"They asked me what I thought about euthanasia. I told them I'm more concerned about the adults." - Jay London

I took a creative writing class years ago and learned that good people make for boring stories. Nobody wants to read a book where nice people have nice lives and get along nicely. Conflict is essential to an engaging story, whether in print, on TV, or in the theater.

When I taught at a non-profit college I learned that the bottom line is the bottom line. No organization, regardless of its IRS status, can continue if they perpetually lose money, so principles will lose out if the financial hit is too big. Can income generated in this column allow us to continue to follow our lofty course? Do it! But at some point, that override absent, any organization will find a way to compromise, re-frame, or dissemble to keep going.

I thought about those two dynamics this morning as I cycled through my standard list of news sites and saw story after story about the apocalyptic future facing us under the Trump presidency.

News outlets need income, a real battle in an increasingly competitive media market. Eyes bring ads, ads bring revenue, and revenue keeps you in the biz. Conflict grabs attention, and the circle is complete. This comes especially easy when the subject, the guy in the oval office, has declared war on the media. "They're the most dishonest people in the world." You can't blame the press for a slightly negative attitude toward the guy and everything he says or does.

So I expect to see a long list of headlines about how disastrous a Trump administration will be for all things good and honest. Hey, I readily allow that the guy seems half crazy and all ego, but he seems to have surrounded himself (unintentionally?) with competent people who will do most of the hands-on work. One week in seems just a bit premature to sound the alarm unless you have a natural inclination to strike back supported by the need to turn a profit. In that case the outcome seems predictable.

I wrote a letter to the zoning commission in support of the variance requested by Verizon to build a cell phone tower about 1/4 mile away. The hearing is on Feb. 2 and a decision will be made within the next 10 days. I called this morning to find out how we can be notified of the decision and while looking at the county's site to get the specifics saw the agenda for the meeting. Turns out our letter will be presented during the ex parte portion of the discussion. Now that I know there's going to be a party I may show up in person.

Illegal aliens. Undocumented workers.
Two terms that refer to the same people with very different connotations, used by speakers with a clear slant.

I took some things back to Marta today that she'd loaned us in our effort to start our goat adventure. While there we checked in on Sundae, the doe she's going to give us. Marta *thinks* Sundae is in heat, but she thought that last week, too, and nothing came of her time in a pen with Mondo. Sundae is now in a pasture area up by their house with four bucks, and while we were standing there talking we watched two of those bucks have their way with her. I asked Marta how one can know if Sundae is in heat and the guys' efforts would bear fruit. "She wouldn't allow them to do that if she weren't in heat." Ah.
So Sundae may be coming to our house in a couple of days.

No, she's not a looker. That jaw problem is the result of a listeria infection that, in most cases, would have been fatal. But either male goats aren't picky or "I can't see it from here" is the key.

I made that trip to Marta's in the truck and...wait for it...
I may have the hot start problem figured out.
"May" is the key word; it will take several more outings to be sure. Old vehicles can be very finicky, requiring just the right combination of choke and throttle for each situation. If you've ever owned a car with a manual choke you remember knowing just how many times to pump the throttle and how far out to pull the choke for a cold and for a hot start. In this case add in a manual throttle control and the possible permutations are almost infinite. It seems the key here is to give it just a wee bit of throttle and almost full choke if the engine is up to temp. That's "wrong" because a up-to-temp engine shouldn't need any choke. But I don't care about wrong if it gets the job done.

The temperatures here are weird. We're getting into the low 50's each day, but at 11 a.m. this morning it was still only 39 after an overnight low of 31. I wonder if part of that is because we're down in a bit of a hole surrounded by tall fir trees, so this time of year the sun doesn't hit the ground until almost noon.
Now, at 6:30, the sun has been down for over an hour, we're back into the 30's, and the inside temp is also dropping rapidly. Time to light a fire in the wood stove and make it cozy in here.