Not really in the mood to write today, not sure why that is the case. Usually I have thoughts that are just begging to pour out, either here or on paper, but not today. I suspect it may have something to do with the weather – our heatwave has arrived and it was in the upper 90s yesterday so I didn’t do much of the outside chores, though I did plan ahead and give the plants a deep soak on Monday evening (and got eaten by mosquitoes because I didn’t use my homemade bug spray). Today is going to be another warm one.
I did get our AC setup yesterday – just a small window unit that usually isn’t needed but for a few weeks during the summer. We probably won’t even need that once I have an air intake for our furnace piped to the basement. It stays cool in the summer so piping the intake there will draw the cool air from downstairs that can be blown through the house running just the fan. We have a wood stove downstairs that we use in the winter and it can quickly get between 80-90 when burning, so we’ll be able to heat the entire top floor during the winter once the air intake is piped as well.
It also could be because some of my health issues were rearing their ugly head yesterday and I was pretty miserable. It’s better today, but living with pain signals constantly firing off can get really draining on one’s sanity. Sure, there are medication options for pain management, but they keep throwing Oxy at me and I really don’t like taking that stuff.
There was one that worked amazingly well, amitriptyline, but that made me a literal zombie. I really don’t remember much of what happened around me while I had to take that one, but it really freaked my wife out so that one is a no-go for her.
I have also been slacking a bit about my diet and what I eat – for a while there I had been eating extremely healthy and felt better, but that was also in conjunction with working with a trainer at the gym 2x a week, chiropractic care and massage 2x a week, physical therapy 1-2x a week, and hot yoga 2-3x a week. Since moving to rural Montana from a more urban environment my access to those resources has been severely limited. The local gym is overly expensive and has very little to offer, the local chiropractor is only here two days a week and isn’t as good as the one who treated me in Idaho, there’s no yoga of any kind unless you drive over an hour, and massage without all the other effort seems like an indulgent treat. But I should at least start eating better again and pay attention to inflammatory products I ingest.
Hmm, it seems I did have some thoughts waiting to escape, but now I need to get to the chores I slacked on yesterday…
Interesting Tidbits
What It’s Like to Live in a Pop Culture Landmark – “Whether you’re a superfan, a savvy businessperson, or not quite sure what you’re getting yourself into, the experience of owning a movie-famous pad is hard to put a price tag on.”
“This is a total fucking disaster” – “Congress must demand, and the Trump administration must provide, the Epstein Files and seek transparency and reform of the Intelligence Community”
‘I Know How These People Operate’: Fmr CIA Officer Calls BS On FBI’s New Epstein Intel – “CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou said Monday on Fox News’ ‘Jesse Watters Primetime’ he doesn’t believe anything about the new intelligence from the FBI on deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein adds up.”
The Case for a Free & Prosperous Society – “Today’s federal government is a far cry from Franklin’s vision of a laissez-faire state. …. Government has gotten bigger, not stronger, and can now only do three things effectively—tax, wage war, and inflate the currency.”
Biden doctor Kevin O’Connor invokes Fifth Amendment when asked if he lied about ex-prez’s health – “Joe Biden’s former doctor refused to answer a single question Wednesday about the ex-president’s health and cognitive decline — stunningly invoking his right against self-incrimination before slinking out of a congressional deposition.”
Federal Judge Tosses Lawsuit Challenging Gun Ban for Marijuana Users Filed by Former D.A. – “A federal judge in Pennsylvania has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the then-District Attorney of Warren County, Pennsylvania and the Second Amendment Foundation that challenged the federal prohibition on gun possession by ‘unlawful’ users of drugs.”
The Feds Get Greedy for State Data – “The federal government is moving quickly to operationalize its plan to build a massive central storehouse containing extensive data on every American citizen.”
Our Duty to Explain Israel’s Operation to “Concentrate and Move Population” in Gaza is a Manifest War Crime – “Following the publication of the military’s plans, Moshe ‘Bogy’ Ya’alon, former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said in an interview with journalist Lucy Aharish, ‘Evacuating the entire population? Call it ethnic cleansing, call it transfer, call it deportation, it’s a war crime.’ He added, ‘They’re sending the soldiers to commit war crimes.'”
BBC staff: we’re forced to do pro-Israel PR – “More than a hundred BBC employees have written a letter to the director general, Tim Davie, complaining that the Corporation has become a mouthpiece for Israel.”