Of Dippers and Decapitations, Plus Guns

 This country's fuse is a short one. In addition to all of the usual alcohol and explosions over the holiday weekend, there was a rash of gun violence. In Chicago alone, 14 people were killed. I just now found a site called Gun Violence Archive, which is a nonprofit that keeps track of all U.S. gun violence. A New York Post article states that at least 150 people were shot to death nationwide this weekend. A least one commentator on the GVA site maintains that our country has a mental health/anger problem, which I totally agree with. Of course, the commentator was approaching the discourse from a "don't take our guns away" angle, which seems a bit at odds with his comment. So, do we just let all of the mentally ill, angry people keep their guns? Sure, the question simplifies a somewhat complex issue, but it does illustrate the problem. Something needs to be done. I would be happy if all guns disappeared tomorrow, but I know that's not going to happen. I'm also fine with responsible gun owners keeping their guns, but the big question is, how do we keep them out of the hands of the mentally ill, angry people? I'm willing to bet that most gun owners would object to regular mental health checkups and anger management courses. This is where I would say tough shit. With great power comes great responsibility and all of that. I would like to see some data about what percentage of people who commit gun violence are so-called "responsible gun owners". 

I didn't start out to write about gun violence, but my stream of thought has many side channels, not to mention eddies. I was actually going to write about the headless baby opossum I found in the driveway earlier. I got home from looking for (and finding) an American Dipper, and found the poor 'possum sprawled headlessly on the concrete. From the look of the neck, it looked like some animal had chewed through it. Jeanine said she'd been out front a mere five minutes before and hadn't noticed it, which is weird. I'm guessing that it was there all along though, since opossums are nocturnal. Who knows though?  It's probably the baby we've been seeing in the backyard lately, although there may be more than one. We'll have to keep an eye out.

Oh, and here's the Dipper. 

Written to the sounds of Doc Wor Mirran feat. Schnitzler "Diaspar Parts 1 to 12"

Summer So Far...

 I went for a hike with Willow and Alex last weekend, choosing the trails at the upper end of Sanborn Park as our destination. We could probably have fried eggs in the sun, and under the canopy it was still warm, but bearably so. Now, Nathan is the only one of the siblings who hasn't come hiking with me during the pandemic. When I started this blog, Alex was 6 and Willow was nearly half a year away from being born. Now, Alex is in his mid-twenties and Willow is 18. Not that I have either constantly or consistently posted updates, but still... (a quick aside, apparently one dates oneself when using an ellipsis properly - a volunteer counselor at camp this week mentioned that it appears ominous when received in a text, like the tension-filled pause before the other shoe drops)

It's always nice to hike with Willow and any of the old stepkids who are available to come along. I might be the least busy of the bunch these days, since I rarely make weekend plans, choosing instead to be free to act on whims, which usually means leaving the house before 8:00 AM and going birding. Oddly enough, I caught a gopher snake while birding yesterday, but only long enough to brush the spider webs from its head (it looked like it had crawled through some dense webbing). I let it go off the trail so nobody would accidentally step on it or run it over. 

Week three of summer camp is behind us. Our iNaturalist project created to document the varied life found on and around our trails is currently at 779 species. I'm currently learning how to differentiate species of Yellowjacket (3 different species so far). At least one camper has created an iNaturalist account after seeing the project. He hasn't observed anything yet though.

The fire season is well underway, with reports of fires throughout the west, although none have hit close to home... yet (see what I did there?). The Pacific Northwest is sweltering under unreasonable heat, and the drought conditions are sure to make the coming months interesting.

Written to the languid strains of Boris "Boris at Last - Feedbacker"