Dreams

First morning: The rich white Florida proto-Nazi student who drives me to his family mansion and won't help me get back to my party so I can return home.

I was attending a basketball game LSU or Georgia at Florida. We were sitting in the stands and I decided to go for a cold drink. I went down to floor level and managed to get lost trying to get back to my party. Eventually, I encounter a group of young students, two couples. I end up in a red convertible driven by a male Florida student. I am in the back with a couple wearing University of Georgia gear. I lean my head back and breathe, while thinking 'I hope this guy doesn't get me killed with his driving." The Florida guy makes disparaging statements about UGA sports. Instead of talking back, I say, "Florida has had success in just about every major sport and you can't argue with that." Then, the Florida guy says Donald Trump "came within one appointment being approved of taking over like Hitler." It seems this kid is involved with the alt right movement. He drives us to his family home which is a mansion near the ocean. I encounter his father and notice a group of burly black men who look like security congregating outside. Someone mentions the staff of the mansion has a hierarchy system and the people at different levels eat in different places. The black men eat at a picnic table outside. I am ready to leave this place and return to the arena to meet my party and drive home. However, the son is amusing himself by dodging my requests to drive me back to the site of the game. I become exasperated and announce that if he won't drive me, I'm going to start walking (even though it's quite a distance away). I walk out onto the street and begin walking.

Next morning: A medical student at EKL throws something because research has been deprioritized.

Reading Walker Percy

Love in the ruins, besides being highly entertaining and brilliantly written, is like a crash course in basic human anatomy and medicine.

Clouds

When I look at clouds and consider how my highly evolved brain, a tiny web of densely packed neurons on a speck in the vast ocean of the universe, responds to complex waves of light, emanating from the sun's nuclear furnace before bouncing off moisture in the atmosphere and objects on the ground, and transforms them into magnificent perceptions, I find it impossible to believe all of this created itself out of nothing.

From Owen's Geopolitical Analysis Page

I'm a big fan of Fyodor Dostoevsky. I love Russian classical music. I'd like to visit Russia some day. I have nothing against Russia as a country and would be pleased to see them overcome their many internal problems; but, I think it's important to keep in mind a few facts relevant to the current geopolitical context.

Vladimir Putin, who is a very astute, effective, and formidable individual, was a high level KGB official during the period when Russia lost it's empire, that is, the Iron Curtain satellite countries and the"Soviet Socialist Republics" that became independent states when the USSR broke apart. The losses included Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, East Germany, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Armenia, Republic of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Moldavia, and Byelorussia, all of which became independent countries. That's a serious loss of territory, people and resources. Overnight, Russia went from being the world's other superpower (besides the USA) to being just one of a number of powerful countries (such as the UK, France, and Germany) of considerably lesser economic and military stature. This was deeply humiliating to Putin and many patriotic Russians. So, besides the internal goals of ruthlessly keeping power and making himself rich and making the majority of Russian citizens proud while brutally suppressing any serious opposition, Putin's biggest external agenda item is to diminish the power and stature of the USA. This is why he wanted Donald Trump to win the election and thus put his massive espionage machine into action toward that end. The election was in fact tainted by Russian interference, one of several big factors in Clinton's defeat. No rational analyst who looks at what Russia did leading up to the vote will dispute this. And Putin's been doing an effective job of diminishing American stature and influence.

In short, Vladimir Putin hates the USA. That makes Russia our enemy as long as Putin or someone with his agenda is running the country. His motives and initiatives must be understood in this context; and, anyone working with Russia to further their agenda is working against the interests of the good old red, white and blue. As a patriotic American citizen, I am not going to stand idly by and act as if this is all ok.

The current recurring dream.

I had a dream about being with Grandpapa Scott who was very elderly. At first he seemed to be cogent but then he shifted and appeared to be out of it. I awoke, then went back to sleep and had a similar dream about my mother. In that one, we were in a clinical room (hospital or rehab?) with two beds.  We both seemed to have just awakened in the morning. I waved at her across the room and said, "Hi, Mom!" with a big smile. I asked her if she went down to eat with in the dining hall (as at Iris Place) and she said she didn't do that.

There must be some meaning to my having variations on this dream periodically.

Broken bones

I decided to get me foot checked out as it still hurts from when I kicked the fountain on our back patio in full stride when I was taking photos of the full moon in the dark wearing J Crew slippers and not paying attention to where I was walking on June 10.  I made an appointment with Dr. Shroeder at Bone and Joint Clinic to check the shoulder he repaired 4 summers ago and to examine my foot.  I'm pleased to report the shoulder bones have grown together nicely and should not give me problems in the future. I was not surprised to learn I broke a bone in my middle toe. No treatment is required and it should also heal completely.