A Buggy and Stormy Start of Summer

I haven’t been posting much due to ongoing issues with Dad’s health, my health, and no excess energy to speak of. My father ending up back in the hospital for two days of observation to start June which capped off a disastrous May when his removed gastric tube opening took too long to heal. A raging fever, loss of balance, and the return of the uncontrollable hiccups led to reopening that wound along with the hospital stay.

While he was in Gundersen Hospital, I had a visitor on the kitchen screen door that spooked an aquaintance delivering some electronics for me to wipe. The frightening creature turned out to be one of the large Polyphemus moths that live in the region. There is no need to fear being bitten by these gentle giants for they don’t even eat as adults. Sadly it causes them to have a short lifespan of a week or so due to starvation.

Independence Day 2012

It is scorching hot and getting worse with a high of 101 F predicted for this afternoon. Being ill and on antibiotics that prevent being in sunlight, I will not be making it to the parade in Eitzen yet again. We may fire off a few fireworks later tonight, though.

I often think of how much was sacrificed to found this country and then maintain its freedoms. Another Pat, but not a Patrick, I know posted about this on her blog today. One has to wonder if anyone is willing to make those kind of sacrifices these days.

Over at the Telegraph, I ran into this column by a Brit writing that the United States was Britain’s greatest gift to the world. I cannot argue with that or his reasoning for why. Too much is taken for granted and modern people have forgotten just how bad it once was – and could be again.

Maybe it is the illness, but I am having trouble feeling positive about the future of the nation. Things are not going well in any facet of our culture and it looks like we will be finding out if any of the strengths that our founders had still remain in us. Hopefully, I will turn out to be wrong about this.

Summertime

Aside from being a great tune, that is what today is. Summer has officially arrived with the solstice, but the weather has actually moderated compared to the past few days.

The corn is growing and so are the weeds. For the moment, the thistles have the height advantage.