A new reader browsing Ubi Libertas Blog might get the impression that I’m devoted to chronicling publicly every last detail of our American Life on The Mountain.
If you ran into me in a bar or a restaurant, if you crossed paths with me in a store or on the sidewalk, you’d probably judge me to be an incurably social creature.
Looking back on the many concerts, sporting events and large gatherings I’ve attended, you may suspect that I respond to the siren song of big crowds.
And none of that is so.
I don’t do psycho-babble, so you won’t catch me labeling myself an “introvert” or anything of the sort. I have the ability, whether innate or acquired, to communicate, to interact, to participate whenever I need to — or want to — but I also have a personal toggle switch that returns me to my natural state.
I am, at my core, a private man. While I enjoy the company of friends and good people, I’d much rather be alone (or with Deb). My social skills are practiced and honed, but I prefer solitude to the crush of the crowd.
Maybe it’s the age. I’ve pushed my boundaries farther out than ever before, and that goes for human contact as well as principle. I acknowledge that it rubs some folks the wrong way.
I can live with that.
I have, at long last, become an individual. I don’t gravitate toward groups. (Or, as the Brits used to say, I’m not particularly “clubbable.”) Never mistake my interest for a wish to “belong” to something — you’ll quickly butt up against my boundaries.
Now if you do catch me on an occasion when I’ve flipped my switch, and you find me social, engaged and engaging, gregarious, rest assured that it’s genuine. What I do, I choose to do.
It’s not artifice.
But it’s not the whole of me.
When Trump appeared at Madison Square Garden yesterday, he was preceded by a parade of other speakers. One was Tucker Carlson, who (enthusiastically) echoed something I’ve said about Trump for several years:
“He’s liberated us in the deepest and truest sense, and the liberation he has brought to us is the liberation from the obligation to tell lies.
“Donald Trump has made it possible for the rest of us to tell the truth about the world around us.”
The success of Trump, measured against the standard of Liberty, has less to do with actions he took within the scope of presidential powers, and more to do with his empowering the People to speak and act and live as unapologetic expressions of the American Ideal.
Tucker’s nine-minute speech was a damned good one. I’ve included it here.
It was a weekend full of things we needed to do, stuff we always do and stuff we never do, what we wish we could’ve done and what we did anyway. Working around the necessaries, Deb and I managed to be productive and still get our joy on.
We made Home Depot the destination for grabbing our last two major plumbing fixtures — a shower pan (which took a very long time to pick out) and a proper toilet.
Having spent much of my working life in and around marketing, occasionally I wondered what it must be like to create campaigns for unmentionables (for lack of a better term). Toilets would fall under that heading, of course, and I couldn’t help but snicker at the way Glacier Bay touted the awesome power of the commode we chose.
If you’re looking at those pictures and nodding, knowingly, at the claim that this toilet can flush seven billiard balls at once, all I can say is that you are my People.
As we approached our Silverado after checking out and calculated how in the hell we were going to heft a hundred-pound terlet-in-a-box into the bed, a family was just getting out of a pickup in a nearby parking space. One of the men asked me if I’d like some help. Two backs and four hands made loading a piece of cake.
Incidentally, while we cruised the aisles at Home Depot, I spotted a product that would’ve made assembling that raw-cedar firewood rack easier and better — TimberLOK structural wood screws.
They grab a lot better than conventional wood screws do and they’re less likely to split the material than chubby lag screws are. Expensive but worth it, they’re a favorite among those who build with green lumber and logs.
Home Depot has quite a selection. Noted.
The weekend may have been peak color for fall foliage in Ozarkansas. Other commitments prevented us from taking a long drive toward the Bostons and the Buffalo, like we did the same weekend last year, so instead, late yesterday we detoured to Buffalo City and took in the scene.
Each time we’re there, I do my best to photograph the 270-foot bluffs in a way that captures the scale of the place. It’s just not possible, but again I (we) tried.
It was a wonderful visit — exactly what we needed. We returned to The Mountain the back way, via narrow, winding and (in a couple of places) steep dirt roads. That was its own reward.
“You know what the Big Lie is? The Big Lie is that they’re impressive. That the people in charge have somehow earned the right to rule over you. And they haven’t.”
Tucker Carlson, yesterday at Madison Square Garden
A new week has begun. We’re dealing with high winds on The Mountain today — 30mph+ — and the trees are shedding more and more leaves with every gust.
The imposing outline of Hall Mountain is coming into view.
We (I) need to get crackin’ on plumbing and more wiring, plus mounting the water heater and running LP lines. I gave myself another day, however, to not do any of that.
One especially therapeutic task I undertook today was repairing the smaller of the two old wooden boxes I picked up recently. The wood is somewhat fragile, split here and there, and it needed a bit of shoring up.
Noting more solid spots along the corners where nails already had been driven, I pre-drilled and then drove supporting 4-penny nails, 16 in all. The nails grabbed nicely, and the pilot holes prevented any new splits.
I’d toyed with the idea of brushing the box with matte-finish polyurethane, but I’ve decided against that. It’s solid now, ready for its role on the hearth.
And still the wind blows. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB