Mood: smoketeased
Saturday padded in on floof feet, bringing clouds. Not so chilly this morning, it’s already 73 but will climb to only 95 F today. That’s 10 degrees less than I saw at my house yesterday.
Quiet outside, the main news comes from the avian Karens known as scrubjays. They get involved in everything, flying around making loud announcements about what people and other birds and animals are doing. A small aircraft putters by hundreds of feet overhead, its putter a steady sound that gains volume and then falls into a distant hum.
Air quality is okay on Siskiyou Blvd., about a hundred yards down the hill from us, but quickly deteriorates into mid-triple digits as you travel up the mountain flanks. A burnt wood smell hangs in the air, leftovers from some fires, somewhere.
We did two jigsaw puzzles in August. A three-hundred-piece puzzle was done on the first night of vacation. Another was started there, and then transported home, where we finished it. We started a third one last week and finished it last night. This was another Wysocki puzzle, produced by Buffalo, one thousand pieces.
The Neurons have plugged “Notorious” by Duran Duran into the morning mental music stream (Trademark seedy). Don Old Trump’s latest round of speeches and proclamations set off the 1986 song in my head. Trump is just notorious for saying notorious crap.
At one of his rallies, Trump claimed he didn’t want more votes if they were from people who didn’t vote for him before.
“Donald Trump apparently doesn’t care whether or not he wins in November anymore.
At a Fox News town hall on Thursday, the Republican presidential nominee revealed that his 2024 campaign strategy excludes anyone who he doesn’t believe supported him in the last election cycles.
“One person who didn’t support me—he said, ‘I must admit I had the most successful four years of my life but I’m gonna vote for some—’ and now that person came back to me. I don’t want that person,” Trump said to muffled applause. “I don’t want that person.
“You know, they say you should take everybody, but that’s not the way I’m built. It’s one of those little problems,” he added.
All of this is probably depressing to those people who want him to talk about policies and be a serious politician. But he’s just too weird.
He said those things at a town hall meeting on Thursday. But on Wednesday, the day before in Pennsylvania, he was pleading for votes.
“Even if you don’t like me, you can sit there and say, ‘I can’t stand that guy, but there’s no way I’m gonna vote for her.’”
He also apparently forgot on Wednesday where he was, alluding to New Hampshire instead of Pennsylvania, and who he was running against.
“I can’t imagine New Hampshire voting for him. Anyone in New Hampshire who votes for Biden or Kamala…” he told the crowd.
Trump has become notorious for mental gaffes in 2024 as well as ducking responsibility and claiming he’s never said anything, or that he’s responsible for things. He’s claimed that he knew nothing about the photo at Arlington National Cemetery. He also claimed that Vice President Harris made it up. His campaign claimed there wasn’t a physical altercation with anyone as described.
Meanwhile, a Trump spokesperson wrote, “For a despicable individual to physically prevent President Trump’s team from accompanying him to this solemn event is a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery,” he said in a written statement, misspelling the word hallowed. “Whoever this individual is, spreading these lies are dishonoring the men and women of our armed forces.”
The person they’re referring to is the U.S. Army employee who works at Arlington National Cemetery.
That’s Trump and his campaign. Notorious for word salads, lies, and contradictions. Notorious for lacking principles or honor. Notorious for blaming others. Notorious for being a hot mess.
Stay positive, be strong, and vote blue in 2024. Here’s the music video. The smoke pollution is worsening. Gotta go close the windows and turn on the air purifier. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 
Re: puzzles. We have talked about (but not put into practice) the idea of working on a jigsaw puzzle now and again and I wondered why you choose the Buffalo/Wysocki puzzles over others? (Of course, we most definitely will not be starting with 1000 pieces!!)
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Hey Nan, I hope you pursue them. We find them a lot of fun.
I like Wysocki’s art style in these puzzles. The first I did of his was about cats (and a mouse) among books on a shelf. I just found it entertaining. Later, I found Wysocki puzzles basically showing life in America during a simpler age. Farmer markets, kite flying, small towns, boating, beach scenes. His style is simplistic and linear, which, in puzzle terms, makes it ‘easy’ while still presenting a useful challenge. Buffalo’s pieces are well-shaped IMO. You can tell when the pieces belong together. They lock together and stay together. There are a variety of jigsaw piece shapes and attitudes out there, and I dislike loose-fitting pieces or ambiguous pieces.
I’m not a puzzle expert but this is what I’ve learned. While Edward Gorey puzzles are artistically interesting, they are daunting and exasperating. Ravensburger is another puzzle company which I enjoy. Their scenes are enticing but complicated and need a more considered approach.
Finally, my puzzle philosophy is to find a puzzle with a couple of good focal points, something which grabs the eye. Finish a focal point and build out from it, or them. Wysocki scenes typically provide several engaging focal points.
One more note, we check puzzles out from the local library or sometimes buy them at Good Will stores. Wysocki puzzles are plentiful at those places.
Happy puzzling. Cheers, M
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Thank you much for the feedback! AND the tip!
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