Yeah, the titles don’t do a lot to describe where I am in this process. This would be entry eleven in what I do during the summer. Maybe I’ll add them going forward.

I spent a lot of the day yesterday listening to various podcasts, and considering what’s going on. I subjected myself to two episodes of Part of the Problem. The first was really good. The second kind of erased a lot of the demount I felt in the morning. Just shut the fuck up about things you don’t understand. Every time you opine about the law, your lack of understanding becomes more and more evident.

All that said, I wonder if my objection is really to the importance they LPMC kids are placing on going Antiwar.

No.

The same could be said of war that could be said of pimpin’ — it ain’t easy, but it’s necessary. Sometimes.

So, I’m coming to the realization that I’m not antiwar. I’m pro going home when the operation is finished. No sanctions. No boots remaining on the ground afterwards. Just go home.

Maybe P.J. O’Rourke’s book title was running through my head; Give War A Chance.

Again, it ain’t easy, but it’s necessary. Sometimes. Yes, you take steps to prevent it as best you can, but if you no longer can, fight, kick ass, and go home.

So. News.

I linked a couple of days ago to the bigtime thunderstorm in Vegas. I was wondering how it was going refilling the lake, which I think I mistakenly attached an extra “e” on the end or, Lake Mead.

Nope. It’s still empty. And there’s some interesting things showing up with the low water levels.

(Somewhat-related — my wife and I bought a Paramount+ subscription last night to try and watch the new Beavis and Butthead movie. Had to pick through and get things to find my ancient CBS All Access login to get the subscription set up. But I finally got it. The app on the TV kept crashing. My wife did get the original one to play; I was dozing off, but I do remember seeing the scene from the Hoover Dam. “Is that a God Damn?” We did get the movie to play on a different device connected to the TV. I would give the new movie a solid “B.” Other TV stuff? Trying to decide what to do for the upcoming NFL season. Unfortunately, where I am, there’s no option for anything than one of the cable companies. The service is okay, but it’s expensive. After two years of paying a ton for some things we didn’t use, we backed down to just Internet, and re-subscribed to Hulu with Live TV. But I want to see some stuff on Reelz, so I’m conflicted. The cable company carries Reelz. I could also subscribe to a different streaming service for a few months…..pfft.)

Other stuff…

POTUS has COVID. And again. The remedies that were supposed to fix everything haven’t. Oh well. Leave people alone, and take care of the folks who get sick when they get sick.

It’s not that tough.

Working in a bit of a void with a little dog who’s upset that she can’t continue scratching her chest.

Poor little thing. But she’s bonding well with my wife as the head of the household.

Next step will be to try to get her on FaceTime with my mom.

I got the lease renewal for out abode here in the swam (Sadly, there’s nothing on KnowYourMeme about that….)

Glance at news. This from KY. One of my high school classmates actually died in a flood in KY, umm, twentyish years ago? Same sort of situation. He drove around ROAD CLOSED barriers, and got swept away. That there were beer cans found in the car, and I seem to remember him being stoned a lot in high school made this probably more likely.

Suspect that this won’t work as intended. This si the sort of thing that typically used to be done in the “lame duck” session on their way out of town. My suspicion is that they know their loss is a foregone conclusion, so why not go ahead and do it before the election?

VM move is something I need to finish, but I’m having trouble finding motivation.

I keep getting distracted from this, so I think I’m gonna go and play with the dog.

I really don’t have a lot to write about today. Just sitting on the couch with the demidog (OS X autocorrect fixed that for me…no, I typed it correctly….lesser-dog).

I really should have prepared better for this space, but I was kind of otherwise-occupied with travel concerns.

I did end up working some the past two days. The first one was just direction about a report I’m helping with, yesterday was trying to piece together some of what I’ve missed over the past week.

Getting distracted from writing this as I tick things off my to-do list for the day. The dog is sound asleep on the couch next to me.

She did stir when a story I popped up while looking for this made noise. That is absolutely nuts. I wonder if Lake Meade is refilling.

The whole desert flood thing was something I didn’t really comprehend until I went to Arizona in 2006. Just deep canals that are dry most of the tike…except when it rains;

I guess the story is much the same with the LA river as its often depicted in movies.

We get some here, too, but we’re not too far from the Potomac; things run off pretty quickly.

I should go find NFL preview magazines since training camps are opening….

I was a bit circumspect about where I was the past few days.

The answer?

Biloxi, Mississippi. My parents’ hometown.

My mother moved back down there this spring. She waited a while for her brand new house to be built, and finally moved in. Unfortunately, not even two weeks into the new place, her heath issues escalated to the point where she needed to be in assisted living. We looked at getting someone in-home, but the costs were too high.

So we’ve got a house that isn’t completely cared-for, ready to live in. Much of what I spent time doing was things like getting the alarm system installed, and getting the water turned back on.

Still some things to do as far as getting the place ready, but it’s a lot closer.

I do feel like, now, I could stay there the next time I come down to visit. Is it ready for someone to live in? No. Next big thing is to find someone to tend to the lawn and greenery. But I feel better about it.

It’s a gorgeous place. Expansion to a new development. Not terribly far away from civilization, and within earshot of my parents’ high school.

My godmother said that my mom was excited about being able to hear band practice from her patio.

But we’re trying to get things fully taken care-of, then decide how to deal with it.

If I lived closer, it’d probably be easier. I have relatives who can help, but it’s just a matter of getting everything aligned.

The other reason for the visit was smaller in stature, but probably as big in logistics. Certainly, more difficult to set aside until I’m ready to deal with it…

Say hello to my little friend.

My mother had adopted her while she was still working, and had been her companion. While the facility where my mom is now allows pets, it is up to the resident to provide all the care for the pet. My mom isn’t even allowed outside, aside from the residents’ courtyard in the middle of the building.

But I’m home now, so transition days. I’ve got some work to do today and tonight, and probably will take tomorrow off as another rest day. Back full-bore on Monday.

Other thoughts about the Landmass?

1. The weather, by and large, isn’t terribly oppressive the closer you are to the beach. Inland it gets uncomfortable. We went to Mary Mahoney’s for lunch the last day I was there. My godmother was my mother’s maid-of-honor at her wedding, and the rehearsal dinner had been at Mary Mahoney’s almost fifty years ago. We went to lunch. It was very, very good.
2. I guess I’ve gotten accustomed to the densely-packed locales of the East Coast. Long drives are kind of par-for-the-course down there. But it doesn’t feel as separated as it does up here. I know my wife and I were looking at potential landing spots that wouldn’t be considered far-away down there, but would be a long distance away up here. There was another place that I’d looked at where the train went through. Even if the drive is only 30 minutes, it’d be an unbearable slog. I’m to the point where I don’t really even enjoy going into the District anymore.
3. 5G still is iffy some places. I was hoping that I’d have useful Intertubes on my train ride from DC to Hattiesburg. No. The WiFi on the train was only usable about half of the basically day-long trip, and things didn’t get a lot better when I got to Biloxi. The networks in the hotel was nearly unusable most of the time, too. I got a throttle warning from my cell company saying that I was up against my bandwidth limit until….something like 20 August. Oops. I need to go finish my write up on the latest Notes of a Goon.

But I’m home. It’s comfortable. Time to do some more things here and there.

Another entry in one night, but I’m concerned about making sure I wake up on time to catch my flight.

Looking back through the archives, I have several entries called “Twenty-seven.” Many of them seem to deal with things like the most expensive bills I’ve had at restaurants, etc..

I guess the bills I saw at the big chain restaurants weren’t terribly exorbitant, really. That said, I really didn’t order anything too extravagant. I guess the bacon cheeseburger I had last night, though, was a few bucks more than it would have been a few years ago.

Eating at the chain, however, was really unsatisfying. A lot of food, sure, but it wasn’t very good. The 22oz. beer, and two shots of Fireball made me forget some…and perhaps fall asleep faster. Tomorrow, however, I’ll sleep on one of my flights.

Being the disabled guy does get you extra-special attention while flying. I can’t imagine trying to get from gate-to-gate lugging what I’m going to have with me.

For what it’s worth, first class airfare was within about $80 of the train ride to where I am now.

Who knows if I’ll get meals on the flight. But I’d be happy with just a couple of tonic waters….

So I’m finished until Thursday. Still remains to be seen what work I’ll have to do when I get home.

Still going to be cagey about where I am, what I’m doing, but I will spill the beans when I’m home later this week.

Did I get everything I set out to do done? No. Did I get things a lot farther than I kind of suspected I will?

Yes.

I’m excited to go home, and for what lies ahead.

Things aren’t great where I am, but the end is in sight.

So. Let’s look at news.

1. The Russians are pulling out of the ISS. Can’t say that I’m surprised. Is this the sort of return to respect that we were promised in 2002?
2. The last good example of the “Arab Spring” is falling. Attitude is similar to the first story.

More tomorrow when I’m back in the other swamp.

Sitting listening to the morning thunderstorm. It’s not something you experience when you depart more maralial climes. Not even 1000, 81F, and a thunderstorm.

Might tip off a bit about where I am at the moment, but so be it.

I really don’t feel like I’ve got a lot of control over the things I’m trying to get accomplished today.

Sequencing can really negatively affect a plan of action. My own troublesome body isn’t helping much, either. I’m achy today. Could be MS. Could be physical exertion. Who knows.

I ended up last night hitting a chain restaurant that’s across the parking lot for dinner. I bought the small version of one of their dinners, and it was still way more food than I needed. Or probably wanted.

I drank a formerly-regional, now-national brew whose regular stuff I like on tap, but don’t like out of the bottle. It hit the spot. So did the couple of shots of cheap distillates.

I am feeling the difficulties of being unable to drive here, now.

Oh well. Time to get moving.

I really didn’t have anything planned for today. I do have something I’m goin to do, but it can probably wait until around noon.

Other than visit Waffle House, I didn’t do a lot yesterday.

The Intertubes at this hotel aren’t great. I kinda was expecting that. I was expecting they’d be a bit better than they were on the train. They weren’t, and today I got a nasty text message from my cell provider that I’m near where they start throttling me.

But once I’m connected, and start writing here, the drafts save intermittently, so I can keep writing even if the network is wonky.

Being here is kinda surreal, honestly. It doesn’t even really resemble what I knew from before the storm, certainly from when I was a little kid.

But there’s echoes, I guess. Just nothing I can really explore on my own as a nearly-blind guy with a cane.

After the storm, I stayed in one of the casinos. My brother and I had gone to a different casino to gamble some. I lost what I’d said I was going to lose pretty quickly, he was still rolling, so I decided to leave him there and go buy my girlfriend (now wife) a T-shirt. I got lost. On the street where my mom grew up. There was nothing there aside from driveways, and a few assorted front stoops.

The last few times I’ve been here, it’s all been a blur between events I’d come in for, not seeing well, not feeling well, and so on.

Interwebs too clogged to go look around at news. Glance at previous years’ July 24ths show that this isn’t a day where I often write.

News site has a link to a paywalled story about how cigarettes and cheap beer are getting popular as the transitory inflation grinds to a halt.

When you’re poor, and don’t have a lot better to do, those work pretty well, in my experience.

Like when I wrote this on July 24, 2001.

Just One

For tonight, at least. Although I am absolutely confused, of course. About what I wrote about and about how I can say something as innocous as how I don’t believe in hell and get notes, and I write something important…

Oh well, as I said before, I write this for me, not for anyone else. But it just adds to my confusion sometimes.

So, what is there to say? I’m at work, again, and thoroughly tired of it. But just over three hours left, then two days off. I think I need to slip out of town for a few days, but that’ll have to wait until next week. Maybe I’ll devote tomorrow afternoon to getting the old Jeep back running for the moment. I kind of doubt I’ll be able to keep it, but….

Drank a Red Bull last night at the urging of a coworker. It made me feel quite odd. I think it would have been better with a couple of shots of vodka mixed in.

Blah blah blah blah

See, nothing interesting.

*Yawn*

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And I’m finished for now. Time to go do part of what I came to do.

So much of this is running the risk of being self-referential at this point. But I think what I wrote five years really hasn’t changed a lot:

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Do you think you can ever trust a politician’s word? 

At the risk of being labelled terminally-whitepilled, I don’t think most politicians are deliberately lying. 

At the same time, I really don’t think that most politicians, or people who preach government force as a solution to problems, really consider the underlying basis of their thoughts.

You do something because it’s just, you know, the way that things are done.

You want people to stop doing something? Great. I don’t think that it’s a good idea to do that thing, either.

So you’re okay with men with guns locking people in cages for doing something you don’t like? How about breaking into residences in the middle of the night?

Oh. Um. That’s how we’ve always done that.

Here’s an idea — don’t hurt people, and don’t take their stuff.

And I’m having trouble concentrating on this, unfortunately, so I’m stopping.

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I think the pandemic, despite the legion of officious assholes who’d like to save you from yourself, is still largely true. For all but those really big on Respect My Authority, you can just take the Nancy Reagan approach.

Not going to be accommodating? That’s fine. Understand that you’re not getting any of my money.

Know that I can hold, and have held, grudges an awful long time.

Why don’t you just buy this?

I don’t give them my business.

That’s stupid! They’re great!

Whatever. It’s what I’ve chosen to do. I can be persuaded to change my mind if I hear a compelling argument from someone whose opinion I value. Otherwise, the relationship is finished. Sorry, but really not sorry.

RACIST!

You have no idea about my origins; go fuck yourself.

So maybe a little less white pilled.

But even more on the side of personal choice, responsibility, and not being upset about consequences stemming from actions.

You do something that irks me, I stop paying attention to you. It’s really not that difficult.

If you try to force me to pay attention, rest assured I never will.

Another few more hours…..

I’m not going to talk about where I am, what I’m doing right now.

It’ll be something for later this week.

I’m sitting listening to Johnny on PFP.

The praise of going to Mexico this coming winter is very promising.

That said, even something easier is proving very taxing at this point.

I’d just assume be home, watching something on TV.

It is different being able to sort of live like a normal person for a change.

Cutting out the portion of self-pity I was about to allow myself, there. This shouldn’t be a novel thing, but it is for me as an adult.

I’ll probably try to come up with something to use as a real sort of prompt for tomorrow.

But I’m probably going to doze off a bit more, try to enjoy the ride.