It’s been cold and rainy the last couple of days here in DC. The rain part is no surprise. We are experiencing the sixth wettest year in recorded history. And we still have 55 days to go. Yesterday it rained 1.43 inches. There was a raging river in our backyard where the French drain is.
Today it rained some more. You’d think the weather forecasters would be getting with the program. They predicted that the rain would stop at 2 pm and that temperatures would be in the 60s. I figured I’d wait until 2 and go for a bike ride.
The rain stopped just before 5. Fug me.
Looking at the bright side, I did manage to go to the eye doctor, meditate, lift weights, go grocery shopping and listened to two podcasts, Rachel Maddow’s Bag Man and Jeremy Dylan’s My Favorite Album.
Bag Man tells the story of how a group of Justice Department attorneys in Maryland unearthed corruption at multiple levels of Maryland politics. They kept pulling on the string of evidence and clues and it led them to the Vice President, Spiro Agnew, who was once Maryland’s governor. Agnew and his attorneys denied wrongdoing and demonized the Justice Department and the press. Sound familiar? Once they knew the VP was in their sights, the attorneys from the Justice Department Maryland field office had to break the news to the Attorney General that they were investigating criminal behavior by the sitting VP. At the height of Watergate! Eliot Richardson, the AG, told them to continue their investigation. I’ll bet he had a strong drink after work that night.
My Favorite Album is a series of interviews with musicians about their favorite album. Luckily, about 1/4 of the podcasts deal with my faves The Beatles and Neil Finn. The people being interviewed know a lot about the bands they are discussing which keeps the rehashing of well-worn anecdotes to a minimum. So far I’ve listened to discussions of three Beatles albums, all kinds of Crowded House and Neil Finn music, and Blond on Blond. There are over 170 episodes (including Radiohead, Springsteen, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, and more) so I know what to do when I’m snowed in this winter.
I feel like a blob. Mostly because all the crap I’ve been eating since coming home from Oregon has finally caught up with me. Since tonight is election night, I’ll be binging on beer and chips and guac and queso. Tomorrow I will punish my fat ass with a long ride.
One weird thing happened at the grocery store. The checkout the clerk told me that my five bagels actually cost 30 cents more than if I had bought a half dozen. Seriously. As a retired economist I am pissed that I didn’t tell him to assume a sixth bagel.
Two years ago I was in Silicon Valley working with some futurists on election day. Everyone simply assumed that Hillary would win. When we met the next day, the futurists all showed up dressed in black. They had not coordinated this. Black swans.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 