Hoth

Beautifully said. It's worth remembering what Ben Franklin said, that "politics is the art of the possible." Many of the northern delegates to the Continental Congresses found slavery revolting, but couldn't have brought the southern states into the revolution if they made emancipation a part of the deal. They needed unanimity to take on the greatest military power in history. Even some southerners recognized the basic hypocrisy of retaining that institution in the new republic. And the system of government they devised, codifying expressly for the first time in written form the rights of the people, was built intentionally to be difficult (but not impossible) to amend so as to prevent the creep of tyrannical power and radicalism. Is our country perfect? Certainly not. Nor is any country or system of government because men are not perfect. But ours is probably the best guarantor of individual liberty we've devised so far.

Happy Independence Day, folks!

Sounds like DIT's idea of Zanadu.

You may have missed out on the storms, but it was one epic sunset.

Hermano! We share a common bond. I sweated and grunted for two hours this morning pushing a beat up old mower with a spark plug in serious need of replacement. Man was it hot.

Yeah it looked impressive from afar.

Nice looking cell up towards RI.

Never at Fishers. heat is rarely bad enough that a fan can't ameliorate it. Do have a dehumidifier, but it can only do so much.

Good. This fog needs to disperse. My whole house is damp.

Hailers.

Man it is pouring with intermittent rumbles. Btw, did anyone in SE CT hear an explosion a few hours ago? Deep concussion rattled my windows and paintings. Maybe a military jet going supersonic?

Downpours thundering off the roof.

I think it was about this time last year that the GFS started printing out like 29C 850s and 110+ surface temps in the mid-range. A fail in that regard, but still an epic heatwave.

Oh how we pray.

What the heck is that icon Ryan used a week from Thursday? I assume that's supposed to be fireworks, but looks more like rimed flakes or perhaps a psychotropic herb.

What a stellar day for all things outdoors. I got out on FI Sound for a few hours this afternoon. The water is brisk, but does not take the breath away like last week. The moorings and IODs are out in West Harbor, American flags are flying high all over the island as the summer crowd trickles in, and stiff cocktails are getting knocked back on many a deck/porch. Gotta love summer.

On an unrelated note, I finally got a chance to go do an informal survey of the FI tornado path. Interesting stuff. That spot where the road turns towards the waterworks took a pretty solid smack.

Agreed. Horrendous few days.

My uncle's mother contracted eastern equine encephalitis and was left a vegetable in days. Rarely contracted by humans but very scary.

Sorry to hear about the Lyme disease. My cousin contracted it years ago, but thankfully it was caught early and he hasn't had any recurring symptoms. The Plum Island facility I believe worked with anthrax and small pox. I doubt Fishers hosted any biological testing, given the large civilian population. The only military facility left out here is an underground bunker that once stored shells and powder during the days of Fort H.G. Wright and was later employed as a sonar monitoring station during the Cold War. And I think that has been abandoned for quite some time as well. Actually can fit the whole island in the event of a major hurricane, nuclear meltdown/attack etc.

Another morning, another downpour.

Tippy might argue Valentine's Day is when they're thirstiest.

Not ideal out on Fishers today. Foggy and cool, everything feels damp. Golf courses are in great shape, however.

Man, I miss Bon Me. Used to hit them up all the time when I was in Boston.

Yup. I think Koepka's gonna do it again. Dude is a beast.