Fire

 

Remember the old line, "It's so hot the air might ignite, like a thermobaric munition"? Maybe you think that's hyperbole, think again punters. 

A friend's place caught fire yesterday afternoon while they were baling and it stopped, thank God, within 100 yards of their barn and house. In the meanwhile, some 300 acres burned; all it takes is a spark and massive failure to pay the Weather Tax. So be careful out there kids. 

On topic, learned people from the UK keep sending me Lit suggestions, books to read, and that's a very fine thing except for the fact it's hard to read here as paper tends to ignite.

Cheers,

LSP

Look What Happens

 

You take a short break from mind blogging and lo and behold, war nearly breaks out in Serbia/Kosovo, Azerbeijan/Armenia, Taiwan and, in fact, does on the Gaza Strip. Huh, let that be a warning. 

nice cope, rubbish collar

In other news, something called the "Lambeth Conference" is going on in Canterbury, in which the Anglican Communion reaffirms its commitment to heterosexual marriage but equally affirms its gay provinces which don't. The phrase "utterly useless apostate mountebanks" springs to mind.

Grads

More happily, a young soldier's in the house on a weekend pass. This seems to mean playing FPS (First Person Shooter) games with a Death Metal pal in Calgary on the internet, at great volume. Most annoying, but so much better than other alternatives, let the reader understand. And in fairness, the kid gets up at 0500, runs around and does the soldier thing, which is good.

get outta there

He's good at it too, in a rambunctious, fast charging 22 year old kind of way, and's set to become a Team Leader next month. Well done, kid. He deploys to Africa in April '23 for a year, which I think's a good thing. He'll be working with some interesting people.

random Dubonnet Cat marketing

But that's in the future. Here and now, being in the great state of Texas isn't dissimilar to living in a preheating oven. Character building, what? Blessings on this Feast of the Transfiguration.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

A Bit Chilly

 

Here we are in Texas and it's a bit chilly, with temps pushing 110*. Brrrr. So what do you do? Go out on a recce and notice the streets are empty, yes, the road is your own. And what a road, lying there under an unrelenting sun.

March or die, I thought, putting one foot in front of the other. Do. Not. Give. Up. Ever. Back at the Compound, which has air, I reflected on this wisdom. Whoever said life'd be easy? I recall no such promise.

In related news, UK airports are shutting down because planes are getting stuck in melting asphalt, think tar babies. Thanks a lot, GRU.

Cheers,

LSP

HOT NOT HOT

 

Hot

This important mind post is an exercise in juxtaposition, of binary opposites if you will. On the one hand we have Texas, searing under the heat of an incandescent sun. Yes indeed, hot. Then, on the other hand, we have something else.

Not Hot

You may disagree, feel free, there's no "rule." But I'd say not hot. In related news, have you noticed Baphomet's trans? Seriously, the demon Baphomet is a blasphemous mixture of man and woman, with the head of a goat.

You'll note, vast international readership, that people tend to resemble the gods they worship. There's a warning in that, choose wisely my friends. 

Out Demons Out,

LSP

Fishing Aquila Dam Spillway

A dirt road under an already fiercely hot Texan sky, and this is only mid May, a foretaste of the blast furnace to come. The heat and light bring an intensity, throwing everything into high relief. Not dissimilar, when you think of it, to one of those annoying filters on your cell phone camera, Satanbook or Instagram.

Well, this art blog's banned from Instagram and Satanbook, but not from the Aquila dam spillway and there it was, ready for action. I say action, I've never dialed this spot in to any great extent, but figured it'd make a change from Lake Whitney. So off I went in search of Catfish, Gar and anything else that came along in the midday heat.

Thanks to the pythonic wisdom of our latter day Delphi, Youtube, I came armed with frozen shad, worms, tiny baitholder hooks and small circle hooks. Idea being that you cast for catfish with the small circles, weightless and baited with worms, and send out shad fixed to a perch hook tied to a bobber for Gar.

Gar philosophy's interesting, at least to me, because they're an incredible game fish and well worth the sport - minutes, it seems like hours, of subterfuge, patience, false starts, new beginnings,  and then BAM, set the hook and off you go. A thrashing, jumping, prehistoric monster's on your line and it's game on. Tiny hooks seem one way to go, as they'll pass unnoticed by the fish who gleefully swallows your shad, allowing you to go for a hookset in the corner of Gar's mouth when it goes for its second run.

OK, fine, but before all of this excellence, the fish has to actually go for the bait. Normally this isn't an issue, Gar are notoriously ready biters, but not today at Aquila spillway. I had a few bites and a coupe of halfhearted runs, but the fish dropped the shad in boredom and disgust before I could even think of closing the deal. Huh. I put it it down to heavy fishing pressure, and maybe the rig needs rethinking.

A few bites on the worms though, with a small catfish coming ashore and a larger one who slipped the hook at the bank, annoyingly. Still, good fight. Should I have hooked the small cat with a big circle hook and used it as live bait for Leviathan Cats? Certainly thought about it, but the little fella went back to fight again another day.

So there you have it. A good day out in the sun and a fair amount of action, if little catching. Did the fish win this this round? Yes, they did, but watch out underwater adversaries, this isn't over, not by a long chalk.

Moral? Don't sit at home, staring blank-faced at a screen when you can get outdoors and fish. In other news, all the commies are mad because our President's taking hydroxy and zinc and isn't sick.

Fish on, or not,

LSP

Just Driving Around In An Oven

"How's it goin' Padre?"

"A bit chilly, what?"

Meaning it's 105* in the shade and Devil take the hindmost. Undaunted by an I'm in a preheating oven kind of feeling, I climbed into the rig and drove to the Pick 'n Steal. Old habits die hard and there, predictably, was First Baptist shining in the sun.

I always wonder if being First translates to Best. Do the First Families of the town go to the  first baptist church in the town? Perhaps they do, though once they would've been Episcopalien. Well, we messed that up.

Whatever, unfold the frame and scoot across the melting asphalt to the Shamrock and the best filling station coffee in town. I tell you, the shop's AC's a welcome relief. How did Texans get by without air conditioning?

Well, they mostly didn't because no one wanted to move here before it happened. Note, Dallas and the associated metrosprawl have only ballooned out of proportion subsequently. Which brings us to shooting.

A few years ago I'd think nothing of getting out in the heat and blasting away for a day in the August sun. 105*? Whatever, pass the ACP and all the rest. Now? Not so much. 

Mind you, I don't have much choice coz the leg's busted. How's that going to work out for September 1 and dove? Set up on a tailgate with a couple of Mojos out front and a 20? 

This, as with so much in life, remains to be seen. In the meanwhile, try not to melt.

God bless,

LSP

Texas Heat

Look here, you lot. Thanks to our old enemy, the Weather, it's like an oven outside which makes it too hot to think. So here's a few infographics to aid the thought process.

The Left loves Islam, even though Islam wants to chop 

their heads off.

Anthony Bourdain was a leftist but was he about to go MAGA and cross the Clintons? Good question. Now he's dead.

Madonna's not dead and hasn't crossed the Clintons. Some say she's getting ready to run on an Alec Baldwin ticket for Dem VP. Don't say Illuminati Witch.

Try not to melt,

LSP

The Cooling Hand Of God

Keen-eyed readers of this family oriented mind blog will know that Russian agents masquerading as climate activists hacked the Compound's HVAC, just when the Weather climbed to triple digit intensity. Disaster? Yes.

Getting Hot at The Compound

"LSP, if that's your real name, which I'm beginning to doubt," stated one expiring art philosopher, "Sort. It. Out." Fully aware of the gravity of the situation, I got on the 'phone to a church elder.

"The AC's down and the mission's looking shaky."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Pray, pray hard that the unit returns to life."

"I'm on it."

Blue HVAC

Within 30 minutes the prayer was answered, malware removed and cool, refreshing air circulating through the house. Thank God.

A Typical Buenos Aires Club Scene

In other religious news, evidence has emerged that Pope Francis worked as a Buenos Aires bouncer. Whether Archbishop Justsin Welby, leader of the Worldwide Anglican Non Communion (WANC) was "on the list" is presently undetermined.

Stay tuned,

LSP

The Sun Sets

As the sun was setting on Brussels and Bob Geldof's New World Order, I looked out across the Big Pond, hoping for a Leviathan Bass. I hoped in vain. Like the people of Sunderland, Tyneside and Basildon, the fish weren't fooled by the empty promise of the enticing lure. They saw through it and decided against the worm.

Except for one fish, who took the bait and started travelling with it. I gazed down at the water in astonishment, gave the line a gentle tug, and the fish swam off. "So you figured the fish was going to set the hook all by itself?" asked GWB. "Er, yeah," I replied, "Sometimes they do that." 

A Typical Millionaire Socialist

My intuition says that GWB wasn't too impressed with this small gem of angling wisdom, but whatever the case, he went on to catch a fish on his fly rod. Well done.

GWB's Fish

Then night fell and it was time to leave the pond and head back to the Compound. Whether Texas will "Texit" and part company with America's ruling DC overlords, is presently unclear. That the Bass are trying to escape the searing summer heat by moving to deeper waters is more certain. 

I've resolved to get in a boat and go after them.

Fish on,

LSP

Thank Christ For The Bomb

70 years ago today we unleashed nuclear heck on Japan, after that the Rising Sun didn't look so bright.

Call me an eccentric man, but maybe it's a good thing we got there first, as opposed to the Fuhrer, or Stalin, or the Emperor himself.

Some compare Texas in August to an oven. For goodness sake, it's only heat.

Riding tomorrow.

LSP