I Think

Yesterday, I went to my coworker's home to deliver a recliner, given to her by the boss and to install a new A/C thermostat. First, we had to drag her old recliner up a long, narrow hall, to the living room, over a new floor that scars easily, before dragging the new chair down the same hall. The thermostat would have been a piece of cake, except it was located in a space with a very dim light. The flashlight she provided had a nearly dead battery. Compounding the difficulty was the fact that the new thermostat had the code numbers in raised white on white and the holes to slip the wires in were very tiny. But, it eventually worked. That new (for her) recliner was so soft and inviting - I would like to replace mine with one similar.

So many posts refuse to load these days. Come on, Robert. Unleash some of that expertise.

The moringa tree is about eye level, now. By Monday or so I can start taking leaves, cropping, etcetera. It's more bushy than the first time it grew.

A rain storm is just now beginning to hit us. The drought of the last few years is reversed.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

I didn't actually "think" the last post. Copied and pasted it. Because it seems a good idea to read the Declaration every few years.

I am tracking a new package, via USPS. If I have to do all the work to hunt it down, once it gets to Tomball, I am going to the local postmaster to complain.

Had a very nervous dog last night. The fireworks were booming in three or four directions at once. I shut him in here, with me, and played Angry Birds kind of loud. He seemed to relax after I initiated that. My booms incorporated the outside ones.

My oldest dog has been fearful of thunderstorms and fireworks in recent year. The wahoos around here have been blasting things off for the last two nights. I bet we will hear them tonight and tomorrow night as well. If anyone has fireworks left over, we will hear some next weekend as well. The other dog doesn't care.

It is a good idea, Ed. It reminds you how fatuous and hypocritical it is, how the founding papas were such consummate liars.

I'm spending most of the weekend correcting and improving my last story, now that it has been cooling for a while. Some of the mistakes in it were a shock. I thought I had been more careful than that.

Well that's the beauty of taking your time. Think of it as a mitzvah.

One glaring mistake - I had a person absent from her home, but the keyless deadbolt was locked. Such a lock can only be locked by a person from the inside.

I just wrapped it up for now. In a month or so I may give it another going over.

In a month the body will be stinking to high heaven. You'll never get the smell out if the pages, Ed.

Rocky thinks he can outsmart me, and maybe he can, at times. But we think alike much of the time. When I ordered him to stay away from the bedroom door, while my wife slept, he seemed to obey. A few minutes later, he went out the doggy door. I suspected right away that he had ulterior motives. So I watched the back door that is opened to the rear porch. Sure enough, he came back in the hall and turned toward that door. I called him back and he gave up trying, for this morning.

Tomball high temp today: 89 degrees. Mighty cool, for July.

When I was a kid and in bad need of something wonderful in my life, I practically worshiped Walt Disney. To a dirt poor kid, on his own for entertainment, most of what he peddled was magic. After I grew up and Walt was long dead, some less salient factoids began to surface. And I no longer hold him in the same regard. But, many of the early films are still wonderful to me. I watch a few occasionally. The newer, corporate Disney, is less interesting to me. I began to lose interest in Disney films with the release of Sleeping Beauty. Not to say all of their stuff is not entertaining. But, I pine for the magic a youth reveled in, in the 1940s and 50s.

As a near-sighted young girl, who was mesmerized by "Lady & The Tramp", Pinocchio, Snow White, the Mouseketeer Club and all of the Mouseketeers, and the sheer idea of a Disney World was magical and way out of reach. But it was great fun.

The first time we took our son to Disneyland when he was 2 years old, he asked to go to the potty for the very first time. yahoo!

I went to Disneyland. In 1964.

The more I read over and correct my completed autobiographical story, the more I am convinced it achieved the desired effect.

Totally worn out by my job, yesterday and Monday. Too much outdoor activity in the heat. Too much climbing. The newest lead maintenance cuts squares of drywall out of the ceilings when wiring the ceilings for electric fans. The last ones before him took out sections of outdoor soffit. Both methods work okay. I cut the holes for him yesterday. Made them big enough to work comfortably. Turns out, he prefers them smaller, even though he then has to struggle to get the wires through and connected. My answer to that: Learn how to put back the original drywall pieces and tape and float better.

The moringa tree is just the height I want to keep it, as of last evening. Last year I let it get to seven feet. This year, just six. It will be easier to protect from extreme cold. Already I have been eating fresh leaves and drying more. It is actually a better tree than before it froze to the ground.

Mrs edgarblythe had a meeting this evening (job related). They had pizza and so I ate alone. Made myself a nice sandwich. Two slices of Genesis low sodium bread. Minced garlic and habanera pepper. Three pats of butter. Sardines. Tomato slices. I think that's all. Mighty good.

Homina homina
I established the platform for my wheelchair ramp. Now I have to strengthen it and the get some runners. Oh it's going to be lovely. And, unused, for the most part. But it will be there when needed.