Stuff that doesn’t fit neatly into a category
Kentucky, and other states, were hit by a severe ice storm January 26-28. Electricity is out in Tatertown, and probably will be for over a week. I’ll report some random observations here as I can. In an effort to conserve laptop batteries, I won’t be online much, and I won’t even be able to type stuff offline for later posting. So I’ll just post what I can remember as I get a chance, as in this message today coming from the relative comfort of my workplace.
For a week which started out with so much hope and optimism, it sure had a crappy ending. Friday was the first nice day we’ve had in weeks, and probably the last we’ll see for a while. It was a great afternoon to be outdoors. I just wish I didn’t have to spend it digging a grave.
This morning, I decided it was finally time to say Good-bye to Chowder. He had a pretty good life, at least in the dozen or so years that he spent brightening my life. His suspicion of strangers led me to believe that whatever life he had before mine might not always have been pleasant. But his life at Tatertown was mostly happy, until his quality of life started to decline recently.
Maybe it’s Olympic fever in the air. Last weekend, Norm decided to display world-class athletic prowess. I’m not sure whether he was trying out for diving or eventing, but it was an impressive feat, even if I’m not sure it was completely intentional.
It’s been over three months since my last musings. I’ve had inquiries from readers hoping the hiatus was due only to writer’s block and not some dire misfortune keeping me away from the keyboard. So I guess it’s time to write something to put all fears to rest. My critters and I are indeed all alive and well. The lack of news here is due only to lack of anything interesting to write. Some might suggest that never stopped me before, so maybe I’ve just become more aware of not having anything interesting to write. In any case, interesting or not, I might as well sum up the last few months.
It’s that time of year again. Birds are singing, grass is greening, flowers are blooming, navels are showing. That means yet another hunt season is drawing to a close. This season was cursed by some of the worst, wettest weather I can remember. We got off to a fairly good start in October. November was a little worse. December-March were the pits. I only hunted 10 times in those 4 months, because the ground was usually either too frozen or too muddy. But at least we managed to end with a pretty good day on Wednesday. Despite his lack of exercise, Crossbo was his usual super self. Have I ever mentioned I love my horse?
It’s amazing to see the huge progress Kentucky has made towards tolerance and diversity in just a short time. It was just a few years ago that the legislature and voters overwhelmingly approved a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Now, just a few short years later, a newspaper reports that a legislator wants to make cornhole the official state game.
I was cruelly reminded of my age today. We’re 3 weeks into the fall semester, and as usual, campus is swarming with gorgeous young things who keep making me forget that most men my age have children older than that. The unusually hot weather has had a wonderful effect on their choice of attire. Cleavage is in this year. It’s enough to make a grown man cry. I’ll be lucky not to get arrested. And, considering that at least one of my regular readers has a daughter on campus, maybe I should stop now. But anyway, back to that age thing. It’s easy for a man in these surroundings to forget how old he is, only to be cruelly reminded. But surprisingly, today’s reminder actually had nothing to do with the swarms of teenage beauties that usually overwhelm my senses.
There seems to be a trend in our justice system to impose additional penalties beyond those specified in the statute for the actual crime committed. These penalties are often claimed to have the purpose of protecting society from future crimes. But it seems a little far-fetched to punish someone in advance for crimes he might commit in the future, which is what some of these penalties amount to. And the severity of the penalties is sometimes extremely drastic.
My raves about Spalding’s recently attracted the attention of The Blognut. Judging from the title, one might think The Blognut is slightly nutty about blogs. One would be wrong. The Blognut is a blog about doughnuts, which the author occasionally abbreviates as ‘nuts. All doughnuts, all the time.