Solstice

 June 21st, the longest day of the year, and that is just an astronomical fact.  Something to do with the tilt f the axis in our yearly orbit.  The ancients noted this day in their observatories (think Stonehenge).

The beginning f summer. Tomorrow, the sunlit portion of the day will be a bit shorter, culminating on December 21s when the cycle starts again.

Today, through a fluke of the calendar is also a Hallmark holiday.  Fathers Day.  It's a holiday that I truly don't care about.  I've never seen the  utility.

Flood

 When I lived on Bayuo Derbonne in southern Natchitoches pariah, I learned about flatland flooding.  Three days of rain and the creeks, sloughs and bayous are full.  Two days later, the water comes down from the hills with no place to go and all the creeks jump their banks.

When I lived on the bayou, it was simple luck that my house never flooded.  The old man who built it knew that floods happen and built the house on a tiny elevation that stayed dry. There were several times when we were flooded in, but the house stayed dry.

That's what is happening in Avoyelles parish right now.  Moreauville, Simmesport, Cottonport are all going under.  The old folks, who knew where the high spots are, built on those high spots.  The younger folks bought a piece of land and built a house may not have noticed that slight elevation and built their house in a place that floods once every ten years.  Worse yet, urban sprawl changes the way that water flows.  New rads, new shopping centers, new parking lots move water in new ways.

I feel empathy for those folks because I have been there.

Bats

 Sitting on the patio at dusk, I noticed a few bats circling over the pool.  I've noticed them the past several nights just after dark.  Someone must have a bat house around here.  Louisiana has several species native to the area and I'm no expert on bat identification.

I mentioned salmon patties earlier.  My standard recipe is one can of pink salmon, one egg, and one sleeve of Ritz crackers, crumbled.  Salt, pepper, garlic powder.  Fry in good oil at 350F until golden brown.  Old NFO says that they always used saltines. Interesting.

It's nice to watch the bats zip around in the early evening.

Rain

 The tail end of Arthur is overhead, and it is raining like a heifer pissing on a flat rock.  This is nt news in semi-tropical Louisiana where rain is a constant threat.  This too will pass and thankfully we have no wind to speak of.  It is supposed to rain, on-and-off for the rest of the day.  The ditches are full.  We sit atop a hill, so flashfloods are not a concern.  Not so for my neighbors who live in the flat river bottom.

Tomorrow is Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating June 19, 1865, when Union troops entered Galveston, TX and posted the Emancipation Proclamation. It is considered by many to be the date where slavery was ended in the United Staes.  Lots of towns and communities have celebrations.  For many across the South, tomorrows celebrations will be damp. Very damp.

But that, as they say, is for tomorrow.  Today we watch it rain.   I'm going to cook some crab cakes and salmon patties for no other reason than Belle loves them.   First, I need to chop and onion and crush some Ritz crackers.

Arthur

 Checking in at 1:00 pm, I see that we now have Tropical Storm Arthur in the northern Gulf and that he is expected to roll across my acre tonight.

Lovely, just friggin lovely.

Wednesday

 That tropical rain event we have been enjoying isn't done yet.  It very nearly became a named storm, but just could not pull itself together.  It is coming onshore and will lose steam soon.  But, the weather weenies tell us that it is going to lose steam as it runs across us one more time.  Oh, Joy1

I'm noticing the outrage from the usual suspects about Trump's refusal to release the text of the peace deal with Iran.  Trump may have good reasons for that, and he has promised to release it as soon as it is signed. I also note with some amusement that these same suspects have probably never read the surrender documents that Grant got when Lee surrendered. I also bet that they have never seen the text of the surrender from Japan.

Today, Belle has asked for a pasta dish with heavy cream. I thin that a stroganoff is the way to go.  If you'll excuse me, I'm off to the grocers.

Deloge

 It's been raining on my acre for over 24 hours.  Rain f varying intensity, from a light drizzle to a huge downpour.  Constant rain.  The diches are flooded, the pool is flooded and the yard is a moras.  Were I not on a hill, we'd be in a bind.

The weather weenies show no relief.  We are in some sort of tropical rain event.  All the tropical moisture of a hurricane without the damaging winds.  It's been a while since I've seen it rain like this. The only up-side is that I'm pretty sure that the burn ban is no longer in effect.  I have to g to the grocers later, so I'm hoping that it slacks off soon.

Jury Duty

 I got a notice for jury duty. On the notice, it told me that I had been selected for criminal jury duty.

Jury duty i the backbone of our judicial system, both criminal and civil.  It is the backbone against governmental overreach. Twelve citizens, unaffiliated with the system, pass judgement on both the defendant and the state.

Yet, as a long tenured veteran of that system I know that they don't want me.  The prosecution would not want me because as a long serving veteran f police work, I know what hanky-panky they are capable of and would apply that knowledge to the state's case.  The defense would not want me due to 37 years of putting bad guys behind bars.

Luckily, Louisiana applies an exemption to all citizens over age 70.  I need not waste my time, nor theirs. they can dispense justice without me. It is one of the vagaries of the jury system that the very citizen that might be capable of an absolute unbiased verdict is also the one that neither side wants on the jury.

My critique of the jury system is much the same as Mark Twain's critique in his book, Roughing It. If you were a criminal defendant, would you trust your freedom to twelve people too stupid to get out of jury duty?

Baseball

 I've loved baseball all my life.  The ballet between a pitcher and a batter, the way the infield covers the bases. The routine plays and the strategy in the game.  I don't follow teams, can't give you stats, I simply love the game.

Tonight, I'm watching clips from The Love Of The Game, a movie released in 1999.

So, the question for y'all.   What is the best baseball movie?