Why, Yes, Yes It Was...

...a perfect summer day.

And then...

It rained.  It's Thursday night and it's been raining since Monday afternoon.  Granted, I've worked on family geneology stuff and actually may have created ammunition in the last few days.  But really.  Enough with the rain.

And I carried a passenger home from last Friday's hike.  Didn't find it until Saturday night and I thought I got the head out.  But now the side of my head I pulled the tick out of is tender and swollen clean down to my shoulder.  I can feel a lymph node in my neck.

I hate ticks.  I've been treated for Lyme disease twice and Rocky Mountain spotted fever once already.  I really hate ticks.

But I'm glad we have a good walk-in medical clinic in town.  Because that may be my next stop after my oil change on Monday.

I. Hate. Ticks.

Is It Possible...

...to be dead of exhaustion and just not fall over?

I've kinda been asking myself that question now and again.  For years I said that work was getting in the way of my real life, and I didn't understand people who worked into their 70s because they didn't know what they'd do when they retired.

Yeesh.  There aren't enough hours in the day for all the things I want to do.  Then add the things I NEED to do and you have one tired puppy some days.  But smiling.  All those years stuck on a computer in an office job left me feeling like Scooter does about being inside.

Now, as Spring rolls into Summer, I can sit on the porch pretty much any ol' time I want. 

The lawn still needs mowed. Frequently.  And the house needs work.  There are things that seemed like a good idea at the time but need maintenance work that has been put off because STUPID JOB!...  Like retreating the decks.  That would be the double decks in back and porch in front.  It's been so long that I'm having to strip a lot of gunk off with the power washer, then I'm going to have to do some sanding.

Completed portion on right.  I thought it would take me a week.  Maybe it would if I didn't stop for other things.  I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do about the algae covered sections hanging out over the 2 stories of sloped weeds and rocks known as my back yard.   I suppose it will involve borrowed extension ladders and bungee cords.  And maybe a neighbor to hold the ladder.

But other, more important things keep getting in the way.  Like today, when Bruce and ML rescued me from power washing.  I mean, it was going to rain this afternoon anyway, so it really wasn't worth pulling the washer out, was it?

At least I've found that, if not the best, I'm not the world's worst M1 carbine shooter.  It would help a lot if the sights wouldn't keep drifting to the right.  Which is pretty amazing, considering how much oomph it took me to knock them back the last time it happened.  Tells you a bit about the energy going into recoil. 

And Thank You Dick's For Tremendous Sales! - I finally got a kayak.  All these years living near two rivers and I didn't have a boat.  I've been watching - I needed one that not only handled well on the river but that I also could also get up on the SUV on my own.  The Pelican 100 Trailblazer fit the bill perfectly.

Oh, what I was missing.  The first hour out paddling upstream from Shepherdstown on the Potomac I saw such a variety of wildlife - so much more than I had ever seen from the C & O Canal Towpath that runs right along it.  An eagle, wood ducks - both male and females with ducklings - cormorants fishing.  None of these are my photos - valuable things like my cell phone stay safely in a dry sack in the storage compartment - but you get the idea.

 

 

And then there's hiking.  Friday I headed out to investigate a place I've passed many times on my way south - Sky Meadows State Park.  Turns out it's an absolute gem.

Numerous well marked, well kept trails, connecting in such a way as to allow for building of hikes of a variety of lengths. 

I connected the dots for a 7 mile walk.  The first thing I learned is that the park has a huge population of my favorite woodpecker, the red-headed. Gorgeous birds.

The park's name is appropriate, whether you stay at the low elevations or climb to the ridge and connect with the Appalachian Trail. 

Spring wildflowers like trillium are done, but early summer ones are booming.

And there was dancing.  Of the kind caused by glimpsing movement out of the corner of the eye.  A sudden movement on the right side of foot, quick shuffle left as tail is seen slipping under rock.  Movement on the left and a quick step forward and to the right - the snakey shuffle.

Patterned, living along a stream, reasonably sure they weren't copperheads - thinking northern water snake.  Non-venomous, but startling when you suddenly have three of them, two not so small, moving near your feet. 

And then, whaddaya know, a week's gone.  A far better sort of week than I would have had this time last year.

Thumpada Thumpada

Somewhere around 4 am:  Thumpada thumpada thumpada cat feet pounding through the house.  Thumpada thumpada thumpada down the hallway, into bedroom, and Perry hits the bed and races across me, followed by Scooter, both sailing at wide open speed.  Over me, off the bed, back around, down the hallway and thumpada thumpada thumpada down the stairs.  Thumpada thumpada thumpada back up the stairs, down the hall, and pounding across me again.  Repeated a couple more times, then a launch from my bed to the dresser and there goes the vase full of lilacs and water.  All over antique dresser.  Sigh.

It's a good thing I love you wretches.

The Good, the Bad, and the OMG!!!

It's been a busy week or so here at the Caer.  Spring has sprung and I have been trying to keep ahead of it, mulching and mowing and trimming and mowing and weeding and mowing.  Then mowing again.  But I love this season.  And yes I even love that it's heading for at least 85 degrees today.  Love it love it love it.

My lilac bushes each only produced a couple blooms last year.  This year I warned them that paltry showings would result in replacement with something more productive.  Must have scared them:  both are loaded with lovely fragrant blooms.

The bee balm, both red and purple, is growing rapidly and should be full of bouncy red heads in a couple weeks:

The red honeysuckle and yellow yarrow are full of buds just ready to pop and will be attracting butterflies and hummingbirds any day now:

The bleeding hearts have been blooming for a couple weeks and are nearly done.  The clematis behind it started a couple days ago.

And the peonies are almost here.  Last year the blasted cankerworms ate even the blooms, but spraying knocked the buggers back pretty good.  I've still got them munching in a couple areas, but it's way better this year than last.  Come on pretty babies, almost there!

A few of the irises are even willing to throw up a few buds this year - it sometimes takes a couple years for those to come back from being replanted.  They weren't happy with me digging out the beds last year.

Been doing so much yard work that I wore my britches out.

The flower beds are where some of the bad came in.  When I pulled a dead plant out of one of the beds I discovered that the mulch was full of termites, just loaded with them.  That would be the flower bed attached to my wooden porch.  Which is then attached to a wood frame house.  Knee bone, leg bone, hip bone, oh crud I know that song about connections.  Quick trip to Home Depot and afternoon spent inserting commercial termite stakes into bed.  They did nothing.  Bed still full of termites.  Call to exterminator.  Well is too close to house to use the gel spot treatment.  $550 for the second option.  Between cat bills and surprises like that I never am going to get enough saved to actually put flooring down.

Oh, did I mention that the same day I found the termites I plugged in the pressure washer and it died with a BANG!?  Yeah, I really need to do the decking this year, as you can see from the pic below.  Washed on right, unwashed on left.  New pressure washer in back of SUV.  To be assembled this evening.

So it was time to get away.  Last Sunday was spent on the Western Maryland Rail Trail, and a glorious day it was.

It was so beautiful that I just kept going and going.   30 miles was perhaps a bit much for the first ride of the season - I lost contact with my left foot the last couple miles and I think my butt is broken - but it was worth every mile.

Then I found back roads to get me down to Sharpsburg, MD, thinking I'd have a Nutter's ice cream cone.  But the line was out the door and down the street.  Never mind.

So I plunked myself down over at Captain Bender's and had meself some beer and dinner.

That's a Blue Moon IPA.  Didn't know they made such a thing.  Blue Moon is a bit light for me, but the IPA is definitely acceptable.

Monday back to working on the place, and the pest control guy came to set up the termite killing/prevention system.

Here's were the OMG!! comes in.

Jason, who has been my regular for at least a year and is a fairly young fellow, knocks on the door.  I open it and he's leaning on the door jam.

Him:  "I'm having a problem.  Not with the installation.  With me."
Me:  "Why don't you come in out of the heat and I'll get you some ice water."

He comes in, moving slowly, looking a bit vague.

Him:  "I've started having this heart problem and it's really acting up.  I feel really bad."
Me, stopping on bottom step: "Your heart?  Bad as in need to go to the emergency room bad?"
Him, leaning on the base of the railing: "Um, yeah.  If you don't mind..."

So I shoved him into the SUV and galloped for town, stopping when I saw the ambulance was in its bay at the fire station and yelling for an EMT.  They loaded him up and took off and I came back, said some prayers, called his office to let them know what was going on and locked up his truck.

Yeah, that was exciting.  But the good news is that he was released a few hours later.  The bad news for him is that he has to see a cardiologist.  He will get nagged next time he comes to do a treatment.

And here's where I mention that when I got home it was hot enough inside that I closed up the house and turned on the AC for the first time.  Anybody want to guess what the next phone call was for?

It's been a bit of a mixed bag...



Note:  Pics of beebalm, yarrow, and red honeysuckle stolen from web because mine aren't blooming yet.

Imma Gonna Riot

I live a bit west of Baltimore - about 75 miles.  There's a mountain ridge between the Socialist State of MD and I.  That's deliberate, both because I prefer to live in mountains and because the US hasn't learned anything and cities like D.C. (also close) and Baltimore are very vulnerable to major terrorist attack.  Also because I got tired of the bubble of liberal stupid that those areas are encased in and I had to leave or lose what little mind I had left.

But I still visit.  Baltimore has enough to offer to make day trips worth while.  Like the annual Kinetic Sculpture Race, scheduled for this coming Saturday.  Said race is always followed by my spending money in the city.  A lot of people spending money in the city.

No Race on Saturday, though, because the city has been afflicted with Stupid.

So dangerous that the Baltimore Orioles played to an empty stadium - the game was closed to the public.  They won (they'll undo that by the end of the season), but a whole lot of income was lost.  The vendors there don't live on wins, they live on filled seats.

I did gain a new hero, at least.

You go, momma!  And why weren't there a whole bunch of other parents out there doing the same thing?

After the idiocy of St. Swisher, I gotta tell you that I am disinclined to believe that there was wrong-doing on the part of the police officers involved.  If there was, then appropriate measures should be taken.  But you know what?  It helps you to avoid injury by police if you aren't prone to committing crimes. Really.  Give it a try.

Nearly 100 police officers injured because initially they were ordered not to put on riot gear.  Millions of dollars in damage.  The mayor of Baltimore, Rawlings-Blake?  "Let them loot, it's just property."  Dear Ms. Rawlings-Blake:  Let's move them all to your front yard and turn them loose on YOUR property and see how you feel.  Like your car?  Aw, too bad.  It's in flames.  But, after all, it's just property.

Yeah, yeah.  I get it.  The US is a racist country.  So racist that a black president has been elected twice.  So racist that we've had a black Secretary of State, a black National Security Adviser.  So racist that states have or have had black governors and major cities have or have had black mayors.  Rawlings-Blake being one of those black mayors.  So racist that we have dumped trillions of tax dollars into the black community in the last 50 years only to see conditions worsen as we fed an entitlement mentality that destroyed black families in a way that would make slavers proud and Martin Luther King weep.

OK, I'll give you that last one.  The Great Society was and still is racist.  Dear whites who support it: you may have missed the memo but treating a whole group of people as if they are incapable of doing anything without government help is VERY racist.  Dear blacks who support it: here's a link to the definition of "useful idiot."

Bet most people don't know, though, that while rioters concentrated downtown were demanding justice for their latest criminal martyr, some of their fellow travelers were also busy in the Baltimore suburb of Dundalk.    Richard Fletcher, 61, is recovering from the beating he received from a group of teens and adults.  You can read the story here.

Let's see, black criminals get riots, groveling, positive or flamingly stupid media coverage (See Cuomo and Salon. But IDIOT ALERT) and the promise of more money being thrown down the bottomless hole of the race-baiting industry.  White non-criminals get medical bills and largely ignored by the major media.

Obviously, I've been doing things wrong.  SOMEBODY (that would be you, dear taxpayer) needs to start buying me STUFF.  Or maybe I should just go over to the local Walmart, break some things up, set a couple fires, and walk out with a new TV.  After all, I was born into a poor family - I deserve it.  So imma gonna riot.  Seems to work for a bunch of people these days.

CCC 2259 - 2265

CCC meaning the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  And 2259 through 2265 read as follows:

I. RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE
 
The witness of sacred history
 
2259 In the account of Abel's murder by his brother Cain^, Scripture reveals the presence of anger and envy in man, consequences of original sin, from the beginning of human history. Man has become the enemy of his fellow man. God declares the wickedness of this fratricide: "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand."

2260 The covenant between God and mankind is interwoven with reminders of God's gift of human life and man's murderous violence:

For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning. . . . Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.

The Old Testament always considered blood a sacred sign of life. This teaching remains necessary for all time. 

2261 Scripture specifies the prohibition contained in the fifth commandment: "Do not slay the innocent and the righteous." The deliberate murder of an innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the golden rule, and to the holiness of the Creator. The law forbidding it is universally valid: it obliges each and everyone, always and everywhere. 

2262 In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord recalls the commandment, "You shall not kill," and adds to it the proscription of anger, hatred, and vengeance. Going further, Christ asks his disciples to turn the other cheek, to love their enemies. He did not defend himself and told Peter to leave his sword in its sheath.

Legitimate defense
 
2263 The legitimate defense of persons and societies is not an exception to the prohibition against the murder of the innocent that constitutes intentional killing. "The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one's own life; and the killing of the aggressor. . . . The one is intended, the other is not."

2264 Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one's own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow:

If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he repels force with moderation, his defense will be lawful. . . . Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one's own life than of another's.

2265 Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility. 

My life is a gift from God, and therefore I have a responsibility to protect it.  Other's lives are also a gift from God, and so  I also have a responsibility to protect them if I am able.

Therefore I carry a 9 mm Glock.  And I hope I never have to use it except in target practice.


Father Edward Fride, the pastor of Christ the King parish in Ann Arbor, MI, sees it the same way I do.  He has sent out a pro-gun letter to his parishioners titled "We're not in Mayberry Anymore, Toto".  He has also sponsored concealed carry classes at the church.  His reasoning is just what his letter said - we ain't in Mayberry anymore, and recent local events have demonstrated that unless people realize that and take action a tragedy is going to occur.  Two active shooters got very close to the local Catholic high school before they were taken down by LE.  He doesn't feel that anybody needs to be lambs going to slaughter when the bad guys attack.

Unfortunately, his bishop, Earl Boyea, does not agree.

Guns and gun lessons do not belong in a Catholic church, Lansing Catholic Bishop Earl Boyea stressed in a statement after they learned about Fride's letter from the Free Press.

Boyea "has never given permission for anyone to carry a concealed weapon in a church or school in the Diocese of Lansing."

"... Concealed Pistol License classes are inappropriate activities to be held on Church property" ...

 ...the Lansing diocese's ban on weapons on church makes them "gun-free zones" and extends to those who want to practice "open carry" of weapons in full view. He added that public or professional security "provide for public safety on church property."

Unfortunately, the bishop's comparison to Jesus and His response to aggression does not take into account that Jesus had a specific mission that explicitly forbade Him from fighting back.  We do, indeed, share in Jesus' salvic mission.  But we have other duties as well that are specific to our time on earth.  And one of those duties is to protect the gift of life that is given from God.

Not to mention that the bishop's reference to professionals makes me sigh.  Unless you are living with someone attached to your hip 24/7, no matter how capable they are, they can't be everywhere at every time.

Father Fride needs to submit.  He has sworn obedience to his bishop, who has the authority to forbid him from using parish facilities for whatever said bishop chooses.  As far as I know, however, nothing precludes him from sponsoring shooting activities off of parish property on his days off.

I just wish bishops were this quick in their oversight of parish facilities being used for things that are truly against Catholic teaching.

Read the full story here.

Hat tip Murphy's Law