Day: July 4, 2016

Your record-breaking winner in the Men’s division today (41’26”)

The Women approach the base of the Mountain. Determined young lady (35 yrs old) in the middle won, and by quite a lot.

Another summer passing at the speed of Fun.

On the second to last day of their vacation the men and I flew a kite. One of those acrobatic models shaped like a Bat with two string pulls instead of one. It was not a day to earn one’s learner permit. The wind at the park (Kincaid) was gusting at >40 mph. It was like trying to control a Pterodactyl with dental floss

The instructions with the kite listed many cautions, among them “…misuse may result serious injury, even death.” We all had a hearty laugh at that one. “It’s a bloody kite for goodness sake. Death? Hey, we better call a personal injury attorney right now! Backslapping…Ha ha ha.”

And then it was in the air moving left, right, up and down so fast you could hardly follow it with your eyes. Then BLAM!, out of control it would slam into the ground. Let me tell you, if you happened to be on that patch of ground you’d have a plastic kite stay fused with your spine. Morals of the Day: 1) Stay well outside the radius of the kite and its flier, and 2) Not all product warnings are CYA!

…

A quiet evening on Resurrection Bay, here at our Nest for the holiday weekend. We’ll watch the mountain race on Monday and not do too much else. Except: A couple we met on the Denali bike ride in May are staying at a camp site down the road so we invited them to dinner tonight. Another couple we know in Anchorage said they might drive down, but weren’t sure given the wife’s slow recovery from a nasty fall on her mountain bike. Yesterday two girls who work at Happy Wife’s office stopped by, one with her boyfriend, Sam. We shared some wine and cheese and then walked the beach together with the Dog. Happy Wife’s boss’s son is running the race tomorrow, so they may stay the night in our cozy “Bear Cub” cabin on the back of the property.

More going on than I thought.

I like the 4th. It’s an noncontroversial holiday. Used to be anyway. Though it’s not hard these days to find people expressing contempt for the country. Sure enough if I were King I’d make some changes too, but so long as I’m not and Shangri-La isn’t an option America is a good place to live and work. Notwithstanding my waning sense of nationalism the longer I live in Alaska.

I don’t entirely dismiss the concern of certain conservatives that America has surrendered its leadership role in the world. My opinion, though, is that the mantle of leadership too easily segues to adventures in Nation Building, or the guise of Jingoism. My foreign policy, were I the King, would unashamedly lean toward Isolationism. I might authorize the use of force here and there around the world, but it’d be a really tough sell with me. I’m unpersuaded by the evidence that dropping bombs from drones on bad guys in Yemen (or wherever) is a direct cause of the preservation of liberty in America. Plus, on the evidence, it can be damn hard to get out of these messes once you’ve committed yourself (and far too easy to scale up). I think it was Colin Powell who cautioned GW Bush, “Careful, if you start this thing (War in Iraq), you’ll own it.” And look what happened.

And yet, if you ask me, it’s a mistake in the other direction to allow criticism of one’s country to morph into contempt for it. For all its warts and ills America is — still is — one of the greatest countries to call home. So Happy Birthday you.