Yeah…..almost another Covid blog (with a twist)…..sorry…..

First there was the onset of Covid supposedly back near the beginning of the year and it took everyone by surprise (especially New Yorkers) and continued to ‘morph’ in our minds as we grappled with the nature of it, the impact of it and our responses to it.  It was, to a large extent, a mystery disease; so little evidence, so much talk and confusion.

“What’s really going on?”  No one really knew.

Sal and I think we contracted Covid in early March as a result of the filthy and contaminated physiotherapy room at the hospital where Sal had her knee replaced.  We were both very ill, Sal for a week, me for 3 days.  We had a residual malaise for, perhaps another ten days.  And a trace of that even today.  But, despite our very probable personal Covid experience, we still knew nothing but we were somewhat more inclined to wear masks and sometimes rubber gloves, keep socially distanced and generally live less and less ‘in community’ and rather, stay more and more isolated.  I do not think I have been to town in three months at the least.  We don’t know much but we erred on the side of caution.  Still do.

Around that time, we all got to know and like Dr. Fauci of the US Centre for Allergies and stuff and Dr. Henry, the BC chief medical officer.  Both were sincere, human, learned and seemed to convey a level of competence and genuine concern.  But, sadly, that was more appearance than fact or result.  They know more, they can speak with authority and they can ‘work’ 16 hour days but, if the masses do not listen, if their political superiors undermine them and if they are reeling from the changing pandemic landscape virtually every day, they are – despite their best efforts – not ‘flattening the curve’, not curing the disease and, sadly, NOT making a positive-enough difference.  In fact, during Fauci’s watch, the greatest possible criminal negligence act was perpetrated on the American people in their history.  Trump knew in early February that C-19 was a deadly pandemic and chose a path of action that could only make it worse.  Fauci and Trump shared the stage.

No.  Fauci is not to blame.  Close to 200,000 people are dead in the USA today because of the politicans who did NOT listen to the good doctor.  Even if Fauci didn’t really know how things were going to turn out, his guess was better than theirs.  But, ‘Who ya gonna believe?’

Of course, ultimately the mystery disease and your response to it is yours.  You decide how to address this threat for yourself and for your family.  You have to think.  And you must take the actions you think are necessary.

At least a third of Americans chose purposefully NOT to think responsibly and, surprisingly, they willingly decided to flout any medical advice and many also purposefully chose to immerse themselves in situations virtually guaranteed to infect themselves and, of course, their families and friends.  Millions chose to believe the disease was a hoax and they then chose to get in the way of the virus to prove it!  They did NOT merely suspect the doctor’s advice, they totally believed the doctors were lying and that the virus was nothing more than the flu.  They believed Trump.

Why follow lyin’ Trump?  Because they believed in something else even bigger.  They had chosen to believe alternative facts, Globalist conspiracies, Trump’s lies, Q-Anon’s theories and the rants and propaganda of more idiots with microphones than ever in history (social media).  Even as the liars and propagandists were proven time and time again to be wrong, their supporters grew.  We are witnessing the zombification of the American people by evangelizing con-men.  The Bubbas are not only stupid but they are getting stupider and stupider every day.

And that is the second virus.  Ignorance, stupidity, gullible populism, sheep-disease and delusion are rampant, virulent and well-established in the USA with no cure in sight.  And no amount of facts, data, truth and information can change them.  Not quickly, anyway.  They are, in fact, proud that they DO NOT KNOW anything and they chant USA, USA, USA to tell us proudly who they are.  Ignorance is their second disease and it is gonna kill ’em.

Frankly, I do not care all that much.  I should.  But I don’t.  I think I am basically a good person but I hate mosquitoes, I hate liars and I especially despise stupidity.  If the Darwin awards have you on their list, you are not on mine.

But those that choose to be stupid are free to do so.  ‘ You GO, Bubba!’

Zombification may be a form of Nature’s population control.

But doesn’t this great social phenomena of NOT believing science, facts, reason and logic make you wonder?  How did this weird, insidious social-disease happen?  Did it start with Limbaugh?  Did it start with Trump?  Did the Russians or Chinese sabotage the American culture and school system back in the 80’s?  Exactly HOW DID stupidity become so popular and prevalent?  Even if you trace National Dumb back to beer-guzzling guys wearing cheap baseball caps backwards, that is still just a glaring symptom.  Beer and hats don’t make you stupid….well, not long term, anyway…..(I hope).  How did dumb become a such a popular ‘thing’?

Seriously, did some ‘marketer’ decide to promote idiocy as a way to sell hats and beer or something?

PS  I did some further research into this and found a small body of reference to it in that the Hardhat Rebellion during Richard Nixon’s time is perceived as maybe the genesis of the ‘great divide’ in ‘Merican politics.  There were those opposed to the war in Vietnam and there were those who chose to see that opposition as unpatriotic.  So, the hard-hat wearing right-wingnuts beat up a bunch of long-haired hippy activists in New York and the president sided with the ‘patriots’ against the ‘draft dodgers’.   And there has been a nasty divide ever since.  The sins of the father…….  

No man hath chicken like sun-cooked, rotisserie chicken.  It has to be the best!

And Allah looked down with love and said, “Go forward and multiply the cookers and fill them with chickens and spread across the land the miracle of my bounty and ye shall have all the chickens for all the people for all the rest of time.  Just save me one now and then.” And it was so.  And it was good.  In fact, it was finger-lickin’ good.

Well, the truth is that it was not quite as miraculous as God thinks.  HE/SHE came late to dinner last night and didn’t really see all the previous goings-on that were needed to get there.  Bottom line: it was a bit of a schmozzle.

Y’all know about the challenge of getting the temperature high enough to feel sure about completely roasting the chicken beyond any doubt and, of course, Murphy did sneak in a few times to screw things up as I worked to get there.  I hit 275 degrees Fahrenheit fairly early on in the test days and, with the addition of the Fresnel lenses, eventually got ‘er up to 325.  I was chuffed!

So, I slipped a chicken on the rotisserie bar around 2:00 in the afternoon yesterday.  Put everything in place and turned it on.  The chicken turned around and around.  But, after a few minutes, the chicken lay on the bottom of the oven and the bar was no longer turning!  The problem was that the bar was aligned slightly downhill and, with the weight of the chicken on it, it slowly slipped out of the motor drive and all things greasy fell to the oven floor.

A quick ponder and I knew what I had to do: find a bushing-gasket for where the bar went through the oven wall and then use some kind of bar clamp so that the bar did not slip.  I walked into my shop with the chicken lying impatiently back at the oven and looked in one of my junk drawers.  And it was a miracle!  There was something that looked like it had been designed for the job.

And some people don’t believe in God!

I put the chicken, the oven, the bar and assembly all back together and turned it on again.  It was working.

Three hours later I was peeking at it and lamenting to Sal: :”There is clearly NO God!  The chicken is not cooked!  Not once did the oven go over 200 degrees….maybe 225.  I do not get it.  Why do bad things happen to good people?”

“Better get it out and we’ll pop it on the grill.  Might as well at least save dinner.”

So, I stopped the turning, opened the oven and it was really hot.  Even more surprising, the chicken was fall-off-the-bone cooked.  It was a miracle!

My faith, it seems, is a bit fickle.

Miracle?  Yes.  But it was a less than aesthetic one.  The chicken was clearly cooked but not all that brown.  Not Costco brown, anyway.  More like a tan.  Hmmm……so I fired up the grill and gave it a minute on high flames and voila!  It was brown and crispy.

Seems God works in wondrous ways.

In the end, I am left in a quandary.  The oven worked and worked well.  Sorta.  But engineered ovens are also designed around consumer habits and I was, sadly, more focused on eating chicken when I designed mine.  That left a few gaps in the prototype.  One gap is that getting a chicken in there is a bit awkward.  Lots of assembly of oven parts AFTER the chicken gets loaded and so, if you need to mess with the subject matter at all, you first have to then deconstruct the oven.  That’s not ‘modern convenience’.  That’s awkward.  Secondly, chickens cooking ooze grease and stuff and my oven, sadly, was not designed for easy clean-up.

And, even tho I got the chicken nicely cooked, the temp never registered beyond 225.  What the hell?  So that is the NOT-SO-HAPPY side.

The happy side is that the chicken was – honestly – the best chicken I have ever eaten.  Like the solar oven ads claim, cooking solar somehow makes the meal tastier.  It really did.

Conclusion, I give myself a B.  Not even a B+.  Straight B.  My dilemma now is, a B will cook a chicken.  Nicely.  Tasty.  Do I re-engineer a few things to get my grade to an A?  Or do I just say, “A delicious chicken is nothing to be sneezed at.  Love that chicken with all your heart.  And love that oven, too.  Or tolerate it, anyway.”

I may put the oven under the house while I think it over.  If there is an apocalypse, it will come out again for sure.  If there is no such shattering event, it may just have to live there for awhile…….

The second part: Let There Be Light, refers to the lovely new lights.  Those, too, messed with our heads for a few days as we screwed up the wiring but we eventually got that sorted and they look great!

And the damn carb?  Well, it remains the damn carb.  And I am wondering again if there is a God and, if there is, why has HE/SHE abandoned me again?

I do not yet have a picture of a roasted rotisserie chicken to post but I ‘allege’ that the Fresnel lenses kicked up the output to 325/160 degrees F/C.  That is only 50 degrees better than before but it should be enough to prove the ‘oven’ claim when we decide to cook in it.  I have a pic of the temperature gauge at 325 but the real proof will be in the taste and appearance of the chicken……within a few days, I hope.

Sal’s carb on her Suzi has gone wonky and so we removed it and cleaned it and did crap and, of course, it was worse.  Sal is getting better as a mechanic, tho.  She has to be.  I cannot get my hands in there.  After our failure, an outboard mechanic-friend then took the carb for a better cleaning and inspection.  Sal got it back on the engine yesterday and it started up right away but still only ran half-throttle and idled a bit rough.  More to do.

The ship’s lights I started cleaning up two blogs back or so are up and looking great!  That was a schmozzle.  We wired the workshop almost 7 years ago (I think) and, of course, did NOT draw out the wiring plan before or after.  OR since.  So, when we went back to the task, we just looked at what wires were in the unused junction boxes and ‘remembered’ where they went and came from.  But we kept blowing fuses, tripping breakers, even twice screwing up the inverter and were faced with a light that, when the switch was thrown, would not run off.  That was a three day (two hours a day, tho) fiasco.  In retrospect, we had ‘remembered’ the junction box wiring wrong.  The light we installed needed a new wire and the light switch we were using was simply not part of that circuit.  This is NOT rocket science, folks.  It is almost as simple as plumbing.  But we came up short by encountering mystery shorts.  Solved now, tho.  Sheesh.

Came up in my boat on a big Humpy the other day.  It was real close.  Big flukes rising and descending right in front of me.  Pretty neat.

After the plague, comes the pestilence.  We’ve had mice!  Six trapped in three days!!!  We spent hours and hours mouse-proofing the house when we built it and it has been pretty successful so far.  But a door was left open and a few got in.  But six!?  Methinks they have found another way in and so the ‘tracking-the-mouse’ challenge is now underway.  Life OTG has mice.  Part of the scene.  They come.  They go.  And we kill ’em.  Still, the local gossip is that this is a bumper year for mice and everyone is having to deal with it.

First Trump, eh?  Now this mouse business!

Oh, well.  We’ll win.  We are bigger than they are and I, at least, am not afraid of mice.  Sal?  (We’ll leave that topic for another day).

I am gonna buy a car.  Something cheap, small and 4×4.  Gonna put it on the island and drive it around a bit now and then…show guests the lay of the island, visit folks, pick up guests, do some community work, maybe drive the doctor to see patients now and then…that kind of thing.  I figure I may put 500 miles on it a year…if…probably not….

Our 40-step or so front stairs need rebuilding.  The lower third needs it now.  Almost dangerous.  Kinda.  Of course, that means I may get to it by next Spring.  It’ll take me awhile to get in the lumber and well, you know…whales go by, guests come and go and we go out to play around in the garden and up the creek or on the boat.  Then there’s Netflix and dinner and wine.  Spring might be a bit optimistic. 

NOT a hot-blog day but keeping the ol’ fingers a’typing is important (for me).  I am looking forward to saying something worthwhile soon.  DO NOT hold your breath.

17 year old Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two guys at a so-called protest in Wisconsin.  To me, that was clearly murder and typical of dumb Bubbas and the militia-gun mentality of the USA – oft repeated in some homicidal way or another.  But my highly respected and well-liked friend, NonCon, found that there were some aspects of the situation that could or should lead to a legal defense of self-defense.  And I do not see that.  Maybe on one charge, but not overall.

So, to better understand the counter opinion, I went on a search today for more information.  Didn’t have to go far.  There is a HUGE contingent on YOU-Tube that not only thinks sympathy for Kyle is warranted but that the two guys killed deserved to be shot and that Kyle is some kind of hero for ‘defending businesses’.  Official Bubba position: Kyle is just a ‘good guy’ who was defending the city of Kenosha from ‘bad guys’ and they cite the arrest records of the two victims to justify their opinion.

Again, I do not see that as valid in any way.  I see a lot of irrelevant information coming into play (the characters of the victims, for instance.  The intention of Kyle, the angry mob, the illegal gun, etc.).  I do not see any grounds for any kind of exoneration despite all that nonsense.  Maybe a lesser charge for the second killing but everything leading up to it is clearly Kyle-started and Kyle-caused.  In my view.

So this blog is an invitation to all my slightly more right-inclined readers to jump in and convince me that there is any justification whatsoever for 1. Kyle even being there.  2. Kyle being there with a gun.  3. Kyle wading into the crowd.  4. Kyle shooting the first guy four times.

You can cite the fact that the protest was seemingly more of a riot than a legit protest, that the victims were ‘provocative’ and that the crowd chased poor Kyle after the initial killing but let’s not dwell too long on that – they were unarmed and he went to them.  And an illegitimate protest is the responsibility of the police, not baby Bubbas-with-guns.

What I am really looking for is some understanding as to why these gun-toting Bubbas support Kyle and the police and yet do NOT condemn the police shooting of George Floyd and Jacob Blake (yes, I know that neither of the two deceased were sweethearts.  Do y’all remember Eric Garner who was choked to death by NYPD?).  If the police can kill on-the-spot everyone who is not a sweetheart, why bother with laws and courts and due process?

And why is there this ‘reaction’ by armed militia to defend businesses with deadly force anyway?  Ya gonna take it on yourself to kill people to protect 7-11 convenience stores?  Why is there this whacked-out ‘Militia movement’?  Why is it tolerated by the same police that will kill unarmed black men and women without much provocation? If the militias support the police, why are they trying to do their job?  Why are some ‘Mericans so riled up because protesters topple statues or burn debris but NOT upset when blue-uniformed killers shoot, taser and choke unarmed coloured folks?

I can understand being upset at some of the destructive elements of protests-gone-bad but, to my mind, the militias and the police are 97% wrong and the BLM protesters are 97% right. And those blacks who are out there protesting (knowing there are multiple targets on their backs) are very, very brave or very, very stupid.

And why is this all happening now?

From my perspective, this is just another era of social anger spilling over.  But what is the anger really about this time?  I know why black people are angry but why are the Bubbas so incensed?  Is it about vandalism to convenience stores?  Or about chanting de-funding cops?  “I’m a Bubba and I am furious about others burning stores and dissing cops?”  Why is this anger so directed at protesters?  Why is it NOT directed at the inept police or the currently insane government?

I have – so far – dismissed it all collectively as a bunch of Dumb Bubbas acting stupid and being ignorant and walking around armed to the teeth.  But, judging from the forums, they are a pretty large contingent.  There are a helluva lot of Bubbas out there, it seems.  And they hate protesters, they hate liberals, they hate progressives, they hate Tesla, they hate coloured people and they hate whatever Trump hates.  How does that even happen?

What am I missing?

Is it all due to Fox brainwashing?  Limbaugh race-baiting?  Trump hate-mongering? Or was it all there beforehand?  And how would either answer explain Hungary and Brazil and the Philippines going the same divisive way?  There is something global at play here.

Anyway, didn’t those media-cretins first have some early flames to fan?  Or did Rush, Glenn and Tucker start it all?  Why do I think that this is something long burning deep underground, ugly embers in their Bubba minds, Nazi-poison in their Bubba hearts?  We have a large number of angry Bubbas out there and they have seemingly been angry a very long time.

And, if it has been angering them a long time, why are they not just as mad at Republicans?

Shine a light please…..and not a light that obscures with nonsense about the most recent victims bad history (no one knows that when they kill them).  Shed some light on why a protester, a coloured person, a gay or even a Democrat deserves to be shot and killed.  I want to know why Kyle feels he has to go defend a 7-11 in Kenosha and why the negligent cops there did NOT even check him out as he waded down the street armed with an automatic rifle.

And why is that even CLOSE to OK?

Canada’s economy shrank this last quarter by an annualized rate of 38%.  The USA by 33%.  Mexico by 18%.  Japan by 28% and the European economy by 12%.  Even China is down 7%.  That is a BIG drop and deeper than recessionary if it carries on for the next two quarters.  A global depression looms.

Blake Jacobs, a black man with a family, was shot in the back 7 times by the Wisconsin police as he tried to walk away from a blue-uniformed squad of hyper-insane protectors of the public. He had his kids in the car.  That also became BIG.  FAST.  The national league teams of Basketball, Baseball, Hockey and likely NFL Football have shut down in protest over yet-another blatant incident of police violence.

Armed right wing thugs are provoking Black Lives Matter protests in Portland and, of course, Hurricane Laura laid waste to sections of Texas and Louisiana. As bad as all that was and is, the depth of the past news week was likely the gibbering idiocy and lies of the mob-boss and his minions at the Republican National Convention.  THAT was sickeningly bad.  The week of August 20th, 2020 was NOT a good one anywhere.

India is counting 75,000 new cases of Covid every day.  South America, in the aggregate, is even higher.  Even Vietnam is back in the Covid count.  Worse, estimates are that all the numbers reported are low.  The USA has exceeded 180,000 deaths so far and counting more at a rate of 1000 people per day.  The famous and previously respected CDC was pressured to ease C-19 response measures by the White House and their switchboard crashed from people expressing rage.  I even wrote to them.

And an armed 17 year-old Dumb Bubba named Kyle Rittenhouse waded into a Kinosha Wisconsin protest crowd and shot two people dead.  According to Fox, he was a cop-admirer who decided to help restore law and order.  One Fox news announcer defended his actions and another wanted the armed lunatic for president!

Our particular regional district has 12 or so active Covid cases and my family in Victoria’s neighbourhood is posting 30.  But drug overdoses are dwarfing Covid in deaths and hospitalizations all over the province.  BC is slipping from it’s previously exalted status and I do not see an end in sight.  In fact, I not only do not see an end to the madness, I see it potentially accelerating like a forest fire.  The November US Federal election may ignite a conflagration.  Civil war is being openly discussed (albeit in a worst case scenario).

Where is Henny Penny when you need her?

Idiots want kids back in school.  Cretins refuse to wear face masks and there is still no vaccine. China is getting annoyed at the USA (who isn’t?).  The Trump led USA is always annoyed at everyone else but Russian and the world is seemingly readying to light their collective hair on fire, too.  Venezuela is even blaming Canada for some it’s tragic situation.  Belarus is up in arms.  The Middle East is always aggravated but currently more tense than usual.

All of the above is now par for the course in any given day.  I am not surprised anymore by much of anything although I will admit to feeling increasingly tense as the general ‘climate’ heats up.  Which is a nice segue into the additional extreme danger of the real climate heating up.

We are living in interesting times.  Typically that pat phrase implies that the interesting times will eventually stabilize but another way of reading it is that we, ourselves, may no longer be living at all.

“Why preach any of that, Dave?  It is what it is.”  That’s true.  But one last surprise: so many people do not, in fact, know half of that.  I do not know how people can remain so ignorant of the world around them but I meet them all the time.  Our prognosis is beginning to look worse from the added complications of ignorance and apathy.  

Almost 18 years ago I inexplicably began collecting eclectic junk. It was eclectic and it was junk for several reasons: it was all old and second hand, it was all weird and industrial in nature and it was usually being sold as junk rather than as ‘collectibles’. I paid by the pound.

I picked up a lot of crap before Sal even noticed. It was accumulating in the garage unseen but in cardboard boxes and, by the time I had eight or so, she did, in fact, notice them.

“What the hell is all this junk doing here?”

“Well now, sweetie, I know it looks a bit odd but, you see, I am kind of dreaming of living OTG some day and, if that ever happens, I may need some of this junk. You know, OTG type raw materials?”

“Fine! Whatever! But what is that thing? And why are there three of them?”

“To be honest, I have no idea. But they were cheap and Harry at the junkyard suggested I get them while the getting was good. Clearly they are some kind of log-moving device. I think. Maybe.”

“Well, you are nuts, you know that? But, if it keeps you happy, fine. Just don’t get any more junk, OK? I can hardly move in here.”

“OK”, I lied. But, technically, I didn’t actually lie. Not technically. The next few batches of things were so large they wouldn’t fit in the garage. I bought about 16 or 18 twenty-two foot long double hot-dipped galvanized 6×6 angle iron heavy rails salvaged from a collapsed BC Hydro power transmission tower next and then 12 huge 4′ x 2′ heavy grates. I put them all on the driveway. That did not go over well.

“What the hell! Why do we have a do-it-yourself transmission tower on our driveway?”

“No where else to put it…..?”

And so it went for approximately two years. More and more stuff bought for an as-yet-to-be determined project. There was occasionally a bit of tension – nothing I could not ignore. The turning point came for us (as a couple) when Sal came home from work and yelled to me from the front door, “Hey! Get your coat. Some guy is throwing out a whole bunch of what looks like winches. It is your kind of crap!” We went down the street and loaded the car with about a dozen winches, some the size of a small dog and some bigger than a large one. The guy had been a winch repairman and was getting out of the business. The car sagged from the weight. We both felt like we had scored!

I also bought some marine junk/crap. I just kinda like marine crap and so it was more of an indulgence than part of the loose and not yet conceived housing plan. But, it was marine and some of it was bronze and stainless and all of it very cool. Sal likes marine crap, too. That was a blessing.

Amongst the myriad things I got for next-to-nothing were some old ship’s lights. And, over the years, they have matured and mellowed in boxes under the house. They have not proved as useful as the huge angle iron or the massive grates. Who knew?

Yesterday, I decided to make another project. I rescued two of the lights from the still impressive pile of junk. I cleaned them up, attended to the wiring and chose the locations. “Hey, Sal? You still up for some wiring?”

“No!”

“I am going to use some of the old lights from the junk pile.”

“OK! If it gets some of the junk from the pile, I will help. Can you use up all of it up?”

“No. This is a work-in-progress. SLOW process. You have to go with the flow, ya know?”

“Fine. But keep it up. I wanna get rid of all that junk someday. Please.”

“Are you saying that I should stop looking on Craigslist for more?”

Reality check: I have used way more than 75% of what we got. If we go by weight, more like 90%. It all came in handy – still does. The downside? Every bit of it was carried in by hand and small boat. Junk collecting is a real exercise in exercise.

I get my news from a variety of places and then I interpret it through my personal biases and ignorance, my experiences and values and my own fantasies. By the time I get any real thinking going on, 80% of it has already come from the very limited mental vault that is Dave’s aging brain. I.e. my thinking is crap. Still, it is my crap, it is at least somewhat grounded in my own personal reality (I hope) and I try real hard to be honest. But, of course, I come up short.

“How do you know when you are wrong?”

Sal will tell me.

Still, I think. Therefore I am. And this is what I am thinking now – and this thought comes from inferential scanning and non-scientific thinking – in other words: I cannot cite my sources, I cannot validate my thoughts, I cannot legitimately defend the following hypothesis….but I have these thoughts nevertheless. All my thoughts on this topic are ‘inferential’ or hunches based on nothing…maybe a few articles….maybe fantasy…..a dash of ignorance, a pinch of nutty. I am a sensitive guy.

Dateline 2020. People are leaving the cities. Starting now! I thought that might happen when I left but eventually I concluded that I was not the centre of everyone’s universe and so my departure meant nothing to them. A trend did not happen. Still, the forces that moved me would eventually move others – or so I thought.

That did not happen either. At least it did not happen right away.

A few people seemed to be on the same wavelength as me and, to be fair, within a few years there was a Netflix series on OTG/Doomsday preppers and lots of ads offering OTG products but the actual EXODUS was a trickle at best, a few blips now and then. The world was NOT moving OTG.

But housing prices are a REAL harbinger of people’s inclinations, commitments, desires. And housing prices in the US are an eye-opener right now. Homes in Silicon Valley are dropping. Homes in San Francisco and dozens of other cities are dropping. Rents are dropping. That can only happen when DEMAND drops.

Why would demand drop?

Part of it is C-19. No, people are not leaving to escape the disease, they are leaving because they can. C-19 legitimized and accelerated the trend to work-from-home. That is especially true for the computer economy and nothing says computer economy more than Silicon Valley and California. Those who live and work in the digital world can now do so from afar. And their employers are encouraging it. The price of housing in Silicon Valley in the 90’s was astronomical. Today? Urban vacancy rates are high and housing prices are dropping.

But it is NOT just Northern California. Many large cities are facing a slow exodus as people discover that they can have a better life either in the ‘burbs or further out. It seems that the ten largest cities in the US are flat or declining in population. Suburban is popular. Rural is now hip. Who would have thought a virus could show us the way?

In fact, even extreme satellite locations are growing. Panama for instance. Many modern folks can live and work in the US economy while living in a foreign country. Cheaper. Healthier. Probably safer. And, they are doing it.

The really weird thing is this: first went the specialists – those were the celebrities, actors and the capitalists. They went remote when I did. Decades ago. But the ‘specialists’ are NOT a movement. The numbers are too small. But then went the paranoid – those who could afford it and wanted out from what they saw as either an oppressive society or a vulnerable one. Then came the young romantics – the modern equivalent of back-to-the-landers. They are NOT a huge segment but, with the paranoid and the celebrity/elite, they created a bit of a ‘phenomena’. Where I fit, I have no idea but there is no question I am part of the ‘phenomena’. Frankly, I think I am a Johnny-come-lately but I was an early Johnny and there was a smidge of ground-breaking involved…I think. NOT a lot. I surfed in on an easy wave.

The point? I do not have one. Inferential scanning (as stated) is not verifiable by way of current data and analysis. Inferential scanning is another way of saying, ‘I have a hunch’. This is the gut doing the talking.

My gut tells me the exodus has begun.

Where to start? Trump? Trudeau? Covid? I don’t think so….this is a local colour kind of blog today. This is back to OTG.

As you know, this area is home to the best bookclub in Canada (maybe the Galaxy?). And they prove it every month on the 3rd Sunday. Rain or shine. But Covid threw a wrench into the longest running bookclub ever (35+ years) a few months back and they had to do two meetings by way of Zoom. They didn’t like it. So, in typical OTG fashion, they opted to have the meetings in an open space. And that was first practiced at the site of the school playground. It was good. But not good enough….so…this last gathering was held ‘at the beach’.

Our island has a few nice beaches but there is one special one. It is a classically beautiful three-boat anchorage with a gradual slope from the sea that merges from beach to forest in a natural and sublime way. It’s a great spot. In fact, it is so great the local guys have, over the years, erected a rustic stage and bar and outdoor kitchen complete with outhouse and random seating areas. Log-and-beach wood style. The site looks like a fantasy setting for Hobbits or something…gorgeous.

It gets better.…this weekend 20 or so women came together at the beach and this time a good portion were younger women. Usually the younger women do NOT bring their kids because the kids are disruptive, especially in a house. But this was the beach and kids and beaches go well together. About 8 or so kids, the oldest maybe 12 and the youngest about 5. And they all played in the water for hours while book club was held with the oldest kid caring and watching out for the youngest. There was the classic log and old-rope raft, the usual beach toys, some beach-made toys, several dogs, old vehicles, lunch and, of course, perfect weather and calm waters. Norman Rockwell would have painted it a dozen times.

I know that beach-fun is no big deal but in the days of Covid and so many screen focused activities and habits of the kids (and parents) these days, it was ‘the good ol’ days’ all over again. Very nostalgic. Organic. Casual. Real. Family stuff…..

Covid prompted a lot of things this year. We have a help-get-the-wood-in program whereby some of the younger guys assist older homeowners to get in their winter wood. The local logger gave up some non-merchantable timber, some folks have trees on their property needing processing and some work is just firewood related like stacking and hauling. They’ve been at it for a couple of weeks so far and their efforts are being much appreciated. It is good.

The food delivery system has settled in somewhat. They get about $2000 worth of food delivered by water taxi and distributed by a few volunteers every Friday around noon. That works out very well and is also a very good thing to do.

We got funded for a one-day-a-week home care worker who has approximately 20 older clients currently getting some kind of personal assistance. The funding is minimal ($15K) but that is enough to hire two workers in the winter and keep our current worker going throughout the summer. And that is good, too.

Sal and another neighbour got inspired and applied for a small grant to ‘collect stories’. It seems that many of our neighbours have great local history to share and we want to record it, print it, podcast it and the like. The volunteers got enough of a grant ($7500) to hire some interviewers (including some of the school kids) a technician and coordinator. We anticipate at least thirty (or more) short-stories of derring-do and adventure from the 70’s and up until the present day. Do we make it into a book? I dunno….prob’ly the bookclub will take that on.

While all that has been going on in the neighbourhood, Sal and another two women reprinted a very old book about homesteaders out here during the last depression. The author lived here for 10 years. That was no small feat back then (piece of cake today, tho). It was interesting to read because it is similar-but-different to our history out here so far. And, it was good to ‘save’ the long out-of-print book for historical reasons.

We’ve had a few guests. Some friends have dropped off some fish. A few happy-hours. We have 90% of a solar oven (awaiting Fresnel lens) and 90% of the new water system is sitting up the hill awaiting installation.

Sal has also made a few quilts so far and I have done the very least I can do to not appear too much of a lump – which is impossible. It is hard to keep up with woman like Sal who now has a new knee and is cranking up the odometer with it. Sheeesh…………..

That’s hot!  It’s enough to cook a rotisserie chicken but 325 would be better.  I aspire to a hotter oven.  I would certainly perspire to a hotter oven…..

I will continue to ‘fiddle’ and ‘fine tune’ it but I doubt that I will get it past 300.  I may have to enlarge the sun-capture panels a bit to even do that.  But the solar oven works – it just takes a bit longer than ideal to cook a chicken according to the You-tube ‘experts’ who know this kind of stuff.  Do I care if it takes an extra 45 minutes?  Not really.  This is a solar-powered chicken cooker brilliantly designed to accommodate a duck as well.  Maybe a small turkey.  Or a skewer of squirrels.  It is supposed to be a start-and-forget kind of cooker.  Put another way: I can afford to accidentally burn a chicken because well, I do forget things now and then…..

….where was I?

Oh, yeah…..the solar oven…..the first improvement I made was to metal tape all the seams.  That did little to help things get hotter but it looked good.  The second improvement/requirement was to construct the solar ‘cone’ capture panels and that was a major upgrade.  I welded a wire frame and then covered attached panel-boards in reflective Mylar.  Turns out that the potential BTUs generated are in a direct correlation with the square foot area of the capture panels.  Bigger silver cone, potentially higher temps.

Then I insulated the entire box again – this time from the outside.  And then, and then…….the temperature ‘popped’ up a whole 50 degrees.  Without following the sun and adjusting all the time, I hit 275 and kept between that and 250 for three hours.  If I sat there in the sun (cooking myself at the same time) and slowly adjusted the angle of the cone to follow the arc of the sun, I am pretty sure I would have kept 275 the whole time.  So, however you look at it, I am NOW cooking without gas.

I know, Wim.  I know.  The test will be in the finally-roasted chicken.  That will happen (or not) Monday (guest arriving).  We will see.  If I get a nicely roasted chicken on Monday, there is no question – this quirky project was a success.  You will all hear about it.  All five of you.

And, of course, there are now a bazillion chores that need my attention after wasting time in the pursuit of a sun-cooked rotisserie chicken.

Could this behaviour be the early onset of something odd?

Irony, thy name is Harris.  Trump and Pence, meet Biden-Harris.  They are your match and then some!  And sweeter still: Harris is the stronger of the bunch.

Kamela Harris is Biden’s choice for Democrat running mate.  If Biden-Harris succeed in disposing of the orange clown, Biden will be the president of the United States in 2021.  Biden is 78.  If he lives lives long and prospers, he will be 82 after his first term and, if there is prospering all around in the country, he will be 86 at the end of his second term.  Given the way birthdays and elections work, he may even be 87.

Eighty-seven is old.  Too old.  Eighty seven is actuarily unlikely as well.  He may live to be 87 but he won’t likely be too active or even semi- ‘on the ball’ at that age.  He will ‘use’ the VP much more than have other presidents.  He’ll have to.  Especially if he dies in office which is likely.  This new vice president must remain active, healthy and up to speed on whatever is happening because stepping into the big chair is very probable.

Bottom line: the vice president is a black female named Kamela Harris.  The 47th president is likely to be also named Kamala Harris.  And Bubba Trump and the Deplorables will go stark-raving nuts!

(Personally?  I hope Harris has the nerve to walk up to Trump and grab him hard by the balls and then says, “Turnabout is fair play!”)

This VP appointment is an historic moment-in-the-making save for one Biden heartbeat away.  Kamela Harris is likely to be the first  black, female president of the United States and it is also likely that she becomes Trump’s nemesis in the meantime.  The GOPs and Trump deserve it and they deserve so much more.

The fact that Harris is a prosecutor and a relatively young one implies to me that the so-called Justice Department will be directed to fast-track all the lawsuits against Trump, all the investigations against Trump and they will be instructed to pursue every Trump-Russian-McConnel link over the next four to eight years.  There may NOT be a grabbing of balls but there will be a witch-hunt!

Trump is moving from the White House to the Courthouse and tho he will just ‘lawyer up’ to stay out of jail, he will simply pay millions and millions to do that and, in the end, he will end up behind bars or living in a Russian dacha.

But what will all that do to the situation in the USA?  How will it affect the ‘stinkin’ rich’?  Will the evil, corrupt, incompetent, elitist-run system under the newly minted Biden-Harris administration manage to redistribute the wealth?  Conquer Covid-19?  Will Biden Harris restore America’s standing amongst it’s allies?  Will Biden-Harris get on the right side of socialized medicine, immigration, education and the environment?  Can they unite the people?  And, more to the point, will the Deplorables, the Russians, the Chinese and the mafia allow them enough room to move?

Trump was a horror show, a rather fast-paced but plot-less, prime-time horror show.  Can Biden-Harris rewrite this current mess into a long-playing success?