Dave's Journal, June 2018
. . . . Ogden Nash
. . . . W. Wordsworth
I'm thinking about this.
Days later now .... yes I think it would have been better in the long run to have let the Union divide peacefully. North and South have never agreed on anything, and for 150 years now Congress has been endlessly gridlocked because of that. North and South are really two different countries (socially, religiously and economically) that are bound together by a lose-lose contract. Should have let the two go their separate ways.
A golden oldie ..... this is Deb at the NY car show, probably 1988 or so (?). She is pleading for me to buy that Morgan roadster there (I didn't).
A new favorite comic character of mine - Death (from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series). She's witty, personable, empathetic, kind and philosophical. Here, she is reminding us of all that we are entitled to.
There's a Google cell phone app that finds a classic portrait painting that looks like you. It tells me that I look like (66% corellation) the Brazillian painter Benedito Calixto.
Benedito Calixto de Jesus was a Brazilian painter. His works usually depicted figures from Brazil and Brazilian culture, including a famous portrait of the bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho in 1923, and scenes from the coastline of São Paulo. Unlike many artists of the time, Calixto's patron was an individual other than the state, who were "the most dependable source of patronage."
"There're lots of kids inside, but they go to lunch in a few minutes, so be a bit patient", the front desk lady warned me, and ..... she was right .... there were more little kids inside than there were butterflies.
Nevertheless, I persisted . . . .
The electricity in my parent's flat ran on a coin-operated meter, and my dad spent a lot of time at the pub downstairs, where the electric heat was free - or, at least, that was his excuse to my mother, who was 22 and spent her evenings boiling diapers on the stove because my older brother had just been born. My father still claims that pub culture and class conciousness go hand in hand, because everyone went to the bar for free electricity. (By "everyone", I believe he means men.)
I also learned today that Guy Fawkes Night is (or was, back in the 1970's) a very real celebration in and around London. Back in 1605, a Brit named Guy Fawkes intended to blow up Parliament to protest the British government that ruled the day. (He was caught and executed - you must see the movie V for Vendatta, when November 5th comes around this year.) Anyway .... it's real .... Guy Fawkes Night ... people really do celebrate with large bonfires in and around London.
On the drive home from breakfast (a neat diner maybe 20 miles from here), i almost passed a hobby shop.
"Almost" is an important word in that sentence.
Decided to see if my model-making skills have deteriorated since 1958; bought this.
Grandson Jack has been busy making a stop motion movie. I can tell you from my experience, this is an extremely tedious, patience-testing hobby.
Well, maybe yes, maybe no - it actually does not fly (it's way too heavy and the wing area is way to small). But it's a good project to bring kids together.
This was at the Fitchburg regional airport today; they bused in the high school kids and teachers, and attracted lots of retired engineers with cameras (who spent much of their time checking out each others' camera and lens setups).
This plane may actually be the longest paper plane; the problem is .... since it cannot fly, is it really a plane??? The Guiness book people get to make that decision, I magine.
Chasing my tail around the yard. Upgrade one sad looking plant, then the one next to it looks shabby. It's all getting better, but not fast.
This little guy cracks me up. He was born this Spring (maybe under our shed?), and mom is still around, but he looks on his own. He's about 7" long. Not shy of me at all. Here he is napping in the sunlight after snacking on some clover.
Well . . . the day's work done, I sat out back with a beer (two? was not three, was it?) and old Minolta lens on my camera. Waiting ..... waiting .....
Looking at these pictures, I've decided that it's a girl bunny.
"Space is a warfighting domain, so it is vital that our military maintains its dominance and competitive advantage in that domain . . . . . " one US defense official said.
"We must have American dominance in space. Very importantly, I'm hereby directing the Department of Defense and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish the Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces. That's a big step," he [President Trump] said in the White House East Room during a meeting of his National Space Council Monday.
Back in the day, men were real men, cars were real cars . . . . and real cars had whitewall tires, massive grills, thick chrome bumpers, skirted rear wheel wells and 6 layers of clearcoat over the paint.
I am enjoying a picture book of old cars today. Here's a beautiful 1942 Desoto Custom convertible. Only 489 were made (WW2 crashed into us).
Is it not gorgeous?
(Thanks to Cousin Pete.)
Not having read everything, I'm not in condition to say who the "greatest" writer ever was. But F.Scott Fitzgerald is pretty ####ing great, by mine and lots of other peoples' reckoning.
Happens that I read a few of his short stories the other night, and again realized how great his writing is. If you like sentences, try these on .....
I never feel as though I'm talking to him. He makes me feel as if I'm talking to his representative. I always expect him to say: 'Well, I'll ask myself and find out'.
When he talked you forgot he had a body at all. It was like hearing a phonograph record by a singer who had been dead a long time.
I know your name is Horace. I just call you Omar because you remind me of a smoked cigarette.
My chief interest in life is the study of modern philosophy. I am a realist of the School of Antoine Laurier - with Bergsonian trimmings - and I'll be eighteen years old in two months.
Whew ! That's enough. You do a real neat job with the parts of speech.
Well are you saitisfied now?
No. You haven't kissed me.
After a walk around with Deb (she says we clocked in 11,000 steps - exercise does no good for you unless you put it in numbers), I clunked into a lawn chair and watched bees bees bees eat the lawn clover. Had to be 50 bees, easy. Different species. Big sluggish bumbles. Small frisky honeybees. Maybe some wasps (? do they eat clover?). Whatever . . . it was very relaxing in that chair under the tree. Felt embedded in nature. Could have fallen asleep (did not).
Made a picture for the internet .....
Then I turned VLC video player to point at Youtube and made GIF.
Weird thing about GIFs (I love them) is that you keep watching the endless loop over and over, thinking ..... what? .... something's going to change??
A recent analysis found a suicide rate among veterans of about 30 per 100,000 population per year, compared with the civilian rate of 14 per 100,000.
! ! !
Holy sh#t.
