Shot heard ‘round the world

 250 years ago today our great nation was birthed in a paroxysm of bullets and gunpowder on the greens of Lexington and at Concord Bridge. 

Going Somewhere

 I’m sitting here in my office recliner pondering what letters to hit in order to make coherent words appear in the blank white space on my screen. The flashing cursor mocks me. I see something from the corner of my eye. A squirrel moves across the porch roof outside my window. He accelerates and rounds the roofline to the perpendicular garage roof like a driver at Daytona. He runs along the shingles, bounces off the gutter, and leaps three feet onto a branch no thicker than a twig. Up the maple tree he goes. The squirrel heads down the trunk and scurries under the neighbor’s red Cadillac and out of sight.

There is no lesson here. There are no conclusions. Only speculation.

Anticipation

 One more day in the work week. I am ready for a few days off. Unfortunately this afternoon is the monthly sales meeting so my afternoon will be a clinker. I have Good Friday off and then the weekend. Monday is a vacation day. 

I have a meeting in the Baltimore area on Wednesday. Monday I’m driving to Maryland. I’ll spend Tuesday at Antietam, a battlefield I last visited when I was in high school. 

I have to get through today first. 

See it my way

Humpity hump day. 

As an aside, nowhere in the Mother Goose rhyme does it say Humpty Dumpty was a giant egg with arms and legs. 

Anyway….I’m off to get new glasses today. Mine broke a few weeks back and I’ve been wearing an old pair from 5-6 years ago. The distance vision part is fine on them but I can see “up close” better with no glasses than using the bifocal part of those old frames. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, hope to heaven, my eye troubles are behind me and no more surgeries are in my future and I’ll be able to see out of these new ones for a year or two. 

Here’s something I never thought I would say. I don’t care who runs, I am voting for the challenger in the primary and the Democrat in the general election against my current incumbent state representatives. I don’t care. The Republicans in this state have become tax and spend democrats-light and why get an imitation when you can vote for the real thing? I last voted for a Democrat in 1994 when my neighbor ran for coroner, so I don’t write that lightly. The current regime must be punished.

Only a politician would brag that giving me up to $300 tax credit on my property taxes while letting my local government increase my taxes by $1200 would be a good deal. I spit on them all. 

Tax day

 

Random Monday

Another work week stretches before me. The good news is Friday is a holiday so it will be a short one, in days anyway. I will once again spend my time dealing with tariffs and their effects on business. So it goes. I’m thankful I have a job. Two months from now, unless things change, well, we shall see, and pray for the best. 

The birds are singing in the new day. It is dark still outside my northwest facing window. The parade of neighbors heading to work will start in 30-40 minutes. 

I’m off early next week for now-rare work travel. It will be good to get some windshield time. I love being home for dinner with my wife every day, but I miss the road a little. 

I think I have solved a great conundrum that has stymied my next great American novel and caused months of writer’s block. Maybe. Now I have to find the time and motivation to put it to paper and see how it flows. Maybe I’ll get it published this year after all. We shall see. I thought it would get done last year. I should not be surprised, the last one took more than 10 years to write. 

Have a great Monday. 

Sorry not sorry

We could have spent the day doing yard work. The backyard is a mess with fallen branches, old leaves, the detritus of winter. The lawn needs mowed after last week’s rains. The porch and patio need power washed and the patio furniture cleaned. The chairs for the front porch need to come out of the garage. The gate to the fence needs repair . 

Of course we decided on a road trip! 

It wasn’t far, just to the outlet mall south of Indy. On the way we stopped at a diner. I had breakfast even though it was lunch. The “meal” I chose was far too much food — Biscuits (4) and gravy, eggs over easy (3), home fries (fresh made, not frozen), and bacon. I refrained from breaking open my eggs over the gravy for my wife’s sake who is grossed out by runny eggs anyway. I couldn’t finish all of the biscuits, but I did eat most of the gravy. It beat the heck out of anything Cracker Barrel puts on a plate. The wife had chicken salad on a croissant. Good for her. I win, I had bacon and sausage. 

I made a lap around the mall, ducking into just two stores, purchasing nothing. She made a day of it. I sat in the car listening to an audio book and watching and smirking at people wandering the lot trying to remember where they parked. 

We grabbed a late burger to bookend our late lunch and motored home. I plopped on the couch next to the wife and we binged the last three episodes of 1923. 

I could spend today doing yard work…

That’s all I’ve got

 The Keurig spit out coffee as I sat on the end of the couch in the light of the sun streaming through the patio doors. The melting frost glittered on the blades of grass outside. I reflected, not for the first time, that a little sun makes the day so much better, even if it is cold outside. 

I’m in a good mood so I’m not going to delve into politics or economics or the state of modern movies. I woke up breathing and I am blessed beyond anything I deserve. That’s enough. 

Have a great Saturday.

In my head this morning

 

I saw Fleetwood Mac on the Tusk tour at the old Market Square Arena in Indy.  It was a fantastic show but probably the loudest concert I ever attended.  My ears rang for two days after. 

John McVee is an underrated bass player.

And for Sluggy — lots of cowbell

Help me Rhonda

Can someone, anyone, explain why de-extinction of Dire Wolves is a good thing? 

Did none of the investors read “Jurassic Park?”

My sad life

My life is pathetic. I woke up this morning because I was thinking about spreadsheets. Instead of dreams about Esther Williams in that one white swimsuit or going to Tiffany’s with Audrey Hepburn, I am dreaming about how to combine parts of three different convoluted spreadsheets easily. 

I know. 

In other news, a significant amount of stuff you buy at Walmart or Target is going to double in price in the next three months or so. Do you suppose you can get a factory built in the next ninety days to mitigate the massive tariff you will have to pay? 

On the bright side, the price of oil is down. Thats a good thing. 

I apologize in advance

It is freezing outside. I mean that literally. And when I say literally, I mean it in its true (literal) definition; as in as written, true, exact. It’s cold for April. 

I was going to search the archives for a story I published here about the Battle of Shiloh which concluded on this date in 1862, but that seemed like a lot of work for a not too good piece of fiction. You can look for it yourself. 

Here is a lousy Monday joke instead:

Why was the Chinese meal so expensive?

The cookies were a fortune. 

Go forth and make it a mediocre Monday. 

Still the rain kept pourin'

The rain continues, but it should taper off later today. Rivers are out of their banks, fields are flooded. For a bit yesterday I had a river running through the backyard. 

Apparently rain makes me sleepy. I dozed off watching the baseball game in the afternoon. I fell asleep on be couch around 10:30 before wandering off to bed a bit after 11. Somehow I slept until after 7:00. I probably could lean back in the recliner and take a nap after I type this. 

No reason at all

I have moved Friday music to Saturday this week. Don’t question it. It just is. I thought some early Beatles would do nicely this morning. If you don’t agree you can start your own blog and post Friday Music on a Saturday morning. 

Intermittent rain continues here at the old homestead. If it keeps up the town will have to resume its old sobriquet of Mudsock, so named because of the muddy swampy conditions of the town. To be safe I’ve started drawing up plans for an ark. 

It remains cool. I’ve yet to don a pair of shorts. In fact I had to pull out a long sleeve shirt yesterday. What the heck Mother Nature? I suppose this is the Global Warming I’ve been hearing about? 

I thought not. 

Unbelievable

The leaders of the Democratic Party just sued the President to allow illegals to vote in Federal elections. *

I wish I was joking.

If you support this,  please don’t come back here. I’m serious. Begone.

If you continue to consider yourself a Democrat, why?

*they are suing to stop you from having to prove you have the right to vote as a citizen, but isn’t the result the same?

Heck, I got. “c” in economics

Here’s a thought, it would be great if the stuff we now source from low cost countries returned to be manufactured in the USofA. I’m for it. How much are you willing to pay to make that happen?

A T-Shirt made in Indonesia costs about $20. The worker makes about $15 a day. 

What will that shirt cost when produced in a union mill where the worker will make in excess of $15 per hour plus benefits? And yes, we all know that $15 is not even close to what the worker will make. It will be much higher.

There is a reason so many cheap consumer manufactured goods moved out of the US. We don’t like it, but often the truth is painful. 

We want US made goods, we don’t want to pay for them. 

Many of us are barely scraping by now. How is raising prices going to help?

I might be wrong. I was one other time. 

Ridin’ the storm out

It was a bumpy evening weather-wise. I’m pretty sure that was true if you lived anywhere from Dallas to Toronto. Multiple tornadoes were in the immediate area and one was sighted about 1/2 mile from the homestead. High winds and sideways rain painted a scary picture.  The wife and I even ducked into the closet under the stairs for a few minutes. Somehow, in all of the excitement we kept both power and cable, a true weather miracle. 

After sunrise I’ll check the roof and house for damage. As always,  it could have been worse. God once again looks after fools like me. 

Here is a view of the sky as the storms receded:

Truth

 

Are you kidding me?

I’m not one for April Fool’s jokes or pranks. Apparently Mother Nature is not above such hi jinx. There is frost on my neighbor’s roof and the outside temperature is only 30F. Hello April.