It's allergy season again. . .

and I'm one of the afflicted.

I've had allergies, occasionally severely, almost all of my life. They really became an unrelenting feature of my existence at about age 12 or so.  At that time some of them were indeed quite severe, and I've written about that elsewhere on this blog.

One of the oddities of my allergies is that one of them is to sagebrush, which is a fall pollinator. That a person who is an outdoorsman would have that allergy is one of life's troublesome ironies.  Other people with an allergy like that would move some place else, but not me.

I didn't have that allergy when I was young, which means its an adult acquired one.  I came home from my second stint at the University of Wyoming with it.  In other words, it's something I developed in law school.  The University of Wyoming is in Laramie which is situated in a high plain over 7,000 feet in elevation. The area has very little sagebrush and something about being away from it for three additional years caused the allergy to develop.  Or so's my belief on the situation.

When I came back from UW not only did I have an allergy to sagebrush, it was severe.  That didn't stop me from fall activities but it has made a lasting impression.  I finally had to resort to allergy shots to address it, and it considerably abated.  Just recently I've done that again, as we acquired a dog and I'm allergic to dogs as well.

Last  year I managed to go through the season without much of an impact.  My wife, who does not suffer from allergies, was impressed and arrived at the conclusion that I must be okay now.  I knew better.  This year it's back.  So far its mild, but its there enough to notice.

Which means that I've took some of the over the counter allergy medications this past weekend.

I don't care what the bottles or advertisements say, all of those medications impact me.  I had nearly forgotten one of those impacts until last night and was a bit concerned until I recalled.

The one I always remembers is that Claritin, which isn't the one I took this weekend, sends me into a crashing depression.  As it always does that, I'm alert to it, which makes you non depressed.  I.e.,. as soon as I feel really blue after taking it, I remember that of course I do, I've taken Claratin, which makes me non blue.  Odd, I know, but true.

The other thing these medications all do is make me incredibly tired.  Not tired while I'm out in the sticks, but as soon as I get home, I'm done for.  On Saturday I went up to the high country and hiked a long ways in very difficult country while blue grouse hunting.  To be honest, I noticed that I was walking, as things went on, at a slower pace than normal.  When I came home I was really tired and by 7:30 I was struggling to stay awake.

My wife kept asking, "Is everything okay?".  I finally gave up and went to bed.  I'm not a night person anyhow, but 7:30 is early enough to be concerned.

For one reason I just had some blood work done and for the very first time ever, my "bad" cholesterol was about the recommended limit.  I was really surprised, but it's only barely above the level it should be and I'm pretty certain that I can get it down and that the test may have only been an anomaly.  But that does stick in  your mind, and here it's 7:30 and I'm super tired.

Sunday, after Mass, I went back out in a different location.  As its still warm I have my Jeep windows off and was sniffling the whole way.  When I got home late afternoon I was extremely tired, but I was also experiencing allergy related symptoms and it dawned on me. The medication.  I didn't get so tired so early in part because I became engaged in a new Ken Burns documentary, but the relationship between the two, combined with sleeping in this morning (5:45) makes it pretty obvious.

The funny thing, I suppose is that my spouse is stunned and concerned that the allergies are back. Somehow or another she really convinced herself that the shots cured allergies. They don't.  Every time she asked over the past year the question "can you still tell you are allergic to dogs?" I honestly answered "yes.".  She just didn't want to hear that answer as I tolerate our dog pretty well, but I can tell I'm allergic to the poor thing.  One time last winter in asking it I grew a bit exasperated and answered "Yes, I keep telling you that" when one of our kids was present and she said "well you said the opposite". That offspring chimed in "no he didn't, he always says he is", which was deflating to her.  But that's the truth.  At least normally its so mild, and I don't wrestle with him or anything, that it doesn't matter much.  But in combination with the sagebrush, it's more than enough to be a problem.

Oh well, a problem that's seasonal in nature and hopefully over soon.  At least it's not some sudden new ailment I haven't lived with my entire life.

I really wonder what people did when these things couldn't be addressed medically at all. And that wasn't that long ago.

To rebuild, or send packing . . .

that is the question.

This is our 1997 Dodge D1500.  We bought it used six years or seven years ago in anticipation of my son reaching driving age, which he was almost at, at the time.  The first several months we had it, I drove it as a daily driver, then when became old enough to drive, he took over driving it.

It's always been somewhat laggard on the highway but its been more noticeable recently.  And the check engine light has been on.  We determined to replace it, but my son likes standard transmissions (as do I), and finding an old standard that I'd regard as reasonably priced has been difficult.

Indeed, due to changes in how cars are sold, just finding an old truck around here is proving difficult.  Everything on the lots is pretty new, and that's more than we want to spend.  Indeed, that caused me to consider replacing my own Dodge D3500 diesel that has 165,000 miles on it (this D1500 has about 155,000. . . but on a gasoline engine).  Prices for new pickups, however, are really high.  More distressing yet, as I have the same affliction on transmissions, the options are really limited and basically only the new Dodges, which I do like, are an option. . for the current year only.  After this year, the standard transmissions will be a thing of the past.

Anyhow, last Sunday the matter reached a head.  My son has had my wife's SUV at university and we were going to load up his D1500 with some things and take them down.  After picking them up I noticed a rattle.  We took off but about 80 miles out, due to load shifting, I got out and found that the front wheels were very hot to the touch.  And the whole way the truck had been lagging.  I already knew that one cylinder has only 70 lbs of compression when it should have 120.

So we came back.

Turns out that the front brakes are shot and a u-joint is dangerously worn out.

So here's the question, now that this is at critical mass and I must do something, what should I do?  As I can't find a standard transmission truck around I'm seriously considering having a rebuilt engine put in or having the engine rebuilt  Two shops that put rebuilds in discouraged me from doing so on the basis that it has 150,000 miles on it and next thing you know, other things need to be replaced as well.  A third shop that actually rebuilds engines, however, did quote me an attractive price.  As it is, the front end is now being effectively rebuilt as it will have new brakes and good u-joints and I've asked them to look at the steering, which seems a little sloppy to me.

A friend who did this with a Volvo and got 300,000 miles out of it some years ago counsels that his having that engine rebuilt. .. twice, was a mistake.  He spent more doing it than he got out of it. But money is going into it now anyhow.

And so now the decision must be made.

MVPA Lincoln Highway Convoy

The 2019 MVPA Lincoln Highway Convoy (TMC19)August 10 – September 14, 2019, York, PA to San Francisco, CA. Travel from the 44th annual MVPA Convention in York, PA to San Francisco, CA. To participate you must register by 1 May 2019. This is the second MVPA convoy to commemorate the Lincoln Highway, built by the US Army in 1909! Contact MVPA-HQ to request information, schedules and routes; (800) 365-5798, (816) 833-MVPA, hq@mvpa.org.

It'll make better time than the original, and I believe its in Nebraska right now.

Should anyone who stops in here happen across this convoy commemorating the 1919 Motor Transport Convoy, let us know and post what you know.

A new species of cat has been identified on Corsica

Yes, a new species.

It's about the size of a house cat, but it isn't, and it isn't even that closely related to European wild cats which are pretty closely related to house cats genetically.  It's more closely related to small African wild cats.

Shepherds had said they were around for years, and in spite of their diminutive size, they supposedly attack sheep.

Based on the one in captivity, they look like large orange tabby's and they appear not to like to being held in captivity.

Now, here's the real question.

Corsica has been occupied by humans since at least the Mesolithic.

We're just finding a new cat species there now?

I have to admit that I find this oddity really fascinating.

If you could buy canned whale now, I'd try it.

I didn't realize you could every buy canned whale.  This ad is from 1919, so you could apparently get it then, at least in Canada.  I wonder if you could buy canned whale anywhere else, and for how long canned whale was a dining option?

Makes you wonder what other odd canned foods there were that are now gone.

Does anyone here drive one of the old gassers daily?

You know, the ones that were made for leaded fuel?

1971 GMC Pickup, made just before unleaded started to come in.

I've had a lot of such vehicles over the years but in thinking about it the last one I used as a daily driver, made in 1973, I sold around 1996, just before unleaded really disappeared.  I have a vehicle , an old work truck, that takes unleaded, but I don't drive it very much.

I've read various things about whether unleaded is really that necessary for these vehicles or not.  Some say that after some date in the late 1960s it isn't. Some say it is.

Anyone who stops in here have any practical experience?

Does anyone here know the real history of the packer boot?

PACKER BOOTS

Packer Boots were originally worn by enlisted soldiers in the U.S. Army in the 1800's who would not make a career out of military service, but muster out of service in the west. The packer boot is suited for farm and ranch footwear, and was made for people in the Rocky Mountains working with packhorses (thus the name). Form and functionality make these boots the preference of outdoorsman everywhere.These are lace-up boots, and are usually 10" high, but fasion packers can be taller, as high as the knee. They have a kilty (false tongue) and are made of very durable, thick leather. Most packer boots are brown, but they are also available in black and other colors. They usually have rubber, neoprene, or sometimes Vibram® soles.

Is that right?

History

In the mid-1800s, the most popular boot in America was the Wellington, a leather military-type, pull-on boot that was worn by many Civil War officers. Unfortunately, these boots did not hold up well over time, so most enlisted men, who were primarily farmers, wore boots that laced up and served them well on the farm. After the war, shoemakers began to make early cowboy boots of waxed leather and added the Cuban angled heel that horsemen preferred. Frontiersmen had long preferred lace-up boots, so the angled heel was added to the lace-up style, forming what is known as the "packer boot," the style favored by ranch hands.

Then there is the packer.  As was mentioned, the lace-up was common on the American frontier. Enlisted men were less likely to be career men and often mustered out of the service in the west. There are the historical photographs of cowboys sitting on the top rail of the corral watching a hand ride out a bronc. In not a few of these photographs the men wearing lace-ups outnumber the men wearing traditional western boots. Hyer Boot Company, in their 1926 catalogue offers at least three pages of lace-up styles--for the ranch hand 

Can anyone expand on this?

If anyone knows the definitive origin of packers, leave a comment!

Mid Week At Work: Aiding the wounded.

There's a little thing going on in this photograph, but a lot, including a lot of unknowns, behind it.

This photo shows an American soldier giving minor first aid of some sort (but apparently significant enough that it's actually being done, to a White Russian Cossack, probably in the far north of Russia.

The Cossack is traditional attire.  It was probably taken in the Spring of 1919.  He's well equipped.

In 1919 the White position in the far North was getting imperiled, but the Whites were advancing rapidly in the East.  The Reds were prevailing in the West and were now threatening Poland and even Germany.  Soon that would reverse, however, and the Poles would advance, before retreating once again.

What happened to the people in this photograph?  I really wonder, and indeed, I often wonder about things like that.  The American probably came home and went about his life.  Almost certainly. What about the Cossack?  Did he survive the war?  If he did, did he survive the peace?

Monday at the Bar: Canadian Supreme Court declares voting rights for Canadian citizens residing out of Canada.

I haven't had the time to study this, but this is frankly earth shaking in terms of Canadian politics.  The Canadian Supreme Court, in the following decision:   

SUPREME COURT OF CANADA

Citation: Frank v. Canada (Attorney General), 2019 SCC 1

Appeal Heard: March 21, 2018 Judgement Rendered: January 11, 2019 Docket: 36645

Between:

Gillian Frank and Jamie Duong

Appellants

and

Attorney General of Canada

Respondent

- and -

Attorney General of Quebec, Canadian American Bar Association, Canadian Expat Association, David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights, Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic and British Columbia Civil Liberties Association

Interveners

There are a large number of Canadians that live outside of Canada, including ones that have lived outside of the country for decades.  This decision allows them to vote.

It leaves some topics open, I think.  For one thing, there's a fair number of individuals who can claim Canadian citizenship as one of their parents was Canadian.  This even extended, up until a recent change in the law, to children born of those who could claim Canadian citizenship in that fashion even though the parent had never resided in Canada. Can those people vote in Canadian elections?  The decision, at least at first glance, would seem to support that they can.

If they can, what would be their riding?

And does this have any impact on the status of dual citizens in their other country of citizenship?  It wouldn't seem so, but I've already seen one comment by a Canadian who holds American citizenship that they won't vote in Canadian elections as they fear it would jeopardize their American citizenship.  Americans cannot serve in the armies of other nations, legally, I know, but I don't know if there's any restriction on their voting in a foreign election.  Is there?

What impact would this have on Canadian politics?  It might have none, as Canadian expats often have the same general views as Canadians in Canada. But at the same time, those who were born in the United States and hold Canadian citizenship are much more likely to have their views fully formed and indeed exclusively formed by their experiences in the United States. While there are certainly exceptions, most Americans hold their views based on a two party, Democrat/Republican, liberal/conservative system that doesn't necessarily even fit into the general Canadian political scheme.  I wonder how this will impact Canadian politics, if at all.

And, finally, is it fair?  It doesn't strike that it is, quite frankly.  I'm not suggesting that Canadians living abroad should lose their citizenship by any means, but voting on the government where you don't actually live and aren't paying taxes strikes me as a bit odd.

It's cold and snowy in Minnesota. Is that news?

Snow in Minnesota. . . 1942.

When did routine weather events become national news?

Have they always been?  Or this is this a reflection of the vapid nature of television?

As an example, this past week, it was snowing in Minnesota.   That isn’t news. But the television news treated it as news.

Has television always does this?

Are our weather memories so short in this modern era that winter in the north is actually surprising?  Or rain in the south?  Or is it that we’ve created living conditions which are now disasters but which were simply another day in the winter in earlier eras?

Or is television just that dense?

Labor Day, 2018. A Query

 

I'm curious, amongst those who stop in here, of the following:

1.  How many of you work a job entailing manual labor?

2.  If you presently do not, how many of you have worked a job entailing manual labor?

3.  How many of you had parents or a parent that:

A.  Had worked a job entailing manual labor;
B.  Worked principally in a job entaling manual labor.

Blog Mirror: A Hundred Years Ago: Food-Related Humor a Hundred Years Ago

One of the things about looking at earlier eras that's hard to appreciate is the sense of things at the time.  The sense of the times themselves, the sense of prospective, and even a sense of humor.

The A Hundred Years ago site has taken a look at that in its most recent post:

Food-Related Humor a Hundred Years Ago

What do you think?  Are the jokes still funny, or not? I thought they were.

ENDOW Study Released

And here it is:

The ENDOW Study.

I haven't read it yet.

If you have, what's your opinion?

Friday Farming: Prior to Pesticides?

The Boll Weevil Monument in Enterprise Alabama.  This is the world's only monument to an agricultural pest, and was erected as the bug was such a problem it forced agricultural and economic diversification in the area, for which the residents were later grateful, as the area couldn't rely on cotton due to the bug.

I was thinking of Brussels Sprouts the other day.

I grew Brussels Sprouts one summer.  I didn't get to eat any.

At the time, I was trying to do a garden without pesticides.  It turned into a real battle. The bugs ate all of my Brussels Sprouts.  Combating insects turned into a losing contest and in the end, I resorted back to the sort of garden pesticide you use to dust crops.

Which caused me to ponder this question.

People grew Brussels Sprouts before pesticides became widespread mid 20th Century.

What did they do about the bugs?

For those who really wonder if there's a psychological difference between men and women. . .

my wife and daughter are watching a television show in which a couple with a large number of babies are enduring potty training them.

Why would anyone be interested in that?

Concerned about the future of Wyoming's economy? Take the ENDOW Survey

I did.

ENDOW Survey.

The 1918 Flu Epidemic. How did it impact your family?

We noted the start of the 1918 Flu Epidemic yesterday, the date it broke forth at Camp Funston, Kansas.

Lex Anteinternet: Today In Wyoming's History: March 4, 1918 The st...:  Soldiers with the Flu, Camp Funston, 1918. Today In Wyoming's History: March 4 : 1918 Mess Sergeant Albert Gitchell  reported ...

Your family was impacted. Every family in the world was.  Most pretty dramatically.  Do you know how it impacted your own family?

If you do, let us know.

I know that it infected my mother's aunt Patricia, after whom she was named.  Like a lot of the young victims of the flu, it didn't kill her right away.  She "recovered", but never really recovered, and died a couple of years later.  Her health destroyed by the event.

Recalling 1968

 

 This nifty architectural doodad is a local legacy of 1968 the year this thing was built.

The Casper Star Tribune started running retrospectives on 1968 this week, and is going to run them all year long.

The first one wasn't great, just a collection of snippets on fashion and the like, but still I'm encouraged.

While this blog is focused on things 50 years, more or less, prior to 1968, we do stray widely (rather obviously) and so I'll be interested to see with the Tribune comes up with.  I'll be particularly interested as while I can recall 1968, from a child's prospective, as an adult I've been baffled by the year.  It was a year of global revolution and the consequences of the year were mostly negative in my view.  Not wholly of course, but largely.

1968 seems to be the year that the Boomers, for a variety of reasons, tore down much of made Western civilization.  The repercussions have been permanent.  Western civilization kept on keeping on, of course, but the attack on the foundations of it, from 1968, were like termites going after the foundation beam of a structure.

And this happened everywhere.

There were riots in the United States over the Vietnam War. That's easy to figure. But there were riots in Berlin and Paris as well.  A seeming middle mildly left political coalition that had come into power in some places (the United States, France, the UK) and a middle mildly right political coalition that had come into power elsewhere (West Germany) collapsed.  Cultural values and underpinnings that had existed for decades became untethered, not disappearing, but sort of drifting.

Now, of course, no sudden change simply arrives.  When things break out, they break out after years of development of some sort, for some reason.  But what was it?

 The egg beater in slightly happer days, but after its service as a time and temperature sign had ended.  Note the mod orange peel design of the bank itself.  Library of Congress photograph.

Churches of the West: Traditionalist Anabaptist In Wyoming?

Churches of the West: Traditionalist Anabaptist In Wyoming?:

Starting at some point about six or so years ago, which means its actually probably more like ten years ago as things that occurred about that time seem more recent to me than they really are, I started running into some type of traditionalist Anabaptist from time to time here in Wyoming.

The first ones I ran into were at the rest stop outside of Waltman.  There was a travel trailer there with a flat tire that was being repaired and the people with it were outside of the trailer.  In my naivete, as I didn't expect to run into Anabaptist here, I thought at first "oh. . . reenactors", as the women were all wearing what appeared to me to be very traditional 19th Century style dresses with sun bonnets and the men were wearing straw broad brimmed hats, blue shirts, and jeans; and sporting that type of beard which lacks a mustache.  Very quickly I realized, however, that they weren't reenactors, they were some sort of community of Anabaptist adherents or perhaps a family of Anabaptists traditionalist.

Now, for those for whom this term is a mystery, what I'm referring to is Christians who are members of a traditionalist Anabaptist denomination, such as the Amish, traditionalist Mennonites, or Hutterites.  The most famous of these groups is, of course, the Amish, but there are some Mennoites in Colorado and Nebraska and there are Huttertites in Montana and the prairie provinces of Canada.

This is the Greeley Mennonite Church in Greeley Colorado.  The church was originally a Lutheran church but I don't know when it the Prairie Gothic church was built.

Now, while these groups are all Anabaptist, they are not all the same, and I don't want to suggest that they are.  That is not my intent at all.  And while it is my understanding that all Amish are traditionalist in the sense I'm using it (which would likely be grating on their nerves and be regarded as singularly unfair by them), and I think that this is also the case for Hutterites, it is not true for Mennonites.  Indeed, there are Mennonite congregations that are not distinct in dress and which are not otherwise traditionalist such as limiting the use of technology over time.   I'm frankly unclear on which denomination the group I've been seeing belongs to, and that's what I'm curious about.

I've noted above the first instance in which I encountered them.  The second time was, oddly enough, in Sam's Club. There were a group of women who met the description set out above, except I see that their head covering is a simple covering, not a sun bonnet, buying huge lots of flour and other baking goods.  Since then I've run into them here and there, most recently at the past two gun shows here in town.

On the first of those occasions two men and a boy were present selling old farm equipment.  A woman was present selling baked goods, and seemed to be married to one of the men.  The men were all dressed as described save for wearing cowboy boots, which causes me to lean towards Hutterites.  This past weekend they were back but it was two different women and a different man, and they were all selling baked goods. The man was wearing heavy work boots.

The presence of traditionalist Anabaptists in Wyoming would be a new thing and I'm curious.  Does anyone know who they might be, what group they're actually in, and where their community or communities are located?