Thursday, August 25, 2016

I must be a fool...

I must be a fool...  I keep thinking that at some point, the 2016 presidential election will reach peak insanity, and start moving toward something more like a “normal” election (whatever that is – I can't remember any more!).  The events of the past couple of days have proven me wrong once again.  At this point, it's trite to observe that this election is so implausible that Hollywood would never accept it as a script – but I'll observe it nonetheless. 

So now I'm pondering the notion that there will be no peak insanity; that the wackiness and implausibility quotients will just keep moving inexorably higher.  That leads me to wonder what could possibly come next?  Some things that occur to me:
  • Clinton announces that she plans to appoint Bill to the Supreme Court
  • Trump reveals that his favorite dish is roast puppy
  • Wikileaks dumps 10,000 emails between Putin and Clinton, containing details of their planned secret alliance
  • Carville accuses Trump of planning to turn the White House into a hotel, and Trump says it's a great idea
  • Clinton seeks to allay concerns about her health by walking up the Capitol stairs, trips, suffers a concussion and complete amnesia
  • Trump announces that he's had a blast, but is no longer interested in running for president (never was, actually)

A close call...

A close call...  Each morning when I let the dogs outside there's joyful barking and a mad rush to get out the door, with four dogs all jostling – hard – to be first.  For whatever reason, generally they run out and take a hard right, looking like a stampede of miniature cattle.  Then by the time I amble out and start looking around at the morning, they spread out, calm down a bit, and start investigating, playing, and just generally being happy dogs.  This is a pattern that I'm very used to.

This morning's dog release started out the same way: the mad rush, the jostling, the hard right – but then the barking stopped, two of the dogs turned right around and ran back to the door wanting to go back inside, and the other two were growling and sniffing, alternately.  What the hell?

Figuring that caution was best, I called all the dogs inside, then went out to investigate.  I saw a small set of glowing eyes, first (it was dark here, but I had the outside light on).  When I got closer – a big old striped skunk!  Nearby around some of our current construction there were some handy dirt clods.  I grabbed a handful and started pelting the skunk.  This he found very confusing. :)  After a couple of clods bonked him on the head, he decided to skedaddle.

If events had proceeded even just slightly differently, I might have a few very smelling dogs to clean up this morning.  Thankfully I did not!