One of my favourite cartoons:
Which in a round about way leads me to this, also one of my favourite cartoons, from Randall Munroe:
That really sums up my experience at the Swamp. I still have trouble with insomnia, but somehow I am have been able to let fools rest. But this is not to say I have a problem with stirring up the soup, primordial or otherwise, as long as one uses a long enough pole. I just haven’t found one yet that is longer than thirty-nine and a half feet.
And speaking of insomnia, one of my favourite podcasts, by the fellow who played the PC in those memorable MAC versus PC ads,
now has a feature called “Someone on the internet is right” where he deals with the pedants who correct his grammar so helpfully after his show airs. [In my quest for aural entertainment I have actually gone back and listened to all the episodes, from the beginning, because it all makes more sense that way.]
But to add meaning to this little consideration, why can people not admit they were wrong? I have really changed my views politically over the past thirty years and yet we seem to expect some sort of robotic consistency from our putative leaders. Ah ha! we cry: “You said something different ten years ago! Waffler.” Hmnnn. Are there other adults in whom we prize inflexibility and rigidity of thought? Scientists? Doctors? Engineers? Teachers? Au contraire, a flexible and open mind is far preferable in any so-called expert, and why public policy should differ eludes me.
Now please excuse me while I go and reform some opinions. And eat a banana. Have a wonderful Wednesday if possible, unless, to paraphrase my dearly departed father when told to have a nice day, you have made other plans.
And never trust an eye-witness, which I already knew:
For DP, who for some reason could not post …
yes, i do keep a birdbath filled. still the squirrels bite into so many of my veggies – even chile peppers. but an evil plan is forming in my mind.
we missed a soaking line of thunderstorms last night by less than a few miles. i even got out of bed and checked the radar after i was awakened by the thunder. but it was not to be.
perhaps Xty. we are practically neighbors. but can you be the one to deal with the border nazi’s this time. i am still seething.
http://foodforhunters.blogspot.com/2014/05/squirrel-with-salsa-verde.html
I did do two plug-in updates but short of it being at exactly that moment, I am buffaloed. Things look their strange usual here, but I do need to reload the comments to get the page to load right.
I take no responsibility for that recipe!
Which border nazi story in particular? Trump wanting Mexicans to pay for their own fence? Maybe black people could pay for the prisons.
Okay, so I did read the recipe. “Two squirrels, broken down”. Somehow that sounds like a metaphor or something. But when you are serving your [brainless – it didn’t remember to warn you not to eat the brains!] squirrel with a side of fresh cheese and avocado slices, it seems to me you might substitute something in for the squirrel … and give a little on the garnishes.
let’s see if i am still on probation…
last time i traveled to Canada i crossed at Grand Marais Minnesota on my way to Thunder Bay Ontario. that particular time the Canadian border guards were the nazis. the whole experience seemed staged and absolutely ridiculous. (i suspect it was new border guard training) the experience pissed me off so bad that i haven’t been back to Canada since.
hey, complaining about the weather helps. it just rained here. 10% chance of thunderstorms, and we got lucky. now if only we could get hit by 5 more of these little red balls of fury showing up on the radar.
edit: i think i must have tried posting during that update you mentioned.
Our neighbours just drove their daughter back to B.C. from here and they made a mistake and had to cross the border or drive back for hours (how they could have made this mistake is beyond me … we could have done the same going to New Brunswick and ended up in Maine, and we were not packed to cross the border, if you know what I mean) and they were searched and held up for over four hours. It is the uniform or something, My hubby had the world’s most aggravating time at our MTO, your DMV, trying to get a licence plate for our trailer. Petty tyrants, and despite us having a notarized affidavit from the fellow who first sold the trailer and boat, the original registration, a receipt for the purchase, etc., etc., we did not have “Title” to the trailer, which originated in a State that does not grant title to trailers. So instead we will go in and say we built the trailer, because we are awesome at welding aluminium and machine tooling specific parts, and imitating manufacturers labels, and they will give us the plates. And I will never fly through Miami again I swear. We also got terrified by a little nazi in California because we drove on a highway that is near the Mexican border and had to go through border control even though we hadn’t left the country. Once again, being me, I was not packed such that a trip through US border patrol was a comfortable experience. But we were not the drones they were looking for.
Of course they are all working for that other government, the “deep state” was it?, that operates so obviously in Turkey and somewhat but not much less obviously everywhere else. So they think they can be assholes because they serve a higher purpose. One of Russ Robert’s interviews that I don’t think I posted was with an Army fellow in the U.S. who wrote a book about the culture of lying that had been built into the Army (he didn’t make a lot of friends with this one) because of all the regulations and rules that everyone would simply have to lie about complying with because if followed it was apparent that you would need 48 hours in each day, basically. And so slowly but surely people, just like meeting quota in the old Soviet Union, would cover and lie for each other ostensibly to get the job done, which they truly believed was more important than the ethical breach. And thus the house of cards they find themselves in.
A bit of a ramble, but that’s just how the old noggin seems to be “working” today.
And I really didn’t put you on probation … let’s assume it was the updates.
And another gem by Joe Hall that seems vaguely apropos:
should i have used a smiley? funny and i should mention though that i can’t seem to get excommunicated this time from T-ville. suppose at this point i’m better than cob webs.
never heard of this Joe Hall dude before.
i lost a poblano and a bell pepper plant in the freak rain storm. but i am going to blame it on the furry giant roaches because we needed the rain.
i got caught before i could take a cutting.
The red hibiscus photo that you posted is very close to mine, deeper shade of red here. Stalks on mine run about 2-3′ . Is the 6′ one the blue hibiscus? and is that pink bud the blue hibiscus as well? Sorry, got lost in the confusion.
Yes, the blue hibiscus is pink. I am a little flummoxed. But here she is, in full beauty. The second shot is just to give some idea of the size of the flower. The red one is the one I just bought and planted. Looks quite a bit like DP’s only the leaves are darker. I cannot explain why I thought my one from last year was blue – must be some sort of wish fulfilment gone funny. And I will find the one from Texas they just created and post it in a minute. But first proof I am bonkers, but happily so:
That is a terrible picture. My garden looks nicer in real life, almost as good as it would if it were on Facebook. But here is the beautiful thing that I now want:
http://today.agrilife.org/2010/09/03/blue-hibiscus/
I’d like to get one of those as well (the blue one) please let me know if you find a source. Thank you.
Good morning.
These people might be helpful. http://www.hiddenvalleynaturearts.com/acatalog/index.htm
the hibiscus picture i posted is not mine. it resides about a block away. in the same yard are varieties in different shades of red and pink, and also what i believe are several different species – some are more like shrubs/bushes. they all do likely fall into the hibiscus category from what i have read so far.
i have met the home owner before. next time i see him out, i will ask him for more information.
i think i want to plant some now too.
what happened to your inukshuk Xty?
got some cheap chicken, .99/lb. but it is way too hot to cook inside today. that’s about a dozen chicken thighs in a 4.5 qt Dutch oven. the wood is mostly apple. i threw in some hard maple also.
i set the Dutch oven with the lid on right in the grill. i put some foil over the top, and then dumped the wood chunks that i got started in what’s called a “charcoal chimney” (left bottom) right over the top. i moved most of the wood around to the sides with tongs.
time to chill out for a few hours inside with air conditioning. just need to look out the back window periodically to make sure i still have smoke. in this case i am not really trying to smoke the chicken. the smoke only tells me that the oven is still on.
I have written to those hibiscus folk to see if they can ship to Canada, but I may be a little zone challenged, living on the edge of 5, tending to 4. And really in practice a bit more like a 3 it seems to me. And check out this one, for those firmly in a five to nine zone world:
http://gardenergardens.com/product/10-dinnerplate-hibiscus-perennial-flower-seed-easy-to-grow-huge-10-12-inch-flowers-fairy-dust/
And I am sure that chicken will have turned out great – but it was so hot here yesterday that even the pictures seemed to contribute. We did get out on the sail boat after a rather elaborate but successful putting up of the mast, mostly singlehandedly by clever hubby, patience and pulleys. But not a great day for Xty, sad to say. But I do have an interesting Russ Robert’s podcast that fits in rather nicely with the whole Taubes story of how and why we have been told what to eat lately, and how wrong it all is. And extra fascinating to me is how these refined foods have actually turned out to be so bad for the rich who insisted upon them, and how the portability and lack of spoilage has led us to eat so much grain, not just weird modern public policy. But I will put it up as a new post, and stop yammering on about it here.