Monday August 20

Goodness!! Already two thirds of the way through August. The heat we had earlier has let up a bit--only in the mid 80s for the most part. The humidity makes it feel hotter. I can work outside on dry days a bit longer now. Tomato season is done for us and a disappointing one it has been. Not much in the way of fruit and a lot with very heavy, straw-like cores. I pulled the plants, collected all the ripe tomatoes and Mom stewed them. We had a dish with supper last night and put a quart in the freezer. I am definitely going to give tomatoes a pass next year.

I am ahead on my fall clean-up. The shed is almost cleaned out and straightened up. I think we definitely had mice last year. I found the peanut/corn bird feed in places where I know I never put it. Their cache is gone and I will put the stock into a more secure container.

We are gettin a good rain now. I had hoped we would so I wouldn't have to water anything for a couple of days. We may get more tomorrow morning.

William Astore cross-posted at Naked Capitalism (originally posted at Tomdispatch) has a lot to say about the militarization of sports and none of it good. I think I have said before that hate that obligatory "Thank you for your service" that ends any interview featuring a service member or former service member. It requires no thought, no sacrifice, nothing that truly benefits the service member.

Andrew Kurjata (a writer I haven't encountered before) gives an almost lyrical account of an "apocalyptic" summer in British Columbia.

Yeah--"shit-life syndrome" just about covers it. The subtitle says that cancelling Brexit might save the Brits but the conditions outlined in the article were glaringly evident before the Brexit vote and they are evident on this side of the Atlantic, as the author notes, and we got Trump from the same discontent.