Haywood Heroes

The Borrowed Band singing a Haggard tune. The big flag is hanging off a fire pike run through the ladder of Waynesville Tower 1. 


It is a free concert, but they’re selling stuff to benefit the local fire/rescue service. I bought this silicone pint mug.

Several fire-themed businesses are supporting the event.

It turned into a pretty afternoon for the event, November notwithstanding. There are a bunch of benefit concerts around this Saturday. I came to this one, but several other ones sounded good as well. 

My November Guest

A poem by Robert Frost.  
My sorrow, when she’s here with me, 
     Thinks these dark days of autumn rain 
Are beautiful as days can be; 
She loves the bare, the withered tree; 
     She walks the sodden pasture lane. 

Her pleasure will not let me stay. 
     She talks and I am fain to list: 
She’s glad the birds are gone away, 
She’s glad her simple worsted grey 
     Is silver now with clinging mist. 

The desolate, deserted trees, 
     The faded earth, the heavy sky, 
The beauties she so truly sees, 
She thinks I have no eye for these, 
     And vexes me for reason why. 

Not yesterday I learned to know 
     The love of bare November days 
Before the coming of the snow, 
But it were vain to tell her so, 
     And they are better for her praise.

Cold November Rain

Two rock ballads, unusual fare for the Hall, both employing grey November skies and rains to talk about death. The first one was about a woman who killed herself because she contracted HIV, which these days is treatable and may soon be preventable. In her day it was a death sentence. AVI was just talking about that. She was a real woman; her rage at God and suicide both are terrible to remark on these feast days pointed at the dead. 


The second one, also from the early 90s, is a power ballad by Guns & Roses with a murky plot in which a young woman marries, dies, and is mourned over the course of a lengthy guitar piece.


It is chilly today, and grey, and rainy. November came in true to form. 

The Feast of All Saints

The first of November has been the date for this feast since Pope Gregory III, though the feast itself is older than that. The National World War I Museum notes the significance of both this feast day and tomorrow's, the Feast of All Souls, especially in those areas of Europe where that war was fought. Ironically the armistice ending that war did not come until the 11th of November, which here is now Veteran's Day; those wishing to honor the departed had to wait a little longer to enjoy the safety and peace that would enable them to build monuments to the dead.

Holding Breath

The stock market is way up, but hiring is way down. One supposes that is because investors believe things are going to get better, but they're waiting to be sure of it before taking on the significant costs entailed by hiring employees.

Richard Fernandez helpfully recasts the current moment in mythic terms.
They say there are only two kinds of stories: ones that begin with a man leaving on a journey and ones that start with a stranger riding into town. But there is a third type: one about a man who goes on a journey and returns four years later with a bunch of formidable-looking strangers.

In that genre, the townsfolk know the significance of these arrivals and understand the meaning of the sudden burst of activity down at the Hall, the heightened vigilance, the preparations for defense. They cast anxious glances at the calendar, reckoning the time 'til Nov. 5, when they expect things to come to a head. Instinctively they gather into groups, the loners staring out of windows, wondering....

The people of the town doubted that the newly arrived strangers fully comprehended the power of the Hall and understood its monstrous strength and resilience. Could they know that it could be razed to the ground yet recover the instant they left? Did they suspect that many a man who believed himself the site’s new master would awake at night to find themselves covered with vines sprung overnight from the ground and borne whence they were never seen again? November 5 would be their doom.

But that is the appeal of stories involving men who leave on journeys and return as strangers with mysterious companions. They have been somewhere and perhaps returned with knowledge that the townsfolk and maybe even people in the Hall do not know. Or else why would they have returned?

Much of what he says in the full piece explains why it's almost impossible to believe that the system will accept a defeat; all of its powers will be used in the interest of self-preservation. It is vast, it is rich, it is powerful, and it has deep roots among power structures themselves old. These include the governments of most of the major cities, where voting has been corrupt at least since Tammany Hall, and probably since voting started.

The power structure's only weakness is that part of its self-preservation entails maintaining the illusion among its supporters that it has been freely chosen. That illusion remains in effect. The Washington Post this week did a survey of supporters from both sides, and finds that it is the Democrats who would be troubled more if they lost, but also the Democrats who believe the result will be fair. 

Trump supporters don't expect the election to be fair, so they won't be as surprised -- or as hurt -- if the result allows their opponents to remain in power. They'll know they've been cheated, not rejected. Because the illusion of consent has been retained among the supporters of the power structure, losing would create a psychic effect of rejection of their model by America itself.

The system could defend itself more powerfully by discarding the illusion, and like Egypt just openly stating that only certain candidates will be allowed to win. That would do away with the challenge, but also a major source of the system's power -- somewhat like destroying the Ring unmade Sauron and his challenge to the freedom of the age, but also destroyed the work of the Three and the ability of the world to sustain magical things like elves. The system seems to think of its challenger as being Sauron-like in evil, given their choices of analogies for him. Will they destroy the Ring to stop him? The loss of this illusion would protect the powerful, but they would retain only a shadow of their power, only what they could hold onto by naked force and coercion.

Can the system be defeated? Is the need to retain the illusion strong enough to limit the amount of cheating to an amount that can be overcome? We will find out in a week or so.

Do bots program her teleprompter?

It's bad enough that she doesn't seem to have a thought in her head, but what about her puppetmasters? "Let's move forward and find out where we are" ranks with "we have to pass the bill to find out what's in it." Sensing that she might be losing the crowd, Harris reverted to her reliable applause line, "You know, like abortion!"

Look Thy Last Upon October

Always my favorite month, October this year was beautiful and exciting. I’m grateful to have lived through it. 

All-Hallows Eve pumpkin, carved by my wife.

My mother’s little dog, Tubby.

UPDATE: 
The pumpkin seizes control of a fire truck.

Newspaper of Record

Headline: “Biden Calls On Deplorable Garbage Nazis To Tone Down The Rhetoric."

That ship has sailed, I believe. 

More on Communication in an Emergency

A couple of weeks ago I posted my thoughts about various means of communication in an emergency. Before that, I had posted about Thomas Witherspoon, a ham radio operator in Swannanoa, NC, whose mountain community was caught in Hurricane Helene.

Witherspoon has a new post up where he discusses his own community's plan to prepare for communication in future emergencies. He discusses some options I did not, including Meshtastic and PLMRS, and explains why his community settled on GMRS. He explains it all better than I can, so check it out over there if you're interested.

He has also continued posting on the recovery there and has one link that will take you to all of his recovery posts.

In the comments in my original post, Janet (who knows a lot more about this than I do) said in the next few years our normal cell phones will be capable of satellite communication, so all of this will be easier when that rolls out. Until then, I still think satellite communications are best if you can afford it, and GMRS is probably the best cheap radio option when the cell phones are down, unless you want to study for and take the ham test, and maybe even then depending on where you live. For comparison, the Garmin InReach is about $400 with a $15 / month subscription. Residential Starlink is $349 for the equipment and $120 / month subscription. GMRS handheld radios start at $15-20 each and require a $35 license (but do not require a test) renewable every 10 years.

If you want to look for GMRS repeaters to see what's around you, you can go to https://mygmrs.com/.

If you want to look for ham radio repeaters, check out https://repeaterbook.com/.

All of that said, the ham radio technician license is pretty easy. If you are at all interested, it's worth getting the license and trying it out. If you would like recommendations about how to study for it or have questions about it, feel free to ask in the comments.

Outlawed Tunes on Outlawed Pipes

I’m happy with my birthday present. Today I mounted Cobra pipes on it. 

These pipes are illegal except for racetrack use in California, but here in the mountains of Western North Carolina the opinions of California legislators are a source of great humor. 


A Brutal Ad

This ad is oddly framed, because it's mostly a return to Tulsi Gabbard's initial criticism of Harris: that she was evil as proven by her actions as a prosecutor. That's what most of the ad is about, and most of the voices you hear are female: her own, or those of a woman whose life she ruined or a daughter of a mother whose life she ruined. 

Why, then, does the ad begin and end framed as a masculine complaint against Harris? It's a three minute ad, but only the first 15 seconds and the last seventeen seconds are about the frame. Discarding the frame entirely, the ad remains devastating and compelling -- in her own words she tells you what her intentions are, and her victims spell out what it meant to them that she behaved as a prosecutor exactly the way she says she did. 

"As men and protectors of women and children," it closes, "you are simply a risk we are not willing to take." 

Sisters

The work continues.
When Father Richard Sutter, a former U.S. Army Airborne Ranger Infantry Officer, summoned a handful of his strong-backed St. Gabriel Catholic Church parishioners for what he called a recon mission to Swannanoa, North Carolina, a community devastated by Hurricane Helene, we did not hesitate.

Once there, we were surprised to learn that the earlier-arriving boots on the ground were not boots at all, but sandals, and small ones at that. Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity were already at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, our designated rally point, by the time we gents had arrived in town.

I was aware of the Missionaries of Charity and their service to the poorest of the poor. But I’d never seen them in action, and certainly never expected to do so two hours from my home. The strength of the hurricane notwithstanding, theirs was a masterclass display of the most powerful force in the universe: love.

The author doesn’t intend this as a comment on gender or gender roles, but it’s interesting to see that come out in a natural way. The important thing, though, is the work of helping people.

UPDATE: A video from the NC DOT showing work they're doing to 'put the river back so we'll have a place to rebuild the road.'