FIRST DATE -- DISTRESS -- QUIRKY HUMOR

 Republic -- "If you can keep it."  [Democracy]

      Accountability for Jan. 6 insurrection.

U.S. Select House Committee on Jan. 6th Hearings

(A final Sept. Hearing canceled due to Hurricane Ian -- Reschedule TBA)

QUESTION:  Does Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife's persistence in stating our ex-President's lie the 2020 election was stolen from him present questionable issues about her husband's impartiality, need to recuse himself from some Court case considerations? 

Here in sunny Southern California our temperature has dropped by a few degrees with the extreme heat past.  Fall may actually arrive soon though only the calendar says it's here now.  We still lack sufficient rain with no end to our drought in sight.

Florida and other U.S. east coast states have shared in Puerto Rico's Hurricane Ian's disaster-producing weather -- floods, high winds, tornados, destruction, death.   I guess we will be challenged by events such as this, maybe even worse in the years to come due to changes in our earth's climate.  This sort of weather causing disasters prevalent in other parts of the world is no less serious.

West Coast gas exploitation continues here in California.  No more of those one cent, two cents or nickel a gallon raises overnight.  This past week they just socked it to us -- fifteen cents plus not just one night, but fifteen more cents the next night, too.  The third night the raise eased a bit to ten cents, then seven plus cents the next night.  

"Sock It To Me" -- Judy Carne 

Clip from the US TV series "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" (1960s - '70s)

Our Governor has arranged our less expensive winter gas mixture be sold earlier than usual by another week which is expected to result in a twenty-five cents per gallon cost reduction.  He also requests a special windfall tax on oil companies who have made huge profits on gas sales with oil costs expected to decrease.  We could use a little gas pricing stability.  

Humor is where we find it, often with quirky matters triggering my funny bone.  I've always derived lots of laughs from reading posted signs as we drove about locally wherever we lived across this country, also with advertisements in newspapers, brochures.  Not everyone has shared my sometimes-weird sense of humor.

I recall my youth and first date, a blind date at that.  I had reluctantly agreed to this setup by a girl who was only a casual acquaintance, but she had been persistent wearing down my resistance to the idea.  He arrived at my house in a pickup truck in a time when such vehicles were strictly utilitarian on farms -- before becoming culturally popular everywhere in the U.S., including cities.  

My blind date may have felt as I did, nervous, lacking in self-confidence, awkward, uncomfortable -- each of us focused on ourselves and how we were feeling inadequate.  I was shy, especially in 1:1 situations unlike with the boys I grew up with where we lived previously.  I don't recall what verbal efforts were made by either of us to become acquainted.  I just recall the long silence driving into town as he said nothing.

I started reading some funny signs aloud I spotted along the highway into town as he said nothing.  He did not react, say anything, or laugh, even chuckle -- apparently, he did not share my sense of humor.  Or maybe, I wasn't supposed to be the entertainer, but he wasn't entertaining.  I don't recall anything more about that evening, but I don't think it got better for either of us wherever we went or whatever we did -- maybe we went to a movie.  Fortunately, in the years to come my self-confidence improved as my relationships developed, but I don't recall ever going on a blind date again.  

My sources for humor continue to emerge in everyday life, not as many when you live alone, in just about every situation, even some that are quite serious.  Sometimes I laugh so hard I end up crying, and occasionally I've laughed to keep from crying.  Some of my laughter is prompted by matters some people might think weird.  The digital world and the internet have certainly contributed to some laughable events as some of you have probably found, too.

I recently fired off one of my occasional brief instant messages, this time to my daughter -- an observation about a current news report about which I felt compelled to comment.  My daughter responded, "Not in this Pili A1 world would either of those states be ideal".  Reading her observation, I thought, oh dear, some more new terminology younger generations are using, and I don't have the slightest idea what "Pili A1" means.  So, revealing my ignorance of current lingo as I used to know in the days of yore, I asked her, "What does Pili A1 mean?"

I learned later she was puzzled when she read my query, so busily began a Google terminology search for the meaning of "Pili A1" since she didn't know the meaning either.  She came up with nothing specific that made sense.  Then she happened to re-read our previous messages exchange and found "Pili A1" in her's to me.   She could only laugh, she said, as she thought she had typed "political", but Google's automatic word correction had produced "Pili A1".

Google's system often does some curious word creations in messages I've sent confusing or totally altering my message's meaning.   When I read how she had searched Google I started laughing, too.  Now, every time I think about the whole comedy of assumptions and misperceptions we each had made, I start laughing out loud to myself.   Maybe I'm finally cracking up.

UKRAINE WAR -- RICOCHETING WINTER -- EAGLET

What a week this has been!

My life challenges seem so insignificant compared to what is occurring for so many in Ukraine.  I find myself thinking about older people and how they are experiencing the events they're encountering.   I consider how would I be able to cope. 

This invasive war has significant bearing on our world as we know it.  For the sake of our younger and future generations, Ukraine's situation demonstrates our nation must preserve our republic's democracy.

SoCal weather in my area this past week gave us summer-like warm temperatures, then abruptly dropped about 20 degrees to wintertime again.   Promised rain where I live did not materialize though other areas did receive some moisture. 

A second storm in recent days has brought snow to the mountains and a little rain below the foothills.  We have only a few more weeks in our ordinarily rainy season to end our drought, but only dry warmer temperatures in the 70s arrive early next week.

We welcomed new life this past week when the Big Bear Bald Eagles successfully had the first of their two eggs hatch.  Pip watch continues for the second egg for possible hatching any day now.  The warmer weather was giving way to winter's return soon after that first little fluff ball finally emerged from the eggshell.   

The following video courtesy of Friends of Big Bear Valley reveals the incubating eagle literally covered in snow.  The video frame rate appears to have been ramped up at the beginning.  

PEACE !

NEW & OLD BUSINESS -- GROUNDHOGS FOILED

OLD BUSINESS

A few years ago I wrote here of my frustration with an unexpected large expense when my neighbor's back wall caused an attached segment of my wall to need reconstruction to prevent my own wall from completely falling.   My neighbor refused to acknowledge his wall was adversely pressuring my wall despite our both being able to literally see his whole back wall was leaning.  He saw this in person on several occasions, but denied the effect of his wall on mine.   In fact, over the time I gave him to become convinced, his wall could easily be seen to keep leaning further and further.  Additionally, I had sent him periodic measures and photos of the changing effects on my wall.

I finally consulted with our city authorities, they inspected, then gave me permission to detach his wall from mine.  I had to have my wall section reconstructed to prevent a worsening situation.   While that was in progress I had received notice my home insurance was in jeopardy.  My neighbor later told a city official when they asked him that he would provide some financial reimbursement to me for the corner of my damaged wall's reconstruction.  He never did.  

I ultimately determined my legal pursuit of him for my costs, or even a part of them, was not best at that time for a variety of reasons.  A few years later he subsequently sold the house.  He had only been renting the house anyway since he was living somewhere in Los Angeles.  I learned this week that during our storm the neighbor's backyard wall finally fell over.  I feel sorry for the new owner who I haven't yet met, but at least his wall no longer has any effect on my wall. 

RECENT BUSINESS

Writing of our SoCal weather,  I might add we've continued to have Santa Anna/Santana's (devil) winds.  Given the strong winds downing over 300 trees in our city, damaging some homes.  I have continued to withhold putting my trash bin out at the curb for weekly pickup lest it be blown over as would have happened the week I wrote of earlier.

I must not be living right because I had another weekend power outage about a week after the first power loss.  I had been able to regain electricity the first time the furnace mechanism had been affected but had power after that for only a week before this second sudden loss.  Only a service person was able to completely reactivate my power when he discovered a special code for restarting my furnace was required.  At least I hadn't caused the problem I was relieved to learn since my thermostat adjusting efforts trying to turn on the furnace had been lacking.  

Naturally, outages and breakdowns only occur on a weekend when repair service isn't readily available.  That second weekend of power outage was miserably SoCal cold again for me, but nothing compared to what people in the rest of the U.S. have been having with snow, ice, zero and below temperatures so I shouldn't complain.  Interestingly, this coming week our temperatures are going to be in the 70's - 80's F.  This is unusually warm for these months.

The wonderful December rainfall we received has not been repeated, so our drought seems to be dominating again.  There are no storms predicted in our future.  February and March are typically the last months of our rainy season.

HUMANS FOIL GROUNDHOG'S WEATHER PROGNOSTICATIONS

Groundhog Day this past week on February 2nd brought thoughts that come to my mind every year.   I'm finally going to share them here in a somewhat light-hearted questioning manner -- maybe even humorous.  As if we don't have enough truly serious matters in the world -- what do you think?

Living many years beginning in my youth in a state adjoining Pennsylvania I always heard a lot about Punxsutawney Phil on Gobbler's Knob, long before he became a national celebrity with a special day observed in all groundhogs honor.

Phil, a groundhog, was said to exhibit behavior that would tell us on February 2nd if we would have more winter or spring, depending on whether he saw his shadow when he emerged from his burrow and hibernation.  Learning more about various creatures lives as I became an adult, I soon concluded Phil's human owners actions were not only exploiting him but interfering with anyone's ability to reasonably judge by Phil's behavior future weather conditions.

Not only does Phil have to cope with variable weather issues, he's not even allowed to emerge from his burrow when he thinks the timing is appropriate as described in Mary Bernath's Sunbury, Pennsylvania's Danville News article linked here.   One observer is reported to have noted:

"Phil doesn't want to come out, so they have to grab him by the scruff of his neck to pull him out."  

Well, in my view, no wonder Phil has such a poor weather predictive accuracy record.  Seems to me Phil's knowing when to emerge to see if he can see his shadow is a critical element in determining any prognostication for future weather.

Bernath reports people turn out in large numbers to see Phil on Groundhog Day:

"While all this hoopla is going on, most ordinary Pennsylvania groundhogs are still soundly asleep in their burrows.  According to Jon Beam, naturalist at the Montour Preserve and assistant director of MARC, groundhogs settle in for the winter in late October and don't awaken until the last half of February or even early March.  Males get up first, to wander around and check out female burrows to see who is awake.  They might go back to their burrows for a while to keep warm, but the deep sleep is over."

I think we're long past time when Phil needs the freedom to determine for himself when to emerge from his burrow after awakening from hibernation.  Maybe then Phil and other groundhogs will give us more accurate weather predictions about when or if winter is ending and spring is coming.  

NATURE -- WEATHER -- EXCESS WATER

Big Bear Bald Eaglets -- sad news that Cookie died --  the second of the two eggs to hatch.   I had noted Cookie’s constant cries on one recent live cam quick visual check.    On a later peek he had appeared weakened as Simba moved past him to go under mother Jackie’s right wing leaving Cookie further outside her body.   He would have had to struggle to get to her left wing’s protection.

Later the night before Memorial Day I took another short  peek to see snow covering the nest on this second occasionally wet but  unusually cold night.   Both eaglets appeared to be head first under Jackie’s wings though she had long since ceased to be able to completely cover their entire now large bodies with her own.  The next day when I checked the live cam Cookie was not breathing.   Nature.

Live 24/7 Video Cam:  https://youtu.be/5b2dUgK6VV4

***

Our SoCal weather continues to bring us unusual but welcome rain.  Unfortunately, rainstorms and tornadoes are causing havoc elsewhere in the U.S.    Ordinarily clouds would be all we would see here, giving rise to weather descriptions of May Gray and now June Gloom which have also brought us even cooler temperatures than usual – the bane of sun-lovers becoming impatient for summer. 

Water issues impacted me this past week in a quite unexpected way when my utility bill arrived for an amount causing me to do a double-take.   My yard’s sprinkler system had been turned off most of recent months given all the rain we’d been receiving and this number was over ten times the amount of each of my previous months bills.  The following morning revealed this was no typo error, also that my water meter box at the curb was filled with water – there was a leak. 

bad news.... water company determined the leak was my responsibility to repair.  

good news.... my plumber was able to come the next morning several hours early.

bad news.....the leak was not slow.    

good news..... the leak was readily located on a pipe area next to the meter – old galvanized pipe.

bad news..... this location required replacing the entire line to my house.

good news..... the plumber turned the water off, then hooked up my garden hoses to run to the  house so I would have water as usual with only slightly decreased pressure.   

bad news..... they hoped to be able to go partly under my concrete drive way (not tear it up).

good news..... they had a drill machine to go underground but concern for deflecting rocks.

bad news...... they couldn’t start work until the next day or possibly after weekend.

good news.... the helper was available to start the next day.

bad news..... the water off for a couple hours and I had been ill since previous evening.

good news.... the plumber was able to come in afternoon to drill under concrete.

good news.... no rocks to deflect the drill.

good news..... job was finished that day.

bad news ...... the bill – 4 digits

good news..... water problems resolved and I also feel better. 

Living in place can be complicated with a home's owner not the only thing aging.