nuisance calls however.  It blocks many of them.  I see the number and name if it's somebody I know.  If it's no name then I won't pick up.  I can push a button and they get this little message to state their business.  They usually hang up at this point, but every now and then they turn out to be someone I want to talk to and then I pick up.

That NASCAR race, well naturally I look down my nose at the sport and its adherents.  When they had the first one I was afraid that there would be all this racket, though I admit that State Street right below me is rife with ambulances and fire trucks, which is ok they are performing city services, but also hot rods and motorcycles and those three-wheeled thingies that blast music (though I am developing an appreciation for them, it is music).

But it turned out this far north I never heard a thing.  It would be ok if we made a lot of dough, but the last mayor made a sweetheart deal so I don't know if we even broke even.  And whenever we have one of these things, and we have them all summer, Grant Park becomes a maze of cyclone fences and teenagers at minimum wages bossing us around in their adenoidal voices, don't go here, don't go there.  I don't mind when it's Lollapalooza with the Lolla babes strutting their stuff downtown which rakes in badly needed dough, but NASCAR, and that dreadful Air and Water show, I would be happier without them.

I hope I have caught up with my suddenly chatty colleagues, and I hope to hear from you after the weekend.  

Being Old Ain't What it Used to Be

 I agree with Uncle Ken that kids nowadays don't care what old people say.  I suppose most kids were always like that, but I wasn't like most kids.  I always preferred the company of adults, older the better, to the company of other kids, except for girl kids of course.  Indeed, I usually got along better with the girl's parents than I did with the actual girl.  Of course this was counterproductive, but before I realized that I was too old to do anything about it.  Funny how you can be so smart about some things and so dumb about others.

I remember that Pepsodent jingle, but I don't remember that particular commercial.  I also don't remember all those chemicals being in toothpaste.  The only one I remember is stannous fluoride.  Crest was the first one to have it, but now they all have it.  There are lots of other chemicals that are supposed to do all kinds of wonderful things to your teeth, but I don't like any of them.  I use Sensodyne with just fluoride added, and my wife likes her Crest the same way.

I still don't have a credit card, I have a debit card instead.  It comes free from our credit union, and it draws off of our checking account.  My wife prefers to use checks, so she carries the checkbook in her purse while I carry the card in my wallet.  

I have one of those flip phones too.  I don't think it qualifies as a smart phone, but it's still smarter than I am.  I mostly use it to call the regular phone company when our regular phone is out of order, and I carry it when I'm away from home in case of an emergency.  Did you know there are no pay phones around anymore?

My computer had been glitching on me for some time before it just stopped working one day.  Also, I got a notice from Microsoft that they were going to stop supporting my Windows 10 operating system next year, and that my machine was not suitable for an upgrade to Windows 11.  Since I only paid $200 for it eight years ago, I couldn't see putting any more money into now.

Another Thursday

New and Improved Post with IMP!

What a commercial!  I don't remember any of the details but the tune brought back memories but I never did find out exactly where the yellow went.  I couldn't help but notice that you are never told what IMP is;  it was only a lucky guess that I found out it stood for "Insoluble Meta-Phosphate."  And they completely skipped over irium and its ionic surfactant goodness.  But that's advertising for you, a little misdirection to make you want to part with your precious treasure.

But there was something screwy about the link, I don't know if it was the link or my computer/browser.  I couldn't get it to open, I kept getting the YouTube message "this video is not available."  Good thing that The Wayback Machine is still in business.

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Speaking of computer screwiness, Mr. Beagles mentioned that his computer died.  Any idea of the cause or symptoms?  I have a scattershot familiarity with computer hardware and their deaths are always intriguing.  Were you able to save the data from your old box?  I don't want to get deep into the weeds but you mentioned you needed to go to a certain store; nothing at Walmart or Amazon that would do the trick?  Pro tip when shopping at Amazon: add the word "refurbished" after the name of the item you're looking for.  There are deals to be had.

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I have no opinion of smart phones; my cheapo "pay as you go" flip-phone still serves me well since I use it only for phone calls and sometimes as an alarm clock.  When I'm out and about and see all the folks with their devices held in their hands I picture them on leashes, just waiting for further instructions.  They always respond immediately when summoned.

Mr. Beagles shows good financial wisdom in his use of credit cards.  A big downside of Capitalism as practiced in these parts is the slippery slope of consumer debt.  You think you can easily pay your balance off but it doesn't always work out that way; you're in over your head before you know it and don't ask me how I know this.  Now I'm fine with only two credit cards (not counting Target; they give a 5% discount).  One card is for online purchases, the other is for the rare purchases that require more cash than I usually have on hand and I never carry them unless I know I'm going to use them.  And they're paid off every month, in full.  I like to have a nice wad of walking around money but I can't always get to one of my bank's ATMs.  And isn't it nice that some police stations have ATMs in case you need some quick dough to make your bail?  Or so I've been told.

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And just so Uncle Ken doesn't look like some rube, it's Pizzeria Due, not Duo.  Back in the day, about 50 years ago or so, Due's pizza was supposed to be the better pie but don't ask me, I don't think I've ever been to Uno's.
 

New and Improved Post with IMP!

 How long have I had a smartphone now?  I am inclined to say five years, but I have noticed that whenever I say something happened five years ago, it turns out to be ten.  So let's say ten.

Well of course I have reached the age where I pretty much don't like anything new.  TV's were new when we were kids.  Sometimes in the rare occasions when I am among young people, in order to get a little attention from them, to get them to raise their pimply faces from their phones, I will say "You know I remember back to when almost nobody had a television,"  It never works though because kids are never interested in anything old folks have to say, and I know that because I was once a kid.  

But it was different when we were kids, old folks then were stodgy.  We are not like that, we are hip and with it.  We aren't the old old folks of yesterday, we are the new old folks of today.   

New, it was the buzzword of advertising back in the day.  Every product we saw in commercials on our new TVs, was New.  New and Improved, New and improved and containing IMP!   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOhfGezdcXU

I didn't like the new smartphones.  Who wants to be available to callers even when they are out having some kind of exciting adventure?  Phone calls were no longer the exciting events of my childhood, they were mostly annoying, some boring task, some long-winded boring pal, nothing that couldn't be taken care of when I got home.  Who needed them?  At first you get a little credit for hanging back from the latest trend, like a amiable eccentric, oh that Ken.

But after awhile that credit dissipates.  You are supposed to meet somebody somewhere like an airport and they say, once you get there they will call you and tell you where to go next, and you say I don't have a cellphone. and they are Well fer Chrissake, and you are no longer amiable, you are annoying.

Like calling somebody and it just rings and rings and you are waiting for the machine to come on so that you can leave your message, but at some point you realize the machine is never coming on because they don't have one.  So now, instead of leaving your message and being about your merry way, you have to remember to call them later and hope they are home, and if they are not you will have to call them again and so on and so on.  What a pain in the ass.  Why doesn't this jerk get with it?

In Chicago there is a Pizzeria Uno and a Pizzeria Duo just about a block from each other.  One afternoon I was supposed to meet my sister at Uno, but she never showed up, what the hell?

Later I learned that it was supposed to be Duo.  When time had passed and no Ken, she thought maybe I was at Uno.  She had her smartphone with her so she called there and asked if there was anybody there that looked like Santa Claus wearing a Cub jacket, and they said no.  Well you know those people, they don't give a fuck.

The next day I went out and bought a smartphone.  More on that later.

Phones, Gays, Etc.

 We don't have an answering machine, or a smart phone either.  Nothing against them, but we use our phone so little that we don't see the need for added features that we will never use.  I liked it better before the answering machines came along anyway.  If you called someone and there was no answer, you knew you had to call them back.  With the machines, you don't know if they didn't get the message or if they just don't want to talk to you.  If they don't call you back, then you need to call them again.  But how long should you wait before you do that?  I suppose one advantage might be that you could let the machine handle all the spammers and scammers.  But what fun would that be?  Then again, it's not as much fun now since I have resolved not to abuse them with obscene ethnical insults.  Maybe I should rethink this matter.  

I had a credit card once, but they cancelled it after I had it for a year and never used it.  Many years later, I got a debit card because they wouldn't sell me satellite service without one.  I didn't think I would ever use it, but I did and still do.  It's no more trouble that writing a check, and lots of places seem to prefer it.  

All other factors being equal, I am not inclined to vote for a gay or trans person, although I might consider it if there was another important issue involved.  I don't think that gays should be persecuted or anything like that, but that doesn't mean I have to vote for them.  Tolerance is not the same thing as approval. 

We gave all our old vinyl records to my daughter and granddaughter since they already had collections of them.  We had an old rickety portable phonograph, and we gave that away too.  We would like to find a good home for our VHS collection as well, but we don't know anybody who has a working player.  Ours died and they stopped making them some years ago.  I understand you can still find used ones on the market, but they want too much for them and you can't find parts for them or anybody who wants to service or repair them.  We could use the extra space to store our CDs and DVDs, but it seems a shame to just throw those old tapes away.  

An August post

I noticed something in that article about RFK, Jr. that Uncle Ken copied and pasted from The Hill.  They misspelled the name of that New York steakhouse, something other online sources did not do, even as they copied the same source material from, I think, The New Yorker.  So, maybe The Hill isn't as trustworthy a source as some folks might think.  A little further research surprised me with the extent of RFK, Jr.'s drug use in his past.  Heroin is a little too much, don't you think?

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Seems to me that as time goes by our differences become more glaring.  I don't think we are on the same page; it seems like you guys like things in black & white, you're either on this side or that side, no middle ground.  The Old Dog lacks that clarity of vision, all that is visible are shades of gray.  I think it was Mr. Beagles that mentioned he wasn't going to vote for some guy because he was openly gay.  What does that really mean?  Would he gladly vote for him, maybe even volunteer for his campaign, if he would stay in the closet?  None of my business, of course.  We can vote however we want, for whatever reason, right?

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I read a while back that "once you're over the hill you pick up speed," and I heartily agree.  There was a somewhat recent definition of "old age" and it begins at 75 years old, a milestone I hit last year.  The funny thing is I don't feel old at all except for the inevitable physical deterioration we probably share.  And there's a lot that can be done about that; not easy but doable, and that's a rabbit hole that can wait for another day.

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Sometimes words are mere playthings and I wonder if you guys are familiar with the Japanese word "shouganai."  One of the meanings is "If there's nothing you can do about it, don't waste time being angry or worrying about it."  I find comfort in that concept as the entertaining spectacle of this election year continues to unfold but next week is the Democratic National Convention and who knows what's going to happen here in Chicago.

And speaking of entertaining spectacles, that NASCAR race downtown was excellent, some of the best racing I've seen if you can ignore the rain.  It was better than I expected with none of that droning in a big circle.  The speeds were low, not much over 100mph but that was okay, and no dramatic crashes, only some fender benders.  And the video coverage was stunning, I thought, with normal traffic and pedestrians visible in the background.

Last year I said, "There is something delightfully absurd and surreal about the whole situation, very much in keeping with the wacky zeitgeist of Chicago."  I think I was right.  Too bad that it's so expensive to attend, more than $100 for a one-day pass.  I don't think so.

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Do you guys still listen to vinyl?  There's a couple of good record stores near me and I scored a couple of oldies, can't wait to hear them once I get my turntables calibrated for the proper speed.  The years have not been kind to the rubber belts but soon I'll be listening to The Best of Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.  Also found a VHS copy of Zulu with Michael Caine and I'm curious to see how it holds up.  Plenty of fun to be had here at The Geezer Chateau!

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I'll close with a bit of modern weirdness, luxury dog perfume:

https://boingboing.net/2024/08/05/luxury-fashion-brand-launches-100-perfume-for-your-dog-spurring-an-rspca-warning.html

Maybe it's a fake site but are we not entertained?

answering machines

 Reading the saga of your troubles with Petosky, a couple things have come to mind.  You don't have a credit card?  And you don't have an answering machine?  

In the pantheon of modern conveniences I don't think the answering machine gets its due.  One nice thing about the days before the answering machine was that you could always get ahold of somebody.  Not if they weren't home of course, but if they were they would almost always answer it.  It seems like the rings were louder then than they are now, but maybe it was just that they were more important.

Because you never knew who was calling, or, if you lived in a house with other people, who the call was for.  It could be great news and it could be terrible news or it could be a long winded busybody, and you had to answer it to find out.  On the other side if nobody answered your call it was almost certain that they were not home, and nobody would know that you called.

And then came the answering machines, the first ones to own them were the up to date folks, always glomming onto the next thing and a little annoying because of that.  Who doesn't remember when they first came across one?  At first everything seemed normal, you heard the voice of the person you were calling and you were just about to say something but something was off and you realized that this was a recorded message.  This was one of those new-fangled gadgets that you had read about in Life Magazine.

Well dadgum it if that didn't beat all, and you were unsure how to answer because you had never done this before, and then you realized that your stammers were being recorded and you were sounding like some hick from the sticks.  You switched to your cosmopolitan man-about-town tone, but you couldn't help but be a little offended that you were being asked who you were and why you were calling and what is your number by some doggone machine.  And now whatever you said would stay on that damn cassette until the callee came home and saw the blinking light, and then they would call you back at a time of their leisure, or perhaps they would forget or just not bother for some reason.

But it was great to have one you realized after you wisely waited for the price to come down.  Now it was you who was responding to the blinking light, you who was deciding when it would be convenient to call back, if at all.  But even better than that was letting the phone ring and waiting to hear the answer on the machine and then deciding whether or not to pick up.  A little insulting to the caller sometimes to realize that you were letting them go to machine, even though you had no way of knowing it was them, but you know how people are, so maybe you would breathe a little heavy, so it would sound like you had dashed across the room, just to be polite you know.

And then another development once the machines became popular and almost everybody but the stick in the muds had them, was you would wait to call people until you were pretty sure that they would not be home.  Because you know, you have to be social, ask about the little ones, gab about the weather, be sociable when you really only wanted to know the answer to a simple question.  And then maybe they would wait to call you until they knew you wouldn't be home for the same reason.  Very cosmopolitan for the two of you..

I'm planning on moving on to more sophisticated answering machines and cell and smart phones in the next post.  Don't bother to drop me a line because I will be screening you.  

But just for the record, did you have an answering machine?

There's a First Time for Everything

 None of the candidates I voted for in our primary made the cut.  The Republicans who were nominated for Congress and the state legislature for our district are all Trumpists.  The local offices don't matter because they don't have any Democratic opposition, so they are as good as elected already.  Therefore, it looks like I'm going to vote straight Democrat in November.  (May God have mercy on my soul!)  I've never voted straight Democrat in my life.   Although I did vote for McGovern in 1972, I voted Republican on all the rest of the ballot that year.  That was one of my first elections, and this one may well be my last.  How ironic!

I got a letter from our Secretary of State's office today telling me that their inquiry into my medical fitness to drive has been cancelled.  Of course that's good news, but I couldn't help but notice that they didn't mention any of the difficulties we had with the paperwork.  They just said that, since my physician sent in the form last April like he was supposed to, there is no need for any further action.  Funny thing, they sent me a letter in June saying that they never received the form and that I "failed to comply".  I resubmitted the form forthwith, sending it by certified mail and received a receipt that said they got it.  Apparently, that wasn't good enough for them, but they didn't tell me why.  The local Petosky agent then tried to call me, and we know how that turned out.  What he eventually told me was that two pages of the five-page form were missing, probably because my physician's people didn't notice that the form was printed on both sides, so those two pages didn't get scanned into their computer.  If the Lansing office had told me that in the first place, the above-mentioned difficulties could have been avoided.  Oh well, if they are willing to overlook my mistake, I guess I can overlook theirs.

How it All Began

 After I signed off last night, I remembered the name of that fake company, it was "Cardholder Services".   I looked it up and found this about them.

Cardholder services: Is it a scam? | CreditCards.com

Apparently, they are still in business, at least somebody using their name is.  We first started getting calls from them some time after we moved here, so it must have been in this century.  They would start out with a recorded message that offered to connect you to a live person if you would press "1".  We just hung up on them at first, but they were calling so often that I decided to press"1" so I could tell them that they were wasting their time with us because we didn't have any credit cards.  The live person would usually promise to remove our number from their list, but they would continue to call us, sometimes that very day.

 I started to get creative after a while, coming up with all kinds of ways to engage them and waste their time.  This too got old because I was wasting my time as well as theirs, and they would hang up on me as soon as they could tell I was toying with them.  I decided I would rather be the one to hang up first, so I began quoting a line from an old "Peanuts" comic strip, "Shut up and leave me alone!" before hanging up on them.  I don't remember when I started adding that elephant insult at the end, possibly it was because they kept calling us in spite of my admonition.  Looking back on it, it didn't discourage them from calling us, but it made me feel better because I was doing something to retaliate instead of being a passive victim.  So yes, I have certainly learned my lesson.   Although it makes me a little sad to give up one of the few pleasures I have left in my old age, it's just not worth it.  The risk outweighs any benefit I might derive from the practice.

Thanks for the information about candidate Kennedy.  He seems like a regular guy, and I might vote for him now that I know that.  On the other hand, my most important priority is to keep Trump out of the White House, and voting for Harris is probably the best way to do that.  Well, I've still got three months to make up my mind.  

The Bear

 So, um this elephant construction is just a variant of one that was popular during the gulf wars and used the word sand?  But maybe not so widely used, if at all, beyond the borders of the freehold.  When I asked Mr Google about it he said, "Never heard it, Bub."

There are a variety of words and phrases that could be used to castigate a possible spammer, so why you chose this one is a mystery to me.  You didn't do yourself any favors and you cast a pall on the day of the gentleman in Petosky.  Well I hope you have learned your lesson.

Since I knew this castigation would not fill up a full post, I scouted through my news feed to see if there was some topic that I could riff on and my expectations went way beyond my dreams.

I normally just give a link for these things but in honor of its impact I am going to import it whole

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy on Sunday said he was the one to dump a dead bear in New York City’s Central Park a decade ago, claiming he wanted to clarify the story before The New Yorker allegedly releases a “bad story” about him.

In a video posted to X on Sunday, Kennedy, apparently in a kitchen with actress Roseanne Barr, said he was driving through the Hudson Valley on his way to go falconing with a group of people when he watched a woman hit and kill a young bear.

“I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him in the back of my van because I was going to skin the bear. It was in very good condition, and I was going to put the meat in my refrigerator,” noting people could get a bear tag for roadkill in New York.

The environmental lawyer said the bear stayed in his car while the group went hawking during the day, but the group stayed late, preventing Kennedy from going home before going into New York City for a dinner at Peter Leger Steak House.

He said the dinner also went late and he did not have time to drop the bear off at his home in Westchester before needing to head to the airport.

“And the bear was in my car, and I didn’t want to leave the bear in the car because that would have been bad,” Kennedy said, adding, “At that time — this was a little bit of the redneck in me — there had been a series of bicycle accidents in New York. They had just put in the bike lanes and some people, a couple of people had gotten killed, and it was every day, and people had been badly injured every day, it was in the press.”

“I wasn’t drinking, of course “, but people were drinking with me who thought this was a good idea,” he continued.

Stating he had an old bike in his car someone previously asked him to get rid of, Kennedy said, “I said, ‘Let’s go put the bear in the Central Park and we’ll make it look like it got hit by a bike.”

The presidential candidate revealed the group thought it would be “amusing” and was surprised when it made national headlines the next day.

Kennedy was “worried” authorities would trace his fingerprints on the bicycle, but said the story eventually died down a while after the incident. That was until fact checkers from The New Yorker recently contacted him about the allegations about a “big article” on him.

“It’s going to be a bad story,” Kennedy said, while writing on X, “Looking forward to seeing how you spin this one @NewYorker…”

The Hill reached out to The New Yorker for further comment.

Some of the details of Kennedy’s story appeared to coincide with an October 2014 incident, in which a woman walking her dog noticed a dead cub lying under the bushes besides a bike in Central Park.

The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation said the necropsy showed the cause of death was “blunt force injuries consistent with a motor vehicle collision,” The New York Times reported at the time.

Ain't he sumpin? 

Random sentences I thought were interesting:

“I wasn’t drinking, of course “, but people were drinking with me who thought this was a good idea,” 

I don't drink, and when I don't drink I always pay special attention to what the drunks around me recommend.

 ‘Let’s go put the bear in the Central Park and we’ll make it look like it got hit by a bike.”

Why what a splendid idea.

Kennedy, apparently in a kitchen with actress Roseanne Barr,

Roseanne Barr?

That's all folks.

The Elephant in the Room

Well, if you didn't like the other word, you're not going to like this one either.  The Elephant part is to distinguish between these guys and the African Americans.  See, India is known for having lots of elephants, or at least it used to be.  Like I said, though, I would never talk like that to a real person, it's just that I have a long history with those scammers from India.  

I think it started some years ago when the U.S. government started cracking down on the regular spammers, most of which were American based.  They were annoying, but I think most of them were legitimate salesmen.  There was one outfit, though, that promised to reduce your credit card debt for a price, took your money, and did little or nothing more.  I read somewhere that the government finally shut them down, whereupon they sold their software and equipment to pay their legal expenses.  Whoever bought them out was soon back in business, but they moved their operation offshore to evade the long arm of the law.  After that, similar operations sprang up in India and soon came to dominate the market.  Over the years, I have become familiar with their tactics and can usually recognize them.  

The only thing is that I didn't know that there might be other reasons for a dead air phone call like that.  One of them might be if the caller is using a cell phone and happens to be in a "dead zone".  When I get a call like that now, I say, "If there is somebody there, I cannot hear you.  You might try calling from a different location."  Of course this doesn't do anything about the scammers, but my abusive greeting of them has not done any good anyway.  They still keep calling after all these years.  I plan to still greet the live ones with my customary "Shut up and leave me alone!", but I will leave out the elephant part, since it doesn't do any good anyway.  

This experience has inspired me to start a list that I'm calling "The Great Assumptions".  

I've got three so far.  Can you think of any more?  

I:  The gun is always loaded.

II:  The microphone is always on.

III:  There is always someone on the other end of the phone line who can hear you, even if you can't hear them,                                                                                                

Don't say that

 I think that thing about the phone spammers is probably correct.

I don't understand that hypothetical thing at all.

I don't understand what elephant has to do with that word.

I am no pc guy but you would probably save yourself and a whole lot of other people a whole lot of trouble by just not saying it.

Suck out my ass, a little too graphic by my delicate standards, but I suppose it is tolerable, just not that other word.

Oh wait, I guess I do understand that hypothetical thing after all.  I remember you writing about it and it is a true story.  The part about the phone is new, but I am guessing that whole thing did happen because when people say, "Or so I have been told," that means the preceding has been what they have experienced. 

I assume then that you have already heard from some gentleman in Petosky what I said about using that word and that that experience will deter you from doing so again.

Probably best not to use it in the blog either.

I have one question though.

What does the elephant have to do with anything?

The Sound of Silence

I don't know if you guys get this in Chicago, but we get this a lot in our neck of the woods.  The phone rings, you answer it, and there appears to be nobody on the other end.  Some people just hang up, but I like to follow through on these calls.  If you wait a minute or less, the other party hangs up with not a word spoken.  I read somewhere that this is often a "dropped call".  Certain spammers and scammers have a machine that dials their phones for them.  When one of the phones make a connection, it alerts the spammer/scammer who picks up the phone and interacts with his victim.  If the spammer/scammer is busy on another line, after a predetermined amount of time, the machine hangs up on that call and starts dialing another one.

I have long wondered if anybody on the other end can hear anything I might want to say during this period of silence, like "All you elephant niggers suck out of my ass!", for instance.  I would never say anything like that to a real person, but I figure those spammer/scammers deserve it, and they probably can't hear me anyway.  I recently found out that this is not the only reason you might get the sound of silence when you answer the phone.  I also discovered that the other party may indeed be able to hear you, even if you can't hear them.  To protect the privacy of any innocent party that may be involved in something like this, let me give you a hypothetical example.

Let's say, hypothetically, that you were involved in a minor traffic accident a year and a half ago.  Let's say that you told the attending policeman that that this may have been caused by an undiagnosed medical condition for which you have already resolved to seek medical attention.  Let's say that this incident put you on the radar of the Secretary of State Driver Assessment Department, which, after an elaborate procedure, determined that you were safe to drive as long as you followed you doctor's instructions, which you did.  Let's say that you were due for a re-evaluation now, and there was some kind of problem with your paperwork.  Let's say that the agent in charge of your case called you on the phone to inform you of the problem, but due to some technical difficulty beyond your control, you could not hear him, even though he could hear you loud and clear.  Let's say, hypothetically of course, that you innocently assumed this was one of those dropped spammer/scammer calls and mildly remonstrated those alleged spammer/scammers with something innocent like, "All you elephant niggers suck out of my ass!"  

I think you will agree that this would be an honest mistake that could hypothetically happen to anybody.  Nevertheless, you would be required to drive all the way to Petoskey to beg forgiveness from this agent in front of numerous other people because he would not let you in his office..................or so I have been told.

Presidents

 I was born a month before FDR died.  Google tells me I could raise my head when I was laid upon my stomach and turn my head to one side.  I started to focus with both eyes and could follow a moving object.  Well I will have to take Google's word for that.  Pretty sure I didn't know who the president was.

In 1948 my family was in Chattanooga Tennessee.  I remember once finding a turtle under a house. Don't recall being astonished at Truman beating Dewey.  I have visited Harry's presidential library and even though he was not an intellectual giant and a little bit crooked, he generally did the right thing, and I think he was a good man.

1952 I liked Ike.  Second and third graders divided into two gangs on the playground, Democrats and Republicans, and there were some skirmishes, but nobody even skinned their knees.  The fifties were a golden age if you were white, which I was.  Not a bad guy.  Eight years of peace and prosperity.

In 1960 I have to admit I was for Nixon.  Kind of wanted to be a Republican like Dad and was suspicious that all the Catholic kids I knew were for Kennedy which seemed kind of like a conspiracy.  When he got shot my first thought was oh no, now we were stuck with that hillbilly Johnson.

In 1964 the Republicans nominated Goldwater who scared me.  I believe his VP was all for unsheathing the nuclear sword.  Too nuts.  I shed my fading Republicanism and have never looked back.

In 1968, the first year I was eligible, I wanted to vote for Dick Gregory's Peace and Freedom party, but I was afraid that in the polling place reason would seize me and I would pull the lever for Humphrey.  Solved the problem by not registering to vote.  Enough said about that.

In 1972 I was full in for McGovern.  Gave twenty big ones to the campaign and did work out of the local McGovern office.  Worked election day getting out the vote.  It was all very exciting. He lost in 49 states.  Dick Nixon did himself in.  Probably the worst thing he did was sabotage the Vietnam peace conference, and then continue the war for no good reason.

Carter was far from my first choice in 1976, but he won the nomination.  Ford was kind of a nothing, but I was surprised that Carter did so poorly in his presidency.  Too much of an outsider, too pure to play the game pundits have said.

Ronnie Reagan was an affable guy but not very bright.  Taxes for the rich began being slashed under him. Trickle down turned out to not trickle down but stay with the rich who knew it would and were the  advisers he listened to probably because Nancy told him to.  No wars, which was nice but definitely increased income inequality.

Bush 1 was not awful.  He handled the first gulf war quite well, showed future presidents how to do it, but was completely ignored by his dumb kid.  Continued Ronnie's trickle down ways, raised income inequality and inflation.

1992 was a great year for me.  I bought my condo and Slick Willie rescued us from 12 years of Republicans.  I loved him for that alone though I wish that he was more liberal.  No wars and I believe he actually cut the deficit once or twice.  In retrospect though, pretty sleazy.

In 2000 I thought Bush 2 would not be so bad.  I fell a little for that compassionate conservative crap, and early on I think he did a couple good things with immigration and AIDs, and he might not have been bad had those planes hit the towers.  Under the evil influence of Cheney he put on his old national guard uni and went to war led by the neocons who were ignorant or feathering their own nests.  A terrible, terrible war that did nobody any good.  In retrospect to the last Republican prez though, he now appears to be a gentleman and a scholar and a statesman.

When Obama won in 2008 I thought Free at last, free at last, Thank God Almighty free at last.  He gave us Obamacare, no wars, no scandals, and talked to us like we were smart people.  But Mitch and the crew fought him at every single fucking turn, and the yellow dogs turned tail. Still he is my shining star.

Could it be as bad as I thought it would be I thought after election day 2016 (just days after the Cubs won the World Series!!!).  Yes.  Actually worse.  Enough said about that.

I was a little surprised Biden hadn't run in 2016, and didn't believe he would get in in 2020, and having got in I didn't think he had a chance.  He was far from my first choice (Elizabeth Warren), but after he won I thought this might turn out ok.  I'm a cynic and think believing in something is cornball, but maybe after the last four years of believing in nothing, he was the guy to do the job.  I think he did pretty well considering his small margins.  I was horrified at the debate though and am glad he has dropped out, and I think we have a shot.

My Voting History

 "Wait a minute.  Did you vote for McGovern in 1972.  Oh now I remember you voted for George Wallace.  Have you ever voted for a democrat in any election?"

I voted for Wallace in 1968 when he ran on a third party. I also voted for him in the primary in 1972, then when he didn't get the nomination, I voted for McGovern in the general election and voted for Republicans for all the other offices.  I believe that's the only time I voted for a Democrat in my life, and that was only because I didn't like Nixon.  I turned Libertarian in 1988 because I didn't like Bush I, and stayed that way until Bush II's second term, when I disagreed with the Libertarians on several key issues.  Since then, I have voted Republican as the lesser of two evils, except for 2016 when I voted Libertarian as the lesser of three evils.  The only president I really liked was Reagan.  Well, there was Eisenhower, but that was when I was too young to know any better.  Jefferson was cool too, but he was way before my time.

This time I'm leaning towards Harris for president, but I'm not sure about the rest of the ballot.  I've got half a mind to vote straight Democrat because the Republicans will never learn their lesson and get rid of Trump until he leads them to big defeat.  Then again, there are a few of them that I'm not sure are raving Trumpists, and don't want to see the Democrats in control of congress as well as the presidency.  We've got a primary coming up August 6, and maybe we can knock a Trumpist or two out of the race with that.  One can always hope.  

the election

 I was horrified by Biden's performance in the debate.  I was in a funk for some time after that.  Not only was Biden refusing to step down, but the dems seemed to be splitting on whether he should step down.  Then last Sunday I was working my computer, and happened to glance over to the computer and the chiron said:  Biden steps down, endorses Harris, and my heart soared like a hawk.

She has been slowly gaining in the polls but is still maybe a percentage point behind Trump.  I was expecting a bigger, sooner surge for Harris but who knows what goes on in the mind of somebody who was seriously backing Trump.

I don't see where RFK is liberal at all.  I think he was once a backer of environment stuff, and that is the only lefty cause he promoted and lately I don't see him saying much about it.  You were a pretty avid anti-masker, and I am surprised to see that you are now against anti-vaxers.  But glad to see that.

Me and my sister get into pretty involved in political discussions, but after that it doesn't matter because my state is true blue.  You, living in a purple state have a vote that counts, and I know it would be a bridge too far for you to vote for a Democrat, but throwing away your vote on the Tarians is a lot better than voting for Trump.

I, of course have never voted Republican in a presidential race, but I have voted for Republicans in two gubernatorial elections.  The first time the dems were running a guy who looked particularly corrupt and the other time it was Blago.

Wait a minute.  Did you vote for McGovern in 1972.  Oh now I remember you voted for George Wallace.  Have you ever voted for a democrat in any election?

 

What's a Body to Do?

 I was planning to vote Libertarian in November because I didn't like the two major candidates.  I thought that one was senile, and the other was bat-sit crazy.  Now the senile one has dropped out, and the crazy one has become a national hero because he was shot at.  Like we used to say in the army, "Better to be shot at and missed than shit at and hit."  I could go for Kamala if she wasn't a Democrat, but she is, so that's that.  Now I find out that the Libertarian candidate is "openly gay".  I suppose it doesn't matter because he's not going to win anyway, but I'm still disappointed about it.  I admire Kennedy for his independent spirit, but he's both a liberal and an anti-vaxer.  I don't know what to think about that.  I suppose I could split my ticket and vote for Kamala for president and Republican for everybody else.  That's what I did in 1972 before I had heard of the Libertarian Party.  Of course it didn't do any good, but it made me feel better.