Battered old tree trunk. Beat up and shredded by ocean water.

Powerful stuff.

silly season

This is the silly season.

It is the time of the year when politicians are running around saying things they will regret later. Sometimes they do things that make you shake your head in amazement.

My own state senator was a rising star. He was a young lawyer (aren’t they all?) who was considered to be in training for a US Senate seat and/or Governor. He had been re-elected several times with little opposition. He held leadership positions in the state senate.

Then last year in a throughly drunk state, he stole a pickup that had a camper trailer attached, drove it a few blocks and was found asleep in the cab. Not good for anyone, much less a rising star.

This week one of his female staff members accused him of sexual harassment, and yesterday he resigned from the state senate. Even though he was on a different page on most issues from me, I really feel bad for him. His rising star just burned up, and he set the fire.

One of the national pols made a real big deal about how his opponent made promises he had not keep, then he took a deep breath (I think it was deep) and made promises that no one in this world could pull off. Oh well. He hopes the mics were turned off, but of course they weren't.

Through this I remember a point my pastor made in church a while back.

He said that all political speeches are the same. The speaker says that if you elect him, you cannot even begin to guess how good it is going to be. BUT, if you are stupid enough to elect the opponent, the worse you can imagine is not the beginning of how bad it is will be. Obviously you should elect the speaker. His opponent makes the same speech, by the way.

But, the pastor observed, things don’t change as much as any pol promises.

Somehow, I find some really bent and bruised logic in that comment. It does help me put this season in a degree of perspective.

Imperfect perfection!

ownership

We’ve been in our house in Idaho for a couple of days now.

It has warmed up enough to be quite comfortable. That is good.

I sold the garden and shop acre to a neighbor who dismembered the bridge to keep traffic from cutting through. That meant for me to get a stick of firewood I had to drive 6 or 7 blocks to get to the back of our property.

Yesterday I did a reversible repair. When I leave I can quickly return it to a unusable state.

The house seems strangely large. It is seriously under furnished right now, which makes it seem larger. There is space, almost an excess it seems, and this is not a large house.

As I do every morning, I made a cup of tea. I use a small electric teakettle. But the milk I add to the tea comes out of a full sized refer. There is a range with a real oven.

Such luxury.

I have always been almost Native American in my belief on ownership. I am not sure I own much of anything. I sure don’t own Miriam for instance. This house has been mine for several decades, but it is time to move on.

Someone came into my unlocked shop the other day and stole a bag of tools. I am not too sure what was in the bag yet. And, only when I can’t find a tool will I realize what is gone.

If a tools is really needed, I’ll replace it. If it is not, I’ll live without it. Either way it is really OK.

When all else fails I photograph rocks!

what to write?

A blog is a commitment.

It can be as binding or as non binding as one might wish, but it is there. I have written about a lot of things in this blog in the last few years. If a subject came to mind, I usually wrote about it.

My life is not one of continued adventure. Most of the time it is long periods of quite boring time between bits of interesting events. Little of that is worth writing about.

It does not make sense to talk endlessly about Miriam's AD, even though it is the underlying topic of the blog. Her changes are so slow that a sentence of two every few months would suffice. Besides, if I complain too much my daughters likely will come to overblown conclusions, and I'll get it trouble!

Miriam is a putterer of the highest order. Tonight she finally made it to bed. It rarely takes less than an hour to get her between the covers, and tonight it was an hour and a half. But time we have.

Tomorrow we are loading up and returning to Idaho for the week. I have to see my doctor, and I suppose I should get a haircut, but I don't want to rush that one!

But there is lumber to mill into several kinds of trim for door and window trim and there is glass stops to cut. I'd like to get the wood shop moved, but I don't really have a place to put it yet.

The church needs some oak trim for some interior windows. I did not offer to install the trim, just make it.

Then there is carpenter work to do in the house, then a lot of inside painting.

I may have internet and I may not. And this time I will have Miriam. That is mostly good.