Another record set. in A small but passable life.

Wednesday a record was set for the most triple digit days in a year since 1896. 144 days it has been 100 degrees or hotter. The old record was 143. And we may add another day today. This year we’ve also set new records for days over 110 and days over 115. There was also the hottest July on record, the hottest August on record (which was also hotter than July, an anomaly.) It was also the hottest year on record. For four years straight the record has been broken for the hottest year ever. Every year was hotter.

As long as my nuclear powered A/C doesn’t quit I’ll be fine.

Mom went in for another test yesterday. It looks like the valve replacement is going to be a thing. The hospital is only a fifteen minute drive away so I just dropped her off and came home to wait. The cardio doc called me after the procedure and we talked for a bit. She was really nice. We both agreed that the new method of valve replacement would be better than cracking her open like they had done Dad thirty years ago.

The only thing is that it would be at a larger hospital downtown. Which means I’d have to drive downtown. I mean, I can do it. Back in 2018 I did drive straight through San Diego, L.A., and San Francisco. We survived.

I think it is still strange that living here, just outside the fourth most populated county in the US that there are no jet contrails in the sky any longer. The sky used to be constantly crisscrossed with contrails. Does this mean no more dumbass chemtrail conspiracists?

Odd fact: The republican majority in the US Senate represents only 14% of the US population.

Odd fact: The main purpose of federal government is to prevent the general population from enacting laws and implementing taxation to benefit the population.

Odd fact: Humans are notoriously known for never learning from history.

Anyway, I finished reading the Charles Bukowski book, “The Last Night of the Earth Poems.” He was a cynical person, but he had a knack for knowing what was important to pay attention to.

I liked this line:

“at night before sleeping I often considered what I
would do, what I would be:
bank robber, drunk, beggar, idiot, common
laborer.

I settled on idiot and common laborer, it
seemed more comfortable than any of the
alternatives.”

Yeah, that resonated with me.

I “retired” at age fifty. Not because I’d amassed the financial means to do so (I amassed nothing), but because I’d finally gotten tired of playing that particular “game” of “working for a living”. Plus I figured that thirty-five years (first taxable income at age fifteen) of hard manual labor and dealing with idiots on a daily basis was enough for one lifetime.

Speaking of frugality- I filled up the car yesterday. 8/6/20 to 10/15/20 we burned 11.504 gallons. It was $27.60 to top it off.

Anyway, one more cup of coffee and I’m off to the pool.