Pork and noodles cooking over a fire

General Wednesday Musings

I was running behind the gun this week due to the long weekend. I’m tired after three days at the Fort, and all the packing and all the work while there. So I’m going to just toss some news spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks.

Fort stuff – I went on Friday, and stayed until Monday afternoon. While there, I lit up the bake oven once, on Saturday, and turned out two *perfect* loaves of bread. I didn’t rush myself for patrons, for a change, and the result was that there was no burn on the bread at all, and the crumb was divine. By Monday morning, all that was left of those two loaves were some crumbs at the bottom of the bowl I’d had it sitting in. I decided to make egg noodles on Saturday, as well, and that turned out very well. I made a second batch on Sunday, because I wanted to try and get the dough a bit thinner. I succeeded, and the end result was a very consistent, 1/8″ thick dough that turned into quite lovely flat noodles similar to a pappardelle. They’re still a bit too thick for my taste, but these cooked up quite nicely.

We had a decent turn out at the Fort over the long weekend. We had a slow but steady stream of patrons come through, all with fantastic questions. I wasn’t rushed for time, so I spent a lot of my “free” time going from place to place and giving tours. I definitely got my steps in, and ended up walking about 17 miles over the course of the weekend! After hours, I had two nice dinners with the volunteers (Saturday night and Sunday night), which included great conversation, friendship, and a bottle of wine to share. It was definitely a fantastic weekend.

Harris stuff – I’m having a really hard time watching what Harris is putting out on media. Some of it I know is actual lies, because I have been paying attention. Some of it is just bizarre. Her documentary (because that was NOT an interview) was ridiculous, full of contradictory stuff. The fact that she’s repeating the same EXACT speech in city after city is getting a bit old, and the odd fake accents are incredibly grating. Her inability to give a straight answer is painful.

That said, there are people putting false stuff out about her, and I dislike that, too. There’s plenty of fodder that’s real; we don’t need to make anything up. So no, she was not involved in a hit and run accident in 2011. Yes, Harris was born in America (in California, which explains a lot, but is still a US state). No, Harris did not make a campaign ad that disses herself (for heavens’ sake, why would she? she’s stupid, but she’s not dumb). And no, the Eagles did not endorse Harris. At this point, there’s so much misinformation out there that it’s almost impossible to tell what’s real and what isn’t. There’s a big question as to whether someone on the far Right is doing some of this, or if Leftists are messing with it in order to get caught and blame the Right. It’s crazy.

Trump stuff – I’m stressing over some of the vaccine noise he’s making. I don’t think we need to mandate COVID and Flu shots, but I heartily stand behind MMR, IPV, and DTaP. Those three shots alone have saved literally millions of children from debilitating diseases, and I don’t want to see them making a comeback. We’re seeing rising numbers of measles and mumps, and that’s just ridiculous. At one time we had almost wiped these out. Trump isn’t differentiating between long-standing, well researched vaccines like our childhood ones, and newer ones. I like Penn and Teller’s explanation of vaccination.

When it comes to all the other stuff Trump is saying, well… he’s not the best orator, but he’s consistent, and he doesn’t need a teleprompter to keep him from going rogue. He takes pretty much every interview he’s offered, and he at least attempts to answer the hard questions. He does fun stuff, too, like go on Jimmy Fallon and have some lighthearted jokes made about him. But the Left has this odd viewpoint where they say everything he’s saying is wrong. NPR has a “fact checking” article that shows how they’re thinking, and it’s enlightening. I read through it and was confused, because I agreed with Trump on most of what he said, and yes it was true, and the “fact checking” that was done was just plain wrong.

General political stuff – I’m still struggling a lot, but I’m wrapping my head around things from a more Right perspective. On the Left, there’s this group think that you all have mentioned before. For the most part, I wasn’t fully engulfed in that because of my interest in prepping and my 2A stance, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t affect me. There’s a reason I don’t talk politics with people outside of a very few trusted folk. Most of my friends would draw and quarter me for moving Right. They believe, with every ounce of their beings, that Trump is going to “take away their freedoms” in some way.

What I’ve discovered is that, where I don’t agree with people on the Right, I can have discussions and sometimes good quality arguments. I can disagree, and keep my own opinions, and maybe we don’t talk about That Topic when we’re together… but no one on the Right seems to be tossing me out of the tent for having beliefs outside the norm. It’s much easier to stand among the people here on the Right, and say hey, I don’t want to see safe, infrequent abortions taken away, and I want IVF, and top notch care for mothers who suffer from fetal abnormalities and death. It’s much more effective than standing on the Left and yelling that y’all are taking away rights. I can talk with people and say unequivocally that the 10 Commandments don’t belong in classrooms, and know that at least a few of you believe the opposite… but we can still talk here, because that’s a discussion we can have.

I think I’m done rambling for now. I’m curious what y’all think of the recipe of the week and the prepping article of the week. Are these good additions to the site?


Comments

6 responses to “General Wednesday Musings”

  1. Tom from WNY Avatar
    Tom from WNY

    Food and Prepping are good articles to post.

    As are articles on civil discourse.

    1. I admit, I’m really enjoying the food and prepping articles. I sometimes struggle to come up with “from behind enemy lines” stuff, though that’s coming easier these days.

  2. Jolie Avatar

    I hope 45 doesn’t take RFK too seriously because RFK’s anti jab stance came directly from his opposition to every single vaccine made. The Kamala vs Kamala rumor might have started because the Trump team actually made an ad that features her contradicting herself. It’s a clever ad but the internet twists things. I like recipes, especially main dish recipes. I LOVE dessert recipes but I don’t need those. I’m still in awe of someone who can knead by hand.

    1. Yeah, I’m worried about things like polio and measles and mumps. Anyone who was going to die of COVID is now dead, and it’s time to move ahead. If someone chooses not to get the jab, that’s between them and their doctor. It’s not my business; enough of the herd has what it needs to keep the unjabbed safe enough. Same with flu. But the big baddies? Those need to keep going. I worry a LOT about that.

      I don’t really do dessert recipes, mostly because I suck at pastry. LOL… I let Chris’s wife do pastry, and I do other stuff. She’s WAY better at it than me. I’m more a “peasant food” sort of gal.

      As for kneading by hand, it’s very therapeutic. I make bread for us once a week except during the hottest days of the year. Usually I make one batch, which makes two loaves. Today, I made four loaves, testing out a theory. It didn’t quite work as expected, so there’s edible problems to deal with (oh no! LOL).

  3. CBMTTek Avatar
    CBMTTek

    As always, good stuff.

    Thoughts:
    Harris has nothing going for her really. Name an accomplishment she should be proud of? I can’t think of a single thing. And, apparently neither can anyone on her campaign staff. There is a ‘net thing where it claims she is not stupid, but drunk. I am not so sure it is wrong after watching her give speeches, etc…

    Trump is not a liar, not like the left claims. In a campaign, well in politics in general, there are exaggerations, statistics, and outright lies. When the “fact checkers” say Trump is lying, about 95% of the time it is one of the first two. Trump will say “Like no one has seen before…” way too much. That is exaggerating, not lying. He might also cite a stat, but another view of the same metric shows a different result. Not a lie, both views are perfectly valid.
    If the “fact checkers” turned their critical eye toward their favored candidate there would be no contest on who is the bigger liar.

    The rest is an unfortunate result of today’s divided society and special snowflakes raising special snowflakes of their own. The group think is reality. It is the same human nature trait that results in cliques in middle school. Either you are in the mean girls club, or you are an outsider worthy of scorn. Adults grow out of that, but children (internally) do not. The immature ones tend to end up on the left side of the political aisle. (there are plenty of immature ones on the right as well)

    What you are finding is as much a matter of maturity and an ability to put emotion aside as it is a left/right political divide. Liberals tend to use their emotional mind more than their logical one. They want to live in a world the “way it should be.” Which is admirable. How they go about it, trying to control others, wealth redistribution, etc… is not admirable. On the other hand, folks on the right tend to live in the world “the way it is.” And, yes, sometimes that means that big business wins, or we do not take climate change initiatives seriously.

    Also, the right tends to consider potential adverse outcomes before taking action. Even the best laid plans will not turn out they way you want, so maybe regulating gas stoves out of existence is not a good idea.

    Final note. I do not think you are moving right, at least not radically. I think the left is moving away from you. Does not matter, we are glad to have you here.

    1. There is a ‘net thing where it claims she is not stupid, but drunk. I am not so sure it is wrong after watching her give speeches, etc…

      Yeah, I don’t know. I have an alcoholic mother and have a long history with AA and ACoA, and Harris doesn’t act like I would expect her to if she were alcoholic. I don’t know what’s up with her. It may simply be that she’s like me… when she needs to talk serious stuff, she instinctively tries to lighten it up by chuckling or laughing. It irritates Chris when I do that, and I work on it. There are times when it’s okay, and times when it’s not. Still working on it. I don’t think Harris works on it, or is even really aware of it.

      Final note. I do not think you are moving right, at least not radically. I think the left is moving away from you. Does not matter, we are glad to have you here.

      I’m definitely not radical in any way. Well… maybe on 2A things. That comes from my childhood in Canada. I know what it’s like to be disarmed, and so I’m ridiculously opposed to having my right to bear arms disturbed. I like living in a place where no one walks in your unlocked door because they know it’s better than an even chance that they’ll meet someone with a gun and the training to use it, and it just isn’t worth it.

      But the rest of the stuff? No, there’s plenty that I’m still fairly left on. But I can’t do anything if I’m over on the Left. No one can, honestly. It’s all just a bunch of talking heads. Nothing actually gets done over there. But over here on the Right, I can actually bring up topics and discuss them like rational human beings. Whether that’s because the Left has moved so far Left that I’m no longer in it, or the Right has moved more Left and has engulfed me, doesn’t really matter. I’m here. 🙂