Occupation of Independence

  It cannot be repeated too often that the greatest thing about rain is how it makes you feel after the sun comes out and the mud starts to dry. Of course this is only true on one level: I don't mean to suggest that an individual's subjective feelings are more important than the survival of every living thing in the world because of the rain. Somewhat analogous to that wonderful after-rain feeling is what happens in autumn. I took my dog out for a walk today, where we got a great view of cliffs and mountains in two directions. More importantly, the air was so pure, cool, and crystalline. Unbelievable. No smoke. And walking didn't make me warm, as it usually does. I walked around like a joyful idiot, soaking up the sunlight and feeling totally at peace with the world around me. Summer is almost worth it if it helps you feel like this. We went up to the mesa in the loaner car from the dealership. It is a passenger sedan. I haven't been in one of those things for years. I

'How have the mighty fallen!' I guess that old tagline applies well to my current situation of squatting at a GM dealership in Utah, waiting for a new replacement engine -- at GM's expense! It does seem like quite a come-down. I have never aspired to be an armchair traveler. On the other hand I read history books that take place a long way from home. It is fun running to a mapping app to learn about the geography that pertains to the story. Possible alternatives: 1. Rewrite old posts. 2. Make comments on the blog/vlogs of people who actually do travel.  3. Change the blog to a You Tube channel that photographs itself sitting in front of a computer screen, while critiquing people who really do travel. 4. Start a "how to" channel/blog that pretends to be friendly to "fellow" travelers but is actually about selling crap. from augustacountylibrary.org

Once upon a time when I was younger, I used to ask why. Why doesn't the world around me make any sense? Why are situations that are fundamentally insane allowed to exist and to persist? It never did any good. All it did was make me angry or full of complaints. Then other people would get sick of the complaints and blame the complainer, not the situation.  I am happy to be done with most of that. There is no better test than to be facing a serious mechanical problem at an automobile dealership. The good news is that it was a General Motors product, so the engine dissolved like toilet paper in a septic tank with only 25,000 miles on the odometer, so the powertrain warranty will cover it.  The American automobile industry -- or what is left of it -- is still relatively important. It is tempting to ask why American manufacturers didn't shrink down to marketing and finance, and outsource all design and manufacturing to East Asia, years ago. It has been a few years since I read any o

The new era of the Great Reset is not evolving quite as I expected, showing once more that predictions are difficult, 'especially about the future.' By now I expected the Climate Lockdown to have been announced in a dramatic way, with most of the news media trumpeting it as a New Dispensation. But we appear to be sliding seamlessly from Virus Lockdowns to supply-chain crises and energy shortages, with the Climate Lockdown staying implicit. Perhaps the Powers-That-Be learned that the public has become weary and wary of the very word "lockdown". More fundamentally, what is happening is that the Forever War era has transitioned to the Forever Something Else era in order to empower the people who don't think they have quite enough power yet.  Where does that leave a helpless individual? The good news is that we are not quite helpless. An individual can't do anything about soaring energy prices, which are probably Forever. But we can make certain adjustments such