Air, Fire, and Stupid

This was four days ago, the air quality was better, so we rode.  The millfoil continues on its path to world domination.  If the park service does not get control, soon, the lake is going to be impenetrable.  Seattle has boats with paddle wheels that remove it.  Eradication is virtually impossible, every fragment of the plant that hits the lake bottom will root and grow.

This is what we saw on our phones this morning.  The use of the phrase “a particularly dangerous situation” in a red-flag warning is a first.  Jim and I are wondering if we should load up the car with the important stuff.   This is the wildfire map.  Currently it's not showing anything burning in the immediate vicinity, so one wonders what one should be doing.  If you have access to NYT, this is what they had to say on the subject.

Jeanine Pirro has been forced to drop the prosecution of David Hearn.  Apparently her expert has said the damage to the reflecting pond was due to a botched installation and not vandalism.  I hope Mr. Hearn sues for mental anguish and the waste of his time.  Another stunning win for the Department of Justice.  

The confirmation of Todd Blanche for AG is not going well, either.  47 currently has pulled it, and plans to wait until after the mid-terms when all of the troublesome republicans are gone.  There is a time limit on how long someone can be "acting", and we may be rolling up on that.  Blanch is second only to 47 in corruption.

In the WAPO today there is an article about this:  "Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the head of U.S. European Command, sent written notification to senior Pentagon officials saying that without another Navy destroyer he will be forced to choose defense of the United States “homeland” over that of Israel, said the officials, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the correspondence."  A large percentage of US Arleigh Burke destroyers are parked near Israel to provide missile defense.  Even worse, the follow on build of DDGX ships to replace the aging Arleigh Burkes is at risk.  Why, you wonder, it's because 47 wants to build battleships.  Battleships!  Also known as drone targets.  Apparently he's been watching Victory at Sea again.   47 has given no-bid contracts to Finland for 11 ice-breakers.  Never mind that we have no infrastructure to home port these vessels, or Coast Guard crews to staff them.  47 wants to dominate the Arctic.  

We're still at war with Iran.  Apparently there will be some shock and awe bombing of energy infrastructure this weekend.  47 wants to leave Tehran in the dark.  This is a war crime.  

Israel continues to attack Lebanon.  Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz had this to say: "Twenty-four Lebanese villages, hundreds of years old—we destroyed all the buildings, not house by house, but entire villages. Their destruction has been completed. You need to understand: 15,000 to 20,000 homes across all 24 villages have been destroyed."  He must be so proud.  Israel has truly lost the moral high ground, and they are taking the US down with them.

So, that's my happy talk for today.  Carry on and keep calm.

 

Riding and Wingnuts

Yesterday afternoon the ridge of high pressure that had been constraining the smoke and heat under an inversion finally broke down.  High winds entered the area, and things were better.  The smoke was not gone, yet.  This is last night.  Still orange.

This is a terrible cell phone picture of the moon, which, as you can see, is also orange.

This morning, a miracle occurred and the AQI was in the low 20s.  Finally we were able to ride outside.  There is a bridge replacement project on the route we normally drive to the trail head.  So now we have to park in a different place, start the ride in the middle, and ride big hills right off the bat.  

There are two camp hosts at the lake.  Both of them were off work today, a weekend day in the summer.  There were many people at the ramp, it was early enough that no one was drunk or obnoxious about the wait.  These people are in line.

The millfoil is amazing this year.  It's never been this big or this bright yellow.

47 made a complete ass of himself at the White House Correspondents dinner.  The media people should have stood up as one, and departed.  Instead, they sat quietly while he was rude and obnoxious, particularly to Kaitlin Collins.  He's still at it today.

I often speak of wing nut politicians in Arizona, one of which would be Mark Lamb.  He won the primary for the 5th district in congress.  He's a wing nut.  From a Salon article we learn the following.

The story journalists told about Mark Lamb’s victory Tuesday night was one of victory over scandal. Lamb, who ran with the slogan “God, Family, Freedom,” won the Republican primary for Arizona’s deep-red 5^th District despite reports that for years he had engaged in sexual behavior at odds with his traditional-values image. Lamb, an Arizona Republic investigation found, had sexted women other than his wife and threatened one with consequences if she didn’t keep quiet. The paper also uncovered racist texts. (Lamb’s campaign denies the allegations.) Despite the reports, President Donald Trump endorsed Lamb—and reiterated his support after the scandal came to light—and Lamb won easily. It was another data point for the power of Trump’s endorsement, and a significant one: Due to his district’s makeup, Lamb is heavily favored to win the general election in November.

But beyond the scandal, there’s another story to be told about Mark Lamb, one that’s arguably more concerning: Lamb has ties to the fringe right-wing “constitutional sheriff” movement. This movement argues that sheriffs have the ultimate authority in their county, per the Constitution, to decide which state or federal laws are lawful and therefore which should be enforced. Legal experts consider this to be bogus. Lamb, apparently, does not.

This constitutional sheriff thing is just bad. 

Other than this, I have not too many things to say.

Smoke and the Eye is Better

Ho Hum.  How are you doing in the time of forest fires?  We are bored spitless.  The AQI has been such that neither one of us wants to go out and inhale.  Plus it's hot.  When we get up, the first thing we do is make the air conditioning colder.  

Yesterday we drove out to Spokane Valley to Squeaky's car wash.  It's touchless and they spray a wax on it that is actually effective.  Back in the day, Jim would wash the car, clay the car to pick up any missed dust, and then wax the car.  It was pretty much all day, especially when we had mini-vans.  This is better.

Here is some local fauna.  This is a young turkey.

A California quail sitting on top of an evergreen that was pruned into a point by the previous owners.  He's keeping an eye on mom and the kids.  They are the state bird of California.
 

Jim is healing quickly.  After uncovering the incision I counted stitches, there 13.  They're really close together, and very neatly done.  I am now a believer in having a plastic surgeon do the Mohs if one is available.

The incision in all its glory.  We were very surprised at the size of it.  This was taken July 19.

This is from today, July 23.  Much progress has been made.  The green area has been reabsorbed, and the black eye is well on its way out.  The sutures dissolve, and appear to be starting that process.  If you look slightly above his right eye, that is a previous Mohs scar.

Here is sunset two days ago.

Other than this, I have nothing further to say.  The country continues on its way to hell in a hand basket basket because the spineless republican reptiles continue to let him run amok.  It's interesting that when a Democrat is president, they position themselves as blocking everything.  But now, with a man deep in dementia, anything he wants is just fine.

Smoke and Mohs

Greetings Smoke Eaters.  We woke up very early today, the atmosphere was poisonous.  It's not as bad as the east coast, but it's bad enough.  It's making my eyes and my throat hurt.  It appears that there will be no, none, not any riding of a bike outside until the wind changes direction.

This was last night, pretty clouds.

So, Jim had a 7:40 surgery check-in this morning.  One of his benign skin cancers had morphed into a squamous.  Worse, it's very close to the corner of his eye.  We elected not to use the practice who had the thing biopsied for its removal.  We have seen the kind of scars their Mohs surgeons leave, so we found a Mohs/Plastic Surgeon and had her do it.  Only one layer of flesh had to be removed which was good.  It's a 40 minute drive, so we were up and out early.  Look at Jim's right eye.  The accumulation of tissue juice in the eye lid is formidable.  There is probably a black eye in his future.

Apparently 47 was once again off the rails last night.  He's really pissed at how few networks covered his proof of a stolen election. He's threatening Canada for not raking their forests properly, thus causing forest fires.  He's going to call Premier Carney.  I would like to hear that call.

Other than that, I got nothing. 
 

A New Refrigerator and That Man

Greetings Earthlings!  How are you in this time of trial and tribulation?  Jim and I are fairly despondent about the state of things.  It seems to be getting worse everyday.

We got the new refrigerator last week.  The frig itself is an improvement, but boy howdy was the install flawed.  We paid for a white glove delivery.  The two meat heads that brought it did not white glove it at all.  

First, they left the packing tape on the inside of the refrigerator as well as the plastic enclosing the drawers and shelves.  When they left, they were practically running for the front door, telling us that "code" would not allow them to put their hands in the refrigerator and we would have to deal with it.  They also did not tell us that we should pull the tape before cooling it down.  Not knowing this, we left and went to Costco, leaving it to cool off.  This was not good.  The tape would not just pull off, it left layers of tape behind.

See how the color lightens at the end of the strip?  When it reached that point, we were scraping it off with our thumbnails.

These two little remnants were difficult to remove.

This is it, it's a terrible photo. 

We have so much more space in the refrigerator side.  The freezer is about a push on capacity.  The ice maker is way better, and does not spit ice on the floor.

Their second sin was they delivered it in sleep mode.  We couldn't understand why the light for the ice maker wouldn't stay on.  After several readings of the manual, we deduced that the box was sleeping.  To take it out of sleep, you push two buttons at exactly the same time, and hold it for exactly 5 seconds.  That was time consuming.

We saw this at Costco.  Potato chips cooked in Wagyu beef fat.  Who thinks this is a good idea.  Oh right, RFKJr thinks we should all be eating beef tallow, and no seed oils.

47 continues to run off the rails.  He's back to bombing Iran and closing the Strait of Hormuz.  Yesterday he announced that he's opening up Bear's Ears and the Escalante National Monument to mining.  He wants to close an additional 30 monuments for mining.  

Trump just shrunk Bears Ears by 91% and Grand Staircase-Escalante by 90%. Bears Ears was the first national monument co-managed by tribes. Five tribes spent years building that partnership. It's been walked back. 100,000+ archeological sites now exposed to mining and drilling.
Posted by Rebecca Nagle

A year ago, CDC made Cyclospora surveillance optional. It had been tracked for 28 years. Today: ~3,000 cases across 31 states, no confirmed source, and CDC’s own count (843) is trailing what states are reporting by thousands.  At present, they're thinking it's in bagged salad.  This is not good, bagged salad is a dinner staple on the way to Tucson.  That's assuming we still have gas available in October.

So, Lindsay Graham died.  Many people have had many things to say about that.  I think this is the best statement.

And then there is Mitch McConnell.  He's like Schrodinger's cat.  Is he dead or alive?  Who knows.  His proof of life photo was not convincing.  Snopes rates it as AI generated.

Other than the destruction of the democracy and the breaking of the planetary economy, there's not much to report.

The Lake and the World in General

It's hot now.  Riding must be done earlier than we like.  However, tomorrow is off the table since the new refrigerator is being delivered.  I have HAD it with the old one; the ice maker throws ice on the floor, the chute is always getting plugged up with multiple cubes stuck together which means I have to stick my arm in there and fish them out, plus the the freezer is a drawer and finding anything that sunk to the bottom is difficult.  So the new one is going to be a side by side.  Buying a frig is an information free zone, they're not on water in the store so who knows how the flow rate is for the water dispenser.  Our time slot is 8:30 to 10:30, so it will not spend the entire day sitting on a hot truck in the sun.

There has been riding.  The milfoil is now blooming.  It's that yellow streak on the water.

These people live on the water, near the park.  They pretty much have housing perfection.

This a pit toilet at the parking lot of the trail head.  This sign went up a little bit or so ago.  I'm not sure why this needed to be said.
 

So 47 was at the NATO meeting, sleeping through meetings, being belligerent, and bombing Iran.  He called the Iranian people scum, and was generally unpleasant.  When he went to Turkey, he took the new plane that was a gift from Qatar.  It was refurbed somewhat, but it's lacking in defensive capability.  The real planes have missile detection, chaff dispensers and like that.  The current AF1s also have in air refueling, the new two do not.  I think that was a grievous error in judgement.  Anyway, after hostilities started up again, a current AF1 was sent to fetch him, since he has created hostile skies with his actions.  The Qatar plane was taken to Europe so the troops could see it.  Right.

The US is wondering if Mitch McConnell is dead or alive.  If he's dead, then a special election must be called to replace him.  If he dies after August 3, then there is no special election and they wait until mid-terms.  The republicans don't want a special election because they fear Thomas Massie will run as an independent, win, and join the Senate to bedevil 47. 

This is a good tweet on that subject.  "Don't forget that the establishment kept a deceased pregnant woman alive, against her family's wishes and medical evidence, to incubate a fetus to viability like a science experiment... They would certainly keep a dead senator warm if it meant hanging on to power."
Posted by Jezz

Other than a new appliance, there is not too much happening here.  The marmots are eating our neighbors' flowers.

Belgium Beats the USA

 I do love this.  From the Washington Post:

After the game was over, the team did Trump's signature dance in the locker room while singing YMCA.

Congratulations, Belgium.  The 4-1 score was pretty dang impressive.

The Fourth

Happy 4th for those who observe.  We do not.  We did go for a walk, which was warm, but good.  We need to walk more.  Our neighborhood is largely elderly, and many of the men are losing the ability to walk well.  They take very guarded tiny steps.  Jim's mother did this towards the end, she traded in her long stride for baby steps.  My current theory is that we need to walk more to avoid that.

There are approximately 400 Proud Boys parading through D.C. today.  It's hotter that the hubs of hell and some of them are suffering from the heat.  People on the streets are yelling at them, telling them to take their stupid Confederate flags and go home.  I support this position.  Here is an interesting photo from the subway.  The photo is by Cheney Orr, who is a freelance photographer.

Those people are just disgraceful.

We went to the John Finch Arboretum Wednesday.  It's a very pleasant aspect, with the exception of I90 running along its border.  The noise was ferocious.  They have many kiosks telling you about water management in urban areas and the importance of trees. 

It's difficult to see, due to the harsh sun and shadows, but this is a very large tree that was either hit by lightning or high winds that is currently broken.  There are two outliers now that used to be upright.

There are many marmots there.  Many.  They dig holes like this and then burrow.  Marmots really have no predators in Spokane, so they are multiplying.  

The creek, so there is a water supply for the critters.

Another house was re-roofed last week.  It was a huge roof.  Progress was slowed by this tire on their trailer blowing up.  It sounded like a bomb.

The chords are visible along the top of this photo, they sort of look like teeth.  They're big, that was a very heavy duty tire.

We saw this on the walk today, it's clever.

Other than this paltry offering, I have nothing to say.

It Started With a New Smoke Detector

Aaargh, it has been a few days.  On the Summer Solstice we changed all the smoke detector batteries.  It's an annual event for us.  In 2022 we did them, and the highest one in the house would not stop chirping afterwards.  They're aging out.  That detector was installed over a painted surface.  Jim took it down and put a blank plate over the hole, and then all was well.  This time, the second highest detector started chirping and would not stop.  Unfortunately, it was not on a painted surface.  The contractors painted around it, so there was white paint showing after it was removed.  As we have previously learned, thou shalt not put a 10 year battery smoke detector over the place where a hard wired one lived.  The white paint was too large to be covered by a blank plate.  

We don't have the paint codes for the ceilings.  The color is close, but not identical to the walls.  So, we decided just to use the wall color, this house is so poorly lit, it would not be all that noticeable.  Except, of course, for the entry into the room that has no purpose.  It's 40ish inches wide, and we needed to span the gap with a straight paint line.  We got a 1x2 piece of stock.  I sat on top of the ladder and held it against the walls and the ceiling, and Jim cut the paint in.  Since our paint was different, we had to paint the entire ceiling for one little piece of white paint.

We've never painted a ceiling before, especially such a long one.  This is Jim, on the ladder cutting things in.  Rolling the ceiling was a pain.

Anyway, the line over the entry way to the other room turned out ok.  It's there, but who looks at the ceiling.  What I find so weird is the hall ceiling, and the walls are the same paint code.  Look how different they look depending on the light. 

I hate working on ladders.  They're just exhausting.

Today we went to a landscaping materials place and bought rocks.  They're basalt, and they are very heavy.  We have marmots.  The miles of basalt cliffs are not good enough for them, they must tunnel in my yard.  They go up through the basalt boulder retaining wall and then burrow into the yard.  AI tells us: Marmots are large, ground-dwelling rodents in the squirrel family that construct vast and complex burrows. Their burrows can stretch up to 200 feet long and dive over 5 feet deep. These intricate tunnel networks act as living spaces, nurseries, and hibernation dens.  We don't want this in the front yard.  There is already a small section in the yard that is collapsing due to them digging.  So, rocks are being employed to try to block their access.  We're going to have to go back and buy more, we need little ones for wedging them in.

We're really hoping we don't have to mortar them in, I just do not want to do that.  When we had the RV and contemplated buying a house, we used to wonder what would we do all day.  This, this is what you do.

And this is where you go to scavenge small pieces of basalt.

It's hard to believe it's the end of June.  It's cold, it's overcast, and it's raining some.  It's better than being in Europe where they are baking, but summer would be nice.

Life and the G7

We've had a bumper crop of baby marmots this year.  We drove by a facility on Indian Trail Road, and their yard was full of them.   We've got one trying to establish a burrow in the front retaining wall.  This will not stand.  Lest you think I am unfeeling about critters, there are miles of basalt cliffs behind the neighborhood that are very tall, and they could all be happy there.  They do not need to be here digging.

There is not too much happening here.  The guy across the cul de sac is getting a new roof.  His crew keeps odd hours.  The house up the hill from us has a crew that worked until 9pm last night.  Different work ethic.  Across the cul de sac crew is doing other work along side the roof so they're part time, that would annoy the living snot out of me.  

It has warmed up.  We're riding.  There is a lot of this blooming in the park.

47 went to the G7 where he lost his way several times.  The other attendees would go get him and bring him back to the fold.  There was a fair amount of this, as well. 

We're not convinced he knew where he was, or why.

Macron invited him for dinner at Versailles.  That is where Germany signed the surrender papers after WWI.   While 47 was there, he signed surrender papers to Iran, as well.  We don't think he understood the optics of signing there.  Macron played him.

Meanwhile, the Reflecting Pool is full of algae, the blue coating is coming up due to the use of hydrogen peroxide to kill the algae, and the entire thing is becoming a lost cause.  Uniformed officers of some sort are arresting tourists who are reaching in to get a sample of the floating blue coating.  I have no idea what they're charging them with.

Other than that, life moves on and the ice maker has quit making ice.  I am very annoyed about this. 

The Lake and the Ongoing Turmoil

 Long time, no post.  I keep meaning to, but then something else needs doing.  

Jim has been busy prepping for the annual HOA meeting.  They hold it at Round Table Pizza, which gives me a window into how much pizza restaurants are charging these days.  It's just highway robbery.  It's not very good, so we never eat there.  Actually, I have quit going to the annual meeting, I've been hearing about it and proof reading what Jim is putting together, and so I don't feel the need.  The house hold is well represented.  Jim is VP of the board, and point of contact for entrance gate issues.  

It has warmed up enough to ride.  We went yesterday, there was a fresh little breeze in effect.  This is from a few days ago.  There was a huge logging of someone's yard.  The truck bed in the back is full, and there are more logs waiting to be removed.  We wonder why they took so many trees out.  

There is also this to wonder about.  Look on the right side of the photo, about midway between top and bottom.  What is that reflecting the light?  It's really bright.  I need to take my camera with the big lens and get a better image of this.

I can't think of the name of these plants.  Iris?  They're now past their prime, but they were pretty about a week ago.

This is from yesterday.  The boat ramp was busy, some people were not moving their boats to the outside of the ramp, thus making it impossible for other people to off load or pick up their boats.  These people are elderly and it was a struggle for them to walk the boat around.  Then the engine wouldn't start.  Eventually, they got it all together and were able to leave.

The Iran war continues to be off and on.  It's like Schrodinger's cat; is it dead or is it alive?  

The reflecting pool, which has been open for 2 or 3 days, is now full of algae.  The genius who had it painted drove his motorcade through it, which damaged the coating, he removed the filtration system Obama had installed, and now it is a stinking fetid swamp.

A pilot contacted the FAA about the lights on the cage for the UFC fights being blinding when landing at Ronald Reagan airport.  Apparently no one cares, and it was suggested that they contact the White House.  There will be a ground stop at Ronald Reagan for July 4, something that has never happened before.  47 must have have his stupendous fire works.  All the other administrations were aware of and careful of flight safety.

There has been interesting stuff on twitter this week.

AI is crashing because everyone has realized all it does is remix things that people have already done and there is no way to make it better because it doesn't actually do anything. They tried to build a castle on BS and now it is all collapsing into the shit.
Posted by Blade of the Sun

13 workers left Palantir and issued this statement. "Palantir is increasingly complicit, normalizing authoritarianism under the guise of a 'revolution' led by oligarchs. We must resist this trend."
Posted by Blade of the Sun

The real reason why the country is crumbling apart is because the elites of both parties just see America as an economic zone. The proletariat of the right think you can fix this by making the country only white. The proletariat of the left think you can fix this by embracing more racial diversity. Both sides fail to realize that the main problem is that elites (who are above left vs. right) see America as a corporation meant to be sucked dry at any costs possible for their personal gain. If you don’t believe me, ask any rich person you know if they culturally identify more with Paris or Pennsylvania. 
Spenser Hakimian

After Mexican officials confirmed a case of screwworm in Nov. 2024; USDA, under Joe Biden, closed southern ports of entry to live cattle imports to prevent spread of screwworm into U.S. Move also strained supply of cattle in Texas.... USDA reversed course in Feb 2025, after Trump took office, announcing opening of ports.
From the Texas Tribune

The average lifespan of a female screwworm fly is 10 to 30 days, once they lay eggs in an open wound they hatch and the maggots feed for 7 days before dropping to the ground, burrowing into the soil and emerge as adult flies. Tell me then how can the first screwworm case detected in the US on day 498 of the trump presidency be Joe Biden's fault???????

Posted by Covie

And there is this.  I love this for 47,
Cocchiarella: There’s a 100% chance of bugs. That’s a real stat. So Trump’s acolyte, Dana White, has literally lined the cage with industrial fans to blow the gnats off the fighters. For this octogenarian’s birthday, the failing, aging king—decaying in real time—has decided to throw himself a giant blood-sport party on the palace lawn to prove that he is still strong. And heaven responds by sending a heat wave, a thunderstorm, and a literal plague of insects down on top of him.  There is also a chance of hail and a tornado.  

That's it!  

 

The Roof is Done and the Climate

 It's June 7 - the sun is out, the wind is up and it's cold.  I would really like it to warm up a little.

This is the house before the roof.  It's not a beige house, it's a slight yellow.  The roof was green.

After.

This morning they came and took the trailer away out of the driveway.  Now both cars can live inside.  We are very happy about that.  We took the Jeep out to Spokane Valley to the no-touch car wash out there, it looks much better for being washed and waxed.

Yesterday we made pot roast.  We went to WinCo  on Friday, and they had a decent looking pot roast in the counter.  Yesterday it went in the crock pot.  It's a simple recipe, I'm not sure how I make that much mess on the counter.

Jim browned it in a cast iron skillet on the grill.  He does a better job at that than I do, I get impatient.

It was good, but the first one we did was better.  There's no fat rising to to the surface in the fat separator so I suspect this was a Select grade of meat, while the Safeway meat was Choice.  It had a lot of fat.  The WinCo roast was also $2.50 a pound less money.  It's always a trade off.  Anyway, two more meals are available from this, and we're going to eat them.

There is currently a stink about a provision in the NDAA, National Defense something something.  It's Section 224.  Thomas Massie has this to say about it: "If the provision in the NDAA to integrate/synchronize the U.S. and Israeli militaries (section 224) makes it out of committee, I’ll offer an amendment to strip it from the bill on the floor."  There is also section 622 that wants to do the same with intelligence.  It also proposes that future presidents can't undo the changes.  The US intelligence agencies are issuing red alerts on Israeli spying as it is, I don't think we need to make it any easier.  These bills are  disturbing me.  Netanyahu has confirmed that this was his idea and his plan all along.

The Super El Nino is coming.  The climate scientists are up in their hair about this.  Saying things like, "The only effective response is climate action equal to the crisis — ending the addiction to fossil fuels, accelerating the shift to renewables, protecting the most vulnerable, and delivering early warning systems for all."  Right then, 47 is giving money to run coal fired plants, and he outlawed new wind turbines in the US, and he pulled up all of the sensor buoys.  There is an article here.

This is a model generated map of how it will be.  Look at the Arctic and northern Canada.  Hopefully this model is wrong.  Interestingly enough, the South west of the US will not be all that hot.
 

In other terrible news that you can't do anything about, there is concern the the AMOC is slowing down.  Too bad someone pulled all of the ocean sensor buoys out of the water.  I talked about AMOC here.

That's it!  That's all I've got.