Every day or so the media mentions the possibility of a civil war down here in the States again. I don’t know if that concern is legitimate or not. But it is always handy to believe the worst when you want to really fixate and worry about stuff. And fear and worry says a lot about the culture here.
One thing is for sure though, whole bunches of people are upset at the status quo. Not just the Tea Party fringe on the right either. Dissatisfaction on the other side of the spectrum is also intense—aka movements like Occupy, 99% and Black Lives Matter. Definitely living in interesting times.
Saw a good line on Facebook the other day.
The year 2045:
“Grandpa, how did President Trump ever get elected?”
“Well, we were a bit distracted back then. That was the year adult colouring books came out.”
This next piece, also from Facebook, goes under the “I don’t know whether to believe it or not but I sure hope it is true” column….
“There is an island which is disputed territory between Canada and Denmark. The militaries of both countries periodically visit to remove the other guy’s flag and leave a bottle of Danish schnapps or Canadian whiskey. This is what happens when nice countries fight.”
Went out for a walk to clear my head of the politics.
The blossoms have come and gone already on the Klamath plum, a tree found all over here in Southern Oregon. Grown as ornamentals and growing wild by roadsides and creeks throughout the area, their beautiful blossoms was about the only white we saw down here in February. But now the petals are falling so heavily that last week when I walked into the public library downtown it looked like the aftermath of a ticker tape parade.
Special K gave me a really nice Bulova self-winding watch about five years ago. The movement of your arm causes it to wind itself when you wearing it. The important words in that sentence are “movement of your arm” because lately my watch has been stopping while I sleep—so I have to reset and manually wind it. Of course the people at Bulova probably calculated the sleep factor into the watch when they designed it so this means I am almost certainly not moving enough during the waking hours.
This is perhaps one of the earliest versions of the fitness watch. It works in tandem with a support network of friends and acquaintances that you build along the way. You see if you don’t move enough and the watch stops you are going to be late all of the time. People won’t be happy about this chronic tardiness and your relationships will suffer. Pretty soon you will realize that everybody is grouchy and maybe you should just go for a walk and clear your head of the politics.
I can report my ability to play two songs on the piano pretty well now: Mary Had a Little Lamb and Merrily We Roll Along. That almost sounds impressive, especially if I say it fast enough you don’t realize they are the same tune.
The Cattle Baron’s Ball, Lion’s Easter Dinner, weekly council meetings—I am missing these and many other events up in the Boundary for the first time this year. Having to leave the newspaper job to move down to Oregon really left a hole in my weekly schedule. Having to leave the Boundary left a hole in my life; I miss all of my friends and neighbours.
Take care.