Last summer at this time I was bound for California, and put up a big post of sunrise photos taken over the season of early-morning swimming. This year I’m not going to California, so I think I’ll torment you with even MORE photos, although not all of sunrises. Here we are, almost at the end of the season, and this is My Summer 2017, and if my life looks pretty dull, well, that’s life in the year 60, in Trump-adjusted terms.
Hope this download isn’t too big, but everybody has broadband now, right? So let’s get started.
June 19
The time stamp on this is 5:43 a.m. God knows what I was doing up so early, but maybe I was really looking forward to the first outdoor swim of the season. As I explained last year, this is the view of Lake St. Clair from the Grosse Pointe Shores municipal pool deck, where I’ve worked out the last two summers. You can tell this is a rich neighborhood; views like that aren’t cheap.
June 22
Almost every morning it’s like this. As we’ll see.
July 1
This was outside the venue for my high-school reunion, in Columbus. What a scarily accurate rendering of Woody Hayes. Of course, I ended up leaving the reunion and vowing to never, EVER return to this group again, after I was informed by one of my classmates that Barack Obama was “the most racist guy ever.” I blame Woody.
July 2
The next day. Nothing a little sailing can’t cure, although I included this mainly for the Wendy photobomb.
July 3
I wanted to capture the back yard when the clematis was in full bloom. Another Wendy photobomb — look closely.
July 7
Craft cocktailing is a thing where you live too, right? This is at the Peterboro in Detroit. I want to know where they buy those eensy-weensy clothespins.
July 25
The Tigers lost to the Royals that night, but the shadows and light were very fine.
July 28
Even gray mornings are lovely this early.
July 29
My Saturday-morning happy place. For obvious reasons.
August 4
Sometimes I stay up late, although this wasn’t that late. A little house music on a Friday night on a patio feeling a pleasant cooldown that night. That’s my friend Dustin shooting a photo of his friend Stephanie, who was on the turntables. Very meta, and would have been better if I’d exposed it better.
August 6
The ottering adventure in St. Clair with Bill, foreground. Background: Canada.
August 9
Dark enough in the 6 a.m. hour on this day to catch the moonset over in the west. Purely accidental framing.
August 11
I wasn’t going to include this until I saw the wolf in the cloud, alertly facing north. Omen? Oracle?
August 15
A pretty sunrise early, then it clouded over and I took this shot of Tim, the lifeguard/coach who’s been helping me, and many others, improve our swimming these few seasons. He’s a retired teacher and coached the high school girls for years. Love Tim.
August 23
I took a bike ride this morning, and this is a different spot on the same shoreline. Caught not only the swan and the duck, but the downbound freighter Assiniboine. I know because I looked it up on my phone app.
And while we have a few more days of summer left, I’m going to call this the wrap, photo-wise, and I’m taking Monday off, like a good working American. Sunday I’m seeing Alice Cooper at Pine Knob, wooee. I just remembered: Nine years ago I went downtown on Labor Day to see our future president, Barack Obama, who made a brief campaign speech at Hart Plaza. Of course we couldn’t get close, and I don’t recall what he said, but I remember the spring in his step as he took the stage and his slender form in profile. Who could have known that nine years later we’d be where we are today?
The sun keeps rising, and you never know what the day will bring. That’s a good thing.
Enjoy your holiday, and see you Wednesday.
Julie Robinson said on August 31, 2017 at 8:39 pm
Itty-bitty clothespins can be found at almost any craft store.
Today our permit finally came through and the contractor started on a little construction project here in Orlando. We had to get a new roof to satisfy the insurance company, so we’re also replacing and extending the decrepit lanai, and replacing a bedroom window with a patio door. I’ll be excited when it’s done but right now it means I can’t swim so I’m selfishly upset.
And in Fort Wayne, tomorrow we get our leaking sewer line fixed. I’m glad that I don’t have to be there because they are jack hammering the patio and I’m pretty sure my head would explode.
Not sure we want to be owning two houses anymore.
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Deborah said on August 31, 2017 at 8:46 pm
Nancy, Lovely photos and great wrap up of the summer, this has been a good one for us in northern NM, except for the federal chaos of course. Hard to believe August is over, fall is around the corner. Looking forward to fall in Chicago, my favorite season.
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basset said on August 31, 2017 at 9:18 pm
Nice pics! You have a good eye… swimming back and forth and back and forth doesn’t sound like any fun to me, though.
Thunderstorm and tornado warnings one after the other in Middle Tennessee tonight, one just went off.
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brian stouder said on August 31, 2017 at 9:31 pm
Ditto what basset said about the marvelous photos!
And – I think the cloud dog (4th from the bottom) spies a groundhog (well to the left) who seems to have just spotted the dog, too.
I don’t think it’s too much to say that you’re a beautiful woman who takes pretty marvelous photos; and I bet you could easily distill a book-full of short stories (and/or a Great American novel for the early 21st century) just from your table talk with your husband, and your staff meetings at your day-job.
Anyway – we’d all buy it (and additional copies for Christmas presents)
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Peggy said on August 31, 2017 at 10:42 pm
Lovely pictures. Thanks for sharing. The lake pictures tempt me to move back home to Michigan so I could go to the lake every day. How did I choose to live my life in a dry place? I can enjoy it vicariously.
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Peggy said on August 31, 2017 at 10:44 pm
Deborah, I wish you could help me figure out how to have fall be my favorite season. I was always overcome with dread in September when I lived in Chicago, thinking of 6 months of gray cold to come. Living in Kansas, I realized I didn’t have to dread it quite so much, since we don’t get much of a winter. My favorite season is early spring, with the long months of summer stretching into the distance.
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Jolene said on August 31, 2017 at 11:02 pm
Great photos, indeed. Love the sunrises, but also especially like the farmers’ market and the Wendy-on-the-boat photo bomb.
No great insights re the end of summer. I am weary of Trump world. I hear that he is planning to announce the end of DACA, the program that allows young people brought to this country as children to work legally and apply for financial aid so that they can go to college. Can’t imagine how it helps our country to withdraw their quasi-legal status or deport them.
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Jakash said on September 1, 2017 at 1:56 am
Peggy @ 6,
That hits home for me. Fall has always been my favorite season, but the older I get, the more the impending winter impinges on my enjoyment of Autumn. I’ve begun to appreciate Spring more than I used to, partly for the reason you mention. I realize that I primarily need an attitude adjustment, but the way the calendar pages start flipping by so much faster the older one gets really bums me out, and this Fall -zip-zip- Winter thing is part of it, alas…
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Dexter said on September 1, 2017 at 3:04 am
Wendy photobomb, July 2.
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Deborah said on September 1, 2017 at 5:47 am
Peggy and Jakash, I spend part of the winter in New Mexico, which can be cold but it’s always sunny. Maybe that’s why I like fall in Chicago. I really don’t like summer in Chicago, too humid, although I’ve heard that this summer wasn’t too bad there. I’m looking forward to wearing sweaters and jackets.
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basset said on September 1, 2017 at 6:33 am
We lived in Kansas for two years back in the early Eighties… I remember seeing snowdrifts formed on individual fenceposts, as wide as the post and ten or fifteen feet long. Constant wind will do that.
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alex said on September 1, 2017 at 7:46 am
Nancy, the clematises are gorgeous. You have much better luck with them than I do, although right now I’m quite impressed with a volunteer autumn clematis that mysteriously showed up to make use of an obelisk trellis in the garden where other vining plants that we placed intentionally failed to grow.
I’m not a big fan of winter in the midwest, with its unfriendly skies and cold humidity that always leaves me feeling vaguely ill, but I adore fall, especially when its an Indian-summerlike fall that keeps on keepin’ on. Hope that’s what we’re having this year. It seems to have started early.
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Connie said on September 1, 2017 at 8:27 am
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/general-news/20170830/back-to-school-shopping-scuffle-in-novi-wal-mart-ends-with-drawn-firearm
Argument over the last notebook in school supplies results in hair pulling and a gun being pulled in Walmart. This is an upscale suburban part of the metro area, not too far from me. Best part of article? Writer is unsure who actually got the last notebook.
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Dorothy said on September 1, 2017 at 8:58 am
Your photos are terrific. I have so-so results with clematis. I have no idea why. But this makes me want to share with you all the story of why Mike and I call those plants “Herberts” instead of clematis.
Mike’s mom had a very funny sense of humor. Years ago, to entertain her great niece and nephew, she made up a name of a guy. Just any guy. She called him Herbert Cleatis. Then she invented a sister for Herbert. She never named her, but said she was a magician. She “did tricks down on the corner.” The kids were innocent and had no idea what she was hinting at. She did it to be devilish and make the adults laugh. We just loved the made-up name Herbert Cleatis. Cleatis sounds like clematis. Hence, we call that plant “Herberts.” I always wonder if anyone who overhears us when we shop at nurseries, and we spy one of them. “Oooh hon – check out that pretty purple Herbert over there!” I’ll say. And then we get the side eye from strangers. We know how to make our own fun in our family!
Happy weekend, all. And thanks for the birthday greetings. Yesterday was a lot of fun. My son surprised me, took the day off and didn’t take the baby to daycare. He drove over to Dayton and had lunch with me and the gals in the office. Everyone ooohed and aaahhhed over Olivia. It was a GREAT birthday!
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Deborah said on September 1, 2017 at 9:14 am
Dorothy I love your stories of inside family jokes. You guys have a lot of fun with each other.
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Judybusy said on September 1, 2017 at 9:45 am
Nancy, thank you for the lovely photos. Your back garden looks beautiful and serene.
I am in the spring/summer fan club. For a while, as I think I’ve said here before, I liked winter much more because we adopted a winter-model dog and I finally started XC skiing. Now, we get very little snow so it’s 5 months of grey drudgery. But, I really cannot whine, because we go to a warm place every year. This year, after 7 in Puerto Rico, we’re branding out and going ot Guadeloupe.
Trump and the adminsitration may already be having an effect on DACA
The admin has slashed the advertising budget for getting people enrolled in ACA. They had done a bit of this earlier this year, and enrollment figures were down.
And this, from 538’s Significant Digits: “Republicans in the House had been looking to cut $876 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief account. They seem likely to reconsider given Hurricane Harvey and the abysmal optics associated with gutting disaster aid right after a major natural disaster. But the $876 million cut had been planned to fund a portion of President Trump’s proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.”
All right, that’s some news. I’ll stop now and go on to cheerier things.
The new job is going great. Learning lots about how the jail operates. I cube next to a very funny woman. Today, I had her look up the website of a local fantastic pastry shop, and her response was, “I’ve got places to and pastries to eat.” Another co-worker has invited us out to her boat on a local river and a fish boil to follow. My wife spent last Sunday making whoopie pies for the occasion. My co-worker, a midwesterner, didn’t know what they were, so I’m letting it be a surprise.
Tonight, we’re seeing Henry Butler, a New Orleans jazz pianist. Sunday’s a belated birthday dinner for my sweetie at a French bistro. Monday friends and their three daughters are coming over for grilling and hanging. When I asked what the kids like, they said teriyaki chicken. So, we’re doing a whole Asian-themed menu! “Just don’t put too many vegetables in the pad thai.” That cracked me up.
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basset said on September 1, 2017 at 10:15 am
I’m a native Midwesterner, and I don’t know what a whoopie pie is, either.
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Judybusy said on September 1, 2017 at 10:45 am
Basset, I didn’t know either! Here is what they are.
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Deborah said on September 1, 2017 at 10:46 am
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whoopie_pie
We used to buy them in single packages when I was a kid, but I think they were called moon pies.
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Deborah said on September 1, 2017 at 10:50 am
Well, I guess a moon pie is different than a whoopie pie. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_pie
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Bitter Scribe said on September 1, 2017 at 11:03 am
Allow me to join in the chorus praising your pictures.
Just curious: Did you say anything back to the guy (I just know he was a guy) who said Barack Obama was the most racist guy ever? FWIW, I either walk away because it doesn’t pay to get into arguments with morons, or say something like “I know! He insisted on being black!” that 99% of the time goes over his head.
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brian stouder said on September 1, 2017 at 11:23 am
Human beings are strange, really. Speaking for myself, it is always disheartening to see that this or that sad-sack rams a truck onto a crowded sidewalk, or attacks people leaving a concert….but a story like this is only an idle curiosity –
http://ktla.com/2017/08/31/over-60000-people-to-be-evacuated-in-frankfurt-after-british-1-4-ton-wwii-bomb-found/
the lead:
More than 60,000 people are set to be evacuated from the center of Frankfurt on Sunday after a massive World War II bomb was discovered beneath the German city….
The device is a British bomb, specifically a 1.4-ton HC 4000 air mine, the statement said, and is under guard by police.
and the closer –
World War II may have ended over 70 years ago, but its legacy still lingers in cities across Germany. In May, more than 50,000 people were asked to leave Hanover after a bomb was discovered during pre-construction work on a site in the Vahrenwald district. On Christmas Day 2016, another 50,000 were evacuated from Augsburg in south Germany after a 1.8-ton bomb was found beneath an underground parking garage.
Worth pondering…
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Judybusy said on September 1, 2017 at 11:47 am
Suuuper slow at work today–most people are off, so I don’t have people to meet with.
So….Speaking of things uncovered, a T. rex was found buried in Colorado. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/triceratops-fossil-found-colorado-video-spd/ That is crazy about the bombs being found, and resulting in such huge evacuations.
bitterscribe, you made me laugh!
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Deborah said on September 1, 2017 at 12:15 pm
When my ex was a kid he lived in England for a while when his dad was stationed there for a few years. His family lived in a quaint thatched cottage. Fast forward a decade or more when the roof was being rethatched the workers found an unexplored bomb in it. The whole time my ex’s family lived there they had no clue and theoretically could have exploded at any time.
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Deborah said on September 1, 2017 at 12:16 pm
Unexploded bomb not unexplored.
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Scout said on September 1, 2017 at 1:04 pm
I loved all the pictures; the June 19th at the top, the teeny weeny clothespin, the moon through the tree opening, the chair with shadows shot and the market were especially exceptional. They remind me of photos that accompany travel stories in magazines. Well done.
Although I’m always happy when the stuffy monsoon air clears and we have cool evenings and mornings again, this summer has been enjoyable due to the addition of our large spa which we have been enjoying without having heated it up yet. It’s like having a big fancy kiddie pool to cool off in that also gives massage. I’ve also really enjoyed the maturation of all my succulent gardens this summer, but I am looking forward to planting an more extensive herb garden this fall and also planting some sunflower seeds that will come up next spring and summer.
Dorothy, your 60th sounds like the perfect day. I will hit the big 6-0 milestone in exactly one month. I have no definite plans yet for the big day, which falls on a Sunday, but I’m guessing daughters, my parents and my grandkids will be involved. We’re going to the Big Island mid month to celebrate. We’ll be staying on the west shore, Kona area.
I am trying to balance paying attention to the daily atrocities and remaining active in the resistance while taking big chunks of time away from any news. I understand it is my white middle-aged-lady privilege that allows me to exercize this form of self care. I can’t believe what has happened since Jan 20, and it makes me seize up with grief to think about how terrifying life has become for way too many Americans.
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basset said on September 1, 2017 at 1:18 pm
I’ll be old enough to draw Social Security tomorrow, assuming I make it through the day.
Those pies look good, can’t have em due to all the sugar though.
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Sherri said on September 1, 2017 at 1:23 pm
Moon pies and RC colas were part of my cultural heritage, though I always preferred Co-cola. Now the thought of that much sugar is overwhelming, but back then, I thought nothing of it.
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Suzanne said on September 1, 2017 at 2:05 pm
Lovely photos!
I join the chorus of the I-love-spring-and-summer group, but generally hate winter. The darkness. The gloom. The Christmas frenzy. I’ve been sitting outside and reading in the evenings because I can or walking near twilight because I know that in a few weeks, that option will be gone as darkness moves in on us. It didn’t used to bother me, but the past few years I hate it more and more.
For something fun, check out the Twitter hashtag #RuinABookTitleInOneLetter. Some pretty funny titles.
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Jakash said on September 1, 2017 at 2:52 pm
If this has been brought up here already, sorry.
The dry version:
“Donald Trump’s ability to issue presidential pardons has been the ultimate weapon looming over Robert Mueller’s investigation. …
But it turns out that there is a flaw in Trump’s strategy. The presidential pardon only applies to federal crimes. …
And sure enough, Josh Dawsey reports, Mueller is teaming up with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. …
Trump can pardon anybody facing charges from Mueller, but not from Schneiderman. It is probably significant that Mueller is letting this fact be known to Trump’s inner circle. Trump’s biggest source of leverage over Mueller just disappeared.”
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/08/robert-mueller-eliminates-trumps-trump-card.html
The more colorful synopsis:
“Mr. Mueller Is Pleased To Announce That It’s On, Motherfckers.”
https://twitter.com/CharlesPPierce/status/903068659010166784
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brian stouder said on September 1, 2017 at 3:05 pm
I can’t/haven’t/probably-never-will do the Twitter thing, but that sounds like an interesting concept.
Betcha the list includes a twist on the president’s ‘The Art of the Deal’ – (which is too easy)
and Lord of the Flies would be ripe for the picking (or pulling)…
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Deborah said on September 1, 2017 at 3:08 pm
We’re doing our end of summer tomato canning, they’re processing now. I was hoping to get 12 qts but only got 9. We added roasted green chilies to 4 of them so that should make some great meals down the road. I hope none of them explode while processing because that’s a bummer. We kept the skins this time and we’re going to dry them in the oven on low heat and make tomato powder out of them. It’s a pain to lay them out on paper towels first, then lay them out in single layers on cookie sheets in the oven but hey, it stretches the yield. LB cut herself with one of her recently sharpened knives (sharpened at the farmers market last week). Then you can’t handle the tomatoes anymore because it burns like crazy. Not a serious cut at all, just aggravating because of the acid in the tomatoes.
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Suzanne said on September 1, 2017 at 3:37 pm
Brian, there are many “Fart of the Deal” titles on that Twitter thing as well as “Hairy Potter” and “Moby’s Dick”. But most were very creative.
One of the best was “Mystic Liver” with a pic of Steve Bannon.
Other notables were “Spinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, “The Last Temptation of Chris” with a gif of Chris Christie eating, “A Crockwork Orange” with a pic of guess who?, and “War and Pence”, and “A Brave New Word” with a pic of someone holding a sign that says Covfefe.
Pretty humorous stuff.
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brian stouder said on September 1, 2017 at 3:45 pm
Brave New Word got me laughing out loud!
there’s gotta be a Twitter opportunity, somewhere
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Jakash said on September 1, 2017 at 3:50 pm
Brian,
Not sure if I’m misunderstanding you, or not, but you can *look at* tweets and hashtags without joining Twitter or contributing yourself…
https://twitter.com/hashtag/RuinABookTitleInOneLetter?
A photo of Melania and Dolt 45 captioned “Bride and Prejudice.” Indeed, as you suggested, “The Lord of the Lies.” Ah, good times…
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Judybusy said on September 1, 2017 at 3:56 pm
Bride and Prejudice is also an Indian movie adaptation of the novel. Lots of Bollywood influence–totally fun!
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ROGirl said on September 1, 2017 at 5:13 pm
Those drinks look really good. What’s in them?
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Connie said on September 1, 2017 at 5:31 pm
Bassett, I’ll be old enough the day after you are.
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Deborah said on September 1, 2017 at 8:08 pm
No breakage, all of our jars came out perfect, thank goodness. Now the skins are drying out in the oven on very low heat, on cookie sheets with parchment on them. Never tried making tomato powder before, we’ve bought it at the Spice House in Chicago, when you add it to tomato sauces it makes them taste super flavorful. Hope it works because it’s kind of a pain to lay it all out in a single layer. Oh well it’s an experiment.
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basset said on September 1, 2017 at 9:28 pm
Connie, I expect you’re a lot better preserved though…
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alex said on September 1, 2017 at 10:33 pm
Deborah, I’ve been making tomato powder using a food dehydrator and a blender. Making spices and rubs out of peppers too.
Mike Pence isn’t the only moronic douchebag pol to come out of Indiana. Check out this dingbat pitching a hissy at high schoolers for not knowing about American Exceptionalism and lambasting their teacher for not teaching it. He has the intellect of Pence and the temperament of Trump, and he could very well be our next senator if people don’t turn out and support our beleaguered blue dog Dem.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/indiana-senate-candidates-own-staff-couldnt-stand-him
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Dexter said on September 2, 2017 at 2:54 am
I spent those two summers in the south playing baseball, and it seemed every gas station or drug store lunch counter we entered there were folks buying moon pies and Co-Cola. Sherri nailed it. Me, I loved the Co-Cola but hated moon pies, so with my Co-Cola I had a Baby Ruth or more often, those small packs of creme-filled Oreos.
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Suzanne said on September 2, 2017 at 7:23 am
Todd Rokita. Right there is a shining example of the rust belt Midwest mindset. He thinks it’s OK for him to be a jerk to his employees because “Hoosiers who break their backs putting in 12 and 14 hour days to provide for their families should expect the elected officials and public servants they are paying to work just as hard.” Wouldn’t a smart guy (or gal) say he was working hard for his constituents to make things better so they don’t have to work 12-14 hour days to provide for their families? And wouldn’t smart people vote for that person?
But no. This is Indiana so that sort of logic rarely erupts to the surface.
He can be a jerk, but he’s an R, and he tells it like it is, and hard work is what solves all problems in life not deep thinking and evidence and data driven solutions, so he’ll get lots of votes.
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Deborah said on September 2, 2017 at 9:50 am
Alex, I’ve considered getting a dehydrater but I probably wouldn’t end up using it often enough. If we grew our own vegetables it would make more sense. We have talked about planting some tomatoes next year. One of the guys upstairs had a tomato plant in the yard and it did ok, the critters didn’t bother it. We mostly watered it for him so he gave us a few tomatoes. It didn’t yield that much, but the tomatoes were delicious. And one of LB’s friends in Santa Fe grew lots of tomato plants in pots on a second floor deck and got a ton of tomatoes. So maybe there’s hope for us.
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Deborah said on September 2, 2017 at 6:15 pm
So I see that Trump and Melania did a second take visit to Texas. This time Melania wore sensible shoes and a respectful hat. They acted more empathetic to the locals. Well at least somebody realized they needed to try again. Too bad it’s so obvious.
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susan said on September 2, 2017 at 6:21 pm
“Confounds of Science”, a ƒong
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Deborah said on September 2, 2017 at 6:31 pm
A friend of mine in Chicago wrote this, I thought it was pretty interesting and well written. She grew up Jewish in Houston. http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/244406/after-harvey-a-requiem-for-jewish-houston
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Sherri said on September 3, 2017 at 10:09 am
Happy birthday to basset and Connie!
I really liked this piece. This captures exactly how I felt on November 8:
There is another point where things slipped in a larger, starker way: November 8th, 2016, when everyone in America realized they were living in the South. The perversity of realizing that the worst parts of where you’re from—the racism, the galling inequality, the fictionalized victimhood an illusion of power, the reliance on a bankrupt concept of loyalty disguised as faith, the disgust for learning and fatal aversion to uncomfortable truths, the willingness to protect a deranged sense of identity at the cost of what might literally be the entire world—were all there, everywhere, all along.
I thought I had left the South, but the South followed.
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alex said on September 3, 2017 at 10:14 am
Wow. I didn’t know Houston had so many recent floods. Thanks for the link, Deborah.
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Connie said on September 3, 2017 at 10:35 am
Thank you for the well wishes. We are headed north to the land of no cell signal. We have IDd two restaurants where we can combine breakfast and wifi. We have been loaned a cabin in the woods near Sleeping Bear, we both have an odd lot of sibs, aunts and uncles in the neighborhood. My brother that lives up there is off on his Adobe sabbatical, and my other brother is house/pet sitting for him. Looking forward to hanging with him. Yesterday said brother sent me a pic of him having dinner with his ex, who lives up there. Sharing grand kid pics I suspect.
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MarkH said on September 3, 2017 at 11:51 am
Man, is this a shock to the senses – Walter Becker dead at 67. RIP.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/walter-becker-steely-dan-co-founder-dead-at-67-w500956
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Deborah said on September 3, 2017 at 1:37 pm
Alex, neither did I, but it makes sense, one of my husband’s cousins moved back to the Midwest from Texas because he said they were sick of all the floods. They lived closer to Austin though, not the Houston area.
When I read that Walter Becker died my first thought well he wasn’t that young, and then I remembered that I’m going to be 67 next month. And boy am I showing it, my back issue made me feel my age.
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Jeff Borden said on September 3, 2017 at 3:57 pm
My guess is the Orange King returned to Texas because Pence was praised for talking to victims, dispensing hugs and pretending to collect debris. He won’t let anyone upstage him, so this time he talked to the proles and handed out hot dog lunches. What a man of the people.
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Deborah said on September 3, 2017 at 7:30 pm
This is good https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/opinion/sunday/stephen-miller-immigration.html
I think I’m one of the only people in the US doing absolutely nothing this holiday weekend. My husband is in Chicago and LB is with friends. I’m chilling in Santa Fe, no get togethers no barbecues, just me and the internet and Netflix. It’s actually kind of heavenly. I was going to spend the weekend in Abiquiu but it’s about 5 or 6 degrees hotter there and there’s one of those man made lakes nearby, one of a a very few in NM and it is swamped this weekend. I didn’t want to deal with alcohol fueled driving. So here I am, sleeping in, no make up, barely getting out of my jammies. Being a complete slug and loving it.
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Suzanne said on September 3, 2017 at 8:57 pm
Naw, Deborah, we are doing nothing either
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beb said on September 3, 2017 at 9:21 pm
Deborh, my wife, daughter and I are doing nothing this weekend, too.
The death of Walter Becker at 67 was sad, the more so following several other deaths of the musicians of my youth. I begin to real how my father must feel at 96 with all his family, all the people he knew having died.
Once or twice in a lifetime Geraldo Rivera says something worth remembering. From a couple weeks back he makes the perfect comparisonto General Lee.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029480920
Another article I wanted to mention is from the Yale Law Review. A law student does a very long but very thorough review of anti-trust law and how should apply to Amazon. One can look at Google’s recent effort to get a man fired who wrote critically of Google demonstrates that the review applies to more than just amazon.
The tl;dr version is that the writes of the Sherman Act was concerned about the concentration of power, barriers to entry as well as the impact on consumer prices. This approach was undercut by Robert Bork and the Chicago school of economists who argued that no rational business would engage in predatory pricing because they could never recoup their loses, therefore the only concern with monopoly formation was whether prices would go up. As that would almost never happen Bork,et al, never saw a merge that they didn’t approve. The author argues that predatory pricing was Amazon’s M.O., which they leverage to gain market domination in multiple fields. Remedies are few but some include outlawing differential pricing, and bulk discounts.
I took a week to work my way through the article but it was worth it.
http://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox
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Deborah said on September 3, 2017 at 9:56 pm
I will say that I was hoping to read a book that I had found during this down time between NM and Chicago but then the book that I was hoping to read on my travel day that I ordered from Amazon got sent to Chicago rather than Santa Fe as I had specified, means that I have to put off reading the book I have now so much that I can read it on my travel day, grrrrrr.
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basset said on September 3, 2017 at 10:04 pm
Out in the woods today, getting ready for deer season. Checked one of my trail cams (motion-activated camera, you put it along a game trail and see what comes by) and got some pics of a nice bobcat, you couldn’t say they’re really rare around here but you don’t see em every day either.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 3, 2017 at 10:23 pm
Happy birthdays, basset and Connie!
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basset said on September 3, 2017 at 10:28 pm
Thanks, Jeff! That’s how I decided to buy another camera this weekend… I got paid yesterday, my birthday’s tomorrow, what better time?
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basset said on September 4, 2017 at 10:45 am
We’ve had a family YMCA membership for probably a year now so Mrs. B can go to some exercise classes, it was actually cheaper than buying a single membership just for her.
Never set foot in the place myself since we got her signed up, finally went over there today… got past the front desk and froze right up. Big crowd, lots of unfamiliar machinery, someone in perfect condition working on almost every device.
Of course they have someone there to explain everything and of course he’s busy, just wait over there and he’ll be along in a while, I started that way and couldn’t do it, had to leave. Maybe I’ll go back on a slow night, right now it’s not looking too likely though.
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Sherri said on September 4, 2017 at 11:10 am
Been there, done that, basset. It is intimidating at first. But while there may be a few jerks around, my experience is that most people are pretty welcoming of newbies. Maybe your gym has an introductory class or an introductory personal training session to show you what’s what. My first exposure to weightlifting was a class for women at my local Y.
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Jakash said on September 4, 2017 at 2:28 pm
“If your party can devolve, in 70 yrs, from Ike to Nixon to Reagan to W to DT, don’t act all surprised when Kid Rock shows up.”
https://twitter.com/JohnFugelsang/status/904116121611186176
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Deborah said on September 4, 2017 at 3:00 pm
I can really not believe this whole DACA situation is actually happening. How cruel can these people be? How can they take hope away from the children of people who came here looking for a better life. The children of these people did nothing wrong and don’t know any other life. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but once again this is mind boggling.
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Jeff Borden said on September 4, 2017 at 5:16 pm
Call your senators and representatives, Deborah. I live in deep blue Illinois, but still left messages with my Congressman and both Senators. Sen. Dick Durbin has worked with Sen. Lindsey Graham to create a solution to this nightmare, so he obviously doesn’t need to be swayed, but I think it is helpful for the pols to know just how angry this decision makes many voters.
There really is no depth to the ugliness of our president.
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basset said on September 4, 2017 at 9:34 pm
Sherri, nobody was rude or gave me the stinkeye or anything… I just saw a room full of shiny happy people all seeming to enjoy doing something they were in on and I was out on, I overloaded and left.
Not to say I haven’t had people act inappropriately at other gyms and other YMCAs, didn’t happen this time though – just couldn’t make myself believe I could actually be part of what was going on.
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beb said on September 4, 2017 at 10:13 pm
David Atkins, writing for Washington Monthly asked: “Is Trump just Trolling Us?” Hiis point is that just about every Trump nomination have been people who seem determined to destroy the bureau they’re in charge of. Bridenstein nominated to run NASA is anti-science and a climate denier. De Vos hates public education, Pruitt hates the EPA and so on.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 5, 2017 at 7:20 am
We fed the troll. And it’s obviously like getting a Gremlin wet. Except in this case he becomes a President.
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Peter said on September 5, 2017 at 9:38 am
The Real Donald trump site this morning had a couple of gems:
“The LYING MEDIA is upset that I offered 5 million for Obama’s birth certificate but only 1 million for Houston relief. Relax – I’m not paying either of them.”
“Melania and I went to visit Houston again – because they haven’t suffered enough”.
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brian stouder said on September 5, 2017 at 10:58 am
So, if Oxy-Rush and Shit-for-brains-Sean (et al) are actually “conservative” – then they’ll have no part of this blatant assault on the United States Constitution, right? They’ll use their bully pulpits to energetically denounce this example of over-the-cliff political ‘thinking’, yes?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/09/04/trump-gop-should-keep-daca-but-scrap-birthright-citizenship.html
an excerpt:
If Trump does turn the matter over to his wobbly Republican colleagues, he must demand they cut a deal: agree to grant the “Dreamers” permanent status in the U.S. in exchange for abolishing birthright citizenship. That single change could forever reduce the allure of sneaking into the U.S.
Gosh – who knew it could be so easy to repeal the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, eh? ‘Course, I’m bettin’ this same ‘logic’ would never, ever, ever apply to the 2nd Amendment…
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Sherri said on September 5, 2017 at 12:23 pm
The sun has been up for hours, we’re headed for highs in the 90’s, but there’s so much smoke in the air I still need the lights on in the house because the sun is just an orange ball in the sky and the light is a funny yellow-orange. Here’s what it looks like this morning: https://twitter.com/SherriMNichols/status/905100781149347840 & https://twitter.com/SherriMNichols/status/905103374089043969
Susan, you okay over on the other side of the mountains?
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susan said on September 5, 2017 at 1:07 pm
Sherri, the air here has been awful most the summer, with many days too “unhealthy” to do anything outside. Ugh. This morning’s air is particularly rancid, up to 237 ppm on the “nephelometer,” nearing the hazardous zone. Can’t see across the river, can’t see any of the hills or mountains surrounding the valley. A satellite dish about 300 m away evanesces in a haze of smoke, with nothing visible beyond. This is reminding me of September 2012, when the air was in the hazardous zone for three weeks. That’s when I bought an air purifier. I have had that running now for the last week.
And, so much for my daily 4-mile walk…
Have you been following this site? I check this one every day, but it must be slammed because it’s been down since last evening. This one is useful, too. I have a whole folder of smoke sites in Safari bookmarks, from 2012. How sad is that? That I refer to its contents every summer, now?
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LAMary said on September 5, 2017 at 1:16 pm
We were in triple digits most of the last week. Today’s the first real break day. Funky air the last two days as well.
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Sherri said on September 5, 2017 at 1:33 pm
Except for right now and an earlier stretch in August, we haven’t had much bad air. The same factors that normally keep us cooler keep the smoke from coming across the Cascades. In August, we were out of town during the smoke, down in Ashland where it was out but not smoky. Now Ashland is bad enough that they’ve had to cancel some outdoor performances at OSF.
This high pressure system will clear out of here by Thursday and our air should clear up, but that won’t help you.
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Scout said on September 5, 2017 at 2:56 pm
Fires in the Northwest and CA, the aftermath and cleanup of Harvey, Kim Jong Un and Don John Un chest thumping and dick wagging, DACA. Now Irma is headed for Florida with Puerto Rico in her path, and I just found out that a very dear friend who is in PR right now cannot get out because her flight has been cancelled. I think every day this week is going to feel like a particularly shitty Monday.
If my memory serves me, I believe there are several people here who love the song Jolene by Dolly Parton. Y’all may like this. It made me crack a small smile despite the swirl of shit news.
https://www.facebook.com/39171898761/videos/10155713771658762/?hc_location=ufi
Also, too, forgive me if I don’t think The Orange Shitgibbon deserves a cookie for his TX do-over. Fuck him sideways.
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LAMary said on September 5, 2017 at 3:37 pm
I have a new grand niece in law who is expecting a great grand nephew and she lives in the Florida on the southwest coast. Her husband, my grand nephew, is in the merchant marine and he’s in Japan. She seems like a very practical and resourceful woman so I am going to assume she will get herself to a safe place if Irma heads her way.
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Jolene said on September 5, 2017 at 3:57 pm
What I’ve heard, Mary, is that Irma is expected to strike Florida’s east coast. Things can change, of course, as the storm moves toward us.
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Dave said on September 5, 2017 at 4:50 pm
News and weather forecasters here in Florida are telling everyone to prepare. The spaghetti models for the storm, so called because of their spaghetti-like appearance projecting different paths the storm may take, all are aimed for Florida, starting at the Keys. The stores are are full of people cleaning out all the goods, especially water and canned goods. The governor has already declared a state of emergency. We’re thinking of leaving.
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Deborah said on September 5, 2017 at 5:20 pm
Dave, I would say get the hell out of there. If you have someplace else to go, go. When I grew up in Miami I lived through many hurricanes, but as I’ve said here before, they were not nearly as strong as the ones they have now.
We just got back from Abiquiu, lots of smoke in the air around there too. Not sure exactly where the fire is, not alarmingly close. I heard that it was started by lightning a few days ago. The usual fabulous view from the cabin was greatly reduced. I will be putting some photos up on FB.
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Sherri said on September 5, 2017 at 5:43 pm
In addition to the smoke, everything outside is coated in a layer of ash, too: https://twitter.com/SherriMNichols/status/905145262854742016
The challenge with leaving the path of Irma is that it’s huge; bigger than the state of Ohio. I remember when I had a cousin living on Key West who evacuated ahead of Andrew, and ended up right in the path of Andrew! (I would have left Key West, too, in her situation.) I used to have a several aunts and uncles and cousins living in Florida and the Gulf Coast, but they all tired of hurricanes and mostly relocated around the Memphis area.
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alex said on September 5, 2017 at 5:57 pm
A friend who was visiting Puerto Rico got out today and is on his way home to Chicago. Wanna check on some of my friends who live in Florida. Last time there was a hurricane in south Florida, I called my friend Steve in Hollywood to check on him, and he was getting annoyed with all of the well-meaning calls from friends and family. He said he never leaves during hurricanes; he just rides them out. I wonder if he’s thinking differently about this one.
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