Winters, fires and dogs.

Hunter at work

Georgia stalks a squirrel. By the time Georgia gets to where the squirrel was it will be sitting up in the tree buffing its nails.

Hold the feet

So I am over American politics and shall write no more about the whole sordid business.  But I must say - giggle - that it is to going to be great fun to watch over the next few years. 

We have been watching ‘Crown’ about the Royal Family and it has made me realize that I know almost nothing about them. Whatever I know has been gleaned from newspapers over the last 60 years or so. And I never really paid much attention. They were just always there and made no difference to my life at all.

I do remember when I was small and lived in Deniliquin NSW in Australia that I caught a train to Shepparton Victoria to see the Queen. I stood in a large crowd of small people and waved a small flag as she went past in her big black car. And my goodness she is still there. If people ever think they have a bad job they should look at what the Queen has to do. And she never retires. Think about that. She pays into social security for her whole life and then dies. And collects nothing. 

There has been in Australian for some time a movement for us to divest ourselves of the monarchy and become a republic and elect a president. I suppose it will happen one day but I don't think it matters. I think we should just sit there and watch with horror what is happening in America. 

More importantly - my new leaf mulcher is a ball tearer. Last year I had a hand held leaf mulcher and used it for hours and hours and nearly crippled myself. So I bought one that just stands there and that you throw leaves into and it works a treat. I tried it out last week and have been overwhelmed with the ease of use. Of course it is  not very efficient and only mulches selected leaves - but small enough to enable us to throw them on there garden. 

Each year - on the day it decides is best - our gigantic mulberry tree decides to drop its leaves. So it starts mid morning and in four hours it divests itself of every leaf. So it started today and we said ‘today is leaf day ‘ but at noon it stopped completely. Not a leaf has fallen since. I just don't understand the world anymore. 

And I have a new poo bucket. Much improved on the old one which - post Indiana - was too small. And disappeared. Could someone have stolen a plastic bucket with holes in the bottom - which was used to collect dog poo? I am sure they would her been sorely disappointed. 

Indiana does poos in the most amazing places and I am not usually able to use the garden spade because to the intricacies of the location. I have commandeered a pair of kitchen tongs and use these to extricate her droppings mainly from ‘ground zero’. This is an area of the garden - thick with ground cover - which appears to have gained her favor - although she does spread this around a bit. I have to remove a great deal of foliage in poo collection but I am sure nature will cope. 

So on Wednesday we are going to Washington for Thanksgiving to be with Cate’s brother and his wife and their son who is married to a lovely Mongolian woman. So thanksgiving there is a blast with 5 Australians and about 10,000 Mongolians. She has many relatives. 

I am usually in charge of the oxen spit but may not be allowed to do it this year because last year I overcooked the oxen. This is not hard to do if you start cooking and drinking at 6.00 AM and get lackadaisical about the heat beads. 

I reckon this year it might be the coleslaw. It wont stop me from drinking.

We are going to Mongolia next year and apparently have at least 1 million relatives there by marriage. 

I have seen Indiana Jones movies and am not eating any yak’s eyeballs or cobra’s hearts. (That may have been Anthony Bourdain but nevertheless I want only good wholesome food like barbecued goat. Hold the feet.)

I was devastated

So I am sort of recovering from the election of the orange idiot. 

I was devastated. 

We are permanent residents although not citizens. So we do not have the rights of citizens - but I figure that as my wife pays $150,000 in taxes each year - and the president-elect has never paid any taxes ever - this gives me complaining rights.

Like most other people I did not see this coming. 

George Carlin said ‘never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups’. And he was right. In fact he was always right and he would have predicted a Trump presidency.

George had a great understanding of the fundamental ignorance of large swathes of the population. He would paint a picture of the great unwashed religious zealots and bigots in middle America and his audiences would laugh out loud at the caricatures.

But he knew that he was not talking about caricatures - he was talking about living and breathing people who had turned dumbness into an art form.

I knew that there were enormous numbers of stupid people in America - the system is designed that way. The education standards in America are appalling - the lowest in first world countries. But any system that favors the really rich needs a whole bunch of dumb grunts to actually do the work. 

And Americans are used to being conned by charlatans. This is the very nature of the society in which they live. I listen to mainstream radio each day and most commercials are designed to inveigle people to partake in the immense number in scams that are legal here.

Have a major tax debt? We can fix that. Have a bad credit score? We can fix that. Have a large debt for college tuition? We can fix that. Want to earn $100 per hour at home on your computer? Just send money and your bank account details.

So why would not those people fall for the biggest con of all time.

Now the very people who voted for Trump are going to be well and truly fucked over bigly. No the coal mines are not going to reopen. No manufacturing is not coming back to America. No the wall is not going to be built. No the Mexicans are not going to be deported. But yes - maybe 20 million people will lose their health cover. 

I really feel sad about this. They needed help and instead they have been fucked over. But I am more concerned about things other than stupid people.

Trump has the opportunity to do lasting damage to the environment. He may appoint to head the EPA a climate change denier. This nitwit will have the opportunity to do enormous and irreversible damage to our environment and to poison the future for our children and grandchildren. 

He has already caused chaos with there LGBT community and with other minorities who are regarded by many of his supporters as non-citizens - as people who should not be an integral and vital part of this country. Across the country these people are being attacked. 

I find this concept appalling. It is contrary to everything I believe, 

This is why - as a resident of this country - I will fight tooth and nail for the restoration of sanity. For the acceptance of science. For the contempt of religion zealotry. And for the preservation of the rights of the the gay and minority communities which are so much a part of what we believe America should be.  

We have a new dog

Indiana

So we have a new dog. She is a German shepherd mix and is four months old. Her name is Indiana and Georgia just loves her to bits. The idea was that she would give Georgia some company and that this would take the pressure off me and stop Georgia from following me absolutely everywhere.

That is not actually so bad but Georgia has more than a few psychological problems and when I went into my study to do things she would stand in the hall outside the study and look at me - possibly reproachfully - hard to be sure.

We had not intended to get another dog until next year but Cate went to a Humane Society breakfast last Thursday and Indiana was outside on show - waiting to be adopted. Well Cate being Cate she immediately fell in love with Indiana (who was then Mosey) so we went to the Humane Society on Friday and got her.

She is a truly lovely dog and we are all as happy as clams together. Georgia is teaching her how to dig up garden beds and eat Cate’s plants. 

Of course she is a baby and is currently teething so I am covered in bite marks. And there some issues with toilet training but best if I do not talk about them here. 

I have started yoga. I have been wanting to do this for a long time but have never had the courage to drag my ancient wrinkled body to a yoga place and put it on display while I did the downward dog. 

So I have had three private lessons and will have another one in week or so when my teacher gets back from holidays. Yoga is much harder than I thought it would be and some of the positions are just about beyond me - although I have surprised myself - and my teacher.