Toads and other Mysteries

I’m sure this is of little interest to anyone but me but I have this problem with toads, little toads that appear mysteriously every week or ten days. I assume they are toads rather than frogs because the nearest viable water for frogs is several miles away. These creatures are all the same size. I do not believe the cats bring them in as they are never damaged in any way, unlike the birds, mice, bats, squirrels, lizards, and other creatures they drag in with some regularity. I am beginning to believe that hidden somewhere in my house there may be a mother toad who is producing these miniature replicas of herself. I am so convinced that may be so I am afraid to even look. Just another facet of rural life I guess.

I cannot maintain any interest in the seemingly endlessly ongoing farce that pretends to be the Presidential campaign. I cannot wait until it is over, not that it will ever be over as it has now become the longest running soap opera and guaranteed money maker for the media. As it has been ongoing for years now it is hard to believe there is anyone who does not know what is what, except for the fact that the American public does not seem to know what is what no matter what. I am absolutely convinced that we here in the United States have abandoned any serious attempt to govern ourselves and regard our politics as little more than burlesque. “Come in, see our show, and you’ll go out happy, happy, happy.” It remains a mystery to me how Romney/Ryan could possibly be tied with Obama/Biden. If it is true (which I tend to doubt) I can only attribute it to the appalling ignorance and inattention of the electorate. And yes, by the way, I do think the Electoral College should be eliminated. Maybe if it were eliminated my vote here in Idaho might actually count.

Now that my wife is gone and I am here alone my life has become so uneventful as to reach the point of absurdity. I find the most important thing at the moment is the imminently expected birth of my first grandson who is, as yet, unnamed. My son’s idea of a boy’s name is so ridiculous his wife and her mother refuse to take him seriously, along with most everyone else who has heard about it. The problem is how is to refer to this coming being, should we refer to it as “It,” “Him,”, “No-name,” just “Baby,” or what? When this is the most important issue you face you realize just how inconsequential your life has become.

Of course there is also the problem of firewood. I don’t burn a lot of firewood since we were lulled into believing natural gas would be less expensive. But I do burn some and, having now cut and split (along with a friend) what I thought would be sufficient we have now concluded it is too green to burn this year and we will have to do it all again. Oh, well, it helps keep my mind off the election, toads, and the name of an as yet unknown person.

Yes, there is to be another debate on Tuesday evening, as I am sure you must know (unless you are deaf, blind, and being held in solitary confinement somewhere in the Himalayas. And yes, I believe Obama will be more awake and aggressive, Romney will continue to lie and distort, Democrats will come to one conclusion, Republicans an opposite one, and so on. And yes, we will be told from now until the event what it is that Obama and Romney will probably say, and yes, we will hear them say it, and yes, we will then be told what it is they said, probably for several days. It is all part of the mysterious obsession the media has with making sure nothing newsworthy will actually be reported (other than perhaps a car chase somewhere or a house fire or maybe a cat up a tree).

Too bad about Arlen Spector, he was an okay guy, sometimes right, sometimes wrong, but certainly a cut above most of the Senate survivors. And by the way, he did not “Pass on,” “Go to meet his maker,” or be “Called to heaven,” he died.

I think we agree, the past is over.

George W. Bush