Lost and loss

A neighbor noticed that a package on the porch had not been taken in, and alertly notified the police.

Up in Alexander, Maine, John Helmstadter, 82, and Pamela Helmstadter, 72, had gone for a woodsy walk. They didn't take cellphones; perhaps they didn't plan to be that long out there on the trail, but then John fell, and was unable to get back on his feet. So Pamela went walking to get help, but she became lost. For four days and four frigid nights she was in the woods, and thank the stars that her dog was with her. When the Maine Warden service found her,  she was “severely hypothermic but alert with her dog by her side.”. They added that the lowest temperatures in Alexander that week ranged from 26 to 44 degrees Fahrenheit, according to AccuWeather.

Sad to say, after Pamela was found over a mile from their home, her husband was found dead half an hour later about 200 yards away.

Sgt Josh Beal of the Warden Service said that when she was found, “her dog (Lucy) was being very protective of her and even laid down on top of her on her chest. It sounds like that’s what the dog would do at night as well, to help keep her warm.”

Sgt Beal added, “She did very well to survive for that long,” and that Pamela's body temperature was 90.7°, and she said she had given up hope of being found and surviving.

The rescue crew, after finding the lady and her valiant dog.

She promised her husband that she'd be back, but the story went another way. During those four harrowing days, she was eating peat moss to stay alive, Pamela says she felt  “a lot of sadness and grief.  We were married for 31 years, and we had a good life together.”

We can all take from this a quick suggestion to plan for trouble by taking a cell phone and some provisions when going out, but the larger message is to make sure we enjoy our days together while we can still be together.

E Day

 It looks like a record turnout for this crucial election. Please don't be the only person you know who fails to go vote. It matters!

Why Tuesday?

From the Reader's Digest, which reprinted an article from the Smithsonian...here's the skinny on why Election Day is always a Tuesday.

No day was designated as voting day when the Constitution was ratified (1788), so for years, each state would set their own day, and you know what you're going to get with some of these states around here, which shall remain nameless, but rhyme with Blurginia...

Congress got right on it and took action in 1845. 57 years is not an unreasonable length of time, is it? 

OK. Sunday, no way. Monday also, no go, because people just had the buggy out to go to meetin' on Sunday, and they weren't about to get old Bessie out again. Wednesday was a big day for farmers to haul their goods to market, so that was no good, and, well, same for Thursday, if they were just getting back from the market.

And, this will sound like current-day America, but they didn't think people wanted to be bothered with things like voting or working on Fridays. And don't even think about Saturday, for crying out loud! Saturdays were for going to the town dance and coming home for a bath before Sunday services.

That left Tuesday, so tomorrow is your day to vote, if you have not done so already!

Sunday Rerun (from 2021): "You know, I read on Bookface that..."

 Sometimes it seems there is more misinformation out there than actual information. There are people among us who believe the Titanic was a fictional story about a ship that sank. 

Many people still believe that the moon landing the rest of us watched on a Sunday night in July, 1969, was not real, but no more than a Disney production.  And that is really Goofy!

Until 1800, people thought that California was an island. To this day, there are people who believe that a tobacco smoke enema will cure people of diseases.  It won't, but it will enable the recipient to blow interesting smoke rings.

Lots of people think that 5G cell technology causes cancer, although they won't say why it's ok to use 4G. 

In spite of all evidence to the contrary, many people think the earth is only 5,000 years old. 

Does she really mean this?

People who don't know they don't know will say that lightning never strikes the same place twice (these are usually people who call it "lightening"). The old rumor about people only using 10% of their brains is invalid. Even people who say nasty untruths have to use their noggin to come up with nonsense such as the stories about the Bermuda Triangle having more shipwrecks or mysterious disappearances than other waterways.

And this will make some parents mad at me, but you do not need to wait an hour after eating to go in swimming. You're not going to cramp and drown.

I was running all these falsehoods through my noggin, because last week, someone told me that the government started COVID-19 so that everyone would have to stay home and vote by mail only, thus enabling "the government" to rig elections.

The backbone of all these notions is always broken by simply asking the speaker for any shred of a scintilla of an iota of proof. There is none, just their beliefs, to which they cling like the lifejackets that they think will save them even if unworn.

The Saturday Picture Show, November 2, 2024

 

As proof of the current drought in the Northeast US, this bridge in an old New Jersey reservoir has not been seen for years and years.

Your free wallpaper for this week is this lovely picture of a Dutch lake.

Illuminated golden leaves at nighttime make a pretty canopy.

Trust in this simple law of nature: There's always going to be one.

This is one-time ER physician (really!) and current hilarious comedian Ken Jeong examining his star on the Hollywood Walk of Famous Stars or whatever they call it. "Oh, he does that from time to time." (If you know what I mean.)

The rabbits have had a great summer and fall and are now looking for their winter homes.

Maybe it's because of all the election commotion, or maybe it's because there are just so many natural calamities in the era of climate change, but there was massive flooding in Valencia, in Eastern Spain, this week, and I didn't see anything about it on the news until three days later. 

These men were preparing their itinerary for a business trip in 1969. They were the Apollo 11 crew, going for that moonwalk once they got there.

Mookie Betts, of Los Angeles, California, took a business trip to New York City this week and was assaulted by several thugs who attempted to rob him of a baseball and his glove, and also pull his arm out of its socket. One of the oafs told ESPN that everyone knows he "patrols that wall." Sure, son.

Don't say we didn't warn you! Take a fallback position tonight.

Growing Up

Perhaps this will be a key moment in the maturation of Tyrique Stevenson. Tyrique is 24, and is a cornerback for the Chicago Bears, who had just taken the lead Sunday over the Washington Commanders in exciting National Football League action. With mere seconds left, the Commanders lined up for a last-ditch attempt at a longshot touchdown pass. 

But... instead of preparing for the play, Tyrique spent time waving to the DC fans, taunting them even after the play began.

It gets worse. The fans hooted back at him, gesticulating that he would do well to turn around and play football with the other 21 men on the field, because the play was underway.

That he did, and it seems that it would have gone better for the Bears had Tyrique continued his antics, because when he did get into the action, he tipped the toss-up pass into the waiting hands of Washington receiver Noah Brown, who scampered into the end zone to win the game.

Of course, the twitterverse took Stevenson to task, and he replied: "To Chicago and teammates my apologies for lack of awareness and focus," he wrote. "The game ain't over until zeros hit the clock. Can't take anything for granted. Notes taken, improvement will happen."

Stevenson added Monday, "I let the moment get too big and it's something that can never happen again and won't ever happen again."

Moments have a way of taking on the size we allow them to have. Meanwhile, I'm saving that phrase for the next time I forget to check the catbox or buy too many pork chops or say something untoward: "Notes taken, improvement will happen."

Doesn't sound like me, but I won't let the moment get too big.

What's with these people?

I'll tell you the difference between the politicians of today and the politicians of yesterday,

The Nixon/Ford Administration, still the all-time leader in presidents forced to resign, had an Agriculture Secretary named Earl "Rusty" Butz. Earl was a farmer, born and bred, and was severely lacking in tact and discretion, but he only told his racist jokes to Pat Boone, who was a singer, and Sonny Bono, who certainly wasn't. The press over heard it. The joke he told those two aboard a commercial flight to California after the 1976 Republican National Convention was horribly offensive and racist that Butz was forced to resign and go back to Indiana.

Today, they pack Madison Square Garden and have "comedians" tell disgusting Puerto Rican jokes and I don't know what it takes to show you the complete lack of anything good there.

Whatever happened to respecting our fellow Americans?