All posts by James DeVol

September 15th

Well…feeling a little slow this morning and I guess I earned it….but, I did sleep better last night so maybe that’s a good trade off….it was an okay day yesterday and I did get the bathroom cleaned so that was better than nothing…and I am going to clean the car today after I get more coffee in me….okay…need to go out and see if I can find…nope…the Cassini death is on now…..so I’m going to watch that…be back later for more…

Well…that was poignant moment when the signal from Cassini ended….will do another one on that later today….but, right now I need more coffee and to get going and wash the car…sure hope it starts…more later…

Trail coolness…

Well…with the fog this morning, I hustled to get out on the bike early to be out in it since it just looks cool….but there is one really cool thing about fog….it makes invisible things visible…normally, you never see the spider webs that are in the weeds along the trail but this morning, the droplets in the fog made the hundreds of them visible…and some of them were really cool…just the perfect designs that I marvel at….one thing that happened made me laugh out loud with it’s absurdity….when I was heading across the bridge that leads into the woods, I noticed a couple of deer at full speed off to my left that were going to cross in front of me…the first one made it, flying in one leap across the trail and into the woods…but the second one saw me just as it was getting to the trail and put on the brakes…or tried to put on the brakes…it looked just like a cartoon with the deer backpedaling furiously but with it’s momentum carrying it across the trail until it hit the other side and then took off running…and the only thing that went through my head as I laughed was the deer thinking “I meant to do that”….just too cool….

Cassini dies tomorrow

Well…just wanted to do a short one on the end of an era for exploration of the Saturn system and for us as humans….tomorrow morning, the Cassini probe will dive into the clouds of Saturn on it’s last act in a decade long run of exploration and discovery….before Cassini, we really didn’t know anything about Saturn other than from the few fleeting pictures take by the flyby Explorer and Voyager probes…but Cassini opened our eyes to the wonder of this mini solar system…the complexity of the rings, the 62 moons and the possibility of life were all discovered by this wonderful piece of human imagination….and I will be a little sad that it is gone…one of the highlights of the past decade for me was the surprise of new findings and new jaw-dropping photos that were regularly delivered to our computers…one of my favorite photos was done by accident…when Cassini was taking a photo from under the rings and, by accident, a pale blue dot showed up and one of the scientists on the project recognized that it had captured the earth from a billion miles away….and the vastness of space was brought home to me….so, goodbye Cassini…..and thanks to the hundreds of scientists that worked for so long to make the mission a success….

September 14th

Well….running on time this morning but I should be early with getting up at 5:30 and not sleeping at all last night…and the car barely started again this morning so I think the battery might be going bad….might take the car out for a run today to try to charge it up….the battery is only 2 years old so it should be under warranty but I think I’ll try to find the receipt to make sure…I can afford a new one after wed so I guess I’ll get the jumper box charged up and put it in the car just in case it goes dead until then….the damn chain on the bike started to skip again yesterday so it look like a new bike is in order soon….was hoping to get a few months extra on this one…lubed the chain again to see if that helps but I’m not holding out a lot of hope….not much to do today….need to clean some and the car needs to be cleaned before making the run out to M’s on sat…more later…

Boycott Motel 6

Well…just read a little article that reported that Motel 6 is working with the ICE gestapo to help them deport undocumented workers in Arizona. Yep, every morning, the managers at Motel 6 e-mail ICE the list of the people who are staying at their cheezy little motels and then ICE shows up to interrogate and arrest anyone with a hispanic sounding name….now, this is all being done without any warrants or any oversight by any government agency…it’s just the gestapo of ICE breaking the law with the help of this corporation. We need to call for and boycott all Motel 6′s in this country until they stop this illegal action…after all, would you want the government to know where you are staying when you travel? Boycott…

Tax cuts will fix hurricane damage?

Well…are you really surprised the the idiot trump came out today with tweets saying that the damage done by Harvey and Irma can only be fixed by big tax cuts for the rich and corporations? It is the repub mantra that we have heard over and over for the past 30 years that whatever problem happens, tax cuts will fix them…unemployment high? Tax cuts will fix it. Huge deficits? Tax cuts will fix it. People starving? Tax cuts will fix it. Now, I wonder what the economic mechanism is that will convert tax cuts for the rich into replacing the homes destroyed by the hurricanes? Is is magic? Are the rich going to swoop in and repair homes out of the goodness of their hearts? Are corporations going to turn the tax cuts into fixing the destroyed infrastructure in Texas and Florida? If you believe that, you’ve drunk the repub kool aid and facts don’t mean anything to you anymore….let’s put it bluntly, tax cuts don’t do anything but enrich the rich…and make ceo’s even richer…they do nothing for anyone else…geez….

September 13th

Well…running a little early this morning and there is no reason for it…I think I just wanted to get to the coffee….it’s a fresh pot this morning and that is always a good thing…had a good day yesterday and got a few things done and today looks the same…slept okay last night but not as well as I have lately but I guess that is the normal pattern now….have been good for 10 days now and I am almost over the boredom from it…feel okay and I have been losing weight so I guess that’s a good thing….I just figured out that I have enough food to get to next wed so that takes a load off….I am getting tired of pasta and chicken so I need to change that up when the cash comes in….I’d like a home made pizza so I think I’ll get that on the list….not much to do today….just the normal stuff and cleaning…..more later….

I’m at peace….

Well…a strange thing happened when I got on the bike this morning…it washed over me that I am finally at peace for the first time in my life…there were no thoughts of looking for work or being broke….or anything else…was just in the moment, feeling what it feels like to be on the bike and seeing everything on the trail…enjoying the music and just feeling right for a change….not sure if it will continue but I sure hope it does….

September 12th

Well….running on time this morning even thought the site was down when I got here…but, my son fixed it so that is cool….even went out to get some groceries so I can get to next wed…but that leaves me with 5 bucks for the next 8 days but I am used to that so it shouldn’t be too hard….I am a little relieved that the only problem with the battery in the car is that I’m not driving it…let it run for a half hour yesterday and it started up okay this morning…I did try to re paint the wiper arms yesterday but the damn can broke and squirted paint all over my hands…so I had to paint them in gloss black since I had sanded them and I didn’t want them to rust…will have to paint them again when I get cash coming in….I did get some cleaning done yesterday and I’ll continue that today after the workout and bike ride…the bike is still working great and that makes the bike ride fun again….going to take a long one today and grin a little….more later….

Russian “anchor babies”

Well….if you listened to any idiot repub during the last election, you heard on of the false themes that they harped and harped on that Mexicans were coming here to have their children so they would have US citizenship and then could bring their families here after they turned 18…never mind that “Anchor babies” was never a thing…that the Mexican babies being born here were because their parents were here doing the hard jobs that Americans won’t do and it was just projection that they thought they were breaking the law….but now, guess who’s properties are being used for just that by the Russians? Yep, there are 5 trump properties in Florida that are being advertised in Russia for just that purpose…for “birth tours” where wealthy Russians pay upwards to 75K a month to come here and stay until their babies are born, resulting in the possibility of the children having dual citizenship…and then setting their parents up for getting preferential treatment when they apply to come here to live. What about it repubs? What about these “anchor babies”? Is it not a problem anymore because these babies are not “brown”? I don’t have any hope that any repub will do anything about this…but people need to know how corrupt trump and his cronies are…impeach….