Food, the Lake, the Affadavit

Greetings Earthlings!  I hope you are well in your various climates.  It's still hot, it's predicted that Saturday and Sunday will be in the 70's, but by Wednesday it's back up to 99.  This is getting old.  Yesterday we ventured out into the afternoon sun to take the hedge trimmer to the big hibiscus.  That thing grew at least two feet taller from where we cut it back to last summer.  Anyway, we decided that if we took the hedge trimmer to it now, we'd remove a bunch of flowers and buds, so we would not have to pick them up later.  

This is my issue with this tree.  If it wasn't such good camouflage of the exhaust pipe for the gas fireplace in the living room, it would be gone by now.  However, it's serving a purpose so I have not taken a chain saw to it.  Yesterday's key learning was don't let it get that tall, even on an eight foot ladder with my arm fully extended holding the hedge trimmer, I could not reach all of it.  The pole pruner had to be used, which is very tedious.  Anyway, it was hot, brutally hot.  All clothing went into the wash immediately.

We're seeing these signs in the parking strips all over Spokane.  It's hard to read, but the hiring agencies are the Airforce and Space Force.  They're hiring!  Yes, sign me up for a job there, too bad I can't leave for four years.  I find this to be fascinating.

We were at Safeway yesterday, they have jack fruit in the produce department.   They're incredibly dense, at $2 a pound, they're not inexpensive.  The one on the right felt like about 4 or 5 pounds.  Once you buy the thing, you still have to cut it up.  I have linked to a tutorial on the subject for those who are interested in this.

I am an indifferent cook.  We grill a lot and bake or nuke vegetables.  That's about it.  However, even I have not sunk to the level of buying frozen cooked rice, for $5.29.  I have a rice cooker!  I can push the button!

Today was another ride to the lake.  September 6 the Nine Mile Lake recreation area closes for improvements to begin.  At this point we don't know where the trail to it will be closed.  

It's definitely fallish, the air is different as well as the light.  Soon it will be winter, and we will bring up all of our warm jackets from down stairs, and take the summer stuff away. The lake was flat, there was no wind.  Right after I took this a goose swam through and disturbed the water, so timing was good.

The HOA has been having conversations about fire safety with the Department of Natural Resources, mainly discussions about mitigating the possibility of crown fires in trees below the neighborhood.  The people across the street from us are at risk, because there are many dehydrated trees down there, and the kids from the group home enjoy setting fires in the woods. So the HOA president wants to apply for grants to pay for thinning and floor cleaning in the coming year.  Anyway, Jim asked the forester if they would be building piles of debris like the one shown below.  The answer was a resounding no.  He does not understand why they do this out in Riverside Park because the piles become beetle habitats.  Beetles are bad.  So that was interesting, that there are two completely divergent views on what to do with debris.

The heavily redacted affidavit detailing the reasons for serving a search warrant on Mar-A-Lardo has been released.  The talking heads on Fox are just spewing lies about what the Presidential Records Act says, and that the documents belong to the orange ectoplasm, and Mick Mulvaney is out being stupid in public saying "it looks like it was just about documents" and it's just unbelievable how stupid they are.  This could have been the moment that the Republicans decided to cut their losses and abandon the orange guy, but no, they're going down with the ship.  I don't know who made this ad, it's 2 minutes and 20 seconds and well worth viewing.  The play button won't work, you will have to click here to make it play.

Scott MacFarlane, a CBS reporter tweeted this today, which pretty much sums up what the DOJ has said in the affidavit.

I just hope that AG Garland has the intestinal fortitude to prosecute the dumpster fire for treason.

And finally, there is this.  This amuses me greatly.

That's it!  That's all I've got.

Update a little while later.  Jim just got this on his phone.  It's not our fire district, but I guess we need a fire plan for the future.  We're in fire district 9.