7/5/23

 Wednesday, July 5, 2023

In bed at 10, up at 5:14 after an unrestful night, 4 or 5 pss, aching back, plumbing discomfort, roaring tinnitus.  70℉, high of 84℉, mostly sunny, AQI=74, Moderate, wind SW at 6 mph, 3-10/17.  We may get .5 in. of rain this afternoon.  Sunrise at 5:18, sunset at 8:34, 15+16.

Our Town.  I watched portions of this 1940 classic yesterday, mainly to watch again the scene in which Emily comes back to life after giving birth to her second child and dying.  She is distressed to see how everyone in her family largely ignores the others and is unappreciative of the beauty and the wonderfulness of everyday, ordinary life.  "Oh Earth, you are too wonderful for anyone to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they are living it?"  She returns to the grave rather than continue to watch.

Gather ye rosebuds, while ye may / Old time is still a-flying,

And this same flower that smiles today / Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun  / The high he's a getting,

The sooner will his race be run / And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first / When youth and blood are warmer

Being spent, the worse, and worst  / Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time / and while ye may, go marry

For having but once lost your prime / You may forever tarry.

Robert Herrick, 1591 - 1674, To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time

From The All-Volunteer Force is in Crisis, July 3, 2023, The Atlantic by Jason Dempsey and Gil Barndollar:

- "As it turns 50 this week, the all-volunteer force appears unsustainable. It is threatened on three fronts: cost, capacity, and continued ability to find enough Americans willing and able to serve."

- "A worsening recruiting environment has led to enlistment bonuses of up to $50,000, and retention bonuses as much as 10 times that amount for pilots and other crucial personnel. And this is all without mentioning the Department of Veterans Affairs, whose budget is approaching half the size of the Defense Department’s."

- "Because of its cost, the AVF is too small to handle a major war or emergency. When faced with two medium-size campaigns, in Iraq and Afghanistan, the AVF was seriously challenged to provide sufficient troops, despite constant mobilization of reservists, the enlistment of local allies, and the deployment of copious contractors. A major conflict would break the AVF—an open secret in defense circles, but something that few in Washington want to discuss. Over the past year of fighting, Russia and Ukraine have both taken casualties equal to at least half the active-duty U.S. Army. (U.S. military doctrine says that a force is destroyed after sustaining 30 percent casualties)."

- "The stark fact is that most young Americans can’t currently serve and even fewer want to. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, just 23 percent of Americans ages 17–24 are eligible to enlist without a waiver. Obesity, medical and mental-health issues, or a history of substance abuse prevent most of their peers from being able to serve. The switch to a new military health-records system, MHS Genesis, is also making recruiting tougher by revealing the actual mental and physical health of recruits, after decades of half-truths and fudged standards. The overall propensity to serve is even worse than the eligibility. Most of those who are eligible to enlist are currently enrolled in college. Just 9 percent of young Americans would seriously consider military service, near the all-time low since the AVF began."

- "The AVF’s problems should give pause to any politicians or policymakers who are somehow still sanguine about America’s ability to win wars. In any major conflict, the military will have to dramatically expand and adapt in ways the AVF cannot manage. America has not even begun to have a conversation about what comes next."

Milwaukee Dystopia.  Last night: "A 15-year-old boy died after a shooting on Milwaukee’s east side about an hour after the city’s lakefront fireworks show concluded.   The Milwaukee Police Department said the shooting took place about 11 p.m. Monday on the 2000 block of E. North Ave. [Prospect Avenue] The boy, identified as Willie Moore by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office on Tuesday, died at the scene.  Police are investigating the circumstances leading up to the shooting, however, they said it was likely the result of an argument.  Moore is the 11th juvenile to die by homicide so far this year in Milwaukee, according to a Journal Sentinel database.  It continues a trend of more juveniles caught in the city’s gun violence. From 2016 to 2019, no more than 10 children died by homicide in Milwaukee, but 20 or more have been killed in each of the three years since then, according to police and the city's Homicide Review Commission.  Twenty-seven juvenile homicide victims were reported in 2022, according to police."

Patio time.  I sat outside for 20 minutes or so in my old, white, blue-striped nightshirt,, listening to the birds that  I could hear, with Merlin informing me of the presence of those I couldn't hear or couldn't identify, including cedar waxwings.  The white noise from the freeway was a bit louder and steadier than yesterday's, and I heard the insistent backup beeping of a delivery or construction truck.   A young squirrel slowly moved through the grass looking for vittles and two chipmunks scurried across the grass.  Only one chickadee visited the platform feeder which I restocked the other day.  I noticed how the early morning sunlight hits the trees and ferns on their north sides.  The sun rises at 57 degrees ENE now, a little south of its summer solstice position of 56 degrees.  By the time the winter solstice arrives, the sunrise will be at 117 degrees ESE, way south and rising only 24 degrees above the horizon, compared to today's 70-degree altitude.  I won't likely be sitting on the patio.  It's Wednesday so the lawn service guys will be here around 7:30 for our lawn, as well as the McGregor's, the Pandl's, and the Blutstien's successors.

Welcome Rain.  I woke up from a midday nap to the sound of thunder in the sky and rain on our roof.  A real downpour at last.  It is such good news for our distressed trees and other growing plants after such a long dry early summer.  I'm hoping this will save some crops in the thousands of acres of farm fields all around us.  It is also announcing the arrival of a cold front pushing out the very warm, humid days we have been having ovr the holiday weekend.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary …

And Emily Dickinson:

A Drop fell on the Apple Tree -

Another - on the Roof -

A Half a Dozen kissed the Eaves -

And made the Gables laugh.

A Few went out to help the Brook

That went to help the Sea -

Myself conjectured were they Pearls -

What Necklaces could be.. . .