Cartoon of the Day...

Essence of Cat, Part II...

Via my mom, who implores us not to miss the fish:

Lumber Car...

An email is circulating these days:

My friends, I give you . .
THE DUMBEST GUY ON EARTH!?

This picture is real and was taken by a Transportation Supervisor for a company that delivers building materials for 84 Lumber. When he saw it in the parking lot of IHOP,
he went to buy a camera to take pictures.

The car is still running, as can be witnessed by the exhaust.

The driver finally came back after the police were called, and was found crouched behind the rear of the car, attempting to cut the twine around the load! Luckily, the police stopped him and had the load removed.

The materials were loaded at Home Depot. Their store manager said they made the customer sign a waiver.

While the plywood and 2X4s are fairly obvious, what you can't see is the back seat, which contains -- are you ready for this? -- 10 bags of concrete @ 80 lbs. each!

They estimated the load weight at 3000 lbs. Both back tires exploded, the wheels bent and the rear shocks were driven through the floorboard. And to top it off, He had an Obama/ Biden bumper sticker.

And these people VOTE & REPRODUCE!

The materials were probably for a "shovel ready project."

As is very common with such things, this is very misleading. The photo was actually taken in 2000, long before Barack Obama was running for president – no Obama/Biden bumper stickers.  However, the actual event is true, and Snopes has done their usual great job getting at the truth.

I am mystified by what motivates people to fabricate things like this.  It would be more understandable if there were a shortage of real reasons to detest Obama – but of course there is no such shortage.  Rather the opposite.  I sure wish these folks would put the same energy into publicizing the real reasons!

Synchronized Swimming as You've Never Seen It Before...

Via my mom:

People Are Awesome...

Curiosity: Video of Its Heat Shield Impacting Mars...

For some reason, I can't make the embedded video work.  Here's a low resolution (fast) video, and here's an HD version...

Special Operations for America...

More on Special Operations for America, the new Super PAC founded by ex-SEAL Ryan Zinke.  It's going to be an interesting election season...

It Wasn't in the Forecast...

...but we got it anyway.  Rain.  Six tenths of an inch of lovely, wet rain.  The soil around our house is now wet down to 4 or 5 inches, the mosses have all turned green, the summer's obscuring dust has all been washed off the chaparral.  For the past couple of days, especially right after a shower, it's actually been muggy outside – something rarely felt out here in the high desert.

Three times yesterday we had storm cells move from east to west right over us.  In addition to a downpour, each of them brought lightning and thunder as well (though mostly this happened before the storm actually reached us).

Of course, not only does this rain leave our chaparral clean and green – it also leaves it damp, and that means a greatly reduced fire danger.  How long this protection lasts is very dependent on the future weather, but probably at least a few weeks.  I'll take whatever damper I can get on the fire danger...