I never have shot a deer. I never have tried. But I have known people who have known people… And I do again. When I spent a year in grad school, one of my brother’s friends (all of us lived in Huntsville, Texas at the time) was an avid hunter and a generous guy. He introduced me to venison backstrap, prepared like chicken-fried steak. After I proclaimed my love of the meat and the way it was prepared, he occasionally gave me some of the bounty of backstrap from his hunting trips. Now, all these years later, I have a friend whose son is an avid hunter and a very generous person, as is my friend. Soon, I again will be the beneficiary of some venison, thanks to these wonderful people. Assuming I remember exactly how I prepared it before, which i expect I will, I will rejoice at the fabulous flavor!
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Soon-to-be in our “entertainment room.”
After my post-chemotherapy injection yesterday, mi novia and I went out to lunch (I was feeling pretty energetic), then to a furniture store. Intending only to look, we not only looked, we found and we bought. We soon will have a replacement for our old power loveseat—it still looks nice and is comfortable for a short while, but not long enough. The one we bought is a La-Z-Boy brand power recliner-loveseat; slightly larger than the one we have, plush, enormously comfortable, and studded with simple little unnecessary (but appreciated) luxuries (e.g., hidden storage areas, drink-holders, built-in wireless remotes, etc.). Because the one we bought is a floor model, we got a nice discount from the retail price. We’re expecting delivery next Tuesday. I’m easily excited by the little things.
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I took advantage of a free trial of a service that shows me, graphically, the view and length of visits of recent visitors to this blog. I can see that most of the few visitors spent almost no time on any given page…even the entire site. I assume those on-and-off-in-a-flash visitors simply stumble accidentally onto my blog, see it holds no interest to them, and move on. Why else would someone spend as little as 4 seconds? When those “drive-by” visitors are excluded, for example, I discovered that on average only 3 to 10 people spent enough time on the blog to actually read a full post on any given day. That fact confirms the part of yesterday’s post that asserted “I pay for the privilege of talking to myself.” But I keep going back to my claim that I write this blog for me; and, then, I question that claim.
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An article published yesterday morning on the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) website reported on an effort by defendants and others involved in a $47 million fraud trial to bribe a juror to deliver a “not guilty” verdict. The fascinating description of the way the attempted bribery took place captured my interest. Unfortunately, the article did not directly address specifics about the original crime of fraud, but links took me to other articles and, hence, the effort to bribe a juror. The webs of deceit of and the attempts to conceal them and the millions of dollars from the Minnesota USDA-funded school nutrition programs made for riveting reading. The juror, by the way, reported the attempted bribe, which led to an FBI investigation that uncovered “deleted texts showing chaos of bribe attempt in Feeding our Future (a school nutrition program) trial.” After watching a number of films and television series involving complex criminal activities and investigations, I can imagine how a person can get absolutely enthralled with conducting criminal investigation. If I weren’t so damn old and unemployable, I might pursue such opportunities. Not the crimes—just solving them.
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I have not been to church much in recent months, thanks to the after-effects of chemotherapy. But I may go this weekend, if my post-treatment fatigue, etc. does not catch up with me by then. The speaker will be Patty Hector, the former Saline County librarian who was fired by a Saline County Judge (someone I consider a narrow-minded, anti-knowledge clown) for refusing to relocate books the Saline County Quorum Court members found offensive. The Quorum Court recommended in April that the library “relocate materials that are not subject-matter or age appropriate for children, due to their sexual content or imagery, to an area that is not accessible to children.” Ms. Hector refused to bend to censorship and suffered the consequences; I admire her bravery and her insistence on sticking to her principles. I hope to hear her discuss what happened and how it took place and what open-minded citizens can do to overcome such ultra-conservative nonsense. I do not live in Saline County, but the threat is statewide…nationwide…global.
