Distracted Working

I’ve seen plenty of warnings out there cautioning people not to drive while distracted, but apparently, I missed all the warnings about working while distracted. Yesterday, while finishing the last few details on the metal I installed on the cabin’s lower wall, I learned a valuable lesson about that.

I’m sharing a photograph of my drill. Somehow, I managed to fall out of focus enough to chuck my pencil in my drill instead of the twist bit I needed. The only thing I can say is that at least I was not likely to harm anyone, and an eraser could have fixed any damage done.

My Drill with a Pencil in the Chuck

—Mitchell Hegman

Fault Line

I have posted one of my favorite songs by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (sometimes abbreviated to BRMC), an American rock band from San Francisco, California. The group was founded in 1998 by Peter Hayes (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Robert Levon Been (vocals, bass, guitar), and Nick Jago (drums).

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is considered an alternative rock or garage rock band. They are straightforward and stripped down in most of their songs. Fault Line, the song posted, is simply beautiful in my estimation.

—Mitchell Hegman

Video Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATtXvIpa4gc

A Non-Kinetic Daredevil

I would classify myself as a “non-kinetic” daredevil. I’m not the type to launch my motorcycle off a precipice or try to catch a bullet in my teeth. My daredevil stunts are steeped in the horticultural end of the spectrum. Put plainly, I allow poisonous plants to grow along the edge of my back deck.

In particular, I have allowed a bittersweet nightshade to clamber about and flop down onto the deck itself. For those unfamiliar, tomatoes and peppers are also members of the nightshade family. The bittersweet nightshade is another one of those exotic invaders from Eurasia. As far as thriving, they favor damp locations.

I find the plant quite attractive in all stages of growth, but, sadly, all parts of this plant are highly toxic to humans, dogs, cats, and many other animals. Also, this plant is a scoundrel that will overrun a flower garden if you allow it.

But I wanted to push the outer edge of the envelope, so I let this one run this year. This is what non-kinetic daredevils do.

Nightshade Berries

Nightshade on the Deck

—Mitchell Hegman

A Pithy Reflection

She thinks that taking bubble baths is far more important and productive than watching political conventions. To date, history has not disproven her.

—Mitchell Hegman

The Bottom is Dropping Out

Quietly, and largely without notice, the bottom is dropping out on us as a species. On this one we could learn something from rabbits.

Humans are having fewer children, and in much of the world the birthrate has fallen below the level necessary to replace the existing population. That matters because our economic systems were built on the assumption that there would always be another generation coming along behind us. Retirement systems, pensions, health care, tax bases and much of the ordinary machinery of commerce depend upon a sufficiently large working population supporting a smaller retired population. As the proportion of old people grows and the proportion of working-age people shrinks, the arithmetic gets progressively less friendly.

We can compensate with immigration, automation, increased productivity and people working longer, but none of these changes the basic arithmetic. Fewer people eventually means fewer workers, fewer consumers and fewer people available to do the work. The United Nations projects that the world's population will peak at roughly 10.3 billion in the 2080s and then decline. Rabbits, meanwhile, appear to have avoided the problem entirely. They just keep making more rabbits.

I have posted a very short but powerful video offering one man’s explanation for at least part of the reason this is occurring.

—Mitchell Hegman

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/W32yi5k_Tu8

Stick of Paradise

Living in Montana is not for everybody. This especially applies to a host of exotic plants. Honestly, it’s a narrow range of plants that can survive our long months of winter, replete with arctic impulses and their sub-zero temperatures.

We can lull some of these soft-natured plants into growing here by providing space in places such as our sunroom. But even the sunroom trick fails from time to time. Perhaps our low humidity squeezes them a bit too hard. Or the intense and unrelenting midsummer sun slaps others silly.

Now enter a bird of paradise stage right. The plant kind, I mean. After brief deliberations, Desiree and I had a “bird” shipped here. We immediately unpacked the thing and placed it in the sunroom.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the plant gradually shriveled and died as an upright stick.

We now have a stick of paradise.

A Healthy Bird of Paradise

New Bird (Our Plant Arrives)

Stick of Paradise

—Mitchell Hegman

Possible Outcomes

Listed today is a run of possible outcomes for following your first instinct:

• You invent a new tool for extracting broken bolts.
• You end up flailing in mid-air and seeking a soft landing ten feet below.
• A new nickname is born: Smooth.
• Thirty years later, you remain perfectly happy in marriage.
• You find yourself pacing back and forth in a jail cell.
• At least your smartphone case proves its worth.
• You become briefly famous for something you would rather not have become famous for.
• You accidentally start a chain of events that ends with you owning a three-legged cat.

—Mitchell Hegman