Ten Notes from Saturday - 2026
1. Prices of gas are too high, but have in many parts gone below 4.00 dollars per gallon. Yesterday in a distant county I paid 3.65.9, Friday. I drove there in order to be a character witness for a friend and colleague who is in a legal and family mess. I feel like I observed and learned a lot. I am always happier to see prices of gas per gallon some twenty or thirty cents less than I normally see it. I was in a smaller town; the courthouse reminded me of John Grisham novels. Small town souther fee.
2. The United States has been getting low on munitions: missiles, bombs, and such. Iran has been hard to make capitulate. The current president blames the former U.S. president for giving missiles to Ukraine to combat Russia. The U.S. has to generate more munitions, which help stimulate the economy, but as of yesterday, our economy has some bad indicators, because the monthly jobs report yesterday showed the country has lost (LOST!) or gone down 23,000 jobs. And the summer has been really underwhelming and I cannot help but think that deporting immigrants and scaring them from going about, doing normal things like working and spending is hurting us.
3. National Guard troops are roaming the streets of Washington D.C. There have been up to 5,000 there, They have assisted local law enforcent and emergency services, but I am not sure how effective they have been in their purpose. We like the National Guard. Some of us have it as a staple in our lives. As I write this.
4. My son is to learn Portuguese. I wish to help here and there. My other son is learning Arabic. I would say he is fluent now, but he will improve well now as he has an intensive program and a dedicated native speaking teacher. It is exciting and pretty amazing to me. I began my first classes in 1992. Before that I learned a few words from an Iraqi boy at church attending the scouting program, in which I had an assistant Scout master calling.
5. Artificial Intelligece is a thing, according to the book Nexus by Yuval Harari and now the Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman. I used Gemini to ask it about myself and how I would blog. A couple were pretty spot on, but many of them made me out to be some business guru. That was weird. How to be a decisive decision maker. Is AI on crack sometimes? It is possibly as the aformentioned think: perhaps the robots and computers are devious, prevaricating, and might be plotting our demise. More later. We hope.
OPEN Challenge the Devilish, diabolical bots and algorhythms?
5. I have enjoyed setting the scene to people that I know about Saddam Haftar in current day Libya. Details and happenings that are hard to make up. Hafter, the father, with his big Virginia connections. 17 properties. We have probably driven past them.
6. The Nationals have won a little since that seven game swoon, dragging them below .500. The White Sox are hanging in there.
Who really cares about baseball? My daughter's friend from San Diego does! Go Padres! Hang in there, Mariners. And the other nevers: Milwaukee, who else? I have written about them before.
7. My childhood friend reached out and told me he is trying to get IU home game football tickets, and will attend with two other longtime friends and church members from Bloomington. They are B-town born and bred, like me. Although, perhaps Chris moved on permanently, while Rob did return a bit, like me, later in his twenties. But he was married, unlike me, the former "raging bachelor". Chris at work reacts funny to that notion...
"Are we fighting?" That is hilarious. Brian says we need a laugh track to understand my jokes and humor.
8. What else? Fires in Spokane, fires in Spaina and parts of France.
9. Anything from Latin America? Political issues in Brazil, between leaders like Lula and Bolsonaro.
10. Africa, Asia? The Marshall Islands? That came up at work lately.
Okay, that is enough for now.
Never.
Love you.
