A Variety of Thoughts About Everything

 On Sunday July 9th I had to put my car on a jack and look too see something that had gone wrong with it and figure out how to fix it. Well, as soon as I really got a look at it I realized that I was not going to be able to fix it and that paying someone else to fix it was going to be worth more than the value of the car. Time to replace it. I was not happy with this idea. I was planning to do this at the end of the year as I am still digging out of a hole that I landed in and would be in a much better financial position at that point to do it. Life does not care about my plans. It will do what it does despite all my fervent wishes or plans. So the next day, Monday July 10th, I went to a dealership (I am not going to name any of the places that I went as this is ultimately not about them. It is about me.) to look at a car that I saw online. I quickly realized that this was not going to work for several reasons. The young lady that I was working with suggested another car and I suggeste

 Last Saturday I was on social media and a notice popped up from a member of a page that is dedicated to riding motorcycles in Vermont. A person was putting together a ride for the next day, Sunday, from a meeting place about an hour and a half North of me along as vey well known scenic route thru the Mountains with a lunch stop etc. I thought that this sounded like fun. And, as I had just experienced a very long work week, including working that day of Saturday, and it was an hour and a half away from me, I replied asking for the time posted for kick stands up to be moved back a half an hour. The person said Yes so I said that I would Love to come along. The next day, Sunday, instead of resting like I needed to, I got up and set out to ride North. Left earlier than needed as I do not like the Interstate and will do much to avoid it. Including to add extra time to a journey so that I do not have to. I arrived at the jump-off point at about 15 minutes before I expected to get going. One

 All great art, in any medium whether writing, painting, acting in plays or movies or tv shows, music, etc, any art form, either poses a question or tells a story. The greatest art does both. When I was younger I was into art forms that were dark, whether humor or pathos etc, because those art forms agreed with the stories that I told myself about myself. Very dark stuff. So I also postulate that we can only appreciate art that agrees with our own internal story. In reading I remember reading stories that while placed in other times and places always were talking about our world. And they told a story based on what the author thought of our world and posed questions about how we got there or how we could go somewhere else. In music I listened to things like Black Sabbath, who are not Devil Worshippers or any of that stupid crap, and other very heavy groups that were telling stories and asking questions about the darkness in the world. And, oddly enough, I must have felt some hope in al

 I am watching reports from around Vermont, and the rest of New England and Upstate New York, concerning all the flooding and washouts etc. 8 inches of rain in about 36 hours has done some major damage in many places. I suppose that the video of Montpelier VT, the State Capital, flooded out on it's Main Street was really amazing to me. It is not a place that you would normally think of as flood prone. And I started thinking about all of the "Once in a Hundred Years" weather events that have happened in the last decade or so. And I do not believe that the "Once in a Hundred Years" label applies anymore. I think that these are now just the weather. They are going to keep happening and with greater frequency. And all this is because we, as a society, have allowed ourselves to be brain washed by the rich and powerful into believing 3 STUPID things: 1) Climate Change is not real and even if it is it is not created by Humans therefore there is nothing that we can do.

 On March 4th 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, AKA FDR, took office as President of the United States. He immediately took action in enacting a raft of Legislation and other actions to save America from the Great Depression. It almost certainly saved American Capitalism, and probably a sharp turn to either Communism or Fascism. One of the things that he did to pay for all of this was to raise rather substantial taxes on the rich and industry. This was a shock to the business community. FDR was from old money. His family had been rich and part of the "Establishment" for a long time. He was a cousin to a former President, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, AKA TR, who was a Republican. The only reason FDR was a Democrat, he said in later life, was he did not think there should be two Roosevelts in the same party. The monied class called him a Traitor to his class. Said he was betraying his roots and destroying American business. They were rather butt hurt that they were being