George Santayana, the American philosopher best known for the often-misused observation, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” didn't believe that humans (or any other creatures, for that matter) exist as beings with souls. He viewed consciousness as merely an outgrowth of matter, a chemical trick no more remarkable than acid eating organic matter or a seed germinating.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to
prove him wrong.
—Mitchell Hegman
At present, we have nine large bins of Christmas decorations. When I say we, I mean Desiree. Unfortunately, by Filipina reckoning, this is merely a modest starting point.
We are going to need more Christmas stuff.
A lot more.
You must remember, in the Philippines (and now in
the Hegman domicile), Christmas decorating begins in September. As a point of
reference, our tree has been up for several weeks at this point.
To illustrate where I fit in on all of this, I’m
sharing a very brief video.
—Mitchell Hegman
I have a mystery to report. While down at the lakeshore on a “roadwork” mission, I discovered something peculiar. One of the concrete cap blocks on our fire pit had been removed and was upside down on the ground about a foot away. What mostly struck me was the seemingly orderly nature of the scene. No tracks or signs of disturbance.
Neatly removing a block requires effort. The blocks
lock in place by means of interlocking flanges and channels. Additionally, I
would guess the cap block weighs upwards of ten pounds. But it appeared as
though the block had been carefully lifted out of place and purposefully placed
on the ground nearby.
Crop-circley weird, this stuff.
But I assume aliens in UFOs have bigger fish to
fry. You know, projects like abducting duck hunters so they can probe them
anally and screwing with the power grid. I think we can also rule this out as a
ghost story. I similarly don’t think we can claim we experienced a pinpoint
earthquake. A mouse is not going to hoist one of the blocks and drop it to the
ground.
I’ve got nothing on this one. Without a workable
explanation, I picked up the block and gingerly placed it back where it
belongs.
—Mitchell Hegman
Driving through the ranchlands today, we flung past about twenty cattle in various poses out in a pasture of sun-cured grass…some were standing, some lying down, but all in an orderly row, as if they were the final, crumbling marble remnants of some ancient civilization. And with AI at our front door, how can I be certain they are not exactly that?
—Mitchell Hegman
The quaking aspen tree Desiree and I planted near our hot tub is now down to only 69½ leaves. I counted them myself as I soaked in the tub. If the half-leaf has an interesting story, I’m not privy to it.
I think 69½ is a respectable number for this late
date, but I’m not sure about the rules for counting a half-leaf. Does a leaf
have to be at least 50 percent intact to qualify for a full count? This may
require me to take one more soak and give the issue full consideration.
At this point, I’m not comfortable with dropping
the count to 69.
—Mitchell Hegman
If you walk down to my lakeshore neighbor’s place, you may, as I did, come across a pile of elk legs. I suppose this might register somewhere on a scale that ranges from odd to macabre in some places. But here in elk-hunting-season Montana, it’s close enough to normal not to register much at all.
—Mitchell Hegman
