Aug 18

 

Aug 18, 2021 Week: 34 Day: 230
Ave. Sky Cover:  90%\Visibility: 10 miles
Local Temp:   75°\ 56° Wind: 6mph\ Gusts: 12mph
Low risk of fire Active fire: 203mi. \ Lightning: 1/2mi.
Aug Averages: 79°\50° (9 days w/moisture) 

Today’s Quote

 

 

Weekly Observations

 

National Environmental Services Week: Link	2-20
National Aviation Week National Chef's Appreciation Week Link	15-21
Minority Enterprise Development Week	18-24

 

Daily Oberservations

 

Fajita Day Ice Cream Pie Day Mail Order Catalog Day Serendipity Day

 

 

Favorite Memes

 

 

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 

A hard male rain with thunder, lightning, and small hail hit about 30 minutes ago. Now it is just a drizzle.

It has been years since we have had a summer monsoon with as much rain as this summer. Hoping we are moving out of our 20-year drought. If not, the local forest fire danger will be frightening. The rain has turned everything green, but if heat without moisture returns, everything will be tinder dry in just a few weeks and that means huge fires.

It is time the government and the population wake up and admits we lost our war in Afghanistan. We got bin Laden a decade ago and it has been downhill ever since. We were in battle in Vietnam 19 years, 5 months and 8 days. We were in battle in Afghanistan for 19 years, 10 months and 6 days. As a baby boomer, we were in conflict in Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan. I have known soldiers in each war. Most of them, but not all, came home alive. Some returned with visible injuries, others with invisible ones. The country called and they served. Before we send any troops to a foreign country again, we need to have a clear goal, complete it, and leave. We need to be spending our funding on helping the Vets who have returned with visible and invisible injury. No Vet should be hungry, no Vet should be in housing distress. Every Vet should have medical and mental health services when needed at no cost to them. It is time to reprioritize our goals so that assisting returning combat Vets is very near the top of our military goals.

The world is watching how we handle the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Yesterday China was busy ‘educating’ the Taiwanese as to how we abandoned our Afghan translators, locals who helped us, and all the Afghans as we quickly withdrew. China warned Taiwan that they could be next.   

Interesting:

 

Historical Events

 

293 BC The oldest known Roman temple to Venus is founded, starting the institution of Vinalia Rustica (grape harvest festival)

1872 – The first mail-order catalogs were published by Montgomery Ward. In 2000, the retail outlet was closed.

1909 Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River.

1920 – The 19th Amendment to the US Constitution granted women the right to vote.

1960 “The Pill” – birth control went on sale.

1963 James Meredith becomes the 1st black graduate from University of Mississippi

2017 Civilian researchers led by Paul Allen re-discover the USS Indianapolis 18,000 feet below the Pacific surface, 72 years after it was sunk by Japanese torpedoes

 

Birthdays Today

 

94 – Rosalynn Carter, First Lady

88 – Roman Polanski, French-Polish director, producer

@85 – Shelley Winters [Shirley Schrift], actor (d. 2006)

85 – Robert Redford, actor

@71 – Marshall Field, founded Marshall Field’s (d. 1906; pneumonia)

60 – Bob Woodruff, American journalist, author

@57 – Patrick Swayze, American actor, and dancer (d. 2009)

52 – Christian Slater, actor

52 – Edward Norton, actor

43 – Andy Samberg, American actor, comedian

@38 – Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican-American baseball player (d. 1972, plane crash)

@35 – Meriwether Lewis, American soldier, explorer, and politician (d. 1809; shot, suicide<?>)