Using religion as an excuse for hatred

For most people, the term religion stirs the image of churches or some form of clergy, and while there is certainly a lot of churches and clergy who fall into the category of religion, it's not exclusively the same. Religion is ritual, it's sometimes believing something in the face of evidence that it's not true (like global warming, that's a religion). It is also used as a excuse to compare ones self to others, or to compare the sins of two people and to judge one as better than the other based on this religion. And it's being used to excuse the outright hatred of our current president. I've heard and read in the last several years so many commentaries on how totally evil President Trump is, yet the evidence does not support this. Lately I read a commentary by a religious man who condemns people for following the president because he's allegedly told lies. (And I say allegedly only because the things that he's supposed to have lied about, he really didn't).  Here's a news flash for you, you are a liar, so am I for that matter. In fact I have never met a person who has never told a lie. So for the self righteous writer who is passing judgment on the president for telling lies, have you sir never done so?  That would be quite an achievement and I seriously doubt it. The claim is that President Trump lied about the Chinese virus, in various ways. But I have looked back at the time line. I find no-where that there is a lie. What I do find is a lot of misinformation was spread around between December and February, and still there is a lot of misinformation being spread today although not as much and people are starting to realize that so much of what we were told before was incorrect. (I'm not sure if that was intentional or not. If it was, then those were certainly lies).

Looking back at news releases, at different speeches, what I find is that the president was saying pretty much the same things that the media and doctors were saying at the same time. He is being blamed for over 200,000 deaths due to the virus, but that is certainly a lie, or at the very least a half truth. That 200,000 people have died this year is fact, that they HAD the virus may be fact, (we know for a fact that many hospitals were attributing all deaths to the Chinese virus regardless of the cause). So in essence there were people who died not necessarily due to the Chinese virus, but died "with" the virus. There is no way to tell how many would have lived or died had the virus never spread. What we really don't know is how many died explicitly due to the virus. And as it's been politically weaponized, we may never know. The initial news releases, back in December through mid February was that this is like a severe flu strain, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. It was also stated that for people who's immune system is not compromised, the probability of survival is quite high. In fact the survivability rate is above 96 percent. 

I know that the socialists wanted President Trump to lock down the country back in late February-March. Believing that the virus could be stopped. It's a virus people, once released you can't stop it. I also know that a lot of people hoped that he would do so as it is an unconstitutional act and would actually be grounds for impeachment. What our president did was exactly what he was supposed to do, gave control to each sovereign state. Allow the governors and legislatures in each state set their own guidelines. And we saw, and are still seeing just who the dictators are. 

I recall the initial reasons for restricting movements in the country, it was to flatten the curve. To prevent a huge influx and overwhelm the hospitals. The initial objective was not to wipe it out, you can't wipe it out, it's a virus and will be with us forever. But somewhere along the line it seems that people now believe the lock downs were to give time to find a cure or vaccine. Not! 

But something else happens when a country is locked down, the economy begins to collapse. And thankfully our current president has enough business and economic sense to know that that is at least as deadly or more so than the virus. At some point one must make a decision, what has the potential to do more long term harm, and that is a very hard choice. The U.S. economy does not just affect those of us who live here, we are a world power and if our economy collapses there are global consequences. Plunging the country into a deep recession or even a depression would cause a significant amount of deaths also. 

To date I cannot understand why so many people that I know hate our president. And don't try to tell me that you don't. I hear it in your voices when you talk about him, and it's evident in the things written and the gossip continuously spread. This is where the religion comes in. It's mostly self-righteous folks that I know who spew the hatred. 

President Donald Trump is a flawed man. He has probably made some shady business deals, I'm certain that he's lied about some things. I don't know if he's cheated on his taxes, more likely simply manipulated the system as it's so complicated and hard to understand. I am also certain that he will do other things that people wold consider "sin". But I also believe that he has the best interest of this country in his mind and heart. 

There was a man in history who committed adultery. Then he conspired to have the husband of the woman with whom he had the affair killed. Pretty much everyone I know today would condemn a man for such actions, yet King David is celebrated as a man after God's heart. 

President Trump is flawed, no-man may know the heart of another. Put aside your hatred and pray for him.

Beekeepers are a little nuts

 I admit that I am a little off, well OK a lot off. Beekeepers need to be a bit off to actually enjoy keeping boxes of bugs that sting us. I currently have bees in six locations, because state regs limit how many I can have at a residence. Our club has made an arrangement with someone with some vacant property to keep some bees there, so I have some colonies and some mating nucs. We also use it as a rehab yard of sorts. If someone has a nasty hive, an evil queen, we can put them there, remove the queen and re-queen. There are two colonies that I consider demon spawn, and right now it's not a priority to re-queen. I figure a couple of nasty hives might discourage vandals. 

We have a member currently with an evil queen in the rehab yard, haven't had a chance to re-queen yet but that is now a priority.  

The grass was getting pretty high, I try to cut it once a month. Last month things went fairly well, I avoid the demon spawn until the end.  

To give you an idea of how this yard is laid out, imagine the state of Florida about 100 yards from top to bottom. We have bees along the west coast, from Naples up to Ocala, and a stand over in the panhandle, say just a little west of Tallahassee. 

This past Saturday I went to cut the grass. I start on the east coast, south of Miami. All the way up to Georgia, then make a turn and go past Tallahassee, down the west coast and back around. Using this visual, the demon spawn hives are in the Gulf of Mexico. I made it all the way up the east coast with nothing to note. Made the turn towards Tallahassee and a pretty good sized cluster came out of the largest hive, they bumped me a few times but not too bad. When I made the turn to go south, they left me alone. I proceded down west side, behind of most of the hives, again with no significant problems. Then I came to the newest demon spawn hive. It's just south of Tampa. It's kind of on the coast so I can't go behind it. I made another turn to pass this hive and I think every flyer came out. There was a pretty big cluster hanging under the box. I wish at times like these that I was wearing a body camera. I saw the bees come off the bottom, it looked like a large cloud and they were coming straight for me. I also saw bees coming out of the hive, like a water hose just spraying. By the time I reached the stand that they are on. I was nearly totally covered in bees. I could not see my hands. I am so glad my vent suit protects the way that it does. I took a few stings through my jeans. It takes about 6 laps around the yard to cut everything, I made about 3 1/2 and they found a hole in the tape around my ankles. Several bees made it up my leg and I decided to finish another day. 

Sunday I spoke with the owner of this demon spawn hive, we'll meet up later this week and de-thrown her. In the conversation I commented how I found it humorous how my arms and hands were covered with bees, how watching the swarm come at me was reminiscent of a Winnie The Poo movie. And the fact that we are willingly going to go through this box in a few days. Yes we're a little nuts.

Dark spots are all stingers. The gloves were taped to my suit. Good thing. 

Celebrating small victories

 So much has gone so wrong for so long, some days it becomes very difficult to believe that anything will get better. Yesterday (Friday October 16th) we got some more bad news. Nothing new here. 

I needed to do my yard and part of my son's yard. (I have bees there so I cut the grass sometimes). The mower was running a bit strange, I dismissed it as the grass being high and wet. In the process of cutting his grass, I hit a tree stump and bent one blade, put the front of the mower up on the trailer, and with a large adjustable wrench and a pipe wrench I was able to get the blade straight enough to finish. I left his yard and went to cut the grass at the club's out yard. when I got there I noticed gas dripping from the carburetor. My initial thought was some debris in the float valve. So I took off the bowl, and checked the valve and as assumed there was dirt. But I also found that the O ring that seals the float assembly was broke. I found the parts on-line, fairly cheap ($4) but it would take 5-7 days. Found a local place that was already closed, figured I'd call this morning (Saturday). 

So today I slept in a bit, got up at 6:20.  My plans were to take off the bent blade, go get the gasket kit, straighten the blade and finish the grass. 

Trying to remove the blade, I broke the shaft. The end is threaded, 5/8 -11 I think. The nut was rusted enough that I snapped it right off. A slight change of plans. 

Fortunately I have access to a lathe. Took off the shaft, went to the mower shop when they opened and got the gasket O ring set. Off to the shop where I faced off the shaft, drilled a hole and tapped it for a 3/8 bolt. Back home, put everything together and the mower will not run right. I thought maybe I pinched the gasket. Took the bowl back off, checked things and noticed that the main jet, which is housed in the float assembly, was missing. 

No idea where or when I lost it. The mower shop does not sell the jet, only a complete kit, ($45.00).  I can replace the carb for less. So I was resigned to wait until next week.  Started thinking of who I might know with some old mower parts. Vicki's mom, we replaced the carb on her generator two years ago and I remember keeping the old one in case we needed to move a mounting bracket. (The replacement was bought on Ebay). Went over there and sure enough it was still where I put it. Not exactly the same size but the main jet did fit in my carb. Put things back together and the mower runs. Not perfect but well enough to cut the grass in our out yard.

So with the bent blade straight(er) and the mower running fairly well, I was off to mow the out yard. 

(At least most of it, the bees were excessively mean today).

So it was a little victory, having the skills and tools available to fix the shaft, and the old carb parts to make the mower run. 

I also got another bee colony today. Feral bees under the floor of a storage shed. Five nice pieces of yellow comb (Brazilian Pepper in bloom). Found the queen 10 minutes into the removal, caged her in the box, went back at 7:30 and all of the bees were in the box. Got 1 sting in my truck driving home after placing the nuc in the new yard. There is a whole lot in life that still really sucks, but today I had a small victory.