caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

Weathering Changes

It is summer in Alabama, but until this week it has been very moderate. Last week the furnace kicked on. I've been going out about 6 AM, doing chores, and back in by 9 AM or so. Looks like another week of it. But there's plenty of other changes to weather as well. We call it adventures in aging. Learning to adapt to my new found limitations. The old gray matter just ain't what it used to be, nor my strength and stamina. Then, we have the decline of the US empire and the ensuing economic consequences. Every week there are more and more items missing from the grocery shelves, and gas is back on the rise. Fortunately we are adaptable creatures. Given the future we're looking toward, we will have to learn to adapt to many new challenges. This weeks news and more below the fold...

Afternoon folks!

This week we're starting off acoustic with an album from a great Piedmont blues guitarist, John Jackson, followed by an album split between two delta musicians, Son House (early recordings, when he was in his prime!) and J.D. Short. After that we move on to a double live album from Buddy Miles, recorded just after he had been working with Jimi Hendrix. Following that is a greatest hits album from my favorite Motown group, The Temptations. Finishing us off this week in the diversity department is an album of psychedelic wonderment from The 13th Floor Elevators - this is a modern pressing that removes the less-than-satisfactory applause track from a boxing match that was imposed on the original release of the album to make it sound like a live album, which is a big improvement in my book.

Enjoy the tunes and have a great weekend!

Good morning, good people! I hope this OT finds y'all in fine fettle! Most of you have no spring and fall waves of love bugs. Be glad. Be thankful. In all my 74 years, I have never experienced the late summer/fall second wave. This is a first. They like standing water, the color white, dead foliage, heat, and flowers for the nectar. They add virtually nothing really positive to the ecosystem, and can do it harm by running off bees, the best pollinators. The birds that eat them are not common to the area. Pesticides to kill them off kill everything else off.

We had a wet spring, but they were at normal levels for a week. But now? My home is being swarmed to the point I have to keep my mouth closed when on the front porch. The local grocery store got swarmed, and we shoppers were picking them off each other's clothing and hair. They are at the office, too. Neither my home, office, or grocery store are near water, are not white, no dead foliage, a few flowers, but lots of heat. Facebook is full of locals taking videos of black clouds of them.

Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.

Last month the camera club went to the Torrey Pines Gliderport located along the cliffs of La Jolla. Last time I was there was ten years ago and hang gliders were the big thing. Now it's paragliders. It looks like fun but I don't know if I could run off the edge of a cliff to get airborne.

I used to be a Democrat, for much of my life.

Although I voted for him twice, my schism with the Democratic Party began with Clinton.

I had high hopes when I voted for Obama the first time, but I became jaded very early on, beginning with his cabinet picks. I voted green for his second term.

Biden was the last straw. I was done with the Democrats. I voted Green for Biden's first term and left the Presidents box unchecked for his second term.

Now I'm a nomad, noncommittal to any party or politician, drifting with the sands of true independence.

Thirteen!
So, it's the thirteenth of August, 2026. 13. A number which apparently really makes people uneasy and worried. I have never been really scared of 13. But I know people who are. So, why? Why is 13 so feared and unlucky, to the point that high rise buildings don't have 13th floors, rooms aren't numbered 13, and more?

Apparently there are a couple of reasons - and none of them make a lot of sense to me. It seems 13th is disliked and feared because of Norse and Christian mythology, at least in part. In Norse mythology, Loki, the god of mischief, crashed a feast to which 12 gods had been invited. Loki was the 13th and he wasn't invited. He showed up anyway and started a fight between two of the gods, who were brothers, Hödr, the blind god of darkness, and Baldr the god of light, joy and purity. Hödr shot Baldr with mistletoe (Loki had to aim and do all of that for him) and Loki had a laugh. And the death of Baldr started the countdown to Ragnarök - the end of the Norse world.

The shooting of Baldr by his blind brother Hödr from this article about Loki.