21/11/11 BUDDY AT THE BEACH, AND WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

SALLY SELLING HER WREATHS ON RITTENHOUSE AVENUE

BUDDY'S FIRST TRIP TO THE BEACH

SUNSET

FULL MOON RISING

Sunday, 8:00 AM.  27 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky is clear but the barometer predicts precipitation.  It is a fine morning.
    I took Buddy to the beach for the first time late yesterday afternoon.  He didn’t know quite what to make of it all.  I didn’t let him off the leash.  I am beginning to trust him to stay with me but not yet in a new situation.
    Political commentary: the Republicans have begun an effort to recall State Senator Bob Jauch, who represents much of the Northland.  He is a member of the Senate Mining Committee and has not been supportive to this point of the still controversial G Tech iron mine.  He also left the state along with other senators to avoid voting on Governor Walker’s budget legislation earlier in the year.  Of course we are well into the Democrat effort to recall Governor Walker.  Now, I have little against Senator Jauch, who has been a good Senator in many respects and is an ardent conservationist.  However I was, like many conservatives, incensed at the leave-the-state-and–hide-in-Illinois silliness. 
   All I can say to or about Senator Jauch is, “what goes around comes around.”  I have stated many times that all this recall business is destructive, juvenile nonsense.  Hopefully everyone will have enough of it one of these days.  Personally, I would like to see the state constitution amended and either get rid of the recall provision entirely or limit it to recall upon conviction of a crime.  Neither party can govern under the present circumstances, and compromise is impossible.  I will not be so petty as to vote for a Jauch recall just to play tit-for-tat politics, but I will probably vote against him in the next senatorial election.     
   

12/10/11 KNUCKLEHEADS

THE BALL IS UP AHEAD SOMEWHERE...

...I'VE GOT IT!

...I COULD PLAY THIS GAME ALL DAY!

Saturday, 8:30 AM.  14 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky is mostly overcast but clouds are breaking up in the east.  It was a beautifully clear night with an almost full moon and quite cold. The clouds moving in have kept it warmer than yesterday morning which was frigid.  The barometer is trending down.
    Buddy continues to be a lot of fun, but has gotten so comfortable with his new people and new digs, so confident of a full food dish and a loving home, that he is exerting a stronger degree of independence and is really rambunctious.  knuckleheaded is probably the operative word.   He does most of what he is told and expected to do but he gets something in his head and one might as well talk to the wind.  Come to think of it, I am prone to do the same.   Daughter Greta, the field trial dog trainer, says I should concentrate on more subtle behaviors for a while, such as getting him to watch my hands and eyes intently and listen to my voice so he learns to concentrate on what I want him to do.  We will see how that goes.  I don’t know if I can become a “dog whisperer” or not, and I may end up being the trainee instead of the trainer.  I am very open to suggestions and will appreciate comments.
    The new iron mining bill is out of the Wisconsin house of representatives, and public hearings open next week in Milwaukee.  There will probably have to be public hearings in the north country as well.  The purported intent of the bill is to streamline the approval process without weakening the environmental standards, as businesses cannot endure an endless approval procedure.  The bill is 180 pages long and I am sure highly technical, so it will be difficult for most interested parties, including legislators and administrators, to digest it all.  It has been posted on line and I will take a look at it but in the end most of us will have to trust expert opinion and hope the issue does not become even more contentious that it already is.  Like dogs, politicians can be real knuckleheads.
    There has to be a practical way to provide jobs and economic progress and still respect the environment, or the state’s motto of “Forward!” will ultimately regress to “Backward!”

12/09/11 SANTA'S TOW TRUCK, AND OUR SPINELESS GOVERNMENT

COLD DAWN

SANTA'S TOW TRUCK

Friday, 8:00 AM.  8 degrees.  Don’t put your tongue on the pump handle this morning!  Wind WSW, light.  The sky is clearing and the barometer is trending up, it will be a sunny, cold day.
    Ron’s Repair, on Hwy 13 just north of Washburn, has a delightful Holiday light display, a (I think) 1957 or so Ford tow truck, all decked out with lights,  even with blinking lights that make the wheels look as though they are gong ‘round, and flashing emergency lights.  Couldn’t be cuter!
    Political comment: the Obama administration is again “missing in action” on what I consider an international incident of greatest importance to all of us.  An American citizen of Thai origin has been arrested  in that country on the charge of defaming the Thai king on the internet, and has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison.  One might say he is subject to the laws of that nation and we have no beef.  Except that he is being sent to prison for what he blogged as a US citizen while living in Colorado, not in Thailand.  The Administration has not to this point protested the arrest or the sentence, which is a tacit admission that you and I are subject to the laws of other countries, even while at home in our own. 
    This is an outrageous and cowardly stance for an American government of any political stripe to take, and opens all of us to the abuse of the legal systems and tyranny of foreign governments, and even religions (think Sharia law) and makes us all subject to potential arrest abroad for exercising our rights of free speech in our own land. 
    It is also a tacit admission (and I believe an actual precursor to a future policy) that the United Nations, the International Court in the Hague and other international organizations can enforce their laws, legal precedents and penalties on U.S. citizens.  That endangers the freedom and right to due process of every one of us, whether we travel abroad or not, and creates precedent for our own judicial system to hand any one of us over to foreign courts, in violation of our own constitution, All this is no different than the impressment of US citizens into the British navy at the beginning of the 19th Century, which of course led directly  to the War of 1812, the "Second Revolutionary War."  Two hundred years ago our nation protected its citizens from the abuse of foreign potentates.  Now it looks the other way.
    The proper recourse for our own government in this matter is to vigorously protest the false imprisonment of our fellow American, immediately recall our Ambassador, and threaten the harshest of sanctions against the tyranical Thai regime unless our compatriot is immediately released and allowed to leave Thailand.
    We have become a disrespected nation, and are being pushed around even by third world countries.  Our democratic institutions, economic and military power are no longer respected, which will inevitably lead to a major war when one of these petty antagonists goes too far and the American public wakes up and demands our spineless govrnmnt defend our honor and God-given rights as Americans.

12/08/11 ORCHARD LIGHTS, A WOLF AND A CANARY

HAUSER'S BARN

APPLE TREES

Thursday, 8:00 AM.  17 degrees, wind WSW, calm at present but high clouds scudding along nicely.  It is partly cloudy and the barometer predicts precipitation.
    I have not been out of the house much for the last few days, as I have been compiling a final report on a City of Bayfield tree inventory and management grant which was provided by the State of Wisconsin. 
    So, I did not see the wolf that Joan saw yesterday just before noon on Hwy. 13, north of Washburn.  She says it ran so close in front of the car she had to slam on the brakes.  It was a big, darkly furred canine with a prominent tail, and was running full tilt with a large bloody bone, probably a deer femur, in its jaws. That particular stretch of road, which we call the “gauntlet,” is heavily wooded with conifers on both sides and is known for being frequented by deer.
    Hauser’s Orchard has a nice display of Christmas lights on its barn and surrounding apple trees.  Other orchards remain sans lights.
    Political prediction: former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevitch has been sentenced to fourteen years in federal prison for trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacated senate seat.  I predict that as soon as he actually resides behind prison walls he will, in mob parlance, “sing like a canary.” Unless they manage to silence him beforehand.  Wouldn’t be the first time. Remember Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald?

12/07/11 IT IS BETTER TO SNOOZE THAN TO CAUSE TROUBLE

REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR

APPLE TREE IN WINTER

Wednesday, 8:00 AM.  27 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky is completely overcast and the barometer predicts precipitation.  
    In case anyone could forget, this is the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.   I was too young for “the day that will live in infamy” to register meaningfully in my own memory, although  I do remember the war years quite well.  I have just reread the historical-fiction account of the attack in Herman Wouk’s classic The Winds of War, and I recommend that book and its sequel, War and Remembrance, particularly for those younger than myself.
    I have a solution to the current problem of politicians running for office about whom scandals from years ago become campaign issues.  As far as they involve the indiscretions of youth, there should be a statute of limitations on the press and publicity of fifteen years.  Then, vote for no one under the age of sixty-five.  Both passions and hormones decrease with amazing rapidity after the age of forty-five or fifty, and hopefully wisdom increases inversely. In other words, vote for the old folks.  It is better to snooze than to cause trouble.

12/06/11 TRACTORS IN WINTER, A CAT TALE, AND "GOING POSTAL"

PUT OUT TO PASTURE

THEY DON'T BUILD THEM LIKE THEY USED TO

AFTERNOON SNOOZE

Tuesday, 8:00 AM.  16 degrees, wind SE. light.  The sky is overcast, the barometer predicts precipitation and it looks and feels like snow.  It is a winter day.
    The new snow gave me an opportunity to photograph these ancient tractors residing up in the orchard country. I doubt if they will start, even if parked on top of the manure pile for warmth.  Be careful cranking, they  pack a hell of a kickback. Can break your thumb, even your wrist.  In either case it would be one-handed milking for the winter.
    Buddy is very much at home, loves his day bed in the living room  between Joan and myself (but he spends the night in his crate).
    I have heard from a quite reliable source that a Duluth, Minnesota neighborhood has a resident mountain lion.  With a cub.
    Commentary:  the Postal Service is looking for massive budget cuts to keep from going bankrupt. Among the cuts proposed is no longer delivering first class mail overnight.  Evidently the Postal big shots don’t use their own service.  I haven’t received an overnight mailing in decades. At present it normally takes ten days for first class to get to Bayfield, Wisconsin from Columbus, Ohio, and three days at least from Dallas or Denver. I hate to tell these folks, but pretend cut backs produce pretend savings.  I wonder if they will “Go Postal” when they find that out.

12/05/11 LET'S PRETEND

WINTRY  MORN

SHOWY MOUNTAIN ASH BERRIES

Monday, 8:00 AM.  27 degrees, wind N, calm.  It is snowing lightly and the sky is overcast, but the barometer predicts clearing skies.
    There are several “showy mountain ash” trees on the corner of First and Manypenny that have retained their berries and are beautiful covered with snow.
These trees are a native species or sub-species, Sorbus decora, They are my favorite mountain ash for shape, structure and fruit characteristics.
    Buddy continues to be a true joy in our household.  He is a bit of a knuckle head but will eventually learn to sit. He has “come” and “stay” down pretty well, which is rather backwards, but so what.
    Political commentary: Congress and the Administration are equally guilty, in my estimation, for not passing a deficit reduction bill but just kicking it down the road again.  Particularly galling to Joan and myself, being (sort of) retired is the granting of an exemption from the Medicare and Social Security payroll taxes again.  Both these funds are going bankrupt, and withholding contributions will only make them go under more quickly. All the while, we have not received cost of living increases in our Social Security checks for several years, while continuing to pay hundreds of dollars a month into Medicare Part B, which is also going up.  We have paid into SS all our working lives, and into Medicare since 1965.  We paid our dues, which were never invested.  What those who now are getting a “break” don’t realize, is that they will only get paid out of SS proportionate to what they have paid in, and now they will be three years behind in their contributions to their own retirement fund.  All this is slight of hand of the most egregious sort, perpetuated by a government of swindlers, and accepted by citizens that can at best be called naive.  What all this actually amounts to is the tacit acceptance by all concerned that these programs, which have been nothing but government cookie jars, are indeed  “Ponzie schemes.”  Which reminds me of the joke the Russian Communist proletariat used to tell on themselves: ‘We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us."