4/13/12 BRINGING THE OUTSIDE IN; AND I KNOW WHAT AGNES WOULD HAVE SAID

A CALM AND HAZY MORNING

VIBURNUM AND LILACS BEING FORCED

Friday, 8:30 AM.  41 degrees F, wind SW, calm.  The sky is mostly cloudless but there is some haze in the atmosphere.  The channel is glassy calm. The barometer again predicts rain but I think not.
    Now is an ideal time to “bring the outside in” in the northland…to force trees and shrubs to bloom in a vase inside the house.  The earliest of spring blooming shrubs, the Forsythia, are of course already in bloom or through, but many others, such as Viburnums and dogwoods, have not bloomed, and brought in now will provide a week or more of bloom inside before the shrubs  bloom outside.
    I  am happy to report that the pacemaker procedure went just fine, it took about an hour and a half start to finish, and overnight in the hospital, but they wouldn't let me watch the operation on the monitor.. I now have arguably more computing power in a quarter-sized (but a little thicker) device tucked under the skin of my chest than that which took our astronauts to the moon and back.  These units have complicated biofeedback microchips that keep the resting heart at an acceptable rate and also allow the heart to speed up in a natural way according to one’s activity level.  I have been trying to remember when I first heard of pacemakers, and it can’t be much more than forty years ago, although they were around in t he late '50's, when the initial devices only set one “pace” for the heart.  Now they have all sorts of different capabilities, and every so often they are “tuned up” so that their internal programs provide peak efficiency.  I took Buddy for a careful walk this morning, just around the block and he seems to understand that he has to behave himself and not lunge and pull.  Nevertheless, I walked with my left hand (that arm of restricted use) in my pocket so that any inadvertent strain would be on my right arm.  I think tomorrow it will be back to my usual route, and I will actually give the pacemaker a chance to do its stuff.
    What about this whole “attack on women” business, and the “attack” on Romney’s wife for, essentially, not being a “working” mother because she doesn’t have a “job”?  I know what Agnes, my mother-in-law, who raised eight children on a truck driver’s salary, would have said; “follow me around for a day and tell me I am not a working mother.”  In our own family we have a full time working mother of two and a stay at home (while going to school) mom of one.  Such decisions are a matter of personal choice and individual situation;  please, let us at least assume that all women want the best for their children, and it is up to them to decide how they can provide it.  This latest, and similar eruptions from the left are basically attacks on freedom of choice and individual liberty.  Welcome to the ant colony.

4/10/12 A MORE TYPICAL BAYFIELD SPRING; DROUGHT, AND SAVING THE OLD PAVERS

AND A FEW ERRANT SNOW FLAKES

ROAD PROJECT...

...SAVING THE OLD PAVERS

Tuesday. 7:45 AM.  27 degrees F, wind NW, light to moderate.  A few errant snow flakes are drifting down from a leaden sky, but the barometer is trending up.  This is a more typical early spring day in Bayfield.
    Not too much has been said about it, but the northland is now in a serious drought.  Less than normal snow cover produced less runoff, and streams are low and Lake Superior down considerably,  visually it appears well over a foot.  Of course one seldom knows how much water the Army Corps of Engineers is draining from Superior to maintain levels in lakes Huron and Michigan.  Even so, we need rain badly.  The fire danger is high in the thousands of acres of trees blown down  in the region by storms last summer, and local fire wardens are requiring burning permits for open fires.
    Bayfield has two streets, 2nd St. and Broad St. downtown that still have the old brick pavers, although much covered by asphalt over the years.  They are now being rebuilt, and utilities renewed beneath.  The old pavers are being saved and will be re-laid to restore the streets to their original appearance.  This is a painstaking job and will take most of the summer. Much of the project will be paid for by state and federal grants.
    There will be no blogs for a few days, as I am going to Duluth to get a pacemaker Wednesday, a procedure which has become quite routine and takes relatively little recovery time, but it may interfere with my typing for a few days as my left arm will be in a
sling initially.  I have been fortunate as I have had few or no actual symptoms, but that’s why this is a good time to do it, as my heart rate is way too slow and will cause me trouble in the future if not corrected.

4/09/11 A VOW FOR SUNDAYS, AND A BEAR FOR THE GOVERNOR

YOUNG WILLOW TWIGS

...AND FLOWERS

GUESS WHO?

Monday, 8:00 AM.  45 degrees F, wind WSW, very strong, causing the long limbs of the white pines to wave about, like the arms of a symphony conductor. The sky is partly cloudy and the barometer is on the rise, predicting the same.
    Andy, Judy and Christ Church friend Fred came to Easter dinner, and we all had a very good time, since we did not talk politics.  As a matter of fact, it would be good for all of us if we took one day a week to ignore politics and politicians. The Church has a vow of poverty, a vow of celibacy, a vow of chastity…perhaps there should BEa vow of nonpolity.  I hereby take said vow, to be exercised on Sundays, from this time forward.  If others choose to engage in political discourse on Sundays, I will suffer in silence.  But I’ll give ‘em hell on Monday.
    Willows are particularly colorful now, the young black willows have bright  yellow twigs, and all the willows are in flower, the “pussies” of each species a little different but all quite pretty.
    The bear was grunting and snuffling around through the backyards when I took Lucky out for his walk before bedtime, and his calling cards were evident this morning.  This one is big, probably  the same boar that hung around last year.  There is also a sow with two cubs getting into things around town, and she could be a danger if one got between her and the little ones.  The town bears are mostly little more than comic relief, but I would hate to see a child attacked.  Dogs can usually get out of the way, but not always.
    The real frustration for most folks is that there is little one can do about the bears.  The government(s) doesn’t give a damn about bear problems, and if you shoot one they will lock you up and throw away the key.  It takes about eight  years to get a bear license; evidently the state thinks we don’t have enough of them.  If we could ever trap one we could send it to Madison to hang out in the Governor’s back yard.

4/08/12 HAPPY EASTER; AND, LOOK AT YOUR NAURAL GAS BILL

EASTER MORNING AT TH BEACH

...DITTO...

..IN THE BEATY OF THE LILIES...

Sunday, 10:00 AM.  49 degrees F, up from 39 degrees earlier.  There is a strong W wind, shifting to NW. The sky is cloudless and the atmosphere clear, the barometer trending up, a glorious Easter morning but hold onto those Easter bonnets!
    Since our little Christ Church is now only open in the summer months, we did not attend any Easter service and Buddy and I went to the Cathedral of the Beach for a good run, he still on a long lead as he cannot be trusted off it.  Dogs are like people, their freedoms necessarily restricted until they learn to obey the rules, which then allows them considerable license.  Obeying the rules in order to be free is an aspect of every religion to one degree or another, and certainly is a major tenet of Christianity; “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
    Do you have natural gas in our home or business?  If so, take a look at your next monthly bill.  Our gas bill came down $18 last month, and gas futures have fallen 50% from mid-2011 to mid-2012, the result of new natural gas exploration in the US and hundreds of wells coming on line in the advent of the new “fracking” technologies.
    This trend is concurrent with a major rise in US manufacturing and the repatriation of factories and jobs that have been outsourced in recent years.  There are other factors involved in this trend, but abundant and less expensive energy is certainly extremely important to it.  Imagine how  the trend will increase when we at last build the Keystone pipeline!  Abundant coal, oil, gas and ancillary energy sources, an educated and willing workforce, the best transportation systems  in the world; add to those resources a less overbearing and relatively corruption free governmental environment with lower corporate tax rates and no other country could compete with us.  Unemployment would drop to pre-recession rates, and we would see the greatest economic boom in our history. 

4/07/12 EASTER HOLIDAY

Saturday, 8:30 AM.  40 degrees F, up from mid-thirties at dawn.  The wind is WSW, calm to very light.  The sky is clouding up and the barometer predicts rain,  but I doubt it as the humidity is only 60%.  There must be a really weak front moving in.
    The temperature has been more seasonal of late and that is, thankfully, slowing spring down somewhat.  I don’t think apple buds will be hurt even if we get a hard frost next week, but the cherries may get hit.  Right now I will predict daffodils in Bayfield will be blooming nicely by next weekend, and probably at their peak in two weeks from now.

WEAK FRONT MOVING IN

A LITTLE EXCITEMENT

DAFFODILS AND FORSYTHIA

    We had a little excitement yesterday afternoon when the rescue squad et al showed up with sirens wailing and lights flashing.  Turns out the seasonal rental house two doors north had a gas leak.  Evidently all was set right by our good volunteer firemen and ladies.
    The political rhetoric seems to have taken an Easter holiday, and that’s good

4/06/12 WRITE MARBURY V MADISON ON THE BLACKBOARD 1000 TIMES

ANOTHER FROSTY MORNING

FULL MOON OVER THE CHANNEL

ORCHARD SUNSET

Friday, 7:45 AM. 40 degrees F, up from about 30 degrees an hour ago.  There was frost on roofs this morning and a few patches here and there on the grass. The sky is cloudless and barometer is high and the humidity 60%.  It will be a very good day for yard work and if the weather holds things will look pretty good by Easter Sunday.
    The full moon last night was spectacular and although it did not reveal the deer herds of Wednesday night, it was a beautiful if very cool evening nonetheless.  We went to DaLou’s in Washburn for wood fired pizza last night…excellent, The Bronx couldn’t produce better, along with a Greek salad, a bottle of Italian Chianti and a chocolate mouse with strawberries and gelato for desert.
    The Attorney General did indeed complete the assignment given to him by the 5th District Court and was not sentenced to stand in the corner wearing a dunce cap, even though his homework was slightly less than the required three pages.  I think him lucky not to have been made to write a thousand times on the blackboard, Marbury v Madison, 1803.
    The pundits have been ruminating on the perceived reasons for candidate Rick Santorum not campaigning in Pennsylvania over the long Easter weekend; that he is backing out of the race, or sending some other political message thereby.  Joan reminds them that Santorum is a devout Catholic.  What did they expect him to do for the Easter holy period, the most important in all Christianity? 
   

4/05/12 PLAYING THE THEME FROM "ROCKY"

FROSTY MORN

DAFFODILS BEGINNING TO BLOOM IN EARNEST

RED OAK AT SUNSET

Thursday, 7:45 AM.  33 degrees F., wind W, light.  The sky is cloudless and a bit hazy.  There is frost on some rooftops but none on the ground.  It is good to have some cooler temperatures to slow spring down a bit.  The barometer predicts fair weather so we should have a good day to continue with the raking, cultivating, sweeping and pruning. 
    Last evening was beautiful and we took a little ride through the orchard country.  We saw a total of over twenty deer on Torbic Road, in two herds.  It has been a number of years since we have seen so many deer. The sun was setting and the moon rising at the same time, always a time when wildlife is active.  The rather mild winter without deep snow and several more restrictive deer seasons have produced good results and maybe we will have a really good deer season this year.  I haven’t heard of many wolf sightings of late.  They probably moved on when the deer became scarce, but will probably be back now that the prey population has rebounded.
    President Obama seems to have a penchant for picking fights.  For the  past three years he has been fighting with the US business community, which has further damaged the economy. He has been fighting with congress, even though his own party controls the senate.  Not satisfied with those rather considerable challenges, he recently took on the Catholic church, a not inconsiderable opponent.  Now he has issued perhaps the most reckless dare of all, challenging the United States Supreme Court’s legal right to declare laws of the land unconstitutional.  As a result the 5th District Court of Appeals has given the administration until noon today to defend that premise  in a written brief.  I have never heard of such an action by a US court before and it must be a rare event indeed, perhaps unprecedented.
    The president claims to be constitutional lawyer.  He must realize how reckless his comments are, which appear to be an attempt to intimidate the justices in their deliberations. 
    The president is obviously an intelligent person, who one assumes can see the risks in all his pugnacious and reckless confrontations.  So one must ask the question, “why?” It is almost as though he is Don Quixote tilting at windmills.  The only logical conclusion I can come to is that these fights are all meant to divert attention from his embarrassing policy failures and encourage support from his far left political base.  But regardless of motive, it seems as though President Obama wants to add “Champ” to his many titles and achievements. Maybe he saw one too many Sylvester Stallone movies.  Perhaps In the future we will be hearing the theme from “Rocky” instead of “Hail to the Chief.”