Some of This and Some of That 

      The state of Texas just passed a law that allows 21 year-olds who are licensed to carry concealed guns in college classrooms. Okay, maybe a little controversial but what surprises me, after having lived in Texas for a number of years, is that this hasn’t been legal all along. I know that carrying a concealed gun in Texas has been legal for a long time, maybe forever, and I just assumed that college classrooms would not be any different. 
     Well, that’s Texas for you. 

     In Florida, a man who was wanted for violation of probation on several counts of battery and for possession of cannabis, used the wanted poster the sheriff’s office had made up to post as his Facebook profile picture. Needless to say, this less than brilliant move lead to his arrest---again.

A New Career? 

    As I mentioned before, Lorraine and I spent some time out on the Oregon coast. While there I had an epiphany, or at least an idea, for a future career. 
    I decided that if given an opportunity, (like reincarnation, or some such), I will become an eye doctor of some sort on the Oregon Coast. Ophthalmologist or Optometrist, I don’t care, as long as I’m helping these folks correct their perceived eyesight deficiencies. 
      Along this coast the air is filled with salt-laden moisture. It leaves a fine film over everything. Any hotel that does not have windshield-washing equipment handy is probably lacking in other essential amenities, like toilet paper and such. 
     Every time I’m out here I come to the conclusion that I’m going blind, and promise myself to make an appointment with my eye specialist to check my cataracts or whatever. Everything seems a little dimmer, a little more hazy, a little less distinct than when back in Central Oregon. 
      When I remember that it is the dried salt film on my lenses, eyeballs, or window that is making this happen I immediately wash the object, and because I’m used to that effort making a difference, I feel that I can see better. This illusion lasts about two minutes. 
      My conclusion is that this must drive the people who live out here year round to distraction, with a lot of them fleeing to their eye specialist to get checked out or a new prescription acquired. Voila! The makings of a very lucrative business.

Whatever Did I Do to Nature to Get This Kind of Treatment? 

     This past weekend Lorraine and I spent a few days out on the Oregon coast. It was as enjoyable as always except for---well, read on. 
     Along this portion of the coast, around Cape Perpetua especially, where the ocean waves meet the very rocky and irregular coastline, there is a lot of splashing of water into the air, (out here they call them spouters, so I’ll do the same), making for very scenic and psyche-traumatizing occurrences. Why would these beautiful spouters be trauma producing you ask? Because, over the years I have sat along this shore by the hour, camera in hand, focused on the last place I saw a spectacular spouter. 
     I wait and wait and wait, then out of the corner of my eye I see a spectacular spouter fifty yards down the coast. I say to myself, “aha,” and point my camera toward this new location. This action is repeated until I have finally come to acknowledge that the waves, rocks, and wind are in league against me. They know full well who I am, what I want, and are determined to limit me to quickly snapped pictures of spouters that are three-quarters spent with most of the spray already blown away. The gusts of wind, which are usually perfectly timed to catch the most spectacular of the spouters, at least if my camera is aimed in its direction, will blow the spray flat away into the next county just before I snap the shutter. 
     The wind, water, and rocks, have this all perfectly timed to make sure I don’t get the picture I want and fully deserve, or so I believe. Like I said, it is traumatizing to my psyche.