The temperatures and other weather conditions finally feel somewhat normal for the season. For most of this strange year that has not been the case. Heatwaves in February that made it feel like late June or early July. Dry conditions when rain should have been plentiful and wet when things should have dried out. Fifteen named storms in the Atlantic ten of which became hurricanes, five of which hit the U.S. mainland with three of those doing an astonishing amount of damage. The "Lucifer" heatwave in Europe and hurricane Ophelia giving Ireland the strongest storm in 50 years. An astonishing fire season which seems to be an annual thing now. And all of that is on top of politics and economics so far out of anything we can call normal that it is nearly incomprehensible.

Here are some things I am reading today:

John Mauldin's Outside the Box features a piece by the Reformed Broker on automation. I don't know how many times I have looked at the stock market figures (out of curiosity since I don't have anything to invest) and asked "WTF???" Josh Brown might have an answer: terrified life-raft grabbing investors who are afraid they have no future. It seems uncannily like the situation Frederick Lewis Allen describes in Since Yesterday recounting the history investing euphoria jut before the 1929 crash.

Karina Black Heart posted this at Gods and Radicals that parallels the situation Josh Brown sketched. Brown's subjects are those who have done fairly well but are looking at a future that has no place for them. Heart's essay describes her own realization that the system is and always has been rigged and success, as defined by the rest of society,  has always been out of her reach. So she has decided to retrench and redefine success for herself.

For the most part I agree with this post at Strategic Living. I haven't seen the video the author links to but her "5 Things To Set Aside" are good ones. I would amend the first to "don't bother trying impress anyone." They will be impressed or not as they choose. I wouldn't hang my self-esteem on their decision. I long ago gave up being envious of other people's success. Such envy means you have compared yourself to others by standards you may not have even realize you have absorbed. Set your own standards for your success and celebrate all successes--your own especially. A long time ago I started paring down the mementos and such. For the most part they didn't really bring back memories, good or bad. The few things I have kept are associated with certain specific achievements. I revel in every gray hair, every wrinkle. I have earned every one of them. I will let others pretend sixty is the new forty or whatever suits their fantasy. I haven't yet mastered the art of letting confrontation go but I'm getting there. And actually I would amend that one as well: learn what it is worth spending your energy confronting and let the rest go.

OUCH!! I wonder how much of that moisture will go how far inland.

I am constantly amazed by the mind-boggling waste in industrial food processing. This is another such mind-boggling story. The recall goes from 2,000 pounds of meat (of all kinds) to 450,000 pounds or three days of production to almost a whole year. The problem seems to be the company's water supply.

I am a sucker for those odd quizzes on Facebook, especially those that ask how many of the 50 or 100 or whatever number of "classic" books or "must read" books, etc. Every time I get hooked by one (which is getting less frequent lately) several thoughts hit me. First, by what criterion are some of the listed books "classics" or "must" reads? Some are indeed classics but others I wouldn't call classics by any stretch of the imagination. Second, although I may have read other books by a given author I probably didn't read the one they list--and I don't intend to. Third, does starting and never finishing count? Nothing is a "must" read for me nowadays. I have gotten to the point where if the book doesn't interest me I don't slog through it as I once did. Fourth, I often can't remember if I read the book or saw the movie--or both. Fifth, I am amazed by how many of the books I remember reading, can tell you for which class or approximately when, but can't for the life of me remember much about the damned book.