Monthly Archives: October 2025
Technology
lifted from the bluebird of bitterness
I'm not anti-tech, I spent much of my life at the leading edge of some of it.
I just don't trust it - especially if software based.
Continue reading →What’s Going On Here?
"Civilian Casualties Reported As US Conducts Record Number Of Somali Drone Strikes"
Are we attacking Minneapolis now?
Continue reading →All Good Things Must Come To An End
No, not this web site ...
It's been an unusual October here. The weather's been more like September - we haven't had a hard freeze yet.
As I write this in early evening, the sun is shining and the temperature poked its nose up into the 70s.
Never say never but I don't expect to see 70s again for a few months.
But this is it. A storm is predicted to blow in tonight and predictions are for 12" snow above 4500 ft. Rain and sleet down here.
It's been 50s and low 60s for highs the past couple weeks - even those temperatures are warm for this time of year at this latitude (44° or so) and elevation (2500-3000 ft. Not really all that high. Not even in "high-altitude" cooking zone. Foothills, not mountains. Those are 10 miles or so east). I expect the pass to close tomorrow - first heavy snow usually has problems - but it's a main route (for here. It's a gravel road) and it's usually open.
The bugs know what's coming; out doing chores today, the gnats and other unidentified such creatures are swarming to the point of a choice between additional unexpected, undesired protein or a face mask. Had enough of those.
The stink bugs are making their presence known.
The wind's already picking up, the clouds are moving in, and the predicted highs for the next week or so are 40s and 50s. I guess the inevitable first freeze is here.
But I got the lawn mowed for the last time this season, got the new shed enclosed, hose lines from the garden and watering hole (for the critters) have been pulled in. Plenty of firewood stacked up and ready.
The greenhouses have been "de-summerized"; not sure they're winterized but we'll know in a month or so. The harvest has been beyond expectations. I guess the cantaloupes are finished. Probably the tomatoes as well. Too bad for the late starters, but they had an extended season. Beans, beans, beans. I like beans but who's going to eat all this butternut squash? Not I.
It's a little early to turn on the water line anti-freeze heaters. At least my water lines don't extend a foot inside the house like they did when I lived in Montana - nonetheless ...
Am I properly winterized yet? Close ... but what's winter prep without the weather pointing out what one forgot to prep?
Have I mentioned I'm ready for Memorial Day?
Continue reading →Michigan Schoolhouse
Up at the base of the thumb of Michigan sits this old schoolhouse: District 2, 1896 per the date plate above the door.
Farming country then; farming country now.
Certainly a different world than metro Detroit.
That's all I know of this structure.
I wonder what happened to the bell. I wonder what it's used for now - it's in pretty good shape.
I passed by and took the photo.
Then I drove on.
Ten Rules for Living the Good Life
from a jd comment
by LTC Roy E. Peterson
You must make peace with your own past.
_Construct a mental suture
with timeless thread and mercy’s needle,
_Then focus on your future.
What other people think of you
_you never will control.
If truly bad, then prove them wrong
_For peace within your soul.
The only person who’s in charge
_of happiness is you.
It matters not what others think,
_or what they say and do.
You can’t compare your life to others,
_Not knowing what they’ve gone through.
What you can do is be supportive
_with friendship that is true.
Time heals almost everything,
_Focus on what’s ahead.
Keep only those good memories,
_Replay them in your head.
Stop overthinking all life’s problems
_Answers are everywhere.
Use more than one source to tackle them
_Then make a choice aware.
Your smile should be your asset.
_There is no cause to frown.
You don’t own all the world’s problems.
_They’ll only get you down.
Be kind and thoughtful to those you meet
_that’s the way to start.
Just one kind act that you have done
_affects all human hearts.
Be thankful for all that you have
_it could be less, you know.
Don’t be Comparison’s poor slave
_Let satisfaction show.
LTC Roy E. Peterson, US Army Military Intelligence and Russian Foreign Area Officer (Retired) has published more than 6,200 poems in 88 of his 112 books. He has been an Army Attaché in Moscow, Commander of INF Portal Monitoring in Votkinsk, first US Foreign Commercial Officer in Vladivostok, Russia and Regional Manager in the Russian Far East for IBM. He holds a BA, Hardin-Simmons University (Political Science); MA, University of Arizona (Political Science); MA, University of Southern California (Int. Relations) and MBA University of Phoenix. He taught at the University of Arizona, Western New Mexico University, University of Maryland, Travel University and the University of Phoenix.
Continue reading →Fall In The San Juans
I was up with a buddy at the old Ruby Trust Mine a few miles outside and uphill from Ouray, Colorado when a minor storm passed over. Coming downhill, the clouds were breaking up showing one of the season's first snows high up. The aspens were still in transition here at roughly 10,500 ft but it won't be long before they begin to look more like bare white sticks when the brilliant foliage turns from green to yellow to brown to gone. The tallest peaks in the background top 13,000 ft. The location is near the ghost town of Sneffles and the Revenue Mine. (The location of the Ruby Trust as marked on Giggle Maps does not appear to be correct)
Continue reading →Waiting For The Wrecker
I notice the engine is missing
A not-quite-so-old mine site. 1940s-1960s; maybe into the 1970s. A fair number of abandoned vehicles laying around. Off to the right is a shaft that's been fenced off.
Continue reading →OK SK … Fungi
from Comments
Terry Noland - "Fungus Among Us" - 1958
I am not old enough to remember the song being released but was reminded of the fungus among us line as I took an afternoon walk through some autumn woods on Sunday and found a proliferation of fungi.
They were everywhere on the ground, popping up from under fallen leaves, bending their heads over the river’s edge, spreading across the river bank and into the fields, gathering in groups at the base of trees like little hooded monks at a meeting.
There were tiny dainty butterfly-like fungi fluttering up old tree trunks in the thousands and topping it all off, the grand sounding, wonderfully named and enormous Fomes Fomentarius dangling further up the trunks of the hardwoods. I guess a perfect combination of heat, moisture and light created this abundance of fungus.
The Fomes Fomentarius is also called a hoof fungus because it looks like a hoof. It is also called tinder fungus, and sometimes called Iceman fungus because Otzi, the 5000 year old Iceman was found to be carrying four pieces, presumably as fuel. Hoof fungus can be almost two feet in height and width. The ones I saw were about 12 inches and looked more like baby elephant feet than hooves. They were tall and round with smooth flat pads on the bottom. The latin name has a great ring to it…Fomes Fomentarius. It has historical significance as a fire starter because its insides spark. It is inedible, but has been used to make amadou, a material for tinder and clothing. Some of them high up looked like giant paper wasp nests they were so big.
Photo below.
Nature put on quite the show of mushrooms for me and my dog although all I saw seemed of the poisonous or at least inedible variety so I let them all be.
I crossed paths with only one other person in my two hour walk through the woods… a sturdy lady with a heavy slavic accent who appeared out of nowhere with a giant red, white and blue supermarket bag filed to the brim with small golden mushrooms. I asked her how she intended to use them. She told me they were for her mother in law. Hmm.
Tunesday – T Bone Burnett – Shut It Tight
A sample of some obscure – and some maybe not obscure – tunes from my strange and off-the-wall collection.
Today’s selection: T Bone Burnett "Shut It Tight" 1983
T Bone (Joseph Henry) Burnett was a guitar player for Dylan in the '70s, worked on several movie soundtracks, and produced the Alison Krauss/Robert Plant collaboration on "Raising Sand".
Along with all the other work he has done: more producer than performer.
Shut It Tight is off the album "Proof Through The Night"
I don't like to win but then again I hate to lose
And in between is something I can't stand
I don't care what you think and I hope that you approve
I am just an ordinary man
Sometimes I want to stop and crawl back into the womb
And sometimes I cannot tell wrong from right
But I ain't gonna quit until I'm laid in my tomb
And even then they better shut it tight