Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Wednesday grab-bag


October in the upper mid-West. What is not to like about it?

Fabulous for camping. It is just cool enough in the evening to make the fire feel very welcome. Hardly any mosquitoes.

On the farming side of things, the beans are getting harvested. I even saw a field where the farmer was taking another cutting of hay.

On our tiny operation, I moved Sprite's cattle to another paddock this morning. At a paddock a week, they will be back at Sprite's for-the-duration in two weeks.

The rye grain I planted did not come up. I need to start writing the year on the bags. It was probably older than I thought. I bought another bag and will try again.

Old-NFO is a bad influence

Many of the topics in Home-field advantage are way outside my normal swim-lane and I have leaned heavily, very heavily, on some blogging buddies to help me out.

Old NFO has been AWESOME! He is busy trying to write his own stories and yet has always been willing to entertain the stupidest questions.

The reason he is a bad influence is because introduced me to an entire suite of night-operations equipment.

Equipment is a multiplier. If the fighter is a zero, then the equipment will not matter. If the fighter is a liability, then fancy equipment only makes it worse.

Sadly, the tools Old NFO introduced me to cost money. Surprisingly little money for what they can do, but they still cost money.

Pro-tip: Old NFO knows what he is talking and writing about!

Physical fitness

I went for a run today.

I am still alive.

I count that as a victory.

Spiffing up the house

Mrs ERJ is working me like a rented mule.

There are a host of reasons why this is a good thing. It may prove prudent in the near future to spend the majority of our time close to home. This is the time to cross-the-Is and dot-the-Ts.

Juvenile humor (I never knew they did)

I was recently at a big-box store and saw they had toilet paper in stock.

As I tossed a couple mega-packs into the cart I noticed a sign on the shelf.

Thinking it might be telling me that there was a limit on the number of packages I could buy, I took the time to read it.

I was informed that the Walmart Corporation, because of Covid, no longer took returns on toilet paper.

The mind boggles.

Home-field advantage

I am going to do something I don't like when other writers do it.

I am going to jump ahead in time and flash-back to 'splain how the magic happened.

The reason for doing this is to have events unfold as seen by the Marxists.

If I plow ahead in straight, linear fashion then there will be no surprises.

Please tolerate any logical hiccups. The product you will get will be worth every penny you paid.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks, I think... I'm NOT trying to drive your story, just feeding you info! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope. You aren't driving it.

      I just get to jonesing for all the cool toys you are telling me about.

      Delete
    2. It's a slippery slope! Old NFO just lays out the course, you supply the grease... Thus far, I've successfully resisted the siren call of night vision. Things sure have changed since the AN/PVS-4.

      Delete
  2. Same thing with my rye last year -- nothing came up. The two or three year old bag was full of moths and their worms. They were smart and ate just the germs and not the rest. So last year's new bag was stored in a plastic pail with lid and cinnamon sticks throughout. Came up like weeds this fall.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The jumping ahead to illustrate the other POV is good. It makes the story entertaining. History isn't about just circumstances, its about how people live within and in reaction to those circumstances. Its the people that make history come alive.

    ReplyDelete

Readers who are willing to comment make this a better blog. Civil dialog is a valuable thing.