Lord, if you won't take care of us, won't you please, please let us be.

  Y'all, Hurricane Ida hits land tomorrow and by all accounts will be a booger. If you're in the Gulf Coast area, take the proper precautions and split if you're told to. If you're in the rest of the South, get ready for some bad rain and possible flooding. And that's on top of everything else kicking us in the collective teeth. 

 Okay, it's 3:25 a.m. and I slept on this. We took Little Brother back to the airport today, and driving to-and-from Memphis wore both me and Momma out. I remember thinking I need to get something down but it was a losing battle.

 In any event, it was a good visit from the LB, who I haven't seen in almost two years due to COVID. Granted, now is not the best time to come to Mississippi, in re: COVID, but he'd already bought the tickets and couldn't refund them. That tells you, if nothing else, just how quickly this Delta variant slipped up on us.

 He brought me some good smoke, which is great, but I think he really enjoyed spending time with Momma. I won't go into details, but Momma grates on him and he usually spends his visit avoiding her as much as possible. This time, though, they'd spend hours talking, even when that meant listening to Momma spin her conversation roulette wheel and hope to keep up.

 So it was a good visit and I'm looking forward to him and the Sister-In-law visiting this winter. Visit with your people, y'all, it recharges your batteries. Okay, then, onto the News. Good week. Big week, too. Between the FDA's approval of the Pfizer vaccine and the ongoing Afghanistan withdrawal, it has been interesting times. Add a Category 4, potentially devastating hurricane into the mix, and you can't help but wonder why the Washington Press spent so much time on Biden's dog. Good god.

 I'm not sure what else. I have noticed that even a couple of sessions has reset my brain somewhat. Now and then, I'll do this thing where I'm sure I've been thinking about something but I forget it. I can't for the life of me remember what it was or even if I was actually thinking about it. May not sound too deep but it always serves to shake me some. Man, I've missed this.

 Well, it's been at least a half-hour since I wrote the above paragraph. I don't really have anything to roll with, nothing particularly noteworthy I'm reading or watching or playing. My PowerBender harp came in the mail yesterday, but so far I really can't tell much difference. I find bending notes sort of easy, which has to mean maybe I'm doing it wrong.

 This last little bit is like pulling teeth, man. I think I'm going to go back to bed. I've been scrolling through Tubi but I don't think I'll mess with crap cinema. Just wrap this up, finish my drink, and call it a whatever-it-is. Seriously, though, y'all. Hurricane Ida looks to be no joke. Be safe.

Take a little trip with me.

  It's the first of April. I never have cared for April Fool's Day mainly because most folks are neither all that funny nor all that clever. I've only seen a couple of April Fool's tweets today and they've been blatantly obvious. I guess living in the bizarre reality that has been the last four years has sapped most people's tolerance for bullshit.

 The Derek Chauvin case is going into its fourth day. Here's a pretty good Twitter feed called Unicorn Riot that's been following the trial. The defense's strategy seems to be not only painting George Floyd as a danger but also that the cops were being threatened by the cops. It's going to be interesting to see what the defense brings because the prosecution is eating them up. A former supervisor of Chauvin has said he went too far.

 Another... interesting take on it is how guilty the witnesses all seem to feel over it, as if they're blaming themselves for Floyd's death. Particularly the young man who originally thought he passed a fake twenty. He was hard to listen to, bless his heart, and it goes a long way in explaining why this sort of thing keeps happening, why police brutality is so commonplace.

 You'll see these arguments online where people who support police brutality and inevitably someone will ask them, "Well, what if it happens to you or someone you love?" Once they get over the claim they'd never do something like that, the pro folks always say something along the line of, "Well, I/they probably deserve it." Think about that. Our culture has this worship of authority so ingrained that we think we deserve to have punitive measures used against us whenever said authority deems it necessary. 

 That's something about our culture we maybe should think about. It doesn't remove or explain away the racial aspect of police brutality or the other aspects of White Supremecy that, but I definitely think it has a structural component to this all-American comment of daily life. Same thing with yet another mass shooting. We for some reason think we deserve like this or, at least, it's a reasonable sacrifice. It should also be noted that the same people who think the cops are justified with what they do are the same ones who lose their shit when they get a ticket for parking in a handicapped spot. Go figure.

 Moving on, we've all had to consider Matt Gaetz's "oh-face" way too much this week. It's come out that he's given to show nude pictures and videos of his sexual conquests to others, even fellow Congress critters while on the floor of the House of Representatives. That's just creepy and gross. I mean, that'd be creepy and gross if he was 21, but for a member of the U.S. legislative body, it's almost beyond the pale. Even if the sexual trafficking of minors charge is bogus, he ought to be bounced just for that. For cryin' out loud, man, try not to act so much like the privileged frat boy douchebag you so obviously are.

 And that's about that. It's been cold but an otherwise lovely day and we finally got high-speed fiber-optic internet. It is nice to rejoin the 21st century. I've been buying more harmonicas, including a PowerDraw harp that I'm extremely looking forward to messing with. Maybe after my birthday, I'll buy myself one of these Lucky 13 harps that are tuned for bass playing.

 I'm having a lot of fun relearning harmonica and guitar. Maybe the best thing about learning or relearning anything - from a musical instrument to a sport to something like painting - is when a hurdle or a block that's been hanging you up and frustrating your progress just melts away. You figure it out and it becomes second nature. It's like discovering you have a super power.