Our Deer Camp celebrates a 30th anniversary this year. And the festivities begin in four days.
We place a high value on food in our camp as a hunting community travels on its stomach.
This evening it’s just me, Jill and the dog. Nevertheless, since you are what you eat there was this.
Duck fat fried taters, chopped romaine (bleu cheese dressing, crumbles
and croutons), pan-seared venison (rare) and reconstituted forest floor
fungi.
Kaboom…..
Yes, evidence of daylight movement of bucks around these parts.
The boys have got romance on their minds...
Here's an opportunity you don't have to stay-up late for.
Shortly after sunset this evening look to the eastern sky and locate the moon. Just below you will discern a very bright planet. This is Jupiter.
Image credit: Chris Vaughan/Starry Night
If you want to stay -up late you can tract their ascent in the southern sky until they attain their highest position shortly after midnight. Afterwards they both descend towards the western horizon as dawn approaches.
At this point the diurnal rotation of the sky will move Jupiter to the left of the moon.
The gigantic winter hexagon asterism, a ring made-up of the brightest stars in the winter constellations of Taurus, Auriga, Gemini, Canis Major, Canis Minor and Orion will surround Jupiter for the Winter.
The title of this post is the pejorative used to describe the Urban Raccoonosaurus that would routinely raid the garbage in the cart overnight.
Save what someone might salvage from the compost heap there's no garbage to be had around here.
Nevertheless, we grow some of the largest raccoons I've ever been witness to...
Kinda blurry glare.
Nevertheless, angle was just right to capture the sokar array of the ISS as it sailed over the house tonight.
The week preceding my South Dakota vacation (likely Monday, October 28 or thereabouts) a couple of economic news feeds caught my attention with some pre-election chatter.
Equity, fixed income and currency markets were beginning to signal a Trump win.
With that I thought to myself: Election too close to call. Bad news for Team Harris. All of which was confirmed Wednesday morning November 6. Donald Trump had won both the Electoral College and the popular vote.
With this came a big mandate for change. And a bit of relief for me about something long in the making and now confirmed. The party of Ronald Reagan was dead. I take no joy in its passing; only relief in that it is now over and done with.
As a general rule my opinions about Donald Trump have reflected that I do not think very much of him as a person. Nothing in this recent election outcome has changed that view. His exhortations invalidate everything I have been taught about how to live my life and everything I've imparted to my daughter about being kind, generous, loving your neighbor, being accepting, showing understanding, empathy, being truthful, ethical, sensible and levelheaded. Not being a bully, selfish and an asshole.
There is a reasonably good possibility that about half the people reading this would tell me that they like Trump because he says what's on his mind, he tells it like he sees it and doesn't have a filter. Well, sometimes it's OK to have a filter. There was a time, not so long ago, when being an asshole wasn't cool. If you were a shitty person and kept it to yourself, society was a better place because of it.
I am the product of a lifetime of unintentional, prior influences and imprints. Dig deep enough into my implicit biases and you'll likely catch a whiff of cold war. So, get over it.
In 2016 I considered Donald Trump to be a goof and a joke; not to be taken seriously. While my life got along swimmingly with his policies during the first three years of his administration all of that changed with the COVID shit show of 2020. In over his head, by the time the election rolled-around more than enough people had enough of the drama that I believe it cost him the election.
2024 was different. In a disciplined fashion Donald Trump tapped-into working class anxieties and resentment over inflation and the general economy. It doesn't matter a lick if I feel my world is doing better if a plurality of my countrymen do not. I've learned to be cognizant of this. I can do better. We can do better.
Donald Trump won the White House, the Senate and the House. The Trifecta. SCOTUS is icing on the cake. Donald Trump is no goof or joke. He brought home the first popular vote win for the GOP in two decades. He is the real deal. He expanded the GOP base to broadly include a meaningful number of minority voters. He deserves a great deal of credit for that. Consequently, he has a ginormous mandate for change and an abundance of goodwill.
Speaking of which, political parties undergo generational change. And my generation has been shuffled aside as there is no place or role for us any longer in what was previously known at the Party of Reagan. Social media has been fertile ground for fourth grade caliber ridicule. Being derisively called a NeoCon is apparently a new pejorative. Who knew?
None of the foregoing amounts to much. Sticks and stones. It is the loss of friends and acquaintances who have excommunicated one another over perceived grievances that is the real tragedy. Perhaps this will heal with the passage of time. We'll see.
In the fourth paragraph of this post I alluded to a feeling of relief. A consequence of the election outcome is being relieved of the burden of party. Doesn't matter which party either. I'm done rolling that boulder up the hill. I'm basking in the warming glow of something I find strangely liberating; and it is not my laptop. My newfound independence is a second chance to look at the world with a clean slate. Independence Day has come to November 6.
Meanwhile, I'm going to try to stand for something other than our base instincts. I'm capable of better. Donald Trump won fair and square and there wasn't even a whiff of political violence as a consequence. That speaks volumes. So, I'm going to sit on my hands for a bit and wait for detailed policy proscriptions to materialize. You know, stuff that will improve your and my prosperity and general lot in life. Along with making the world a safer place.
Bring it on....
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