"A somebody was once a nobody who wanted to and did." - John Burroughs

When I saw that quote up there I wondered if that was the Burroughs of cash register fame. It isn't, but this guy was an interesting character who would create a stir in the environmental movement of today. Wikipedia.

I weigh weekly on Sunday mornings and today the scale showed an increase of 2/10ths of a pound and put me within 2/10ths of my self-imposed upper limit. However...

One Sunday a month Pam and I have to drive in separately (long story, don't ask). This is that day. So I left before 7, stopped at Dizzy's and had a cinnamon roll and coffee. I wouldn't normally do that after a weigh-in with those results but: a) it was a crazy week with my trip to Seattle and the disruption to my normal intake so I can blame it on that, and b) I'll be in Brazil for the next two Thursdays and therefore miss my weekly "cheat" at Great Harvest Bakery. So Dizzy's it is!

Don't judge.

Here's a video from yesterday's Steam Up. If this works I've got two more that will have you spellbound. (Whatever in the world that crazy word means.) Blogger.com has a "preview" function but it just shows layout and the video doesn't play. Or it doesn't work. Hmmm.

"Guns don't kill people. People kill people."
That bit of bumper sticker wisdom too casually dismisses what is, IMO, a real problem in our country. We outlaw hand grenades, surface-to-air missiles, and nerve agents of the sort Russian agents apparently carry. Doesn't the same thinking that prohibits citizens from owning those things apply to a gun capable of killing dozens of people per minute and has no other reasonable function? You get your thrills out of firing 300 rounds in 60 seconds? Cool. Are you willing to give up that buzz for the sake of hundreds of lives each year taken by some crazy guy with access to that same weapon?
However, the focus on the weapons used in these mass shootings allows us to ignore more central problems. Why do we have so many emotionally and mentally dysfunctional people roaming our streets? Are there real, identifiable social factors we should be addressing and aren't because people are arguing over the weapon used?
I suspect our culture just doesn't want to talk about the breakdown of the nuclear family - the outcomes of abandoning moral standards that used to be normative, the effect of entertainment that glorifies violence, thereby creating an insensitivity to its horrors, graphic scenes of mutilated bodies......
While it's relatively easy to pass laws about weapons I don't know how we start a national conversation about underlying social problems. And that's probably because it would force people to confront their own role, their participation in the slide.
Maranatha!

Pam made banana muffins yesterday with a bunch of bananas that we hadn't eaten by their "best by" date.
I did this:

As of 4:30 we've only hit 90, not the 94 they predicted. That was still hot enough to make cleaning the barn a pretty non-fun job, but if I'm going to get everything done before I leave on Wednesday I can't let a little heat slow me down. 

After that project I wrote still more emails that will get sent to my class while I'm in Brazil. I have two more to go!

OK, time to walk Buddy, do evening chores, and have some supper. Mondays start early with a 7 a.m. meeting, but it's one of the most fun of the several I have during the week.