Marti Time

Friday Night Martini’s are back in fashion. This weekend Brit and I had excellent watermelon martini’s on the back porch. I smoked some chicken thighs and roasted Brussel sprouts on the BGE. After dinner I built a fire and we relaxed with another cocktail and I smoked a nice Oliva. 

And. And. And. We are all busy here training the new pup. I picked her up from a shady dog dealer in Amish country, not far from Wooster. I hear about puppy mills, but not sure what the actual differences are between mills and breeders. I have no doubt there are ethical differences in how all these folks treat animals, but I don’t know how to differentiate between them on-line. I know some breeders won’t sell some of the dogs I was interested in without cutting off their tails, which I do not support. So Marti has a tail and will be keeping it. Marti is short for Martini, which seemed an appropriate name. Brit came up with that. She’s the clever one. 

So far Marti is settling in just fine. Learning to be a dog. Puppy energy in the house. I fenced in the back yard so she has a little space to stretch her legs and patrol the lines. Cattle and dogs on the other side of the fence need to be watched and occasionally barked at. Day 1 and she’s already keeping us safe.

Sunday we went to Mom and Dad’s for a dutch oven cookout. I made Cornish hens with dressing, mom made cajun sausage and peppers and Brittany made chocolate brownies with ’s’mores and pretzel bits. Another nice day, capping a very nice relaxing weekend. 

I have seen only a small portion of the insurrection hearings. But I have read the paper and gotten the facts. Which of course were pretty well known. Trump and company fabricated a fully transparent set of lies that the election was rigged. Stolen. Manipulated. Etc. It was so obvious to most of us that we remained in disbelief as the train of deception gained steam–fueled by Fox and Friends and idiocy and complacency in equal measures of Republicans and faux Patriots too dumb to deserve a democratic home state. And then, January 6 of course. 

So no real news there. I hear the case has been laid down logically and compellingly, but it will matter not. The facts will fall on ears immune to truth and so no change will come. Anyway, the state and federal courts are packed with disproportionally compliant judges who are at best biased and at worst corrupt–a product of McConnell and GOP’s strategy for evading accountability. 

I hear talk that Lynn Cheney won a Profiles in Courage award for doing the barest minimum required of her as a member of Congress. That’s the bar we are talking about these days in government ‘service’. She’s still a lunatic, albeit one that can more effectively hide behind her dad’s credentials than most, and so she feels empowered enough to try to be the new Maverick of the GOP.

At Black Dog, a slight slowdown in progress. Kenny was out two week’s ago on family vacation. But when he returned, he had the COVID. So not much progress last week and this week he is out for a taxidermy course he had long ago signed up for. So no real work to be started up again until nearly July. So most likely we are pushed back later into August before the house will get turned over. But these are the inevitabilities that come with building a home. Or a business. Or any grand project worthy of being called a project. So I will practice patience.

Same with Java 13. Construction remains stubbornly slow. I am tired of predicting dates of completion so have given up doing so. There is a way of doing things in Perry County that is contrary to my nature. My instincts are to push hard and fast to accomplish; Perry County is more laid back. A sort of ‘it will get done, when it gets done‘ vibe. Beer-thirty is most days at 4:00 and weekends are for BBQ’s and music festivals. But I am not of Perry County. I just live here. So it galls me to see such a casual approach to work and progress. But in my advanced years now, I accept that I can control (mostly) my own behaviors but not so much the actions of others. 

So I will work on other things like books and canoes and cooking and ale trail adventures and whiskey tasting and smoking cigars on patios with a good book. The work will eventually get done and if I am still alive by that time I will lay claim to my home and help get the coffee and gelato business off the ground. 

I was in Worcester last week and caught up in the flight fiasco. While the CEO’s of the major airlines were in a meeting with Pete Buttigieg, explaining how they were prepared to meet the demand of summer travel, they were also busy cancelling 1,500 flights due to mismanagement and bad planning. I was one of them. I spent 9 hours at the airport Thursday only to be denied any flight out. I finally got out the next day at Noon (on Breeze airline of all people) after a night in a $100/night hotel that charged me $350 due to the windfall of cancelled flights. 

So it goes. 

I’ve decided not to log a long social rant this week. My life is too short and the gears of social just turn slowly—apparently with or without my help.

I’ve just included some meme’s to speak on my behalf. Will there be a tipping point in my life? Probably not. Probably just a continued long slow decline of what was once a decent society for around 50% of the white people in the country. Our exceptionalism was always based on the rich and well connected whites.

But. Just this one story. Last weekend Brittany and I were in Ocean Club for a drink and seafood. After a bit, a dude sat down next to Brittany and started chatting us up. A Pharma rep. in town for a conference. A story was on TV about college football players getting paid now for their image and likeness and this fella started lamenting how his tiny college (Pitt) was suffering because they could not get the same level of contracts as the big schools and so their recruiting would suffer. He seemed a bit shattered by the whole development. 

He even mentioned that he sent extra money each year to support the athletic department. Not the players. But to subsidize all costs except the players. The actual employees of that big machine, if you will, were not allowed by law to benefit from his generosity. Only the massively overpaid coaches and AD’s and assistant’s. This made sense to our barstool neighbor.

He made the quickly lamented decision to ask my opinion. Brittany quietly scooted her barstool back and got into a position to make a quick exit if necessary. 

But…..I was on-point. I asked him why he thought the players should not be paid. He said they were already getting a free scholarship. I then asked him if believed in capitalism. He confirmed he was no commie-socialist, AOC loving, libtard. No surprise there. So I asked him if maybe we should just let capitalism decide. Ask every player if they wanted the ability to negotiate a salary and all possibilities of exploiting their likeness and image, just as every other capitalist organization in the world operates. Or, if they preferred, they could choose a scholarship in whatever college they were academically qualified for and play for that football team. You know. Capitalism.

He apologized for invading our dinner and left. 

This story is based on actual events, although I may have taken some liberties for dramatic effect. 

But it’s notable because Brittany complimented me for not throat-punching the guy for gleefully rejoicing in the exploitation of humans for his own gratification. 

Baby steps. I am becoming the man I always hoped to be one day.

No other news of note.

Humbly submitted.