Category Archives: Uncategorized

No good deed goes unpunished

I just spent two hours on my employer’s computer, fighting network troubles and antivirus “improvements”. Not a good time, and a bad way to finish an otherwise quite good weekend.

mia_mcdavid and I got up a little after 8. After breakfast she did some spinning, while I did some woodworking in the shop. Very satisfying. Afterward we went to church in Minneapolis again. Something had been bothering us there from the service two weeks ago, and I had a chance to ask the Rector about it. Her explanation was entirely satisfactory, or, as Helmuth, Speaker for Boskone, would put it, “complete and conclusive”. I don’t get that nearly as often as I would like.

Afterwards we visited Tom, taking him for a visit to Como Zoo. By and large this was OK, although we were forcibly reminded of a couple things that do not work well with him. It is a a little frustrating that he did not seem to really notice the animals much, although that may be partly because a lot of them were doing the sensible thing and napping in the middle of the warm day. Perhaps those of us who are getting on in years could notice and appreciate that more than he did.

Politics in the background

I am waiting for mia_mcdavid. Her mother is watching political commentary on TV–just after the Republican debate. All I can think of are H.L. Mencken quotations:

  • A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground.
  • A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man. In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker.
  • In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for. As for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.