Thursday, February 13, 2020

The temperature's dropped significantly and it seems the rain is done with us until Tuesday or so. Around Jackson and the Pearl River, as well as near Lake Oktebbeha there's worries of the dam there bursting once everything finishes running downstream. Here in Enon Holler, though, all we have to worry about is drying out soon enough to maybe get some work done.



 Well, people with actual jobs, that is. Not me. Still no luck in the Great Search For Something Occupy The Hours, but I've got a couple decent ideas thrown my way. My Therapist suggested I get ahold of my cousin who has kids in college. Get them to spread around that they know someone who can do some editing for papers and whatnot, and do it cheap enough for the average college student. I should think of prices to offer that would work well. Maybe fifty bucks for every ten pages? Does that sound right?

 I really need to seek out someone professional to ask questions and get some insight on just what I need to do. Or, conversely, I need to maybe put some more effort into the fiction ideas. My mother's first cousin - who we've always treated as an aunt and I've always shared a connection with - gave me a Amazon gift card for Christmas and I picked up a half-dozen Weird Western short story collections.

 I think that's my best bet. I still like the Space Western idea, but the plots for the Weird Western stuff has come a little easier and, I like to think, more original. Plus, let's be honest, the real Wild West has guys named Hoodoo Brown and "Mysterious" Dave Mather and real-life characters like Bass Reeves and Judge Roy Parker. If I can't do something with all that, I might as well pack it in. Which I might ought to do, anyway. I've still got all those books about writing I really haven't dug into just yet.

 The Therapist is big on me doing some traveling. Her take on the matter is rambling around spurs the creative juices, and she's not wrong. I do wish I'd been writing this sort of thing back when I took my Big Trip. I did do some writing, but had I kept a day-to-day journal, I'd come away with a lot of neat stuff. Plus, that trip was inspiring on so many levels. I saw places like Portland and San Francisco, the Cascades and the Grand Canyon, and all the little towns and suburbs of varying vitality and life. It does indeed hurt my heart to think we as a people, as a country, as a culture remain so divided and against each other with no healing in sight. Calls for civility are a waste of time when everyone's terrified of each other.

 Speaking of which, we might as well get into the News. I'm going to lead with this charming little story out of Mobile, AL. Seems two gentlemen, loaded for bear, got into a dispute while inside a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market last night. No word yet on just what caused the argument, but apparently it was serious enough to slap leather and start shooting each other. While, it should be noted, still in the Wal-Mart, sending their fellow customers diving for cover and praying for their lives.

 Luckily, the only people killed were the two dipsticks who decided that whatever fight they'd gotten into, shooting each other was the only option available to a true Southern Gentleman and Red-Blooded American. The two shooters have some great names, too, Seantatis Kirksey (44) and Jaquess Thompson (21, and no relation). I really have nothing else to add except that I'd put good money on the fight having something to do with college football. This is the South after all. That's all there really is to say, since the whole "are we as a culture too loose and careless with murderous firearms" is long since lost.

 The other interesting that went down today concerns the dick-wagging Trump did about having the DOJ lean on the people trying to put his good buddy, "Fancy" Roger Stone, in the clinker for the relatively short time he deserves. There has been some pushback from GOP Senators, it seems. Many brows have been furrowed and disappointing looks passed back and forth, I'm sure.

 Anyhow, the Attorney General himself, William "The Pope" Barr spent the day talking to ABC's Chief Justice Corespondent Pierre Thomas (not the former Saints running back). Apparently, he's claiming the president has never asked him to do "anything in a criminal case". At the same time, he complained that Trumps regular Twitter tantrums "make it impossible for me to do my job," which apparently is interfering in the sentencing of his boys.

 If we're willing to believe this wasn't all a set up, it'd be an interesting break from Trump by anyone, much less Barr, who's been a fairly loyal consigliere since coming on board last year. However, the President's been shitting himself over form Chief of Staff John Kelly's lack of loyalty way past the point his "truth-telling" would've done anyone any good. So, color me skeptical.

 It does make me wonder, though. I joke about Trump being a mob boss, but I do sometimes question just how much power he truly wields. Sure, he's got The Base totally in his hands and willing to believe all sorts of goofy shit, but he is about as sharp as a bag of wet mice with a long history filled with utter incompetence, and it's only thanks to our broken and battered take on capitalism is he not working as a greeter at a Wal-Mart.

 That being said, who is the brains behind the make up? Who's been there long enough to pull those strings and isn't an incompetent boob? Not his daughter or his weed son-in-law, certainly, and every other position has been a revolving door. Apart from Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Miller, that is, they've hung it in, and Hope Hicks is coming back.

 I'm not saying anything, I'm just saying. It would be irresponsible not to speculate. Anyhow, supper's ready. Y'all be good.