{"id":19904,"date":"2022-08-04T14:32:31","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T18:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=19904"},"modified":"2022-08-04T14:34:15","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T18:34:15","slug":"the-big-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/04\/the-big-heat\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

This early in the Dunwich winter (August 1st<\/sup> to June 30th<\/sup>), we can still have temperatures in the nineties.\u00a0 Today the grandkids and their friends were in the pool and so we vacuumed it last night.\u00a0 And Camera Girl\u2019s garden is filled up with various squash varieties; zucchini, spaghetti and butternut.\u00a0 I took a look at it today and found a medium sized frog hiding among the squash.\u00a0 I guess he was working for me keeping the bugs off the vegetables.<\/p>\n

And the last of the daylilies are blooming like crazy.\u00a0 In another week they\u2019ll be gone.\u00a0 So, the swallowtails and the monarchs are flitting around them like their lives depended on it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And the heat was like a wave of energy radiating from the grass and the plants.\u00a0 I could feel it in the skin of my face and the hair on my arms.\u00a0 It seared my lungs when I breathed it.\u00a0 It made me feel intensely alive.\u00a0 So, I took a bunch of photos of flowers and butterflies and a couple of the frog.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking over the various news items is depressing.\u00a0 Not because things are getting worse but simply because they are so pathetic.\u00a0 There is a consensus that no one wants Joe Biden running for re-election, not even Democrats.\u00a0 But the powers that be haven\u2019t figured out how to force Creepy Uncle Joe into a hospice.\u00a0 I think they\u2019ll probably get a veterinarian to put him to sleep.\u00a0 It would be cheaper.<\/p>\n

Most of the opinion pieces today align with what I expect the publication\u2019s readership would want to hear.\u00a0 Lots of cheerleading.\u00a0 As I said, even though things are trending in our favor right now, I find myself a little down due to just how abysmally bad the state of the world is.\u00a0 What can you say about the state of the world when we\u2019re forced to choose sides between the Chi-Coms and Nancy Pelosi?\u00a0 How do you win that bet?<\/p>\n

I was having a discussion with an old friend and we were sort of talking about this same thing, the pitiful state of the world.\u00a0 And I was making the point that we have to stop expecting a big victory that will fix all these awful things.\u00a0 These awful things are the baseline conditions of our times and it\u2019s up to us to fix them in our own lives.\u00a0 Sure, we can hope to elect better leaders but what we have to do is find solutions in our own lives.\u00a0 Your kids are the only future there will be for your world view.\u00a0 Teaching them what you believe to be true and right is your best chance of saving them from the groomers.\u00a0 Giving them a good education is the best way of preparing them for making a decent living.\u00a0 Helping them get on their feet is the way to pay forward the help you were given by your parents.<\/p>\n

Of course, I was preaching to the choir but I thought it was worth saying it out loud.\u00a0 Sometimes we can let ourselves get discouraged and then we need to put things in perspective.\u00a0 Regardless of what Washington or the Blue State leaders say is policy, we have access to our kids and we can do an awful lot to shape their minds and souls.\u00a0 And we need to make that our priority.<\/p>\n

Saying those things out loud actually helped my mood.\u00a0 I walked away from the computer screen and spent some time annoying Camera Girl.\u00a0 I could sense that she needed valuable feedback from me on what she was making for dinner and stuff.<\/p>\n

Next week we\u2019re going to spend a day and a night up in Old Orchard Beach, Maine with the grandkids and their parents.\u00a0 This will be a kind of revival of sorts.\u00a0 About twenty-five years ago we started going there with our kids in the summers.\u00a0 There\u2019s an old-style amusement park with rides, bad fried food and crooked carnival games.\u00a0 The beach is actually quite nice and compares favorably to any of the other East Coast resorts in terms of white sand and clean water.\u00a0 I\u2019ll get to walk down the beach with Princess Sack of Potatoes just as I did with her mother when she was that age.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll probably have to carry her when she gets too lazy to walk back.\u00a0 The littlest boy will fly a kite on the sand and dig a sand castle.\u00a0 And if I\u2019m not careful I\u2019ll be pummeled by him in the bumper cars at the amusement park.\u00a0 And all of that is the fun part of paying forward what my parents and grandparents did for me.\u00a0 Spending time with these people is the reason we do all this.\u00a0 Otherwise, we might as well give up and let the whole world go to hell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This early in the Dunwich winter (August 1st to June 30th), we can still have temperatures in the nineties.\u00a0 Today the grandkids and their friends<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3366,818,1263],"tags":[3341,83,2093],"class_list":["post-19904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-life-in-dunwich","category-ocf","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","tag-dunwich","tag-family","tag-reclaiming-the-family"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Big Heat - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/04\/the-big-heat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Big Heat - 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