Lazy day

Mount Katahdin - click to enlarge
Photo by: Lisa Lynn Dixon

  That's a beautiful photo by Lisa Dixon taken early this week, by now a lot of the leaves will be gone.
  Yesterday was an off day, to begin with.  We went to Hampden to see April at the eye doctors for some repairs and adjustments.  Next out to Mainely Apples in Dixmont for some Snowsweet apples, and a bag of Spartans for Flo.  The Snowsweet is a new variety this year, developed by the University of Minnesota, they have some good stock.
  We took the Spartans to Flo and picked up a chair Linda had left there.  And then off the Commissary Store, which is now open again; nice of Congress to watch out for us guys you know.
  Finally we arrived back home, tomorrow may be busier.  But, big but, I see that the Red Sox game has been moved from 4:30 to 8:00 - bummer now I can't watch - past my bedtime.

A quiet day. Right?

The Carmel Cemetery
by Yours truly aka the geezer

  My wife took this photo several years ago, we went the other day and things have changed quite a bit.  The leaves had blown off from a lot of trees and the bush (hydrangea) is no longer there.  Now I need to find another subject, I already have one in mind.
  The airwaves weren't quiet yesterday either, there are a great many of us who scoff at the budget being passed three months at a time.  And those politicians who passed it are happy?  They appear to be.
  I had a quiet day yesterday and plan for another today, well take Hollies money that always turns into the unexpected but not harmful.

Partially over, for a while

Sens. Reid and Schumer looking happy after vote to re-open government
Photo by Jim Loscalzo/EPA

  So all we the citizens have to celebrate is that three months from now we can all go through the same bull shit again.  Is bull shit one word or two?  That question is more important than what these two yokels are happy about.
  On a kinder note, I am glad that at least they talked about things, maybe found out how to change a law (PPACA), and who knows - maybe they'll make that program workable, but I'm not so sure.
  So some of us know we'll be paid for three months, then we'll wait again.  This is not the correct way to conduct business.  There has not been a budget passed in the "regular" way in nearly five years, Congress can and should do better.  Politics, even local, have become so polarized that it just makes running state and national legislation nearly impossible.  People need to be a bit more moderate in their thinking.  Just my opinion; I'm old and remember Ike and Margaret Chase Smith, they were my kind of Republicans.

Standoff, standstill

 

 

Photo by Gordon Chibroski, Portland (Maine) Press Herald

  A rolling stone gathers no moss.  That's what we were taught.  What we didn't know, weren't taught and never dreamed of is that Congress is no longer a rolling stone, they're gathering moss.  They are in danger of dying and dragging us, screaming, behind them.
  The latest from the House was a plan to implement the budget for a short while, but left in a "rider" that would stop the Treasury (Executive Branch) from changing which bills would be paid.  The object would be that the Constitution action for the Executive Branch to pay the bills - would be at a standstill.  The President (in charge of the Executive Branch) could be Impeached for not doing his duty.  The House would easily, in my opinion, impeach the President, the Senate in the trial that followed would find "no action necessary" so the President would remain in office.  The Republicans could then brag that the last two Democrat Presidents had been impeached.
  I have said that some action is better than no action, maybe I was wrong.  Or, maybe Congress could suffer the consequences of their actions, and let the voters decide next election.
  Which ever way of doing things you, the reader, prefers remember, and I'll quote Red Green, "we're all in this together."
  My personal hope is that some compromise can be found and the Country can go on it's was unimpeded by politics - fat chance.  You should also know that 80% of my income comes from the Federal Government, I don't want it to fail.  I hear you Wilbur.

Photo by Gordon Chibroski, Portland (Maine) Press Herald

Unbelievable

Cartoon from the Great Depression drawn in 1931 by Chester Garde

  You see, now the Senate thinks they have a deal.  Thinks.  It would pass a budget for THREE WHOLE MONTHS!  It would also approve a debt increase for four months.
  Now you have to realize that when we were using typewriters I could type almost 100 words per minute on a manual machine.  So what Congress is doing is saying "I can type 100wpm, but today
I'll only type two"!
  Salaries for our 538 members of Congress for one month is over 2.8 million dollars, by my math, and for almost five full years have done nothing!  NOTHING!
  We have seen, time after time, Congress refuse to pass a budget, a President who refuses to approve a budget, and Congress, who has the authority to pass the budget, won't override the Presidents veto, we have a handful of people on each side who hold up the progress of the whole.
  I've had my say for the day.

They're as deaf as I am

    One of these eagles was flying around the field here the other day, had it's eye on something, probably a member of congress!  Oh! Wait a minute!  Do eagles eat rats?
    I could end right there, but I won't. 
    The Red Sox pulled one out by playing very well, and the Patriots showed them how.  I am glad both teams won, the Sox will have a long fight with Detroit this year.
    We went back to Mainely Apples this weekend to buy more Spencers and taste tested the Snow Sweet apple, very good - crisp and sweet, it's another late apple.  I got a pie that my lovely wife made with some of the Honeycrisp that we had left too.  Mmmmm.

Once upon a time....and then there was..

Barracks, NAS Alameda, California c1960 - click to enlarge
Photo: D&S Dvorak

  Well it's Sunday and the Oakland Raiders will play an avowed enemy the Kansas City Chiefs.  I won't watch that game but it brings back some fond memories of the Raiders early years when they used that grass between these barracks as a practice field.  Old Wilbur and I lived in the wing about 5 from the right in the "top" row.  The building in the middle was the mess hall, chow hall or dining hall depending on which language you speak.  That's the Oakland Estuary and the City of Oakland in the background.  The really large building in the foreground (bottom) was building 5, an aircraft overhaul facility.  The base is now closed and abandoned.
  It was closed by the same government that's now hard at work on closing and abandoning itself, and that's an international shame.  It doesn't matter which party you prefer they're all in the game.