Liz Cheney: “I’ll Quit the GOP If Trump Runs Again”. I’ve got news for you Liz, you’ve already quit the GOP. You’ve shown some integrity, and that’s cause for expulsion. With extreme prejudice.

***

Arizona is crazy. Here’s their Attorney General opining on the resurrection of an 1864 law to be used against women’s rights.

“Our office has concluded the Legislature has made its intentions clear with regards to abortion laws,” Brnovich wrote on Twitter. The 1864 law, he wrote, “is back in effect and will not be repealed,” thus superseding the 15-week ban that was set to take effect later this month.

Ahhhh yes, 1864. Back to a time when women and people of color knew their place. “The good old days”, according to the GOP.

***

Someone is finally doing analytics on the information that flowed to and from conspirators around January 6th, and some of those conspirators were in the White House. A lot of WH staffers and congresscritters should go to jail for their part in the failed coup, but they won’t. Perhaps history will name all the criminals, but for now they’ve scuttled back into the dark.

***

We’re having another heat wave here in Socal. 95-99 degrees every day this week. Ugh. Victoria BC is looking better and better as a home base.

I leave Wednesday for cooler temperatures in KY, going to prepare for another funeral. This is not something I ever imagined I would get good at, but after this my brothers and I will be experts.

***

Kentucky won again this week (yay!), but they sure don’t look like a Top 10 team right now. The O-line is a mess. We’ll know a lot more after this weekend’s game with Ole Miss.

***

Finally, Hurricane Ian reminds me once again that Florida is not a great place to live. Unless you’re an alligator or a python.

I have to say, this whole post-Covid thing is a drag. There haven’t been any days where I felt acutely sick again, but there have been plenty where I’ve felt…off. Not right. Just a weird feeling of malaise, a little fatigue all the time. Body temperature is way out of whack – I get heated up real easy, and can’t get cooled down. That’s not much fun in a heat wave. As an example, right now I’m inside, in AC, and sweating. So yeah, something’s not quite right.

All that said, gotta move ahead. My post-Covid discomfort, whatever it is, is small in comparison to the burden many folks carry. Life just keeps coming at you, and that’s good. I’m looking forward to whatever comes next.

Very little writing inspiration today. After 2-3 days of doing a bit too much post-illness, today is a down day – sports on TV, reading a good book, some naps. We’re in another Socal heat wave, so no desire to go outside. Gotta get completely healed up for the trip to KY next week. Looking forward to seeing these guys.

I read an article today describing how churches in Florida, once reliable spots for voting, are now declining to allow voting at their facility. I have a lot of reaction to that, primarily…you already get to avoid paying taxes, so you owe us. Host the polls. Another reaction is to wonder if their leadership has done the math and realizes that women’s rights (abortion) is likely to be a big issue this time around and they don’t want to facilitate women coming out to vote.

Combine this with some video I saw of long voter lines in Georgia and Mississippi from previous elections, and my reaction is…huh? I haven’t stood in a line to vote in at least a decade. Voting by mail is simple, easy, and convenient. What’s going on in those states that leads to gigantic voting lines?

I suppose that when you have energetic Rethuglican state and local leadership removing polling places, not allowing vote by mail, reducing the dates and times for voting, challenging the ID of voters, you get those long lines. But if those folks saw how easy it is to vote in CA, they’d be pissed. Long lines is probably all they know, and that’s a tragedy. It doesn’t have to be that way.

From Digby:

They report several other states are having the same problem. Meanwhile, the Republicans are trying to end vote by mail, drop boxes, drive up drop-off and any other way to make voting easier. And now they are threatening the polling places and election workers. Basically, they are trying to make voting extremely difficult. But I have to wonder — do they assume that their own voters won’t be affected by this?

And finally, the stock market took another big dive today, with the DJIA dropping below 30K for the first time in two years. Sigh. There goes two years of on-paper gains…

I just realized it has been four years since I semi-retired – since I last went to work knowing that it was a five day a week, gotta be there gig. Four!

That’s…amazing. Surprising. That’s as much time as I spent in high school, or undergrad college. I’m a little ashamed of what I have to show for it:

• An almost-finished book
• I’ve become a very capable board member, including four years as Chairman of one organization
• A couple of hundred thousand words written for the blog
• Jumped off the OB Pier and lived (2018)
• A golf tournament winner for the first time ever (Tchefuncta, 2021)
• A new knee (2020)
• A superb olive oil harvest (2019)
• Time spent with the grandkids, including a new one in this timeline (hi Jesse!)
• Bought and furnished a second home in Louisville
• Multi-month consulting gigs in project management, quantum computing, and AI (I’ve earned more in “retirement” than I ever imagined)
• Moved my Dad and Phyllis from their independent home to assisted living – I list this because it consumed 2-3 months of life right at the beginning of 2020
• Quite a bit of travel, even with the pandemic – two pandemic cross-country drives (2020), three trips to Cabo, two to Alaska, a trip to CO mountains, trip to Hawaii (2019 and 2020), two trips to Napa and Reno, Nashville (early 2020, the beginning of pandemic), a trip to Pebble Beach (2018), Guadaloupe Valle (2019), Sicily and Malta (2019), two golf trips to Oakmont, multiple RV camping trips, and many, many trips to Kentucky.

OK, when I list it like that, it doesn’t seem so bad. I’m not a complete slacker.

It’s here! The full 2022-2023 UK hoops schedule.

UK Basketball Schedule

Game	Date	Tip Time	TV Channel	Location
Big Blue Madness	Fri., Oct. 14	TBA	TBA	Lexington
Michigan State	Tues., Nov. 15	7 p.m.	TBA	Indianapolis
Gonzaga	Sun., Nov. 20	TBA	TBA	Spokane
Bellarmine	Tues, Nov. 29	TBA	TBA	Lexington
Michigan	Sun., Dec. 4	1 p.m.	TBA	London, England
Yale	Sat., Dec. 10	TBA	TBA	Lexington
UCLA	Sat., Dec. 17	5:15 p.m.	CBS	New York
Florida A&M	Wed., Dec. 21	TBA	TBA	Lexington
At Missouri	Wed., Dec. 28	7 p.m.	SECN	Columbia
Louisville	Sat., Dec. 31	Noon	CBS	Lexington
LSU	Tues., Jan. 3	8 p.m.	ESPN	Lexington
At Alabama	Sat., Jan. 7	1 p.m.	ESPN	Tuscaloosa
South Carolina	Tues., Jan. 10	7 p.m.	ESPN/2	Lexington
At Tennessee	Sat., Jan. 14	Noon	ESPN	Knoxville
Georgia	Tues., Jan. 17	9 p.m.	ESPN	Lexington
Texas A&M	Sat., Jan. 21	2 p.m.	ESPN	Lexington
At Vanderbilt	Tues., Jan. 24	9 p.m.	SECN	Nashville
Kansas	Sat., Jan. 28	TBA	TBA	Lexington
At Mississippi	Tues., Jan 31	9 p.m.	ESPN/2	Oxford
Florida	Sat., Feb. 4	8:30 p.m.	ESPN	Lexington
Arkansas	Tues., Feb. 7	9 p.m.	ESPN/2	Lexington
At Georgia	Sat., Feb. 11	Noon	ESPN/2	Athens
At Mississippi St.	Wed., Feb. 15	8:30 p.m.	SECN	Starkville
Tennessee	Sat., Feb. 18	1 p.m.	CBS	Lexington
At Florida	Wed., Feb. 22	7 p.m.	ESPN/2	Gainesville
Auburn	Sat., Feb. 25	4 p.m.	CBS	Lexington
Vanderbilt	Wed., March 1	7 p.m.	SECN	Lexington
At Arkansas	Sat., March 4	2 p.m.	CBS	Fayetteville

Today is the last day of summer and the official beginning of Fall in the northern hemisphere. On one hand, good riddance – it wasn’t a great summer. Quite a bit of it sucked, in fact. But on the other hand, how many more of these transitions do I have? Worth thinking about.

There’s a lot to look forward to this fall. The cool, crisp weather in KY (and at times, in Socal). The St. James Art Fair. UK football, and in one month, three weeks and five days, UK basketball! My annual Tchefuncta golf tourney in NOLA. Some quality time with the kids and grandkids. Thanksgiving. And toward the end of the fall season, we leave for our northern lights trip to Norway, with a side trip to Scotland.

That’s quite a list. Doing all that depends on staying healthy, something we can no longer just assume, as recent weeks have proven.

Another thing to look forward to. It appears the Trump crime family will finally have to face justice. The civil suit in NY has some teeth. And I fully expect an indictment from the DOJ at some point, though that’s less certain than the NY litigation. Trump’s teflon is wearing off – the shit is starting to stick to him. He needs to be brought to justice, humbled and used as an example to the world that this is how we treat would-be despots. His legions will cry and scream, but let them. I’m happy to see that process moving forward.

Beautiful day today. I actually got outside, got some sunshine and stretched the legs a little.

I also downloaded the few AK pictures I took with my iPhone, and that just reinforced my displeasure with the picture quality from the Fuji. These photos are better.

Here’s a shot as we left Seattle. Bright sunny day that day – the gloom awaited us further north.

Here’s a better shot of the upside down trees at Glacier Gardens.

How about a view from the penthouse apartment of our friend in Victoria. Stunning place – amazing what about $750K US will get you in Victoria.

Finally, one more from the Gardens.

Maybe I’ll just sell all my camera gear, buy an iPhone 14 with the new 48 Mpixel camera and call it a day. My travel pack would certainly be lighter.

I saw this online today and absolutely loved it. In need of a good laugh.

What a week, and what a month. This is one of those periods that test us, and it has certainly tested me.

First the physical and emotional challenge of watching Dad get sicker, then his ending up in the ER again for what would be his last set of care facility transitions. Then facilitating those transitions with negotiations, funds, physical moves of Dad’s belongings multiple times. Then the logistics of his death, and dealing with all that while not in a great emotional state. I was and am grateful that my brothers and other family members were there through it all to carry their part of the load.

Then a weirdly unsatisfying Alaska cruise, which wasn’t much more than a period to read and walk around the ship a lot. Seemed like a good idea at the time. During that week I learned that Dad’s widow, our stepmom, was distraught enough that she decided she didn’t want to live any longer and entered the hospital refusing meds and food. Not much has changed about that as of this date.

Then getting home and immediately getting sick, real sick, which turned out to be Covid. For a day or two I was worried (and miserable), but after that the illness settled down to the “bad cold” status. Another lost week, but as of now I feel about 80-85% and am confident that 100% is not far away.

All this time spent with death and illness has certainly caused some introspection. I hate that over this period I’ve not seen the grandkids much, not done any writing, not done any for-pay project work, not made any real progress toward a healthier lifestyle. Not played any golf with friends. So I’m anxious to get on with those things.

Previous to all this I was quite aware that the runway is short, and every day is precious. After this, just double my belief in that. After a few more days in isolation, I plan to get out and start knocking off some of those deferred goals and desires. We still have to wait for our stepmom’s situation to resolve one way or the other, and I hope she chooses life. But either way we’ll be there for her.

I will say that I think fate owes my family a little break at this point. It’s been a lot. Though at least no one forcibly relocated any of us to Martha’s Vineyard under false pretenses. And none of our family lives in Puerto Rico. So yeah, it could be worse.

During my recovery I’ve watched a lot of movies. A few days ago I watched The Godfather, arguably the best movie of all time. Today I’m watching Godfather 2, equally as good in its own way. Brando, De Niro, Pacino, at the height of their abilities. And the writing…oh my. Lines that have become more famous than the actors.

“I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

Here’s a photo from the Glacier Gardens in Juneau, an odd little rain forest paradise. Privately-owned and created, it’s an unexpected little gem we visited on a gloomy day. The light wasn’t good but on a sunny day it would have been glorious. They are famous for their upside-down tree planters, one pictured here.

Here’s a view of the cluttered harbor at Ketchikan, the self-proclaimed salmon fishing capital of the world.

Here are my fellow travelers – brother-in-law Dave, Kathryn, and Dave’s wife Denise. They were thrilled to be there.

All in all, I’m *really* not happy with the AK pictures. I’m not getting the results I wanted with the new gear. Just like golf, I know that the fault lies with the human, not the gear. I’m finding the Fuji system very hard to master.