Sometimes when you're driving in the country, you might pass by some place where local folks are obviously gathered.   A place that looks like absolutely nothing on the outside, except that there are obviously a lot of people there.   I don't know about you, but I tend to be wary of places like this - everybody in the place knows each other; if I go in, how will they react?

So it's kind of funny to think about a tourist driving up the road to Fort Bowie, passing by the nectar lounge.   Which is basically a M.A.S.H. army tent with a yummy cafe in it.   If a stranger walks into this tent, which sometimes happens, they are welcomed with open arms; more like what you would expect at Callahan's than what you would expect out of some bar from Deliverance.

Right now I can hear the beat of some loud music from down there - not sure what's going on, but probably people are having fun.   There's a pancake breakfast today.   I'm about to wander down.   What triggered this thought was seeing a truck go by that I didn't recognize.   You see one or two of these a day - most of the vehicles are familiar, either from the fort or from someone at DM.

Life in the boonies...

[Turns out the drumming was an Apache blessing ceremony that was going on on a nearby mountaintop.   The pancakes were yummy, as usual.]

Voter apathy...

We really shouldn't think of voting as a way to get what we want - to elect someone about whom we are enthusiastic.   If we are lucky enough to be able to do that, great.   But really, voting is a lot like jailing criminals.   We need to vote because if we don't, criminals--politicians who will treat us particularly badly--will be free to do so.

It's a civic duty because we need to protect ourselves from the idiot King Georges of the world, not because we can enact our dreams through some Sacred King.   If we want to enact our dreams, we should just get to work, and not wait for a Sacred King, whom we have elected, to realize them for us.   This will never happen.