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We have this great program every Wednesday at the library.  Its the "dialogue series" put on by the Philosophy Department of TSU.    Its a regular class at the University, held every weekday on the campus, but once a week they meet at the Library in an effort to engage the local community. Those in attendance were mostly students from the college; of the thirty or so attendees, perhaps 7 of us were mere citizens, albeit older citizens.  The younger people always hold back until they size up the older people in the group--today was no exception. Last week the subject was:  Democracy-Are We Ready for It? The two pages on the link are a good place to start, so please read this as it sets a good stage for the comments which are to follow. Democracy Handout The group wrestled with a number of aspects of democracy, but most came down to the government not really representing people---well, at least "not me"---was a common theme. That degenerated into ...

The world has been busy at the production of "stuff"---too busy in fact. This is taught to us everyday for those of us who are trying to divest ourselves of our "stuff", which has been collected over many years and now has to go---not sure to where, but has to go. Of course, all of this is too good to junk, but not good enough for a high end auction.  In between are the large number of other outlets like donation to charity, yard sale, gifting, etc. But, the question always arises:  What is this thing worth?  The answer is important to most, because if this "thing" is worth a lot, its a candidate for selling.  If not, then its a giveaway or charitable donation. The reality is that most of what is treasured is worth very little, all do to the phenomenon of over production. Like, who needs another cookbook?  As a case in point, we assisted yesterday with the semiannual FOL book sale. On the front door, the first day of the sale we posted the sign:  ALL ...

The mice reminded me of this it ain't over til its over bit, in fact, I swear I heard one of them say this when they thought I was not listening. At any rate, mice in the attic again, AND, to make matters even worse, one has found, or has made a hole from the attic into the house.   Without even an "eek", it was observed running down the hallway toward the kitchen.  The broom brigade was brought out, but mus was nowhere to be found. It must have gone into the closet, and we won't even go in there. Well, the next morning it was in the trap. So, now glue traps in the house at key locations so we can narrow down where it might have gotten from the attic into the house---presuming there is another one. Not able to let the question of where it got in, we tore the books out of the bookcase  looking for a gnawhole, but found none. Why the bookcase?  well, we heard scratching noise in the wall behind the bookcase and so presumed it was desparate and was chewing thro...

We are thinking that Mus Musculus has finally met its match.  For the last 4 years we have trapped these buggers in the attic of the house, encouraged feral cats, protected the snakes (other than rattlesnakes), called for reinforcements from the coyotes, but to little avail. This new house is insulated on the underside of the metal roof, so that makes the ceiling sheetrock bare of insulation.  In earlier construction methods, insulation laid directly on the ceiling sheetrock.  Mice are always in the attics of houses---its good for winter quarters and provides good places to store food.  Only problem is, with a bare ceiling, mice running on the ceiling sheetrock make quite a noise.  But,  they must go back outside to get water---how often they need to go for water is unknown to us. Well, we did the usual of plugging every hole larger than a wooden pencil through which they might crawl to get access to the attic.  I theorize they can detect a hole that...

Over the last 25 years, the people of Serbin, Texas have held their Wendish Festival. Its always in late September, or early October in this small area of Serbin.  Its hard to say if it is in the town of Serbin, because the town bounds are not very apparent.  However, Serbin is just southwest of Giddings in central Texas. In the festival of this year, we went first to the serving line for the "noon meal"--not lunch but noon meal.  It was $8 this year, perhaps up a dollar from previous years, but nonetheless, a good bargain.  It was serve yourself, with sausage, sauerkraut, green beans, noodles, peaches, and pickles.  The desserts cost $.50 and the tea was included with the meal.  It was good, and decidedly German.  During lunch, there was music, it was a mixture of German and Czech. After lunch, it was our usual trip to the craft house where they demonstrate the decoration of easter eggs, by two processes, etching and waxing.  We bought two eggs...