Atmospheric Commentary...
...that's what happens when my head's in the clouds...

With this post, I've just written about a few 'general' things which are floating around in the breeze. A case of turning on the computer, and seeing what happens. Wheeeeeeee!!!

NASH'NUL POLLY-TIX: Well, now, the Presidential Candidates have chosen their running mates. Barack Obama, supposed man of vision who aspires to "change" everything, chose Demagogue...er, Democrat Senator Joseph Biden, who's spent the last third of a century in Congress. And Republican John McLame...er, McCain, who seems to think being held as a hostage qualifies him to be Prezzident, has selected the Lady Governor from Alaska, who, well...she looks good (in fact, she's kinda 'hot'), but she's got no foreign policy experience. Obama, the newcomer candidate with an old-guard running mate; McCain, the old-guard candidate with a newcomer running mate. What does it all mean? It means that both candidates could have chosen better, more-qualified running mates. Not that I was ever excited about McCain to begin with, because I never was...but I was really s'prised that Mr. Obama has basically hunkered down with a running mate who is the textbook definition of 'Career Politician'. I really feel that Obama has really compromised himself with his selection of running mate. Could it be said that the Democrats are now "Biden" their time 'til November?

PRO BASEBALLERS, OFF-BASE: The Seattle Mariners are now beginning to win a few games, largely because they've brought in some pretty good players from Tacoma, their farm team. Not that it doesn't really matter anymore, because the Mariners are still about a thousand games out of first place in their division. In an ironic sense, it's the expensive players who've brought Seattle the most disappointment. Pitcher Eric Bedard, who's making millions, well, where is he? I haven't seen him pitch in over a month. And he didn't pitch all that much before that. Miguel Batista, who was the M's winningest pitcher last year, has become the next-best-thing-to-batting-practice this year. Kenji Johjima, catcher from Japan, got a three-year-multi-mucho-expensive contract renewal this year, and then was largely replaced with another catcher (who, admittedly, is catching and hitting better), but wait...why give your catcher a 3-year contract extension, and then turn around and replace him, especially when the money paid out during that three-year period coulda been used to get higher caliber talent in other departments. Take your pick...just about every position in the field (and in the batting order) could use upgrading at this point.

A HARD RAIN'S GONNA FALL: MSNBC, the breathless 24-7 news channel, is more breathless than ever; they're providing exhaustive coverage of Hurricane Gustav approaching the New Orleans area, threatening to turn into "Katrina II" in terms of devastation, wreckage, carnage, what have you. Weather charts as of Sunday Afternoon are beginning to indicate the hurricane may veer off to the west, and I hope that's the case. "The Big Easy" (I still don't know why they call it that), New Orleans, was almost wiped off the map the last time around. The residents down there don't need to be devastated again anytime soon. So far, almost 2 million residents of Coastal Louisiana have been evacuated, said MSNBC just now. I've never spent any time in that region, but what impresses me, is that, where do ya go? The land down there is barely above sea level for miles and miles; it's not like here in the west where we can head for the hills; in New Orleans, and for miles around, there are NO hills to head for. I hope everything turns out well for the residents down there.

SEE YOU...IN SEPTEMBER: Last year, at this time, I came down with the most awful case of the flu I've ever had. A year ago tonight, August 31st, I began getting really, really sick, all of a sudden, just before midnight. I'd felt for a couple of days that I was coming down with something, but I didn't think it would get as bad as it did. I was basically a Prisoner Of The Flu from September 1st until September 24th, when I finally got brave enough to fight off my dizziness, to drive into town and pick up supplies. September and October are a couple of the nicest months here on the coast, and the flu basically "robbed" me of My September. I've lived down here on the coast for not quite two years, and if all goes will, I will be able to have My September on the coast At Last. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. And I'm also thinking about Flu Shots, too. When you're a kid, you never think about something like the Flu actually resulting in Death. And hopefully there's no little Flu Bug flying around out there waiting to pick me off.

GETTING WHAT HE DESERVES: In Idaho, where I used to live, Joseph Duncan, the guy who killed almost an entire family, and kidnapped the two youngest, a brother and sister, and killed the little boy, was sentenced to Death last week. This is a federal death sentence, so this guy's In A Heap O' Trouble. The state of California wants a crack at Duncan, too. He's suspected of a child-killing there. And he's a suspect in other such incidents in various other states. I should include here that Duncan threw in some acts of perversion before each Murder. This is a case where Crime really hit close, because I used to live in North Idaho; I'd had meals in the very same Denny's Restaurant in Coeur d'Alene, where Duncan brought the little girl after he'd killed her brother. That's where he was taken into custody. I had driven on Interstate 90, which courses past the house where the murders took place, billions of times. Shiverrrr. I'm not one of those who say, "yeah, rrright, kill him, fry him, do all kinds of awful things to him 'cos he deserves it", but I Know He Needs To Die for what he did. Joseph Duncan is not fit to live amongst us. Not unless they house him forever in a Supermaxx Prison somewhere. Those places are scary. No contact, no freedoms of any kind, no Nothing. Forbidding places, as I've seen on a Supermaxx prison website. Suffice it to say that the worst offenders in those places Will Never See The Sun Shine Again. Ever.

GRIN AND PARROT, PART 27: Gosh, this post has become much too serious; we can't have that! Okay, so instead, how about some Parrot Stuff: (I can hear faithful blog-readers groaning, 'oh no, not again....') My little Meyers Parrot, Jill, is a 5-year old little girl, who can sit on my shoulder all day long, like she's doing right now, and in the last couple hours before she goes to bed, she eats. And Eats. And EATS. Where does she put it all? I've read that people who go to bed at reasonable hours have less of a chance of obesity than those who don't. I am a night person. And, let's just say I have extra padding. We could all learn from the birds. They seem to have a built-in alarm clock which tells them, "You must go to bed now". Maybe us human 'beans' have that same clock; we just don't listen to it. I've seen lots of birds, and none of them are fat. Anyway, Little Jill does something which is just so doggone endearing, and it's pictured below:



When I've been away for a few hours, or have come back into the cage room after having been out of her sight for a while, she lowers her head and raises her wings. I know it looks like she's in 'attack mode' here, but that's not the case. She's trying to get my attention. One night, I moved the bird cage into another room, thinking my TV-watching was keeping her up. As I left the cage, she began doing this little pose of hers. Awwwww. And I wheeled her cage back into the TV room. She doesn't like to go to sleep unless I'm within her sight. Of course, after she gets into that "Zen" state of bird sleep, then I'll leave the TV room and quietly turn out the lights.
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In addition to birds never getting fat, they don't need sleeping pills, either. I'm jealous.