Last Call

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

First, be not alarmed. I’ve had this feeling before and it was wrong, or at least the decay and loss I feared was slow and grinding, not catastrophic and eminent.

Or it applied very personally to me. I mean to an extent 2013 WAS the last summer for our family, not due to catastrophe, but to the boys no longer being kids and things changing markedly. Also to us moving a lot over the next two years. So when I kept getting that feeling of “the last halcyon Summer” I wasn’t wrong. It was just PERSONAL.

And the feeling part of this might be personal, you know? Because, well, I’m over 60 and it’s not like Dan and I don’t have health issues. And while none of them are serious as such, people of my generation have died in their early sixties in my family (mostly of cancer. And of my generation, but older than I, of course. All were older than I, even my brother is.)

BUT–

There are places and things and gatherings we’ve all cherished, and didn’t know the last time was the last. I’m sure we all remember that. Particularly with really familiar places and people. Last visit to grandma and grandpa, for instance, not knowing it was the last, and going through the routine, and thinking of what you were doing next.

Or even with things I really enjoyed and which were a treat, like going to Denver’s Lakeside park with the boys and Dan, and following them around with a book, while they did ALL THE RIDES. (I don’t ride, because of my middle ear, but I enjoyed walking around watching them have fun more than I can say.) I didn’t know the last time was the last time.

Or midnight drives to Denver with older son, to discuss plots over a table at Pete’s. The lockdown stopped those well before he moved away. Or–

Oh, fill in your own. I’m sure you have a couple of dozen, each of you.

Part of the reason I enjoyed a trip back to CO this summer, despite the altitude issues getting worse over five days, is that I got to say goodbye, knowing it was goodbye. (Not saying there won’t be visits, again, but probably not over more than a long weekend. MAYBE.)

Honestly, I also wish I’d enjoyed my writers’ group more before the hammer fell on it on 9/11.

Anyway, I’m having that feeling again like in the summer of 13. Like…. Closing call. Last drink being served.

Only it’s not so much “this is the halcyon summer” but “Do you need to do something that involves travel/takes effort” “is there someone far away you need to hang out with a last time?”

Note this doesn’t fill me with glee, since the earliest I can get to Portugal is May, and I don’t know if that’s before or after it’s too late.

It could be wrong. It could all be wrong. During one of the last trips in our protracted move, younger son and I had rented a van that was convinced there was a slow leak on the right tire. Note it continued telling us that, and only that while the left tire was RIPPED OPEN and we were stopped waiting for AAA to come help. And after.

It could be that. The sensor is broken, and it shows something, but not what is real.

However the reports I’m getting from friends working directly with retail either on their own business or for someone else are starting to give me a sense of baffled panic. Baffled because words like “Worst ever” keep coming up. Cheap things are still selling. Like, stocking stuffer level. And honestly ebooks are still selling, though KU (and knowing how little that pays these days, it will tell you a lot) is now a major part of my earnings.

I don’t get a feeling of “the economy is in trouble.”

I get a feeling of “The wheels are coming off so fast” and “I don’t know how long the mask of normalcy will last.”

Last call. Belly up to the bar. I know the feeling when something or someone dies, and you never got to say goodbye. As I said, that last trip to CO healed something in my soul, because we moved during lockdowns and there were so many unsaid goodbyes.

So, it’s probably nothing. Probably false alarm, or intensely personal. But if you can afford it….

Go say goodbye to places and people cherished. It will give you strength through what’s to come.

Which hopefully is not as insane as I can sort of picture. Not fully picture, because I don’t have the experience for this.

We’re not going to the stone age. Or even the 19th century. But I get a feeling a lot of the “of courses” which are mostly habit, custom and institutions are about to be cast loose into the wind.

And that’s….

Some will be good. Some will be bad. But all will be a maelstrom.

My feeling is we’re approaching the point of singularity, from which there is no return. Afterwards might be better, but it will be very different. Humans don’t actually like different, you know. So that will be a shock, if nothing else.

Very different. Totally uncharted.

This is your last call.

306 thoughts on “Last Call”

  1. “It’s the end of the world and I feel fine.” [Crazy Grin]

    Take care Sarah and everybody else take care. :grin:

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  3. Yep, change in the “of courses” is really hard to take, and horribly disorienting. And we’ve already had a lot of that with Covid, “mostly peaceful protests, and “the most secure election in history”; 2020 – the year that just keeps on giving.
    Head on a swivel – Enjoy, but take care.

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  4. I had the oddest personal version of this a couple of years ago. I returned to Kansas City for my 50th High School reunion (the only one I’ve attended). While I was there (marveling as one does at all the wrinkles (or lack thereof) of one’s surviving contemporaries), I grabbed my best friend from the time and dropped in, unannounced, at my childhood home.

    With a knock on the door (“Sorry, I’d have called first but I didn’t know your name — I grew up here, in the 50s-60s, and I may never return again…”), they very nicely let us in. Obviously, everything had changed in 50 years — land had been subdivided, neighbors encroached, new wings erected, old ones demolished, the whole focus shifted, no room untouched (through who knows how many intermediate owners), but there were still little details shining through that made it possible to recognize the scene. And then, fittingly enough, I was not allowed a glimpse of my old bedroom, because the grandson had just been put to sleep there.

    So, I got to close out my experience of my childhood home, without penetrating the closed heart of its personal memory, still sleeping away unseen and with me forever. I’m grateful for the vivid experience of the limitations of “going back again”.

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    1. The room I was born in, and — though it was my parents’ room — where I spent most of my young years, when I was sick, is now a bathroom. Tiled white, with pink roses….

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        1. The former owner of my division had a ranchette and was complaining about the encroaching ‘burbs, then sold the business and with the money from that and sale of his ranchette moved to California (considering how rightwing he was, this part of his move was a surprise) and bought a vinyard. Now his ranchette is still called $NAME Ranch but is a McMansion subdivision.

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      2. The place I was born sits about thirty some feet in the air, above a parking lot now. That hospital was torn down sometime in the nineties- lots of those late sixties early seventies buildings are gone long since.

        It wasn’t a particularly good location for a hospital, atop a hill. Tiny parking lot. Hard to get to with an ambulance. Tiny streets. Grade was rather steep at the last little bit, heck on getting there in the snow and ice.

        The half drunk doctor that nearly killed me and mom was long gone by the time the building came down. You will forgive me if I don’t celebrate that particular fact.

        New hospital is settled into a valley. Easy to get to, right off the interstate. Big parking lot. Doctors haven’t killed any babies I’ve heard of so far. Or nearly so.

        I still don’t much like the place. It’s hospital. Logic aside, my gut tells me that’s where folks go to die. I ain’t ready for that just yet.

        When I do go, some day, I’d like to pass with nary a ripple. Finished all my stories. Read all my books. Settled all the things what a soul must do do right by the folks around him. Let what lives on of me be in better hands, and may they improve upon what little good I might’ve done.

        Mostly, I’d like to leave no burdens upon those left behind. Well, none I can do much about, that is. There will still be barbarians, thieves, charlatans, and fools in the world. May those that survive me have the knowledge and skill to deal with such quarrelsome trifles.

        And may there always be those with the strength of will and character to stand for what’s right and good. Though I leave behind no children of my blood, may the lives I’ve touched be better, wiser, stronger, and more virtuous than I.

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      3. Heh.
        I recall returning to the town of my childhood, to find the Mennonite bakery transformed into a tattoo parlor.

        It took my a bit to successfully wrap my head around that one.

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          1. Never went there, but a local church (Church of Christ, I think) was told and turned into a liquor/lottery store.
            You betcha I don’t go in there.

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            1. Yep, sometimes memory can be a bummer. I can identify with John Cusack’s character in Grosse Pointe Blank when he finds out his childhood home has been turned into a convenience store.

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    2. I haven’t seen much more than a few external pictures, but when mom was home for her annual HS class reunion (classes of < ’70 at this point, very small HS, even these days, mom graduated ’52) one of the classmates who were still local suggested she go by to see what the newest owners had accomplished at her parents property. Nothing left from before. Truthfully most of it needed to go. But is was hard to see the gnarly old redwood ripped out of it’s place in front northwest corner of the house.

      OTOH it was hard to see the place the last time I saw it (we’d heard it had been abandoned), all gutted inside from vandalism, grass waist high on the sides and back (neighbors had grass under control near their properties, not stupid), black berries topping the trees in the front and 2/3’s of the house itself.

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      1. My high school is gone, and there’s a lot of resentment about that. Not so much the sale of the place but the fact that it was sprung on everybody so quickly (two months from announcement of “we’ll have to close” to sale). There was definitely a sense that they hadn’t gone through all of the options, such as giving enough warning that the diocese could have figured out a purchase.

        Reunions are, therefore, spotty.

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        1. Both my grade schools are gone. I have to drive by the second one regularly. Community resentment was huge when they shut it down. Then it conveniently burned down. Junior Middle school building has been replaced. Same property. Old building demolished. High school building has been replaced, it was build on another grade school that was next to the old high school. Old high school hasn’t been demolished, but it is coming down. Next summer is our 50th HS reunion. We’ll see what happens. If there is one, I actually might go. It depends.

          Mom’s HS is technically not the same. Drain and Yoncolla have combined HS’s. Not sure which old HS building they are using (I think Drain). Point on their reunions is the classes were so small that as each class hits their age 50 (not 50th reunion) they start joining the remainders of the previous classes, which is annually. Mom at 88 was not the oldest in attendance. Nor is she the sole survivor of her graduating class (I think there are a couple of others).

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        2. The elementary school where I spent K-2 is now an adult education center. 3-6 was privatized and is a homework/afterschool “day care” center. The core of the building dates to somewhere in the 1880-90s, though a gym was added some time in the ’70s, replacing a building formerly used. (I thought it might have been a church, likely Friends, since they were the founders, but they dissappeared/moved on.)

          JHS and HS still are intact. Never went to a reunion because reasons.

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        3. My HS is partially gone, the rest expanded across the now deleted street to connect with the old elementary and houses the Middle School. The part torn down the built just after WW1 and you could descend the stairs without stepping excepting ladings, because the treads were so worn, you could ski down in sneakers (easiest done in winter with all the salt tracked in). New High is near my old house.

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        4. My High school is also gone. it was a private school 9-12 based on an open school model (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_education). It lasted 19 years from 1975 and peaked probably just after I graduated in 1979 (we were the largest class ever at 83 members). When the founding headmaster and headmistress left in the early 80’s it started flailing and went through a couple headmasters who we’d definitely SJW types. As ever Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy held and the jerk teachers (and heads) contorted it from a place with open discussion to a place with one world view. It became a place for trouble makers and potheads, and that is NOT a reputation you want as a prep school in a state like Connecticut with MANY excellent public and private schools. It was an interesting experiment but one that failed. The rather nice grounds and buildings are now owned by the local town, taken because the land was deeded such that it could only be used for a school or public uses. Buildings are still there although the main building has been heavily modified.

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        5. Part of the resentment was the large capital build project not even ten years before, which expanded the campus—and made it a nice target for a charter school to buy. There was definitely a sense that the original folk weren’t invested in keeping the school the way it was.

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  5. This fall in the Old Dominion was the most beautiful in 50 years. Day after day of blue October skies, brilliant leaves, mild days and crisp nights. But it all had an elegiac feel, and I too have been thinking about last call. Personal or universal? Who can say? But being in the same rough age and health bracket as our Hostess, I could bet either way. All I know is that it feels like the year my parents were dying, without (thank God) the sheer exhaustion…

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    1. Cue, “Vintage Season,” where an innkeeper discoverers his guests are time travellers….rich, spoiled time travellers visiting places that are about to suffer catastrophe. (In that case, the arrival of a new plague).

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      2. Although these days, the image of dynamiting much of San Francisco to slow the spread of the Blue Death is not so disturbing.

        (And I -like- San Francisco-that-was; we were there for college in the late 60s.)

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        1. It was still quite nice in late ’89 and into early 1990 even with the damage caused by the Loma Prieta quake. I also enjoyed Palo Alto and Mountain View. Reminded me of the winding streets of Boston and some of the other early Eastern cities. Really a shame they have totally wrecked it. With Current Management sadly Boston seems headed down the same slippery slope at an ever increasing rate.

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  6. I believe more people are truly realizing how monumental a change personal computers and the internet are creating in society. Personally, I believe it is as big a change as moveable type was in its day. Just like moveable type did before, this has cause the gatekeepers to lose their monopoly in information dissemination. As with any major technological breakthrough, upheaval is imminent. And Nature tells all its creatures. “Adapt or die.” I choose to adapt. Although it is getting more difficult for an old guy like me.

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    1. Folks are definitely getting more accepting of it– I’ve had reason to mention my “writing group” a few times, and when I admit we meet online, folks didn’t suddenly get dismissive.

      It’s like a bunch of folks having done meetings and watched their kids learn over Zoom suddenly made them go “wait, there ARE actual humans on the other box!”

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      1. The folks turning 18 or 21 today have had computers and network connectivity as “normal thing” all their lives. So it’s normal instead of novel, despite still being the Early Days of it, really.

        Kinda like someone born post WWII is used to the automobile as the normal of transport and power equipment as normal on the farm, etc. Rather than needing to feed, water, and catch and harness the transportation/power.

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          1. Yeah, what used to take all day (and overnight if the weather was horrible) for us to visit the rest of the family annually turned into a 5-6 hour drive when the interstates came in.

            OTOH, you miss a bunch. Dad’s SW trip took us through Alternate 89 from Flagstaff to Prescott, AZ. Lots of fascinating towns well off the Interstate. (Circa 1967; I gather it got trendy, Lord help us.)

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      3. Tabletop gaming moved online in 2010(?) or so, with Fantasy Grounds. I don’t think I’ve played at an actual table since then.

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        1. My husband has mostly been doing Roll20 with Discord for voice support. It gets a lot closer to the feel of a table top game, without requiring that everyone be really close in physical location.

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          2. Roll20 is pretty nice. We use Google Docs for the actual game, because we find it easier to keep the game text in the doc separate from the metagame chatter in the chat box.

            And then my brother uploads our game logs to the Min-Max forums for everyone to enjoy.

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      1. Yep. It’s Heinlein’s comment that most people use technology as innocently as a kitten plays, and with no more understanding of what they’re doing. It’s magic, is all.

        I note there was an ad for a Neflix movie where the internet is getting spotty and everything appears to be going to hell. Can’t tell if it’s a, “crisis of competence,” story, a generic, “end of the world,” story, or so,etching else. So if even Hollywood is picking up cues….

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            1. I’ll settle for the WSJT-adjacent modes, like JS8call. Not quite magic, though there were a few incantations required to get it set up on my Linux laptop.

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    3. Word processors!

      Pick your favorite; I know Word has pretty much won out, but I’ve used WordStar, WordPerfect (taught that one to college freshmen), roff/runoff, droff, troff, a couple of dedicated things I can’t recall. (Distinct from text editors – e, ex, ed, teco, EDT, LSE/EVE/TPU, vi, and of course EMACS, an operating system disguised as an editor …)

      See also “Thompson, Ritchie and Kernighan admit that Unix was a prank”, http://www.stokely.com/lighter.side/unix.prank.html

      Used to type my own papers in college (until I got a girlfriend who would do that for me; worked out, we’re still married). When I would hit a wrong key, rather than try to erase and reposition the paper so the line would be in the right place, I’d figure out a word that was spelled that way and made sense. A page used to take 30 minutes …

      And carbons, and NCR paper!

      I love word processing software as an idea. And most of the programs were/are implemented well enough.

      And then we get to WordPress (WPDE) and Reddit and vBulletin editors, which seem to have built in opinions on how things are supposed to look.

      But word processors/text editors are lifesavers for we fat-fingered-folx.

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      1. I started with SuperSCRIPSIT on the TRaSh-80 (which actually wasn’t a bad word processor, really), then I was a WordPerfect user for several years until Word finally won out. I have an Office 365 sub now so I get access to Word, when I didn’t have that, I used either OpenOffice or LibreOffice.

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  7. I’ve had the same sense myself, or something like it. Perhaps it’s partly my age finally starting to catch up with me, and perhaps it’s mostly the spider-sense jangle that so many of us have been feeling. I’ve been reacting to it the way you have, with what one could interpret as acts of closure, or at least getting something in knowing it might be the last time.

    Earlier this year, I pushed on a certain direction for a choice of vacation so I could see two of my uncles who live a couple of states away. It had been more than a decade, but I felt like I really needed to remake that connection, at least for a while. It was a good choice.

    More recently, I was actively looking forward to attending a book event for an anthology I was in this year, mainly because several of the people who would likely be there have been pro connections of mine basically since the first SF convention I ever attended. It was a long trip but doable, and I was hoping eagerly the plan would come together. It did not, first because of one party’s medical issues, then because of 10/7. (Speculative, but it’s not exactly smart for a certain group of people to hold a high-visibility event in New York City right now, and that may have been the death blow to the plan.)

    I have one or two other bucket-list ideas coming up in the next several months, but who’s to say they’ll come off? If this really is the false calm before the Yellowstone Caldera erupts, well, at least I got to see my uncles again.

    Republica restituendae
    et
    Hamas delenda est

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    2. What?
      “Humanity is a gestalt eldritch abomination” is NOT a bad message for the current times.

      There are currently way too many would-be sorcerers who need to be reminded “Do not call up that which you cannot put down”.

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  9. well, as much as his character was scum, Lord Baylish of GOT had some choice one liners …. and one of those was “Chaos is a Ladder” … (yes he created the chaos to allow himself to climb the ladder … but it still applies)

    I think CHAOS is a good one word description of what we are experiencing …

    and yes, some or much of this “Chaos” has been created by the elites out of some belief that they can profit in some way …

    but Chaos does create opportunities (to survive, not take advantage of fellow men/women … )

    but I feel the best way to survive Chaos is to be sure of your center … i.e. don’t be in Chaos yourself …

    It does seem like the world is playing one big game of “Made You Blink” …
    just try to stay centered (yes, we all blink sometimes … just try to return to center when that happens)

    (Oh and my personal favorite line from GOT was “How do you answer these charges ? …. (head turns) Lord Baylish ? ” )

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    1. The American culture version would be Rahm Emanuel’s quote, “Never let a crises go to waste.”. Sure, you can try to resolve the crises. But you can also use it as an opportunity to let panicky people permit you to do stuff they might not allow in a more stable situation.

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    2. “Made you blink” only works to a point. Maybe they want an “overreaction”, maybe not, but I get the feeling they will get a reaction they are not prepared to deal with.

      Remember, the folks we’re dealing with are not all-purpose rocket surgeons. They may be wise in limited fields (or perhaps not even those) but I doubt anyone alive has what it takes to plan a campaign of the sort being waged without the whole thing spinning out of control and unleashing Hades.

      Expect every possible outcome at once…just not all in the same place…or for very long. It’s going to be a hell of a ride.

      As for me…I haven’t seen family since Christmas 2021. I hope I’ll see them again in this life. I’m starting to suspect I won’t. Saw best buddy this weekend for the first time in months. Hope that isn’t a last time, either.

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      1. Note the liberal/progressive/reform or secular Jews realizing the people they saw as allies hate them. I am NOT saying they set this up, but they were willfully blind to leftist antisemitism and can no longer ignore it.

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        1. Yeah, but we can’t mention that or we’re raging “anti-semites”.

          They made this bed, time to sleep in it. If we can’t tell you why they’re doing this without getting cancelled, then the Jews on the left will have to figure out how to save themselves from “allies” that literally want to kill them.

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          1. ….you do notice the huge gap between those two groups, right?

            Yelling at people like they’re guilty of the stuff the hijacking politically useful idiots did, when they were already abused because they opposed that nonsense, is stupid and evil.

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        2. They’ve always thought that it was the ideology. They’re the “Good Jews” that are “anti-colonization,” “uplifters of the oppressed peoples,” etc.

          I don’t know whether they have realized even now that it is the tribe. The Arab Semitic tribes have, since the beginning of human settlement in the region, wanted to wipe out the Hebrew Semitic tribes. Ideology (whether secular or religious) has nothing to do with it. “A good Hebrew is a dead Hebrew. Full stop!”

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      2. I suspect it is more likely the gov’t pulls a Jonestown on itself than it provokes a hot reaction.

        I am also concerned that I can no longer rate the probability of the former as “low”. Though I still suspect the likelihood of a provoked hot reaction as pretty remote.

        The core problem is the gov’t has been engaged in a propaganda war with the rest of the country that it has been propagating by deploying its most dangerous tools on itself first.

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      3. Unfortunately, my defaults are stationary, and maximum overdrive. A measured response is kind of foreign to me. So I end up waiting until there’s zero doubt in justification for whatever I’m doing.

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    3. What we need to do is find and kill the d*mn butterfly that’s causing all these problems (according to Archchancellor Ridcully, anyway…)

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      1. Nope nope nope, I read “Sound of Thunder” I know where this is going… I think in this case our butterfly is computers and its wings are several hundred feet across. Basically we have Mothra on the loose. Problem is that Chaos is not just doing unpleasant things its driving useful things too. To use a different analogy we have climbed onto the back of a tiger and we need to hang onto its ears and fur for all we’re worth and hope the other fools haven’t realized they’re riding a tiger and not a chonky old house cat.

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    4. I quit reading the books after a while, and didn’t watch the show; it was too nihilistic, and I got tired of getting to know decent human beings who existed only to die at the hands of psychopaths. Also got tired of spending so much time in the heads and schemes of said psychopaths.

      Which is why I’m curious as to what happened to Petyr Baelish — hoping he died horribly, or at least finally did die, as he was one of the characters I didn’t want to spend any more time with.

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      1. I gave up on the show @ halfway through for much the same reasons. Still, the (show version of the) end of Baelish, given the machinations and manipulations he perpetrates, is eminently satisfying and IMHO worth the @ five-minute watch of the clip easily found on line.

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        1. Oh, and he was Baelish to the end!

          Concur – look for the clip among the deaths of GoT bits on the ‘tube.

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      2. Once I figured out GoT was an “Everyone is Shit!” series, I was free to ignore it and not waste any further seconds on the poo-flinging nincompoop posing as an “author”.

        Gah. What utter rubbish!

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  10. I bought my AL acreage to get away from the Atlanta metro area going into the next election, then my company went bankrupt. And now, I’ve been hired by the last great LTL company, but clear across the country. In Portland, OR. I’m traveling lightly, which means I’m only taking one AR, one pistol, and my deer rifle. No furniture, just household goods-whatever I can cram in my Honda Fit. I’m also packing ultralight camping gear as if, at my age and condition, there’s any hope I could trek the 2,400 miles back to AL on foot if things go sideways. But I have a Plan A, and a Plan B. Plan C is in development.
    I feel as if conservatives are quietly dropping out of the public sphere and hunkering down. We need a code word to find each other. 😉

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      1. Oh, hai, frien’! 😄 It’s good to know that! Our yard is on the west side, off US 30. I’m looking at places around Hillsboro.

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    3. Waves. We are a little bit further south of Portland, in Eugene. Nieces, who live and work downtown Portland, swear it is mostly still a good city.

      Can’t work remotely? Dang.

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      2. Nah, I’m a truck driver. Maybe the one job they can’t outsource, give to illegals, or do remotely. But I’m glad to know there are friends everywhere! I’ve been to Portland many times over the years, just not lately. I always liked the funky vibe, and staying at Jubitz was always a treat! It’ll be kind of neat to sojourn there for awhile. I just wish militant factions everywhere would settle down and have fun, instead of destroying everything.

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      1. Interesting in Eugene, starting to hear a lot of “Told you”. Which I’m likely to think silently (that and think “ain’t karma a bi*toch”). Those who say “I told you so” tend to get whacked by Karen’s. Just saying.

        I mean it is kind of like Biden saying “lets house homeless on federal land”.

        https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/biden-s-push-to-allow-illegal-aliens-to-live-in-national-parks-using-federal-funds-results-in-house-gop-block/ar-AA1kTqZc

        Problem with that, is it is nowhere near services out west and wouldn’t be used. Personally I’m against it because the bears and cougars would get sick on human flesh. Besides the pamphlets all state “Don’t feed the bears. A fed Bear is a dead bear.” I don’t know about the places east of the Rockies, etc.

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          2. That will not go over well, they tried that with the native americans and they still haven’t recovered. Oh, some tribes have, but not many.

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          1. There is Smoky …

            Honestly with the homeless problems in Oregon. With black bears and cougars “invading” residential areas, I’m kind of surprised there haven’t been any mauling deaths.

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            1. A woman up in Canada was apparently killed by a pack of coyotes (though my understanding is that she was hiking at the time, and not in town). I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before a bear or mountain lion gets someone just taking out the trash.

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              1. I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before a bear or mountain lion gets someone just taking out the trash.
                …………………

                That I doubt. Now a bear getting into trash, then someone trying to run the bear off. Yes. A cougar or coyote conflict with someone protecting their pet or livestock? Yes. Truth is the bears, coyotes, cougars, etc., have been co-existing unseen since humanity invaded their territory. Just now with door cameras they are being seen co-existing.

                But the homeless? They are oblivious of what is going on around them. I would expect a coyote pack attack before I’d expect an attack by non-people, non-trash habituated bears, or cougars (who don’t get into trash, but will attack livestock). Scavenging on dead carcass, a definite possibility. Someone stumbling on a kill. Or getting between a mother and cubs. Both possibilities. Homeless doing so at night, too possible.

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              2. I dug into it at the time because coyotes don’t hunt in packs– they’ll hunt in pairs, but it sounded like a wolf-type hunting pack.

                And the weights they gave for the animals after they put them down were massive.

                Turns out there’s a reason for that….

                The coyotes in the region are known to be 75%+ wolf-blood.

                They are coyotes because wolves are protected.

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                1. Which begs the question – were they listed as coyotes to protect the hunters that had to put them down? Or were they listed as coyotes to avoid any embarrassing questions about why the government isn’t letting people hunt animals that are killing people?

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                    1. The thought crossed my mind, but it would be different authorities making the call in each case. If it’s to protect the hunters, that’s the local authorities. If it’s to avoid embarrassing questions, that’s probably at the national government level.

                      Like

                2. The coyotes in the region are known to be 75%+ wolf-blood. They are coyotes because wolves are protected.
                  …………………..

                  The CoyWolf hybred is more aggressive, by all reports. Why this happened is surprising. When wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone and Tetons, the smaller canines and carnivores flourished (even the bears flourished, different reason). Fox, martin, badger, etc. Except the coyote. Why? Wolves kill coyotes. Colorado when wolves are reintroduced, will have the same pattern. Wolves are not tolerant of coyotes.

                  Coyotes do not normally hunt in packs. But there are indications in areas like Chicago where coyotes are creating packs. Adolescent pups that are not dispersing, keeping the larger family group with the breeding pair. Which is what wolves do. Why the change, other than an urban VS rural, wilderness, environment, is unknown.

                  Liked by 1 person

                    1. Coydogs are more aggressive than coyotes or dog packs. Dog packs generally have no fear of humans. Which makes them particularly dangerous.

                      Colorado doesn’t have wolves yet. But are getting ready to reintroduce them. They are taking wolves that need to be removed (or killed) from Oregon.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    3. I am surprised the wolves haven’t self migrated south into Colorado. Or have but PTB haven’t acknowledged it. That is how Oregon got their wolves. Not reintroduced. They are dispersed wolves from Yellowstone and Tetons. Some indications that the wolves weren’t fully wiped out, but PTB won’t acknowledge that. Still no wolves in Coast range.

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                    4. There are wolves in Colorado. There was a big fuss just recently about a pack in Colorado that disappeared after it’s members were “lured” across the state border into Wyoming, where it’s legal to hunt them.

                      “Lured” in this case means that the hunters just happened to be near the state border and were trying to attract other prey using audio lures the first time it happened. But it had unexpected results, as the Colorado wolves apparently heard the noise and investigated. The hunters in question repeated this tactic on subsequent trips.

                      The Feds investigated, confirmed from pictures taken by the hunters that the kills were performed in Wyoming, and declared it all legal.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    5. Luring wolves out of protected territory is an honored tradition of Wyoming wolf hunters. There are attempts to broaden the boundary for legal hunts beyond the border of Yellowstone, Parkway, and Tetons, because of the luring. Not even citing hunters (and the fine is epic) for wolves who make it back across the border alive, but die in the protected areas, have prevented the luring. A lot of condemnation happens online, even from other hunters. A wolf taken because it decided to go after livestock, despite all non-lethal protection employed (which few livestock producers employ, especially open range which then should be “part of business”), is fair game. Otherwise? Leave them alone.

                      I am against hunting wolf. (To be clear.) I am against hunting grizzly, or even killing “problem” grizzly. Grizzlies need to be relocated. Relocate to where they can’t return back to original area. This means the quad 2+ year old of 399, should have been relocated to N. Cascades, where there are already grizzlies. Or Glacier/Waterton, where because of the Waterton 2017 fires grizzly inventory have fallen. Or, dare I say? Oregon/Washington Cascade or Coast ranges. Heck even the Sierras (might avoid Yosemite, might, after all still Sequoia and surrounding park areas). Oregon is seeing the impact of not enough predators beyond human hunters. Deer and Elk wasting illness is killing them.

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                    6. “Colorado doesn’t have wolves yet. But are getting ready to reintroduce them. ”

                      I would be willing to be that the first part isn’t true.

                      I bet they do have them, it’s just that the government biologists haven’t seem any, and have financial incentive to not believe reports from ranchers.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    7. Read this morning that CO wants to re-introduce wolverines.

                      North America’s slightly-smaller equivalent of a Honey Badger is not my favorite bit of wildlife.

                      Could be hard on the local population of Cubans …

                      Liked by 1 person

                    8. Would not surprise me if Colorado already have wolverines. Just not usually seen. Even Yellowstone, where they know wolverines are present the animals are rarely seen.

                      Like

                  2. I have coyotes around my farm in central PA (I’ve seen & heard them, and watched try to tempt my dogs across underground fences (to be ambushed by the pack out of sight)).

                    In Virginia, they’ve been around for more than a decade. The foxhunters occasionally put one up. (They prefer foxes which run in circles to coyotes which tend to run in straight lines.) The coyote seem to have some dog admixture in VA — the ones I’ve seen there have brindling a bit like German Shepherds. But they are still definitely coyote in behavior, just a little larger (and more capable on deer) like the wolves whose niche they’re taking (along with domestic pets).

                    Liked by 1 person

                    1. Never seen them but we’ve had them come through the neighborhood. Neighbors posted video on Nextdoor. Intersection of Hyacinth, Blackfoot, Barstow. This is one corner lot from us. One block north of Irving elementary. Too dang close. Then one of the comments was “Annual event. Time of the year when the coyotes head to new territory for the summer. They’ll reverse in the fall.” Me: “Wait! What? But we’ve been here 35 years!”

                      Where we moved from, no surprise. We were two lots and across the street from farm land. We even hosted a Willamette valley spotted skunk, briefly (until relocated). But the current house is a mile from rural farmland. Okay, that isn’t that far. With the black berries and other goodies they know where the food is. Plus the neighborhood that rural land abuts has a huge cat feral colony (I’ve never seen them either). Cougar and black bear is a little more iffy given minimal tree cover. But they have been seen, also on video, in neighborhoods next to the river, and the old neighborhood (which is east of River Road, we are west of River Road). Even near Madison middle school, and Aubry grade school (which is across the street from Spring Creek park). Would not surprise me if cougars and bears aren’t transitory through. Also would not be surprised to hear that bobcats and fox are also transitory though the neighborhoods but no one has caught them on camera.

                      We are seeing a lot more crows, hawks, and eagles, soaring over the neighborhood. Crows harass the cats (seen it), but can’t snatch them. Cats should be too big to be snatched by hawks (kittens endangered). Eagles could very easily snatch an adult cat. Had them soaring over the neighborhood before, just not in such quantities. Why cats aren’t allowed out except supervised visits. (Even have dad saying they are indoor cats now. Sweet Victory!)

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                    2. Lots of coyotes out here on the fringes of this college town in the middle of nowhere. When I lived in student family housing on the edge of town, coyotes sang me to sleep every night. Living on the inskirts now, we don’t see or hear them anymore. Wouldn’t be surprised if they do skulk around inside town, though.

                      Having a big yard with some fruit trees (which we don’t really take care of), we’ve hosted skunks, raccoons, deer (in the winter) and even foxes. There seem to be quite a few suburban foxes out here; saw one in the yard again yesterday.

                      Was worried about the cats with the foxes for a while, but from what I’ve read, they don’t tend to bother cats. And I saw my Little Boy (“little”: 14 pounds of concentrated muscle and mischief) chase one off a couple winters ago. I almost felt sorry for the fox. Poor guy was really freaked out, could see it in his body language. :)

                      What does worry me is that the Boy might think he could do that with a coyote. But I don’t think that’s likely. He’s got a lot of experience outside now, and he’s a wary one (except when harassing foxes, apparently).

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                    3. Not our current 5 cats (although the more recent feral golf coarse rescue probably has had wildlife encounters given where the golf coarse is), but cats we had early in the marriage (which were indoor/outdoor). I know Yeller took on a Golden Retriever and road him down the street (dog refused to walk on our side of the street past the house from then on). Don’t know if he tangled with a coyote or not. Could have, both in Longview (given where we lived up on the hill at the top of a undeveloped canyon), and our rental east of River Road close to the river and next to farmland. Yes, he was a big cat. But his biggest asset was he was raised by a German Shepard, and occasional weeks long training by two malamutes (who were used as cat beds). Also smart enough (along the the cats we had then, and the German Shepard) to leave the Willamette Spotted Skunk alone.

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                    7. The local She-Hawk here (Redtail) is the largest one I have ever seen. Ginormous. Was sitting on a 4×4 fencepost in front of my home. Feet to head, about 3 feet. Not used to seing a bird perched on what amounts to a handrail, that I look dang near in the eye. Was likely having a pot-meail “consumption coma”, as I got to within about 4 feet before she started getting wary. Could have -easily- snatched a big housecat. Thing looked like a feathered couch cushion. When it finally stretched and flew away, wingspan was around 5.5 feet.

                      Magnificent.

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                  3. Dog/Wolf/Coyote will hybridize at opportunity. Since neither the pure wolf nor pure coyote does very well around humans (long term), it is the hybrids that are thriving. That is one flexible gene pool, and it is comiong to a neighborhood near you. (With or without “help” from nincompoops).

                    “Melting Pot” isn’t just for American humans. Nor is “hybrid vigor”.

                    A mob of 100-pound urban-adapted pack-preadators tends to justify splurging on one of those Modern Sporting Rifles and several full-size magazines.

                    The SuperPigs from Canada are making me rethink the utitlity of a Garand rechambered to .458 Winchester Magnum instead of .30M2. I passed on one as “absurd” 20-ish years ago. Didn’t expect to be hunting Fithip or Kzinti.

                    Hopefully not a “He chose poorly” moment…..

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              3. IIRC she was a young musician and a rabid tree hugger type. Apparently, she thought she was going to do a dances with wolves sort of encounter with a wild pack of coyotes. The coyotes though of something else.

                Liked by 1 person

                1. Sounds like a jogger on a trail outside of Yellowstone, West Yellowstone, this spring. Ear phones in. Running alone in the early morning. Got away with it multiple times. Until she didn’t. Reconstruction was she surprised a grizzly sow with a cub of the year (i.e. tiny). Bear swiped at her with a paw, then ran off with the cub. Jogger bled out. While traps were set, the grizzly and cub weren’t found. Wrong place. Wrong time. Not paying attention to surroundings in grizzly country. Wildlife use the trails too. They are a convenient unencumbered path for going from one location to another. Seen running the jogger is an immediate threat to the cub. While it will be never known, grizzlies are known to give verbal warning. Jogger would not have heard. The swat, given the grizzly didn’t eat, wasn’t intended to kill. Humans rarely survive a grizzly swat. The jogger didn’t.

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        3. @ dep729 > “Problem with that, is it is nowhere near services out west and wouldn’t be used”

          They won’t even use an old airfield near NYC.
          Some of these illegally admitted persons expect first-class service for their votes.
          https://nypost.com/2023/11/12/metro/first-migrants-arrive-at-floyd-bennett-field-only-to-scoff-and-leave-isolated-site-after-just-one-look-around/

          This is in the Gateway National Recreation Area, which is mentioned in your linked post.

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          1. They won’t even use an old airfield near NYC. Some of these illegally admitted persons expect first-class service for their votes.
            ……………..

            Not surprised.

            Liked by 1 person

    5. If When things go pearshaped in Portlandia, remember that most of Oregon east of the Cascades is fairly sane. (Not including Bend…) It’s a shorter hike if nothing else.

      FWIW, Gov Tina isn’t quite so deranged as Despicable Kate Brown, though I’m still quite wary out of anything from TPTB.

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      1. I guess it’s just a matter of dropping subtle hints. 😉 “Darkship Thieves” peeking out of your back pack, an MHI sticker on your car…🥰 We’ll recognize the signs!

        Liked by 2 people

  11. I am very curious about tomorrow. Today, we packed the Christmas boxes for the local food bank, and tomorrow we start distributing them. We had a significantly higher number of folks showing up the first Tuesday of last month than usual. Will we have to make up more boxes? We haven’t the last few years, but we’ll see.
    On a more positive note, we’re actually having a bit of a pecan crop this year. Not tons, but I should be able to make a few pies. And we might ht be able to resume the pecan/maple syrup swap.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Niece and BIL have slipped into Food Stamp income range. He had to get a new job because the company he worked for shutdown all car sales division, just keeping the rental division. Now he is with a new company doing sales and loans. But just starting it is at minimum wage (commission, but minimum wage minimum). She has Lupis and can’t work during medical flares which triggers all kinds of employment problems (she needs to get declared medically disabled). At least they have their savings and can keep up with the mortgage. Vehicles are paid for.

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      2. Not surprised. Between some major rate increases in our insurance, and some necessary home repairs showing up at the same time as our taxes, we’re going to need to pull a chunk out of savings. We should be able to put back in during the year, but it’s the first time we’ve had to do that for the end of year expenses.

        Now, I’m well paid, so we’re going to be fine, but going to have to do some real belt tightening this year. Anyone closer to the edge would already be in serious trouble.

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        1. Not surprised. Between some major rate increases in our insurance, and some necessary home repairs showing up at the same time as our taxes
          ……………………..

          When it rains, it pours. Money is the same way. There is a reason why we went into retirement with just the IRA savings, and limited taxed account savings (small Roths), despite the latter being part of our plans. (We also each have pensions, for all that mine is $1444/year at $121/month, grin.) OTOH we (three) got son through college degree without loans.

          This year we changed insurance, again (only this time went through a broker, so broker can do ongoing research). Insurance was $2k/year for just vehicles, and we haven’t had any at fault claims or traffic tickets in forever. Roof had to be replaced at the tune of $17,200 this last summer. Garage door (50 year old wood door) has split, ordered a new one ($2890, half down). We still have to paint the house (early next summer). Carpets should be replaced (with not carpet).

          We are at a point we expect to pull money from savings occasionally. But until required minimum distributions kick in, we expect to only pull when we have extraordinary expenses, like insurance, holidays, pet medical, and travel. Otherwise, our monthly income we expected to cover monthly expenses. Both of us turning 65, enabling dropping monthly medical insurance payments, and last year’s COLA, even gave us an extra margin of about $200/month. Or should have. With inflation? We are having to pull down $1 – $2k extra (not counting the taxes that are paid on the amount needed). That is all grocery inflation. Can we do more belt tightening? Yes. OTOH we are not spending what we earn in the accounts, so not desperate. Yet.

          Anyone closer to the edge would already be in serious trouble.
          ……………….

          I agree.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. I’m making a lot more money now than I was four years ago, but I’m not any better off. Tightening the belt, actually. Inflation ate all of it. Doing okay anyway, but just barely keeping pace. If I was still working for the university, I’d be unable to afford rent and groceries by now.

          Paul “we beat inflation at very little cost” Krugman can kiss my ass.

          Liked by 2 people

          2. “Paul “we beat inflation at very little cost” Krugman can kiss my ass.”

            Not even wearing britches made from battleship armor.

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        3. Car insurance hasn’t gone up much (after the shocks from legalizing MJ), but homeowners was brutal. 40% increase for us, and so far no luck at getting cheaper coverage. OTOH, we can get insurance. A lady at the mail drop place lost her home in a fire started by a couple of meth-heads, and she cannot find a company willing to cover the house when she can finally rebuild.

          Other companies are refusing to cover houses with a wood-burning stove therein. When we moved here, one company wouldn’t cover the shop/barn unless I dropped the wood stove in it. (The house is electric with propane backup. No wood burners.) We found an alternate, though the contents of the barn are not covered. Sigh. (I’m hearing that some new homeowner’s policies are such. Cover the house, but contents is a separate policy or rider, much like renter’s insurance of yore.)

          I’m guessing that the companies took a bath between wildfires and the Summers of Love in the past few years, and are trying to recoup. It’s going to be hell for anybody who has to have coverage to keep the mortgage outfits happy.

          Liked by 2 people

          1. There’s also been a lot of repair companies that have worked out systems for extracting maximum cash from insurance companies, and because it is all 3rd party no-one really notices or cares until everyone gets their rate increased because of it.

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          2. companies are refusing to cover houses with a wood-burning stove therein
            ……………

            Been true of non-certified stoves since the new emission standards came in mid-’90s(?). Grandfathered in with existing insurance, as long as original safety certified was put in with a legal permit. Which is how mom is covered with the stove insert they put in in ’86. Ironically it is our old stove from up north (fit folks fire place, too big for our, rental. or even the house we bought 2 years later). It burns cleaner than the safety emission certified wood stove insert we put in to replace the pre-’90 safety stove insert in 2001. We didn’t want to replace it but the connection between the wood stove and stove pipe (to the chimney flue plate) needed fixing (could see fire, which is never good), which required pulling the stove. Once the old wood stove was pulled, it couldn’t be put back. So we got a new “approved” wood stove insert. Mom has had the same home insurance since mom and dad married, and on the current house since ’63, through when the wood stove was installed (with full double lined pipe up the existing brick chimney) and permitted. What she can’t do is change insurance. When she dies, and we 3 girls inherit, the stove will have to be pulled and destroyed (or I’m thinking repurposed as an outdoor wood stove fireplace). This is whether we sell the house or not.

            Now whether the original statement above is the insurances now not insuring any home with a wood burning stove (insert or not) even when the wood stove is post ’90 emission and safety certified and installed under county permit, that is new. We just changed home owner’s insurance (twice now in 3 years, when we change car insurance, we change everything). Neither application asked about wood stoves (given age of house one would think they would have). Dogs, that they did ask. “Have a dog?” Yes. “Dog over 25#’s?” No (she’s overweight at 23#s’.)

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            1. I don’t have first-hand knowledge of the situation, but when things are slow at the mail drop, there’s all kinds of interesting conversations. (I pay my bills there when there’s room to work–increasingly difficult as the Christmas shipping rush hits the mail drop.)

              The comment on wood stoves was apparently covering all stoves, presumably due to higher fire danger. (I can attest to that. One of the more memorable fires I worked years ago was when the idjit who owned the house was storing flammable solvents next to the active wood stove. Even the metal frame of the house was trash.)

              Again, I don’t have first hand knowledge. My wood stove in the barn is certified (bought in late 2015), and AFAIK is not relevant to the purchasing restrictions. My homeowners insurance covers the stove for the while. (Since I have over 10 cords of wood on hand and usually need 1 or 2 each year, it’s important.)

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              1. Mom still has some wood left. When it is gone time to go ahead and pull the stove (brand no longer manufactured, but way better than anything emission and safety certified on the market since. Did smoke burn with brick baffles, long before catalytic burners. I will try to talk hubby into putting in a gas insert (gas line is right behind fireplace because that is where the gas furnace and gas water heater utility closet is). Then we’ll get paid back when she dies and the house sells. Or one of my more financially enabled sisters can. Whatever. And I know exactly where that wood stove can be repurposed as an outdoor fireplace (just put it on appropriate raised bricks on gravel). No fire danger in Willamette Valley where we are. Would be better located at youngest sister’s place, but while still west of Cascades, southern Washington, relatively wet, safe place to put it (cement next to pool away from house), after their fire scare a year ago? (Evacuated and there is only one way out of their rural subdivision.) Probably not.

                As for us? Just the excuse needed. I want the wood stove and firebox chimney gone. Happy to replace with a gas fireplace (rebuild wall). But I want it gone. The gas meter is just a few feet away.

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                  1. Location of mom’s wood stove would heat the house should heat go off. Ours, wrong location, maybe two rooms. Better than nothing and the few times we’ve lost power, we’ve done so.

                    Definitely would get gas stoves with battery backups. Would take a disaster to turn off the gas, and we can’t stick around if that happens. A generator backup, even if it just runs the fireplace fans and freezers would work.

                    We don’t have the wood stacked for a lot of reasons. It has gotten expensive locally. Mom still has what was left of what youngest uncle culled off his place before he sold it, years ago. We just cleaned out the last of our wood last winter. Hubby used to get it free from the different mills he was assigned (employees and contractors) until that got cut off. We bought one dumpster from local recycling to see how many chords the troop could get for firewood sales (not enough for the work and cost). Before we got it locally, we were getting wood for inlaws over in Bend. One weekend a month we’d cut 6 loads a month (down and dead pine). One for SIL, one for inlaws, two for BIL, and two to bring back to Eugene. When we were in Longview we used Firewood Finders (hauled down 6 chords). We never had less than 10 chord of wood until the last 5 or 6 years (3 chords/year when electric heat used, down to 1.5 – 2 chords/year when we switched to gas furnace), used.

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  12. “Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.”

    This is exactly what I have been thinking, as a poetic earworm, as it were. I can’t get the imagery out of my mind since I went to First Friday Mass last week. The book of Daniel is not one to read at times like this if one wants to sleep well. It makes you think of Yeats and The Second Coming.

    Then again, it may be the book one needs to read when one must be on the watch.

    This time of year is always a time of melancholy for me, but it does seem to be worse than usual. I have been thinking of trying to get hubby to take a couple of weekend trips to see family. Don’t know why we generally never travel in the winter.
    This might be why though.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. This year has felt to me like 2006, when I looked at my Dad and knew that would be our last Christmas as a family. I hate being right. And today I got diagnosed with Renal Cancer; I have a lovely little marble sitting atop and just within my left kidney. I am trying, Oh God, am I trying, to get it taken care of before the wheels come off the system. Any thoughts or prayers would be appreciated.

    Like

    6. I can say from personal experience this is survivable: I was diagnosed with renal cancer in 2018, and after a right radical nephrectomy I have now been cancer-free for just over five years. I also have a first cousin who was diagnosed with renal cancer a few years before me. He had his left kidney removed and some chemotherapy, and has been cancer-free longer than I have.

      He refers to us as “bookends”, since we each have a kidney on the opposite side of the other.

      But in any case, offering my prayers that yours was caught early and can be successfully treated.

      Liked by 1 person

    12. Colon cancer 3 years ago, chemo, no recurrence (so far, or expected). I lost writing to chemo fatigue bigtime, but that’s over with. As a bonus, the chemo “encouraged” me into a never-before massively successful diet, where I lost a third of my body weight (70 lbs) and got me close to BMI normal. I’m an EverReady bunny now, which has undoubtedly added years (and nimbleness) to my life. (To be, perhaps, spent in an Alzheimer’s fog, mind you… There’s just no getting away with anything around here.)

      Chin up — good times ahead, more than likely.

      Liked by 1 person

    13. Prayers offered. Having dealt with Large B Cell Lymphoma I suspect it ain’t gonna be fun. I’m now almost 11 years in remission so hang in there.

      Liked by 1 person

  15. Hubby and I had a bit of a shocking incident yesterday. We traveled to the big city of Rapid City SD to get some things and as we were leaving the Menards store, a masked and hooded guy with a big box of items went running past us, shoving me out of the doorway. He ran right by a kid bringing in a row of shopping carts. The kid watched him run past into the night, looked at us and shook his head, then commenced pushing the carts.

    It took us a bit to figure out why that guy was so rude and in such a hurry he pushed me out of the way. Neither one of us had ever seen anything like that before. Certainly never expected it in Rapid City.

    We were kind of stunned that this behavior is now kind of close to us.

    I think things ARE going to get very bad. And not just in the big city. I hope we are far enough away to avoid it. And I am very worried about our kids in the big cities.

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    1. I’m at that Menards quite often. That is very strange for Rapid City. One is far more likely to be waylaid by casual conversation. I add 15 minutes to all my errand times to allow for getting caught up chatting with some stranger.

      Don’t ever talk to yourself in the baking aisle at the grocery store. “Six kinds of bread flour and no cake flour!” resulted in a 20 minute conversation.

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    2. Jerry’s home improvement has but in one way barriers on their main entrance. Want out, go through check stand areas or out doors through lumber yard (which has it’s own barriers.

      SIL who works at W 11th Fred Meyers (Krogers) asked if the Division Fred Meyers had put up one way entrance barriers, forcing people to leave through check stand monitored areas. Answer: “No. Not yet.”

      Another solution that is coming is no more check stands. Want something in a store? Enter, get and handheld computer (Intermec/Symbol/DataLogic). Must enter payment information. Want something off a shelf, must scan barcode to unlock shelf. Must scan to remove an item. Put in basket. When done, must go through process to return handheld computer, at which time payment process is completed. Want to return something to the self? Must be done when checking out and is (by report) a PIA. This is being tested. Will someone figure out how to game this system? Well duh. But they won’t be easily looting.

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        1. My first reactions are:

          “Undoubtedly.”

          And

          “Why?”

          Also suspect that the stores testing this have taken that into consideration and have steps in place to prevent. Not that they’ll fully succeed.

          I’ve programmed the things. Not like anything comes on them, or free apps out there in the wild internet to download. They are customized for their one function. Which can be overridden making it a brick. I guess they can recycle the components. No, it isn’t the same as programming a computer or phone app. Similar. Not the same.

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          1. No, what they’ll do will involve “social engineering”. There’s someone there who can override the lock, if only for restocking purposes.

            “Give us the stuff or we’ll hurt you.”

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          1. I expect such in places like Antifastan (sorry, misspelled “Portland”). Soon to be followed by whining about stores closing in such neighborhoods.

            See Chicago for shining examples of such goings on.

            Like

      2. We’ve already seen Enterprising Shoppers tearing the shelves apart to get behind the locks.

        Little crow bars are easy to conceal, and handy impact weapons to discourage interference from the staff.

        I suspect the problem will not abate, in some places, until stores implement ‘man-trap’ entry doors and the pre-order/pickup model – at which time the Enterprisers will shift to preying on the customers rather than the stores, and the customers will come armed.

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        1. Enterprising Shoppers tearing the shelves apart to get behind the locks.
          ………………..

          Then there are the stores that are just putting out cards for items, like Costco does with expensive smaller items and jewelry. Grab a card (or print a intent to buy receipt), take to check stand, pay, then the item is delivered to you to take out of the store. Not where I want to shop, but some have no choice. They can thank the looters. If they even have a store. TPTB have made the food and medicine desert a reality.

          Like

      3. The idiots will just move to taking groceries from people who have already paid, either inside the store or (more likely) in the parking lot.

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        1. You’ll be arrested for shooting them, but they won’t be arrested for shooting you.
          ———————————
          When police arrest violent criminals to protect innocent people, they are condemned as Jackbooted Fascist Stormtroopers.

          When police arrest innocent people at the behest of corrupt politicians, they are hailed as National Heroes.

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        1. Won’t stop us from shopping Jerry’s (instead of Lowes or Home Depot), because employee owned, local business. Even Fred Meyers, I’ll grit my teeth and shop there when (because it isn’t “if”) Division Fred Meyers gets “upgraded”. Better than shopping across the street at Albertson’s. Closest Safeway is on Coburg road south of Costco (quite a ways south). For reasons not enamored with shopping at WinCo (even if it is employee owned these days too). While Winco doesn’t (didn’t, again, don’t shop there) have barrier to enter, they’ve always made it difficult to smash, grab, and leave.

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          1. I’ve always considered a owner/employee owned and operated lead thrower to be more than sufficient as a barrier to smash, grab and leave. At least some people in this country are waking up to that wisdom in the wake of defunded police.

            Like

            1. There was a recent video online of adapt, react, overcome involving a fleeing thief and an employee with a 2-liter Coke bottle. Who knew you could throw a Coke bottle hard enough to knock somebody out?

              Liked by 1 person

              4. My dear departed sister, while working her way through nursing school was prepping food at a sandwich shop. Joe Idiot the robber snuck in the back and announced a robbery. Sis was holding a #10 can of olives, which she promptly hurled against his head.

                BOOM! Out go the lights.

                (she was a big girl, that family “peasant farmer” stock)

                Dent-Dome-Dipstick managed to crawl away while folks were fussing with the phone callng 911.

                Liked by 1 person

      5. The Flyover Falls Fred Meyers (say that four times fast :) ) hasn’t put in too many measures. Yet. Their shopping carts now have a brake on a rear wheel that triggers when the cart goes walkabout. It’s at the edge of a neighborhood that used to be blue collar housing (verrrry blue. Probably a lot of rentals, at the time) for the lumber mills. No more mills, and lots more Section 8. The main entrance faces west, and has only the standard problems. The northern one (where I like to park, and on most days has a less-busy cashier) is across from a lot of sketchy apartments and seems to collect the problem children. It now closes early, and a sign said it would be closed all day for the Black Friday sales. There are no obvious security guards, but the overhead cameras are getting deliberately more obvious. High value merch (cosmetics and spendy OTC drugstore stuff) is getting locked away.

        I’m not crazy enough to go shopping on Black Fridays, but will go into town on Boxing Day, with instructions to get a Proper Christmas Tree. Seems the 4′ one was not satisfactory. I’ll do my vulture shopping and look for a bargain. Will also have my head on a swivel. Probably should look for a retention OWB holster for the 1911, too. Don’t feel comfortable with the Askins Avenger in town. I love the draw, but… It’s getting steadily weirder.

        January 2th is a designated shopping day for me (10% off on Kroger branded stuff at Fred Meyers for Seasoned Citizens (h/t Rush Limbaugh)), which makes for a Joad family resemblance on the way home. With luck, it should be quiet.

        Like

        1. Their shopping carts now have a brake on a rear wheel that triggers when the cart goes walkabout.
          ………………………

          Our Division Fred Meyers has those too. I despise them. I probably get caught by them about half the time I use the staffed checkouts. I’ve read the self checkouts have a mechanism to prevent that as the cart moves from the scanner through the anti theft pillars.

          I haven’t seen armed security at Division FM. Sister-in-law works at W 11th FM, so she has seen them there.

          Division FM nearest bulk housing is senor residences. St Vincent and Goodwill are across the street. Homeless get cleared out regularly from camps east and south of Division FM, but not huge camps. Worse I see is them scavenging for bottles thrown away in the trash cans. I rarely get asked for money. The bottle return CanDo does have posted hours (8 – 8), and the bag drop offs have sturdy arm setup that flex in, but not out, making it a PIA to put bags in (I get whacked and bruised putting them in), and impossible to pull bags out (good).

          Liked by 1 person

      1. Yup. Store employee might get hurt. So tell the employees that they’re not allowed to do anything – even in self-defense – and fire anyone who does.

        Or the individual might get hurt, and sue the store.

        Like

        1. Non-security employees are not allowed to chase. Security employees are. Fred Meyer security employees are now armed (locally anyway). Think about that for a bit.

          Like

    4. Locally (not immediate local, afaik, but in the county) the individual probably wouldn’t have bothered to wear a mask.

      Like

  16. Folks, there is at least one strain of Flu running loose currently that seems like it belongs in Ringo’s “Last Centurion”. I am on day 5, down 10 pounds. Temps hit 103+ occasionally for 3 days. Today was first successful solid food since onset. Ick. Take appropriate actions if you start getting achy and have dry cough. This stuff is a beast.

    Notes for preppers:
    You need easy to fix easy to digest foods for sick people.
    Dealing with biohazard garbage is also a thing.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Dang. Last time I had a fever over 101F (103F) as an adult I was thrown in the hospital faster than I could say “no”. Being 19 didn’t help. I was very sick.

      Glad you are “feeling” better and hope you keep improving.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Dry cough. Rollercoaster fever. “Got beat up” aches. Little appetite. Then digestive mutiny for a day. (Just wow…)

          Same old same old “flu”.

          Liked by 1 person

      2. I avoid hospitals as much as possible. Full of sick people who neither need what I have, nor have what I need. Urgent care for first aid needs or off hours, else my GP.

        If the patient is reasonably alert, can manage fluid intake, and is not far from an ER, what is the gain? Precautionary tests and IV, mingled with “we are busy” triage, huge discomfort, huge bill, plus exposure to exotic hospital superbugs.

        No thanks.

        Like

      1. You and your doc should review.

        A typical real flu for me usually has a digestive distress follow on. That’s actually the lethal danger. You are dumping vast quantities of body water into the gut. Easy to dehydrate. Dehydration kills.

        If your urine isn’t clear to light yellow, drink lots more. Should cause annoying increase in bathroom trips. Ensure mineral uptake via food. Use proper rehydration salts (isotonic) if unable to eat. (Gatorade gets cut 10 water to one aid) OJ works, but dilute it much.

        Wow. Turned the corner. Brain fog has mostly cleared
        Nice.

        Liked by 1 person

          1. Been broke. Probably why I learend how to take care of myself. Just couldnt afford debt peonage for bandaid applications. (bicyclist)

            Liked by 1 person

    3. Co-worker was out sick… and he’s no slacker, so he was sick. Musta been bad enough to see someone as he’s out for much of the week as he tesed positraction, er positive for The Dreaded Lurgi, er Covid. Or at least that’s what some alleged test said. At this rate, it might as well be the Lurgi. Now I wonder if he was contagious last I saw him – not so much for myself, but how many others of the crew will get the Lurgi? Me? I takes me my D3 & zinc & a few other things…. and haven’t been symptomatic of, well pretty much anything, since… the Great Bowel Evacuation, Extended of February 2020. I shall leave it at that.

      Like

  17. I went ahead and bought next year’s seeds for the garden when there was a sale over Thanksgiving weekend. They’re now here, which makes me feel a little better about the future.

    I’ve bought booths for several conventions for next year, and I’m hoping those events will actually happen. But right now I have to assume that they will, because the window for buying into them is often pretty narrow. And it’s worrisome how I’m not getting any eBay sales now that our last convention of the year is over.

    I’m also working on ways to keep on track and focused with the writing, so I don’t spin my wheels like I did in 2020. But, as life often does, I had a nasty surprise yesterday when I woke up with the volcanic two-step. Not recommended. The day ended up a total loss, and today I’m getting to that point where I want to be writing, but when I try to sit up at the computer, I start feeling like crap again.

    Right now, I just want to get through my husband’s heart procedure before everything goes to heck. Getting to see my youngest brother at Christmas would be nice, too.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. I had the oddest feeling that G*d was pressuring me to call my dad. Suddenly nearly everything reminded me of him. We’re not estranged, but we’re not close, either; I don’t often think of him. It took me about a week to notice and another week of prodding before I called. Everything is fine. I have no idea what that was about.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Who says it was your list that was being checked off? We don’t always do this stuff for ourselves or even whomever we interact with.

      Liked by 1 person

  19. Not every last call is a bad thing. My wife and I have been fortunate enough to afford ski vacations every year. However, my teaching job constrained me to take said vacations during the hectic spring break. With my decision to retire this year, we celebrated our Last Ever Spring Break Ski Trip, and are quite happy to see it forever in the rear view mirror.

    Now, let’s get some snow so we can ski the low season.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. I’ve decided to go back to work. Very short recap: in the past four years I had three close relatives go on hospice. They needed my care; after a tough 2.5 years they had all passed away. I then was put in charge (well, the duty defaulted to me) of clearing out my parents’ home and getting the house on the market. Finally all the death duties were done and I managed to get out of CA and to FL. I feel better being out of California, though I do miss it.

    All of the previous resulted in my moving to part time work and eventually quitting completely, but I’m getting the same bad feelings as everyone else. I have applied for a position which I think I will get and expect to restart work after the first of the year. It isn’t so much for the salary as it is for the benefits, though the salary will be nice – and employment will decrease my worry level.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Don’t underestimate “purposeful human interaction” and “achieving incremental measurable meaningful goals”.

      Or, join a church and let them know you are retired. You will soon have a huge to-do list “volunteering”.

      Lol.

      Like

  21. The last call of the morning
    Before the sun rises high.
    The last call of the evening
    As darkness still draws nigh

    The last call of the night time
    When dawn shows her lovely head.
    The last call of the dreaming
    While the children are still abed.

    So change all the seasons.
    So change all the days.
    When the last call of time
    Hurries us on our way.

    Though we would like to linger
    And the pathway seems so hard
    Still the last call propels us
    And we follow a distant star.

    When darkness falls around us,
    And there is no comfort near,
    The last call still grounds us
    And we carry on through fear.

    Fear may be a companion
    Fear my be a foe,
    But in the last call of the dawning
    The next truth wiill show.

    Do not fear yet to stumble,
    For you are not alone.
    The last call of the dawning
    Will ever bring us home.

    Liked by 1 person

    4. @ Wyrdbard – I always want to sing your poems.
      Repeat the third verse at the end, and try it with “Kingsfold.”
      I had to be a little creative with word-to-note matching, but it works.
      There are a lot of arrangements, and many different hymn texts.

      Organist Mark Dwyer plays Hymn Tune Kingsfold on pipe organ at Church of the Advent

      Liked by 1 person

    5. Excellent!

      I hope you’re OK with this (I’ll delete them if not): I have 3 of your poems saved in my “Literature” folder; this is the third.

      Liked by 1 person

          1. No worries. I didn’t think you would. I just wanted to be clear where the actual limit was so you wouldn’t have to worry too much about it.

            Like

  22. Was at the Glimmerglass Festival near Cooperstown NY this summer; place is an opera-musical performance venue during July & August. Attendance was down this summer they say; they know I am a bigger ($1000/year) contributor. Word all over was that business was LESS this summer.
    While there stayed at an expensive (as in $308/night) bed & breakfast, the American Hotel of Sharon Springs. I had promised its owners some years back I’d finally stay with them after dining twice at their expensive restaurant. They closed the restaurant in Dec. 2021 but their B&B was booked solid last year so this year I did two nights. Wonderful place; next year I will plan more in advance and stay 3 weekend nights on Festival weekend (four productions in forty-four hours).
    Yes, I am richer now my Dad’s estate is settled–NOT due to Joe Biden! Last week featured an Annual Champagne Tasting which I solved by staying overnight at the hotel where it was held. Now I can say I stayed at The Parker House! One remaining hotel visit will be at The Roycroft Inn in East Aurora NY of Elbert Hubbard fame; of course I’ve stayed there twice before.
    This is The Year of Spending Money, starting this past summer. The champagne and single malt ordered will help keep Federal Wine & Spirits of Boston in business–yes, they too had a tough several years, but I’ve bought several years’ champagnes from them. Usually I hold Champagne Obsequies for People/Things I Don’t Like Who Pass but I liked Henry Kissinger who like my Dad lived past 100. Cronkite and Teddy had me going through two bottles of champagne a few weeks apart! There’s a small bottle of champagne to celebrate National Liberation Day 22. November. When Biden goes I will travel to Vermont where I think there’s a Lake Champagne maybe, I’ve heard.
    Result: don’t buy any more champagnes! OK, so I haven’t bought from these tastings before and haven’t bought a Single Malt from them in five years at least so I might have wanted to help them out. Which leads to a possible conclusion of what’s going on…

         People are buying/doing things with the idea that The End Is Near and this will be The Last Opportunity for many things as there might not be a Next Year.  The roof is about to fall; the cracking is visible; result is that some money is being spent on Last Things before The Roof/Ceiling Falls In!  I've been saying (and writing) that The World Is Searching for Its Archduke Franz Ferdinand Moment and it's 1913; Soros and Friends are setting the US or Israel--more probably both--for the Germany 1914 in the common Allied Propaganda role.  For a few weeks it looked like October 7th last was going to be 2023's "June 28th" when the Archduke's driver made a wrong turn.
      Time will tell.  Sorry, I don't follow Science Fiction or read novels.  A girl I lived with in the '90's got to read some, my only John Updike novel "Memories of the Ford Administration"; my girlfriend hadn't realized that James Buchanan's career was used as the foil for the "protagonist's" life.  My girlfriend was a victim of the Book of the Month Club, the Purdue Pharma of Literature!  But no more Dike Upjohn!  OK, I should take a look at Sarah's books!
      Oh, did I mention the Homeless Money problem?  All that investable cash needing a decent home with interest rate at niggardly abysmal levels.  OK I unleashed mine in March & April 2020 to find homes in places I already knew about--that time was almost the equivalent of June 1932 for the All Time Bottom.  Places like Corning and Wells Fargo and ExxonMobil and OxyPeteA, now curled up and earning fat dividends.  A shame I didn't have spending money like that 40-50 years ago! Now Bankers, Biden, etc. are trying to keep that Homeless Money from earning decent homes!  IT'S A MESS!!!

    Like

    1. Hmm. Some might criticize that comment – but not me; who am I to decide what other people have on their bucket list. Good for you that you’re getting things off of it!

      Reminded me of many years ago when an HR type was addicted to putting up motivational posters all over the place. One, of course, was “Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life!” Under which someone (not me, although I was among the many that laughed) put up an 8 x 11 sheet with “It may also be the last. So make the most of it!

      Like

  23. I went to see Godzilla Minus Zero today. That was an exceptional movie, much less monster movie. Also a remarkable laying out of honest home truths about Japanese societal problems, as well as of love of country and family, and colleagues too. Well-constructed drama, good acting, people you care about.

    Not suitable for young kids, but in some ways it is like Ghibli for adults. You might cry, but the end is happy.

    Possibly the first libertarian Japanese movie I can think of…. At least, with grownups as opposed to kids.

    Like

    1. Oh, and I forgot to say that Christmas light displays, and inflatables, and even a manger scene are up around my neighborhood, in force. We had good weather, and people took advantage of it. Saw a lot of people with the whole family outside decorating.

      Like

      1. Just got ours up on the house yesterday. Which is extremely early for me – I usually dither around until the week before.

        I only found out about that movie yesterday, when someone left the Fire Stick on rotating ads (I think it was the stick; maybe one of the sub services, I rarely pay attention to the main television these days).

        Looks like something I’ll try to go see. That will make TWO in the same twelve months, if Daily Caller can get its Snow White production out soon.

        Like

    2. Saw it on Sunday, and I am in full accord. Extremely well written. You don’t expect to see a Godzilla movie for the life-affirming human drama, but this one delivers it. Some reviewers are calling it the best Godzilla movie in seventy years, back to the original, and if that’s not true, it’s only because this one exceeds the original. I have my niggling problems with it that I could trot out, but nah, not today.

      Plus there are a couple spoilsports calling it “alt-right adjacent,” which is so fully stuffed with wild blueberry muffins that I think you’re now morally obliged to go see the thing.

      Like

    3. I’m glad to hear you liked it. It’s apparently enraging all the right people since it clobbered all of the woke crap at the box office.

      ^_^

      Like

        1. Apparently the parental consensus online is that fairly young kids (6, 8, 9 – the traditional kaiju entrance ages) are doing okay with the flick. Probably some of the more adult horrific implications whiz over their heads, which is pretty much how it worked for kids back in the day, too.

          Like

  24. This Christmas I am distributing many much-cherished items as gifts to family members who I know have admired or would enjoy having them. Maybe it is my age but I think it is more let them have them and enjoy them as long as possible. Seems like the fragile crust of everyday civilization is crumbling all around us. And I don’t thank heaven live in a large city, but just that sense of uneasiness all the time everywhere.

    Like

    1. A cousin is doing that with her inheritance from her parents. While the grandchildren, and in some cases great-grandchildren have gotten something out of the (huge) estate. Cousin set herself and current husband up financially, is building a vacation home on the Oregon coast (been told, southern somewhere, don’t remember). The rest has already being distributed to her children and grandchildren as the money is distributed. What she said “not doing what my parents did and have the kids wait until I die, holding it over their heads”. Not that her parents weren’t extremely generous. All the grandchildren got a car at 16, their college paid ,and startup financially coming out of college, weddings, and they did get money out of the will. Any money left over after she and her husband die, will go to the kids. If she dies first, the money is in a trust to cover his expenses (it is a toss up who goes first).

      I need to get a mailing address for hubby’s niece. Her mom collected some stuff that as she was collecting also got some for us. Never had them out (cats). She should have them. Have some model horses I haven’t had out in decades (cats). My younger cousin collects them (old style Beyer horses). Debating on whether to let son just sell them, leave a note for him, or go ahead and send (majority) to cousin. Entire box < $1000, but not “nothing” (I might have a few.)

      Like

    2. Best to give the toys away to make folks happy, where you can see it, versus leaving a pile for the most ruthless ghouls.

      There are always ghouls.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Aye. An aunt said said something about the tools & machines grandpa had (he was bedridden…) and grandpa response was to tell pa to get everything out of the basement RIGHT NOW, so it would go to someone who’d USE it and not just be auctioned or scrapped.

        Like

        1. I was supposed to get a few items when my ‘stepdad’ passed on, most notably his Ruger Mark I .22 automatic, the Blackhawk .44 Magnum revolver, and Mini 14. Also the Boys anti-tank rifle. He shuffled off his mortal coil while I was overseas, and a distant cousin of his from Texas came up to Wisconsin and pretty much cleared the place out.

          Like

          1. Our son was supposed to get his grandfather’s reloading gear, and my brother’s “friend” apparently stole it all. Brother claimed not to know and maybe didn’t. Last I heard, “friend,” was in jail, for good reason.

            Like

  25. The house that I lived in most of my life until my…early 20s?…was brown, and is now this awful color of blue and teal that makes my eyes bleed.
    The house that I’m living in now is being renovated, because Dad’s way of dealing with the stages of grief is Doing Something. And “home renovation” is high on that list.
    (It’s also a way for him to not have to deal with some things, like Christmas decorating and the tree and everything else. That was more Mom’s thing and having Mom things makes him unhappy.)
    I am also getting this lovely feeling that we’re waiting for that Other Shoe To Drop. I suspect that the closer we get to the election, the more crazy things will happen to try and dislodge Trump and Biden from their places.
    Trump, because he’s going to be a mess, no matter what happens. (If he loses, his followers are probably going to pull a Perot and sit the election out. And there’s enough of them that they could turn some close wins in the general election to losses.
    (If he wins, it’s going to be a revenge tour and those are only fun to read about, not be in the middle of.)
    Biden, because the Powers That Be in the Democratic party are going to make their final Labor/Corbynite-pivot to a full European-style socialist party…because they have nothing to lose. And that includes everything from fully opened borders to “sensible” gun control to “sensible” free speech regulations to “encouraging” Israel to negotiate with Hamas…and when that happens, the blood is going to spill.
    Incumbents are being voted out, regardless of party, in most elections.
    And you can feel the machine politicians gearing up for the Mother of All Election Thefts.

    Like

    1. Maybe.

      The donk -party- is cunning and functional. It understands that “too far” has major downsides. It’s many loonatics rail against its constraints (ahem. “Superdelagates” explains much)

      They may ballot stuff a bit. But they know they can wreck the agenda, so why bother? Trump elected isn’t going to get jack squat done other than by decree, the crats will sandbag that, and judge Hawaiian Punchy will hit him with enough pineapples to wreck anything else.

      Folks, the DoD freaking mutinied in 2020. A four-star shitball openly did so, and the various sub-shitballs obeyed.

      Not one Mike Foxtrot called him on it. None.

      Trump should focus on those slimy creatures. Like in “firing squads” for the top ones. Any general/flag officer that failed to say “no f-ing way” gets dismissed. Preferably drummed out.

      Because -that- was the tearing sound no one noticed. 250 years tradition of obedient service

      Failed.

      Utterly.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Presidents pick justices – particularly Supreme Court justices. And the Dems must be in a position to fill the next vacancies that come up. The current high court balance is a disaster for them.

        Like

      2. @11B > “Folks, the DoD freaking mutinied in 2020. ”

        Trump knows that, and has a little list.

        Hannity: Now, just to be clear, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody, right?

        Trump: Except for day 1. After that, I’m not a dictator

        Like

        1. Punishing those that have committed crimes or gross transgressions against the American people and the Constitution is NOT abuse of power; it is the proper use of power. Allowing the transgressions to continue is abuse.
          ———————————
          “Wait a minute, wait a minute, I wanted an argument!”

          “Oh. Well, that’s Room 9, down the hall. This is Room 9-A — abuse!”

          Like

          1. “My big fear is that even if he wins, he’ll still be too light on them.”

            Sarah, do you really think the bureaucrats or the blue states will resist LESS than they did in 2017-2020?

            A lot of this is simply battlespace prep for that. Even if by some miracle either Trump or DeSantis wins, they’ll require bucellarii to get anything done (“I’m not going to enforce that law. Sanctuary… BANG.”

            Like

            1. Oh, no. They’ll resist MORE. He’s just… you know? A paladin, and won’t overstep the law even when it’s into a greyish area. And I’m afraid he’ll get his lunch eaten. Again.

              Like

              1. As I’ve pointed out for years, laws assume you have a functioning legal system, This country doesn’t. It has habits.

                Like

    2. “And you can feel the machine politicians gearing up for the Mother of All Election Thefts.”

      https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/house-lawmaker-uncovers-smoking-gun-of-nyc-trying-to-register-illegal-immigrants-to-vote-5540998

      Which is why we won’t have to bother with a Perot.

      The entire “Trump is unelectable” narrative rests on the simple notion that the election and candidates matter a tinker’s damn.

      Even Larry Correia has jumped on that bandwagon over on X. I mean, Larry knows, and put up the evidence, that 2020 was frauded as fuck. And yet…..

      So we’ll go through the kabuki, and Democrats will fraud themselves into majorities, and anyone who’s “supported” Trump will be in Jack Smith’s database for any bureaucrat who wants to screw with someone. Death by 1 million cuts.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Don’t know. Commentary on my part of X was noting the sudden flurry of, ” Are you willing to do whatever is necessary, to save democracy?” type articles. Strong aura of, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome–” – well, not priest, not the Donald. But still, setting up justification for assassination.

        And Larry’s take is more, “The good guys did such a lousy job checking we don’t know for absolutely certain, but you’re a (maternally incestuous) idiot if you think there isn’t or wasn’t any fraud.” He’s also pointing out the RNC is, once again, not doing the preliminaries for fighting fraud. Intensely annoying. And the pleasure I take in politely telling off the increasingly polished and professional RNC fundraisers is not adequate compensation.

        Liked by 1 person

        2. Mewe today under Judge Jeanne’s group:

          “Require one day, in person, with certified id, voting, to prevent Donald Trump from winning by vote fraud.”

          Blink. Raises eyebrow. Um. Okay. That might put a fire under the democrats to do the right thing. More than a few LOL icons, sneer comments. But hey. Whatever works.

          Liked by 1 person

  27. Very minor little data point to add to the mix.

    Severin Films, a boutique BluRay company that specializes in “trash” cinema (video nasties, regional cinema, directors like Jess Franco and Lucio Fulci, that sort of thing) had their annual Black Friday sale at the usual weekend. And, as per usual, their site went blackout for several days before, and about a week after. I placed my order (weirdly, no Jess Franco, but only because the only things they’re offering that I don’t already have were too new to be discounted for the sale), and figured it would go out maybe in time for Xmas.

    They printed the shipping label before the site blackout was over. That’s… unusual. Usually, it’s their biggest sale of the year, and it takes them weeks to get the orders out (which they warn you about clearly and repeatedly during the sale).

    So, yes, specialty items for a fairly limited set of buyers. But those who buy are committed, so… it’s worrying.

    Liked by 1 person

  28. I have to read 2 Corinthians Chapter 4 to myself regularly. And yes, the world decays.

    Tolkien wrote about it and Peter Jackson eloquently expressed it in film.

    The sin of Man was a lust for power. The sin of the Dwarfs was a lust for gold and gems. The sin of the elves?

    That was a bit more subtle. They wanted everything to be as it once was. Many of us have twinges (or more) of this.

    We need to “look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

    God bless us every one.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Thanks to Bidenflation, the dollar store is now the buck and a half store. I stopped in to pick up a handy little plastic toolbox, but they didn’t have any. They didn’t have any of a lot of other things either. Stuff was strategically spaced out to prevent the shelves from looking too empty.

    At the grocery store — where are the beef frozen dinners? ‘Salisbury steak’ is F&42;ING HAMBURGER, dammit! Where is roast beef? They used to have it.
    ———————————
    Governments can only print money; they can’t make it worth anything. They can make it worth nothing.

    Like

    1. since 2021, Dollar Tree wentfrom $1 to $1.25, and now a lot of it is higher. My 3 pack of razors I use from Dollar General are still under $6, so I guess, that’s a win . . . Leftoids- “See, there is no inflation!” or better – “Inflation has dropped to 3.something% why are you not celebrating?” IDK, maybe because that is STILL higher than my 2.75% COLA raise at the beginning of the year?

      Like

      1. and of course it was at 6% through most of the first quarter. You have to go back to the late 70’s early 80s to see inflation at those levels. Even Obumbles didn’t Eff up that badly.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. There’s also the shrinkflation: The loaf of bread that was a pound and a half is now 20 ounces, the package of bacon that was a pound is now 12 ounces, etc..

        Yesterday at the auto parts store where I work I had the unenviable task of posting price changes on the shelves. Some of the prices jumped @100%, and those were not nickel and dime items either. OTOH, when doing the closing the store audit the other night, I found a 1943 Winged Liberty dime in fairly good shape in one of the tills. Seeing more of that, lately. I have a vitamin bottle with over a pound of wheat cents in it, found a 1-Deutsche Mark coin about a month back, etc..

        Liked by 1 person

    2. I still see such, but shortages are variable and regional.

      Also, I suspect only the (malignant) existence of Starbucks is keeping a dollar-store-alike from appearing: Sawbucks.

      Remember when “Five and Dime” meant the coins, not the bills?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Re: Inflation, I am old enough that I remember when a nickel could actually buy something in stores in California.

        And pass behind me in the grocery store nowadays when I am in the egg section and you will invariably hear me say “Three Point Five Percent My Ass!”

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  31. I’m very, very glad I did three weeks in Austria in June 2015, before Mutti Multiculti opened the gates. And glad I last visited Germany in 2018, when there were still a few places that were safe, and Vienna in 2019. Scotland last year gave me a bit of a sense that that might have been my last overseas trip for quite some time. The German-speaking Europe I remember is gone thanks to Merkel.

    I’ve been getting pushed to write Familiars stories, really pushed, in a way I last felt in 2020. Make of it what you will. (And not pushed by fans, I should note.)

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    1. It’s weird how things get experienced.

      If you read John Farnham, no place out of the US is safe. (Nor are many places here safe)

      But we have friends who retired and have been travelling at least 6 months of every year since, with no problems.

      We did UK in 15, 18, and 22, plus part of France in 18 and 22, and except for one Arab neighborhood (had to do laundry) everything was pretty nice.

      But no plans to cross the pond anytime soon.

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  32. “It could be that. The sensor is broken, and it shows something, but not what is real.”

    I think, absent further evidence like four guys riding through town on ugly horses, that what we are looking at is a psy-op.

    We know, for example, that the media and social media companies have been actively cooperating with the military and the sitting president (or his helpers, more accurately) because that information is all coming out in hearings in DC right now. They’re running psy-ops on the public.

    We know, for example, that book publishers (and by extension everything related from comics to movies) have been HARD in the tank for socialism for 40 years. And their output reflects it.

    We -know- that the “news” is nothing but BS, all we need to do is look at what’s been on the news since October 7th.

    Therefore, you look out and everything seems bleak and f-ed, that is a -narrative-. It is not reality.

    Example, there’s a lot of fuss in Canada right now, ever so suddenly and seemingly by surprise, about antisemitism. Huge demonstrations against Israel. What a shock, uh huh.

    Well, that is a crock. There has -always- been a problem in Canada with antisemitism. Much worse now after importing Arabs for 30 years. You don’t have to go far to find it. They’ve just been LYING about it forever, and pretending it isn’t there. It was always there.

    When I look out on the infoscape that I’m being presented with, and I see nothing great going on, I remind myself that those people presenting it are lying, thieving, pervert bastards and not very bright. This makes me feel better. >:D

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      1. Whatever happens, if Joe Puddinhead or his anointed heir gets tossed past the margin of fraud, the next person will relentlessly get all the blame for all the Puddinhead Administration’s massive flocks of chickens as they come home to roost.

        Not even really a prediction, the odds are so high.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I suspect a core group of key democrats want very much to leave Trump holding the bag for the looming train wreck they have created. But they dare not let him gain control, becasue he could likely finess it as a win for him, and the whole unbound-veangence-ragemonkey thing kinda shrivels their neithers.

          Remember that whole “Orange Emperor” (WH40k) thing? Yeah, -that-. Bigly.

          Liked by 1 person

            1. If all he did was decimate the federal government, everything would clear up pretty quick.

              For non-Latin scholars (Sarah is a Latin scholar, she knows this), “decimate” means remove 1 out of 10. Easily achievable, at least 5 out of 10 are probably ripe for indictment.

              Something I’d like to see in Canada too. Except here we need 9 out of 10 removed. Not sure what that is in Latin. >:D

              Liked by 1 person

              2. And in a historical note, note that a Roman Legionary unit subject to decimation was required, by drawing lots, to select at random one in ten legionnaires, who would be beaten to death by the other nine of their buddies in their unit with sticks.

                Historians debate how often it was actually enforced, only for major breaches in discipline such as entire units breaking in the face of the enemy, but it was apparently well discussed and widely known as a consequence of not standing and fighting.

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      2. I agree with that. The current government of Canada is doing everything it can to F- over the Canadian economy.

        The Bank of Canada lost $5 billion dollars this year. Context, the Bank of Canada has never lost a -dime- since it was founded 87 years ago. Why did they lose money this year? Insane government borrowing and fiddling with the interest rates.

        Two provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, are threatening to defy the federal government on carbon taxes. That’s a big deal. Why are they doing it? Because if they don’t, their provincial economies will tank.

        Canada at least could easily be looking at a financial collapse, of the type that has happened in South Korea a few times since WWII.

        Not great, but not the end of the world. S. Korea has had three of them, they’re doing all right.

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  34. Can someone please tell me where all these liberal #metoo women stand on the rape of Israeli women hostages? Where is the outrage in the press? This is why the Liberal media should burn in hell. One way Helicopter rides just don’t seem sufficient. This is how the Nazi’s came to power in Germany during the 1930’s. shm

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        2. I don’t know what “enough” looks like, let alone if it’s possible, but I keep finding that I can indeed hate them MORE with every passing day.

          Liked by 1 person

    2. TBTP know that it’s how the Nazis came to power – minus the regular street fights between the Nazis and Communists that were going on at the time. They’re hoping to emulate it here.

      But the US isn’t Weimar Germany. The cultural outlook between the respective populations is very different.

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    3. But that wasn’t Hamas, it was an Israeli false flag operation. The idiots speakers in Portlandia’s city clowncil last week have so declared, and if you question or, worse, deny their assertions you are an Islamophobic bigot.

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      1. And in the Ontario provincial government. For. Real. They have been going there since Oct. 7th. The MPP for Hamilton Center, an NDP party member, was kicked out of the NDP for claiming those Jews were asking for it. But she still has a seat in the House, she was not censured and removed. Which is pretty much how its going here.

        Then there is this absolute gem:

        This is the presidents of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and MIT being questioned in a congressional hearing yesterday by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. When asked “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university’s] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying or harassment? Yes or no?” they replied, “It depends on the context.”

        Stefanik made them do it three times.

        And they SMIRKED when they said it, every time. This from the home of DEI and micro-aggression.

        Just so we all know who is who and what is what.

        Liked by 1 person

    4. I don’t know about anywhere else but give Fox (both Outnumbered and The Five) are calling them out for not condemning, and reporting on those who are condemning, and condemning those who aren’t. Also reporting on the fact that Hamas is not releasing the women, between certain ages, kidnapped on 10/7/2023. Because they are still being raped, while in captivity, it is what Hamas does, if they are still alive.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Likely the youngest have been sold off or “married” to their captors. Older girls and women are being held as you say. Most of those girls will never be recovered.

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    6. They have convinced themselves that those reports are all Israeli false-flag lies spread by the Mossad. And even if they aren’t, they will tell you that Israel has killed and raped far more Gazan women and children than Hamas did…without proof, of course. They’ll just parrot Hamas’ fake news releases as facts. They are completely unconvinceable.

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  35. In December of 2020 we made the trek cross-states to see my parents for Christmas. We went knowing that likely due to their health issues, this was likely the last time we would visit them in their home and have Christmas with them.

    The event itself was unremarkable -what was remarkable was the sense that this was really a last time, that Christmas would forever be different after this and there would not longer be an option to spend Christmas with them here, because they would no longer be here.

    I get echoes of that same thing as well now. On the one hand, it does make me appreciate the experiences I have all the more, as it may be the last time I have them (oh please oh please oh please let Japan stay open through early February so I can train). On the other hand, it makes me sad, knowing that things are passing and will not return.

    At some point, the Elves of Middle Earth realized that the they no longer had control of events but were slowly passing into myth and legend. No more the Kingdom to the West or the great centers of learning and craft like Hollin, just tiny islands of the Elder Days in a land passed largely to Men and Orcs. In that sense their infused sorrow at a world they saw and would never see again fills my own soul.

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  36. I had a stronger vibe of this in late 2022-early 2023, FWIW. It’s kind of faded to just a state of trying to appreciate what I have – the sunsets, the extended family, the current muse, the digital art toys.

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