Ninety

Remember when I said a week or so ago I figured to have seen the last 90˚F? Yeah, no hope. Dry and hot and I'm feeling it. The sun is low and harshing the mellow majorly. Looks like it will break into autumn sometime Sunday night into Monday morning.

Partly Cloudy
91°F
33°C
Humidity 10%
Wind Speed NW 8 MPH
Barometer 30.09 in (1013.4 mb)
Dewpoint 28°F (-2°C)
Visibility 10.00 mi
Heat Index 87°F (31°C)
Last update 12 Sep 2:53 pm MDT

More tomatoes coming along, small and slow, but tasty and welcome. I looked up over the back garden, all I could see were trees. We've decided to take out the last two elms that start on our side, since we can't do anything about the rest of them blocking the light. Also need to do some tlc on the window frames, many need paint and caulking, which I noticed while squeegeeing them. Cleaning out the back room (again, how does it get so bad so fast?) in preparation for a potential visit from cousins. Took three years to get to the point where we have to start getting rid of older and less functional stuff. The thrift shop will be getting some stuff, likely Wednesday.


D off to game night, I got home late and missed his email. Cats greeted me thusly.




Went to the First Baptist Church* rummage sale, found a roaster appropriate to the use of two people and one small roasting chicken.



And a buddy for Sebastian.



Sitting atop other yard sale finds.

This was one of the cleanest rummage sales I've ever attended, and it was a large space, a lot of clothes. Gotta hand it to the people organizing it, they did a terrific job.




*Their minister introduced himself, and his church, during the celebratory rally after the legal allowing of SSM in this state as - "...not that kind of Baptist."

Dilution

Moby being adventurous, enjoying the garden proper.



He needed a little guidance

Picked up a toolset at a yard sale, and a rather pretty broach. Early Saturday morning errands, time to spend together.

Sitting on the porch together last evening, youngish man in a black suit and white shirt, heavyset, black, over friendly approached, came right up on the porch and set down his soda, patter all the way. Very much to look like a Baptist minister.

“Where are my manners?” *

Introduced himself, asked our names. Um. No. I told him he was intruding on a private conversation. He he says, “You were just reading!”

Not the point, obviously. So I did the broken record, “You need to leave now you need to leave now...” He left ranting about a man just trying to make a living, angry and loud as he walked down the street. His cologne lingered, so we went back inside.

Scammer.

We do get them around here. The first year was the worst, I think. Had someone at the door every week pushing some church or selling some product, or just probing for a soft spot.

Cow orker who wanted a black iris got off at the same time yesterday. Showed me how to break up the bulb clumps. So I’ve been digging and spreading them out around the meadow. While at that, I also moved some of the mint to the verge. Let it take over there.


The solution to pollution is dilution. The displacement of weeds is replacement.



*My question exactly.

Alive

Moby urgently needed to go OUT this morning, so I took him OUT. Later, we shopped, and he lingered at the door - took some dissuading. Got back, ate lunch, tossed the chicken packaging, and he scoooted out past my leg. I chuckled, slowly and calmly followed and picked him up. He 'gakkked' at me, but knew better than to struggle.

"No, you do not go outside naked."
"I'm not naked! I have fur!"

I don't get angry, nor upset. I chuckle and calmly tuck him under my arm.

Really a lovely day, a little cool, dark clouds and bright sun together. Rain possible but nothing so far. Can't blame a cat for giving it a go. Swept up the elm seeds, a sold ten gallons on the compost pile, well soaked. Next year the tree is gone, or I put up netting. Also need to do something better for the compost, the Ikkyah boards left behind are disintegrating badly. Looking at getting some wire enclosure.

Not getting much done today, aside from getting to Trader Joe's this morning. Made lunch. Idling and reading.

The whole Epic Brewing story is one I can add in my 2¢. I read about them, when they opened. Stopped by the first week, when there was still SOME beer. A minor news story, as the local rag presented it. New loophole in local liquor laws, so they started a strong beer brewery, three years ago. With great skill, mind. So, when we were on the tour, I asked if they had any idea of how popular they would be. They sold out all their stock the first week - what they reckoned would be three month's worth. No, I was told, they were in no way prepared for the response they got. They surpassed the Five Year Plan within six months, and at three years are well into the ten year plan.

People came back, once they got more brewed, persistently. Thirsty folks around here. I was one of them. I even like their beers that aren't the kind of beers I usually like. Their Imperial Pale Ale is a wonder to behold. Although I still prefer the dark ales, and Big Bad Baptist is a force to be reckoned with. Everything has so much flavor, all done with evident attention and talent. They've kept up the quality, variety, and have not let it ruin them. Brewer mentioned on the tour that they keep it all very, very clean. No need, very obvious they are meticulous. They have 35 employees, and are opening a new brewery in Colorado. Seeing them do so well is a happy.

We are not our jobs, but our jobs surely shape us. I know when to do very clean (not quite sterile at home, although pretty close) and when to assume dirty. The bottom of any sink is contaminated/dirty. Our Own Bugges are not to be worried about if it's just us. If Dave is stopping by, I make sure anything given to him (even though he's probably no longer immuno-supressed) is very clean/sterile-ish. Floor nurses (ward nurses) call sterile what we might call clean. But it is as good as they can get. In surgery, we have to do better. If in doubt, throw it out.

Food prep is nearly if not quite as sterile as surgery.

I stood by the 80 barrel vats, listening to the yeast bubble, and felt a strange awe. Not sterile, but as clean as it needed to be. Alive.

Awesome.

Mucky

Breathing mud, and worse.
Lungs object to such abuse.
Would leave if we could.





Oh, and a reason behind the whole Westboro Baptist Church thing, with Fred Phelps. The first sensible reason I've ever come across. In short, lawyers, and a huge scam.

Nothing

Waiting in a strange place, approached by a friendly preacher, barely into my twenties, trying to be polite, I was forced into a wrong sort of answer.

He spoke of his Baptist faith, and asked me what I was.

Not wanting to give offense, not wanting to even answer, and never fast with my mouth under pressure, I said "Nothing."

"If you ever want to stop being nothing, you come to my church!" and gave me a card and a patronizing smile with condescending pat on my shoulder.

That's not what I meant, of course. With a lot of thought, I stopped being an apologist for the church given to me as a child, and figured all institutionalized regulations of spirituality were prone to the same limitations that estranged me from such codified definitions of the ineffable. I have never found any experience to change that basic understanding. Eastern religions seem to have more practical methods on how to experience how life works. But I will never call myself a Buddhist, for instance, because that involves accepting their dogma and ceremonies. The deep set gender divisiveness of even formal Taoism further alienates me from the idea of actual conversion.

Religious folks tell me I can't cherry-pick, faith is not a buffet. I can too. Why not? As long as I don't profess to be just one Thing, I can eclectically chose the universal ideas that fit and reject those that seem tied to their cultures.

The older I get, the more sure that I have found my way. Not that there is a path, nor that it brings me any comfort, but I am at ease with my life as it is, knowing it will end, and that is all and enough. If the stories and comforts get others through, who am I to challenge that. I have, after all, nothing more than my understanding as proof. I can hardly pin people down and demand that they define god, what can god do, not do, what is the nature of your god? Record every one, make them all listen to each other's answers and ask them to question their shared faith that probably isn't shared at all. Wouldn't change anything.

I'm not a hostile atheist, no worshipper of orthodox science. Not a matter of belief, after all. I read the data, the results of experiments, learn it, accept it as the best understanding now, and wait for more data with an open mind. I work in medicine, I know bloody well we have not got everything figured out, and eloquent arguments were long made promoting spontaneous generation*. Facts are often not discernible by reasoning and eloquence, they often inelegantly bugger up everything previously understood to be true. I love the process, gather more data, try again, and again, try to duplicate a result. A Book that says, it is written, it will always be, feels like a dead end to me. Justification not to change, in the fearful.

Religion has to be an evolutionary advantage, which I love for irony's sake. It keeps the mean and lazy from criminality in many cases. It demands obedience from those who would undermine a society. It gives glamour and aspiration to the best of us. Unfortunately, it gives corrupt leaders the entitlement to wage war and indulge bigotry, and the ignorant and disadvantaged are more than willing to relieve their distress by attacking scape-goats.

And it leaves a few of us out in the cold, disillusioned and resigned, unable to see the magic once the man behind the curtain is glimpsed. Still wanting to live a good life, be kind to those around me, gaze into the liminal spaces, see everyday miracles everywhere.

Those of you who believe in the teachings of your church no doubt think me wrong. So, if you've stopped by recently on the recommendation of a mad priest, this is my Full Disclosure Statement. Please take conflicting arguments to your own bog, feel free to leave a post saying, "I've got my response over at my site." Treat my viewpoint here as you would if I voiced it in my own home, as I would be of your thoughts in your own home. Disagree at length elsewhere, please. Thank you.






*Abiogenesis is another matter. Messy stuff, life.