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.

A mighty storm

 Well first of all, good to see you back Beagles.  And good to hear that the problem was with the computer and not you.

In this season of wild weather Chicago has been pretty fortunate dodging a big fist in the face.  I don't think we have had any fatalities.  

But it was a mighty storm.  I think I read that there were like 33 tornados.  There was one east of Gage Park by Englewood.  In the excitement of the local storm chasers there was a report of one in the loop, but then it was never mentioned again so I don't think it actually happened.  

But it was thrilling.  Tuned into the local channels for the reports and they all had like three different weatherfolks that they switched between, maps with all those graphics as the storm went through podunkia headed east for just north of the city.  There was hysteria and lots of warnings.  

My sister 14 stories above me was in the bathroom and her cat was in the closet, but Sweetie and me watched it from the big balcony window.  Quite a sight, but it did not turn over any of my pots.  But it sure tore into my sunflowers, tomatoes, and morning glories.  They were bent back and rippled fiercely, but come the morning they were standing straight up like nothing ever happened.

Or as Gerard Manly Hopkins would have said:

And for all this storm, nature is never spent;

    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the windy rainy lightning off the black West went

    Oh, morning, over the vast lake eastward, springs —

Because the Holy Ghost over Ken's garden

    Broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

An Ill Wind

 I think it was Shakespeare who said, "Tis an ill wind that blows nobody good."  Wouldn't it have been more grammatically correct for him to have said, "Tis and ill wind that blows nobody well."?  One thing for sure, he got the "blowing" part right.

I saw on the news the other day that Chicago was hit by a tornado.  I don't remember that ever happening within the city limits.  People used to say that the lake protected us but, that doesn't make sense to me because tornadoes usually come from the west, don't they?  

I remember the Oak Lawn tornado of 1967.  I had recently gotten out of the army and was on my way from my parent's home in Palos Park to visit a friend in the old neighborhood.  I was driving down South-West Highway and saw a traffic jam up ahead with police car lights flashing.  I figured there had been a wreck and turned down a side street to get around it.  A block or two in, there was a downed tree blocking the street, so I turned down another street to get around that.  Then it got confusing because the streets in that neighborhood weren't laid out in square blocks like they are in most of Chicago.   Finally, I came upon a man wearing a white Civil Defense helmet who flagged me down and told me that I wasn't supposed to be there.  I assured him that I wasn't there on purpose and would gladly leave if he would tell me how.  He gave me some directions and I arrived at my friend's house in short order.  It was only then that I found out that a tornado had plowed through Oak Lawn, jumped over Chicago, and fizzled out over Lake Michigan.  My Uncle Eddie in New Buffalo later told me that pieces of Oak Lawn were washing up on the beach all that summer.

As you can see, I figured out how to make my text skip a line.  The "enter" key, the "shift" key and the "backspace" key on this keyboard are not properly labeled, they just have little arrows on them, one pointing up and two pointing left.  Silly me, I had been pushing the wrong key.  Change sucks!                                                    

One Size Does Not Fit All

 I sent Uncle Ken an email last night, actually it was a response to an email that he had sent me asking me if I was all right.  To make a long story short, my computer died, and it took a while for me to get a new one because the store I wanted to patronize was undergoing some kind of corporate upheaval.  Due to the expertise of the guy who set it up for me, I don't expect the learning curve to be as long as the one I experienced when I bought my last computer.  I mastered email last night, and now I have added the Institute to my skill set.  Well, almost.  I still haven't been able to skip a line to start a new paragraph by hitting "enter".  Maybe I can find something in "settings" to enable that function.  Meanwhile, my wife is getting around better now after multiple sessions of physical therapy.  She can get in and out of the house now, but she still can't get into our pickup truck.  She can get into a low-lying car like a Chevy Malibu, but I can't.  It has been years since I tried to shoe-horn my robust muscular physique into a small car like that.  Either they are making small cars smaller now or my muscular physique has gotten more robust over the years.........................Later.  

spirit animals

 Beagles is still with us, sort of.

Beagles would like my painting of the week every Sunday, and after you mentioned him I looked back and it has been at least a month since he last left a like.  I sent him an email to which he did not respond.  I messaged his sister on fb and she said they rarely spoke.  Then I found a Jenny Bednar on his page and it seemed like she was his daughter so I messaged her and after a couple of days she messaged me back that he was ok but his computer isn't.  So he's still among us but he won't be reading or posting us until he gets a new computer or whatever.

  I don't feel compelled to share every goofy notion that leaks out of my brain pan, I know, I know, I think you say that or something similar, at the beginning of all your posts lately.  I assume that you are saying that to compare yourself favorably to me, who, well, is inclined to do just that.  Different strokes for different folks.  But not so much lately, because it will be a month or so before a reply shows up.

But you did say something that I interpret as favorable to my recent bent in painting, which means something to me because you have always been one of my favorite critics ever since that evening about a dozen years ago when I approached you at the Ten Cat windows and you said, "These have too much brown, they look like crap."  And then, informed that these were my paintings, you were maybe taken a little aback, but came right back with, "Well, they still look like crap."  You gotta admire a critic like that.  

I've always liked abstract, the way it frees you from the tyranny of the boring real world, though most of my classmates who aspire to capture the smile of their granddaughter, or a shadow on a roof, shake their heads sadly at my current direction.

Speaking of my classmates, I remember Greeta speaking about that rat on your motorcycle.  Women, they always fall for the bad boys, well maybe not as often as those of us who consider ourselves bad boys would like to think.

One has to wonder about that mope who took all that time to separate the rat from the fender.  Was it some enemy, perhaps some guy who was not a bad boy, taking his revenge on your stealing the heart of his sweetheart with your rat cycle.  

I like the spirit animal idea.  Clearly Beagles has the beagle.  But what of Uncle Ken.  Well it's probably obvious but if you look at my posting on Saturday Showtime early next week you will see my spirit animal.

Rat Rider

So, anything interesting in the news lately?  I didn't think so.

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You'd never know it from the paucity of my posts but I spend a lot of time pondering past posts, some going way back.  Plenty of topics to chew on and my internal dialogues can get quite spirited which is good enough for me.  I don't feel compelled to share every goofy notion that leaks out of my brain pan, so y'all can use your own imaginations.  By the way, are you still us, Mr. Beagles?  I see Uncle Ken is posting regularly with his watercolor folk, a good direction for him, I think.

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B.F. Skinner, eh?  That brings back some fuzzy memories from way back when.  The term "rat runners" is new to me, so thank you Uncle Ken.  I don't know what you can make of this bit of info but for many decades the rat has been a personal spirit animal of mine.  I don't know why, maybe being born in the Chinese Year of the Rat has something to do with it.  Consequently, I had a nice rubber rat mounted on the fender of my bike, so realistic that my grandmother started swatting it with a broom.  I don't know if it was a good luck charm with heavy Ju-Ju but as long as that rat was on the bike I had no problems on the road, bike always ran beautifully.  But parking it on Damen Avenue came with a cost; some mope ripped it off the fender.  No easy task, it was securely riveted to the fender with a thick piece of aluminum in the belly of the rat.  Since that loss the bike started deteriorating with electrical and mechanical problems, a cracked frame, little odds & ends, you name it.  And it got frequently knocked over while parked; the bright orange bike became invisible once the rat was gone.  Some folks might attribute the cause of the problems due to the fact that the bike was over forty years old but I don't think so.  Once the rat was gone the spirit of the bike had flown but it was a joy while it lasted.