I managed to be fairly productive yesterday – ran to town to get some “supplies” (read: junk food to comfort eat until my wife returns), got more plants in the ground (decorative this time), got a batch of beard oil made (still need to run to town again to ship some to a friend), got my bedroom gun rack installed (although about 2″ lower than it should be), had the yard mowed (that’s what the people coming to the property were for, and why I had to play human), and even got a bit of bass practice in (loving the new fretless).
Now I know it isn’t difficult to mow a yard, just time consuming, but we don’t have a riding mower (or any mower for that matter) and a push mower just won’t work for me since my injury. I had a mower picked out and was ready to buy it, but I talked to an employee at the Big R in the city and he actually talked me out of the sale. He wasn’t just trying to make a sale, he was trying to do what was best for the customer, and in the long run, a riding mower wasn’t the right solution. Instead of trying to close the deal, he asked questions about the use conditions, and our long term plans. When I told him, he said we should skip getting a mower and get a mini-tractor with the mower attachment that could also be used to for many other things we would ultimately need. The logic made sense, and that’s now the plan, but it’s a big jump from a $3000 mower to a $25,000 mini-tractor so we are still without.
That’s something I’ve noticed and love about Montana – in addition to the sense of community, the people seem genuinely friendly and helpful. There’s also a custom known as “the Montana wave” and people wave to each other as they cross paths on the back roads. Similar to “the Jeep wave,” it helps foster a bond in the community.
The guy who came up to mow employs one or two assistants and they are always local youth. He charges $25/hour per person for their time, but that’s also what he pays them – he takes no profit off their labor, and even takes a bit of a loss if you factor in depreciation of his equipment. I asked him about it before and his philosophy is simple – he’s trying to provide work and income to the youth in the area, and instilling a strong work ethic in them will be more beneficial in the long run. He sees the big picture, and hopes to hand over the reigns of the business to one of these kids some day.
He has had many employees come and go – not all teens are willing to work in the sun all day – but one has been around for well over a year now. She and I chatted for a few minutes while they took a break, and she mentioned that they would have a lot of boys come work with them but they’d quit after a few days once they realized they weren’t going to get anywhere with her. No, she’s not a lesbian, she just knows what she wants out of life and isn’t giving the fuckboys a chance to screw that up. She’s got a good head on her shoulders, and is definitely going to be successful in life.
Anyhow, stuff to do, so on to…
Interesting Tidbits
“Localhost tracking” explained. It could cost Meta 32 billion – “Meta devised an ingenious system (‘localhost tracking’) that bypassed Android’s sandbox protections to identify you while browsing on your mobile phone — even if you used a VPN, the browser’s incognito mode, and refused or deleted cookies in every session.”
Want your kid to be ultra successful? Don’t do this – “Instead, Dominus said, parents focused largely on providing warm, supportive homes and let people like teachers, coaches and other mentors handle the instruction and discipline of their children.” Interesting, though I don’t trust the education system at all.
Pentagon ‘deliberately spread disinformation’ over UFOs to disguise Area 51 weapon tests – “Investigators uncovered the disinformation campaign during a probe into conspiracy theories about the US hiding research into aliens and a now-retired officer is said to have admitted the ploy”
Man injured by bison in Yellowstone National Park – THE FUZZY COWS ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS, DON’T TRY TO PET THEM!
DOJ employee spiked pregnant girlfriend’s drink with to induce abortion without her knowledge – “A U.S. Department of Justice employee who works in the IT department slipped an abortion drug into his girlfriend’s drink, causing her to lose the baby, Texas authorities say.”
Weather makers: How microbes living in the clouds affect our lives – “It took decades for people to accept the reality of the aerobiome. In the 1930s, a few scientists took to the sky in airplanes, holding out slides and Petri dishes to catch fungal spores and bacteria in the wind. Balloon expeditions to the stratosphere captured cells there as well. Today, 21st-Century aerobiologists deploy sophisticated air-samplers on drones and use DNA-sequencing technology to identify airborne life by its genes. The aerobiome, researchers now recognise, is an enormous habitat filled only with visitors.”
Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys Co-Founder and Singer, Dies at 82 – “The music icon helped define the ‘California sound’ with the American rock ‘n’ roll boy band he formed with his family members and a friend”
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