Today is Monday. I generally dislike Mondays.
However, in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered American. It did not exist before then. Except briefly when Vikings were here. But then they left.
Columbus Day is no longer an acceptable holiday. Because of course, before the whitey everything was a natural utopian paradise...
Here is what I have been doing, since everyone cares deeply...
1. Saturday I took off work and went to the Big City.
Daughter and I went to the big Lego Expo at the convention center. It was pretty amazing. The theme was a map of the USA. You could make models and have them placed on the map. We attempted the Statue of Liberty and then discovered there was not the right combination of bricks to get real fancy without a lot of effort. Plus, it was too hard and we have short attention spans. Lulu built a tower faintly reminiscent of the Space Needle and I built a boat out of grey bricks. I am fairly good at building boats. Oregon was filled up, spilling over the Rockies and pushing into the Midwest according the Lego person who was placing the structures.
So we opted for the Florida Panhandle. Lulu's tower is somewhere between Marianna and Tallahassee and boat is cruising the Gulf just off Apalachicola Bay.
We also had Dim Sum and went to Powell's Bookstore.
Powells is a giant used bookstore that has become wildly popular with the Portland Hipsters. I was looking in the children's section for Victor Applegate books and detected the overwhelming stench of Chronic. Not sure if it was coming from the bathroom or the goofy guy in dreadlocks browsing.
This is the first time I've been to Powell's and was unable to find any of the books on my list.
The list was, "The Farmer Stockman Handbook," by Ensminger. Early editions have excellent info for small farmers who are trying to use as few chemicals as possible.
And books by the author of "The Hired Lad," a book about an English farmer chap after the second world war. I have the book but wanted to see more books by the author.
However, I found a rough copy of "The Corning Egg Farm Book," by Corning Himself and the holy Grail of No-Tiller propaganda (I guess), "The Plowman's Folly."
And now I must go to work.
There is a large truck parked outside the house. It is here for straw. It arrived sometime in the night.
I should be up and around by 6:30 I suppose.
Posts
Happy Columbus day. In Canada it is our thanksgiving day. I will be thankful if I can keep the combine running and harvest some more wheat. After spending a good (bad) part of yesterday inside the pull type with a sawzall cutting flax straw out of the plugged beater I am looking for better things today.
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving!
DeleteThat flax straw is really something else. I spent some time cutting flax off of sprockets this summer!
Ah yes, Columbus Day, the state folks will make my unemployment funds unavailable for an extra day in his honor. I would take the day off, but how do you take a day off when you're unemployed? I feel cheated!
ReplyDeleteWell they do deserve a day off. Regulating the people to the maximum takes effort! Rome wasn't destroyed in a day!
DeleteIf Powells had it, they would over charge for it. The days of bargain books from them passed when they computerized their store. Alas. No hidden gems on the shelves any more. When Edward Stratemeyer died around 1930, his daughters continued writing as Victor Applegate the second. The quality of the Tom Swift story's wasn't the same. I don't know about the Nancy Drew or Bobbsey twins books. Didn't read them. Those were my sisters. Cooties ya know.
ReplyDeleteThey did have a wall of new books which have less information than the old books but use clever words like "sustainable."
DeleteYes, I was looking for "Tom Swift in the caves of Nuclear Fire," you caught me.
Instead I found a Hipster kid with a Chronic problem...
I've enjoyed your blog for a while. The combination of relentless work, broken things and a cynical sense of humor is appealing.
ReplyDeleteI'm writing a blog about my first year of unemployment in which it all seems hopeless (but my Scandinavian heritage accepts as normal) full of opportunities for cynical humor, etc.
1. do people actually donate to your blog. I've donated to another blog (The best radio you have never heard) which is really good.
2. I see that you have monetized your blog. Do you make anything off of that?
Thanks.
Oh,yes. Your blog is partially responsible for my purchase of a 1948 tractor.
Art, i devoted a whole post to your reply...
Delete