The Lady and ran a measly 5 miles on the trails of French Creek last night. Starting temps were low 90's, no wind, calm as could be, in humid steam bath conditions. It had rained earlier in the day adding to the humid feel. I actually could "see" the air at one point down by 6 penny creek. After about 2 miles of steamy slogging, I felt a breeze and then it started to get rather dark in woods. The wind picked up, somewhat alarmingly, and a bit of rain fell, but whoa did the temperature fall. Good timing as I was hitting a big downhill then so found some legs to move at a more regular pace, partly because it had cooled down, and partly because I had a bit of adrenaline from the impending storm. Unfortunately the rain never let loose while I was out there, just the wind and drizzle but when I got back to the car, temps had dropped nearly 20 degrees to low to mid 70's. That was pretty neat.

Another hot run on tap tonight, though I think not as humid as yesterday and maybe just more of a regular summer day for these parts.

QOTD: The days of the hanging chad were pretty crazy. The big issue now is everyone is so polarized on one side or the other. Compromise, centrists? No, it's all left or right. Social media probably plays a role in the polarization. Who knows. But it's probably just surface stuff... meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Probably so either way.

Treadmill for me in the AC.  Just couldn't pull myself outside to the road, so did some speed work and watched TV (not the news).

QOTD:  The cable media has a lot to do with the current state of things. Many stations are overly liberal and on the other side Fox is overly conservative. No more Walter Cronkite and middle of the road.  Most people I talk to don't want either candidate, yet here we have them. The media "picked" these two as front runners long before a single vote was cast in the primaries. They got all the coverage because they were good for TV ratings. I'm just surprised a Kardashian isn't being elected.

AT: I think you are right. Between the news media and social media's subversive manipulation of information (manifested as dis-information), this is what we have.

Jamie: I would consider New Zealand over Australia for two reasons:

1. They have an open season on wild turkeys that is pretty much open all year and few people hunt.

2. They have great mountain trails.

Years ago, I think there were Merriam/Rio Grande Hybrids, transplanted to New Zealand. I am not sure why. But nevertheless, they do not have the predator or poacher or land use issues we seem to have here. They have flourished. I'm sure beer can be found there, too. And I think they have pretty good beaches. With all that, who care who is running things as long as they keep the trails open, the turkeys gobbling, the beer flowing, and the beaches clean?

 

QOTD:  We don't have TV or get the paper anymore.  Why, what's going on?

That may be a great idea. There is a bunch of stuff going on. I wouldn't know where to begin.

Getting ready to head out for a short walk with DW and it's 91 degrees out. Not too bad, but most of this will be in the sun.  Probably going to get 4-5 miles in. Working tonight so gotta go now.

XT - I was driving into work when that storm came through. Really felt nice afterwards.

QOTD:  I'm extremely independent, with moderate, centrist views.  I like to work together to get things done and hate when there is little to no bipartisanship.

I am too young to remember first hand the civil rights movement and other unrest of the 60s, but I do remember hearing about the mass shooting at Kent State and other unrest like that. I think we've been through tough times before and I hope we can pull through this. I know that the media plays a big part in where we are at. On the conservative side guys like Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh don't want things to be calm because that doesn't drive followers to their shows. I also think there are people like Grover Norquist behind the scenes with an agenda that is designed to destroy the country.  Rupert Murdoch is another one.  People like that concern me.

What also concerns me is that as a country we are just filled with hate and anger towards each other.  That's really a deep subject that I could fill a book with my thoughts, but I think it's behind all the unrest between police and society.  Basically our basic morals as a country have collapsed and we are paying the price.

FWIW I didn't like Trump too much but my personal feeling is that he is the most centrist of the whole lot which is why we have him in, because people are really looking to get away from the two main parties. The problem is that he is a New Yawker.  He says what's on his mind in a non PC fashion.

LB2 - Is there even any hunting in Australia?  I thought they banned all guns there.

And I'm not making any plans to leave my country. I'm going to fight to straighten it out!!!!

5.8 humid trail miles.

QOTD The media and social media really hype that stuff up, I was sick of it months ago already. There's a reason I vote for Jerry Garcia!

One last thing on the political front.

 

I think we should put Mr Jangles in for President. He looks more intelligent that all the other idiots combined .

hummm not a bad idea👍