We’ll start things off with Seth Meyers with a very recent Closer Look segment on the USPS:
I know Trump seems to have his share of Lukashenko envy. After all, it must be pretty swell to control all the levers of power in such a way that elections end up meaningless. Well, until people get pissed off enough to begin mass rioting. We’re not quite at Belarus level election rigging, but we definitely cannot be even remotely complacent over the fact that the White House Occupant has essentially given up on winning a majority.
And let’s throw in some Stephen Colbert as well, now that’s back from break:
Alright. The bar is fully stocked and the drinks are on me on the following conditions: you have to contribute 25% of the cost, you must agree to do so in advance, and there is this little matter of that nondisclosure agreement to take care of.
Have a great Wednesday and week.
It is dead here this morning/evening. I’ve seen more activity in an empty rural museum.
Sarah Cooper hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night. Only caught a snippet thanks to the miracle of Twitter. Plan on catching the show on-demand later. She’s genuinely funny and seems very genuine. I like that in a comedian.
I’ve had an okay sunflower season, given the very weird weather this summer. For some plants, no amount of watering really helped all that much. My dogs didn’t do these plants any favors either. One loves to pull up the plants and then try to eat them (she usually gets reminded that she doesn’t like the taste). One plant was strikingly resilient. One of my dogs had run over it and knocked it down, but did not break the stem. Instead, the stem stayed green, growing as it hugged the ground, and then started to shoot up. It produced a very nice flower. One of my daughters wanted to plant sunflowers this year, so that’s how we ended up with those in the former rock gardens (now flower beds) near the patio. Initially I left maintenance up to her. She lost interest, and so I tended to them instead once I noticed my wife complaining about all the weeds that had infested the flower beds. So, I pulled the weeds. In the process, I quickly learned that rather than being a nuisance, they were part of a sort of impromptu ecosystem that was propping up the sunflower stems as they continued to grow. So, if I do this next year, I’ll leave everything, especially the wild honeysuckle that seemed to be growing along there, alone. Added bonus: saw quite a few bumblebees this year. They are a rare sight. We need our pollinators.
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Had a sweet gum tree removed a couple months ago. Got a pretty good deal, and since it was something on the top of my priorities list, I decided to go for it, rather than simply wait another year. Am glad I did, as we have had some severe weather pass through here on occasion since. I had the feeling that the tree was not especially healthy. It head easily lost limbs in some freak severe weather in 2014, and had some smaller limbs break off over the years (with the exception of last year, when a large limb fell off away from any structures when a tornado passed just a few blocks from my house). Since then, I’ve noticed that I’ve had to pull up new sweet gum trees that are just sprouting up all over the place – always just right by the house. To be honest, it was an oddly located tree. It was way to close to the house, which was concerning for a host of reasons (including that those roots would eventually affect the structural integrity of the property), and the spiky balls it produced were a hazard. But as close as it was to the house, it never really provided any shade. I may eventually plant a tree in the back yard, but it will be at much more of a distance, and strategically located so that as it matures, it can provide some natural shade, in order to give the A/C a break. As almost tropical as our summers are becoming, that seems like it will be a priority.
On my blog, I had suggested a Trader Vic’s Mai Tai as the drink for Kamala Harris during the debates. Now that she’ll be debating Pence, I’m reviving that drink for her. Unfortunately, Tipsy Bartender took down that video. Here’s one that is my backup video for the drink. I promise to post the one I will use on my blog on the next installment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9JXS6swCNU
Huh, that didn’t work. Let’s see if this does.
Or this.
https://youtu.be/I9JXS6swCNU
Code must have changed. Let’s see if I can embed video.
<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/I9JXS6swCNU” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe>
OK, that works.
We’ve had our share of technical difficulties. I know our gracious host is doing all he can.
Here Come the Warm Jets
There should have been a video embed with that. Clicked on the Source Code icon, and had hoped that would do the trick, as I am embedding source code.
And that was Code Block. As we can see, nothing. So I think the technical glitch when the comments feature was upgraded a little while ago still remains. Maybe I am missing something. Maybe Google Chrome is the wrong browser to use. Maybe I need to using a Macbook. Not really sure. So it goes.
https://progresspond.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/progress-pond-screen-shot.png
This is the screen shot I get when I try to use the Source Code icon to paste YouTube vids.
As you can see, I paste my source code in apparently appropriately, and then when I click post comment, I get this weird error message that tells me to fill out all required fields. I am a bit stumped by that, as I am not sure what those required fields would be. This used to be easy – post a youtube link and vid just loaded.