Observations and random thoughts Vol. 24.1
By WILLIAM LEDFORD
It’s a new week, the eclipse is over, the frog swallowed then regurgitated the sun and the fun never ceases in Washington. Our beloved orange leader has only been on the job seven months and has already exhausted the budget for his Secret Service protection; for the year! On the campaign trail, the “Man Who Would be King” loudly proclaimed that President Obama took his family on too many vacations and played too much golf and he would change the status quo. And, so he did. Instead of every now and again, he leaves the White House every weekend to travel to one of his properties and plays golf; every weekend.
Those of you who thought that he was gonna work harder were sadly mistaken. He was just gonna vacation and golf harder. Being President is hard work. And, once while golfing, Trump stated that the place (the White House) was a “dump”. So, he’s renovating. No, sorry, he just ordered the renovation. We, the taxpayers, are footing the bill. And, I guess we’re also supposed to pay for a wall instead of the Mexican government. We’ll call it The Great Wall of Trump.
One final note on Trump and the eclipse. Like he’s known to do, Trump retweeted or posted a meme. This one showing him eclipsing ex-Prez Obama with the exclamation “Best Eclipse Ever”. The first thought that popped into my brain was, “This guy is so dumb, doesn’t he realize that he’s eclipsed Obama for three plus minutes and then Obama outshines him…again.” Wotta maroon.
My family and I traveled to Douglas, Wyo. and camped out for the total eclipse, and it was great! It was awesome! It was amazing! Man, I’m trying so hard not to drop any effbombs in here it was that tremendous. And, there’s another total eclipse on April 8, 2024. That’s seven years to those of you that attended CHS and are challenged by math. It’ll be passing through the southeastern part of the country through Texas, Arkansas, and Illinois to the north, and we’re going to watch it. Hopefully, we won’t be in throes of a civil war with the KKK, neo-Nazis, White supremacists, White militia, White nationalists, Trump sheep, and people identifying as alt-right versus the Antifa and the rest of us by then. Right now, it doesn’t look good. And, the Antifa (anti-fascist) group seems just as psycho as the people they’re against. They’re just anarchists like the people they fight, and I can do without either of these gangs of clowns.
I don’t know what it was like during the totality at home. I’ve heard that it was stunning, but on the northern Plains there was a 360 degree sunset. It was red in every direction. The temperature rapidly dropped eight or nine degrees. It got waaaay dark. There was a ring of fire. It was so cool. I can see why primitives thought that it was the end of the world. Good thing there were Indians around to calm and reassure the Pilgrims.
Then, it took 13 hours to drive back to southern Colorado. Long drive. Six hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic just to make the hour and a half trip out of Wyoming to the Colorado state line. And, even that didn’t dampen the blast of seeing the amazing celestial event. Nothing ever could, nothing ever will. Plus…I got an official eclipse tee shirt to commemorate. Not gonna wear it though, I’m fat and that’s a lotta tee shirt.
The makings of an unprecedented disaster is in the process down in Texas. Hurricane Harvey and resulting storm dumped around 50” of rain on Houston and the surrounding areas. 50 inches. And, I’m helping again, that’s four feet plus in a matter of days. And, now the storm is rolling back in to dump more rain on the flooded areas and may also hit New Orleans. These people need your good thoughts and prayers. I don’t want to pummel a deceased equine, but our world’s weather is changing and these monster storms are soon to become commonplace instead of rare occurrences. Time to start preparing for the worst.
Finally, I read and saw on the news that some teenage kid got himself lost and wandered around the Smokies for 11 days. I’m happy that he survived, although a little worse for the wear and tear. I have another question: should we have to start putting these people on leashes or something? Maybe a pre-hike GPS suppository insertion should be made mandatory before they wander off. And…oh boo yourself…you thought the same thing.
OK, time to go for now. Remember, the grass is always greener in the dispensaries.
Ledford is an EBCI tribal member living in Albuquerque, NM.
