I’m a gun owner and I’m concerned about many of the anti-second amendment proposals put forward lately. I believe people should have the right to keep and bear arms, that gun owners should not have to go through unnecessary hoops. I think it’s important we defend our rights as gun owners.
While swimming is not yet open, there is hope for nicer weather in the near future. Memorial Day Weekend is only a few days away, then it will be the unofficial start of summer.
I was riding my mountain bike this afternoon at lunch time, observing and taking in more of the Albany Rural Cementary, in a respectful kind of way. Observing the various tombstone’s and monuments, some to very prominent politicians and persons, other business people and common folk who arranged to have monuments created in their memory. It struck me what a strange place cemeteries really are.
At one level, cemeteries are dumping grounds for the carcasses of the deceased. Their hearts have stopped beating, they’ve stopped breathing, and something has to be done with their bodies. Burying them is one way to stop the spread of pathegons, and depending how they are buried, preserve their carcasses in some state of existence for years to come.
On the other hand, cemetaries are park like environments, where monuments are erected to remind love ones and general public of persons that once roamed this earth for good or bad. Cemeteries provide a place not only for gathering at the burial, but also to visit any time in the future when loved ones or the public want to remember the person whose spirit and life has left this earth.
Cemeteries were the original urban park, and in many ways are still a delightful place to walk or ride a bicycle through peacefully. They are gracefully laid out, with trees and winding roads. They are full of beautiful monuments, ponds, and pathways. While people these days rarely picnic in cemeteries, many still return not just to visit gravestones but also to walk their dogs, go for a leisurely stroll past ponds and waterfalls, or just get some fresh air away from the craziness of the city.
I don’t ascribe any special meaning to the carcasses of people. Once they’re dead in my book, they’re just another form of organic waste. Except maybe for the risk of human-transmissible pathogens, at the point of passing, a person has nothing further to offer to society in the form of ideas or acts. It’s good to remember those once with us, but their at worse their carcasses, a non-noxious form of waste, in many ways probably far less significant then tin cans and plastic packaging we toss so carelessly every day.
With all apologies to P.J. O’Rourke and Mario Cuomo, I suggest the major political parties rename themselves to:
This would comply with recent regulations put forward by the “The Fun Suckers” to comply with recently adopted Truth in Advertising regulations because we don’t want our cars to burn us to death when they crash.
Night before dawn is 5 hours and 3 minutes,
Dawn starts at 5:03 am and runs for 30 minutes,
Sunrise is at 5:33 am which is 6 hours and 26 minutes before noon,
High noon, the transit of the sun, is at 12:51 pm,
From twelve noon to the sunset at 8:09 pm is 8 hours and 9 minutes,
Dusk lasts for 29 minutes concluding at 8:40 pm,
Leaving 3 hours and 19 minutes until midnight.
With some clearing this evening, especially heading into the early morning hours it might be a good night to look for the northern lights, particularly as they are expected to be fairly strong due to geomagnetic storm underway.