August 26th, 2021 – National Dog Day!!!
“ (sahr pikheyr) سحر پخير ”, or “Good Morning!” in Pashto, which is the southeastern Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian languages spoken in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
Our country was totally unprepared to help our in-country Afghani allies. We left them to suffer the wrath of a violent ruthless self-righteous regime that will not forgive nor forget any Afghani who worked with the US in any manner. Of course, the architects of this withdrawal knew the consequences these people would face once we were gone. They deliberately created a plan with no provisions for the thousands of people who helped the US. Once again, I find myself ashamed of my country, its arrogance, meanness and callousness. The saddest part of all this is that, once again, our actions are creating even more generations of enemies that our children and their children will have to deal with. I ask you, how is that in our self interest?!!! The seeds of this catastrophic disaster were sewn when the Dark Lord inhabited the White House, BUT the Biden administration should have delayed the plan it inherited until we knew how we were going to address the completely predictable needs of thousands of built-in refugees created by our departure.
This week I learned some stuff:
• My doc prescribed O2 for me at night and when I am doing physical exercise. She ordered a service that provides 02 concentrators to patients. The home unit for sleeping is fine but the portable one has a lot of problems, its bulky and doesn’t last very long between charging. So contacted my insurance company and they told me that I could buy any one I wanted and medicare/uhc will cover 80@% of the cost. So I ordered my brand new Imogen G4 that weighs like 2.5lbs and lasts up to 12 hours per change with lifetime maintenance and warranty .. even if i drop it! Whoo. I may now be living on a leash but its a nice leash!
• August 26th is the 238th day of 2021. Just 121 days till Christmas! Today in 1768, Captain James Cook sets sail from England on board HMS Endeavour; Today in 1883, The eruption of Krakatoa begins its final, paroxysmal, stage; Today in 1944, Charles de Gaulle enters Paris; Today in 1970, the fiftieth anniversary of American women being able to vote is marked by a nationwide Women’s Strike for Equality; On this day in 2009, kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard is discovered alive in California after being missing for over 18 years. Her captors, Phillip and Nancy Garrido are apprehended; Today in 2014, the Jay Report into the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal is published;; Today in 1935, Geraldine Ferraro, American lawyer and politician; Maureen Tucker, American singer-songwriter and drummer for the Velvet Underground was born on this day in 1944; Leon Redbone, Canadian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer was born today in 1949;In 1952,Will Shortz, American journalist and puzzle creator was born today; Branford Marsalis, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader was born today in 1960; Lon Chaney, American actor, “Wolfman”, director, and screenwriter passed away today in 1930; We lost Ted Knight, American actor r today in 1986; Linus Pauling, American chemist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate passed away today in 1994; Neil Simon, American playwright and author on this day in 2017; And finally, we lost, Joe Ruby, American animator, creator of Scooby Doo, died today in 2020.
Website Update:
Restarting the cycle this week:
• Week two for “New” Vocabulary Quiz
• A“New” Musical Trivia Quiz !!!!!
• This week I have a couple of new recipes to share. I made a very tasty 1 Pan Fish with Bacon, Chicken, Corn and Okra with Tarter Butter and Sausage Mushroom Polenta.
• This week’s Home Page quote comes from Galileo Galilei, “I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.”
Writing, Ceramics, Stained Glass and Painting Update:
• I was again distracted this week getting cat scans, O2 started and various projects around the house. I haven’t made any progress on my art projects 🙁
• Grandpa Stories is still not re-published.
Weird-Stuff-O-Meter:
• This week I thought seriously about eliminating my pond. I cannot keep going like it is. I need a more sustainable environment for my koi or I need to get rid of my koi and fill in the hole in my yard. To completely replace my pond with all new waterfall and new liner, would cost between $ 15-20K. I started looking for alternatives that would enable me to keep my pond for a bit longer but much more sustainably. I worked out a solution with the pond consultant guy that is much more economically and physically manageable. I am so happy. In two weeks, should have a well filtered, clean and manageable pond again. WooHoo!!
• This week I also worked on getting back up power for our house. We need to be able to ensure we have electrical power for O2 and other services. So I have been looked at generators and found them to be the least expensive solution with having an electrician do the switch and panel work, for the generator size I need, would be somewhere around $1000. The down side is they are noisy, stinky, have to be maintained, fixed and refueled. There are portable power stations as well. I found these much more interesting. I investigated a lot of alternatives after Tesla told me that I could not simply bold a power wall onto my existing system. All of these solutions are more elegant that the generators. Many, if not most were underpowered for my AC needs. The ones that weren’t cost a great deal of money. I guess its too late to make a long story short but I ended up back at Tesla who just came out with a deal in California and Washington state, where they will install 6 additional panels, a new switch and their 13Kw Powerwall for $25k which is a lot more than the biggest generator solution. But it is so much cleaner. I finance the expense over 20years at 1.99% APR and have a $79 payment/month. The 6 new solar panels will charge the battery first, then contribute to my power supply. Additionally, if there is a sustained power outage, it would switch to my power wall which would supply my electricity just as if we still had power from the grid indefinitely. All of the power generated from those panels costs me the same $79/month. The cherry on top is the 26% of the purchase price tax credit that I can either apply to the balance or put in my pocket. If you live in CA and want to have sustainable back up power, you should check out Solar Max .
Music Update:
Once again, yours truly takes you on another meander through the dusty cobwebs of my music library. I have to tell you, I always enjoy doing the UJT Radio playlists. I feel a little like Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati but this week’s line up had me from beginning to end! I hope you enjoy it too, “my peeps!”
This week’s UJT Radio Program:
• Steppenwolf — Earschplittenloudenboomer — This is a tight instrumental song from their, “Steppenwolf 7” album released in 1970, this is a deep cut and for me is reminiscent more of Chicago than Steppenwolf. I like it and hope you will too..
• The Byrds — Turn, Turn, Turn (To Everything There is a Season) — Another of my all time favorite songs! The Byrds biggest hit released in 1965 as the title cut of their second album. The song was written by Pete Seeger in the 1950s and features almost a word for word adaptation from the Book of Ecclesiastes of the English version of the Bible. A beautiful and inspiring song.
• Zucchero — Streets of Surrender (S.O.S.) [feat. Mark Knopfler] — There is something like “the world’s most interesting man”-esque about this guy. This one is from his “Black Cat” album released in 2016.
• The Who — Live At Leeds (Bonus Track Version) — The first time heard this was in my friend Dean’s golden GTO driving to fast listening to it on 8 track turned all the way up!
• The Subdudes — Morning Glory — This one comes from their 2004 release, “Miracle Mule”. I am pretty sure you all are well aware of soulful music, well these boys fit right in. You can all most see the dust rising from the porch floor as the tap their feet in time.
• • Jimmy Buffett – Gravity Storm — This is a wonderful tune from one of my favorite JB albums, “Off to See the Lizard” released in 1989. Having a long standing inclination to a dubious behavior, I have had to hunker down and battle a gravity storm or two in my time. Some of them were so strong they not only effected my ability to ambulate reliably but seemed to even slow or slur my speech!!! None of which prevented me from sharing the wisdom of the ages or singing off key! Ain’t Life Grand!
That’s it… Do the best you can; Laugh every chance you get; And always remember … The best is yet to come! As always, thank you for being my friend!