Nobody is Promised Tomorrow. . .
Having been out of the loop, I did not know until this morning that S. Palin is scheduled to give a speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28 – the 47th anniversary of MLK’s “I have a dream…”. I have a nightmare.
I am setting out on a hour of serious culling of my Japanese images. Current count 2196. Will report back at 9:45 with an updated count. For now the objective is to stay on task. Updated count 2124. Not a lot of progress …
Today is the ever controversial “Feast of the Assumption”. I guess it isn’t controversial to the faithful – but those of us who enjoy a good debate – in 1950, Pius 12, said:
By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.
The pope just announced that it happened. Therefore it did. Sort of like that other outrage of the 1950’s – the addition of under God to the pledge of allegiance. Theology aside, today is the Feast of the Assumption.
About noon – I hear the Star Spangled Banner being sung. Was something going on at Arlington Cemetery? When the wind is right we can hear the bugle calls from Arlington. Maybe we could hear singing too? Nope it is coming from across the street. Our Bolivian population is celebrating the Feast of the Assumption.
They also had lots of manly testosterone on display.
One wonders what this has to do with the Virgin Mary.
PS – they had food too. And a raffle for a flat screen TV.
PSS – In Arlington, we like our immigrants – legal or not.
Got the old theme back. And, I backed it up to my computer. But, I haven’t made much progress “doing something” with the photos from Japan. I still have 2,233 of them. Which might be more than I started with.
I cooked my weekly “meal from real ingredients” today. Once a week, I like to cook a meal using only “real” food. Nothing boxed, bagged, frozen, canned, from the deli or otherwise pre-cooked. Today it was “tuna salad”. Spinach, red and yellow tomatoes, and grilled yellow fin tuna. I did cheat and add sour dough bread from the farm market. And I have some leftover grilled tuna. Life is good.
Did the Republican candidate for governor of Colorado really say that bike lanes are an evil UN plot? Or was that just an Eastern Establishment Press spin???
I think that all the expenses are in from the Japan trip. $14,787.01. About 40% for transportation, 40% for hotels, and 20% for everything else.
Thank you MomIda for financing the trip from the otherside. MomIda is most likely spinning in her grave – can you do that if you were cremated? MomIda, like Carlton, never spent money. I am reminded of a friend of mine – she says she wants to live long enough to spend all the money that her late husband refused to spend.
I don’t like this template very much – have to recreate the one that I killed right before going to Japan. I replaced the template it didn’t like very much with this one that I like less. Now, that is what we call progress.
OK, I am starting to get the old theme back… Almost all good again.
Trying to “do something with” my photos from Japan. You may recall that in May I finished “doing something with” the pictures I took in Alaska 10 years ago. Well, ten years from now, I may be too senile to “do something with” these images. So, I’d best “so something” sooner rather than later.
Nothing will be done with this KitKat truck picture. Who would have expected to find a truck full of KitKat Bars in exciting downtown Ishinomaki. Check out Breaktown.com
Notes to self:
For no apparent reason, the Airness developed a little disk issue. I was going to pack the Airness down to the Apple Store and say “Fix It” or email the son-in-law and say “what now?”
But, I decided that I should be able to RTFM and repair it myself. (It was surely a software issue.) Which I did. Everything seems fine now – but, I’ll keep my backup current and check the file structure at least once a day for a while.
Maybe the Airness has jet lag? I have over 2,000 images to cull down to say maybe 500 with say 50 to print into a book. What I really need is a powered USB hub. 128Gig isn’t a very big drive. And the Airness just has one USB port. Honest, Mr Jobs, I would have tolerated another, say 2 ounces for a second USB port.
Back home. Got the last images out of the camera and into the computer.
It was a good trip. Where to now?
Did some work on my investments today. Sent some stocks to my foundation. Sold out my entire Nash Finch position. Bulls get rich, Bears get rich, Pigs get slaughtered. Took my profits and spent the proceeds on Potash, John Deere and E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company – aka du Pont. Why? Russian weather.
The Russian wheat crop is toast. North American farmers will ramp up wheat production. What will they need? Fertilizer – Potash. New gear to process the wheat – John Deere – and seeds -du Pont. That is the rationale.
Real Time: Friday August 6 at 0645
The 65th Anniversary of the Hiroshima A-Bomb. For the first time, the US ambassador is going to the ceremony. That is a big deal here. Also, you might think that Japan would not have nuclear power plants. You would be wrong – they have 56. And, like us, have not a clue as to where to put the spent fuel.
Leaving tomorrow. The first 12 hour flight is a little daunting. But, the second time – you know you can make it. Watch a movie. Listen to the iPod – I have a new book on the iPod. Eat. Snooze. Walk around the plane. Eat. iPod. Snooze. Walk around the plane. Maybe watch another movie. And then you are over Kansas. Almost home.
How about some photos from Tokyo?
And how, exactly, does one shop for a tiara? “Hi, I like a nice tiara. In diamond, please. Size medium.”
Realtime: Wednesday, August 4, 6:25AM
A few random shots from yesterday.
Another sunny day with great blue sky and fluffy clouds.
Real Time: August 3 at 0700
Yesterday was all about food.
We headed to Yokohama and the noodle museum. The time is summer of 1958.
The price of a bowl of noodles was not ca 1958. But, it was still good.
Back in the Ginza – we got chocolate treats from the Demel’s counter for our dinner. Our hotel room lacked the Demel’s atmosphere. But the pastry was great. Note to self: Start Dieting next monday.
Blue sky and puffy white clouds this morning.
Real Time: Monday August 2 at 0630
A few from Tokyo
The policemen are at the end of the alley our hotel is on. Less than 100 yards away there are another 4 police directing traffic. The US attempts to deal with unemployment with unemployment compensation, welfare and retraining. The Japanese approach is to use 4 men to do a job that doesn’t need doing.
Real Time: July 31 at 0610 hours.
We will not even go into the trouble we encountered upon our arrival in Tokyo. The short version – the hotel could not be found, there was a driving horizontal rain, we killed 3 umbrellas in 20 minutes, soaked right down to the undies.
May the goddess bless Mazda. Much to the teenage person’s embarrassment, I marched into a Mazda show room and said in perfect English – I am lost. Please Help. And they helped. They couldn’t figure out the hotel map either. So, they made me a new, laser printer and hence semi waterproof map – wrote street names on it. Gave me an umbrella and sent me on my way. (The umbrella lasted about 5 blocks.) After about 10 blocks – I asked a cop for help. He said that we should have turned right down an unnamed street about a block back. We retraced our steps and that was it – within 10 more minutes – we found our little oh so french hotel.
Now some photos from yesterday. Yesterday was devoted entirely to watching the teenage person’s attempts to kick-start the Japanese economy by power shopping.
Tonight – big-time fireworks – if we brave the crowds and subway system – weather permitting.