btw, from the ONT, 'cause I thought it bore repeating, one of the tied winners of the Natl Spelling Bee:
"It feels pretty good because not only do I get the victory, but I get to share it with someone else, so it means a lot to me."
Best at spelling and sportsmanship!
Now, use 'stichomythia' in a sentence....
Okay, now that I've read about the guy for whom SCOAMF released five top killers... I might need to moderate my statement about any one American soldier being worth all the IslamoFascists combined, although I guess if it's zero on both sides of the equation, it's still true.
Long silly story time!
I got two miracles yesterday.
"The very hairs on your head are counted," Jesus reassured us in Matthew and Luke. Urantia Paper 38 clarifies that the angels don't waste their time pawing through your lice and dandruff to enumerate your follicles; they are math geniuses, inherently capable of such estimations. Sounds right to me.
Which was on my mind yesterday, as I examined the fall of two of the three forks of the once-mighty 100yo oak:
Branches fell inches from the big plate glass window - there were oak leaves caught on the roof flashing above the window, and all through the little cedars on either side of the window. Inches. Very close thing.
The power lines to the barn run under a branch of a neighboring tree, which branch got snapped, but missed the lines.
And big branches fell all around both vehicles, yet only one small twig-end broke against the pickup door. No scratch worth mentioning.
And no human or beast got hurt. Not even the resident family of squirrels, I think.
That was the first miracle, thank you hypercalculating chaos-controlling angels! 
Within a few hours of the fall, the neighbor's son-in-law, and the SiL's two SiL's, came over with their chainsaws, a big trailer, and a really sweet little Deere (want!) with grapple attachment. By two in the afternoon, tons of tree were gone to the South 40, and I was left raking up leaves and twigs.
That was the second miracle, in many ways, more miraculous than the first. Mrs & I stood there mid-afternoon, amazed at our blessings.
Some photos & videos tomorrow, perhaps.
There's a big hole in our leafy canopy now, though. Won't be filled in my lifetime.
Obama's prisoner swap broke the law.
Yeah, um, about that. I was busy yersterday and didn't get any AoS time. What's the general consensus on this among morons, because when I heard about this, I was surprised to discover my rage meter is still functional.
I mean: NO! By all that's True, NO! Not that any one American soldier isn't worth all the IslamoFascists combined, but that is so wrong in so many ways its technical criminality is almost beside the point.
It is so past time to take down the bastard son of CommunIslam. Impeach, try, hang.
Now, if the guys we released are brain-chipped, I might think differently. Monitor, control, explode, we've made some interesting advances in microchips ...
Suddenly,
without a warning,
Here we are,
another morning.
Morning, Glories. Today will be swell!
Some webwork hooks are just irresistably baited.
Time Traveler's Conundrum
We had the best of intentions
http://mindfulwebworks.com/tales/time-travelers-conundrum
4-panel SF toon from about 2 months ago.
Panz: we can both quit posting tl;dr's now - I heard a new one is up. Mission accomplished.
All our shade is oaks so I'm grateful, but when I open the door this time of year, dozens of oak danglies blow in. Leaves, yeah, IG And our roof isn't metal but the cars are - trash can sound - heh. still, good old trees, protection on the prairie.
Re planting where the oak fell: Plan to.
All our trees are from my grandfolks' days and I'm seeing the end of them, one by one. Towering pecans that are near their end. All the oaks are the same age (the maples dying at once: good warning about how to plan & plant long-term). The two great, old Ponderosas have a lifespan....
As I said, we really need to plant some future. As if there is one.
Ronald Reagan, Homosexuality, and AIDS
Was Reagan slow on addressing this new, mysterious disease?
http://mindfulwebworks.com/radical/ronald-reagan-homosexuality-and-aids
105: mindful webworker - gardener
Glad that you're all ok. You were blessed, having it fall safely without injuring any one or damaging property, or the other trees.
At least in our parts, we expect wind storms will likely increase given the powers that be where earth flies circling where our sun flies through the heavens referenced these days as if sterile space.
The last 70mph wind gusts through our neighborhood took down dense wood Cedar Elms for the most part, leaving weak ass ash and pine alone. If the cedar elm were rotten, perhaps from sequential droughts, dry rot within, no strength in cell connective tissue. And no telling where/what spinning winds touch. Our neighbor had her cedar elm shading her home pruned significantly last year. This month, one of its main branches broke off, held by splinters over her roof. She had no idea, having gone outside and seeing no branches on her lawn. Clear view from our kitchen window. The look on her face when we showed her.
When we moved here, no trees, on a shelf of limestone, glaring sun light. No soil, so we had some full loads brought back, and on those hills planted our oaks. Decades later, no sunlight at all in back, making gardening very challenging, especially given the molds. So we decided to keep the deciduous near the house, but remove the live oak near the fence. Our blue jays are thrilled that the invasive squirrels no longer have full overhead access across the lawn; and the jays play in what's left of the stump that was pulverized into oak mulch.
I was sorry when it was decided to remove what I'd planted, trained and pruned over the years, such an illustrious live oak. It was a blessing, bringing shade where there had been none, and shelter for the many nesting and visiting song birds.
But having some open space and sun light with deep, rich soil ready to garden is another blessing.
If your fallen oak location could host a suitable fruit or nut tree of your liking, consider doing yourself a favor for the future. Plant something that helps provide a little subsistence come hard times. Our neighbors have the pecans; I've the plums and concord grapes.
the dumps probably up by now...
mindful - Sorry to hear about your oak. We have a large old cherry tree that has produced bazillions of pies over decades, but it is dying. I've nursed it along as much as possible, but it will come down any time now.
Posted by: mindful webworker - gardener at May 31, 2014 08:42 AM
Sorry about your tree. As a 4 year old I cried like a baby when the huge elm tree came down in front of our house. Dutch elm disease. Not caused by one fucking someone's butt
Whoa
Half of a 100yo oak just split and fell in the yard. Huge bunch of tree.
Missed the power line, the big east window, and both cars. I'll count that as grace.
No wind, no ice, nothing but age, rot.
I've known that tree all my life. The other half will probably have to go. Like losing an old pet, almost. As a child, I wondered when its branches would reach the other oak, so squirrels could run from one to another. For twenty years, I've watched them doing just that, even yesterday. Now, an ending.
I need to plant some future.
73
As so many have said, in the age of the founders, we would already be in hot rebellion.
Posted by: mindful webworker - observing, not advocating at May 31, 2014 08:09 AM (eSMsH)
We have infinitely more cause than they did. Just the level of taxation alone would have made their eyeballs bleed.
And I doubt they could have even imagined the level of nannying and surveillance we have come to accept as normal.
So.. are you loading up and heading for the border?
- Chi-Town Jerry
Jerry, my excitable buddy, observation is not advocacy. Reading comprehension, how does it work?
And more tho the point, the "border" has come to us, everywhere.
"Believe me the locals around here are about ready to start shooting!"
Posted by: Old Dog
"About ready to" - By the gyrating skeletons of the Declaration's signers,what will it take?
I keep coming back to "mankind is more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable...."
And, "all that is necessary is for good people to do nothing."
Also, that one test the Nazis did where if anyone had opposed them, even one cop, they would have gone back and deposed Hitler.
Bill Whittle: The Wolf, the Bear and the Lambs
http://youtu.be/sOO_iNHypyA
As so many have said, in the age of the founders, we would already be in hot rebellion.
Grad Party at Ginger's, I wrote.
It was the Autoincorrect, Gingy, I swear!
When the appointed authorities do not enforce the law, people rise up and enforce it themselves.
The current massive illegal immigration invasion, abetted rather than opposed by many levels of government, is currently a cold war we are losing. Terrible imbalances in our laws and failures of enforcement have created this situation. Solutions will create or fan long-standing resentments and divisions. But this cannot continue.
If the people take it upon themselves to make this war hot, take up arms to begin defending the country against the invaders, the bloodshed will prove terrible, with many innocents affected, as ever in war, but the tide could be turned, and relatively quickly, if the allure of emigration to the USA is associated with the plain threat of death.
I would hate to see it. There may still be better ways. But such vigilantism is just what happens when law fails.
Otherwise, if the will of the people fails, we just lose.
Grad Party at Ginger's. Kegger!
Congradulations! Now for your PhD....
Ode to Carnage
To think that we
shall no more see
our Bhagdad Bob
in Jay Carney!
How shall be missed
the way he'd twist
and spin with words,
yet dodge the gist!
His poor disguise,
his darting eyes
which spoke one truth:
he peddled lies.
His constant goal,
SCOAMF to extol;
the only price,
his mortal soul.
