Friday night I held her in my arms as she took her last breath. A terrible decision to have to make. My wife and I are devastated. Our young cat is searching the house for her.
She went from 14 pounds to 7 pounds in a matter of months; the cancer in her stomach and chest caused her to gasp for breath.
We know it was the right thing to do, but it doesn't make it any easier.
I can't list the number of ways we miss her.
the Ol'Buzzard
Twenty years
of Iraq war and no one paid attention, except military families. Civilians weren’t deploying and dying. Some few protested, but no one really cared. Life went on. It didn’t
affect us.
World governments have rightly decided to support the fledgling democracy of Ukraine
against an invasion from Russia. Read
the history of Russia: The Gulag, Chernobyl… Deaths and destruction resulting from a Russian invasion
Employing
sanctions against Russia will result in gas prices spiking upward, and as a
result the price of consumer goods will rise.
Now we can
expect the population to pay attention – it affects us.
We will hear
an outcry, not just from the right – whiney little subversive bastards they are
- but also from people on the left who are not willing to actually sacrifice to
support democracy when it becomes an inconvenience.
Because the majority is not willing to back a foreign country from invasion when it becomes personal, this action will more than likely put Republicans back in power in 24.
Dominant world powers
historically last for 250 years. Have
you taken a close look at who we are lately?
Karma is not
a bitch, it’s a mirror.
the Ol’Buzzard
Man shall
have dominion over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps
upon the earth.
Elizabeth
Kolbert book, The 6th Extinction tracks the catastrophic
events that led to five extinction on planet Earth. The 6th extinction to be brought
about by mankind, ‘who has led a ten-thousand-year exercise in defying nature’, and has drastically altered earth’s climate over a duration of one century.
Her new book,
Under a White Sky reviews man’s technological research to deal
with the results of the climate change we are presently witnessing.
There is no
doubt that the world we live in will look dramatically different in one-hundred
years; if we survive this era. Mankind
is only limited by the speed of his ability to compute and the volume of
information he can retrieve; and with super computers mankind has conquered that
deficiency. There is some confidence in
the scientific community (the brain trust of mankind) that we will be able to adjust
to the changing climate.
CASSANDRA
PROPHECY
Cassandra
was priestess of Apollo in Greek mythology; cursed to utter true prophecies,
but never to be believed.
Though
climate change is of major concern to the survival of the human race, it is not
the elephant in the room, the most likely scenario to apocalyptic destruction
of every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
We are
looking at the possibility of another massive war in Europe. But this only highlights the concern.
Nuclear
weapons have proliferated through the earth’s nations: Chins, North Korea, Pakistan,
India, undoubtedly Israel, soon to be Iran; and of course, the United States
and Russia.
The world
has two nuclear super powers, each with the capability of destroying all life
on earth many times over. So far, we
have had reasonable men holding the reins on the world nuclear arsenals; but
that is not a guarantee.
President
Trump asked general Kelly why we have nuclear weapons and don’t use them?
In Ronald
Regan’s last year in office, he suffered from dementia. Donald Trump was called a moron by his Chief
of Staff. The world is full of despots, and
then we have religious fanatical states each looking forward to an end of the
world scenario. It is not beyond belief
today that Republicans could elect Marjory Taylor Green or that ilk to be in
charge of our nuclear arsenal.
We should
not believe that nuclear weapons will never be deployed against humanity. It had been done before. In
1945 two very primitive nuclear weapons destroyed two Japanese cities killing over
three-hundred-and-fifty-thousand civilians.
This is a scenario
waiting to happen.
Mankind still possesses a primitive strain in his DNA that effects the species beyond reason.
Have a nice day
the Ol’Buzzard
The two
major super powers on earth are posturing.
Each with enough nuclear weaponry to destroy all life on earth.
If the world
was energy independent, economic trade pressures could be brought against rogue
countries that would somewhat negate wars.
Russia’s
only economy is oil and gas. The
middle-east countries only economy is oil and gas.
Total energy
independence is feasible; but capitalism makes it impossible. The rich exploit to grow wealth; so, the
movers and shakers of the world have no incentive to divest of energy control.
We have the
technology to deploy a satellite telescope to orbit the sun and view time all
the way back to creation. If that same
technology was deployed toward energy independence, we could be energy free
within a decade.
Every home
could be energy independent. Heated and
cooled from thermal heat pumps and energized by efficient solar arrays on rooftops
and elevated structures. Cars could be
energy independent of fossil fuels; plugged in to home solar arrays for
charging and equipped with solar collectors on all surfaces – along with wind-turbines
and centrifugal force generators.
Solar, wind,
water and tidal collectors could supply all the power needed for economic and
commercial purposes. The tidal change in
the Bay of Fundy alone could convert enough energy for North America to be free
of the need for fossil fuel produced energy.
Total world energy
independence would place rogue countries in a less powerful position – and economic
sanctions from world organizations could carry more weight.
This is all feasible,
but buried in our DNA is a primitive strain that drives us to compete for power
and wealth, with a willingness toward violence. This drive is exploited through capitalism
and greed; and I see no hope that that will ever change in our future.
Though we
claim to be a sentient intelligent species, we share 97% of our DNA with our
cousins, Chimpanzees. And a good
percent of the human population has not progressed far from our primitive
ancestors most basic instincts.
Add to that
the zealotry of religions and there is little hope we will ever conquer war.
News papers
are expressing fear for the economy because stock values are falling due to the
possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
That just
shows where the government’s economic priorities are. Judging the economy by the fluctuations of
the stock market reflect how well the rich are doing. It ignores the economic plight of the middle
and poorer classes where the real economy exists.
the Ol'Buzzard
Janet enters
the murder room. Her husband is on the
floor in a pool of blood. On the wall, written in blood, is the message, youre
next. She leans over, dips her
finger in her husband’s blood, and on the wall puts an apostrophe: you’re.
I love
language, though I often abuse it - too lazy to go back over what I have typed
and put in the apostrophes, or just comfortable with the way I have expressed
myself.
I am not a
stickler on correct spelling and grammar (but thank you Microsoft for your
spell checker). To me, the purpose of
language is to communicate.
Communication
is different in different cultures. I
was told by an Athabaskan Indian in a Native village that white men talk too
much. And he was right. We can’t stand dead air space in a
conversation.
When we
first arrived in the villages, we might have two Native women come to the
house; we would greet them and they would nod their heads. We would give them tea and they would sit on
the couch silently drinking their tea.
Then at some point they would state what they had come over for; perhaps,
My son not like go to school. In
the meantime, we had filled the room with rambling words and sentences in an
attempt to fill the void.
An Inuit can
often express a entire meaning with the rise of an eyebrow. I am still furious when I think about
standardized testing judging the children in these remote villages from a
requirement they write essays in standard and correct grammar. Their
stories are rich when expressed in their own village language.
We all
misuse words; but their origins are interesting. Here is some word rambling:
The word decimate
literally means - to slaughter every tenth one.
The word dilemma,
the di comes from the Greek for two; so the meaning is limited to two
choices. The dilemma of choosing
the road ahead or the one less traveled.
Thanks to
computers we can modify grammar with bold or italic entries. I love semicolons and dashes. Again,
language is all about communicating your thoughts.
So a great
fuck-you to the word police who would willingly destroy a thought in the name
of inane rules.
the Ol’Buzzard
]
The James Webb
Space Telescope has successfully deployed and is now 700,000 miles into its
one-million mile destination: a gravity-neutral spot known as Lagrange Point – 2,
where it will begin to orbit around the sun.
The James
Webb is the most powerful telescope ever built and will be capable of looking out
to the very edge of the observable universe. Astrophysicist and other scientist
will be able to collect light from the first stars and galaxies that formed immediately
after the Big Bang, 13.5 billion years ago.
The quest
for knowledge is the one noble attribute of the human race. Unfortunately, ignorance in the name of
religions has always own the day and opposed any quest for enlightenment. (God
forbid Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge.)
What a duality
the human race is. There are complete
morons willing to riot as cult members of a con-man looking to maintain political
power; and on the opposite extreme there are scientist probing the very question
of existence.
the Ol’Buzzard
.
What happened to selecting a picture from a group on a blog I am reading and being able to scroll through the rest? Now we have to view one picture at a time - select each one separately then use the back arrow to get back to the rest.
I hate updates.. why not leave everything alone when it is working just fine.
the Ol'Buzzard
You commented on my post about my plans for a spring container garden in Maine, that you wished you could have a raised bed garden.
One of the YouTube videos I watched has an idea for a movable raised bed garden.
I am posting the video here, and perhaps it can give you ideas.
The video is rambling, but the basic idea is intriguing.
A number of decades ago, here in Maine, sewer sludge was used as a fertilizer in gardens in one of the most productive areas of the state, and now they are finding that the soils and wells of the area are contaminated with heavy metals. There are a lot of organic gardeners in this area, and of course, they are devastated.
I do believe that food from home grown gardens is far superior to commercial vegetables we buy at the supermarket, and there is even more control on home grown vegetables than perhaps from organic growers.
In this time and age of food shortages and rising food cost, going back to Victory Gardens makes sense to me. Any small amount of our food consumption that I can home grow will make me feel productive, and I will know that the quality of the food is good.
the Ol'Buzzard
We received
twelve inches of snow earlier in the week, and yesterday we had well over a
foot with steady wind. The snow blower
could barely manage the depth and I had to shovel out our gas tanks that were
buried.
A year ago we moved from our cabin in the woods to a more manageable home.
We loved our cabin, but heating with
firewood, and the physical requirements of maintaining our place during the
Maine winters, was getting a little much for an octogenarian.
The downside
of living surrounded by woods was there was never enough sunlight to grow a
garden. I missed gardening.
The place we
now live in has a large open front yard with plenty of sunlight. This spring I intend to plant a starter garden
– something small, just a few plants.
Along with the prospect of fresh vegetables, a garden gives me something
to plan during the dark days of winter.
For the first time in years, I am ordering seed catalogues and watching YouTube bits about gardening. I am not planning to plant an extensive garden or build raised beds. Just limited planting in containers and grow-bags. Grow-bags are something new, and seem ideal for an urban gardener.
Our yard is
full of ants. It is my belief that when
man finally manages to bring total destruction of surface life on earth, it
will be the ants, not the cockroaches that survive. By using grow-bags, I can plant on our steps,
in our parking area and avoid an ant problem.
I am
thinking about planting one zucchini and one yellow squass (zucchini produce
all summer), three tomato plants (one cherry, one determinant and one
indeterminant), a cucumber plant, radishes and a large planter with herbs. But in my mind, the garden keeps getting
bigger.
Maine has a
short growing season so I will buy tomato plants; but I am also thinking about
purchasing a small greenhouse to start seeds and seedlings early. When we lived subsistence, off-the-grid,
while attending college, I started my plants in solar heated hot-boxes that I
designed, and had plants producing weeks earlier that the locals.
 |
| $39.00 at Tractor Supply |
Maybe I’ll
grow some carrots. Scallions are a necessity. Then there are peppers - I like peppers; I understand potatoes
grow well in grow-bags, and so does lettuce, eggplant, broccoli, beets, bush
beans - I have heard you can grow corn
in grow bags - broccoli and cauliflower…
the
Ol’Buzzard
