A big Thank-you
A big thank-you to Hagar-Jarl of the North of Flyover County for the magnificent review on Amazon for The Seven Cows.
A good review tells prospective readers something about the experience of reading the book. It tells them enough so they can make an informed decision to buy, or not-buy the book.
It is just as important to guide readers where it won't be a good-fit away from a book as it is to guide readers who will get enjoyment to the book. One disappointed reader negates the positive vibe generated by three-or-four satisfied readers.
Again, a Big Thanks to Hagar!
Gravel
We had about two inches of rain over night. A fellow I contacted about freshening up the gravel on our driveway called. He had the day off due to weather.
He delivered the gravel.
Mrs ERJ, Sprite and I changed out the brush-hog for the back-blade and I got to practice shaving mounds of gravel into level ground.
This is a tough week for Sprite. The Captain died a year ago, this week.
After playing with the tractor, I drove it back and Sprite and I changed it back to the brush-hog and I showed her some of the finer points of lubricating the beast.
Breakfast
I had breakfast with a small business owner this morning.
He believes there will be social unrest regardless of who wins the election.
He surprised me. He asked, "How can we be sure Trump's party is better than the other party?"
Some of his family members had been hammering on him. It made him wonder.
After a bit of thought I suggested "You shall know a tree by its fruit."
"Which party advocates post-birth abortions, encourages 'coveting', protects arsonists, vaporized the concept of marriage and turned the worship of Mother Earth into the State religion?"
He thanked me for the reality check.
Guilt by association
Guilt by association is the concept that all parties to the felony are culpable for committing that felony.
Suppose a cancer patient died and some thuggish types know that there are some industrial grade drugs in the house. Suppose two thugs break into the house and one "friend" keeps a look-out.
Further, suppose the wife of the deceased cancer patient shoots and kills one of the home intruders.
Under the tenants of "Guilt by Association", the two surviving felons are liable to be tried for First Degree Murder.
The debacle of Antifa and BLM riots are skating the edge of that scenario. People are getting shot, mowed down by cars, stabbed with knives and brained with rocks and incinerated by Molotov coctails.
The vast majority of the "demonstrators" are semi-passively running interference for the active attackers. You know, like that "friend" who is keeping a look-out.
Laws were created to address problems in practical ways. As problems evolve, the laws must evolve. At some point there is going to be a stark choice that must be made: Are the two phalanxes of demonstrators in front of, and shielding the people throwing Molotov cocktails equally culpable?
If they are, then mowing down the ranks of "demonstrators" shielding the arsonists is morally no different than if every bullet hit the actual throwers of the incendiaries.
It is my personal opinion that the two phalanxes are not culpable before the first Molotov cocktail or brick is launched. And then they have two seconds afterward to process the information ("Hey, what was THAT!")and decide: "Do I want to be a co-conspirator or do I want to get-out-of-Dodge?" If they decide to stick around then they are legitimate targets.
Chicken bones
Belladonna watched me weighing the chicken bones from the chicken thighs I canned last night. "I hope you know how weird you are" she said.
"Doesn't matter as long as your mother loves me" I replied.
"What are you doing?" she asked, in spite of yourself.
"I am calculating how much of the chicken thighs, by weight, was not edible" I replied.
For those who care, the thigh-bones in that batch of chicken was 8% by weight. That is, 23 ounces of bone and 18 pounds of meat/skin. That means that the effective price for the edible portion was about 97 cents a pound.
Depression
I take an antidepressant. I usually start around October first. My depression is similar to, but not classic "Seasonal Affective Disorder". Rather, it seems to be related to the days getting shorter. Once January rolls around, everything is just jolly.
Last year with Dad's rapidly declining cognitive ability and health I started taking the antidepressant in September.
This year I started on Saturday. Posting will be short for the next week or two. Everything is fine. I am just taking lots of naps.
I am curious what anti-depressant have you used or found helpful for SAD? Asking for a friend.
ReplyDeleteHere in Phoenix, the SAD season is from about mid-May to mid or late September. The heat is so brutal that I find myself unable to be outside much at all. It really does get very depressing. We had an unusually hot summer, even for here, with 45 or 50 days in a row with the temperature in excess of 111 degrees Fahrenheit.
I take escitalopram. The "starter" dose is still working for me.
DeleteEscitalopram is an SSRI. Both paroxetine and escitalopram seem to be faster acting than the older SSRIs which often took two-or-three weeks to have therapeutic effect.
There are side-effects: sleepiness, loss of libido, changes in appetite. Those side-effects can be minimized by taking weekend 'vacations' from the medicine...at least I have been able to.
I start with a half-dose for a week, then bump up to a full dose. I discontinue the same way.
Hope this helps.
I feed our dogs home-made food, a diet of chicken, rice and mixws vegetables. I can get a 10 lb bag of quarters with spines/tails attached, or I can get thighs. I boil the meat and then strip it off the bones, put bones and skin back in and boil the broth down.
ReplyDeleteA 5-6 lb package of thighs will yield near about as much meat as the 10 lb bag of quarters.
The big rip off in the meat markets, esp with chicken, is the brine they add to the meat product to bring the weight up, combined with the gel sorbent pad they lay on the bottom of the styrofoam tray. Now, that sucker holds a lot of unrecoverable chicken juice. And if you bother to check, you'll find that sodden pad makes up nearly a pound of what you just paid for.
Meant to add, because of all the small bones, quarters are labor intensive to strip out. Thighs are very fast and easy.
DeleteIf I come back as a dog after I die, can I live at your house?
DeleteI must have missed the news about the book somehow. You're going to sell another copy in 3, 2, 1...
ReplyDelete"I hope you know how weird you are"...
ReplyDeleteMan, that made me laugh out loud; like how many times have I heard that from the kiddos?
On the home made dog food- a huntin buddy's father who grew up on a potato farm in the thumb of Michigan told me that they fed a scoop of rice, beans and corn mixed with their leftovers from dinner. He said that included all the bones.
Woke up this morning to 2-3inches of snow. I complained about over hundred degrees labor day week end. Pretty sure that broke all the records for daily heat and then measurable snow. Pueblo West Co. Can't imagine what it did to the vegetable farms and marijuana/hemp fields. Nobody predicted record early snow.
ReplyDeletepost-birth abortions???
ReplyDeleteSay what?? References??
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=virginia+post-birth+abortions
Deletehttps://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-to-vote-on-born-alive-bill-to-protect-infants-who-survive-a-failed-abortion
From the first two casts into the information superhighway. I can dig up more if you want.