Sleepy Joe's America
14/03/21 07:07
Finally, some halfway decent weather. We may even get into the low sixties today. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's time to start my seedlings but there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. Just so you know, I don't do seedlings. It helps when the temperatures out of doors coincide with days on the calendar. In other words, it's starting to warm up as it should as we close in on the first day of Spring here in North America.
Snow storms this time of year are not out of the ordinary so we won't let our guard down too much. The good news is that they disappear almost as quickly as they come around so you might say they are something of a non-event. Did I mention that we have green shoots popping up along the front of the house? I think they're daffodils but I could be wrong. They are, in fact, the first sign of Spring here at our home. Can I get an amen?
There are so many political rabbit holes I could go down this morning. I'm avoiding then like the plague. You know when I'm talking about the weather that I really have other things on my mind that I'd rather be talking about. Besides, I don't want my blog to be a political rant day in and day out. The things worth mentioning will get plenty of air time but I just don't want them to dominate my blog. I want to be that flat stone skipping across the surface of the pond instead the boulder rolling down the hill crushing everything in its path.
My guitar stuff is going pretty well. I'm getting a little tired of practicing scales even though I'm getting better at playing the scales. You might say that my muscle memory is coming along nicely since I can do much of it without looking at the strings while I practice. I suppose I ought to be trying to make some music. I don't want to be that guy at the campfire strumming away like the village idiot but it wouldn't kill me to try to get a song or two down just in case someone puts in a request.
Were it not for the pandemic, I might have started taking lessons by now. One has to worry about bad habits and going too far down the road before realizing that you're doing something wrong. I don't dwell on these things because there's nothing to be done about them quite honestly. All I can do is what I've been doing. Pick up the instrument every day and do something with it.
Sometimes, I just worry that if I don't pick it up on any given day that my hard earned callouses will start to soften and all will have been for naught. I'm not, and never have been, a two-steps forward and once-step backwards kind of guy. I'm more of a slow and steady sort of chap. Johnny the tortoise?
The Ev man dropped by yesterday and stayed for dinner. He wanted a sub so we ordered out. He had half of the sub for dinner here at home and took the other half with him when he left. He was sporting a new haircut and seemed pleased with it if I do say so myself. He has a friend who lives in his complex that has cut his hair a couple of times now and he does a decent job. It's something of a buzz cut but not really. Maybe more of a "high and tight" kind of cut. Ev looks good with short hair. Always has.
I washed his car in the driveway and spent a bit of time on cleaning the grit and grime from the rims while he was here. I was happy to be outdoors doing something, anything, and he came around just at the right time. I stepped up to the plate like dads are wont to do. It's safe to say that he and I have different thresholds when it comes to feeling the need to keep things clean and that's fine. I take my pleasures where I can get them these days and if that means washing my son's car while he dillies and dallies elsewhere then that is what I'm going to do.
Besides, I'm very attuned to the needs of the car he's driving since it used to belong to we, his parents. If I've warned him once, I've warned him a thousand times. "Ev, if I get hit by a bus tomorrow you need to make sure that you check the oil in your car maybe every other time when you fill your gas tank." That car has always gone through oil like its nobody's business due to a design failure or whatever. I remember being shocked that the level of oil in the car was as low as it was back in the day when the missus was driving back and forth from Boston. I've been checking it more frequently ever since.
I came across a soup recipe yesterday that appealed to me for its simplicity. Soups don't appeal to me for the most part but this was maybe more of a chili-like concoction so I said what the hey. We needed something for dinner and I was determined to put something on the table for the missus and me. Two of the ingredients, collard greens and pinto beans, sounded healthy enough and I had everything but these two items so I was good to go. The recipe called for a quarter teaspoon of chipotle chili powder which I was not crazy about because I'm not the biggest fan of the smokey flavor that goes along with the chipotle spice.
I decided that a quarter teaspoon of anything is not enough to make a difference one way or another. I removed the lid of the container, eyeballed the spice, and gave the shaker just enough of a jarring to loosen what I needed. I mean, who even dirties a measuring spoon for a mere quarter teaspoon of anything? In case you haven't figured it out by now, this is one of those healthy recipes that calls for little to no salt and no oil in the recipe. I gave the collard greens a good chopping until the massive leaves were reduced to bite-sized pieces. I proceeded to sautéed them in just enough water until they were sufficiently wilted in the bottom of the pan.
The missus and I were both surprised at how good it was after all was said and done. She remarked that the pinto beans were maybe more like the beans you find in a baked bean dish. I couldn't disagree with that. They were surprisingly good and I thought to myself that maybe I've overlooked these beans for all the wrong reasons over the years. So much so, in fact, that I might want to look for recipes that call for pinto beans. It's a tomato based recipe that calls for some 30 ounces of diced tomatoes which I just happened to have on hand.
I don't usually pay any attention to the ethnic or racial makeup of characters in shows that I choose to watch on the telly. I don't hope for or otherwise prefer one race over another unless the story line demands it. It does seem, however, that Hollywood is hell bent on sticking the black experience in our faces these days through the many genre's at their disposal be they sitcoms, dramas, or documentaries. They're unwatchable, really. You know the programming comes at you fast and woke so who in their right mind would want to tune into that bullshit?
I now steer clear of any and all all-black casts in sitcoms, dramas, or movies. It's not unlike the introduction of same sex relationships which, once seldom seen on television, is now cringeworthy in its excess. Hollywood seems to think that they decide what is and what is not normal for the American public and we're expected to go along with their version of reality. The problem is that their reality is not the realty of most Americans. It's a chasm that has most of us chasing alternative programming and with good reason.
It reminds me a little of the show that was on television in the year or two leading up to Hillary Clinton's run for the presidency. I can't think of it at the moment but I'm quite sure that it was conceived with the sole purpose of introducing the prospects of our electing a female president. If you can cast that possibility in a positive light then maybe you can make people more comfortable when it comes to pulling the lever for someone as insidious and corrupt as Hillary Clinton once in the privacy of the polling booth. Talk about cringeworthy.
I'm not against hopeful messaging that comes out of Hollywood and if there is a story to be told that inspires, encourages, emboldens, etc., then I'm in with both feet. That said, I will not tolerate programing that suggests that every problem in the black community, or some other minority community, was caused by a white man or his ancestors. I'll not buy into that collective guilt in any way, shape, or form no matter how much and how often Hollywood and the liberal left wants to shove it down my throat.
And how is it that we're in the middle of a pandemic and wherever you go and wherever you look you see people masked and doing the social distancing thing but you see none of that in shows on television? What, the rules don't apply to them too? It's like we're living in a parallel universe.
Actors and actresses carry on as though the pandemic never came along and it's just one more example of the special dispensations afforded to the ranks that support certain political factions or parties. Maybe not unlike these blue state governors who insist on closing down their states while traveling with their families in the dark of night to remote vacation spots around the world. Hypocrites all.
I'm happy to see at least one red state governor working to pass laws that keep trans people from participating in sporting events. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. Male weightlifters, track stars, and other biological males who now want to participate in women's sporting events will now have to seek out other venues, at least in this particular state, if they wish to continue to compete. Who in their right mind ever thought this as a good idea? What athlete, even on the best of days, would feel good knowing that their biology gives them a leg up when competing against someone of the opposite sex?
Again, this is just one more fanciful freak show brought to us by the loonies on the left. I hate to be a harpy about this stuff but someone has to speak up. What I'd like to know is who and what is behind this lunacy and why is it that we always find ourselves pushing back on something is clearly beyond the pale. We even have school children these days who think that men have periods thanks to the institutionalization of this craziness in our education system. Where does it fucking end?
The Ev man is up and about this morning and he is his usual restless self. I hate to say it but when he's restless, we're restless. I'm not sure he needed the cold brew that he helped himself to at the crack of dawn but it is what it is. You do what you have to do to get through the day, I suppose. It's no different for the Ev man. He's leaving for his place now ostensibly to get a head start in cleaning up his place ahead of an inspection scheduled for later this week. I suspect that his leaving has more to do with his feeling restless than it does with cleaning his apartment but, whatever. Keep in touch, dude.
Did I mention that my iPad dropped on the floor earlier this week? How did that happen, Johnny boy? Don't ask. The screen splintered into a million little fractals but remained intact. It's no longer as pretty as it once was but it still works. I think my brain is adjusting to the new view as necessary not unlike how one's brain filters out floaters in the eye until they might as well not even be there.
It's all about teaching old dogs new tricks in the 21st century. I won't be reading any more books on this iPad since that is clearly a bridge too far. Doing most other things will be fine. I can't help but wonder, though, if the fifth stage of grief here doesn't result in me ordering a new device. Shelf lives aside, life is too short. Indeed.
Our neighbor was out and about yesterday in the hood and we started chatting her up about her second jab which she just got the other day. She complained of not feeling all that well after the shot and we talked about how that is not all that unexpected knowing what we now know. Once you get past the occasional fatality, which we've all convince ourselves has nothing to do with the vaccine, we're left with a range of after effects all of which are somewhat unpleasant but none of which are game stoppers in their own right. Take care of yourself, Miss Betsi.
Speaking of the hood, who agrees with the family of George Floyd receiving $27 million from the city of Minneapolis? In what universe do they agree to pay off a family before the matter is properly adjudicated in the courts? Was it murder, or was it simply a man choking on his own vomit after digesting enough drugs to kill a horse? A copper kneeling on his jugular probably wasn't helpful but we need to ascertain the facts from the professionals who know about such things and not video's taken by cop-hating passerby's with their iPhone camera's rolling. Right?
Since we all know the firestorm of leftist fury that engulfed the country in the wake of Floyd's death, the city of Minneapolis is understandably wanting to put on a sympathetic face here when settling with the Floyd family. The more-than-generous payoff may have more to do with keeping the extended Floyd family off the nightly news than it does with anything remotely related to finding a solution that deals with the occasional and untimely, if not criminal, loss of a loved one.
These are the times we live in. This is Joe Biden's America for better or worse. God help us all.
Snow storms this time of year are not out of the ordinary so we won't let our guard down too much. The good news is that they disappear almost as quickly as they come around so you might say they are something of a non-event. Did I mention that we have green shoots popping up along the front of the house? I think they're daffodils but I could be wrong. They are, in fact, the first sign of Spring here at our home. Can I get an amen?
There are so many political rabbit holes I could go down this morning. I'm avoiding then like the plague. You know when I'm talking about the weather that I really have other things on my mind that I'd rather be talking about. Besides, I don't want my blog to be a political rant day in and day out. The things worth mentioning will get plenty of air time but I just don't want them to dominate my blog. I want to be that flat stone skipping across the surface of the pond instead the boulder rolling down the hill crushing everything in its path.
My guitar stuff is going pretty well. I'm getting a little tired of practicing scales even though I'm getting better at playing the scales. You might say that my muscle memory is coming along nicely since I can do much of it without looking at the strings while I practice. I suppose I ought to be trying to make some music. I don't want to be that guy at the campfire strumming away like the village idiot but it wouldn't kill me to try to get a song or two down just in case someone puts in a request.
Were it not for the pandemic, I might have started taking lessons by now. One has to worry about bad habits and going too far down the road before realizing that you're doing something wrong. I don't dwell on these things because there's nothing to be done about them quite honestly. All I can do is what I've been doing. Pick up the instrument every day and do something with it.
Sometimes, I just worry that if I don't pick it up on any given day that my hard earned callouses will start to soften and all will have been for naught. I'm not, and never have been, a two-steps forward and once-step backwards kind of guy. I'm more of a slow and steady sort of chap. Johnny the tortoise?
The Ev man dropped by yesterday and stayed for dinner. He wanted a sub so we ordered out. He had half of the sub for dinner here at home and took the other half with him when he left. He was sporting a new haircut and seemed pleased with it if I do say so myself. He has a friend who lives in his complex that has cut his hair a couple of times now and he does a decent job. It's something of a buzz cut but not really. Maybe more of a "high and tight" kind of cut. Ev looks good with short hair. Always has.
I washed his car in the driveway and spent a bit of time on cleaning the grit and grime from the rims while he was here. I was happy to be outdoors doing something, anything, and he came around just at the right time. I stepped up to the plate like dads are wont to do. It's safe to say that he and I have different thresholds when it comes to feeling the need to keep things clean and that's fine. I take my pleasures where I can get them these days and if that means washing my son's car while he dillies and dallies elsewhere then that is what I'm going to do.
Besides, I'm very attuned to the needs of the car he's driving since it used to belong to we, his parents. If I've warned him once, I've warned him a thousand times. "Ev, if I get hit by a bus tomorrow you need to make sure that you check the oil in your car maybe every other time when you fill your gas tank." That car has always gone through oil like its nobody's business due to a design failure or whatever. I remember being shocked that the level of oil in the car was as low as it was back in the day when the missus was driving back and forth from Boston. I've been checking it more frequently ever since.
I came across a soup recipe yesterday that appealed to me for its simplicity. Soups don't appeal to me for the most part but this was maybe more of a chili-like concoction so I said what the hey. We needed something for dinner and I was determined to put something on the table for the missus and me. Two of the ingredients, collard greens and pinto beans, sounded healthy enough and I had everything but these two items so I was good to go. The recipe called for a quarter teaspoon of chipotle chili powder which I was not crazy about because I'm not the biggest fan of the smokey flavor that goes along with the chipotle spice.
I decided that a quarter teaspoon of anything is not enough to make a difference one way or another. I removed the lid of the container, eyeballed the spice, and gave the shaker just enough of a jarring to loosen what I needed. I mean, who even dirties a measuring spoon for a mere quarter teaspoon of anything? In case you haven't figured it out by now, this is one of those healthy recipes that calls for little to no salt and no oil in the recipe. I gave the collard greens a good chopping until the massive leaves were reduced to bite-sized pieces. I proceeded to sautéed them in just enough water until they were sufficiently wilted in the bottom of the pan.
The missus and I were both surprised at how good it was after all was said and done. She remarked that the pinto beans were maybe more like the beans you find in a baked bean dish. I couldn't disagree with that. They were surprisingly good and I thought to myself that maybe I've overlooked these beans for all the wrong reasons over the years. So much so, in fact, that I might want to look for recipes that call for pinto beans. It's a tomato based recipe that calls for some 30 ounces of diced tomatoes which I just happened to have on hand.
I don't usually pay any attention to the ethnic or racial makeup of characters in shows that I choose to watch on the telly. I don't hope for or otherwise prefer one race over another unless the story line demands it. It does seem, however, that Hollywood is hell bent on sticking the black experience in our faces these days through the many genre's at their disposal be they sitcoms, dramas, or documentaries. They're unwatchable, really. You know the programming comes at you fast and woke so who in their right mind would want to tune into that bullshit?
I now steer clear of any and all all-black casts in sitcoms, dramas, or movies. It's not unlike the introduction of same sex relationships which, once seldom seen on television, is now cringeworthy in its excess. Hollywood seems to think that they decide what is and what is not normal for the American public and we're expected to go along with their version of reality. The problem is that their reality is not the realty of most Americans. It's a chasm that has most of us chasing alternative programming and with good reason.
It reminds me a little of the show that was on television in the year or two leading up to Hillary Clinton's run for the presidency. I can't think of it at the moment but I'm quite sure that it was conceived with the sole purpose of introducing the prospects of our electing a female president. If you can cast that possibility in a positive light then maybe you can make people more comfortable when it comes to pulling the lever for someone as insidious and corrupt as Hillary Clinton once in the privacy of the polling booth. Talk about cringeworthy.
I'm not against hopeful messaging that comes out of Hollywood and if there is a story to be told that inspires, encourages, emboldens, etc., then I'm in with both feet. That said, I will not tolerate programing that suggests that every problem in the black community, or some other minority community, was caused by a white man or his ancestors. I'll not buy into that collective guilt in any way, shape, or form no matter how much and how often Hollywood and the liberal left wants to shove it down my throat.
And how is it that we're in the middle of a pandemic and wherever you go and wherever you look you see people masked and doing the social distancing thing but you see none of that in shows on television? What, the rules don't apply to them too? It's like we're living in a parallel universe.
Actors and actresses carry on as though the pandemic never came along and it's just one more example of the special dispensations afforded to the ranks that support certain political factions or parties. Maybe not unlike these blue state governors who insist on closing down their states while traveling with their families in the dark of night to remote vacation spots around the world. Hypocrites all.
I'm happy to see at least one red state governor working to pass laws that keep trans people from participating in sporting events. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. Male weightlifters, track stars, and other biological males who now want to participate in women's sporting events will now have to seek out other venues, at least in this particular state, if they wish to continue to compete. Who in their right mind ever thought this as a good idea? What athlete, even on the best of days, would feel good knowing that their biology gives them a leg up when competing against someone of the opposite sex?
Again, this is just one more fanciful freak show brought to us by the loonies on the left. I hate to be a harpy about this stuff but someone has to speak up. What I'd like to know is who and what is behind this lunacy and why is it that we always find ourselves pushing back on something is clearly beyond the pale. We even have school children these days who think that men have periods thanks to the institutionalization of this craziness in our education system. Where does it fucking end?
The Ev man is up and about this morning and he is his usual restless self. I hate to say it but when he's restless, we're restless. I'm not sure he needed the cold brew that he helped himself to at the crack of dawn but it is what it is. You do what you have to do to get through the day, I suppose. It's no different for the Ev man. He's leaving for his place now ostensibly to get a head start in cleaning up his place ahead of an inspection scheduled for later this week. I suspect that his leaving has more to do with his feeling restless than it does with cleaning his apartment but, whatever. Keep in touch, dude.
Did I mention that my iPad dropped on the floor earlier this week? How did that happen, Johnny boy? Don't ask. The screen splintered into a million little fractals but remained intact. It's no longer as pretty as it once was but it still works. I think my brain is adjusting to the new view as necessary not unlike how one's brain filters out floaters in the eye until they might as well not even be there.
It's all about teaching old dogs new tricks in the 21st century. I won't be reading any more books on this iPad since that is clearly a bridge too far. Doing most other things will be fine. I can't help but wonder, though, if the fifth stage of grief here doesn't result in me ordering a new device. Shelf lives aside, life is too short. Indeed.
Our neighbor was out and about yesterday in the hood and we started chatting her up about her second jab which she just got the other day. She complained of not feeling all that well after the shot and we talked about how that is not all that unexpected knowing what we now know. Once you get past the occasional fatality, which we've all convince ourselves has nothing to do with the vaccine, we're left with a range of after effects all of which are somewhat unpleasant but none of which are game stoppers in their own right. Take care of yourself, Miss Betsi.
Speaking of the hood, who agrees with the family of George Floyd receiving $27 million from the city of Minneapolis? In what universe do they agree to pay off a family before the matter is properly adjudicated in the courts? Was it murder, or was it simply a man choking on his own vomit after digesting enough drugs to kill a horse? A copper kneeling on his jugular probably wasn't helpful but we need to ascertain the facts from the professionals who know about such things and not video's taken by cop-hating passerby's with their iPhone camera's rolling. Right?
Since we all know the firestorm of leftist fury that engulfed the country in the wake of Floyd's death, the city of Minneapolis is understandably wanting to put on a sympathetic face here when settling with the Floyd family. The more-than-generous payoff may have more to do with keeping the extended Floyd family off the nightly news than it does with anything remotely related to finding a solution that deals with the occasional and untimely, if not criminal, loss of a loved one.
These are the times we live in. This is Joe Biden's America for better or worse. God help us all.