Interesting day.

Washed and waxed Toyota for KM's imminent visit on Friday.

Decided to finally construct couple of Winogradsky Columns. (Best described as "an enclosed self-sustaining microbial system.) Here's what they look like:

Cost was very reasonable: Plaster of Paris ($7.43), Calcium carbonate (garden lime) ($3.78), vases ($6.00).

Also need pond/stream water and mud.

Assembled tools (bucket, shovel, machete for the undergrowth, empty gallon jug, gloves.)

Went across the street to swamp area only to find that it was completely dry. Drove to nearby town where I knew there was a large pond. Parked car at wide bend in the road and hopped road guard fence. Gathered material, then promptly fell into the pond.

So much for white socks. Don't even want to put smelly mud socks into washing machine. Trashed.

Made two columns and set them into kitchen window to grow.

Consoled myself by buying new winter jacket from Duluth Trading. Love their clothes.

Today felt good today. Lots (LOTS) of personal errands taken care of. Things around the house. Even ironed more clothes in preparation of visit by KM from AZ. Looking forward to seeing K again. Bringing a friend who has never been east. Should be fun.

Today must really be my day. Using TV for background and by chance I've come upon Avatar. Possibly the film I've seen most in my life. Cheesy storyline but the portrayal of what other worlds could be like is terrific.

Our politics have become an homage to the WWE. Laughable if it weren't so damn important.

Random thoughts:

Finally finished Sean Carroll's "The Big Picture." Tough sledding but so worth it. First part of the book dealt with the current state of physics; the second half tied the underlying physics of the universe to the rise of human consciousness. Amazing work. Nearly as much philosophy as science. Starting to go through it again to solidify my understanding. Wish my brain was young again.

Ryan Lochte: 

"Before he became known as the ultimate symbol of U.S. arrogance, white privilege and the delusion of American exceptionalism, Ryan Lochte seemed like a relatively harmless dudebro who we all forgave for being a douche because he won swim races and has a very symmetrical face. He even seemed to be in on, and playing along with the joke, as much as he was capable of getting it, cameoing as a sex idioton 30 Rock (“I get to play myself…so, it’s not too much acting that I have to do,” he really, no kidding, actually said); reducing TV anchors to tears of laughter over his general confusion about almost everything; trying to copyright a stupid term he didn’t even invent; and being the good-natured butt of parodic skits put on by his own teammates." (Taken from Huffington Post)

Why we insist on making people like this rich and famous is beyond me. (I put the Kardashians in the same category.) What exactly does he contribute to the betterment of our society? Because he swims fast? Seems to me that his contribution to society is overshadowed  by every single nurse (doctor, teacher, scientist) I've ever met.

Louisiana:

"Louisiana is entering recovery mode after devastating flooding killed 13 people and damaged at least 60,000 homes across 20 parishes.

But as Louisana Gov. John Bel Edwards told CNN, that process is "going to take many months." He added that even though this flooding was "unprecedented and historic," many are "just now realizing how significant it was."

The Red Cross said the Louisiana flooding "is likely the worst natural disaster in the United States since 2012's Superstorm Sandy," and response efforts are "expected to cost at least $30 million." (Taken from CT NPR)

Just the beginning of climate change, folks. Add this to the broiling temperatures around the country this summer, the fires in California, the melting of Alaska and its seems obvious that our country and its population are under increasing dire straits.

Having dinner with another person and thus the opportunity to dive into another being and compare notes on being, common likes and fears, goals, outlooks, experiences, expectations, etc.. gives me hope. Strangely, the energy with which I left the encounter, lead to a contemplation of death.  People with whom I have come to be double-bonded somehow are getting to be of ages that put them on the down hill slope of a life expectancy bell curve.

That got me to thinking of the hereafter. Not that I believe in the heaven that I grew up with. My idea of the hereafter is more akin the wondering what the pattern of energy each human entails results when we die. I'm given to understand from reading that there seems to be a surge of energy at the moment of death in the brain. I've also read that the energy that comprises a person is relatively weak. But then while gravity is "weak," it is also one of the four known forces that permeate our reality. (And not an insignificant at that.)

Tragedy struck home today. The two kittens I was planning to adopt to keep Buddy company in his old age were killed by a car. Two wonderful little life forms snuffed out.

My cat has replaced my wife.

That realization made me face the fact that I was a poor excuse for a human. How could any decent person feel that a cat could replace a beloved wife whose unexpected passing left such a chasmic hole?

It's only coming to me now that the universe has somehow given K back to me. Both in the physical sense as her ashes are in a niche in the room in which I spend  most of my existence and in the not physical indication of her essence being here.

I didn't believe it at first but thinking about that hypothesis made me begin assembling observations to determine whether I was crazy or have stumbled onto something more. That got me to reviewing Buddy's history with me.

I can show (as can others) that Buddy Tiptoe changed the very nature of my immediate environment upon his arrival. This house transformed from a lonely place of despair to one filled with calm. From roiling agitation to Zen-like peace quiet.

Clues:

The way he eats. He is finiky. He's willing to try anything but if he doesn't like it, you might as well throw it away. But he is pretty tolerant for the most part for whatever he gets.

The way he organizes the spaces he inhabits. For the most part, Buddy is always close by. It's gotten to the point where I always have to look down before I move. This is especially true when I'm in the kitchen. If I'm sitting in my chair watching the tube at night, he will use me as a pathway to get from the chair's arm to the TV table to his own chair. On days when I'm sad or depressed he seems to sense it and will often jump into my lap, sit there and look at me. On the other hand, he is also quite independent. He often decides to take a break from me by going upstairs to sleep, and he will later reappear like a crewman materializing on Star Trek.

His eyes. When you look him in the eye he really looks back into yours. His eyes are beautiful to look at but you can never be certain what he's thinking.

He moves smoothly. Unhurried. But he always gets to his destination. When he has a case of the poop crazies, he rockets around here like a supersonic dust mop.

All of these traits comfort me. They surround me like an fluffy blanket. Somehow, K is still here.

It's a most wondrous pain. She still is giving me the will to continue one more day.

I should be here more frequently trying to solidify my thoughts about so many things. Lately, though, a steady diet of news from multiple sources, has me flying in all directions. So many practical things to be done before the bifurcation. I fear the coming elections may be the trigger point. Our whole experience of daily life is in danger of a system collapse/explosion. And as Prigogene points out, there is no way to know what the resulting new system will be. If I believed in prayer, I would hope that most of us don't become just a pile of bones that future scientists and scholars pick through trying to figure out who we were and how we lived. Thousands of distinct civilizations have disappeared. What makes this one so special?

To decompress from the buffeting that comes from being immersed in a straining economic/geographical/racial/age/social standing/intellectual/physical reality, I have been turning to a book I'm reading (struggling through is more like it). It's titled "The Big Picture" by Dr. Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology among other things (author, speaker, awards, memberships, etc.)

Up until Dr. Carroll arrived on the scene, the man who best brought understanding of "the universe out there" to millions of people was Dr. Carl Sagan with his presentation of "Cosmos." It laid out how insignificant we are as physical entities in an astounding universe.

So far, Carroll seems to be the Sagan of our day but with a far heavier task. Where poor Carl Sagan was limited to tying together the realities of the universe, Sean Carroll and his ilk are ferreting out what lies beneath all that stuff. (So far I've been led down a path to where particles like electrons and protons and neutrons are manifestations of fields that are interacting at those points. I think.)

After getting through that stuff (book is as much yellow highlighter as white so far), he is now in the process of linking what lies below our perception of reality to how life itself manifests.

It's stupifying stuff really. Luckily, Dr. Carroll is an excellent explainer. Hard slogging but seems to be worth the effort.

I'm sure there will be more to come.

Meanwhile, I have to worry about the state of our political system, economic system, social system, education system. So many systems to juggle.