Spying on PrideFest Terrorists - Flying in From Barcelona with a Couple of Keys

A fun run today – huffing and puffing leading dogs – re-hydration tables have been  manned – everyone gets a t-shirt. I need to figure out why some have red ones and others have blue ones. Blue seems to be for the volunteers. Now there is just a trickle and they are not running anylonger. They are now just walking their dogs. And now the ones with the blue t-shirts are packing it in. A few straggles and then there were none

Pennsylvania Gov Rendall thinjs that his state’s Office of Homeland Security has made a mockery of the state’s responsibility to protect ‘critical infrastructure and collect and share creditable plots to harm it – “ protesting against an idea, a principle a process, is not a real threat against infrastructure. Protesting is a government given American right, a right that is in our Constitution, a right that is fundamental to all we believe in as Americans… Tell me, what critical infrastructure does the gay and lesbian PrideFest threaten?”

I’m waiting for Chet, Ceri is here and says that she will have to go about the time he said he would be here. I told him that I’d be here at 9:30. It’s 9:15 now. I’m here and Ceri is here. I got up this morning and said to myself if it is  after five o’clock I shall go ahead and go – it was almost 5:30 (Michigan time – 4:30 Illinois). I was east of Benton Harbor. I made it to Homewood by 6:30 just as it got light. The truck is packed, goodbyes have been said – Katy and Joe are still in bed – She did a bikethon yesterday and he has jet lag form his fight back from Barcelona. Tell them both Hi for me. And I then I leave.

There is a land, / far, far away / and I will get there / everyday – Robert Creeley – The Collected Poems, 1945-1975, 1982 p460

He finds a place that he likes
She will be ok with it if I am too
He had satisfied as many of her
       Demands as he could
I stood on a swaying dock
She was tempted to push me in
There can never be enough revenge
        Unless you die
Is it always this cold and windy?
       Yes here at this place it is
There had been no need for anxiety
Did it make any difference
       Being off your meds
Not that I can tell
She headed back home
He started his the new job
     The next day

How I hate disease, it’s like worrying / that comes true – Frank O’Hara – The Collected Poems, 1971 p361

US household wealth dropped another 1.5 trillion dollars in the second quarter of this year. Since 2007 it has dropped 17% from $64.7t to $53.5t

It is around property that we piece together our last tattered religion, and our visual works of arts are its ritual objects – John Berger – Selected Essays, 1971 p105

Women’s beliefs in global warming tend to align more closely with the scientific consensus than do men’s beliefs. But it is men who clim that they have a better understanding of the phenomena than do women.

When people reach for the real through such strenuous encounters, natural settings get transformed into performance sites – Thomas De Zengotita – Mediated: How the media shapes the world and the way you live in it, 2006 p216

Warmest night of the trip – it was in the 90s this afternood. Setting up camp is exhausting in this humidity. I am soaking wet.. The more leaves that fall the worst the heat is – there is nothing to provide any shade – a breeze blows and that makes it almost bearable – Boulder Lake, Jasper Lake, Granite Lake, Agate Lake; exotic names for a lot of former gravel pits – motors above 10 hp must be operated without a wake. He tells me that those are carp and shad that are jumping. At least, he says, shad is food for bass and carpie.

But there is no going back to reality just as there is no going back to virginity. We have been consigned to a new plane of being engendered by mediating representations of fabulous quality and inescapable ubiquity, a place where every thing is addressed to us, everything is for us, and nothing is beyond us anymore – Thomas De Zengotita – Mediated: How the media shapes the world and the way you live in it, 2006 p14

When age and experience are factored in for public sector workers they actually earn less than do private sector workers – it would seem the public sector is the employer of last resort when the over qualified worker has out priced himself out of the private market (thorough experience and/or education). The private sector prefers barely qualified workers – those that can be obtained at the lowest cost. It is a sham that more education makes you more employable – or at least it would be if there was no public sector created job market. The higher the education the higher the penalty for public sector work – with a high school education there is a 2% premium but with a bachelor’s degree there is a 7% penalty.

YOU: Back and forth across / time, lots of things / one needs one’s / hand held. Don’t / stumble in the dark. Keep walking. This is life – Robert Creeley – The Collected Poems, 1945-1975, 1982 p501

The worldwide cost of tending to patients with dementia is currently $640 billion a year with the number of people with dementia expected to double in the next 20 years.

I drink to smother my sensitivity for a while so I won - Frank O’Hara – The Collected Poems, 1971 O’Hara p330