I don't know if it was the weather (95 degrees plus on Saturday), the new site (admitted a gorgeous new 'Cultural Celebration Center' in West Valley City) or the new staff that took over midway through preparations for the Highland Games and never quite publicized things right, but this weekend's festival trip to Salt Lake City was just a fortunate hair shy of a disaster. At least I made back the inventory and travel expenses that took me there, but just barely. Actually, in the final analysis I surely lost some money.

I did have a lovely weekend, and the drive was at times breathtakingly beautiful (especially the 'back road' I took to get across the mountains that took me over a 10,000-foot pass). And I still have enough money to get to San Diego next weekend (sure to be slightly more successful at least). So in the end it's not all bad. But it was kind of sad, since I usually sell about double what I did this weekend, and I had much more new and interesting inventory this time than I have the last couple of years. As an indication, for people who know about such things, I didn't sell a single Old Blind Dogs CD. Mind you, I just about sold out of Gordon Duncan CDs, so it was clearly a bagpipe crowd.

Unless I do a brisk business in San Diego, I may well fall short of my $2000 goal in aggregate for the two festivals. We'll see.

For the last couple of mornings, people at work here have gathered together to pray at 10 a.m. That in itself isn't so troubling, I suppose, though it does bug me a little having religious observances going on in my workplace.

What does bug me is that each morning when they do it, they go around and ask each person individually to participate. So each day I have to feel like a cad telling them no, thank you very much, I don't wish to participate.They're always polite and unruffled, but I'm still left with the whole 'fine, burn in Hell for all we care' feeling that I'm sure is totally in my head.

Rob's Amazing Poetry Generator

I might have to take the script and plunk it down on my own site.

From smirkingchimp.com:

"It violates democratic etiquette to call your fellow citizens "idiots." (Unless they're liberals -- "We all agree that liberals are stupid," writes Charles Krauthammer.) Fortunately, the PC wordworks has coined a new euphemism to replace the ugly word "retarded." It's "intellectually disabled," and we have it just in time. How else could we describe a majority that accepts the logic of "supporting the troops"? Protest as I might, a local columnist explained to me, once the soldiers are "locked and cocked" I owe them not only my prayers for their safe deliverance but unqualified endorsement of their mission, no matter how immoral and ill-advised it may seem to me.

"According to this woeful logic, whoever controls the armed forces in the country where you live owns your conscience and your soul. It mandates unanimous civilian support for King Herod's soldiers smashing Hebrew babies against doorposts. It holds our soldiers hostage to silence our common sense, independent judgment and moral autonomy -- the foundations of each thinking individual's self-respect, not to mention the foundations of every theory of democratic government.

"'To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public,' said President Theodore Roosevelt."

Well, looking at my engine last night, it's very obvious what caused the problem. The big-ass radiator hose on top busted open like Mr. Creosote. While that's clearly the immediate problem, I'm still wondering if the radiator's toast and if all this might be the fault of the water pump. A new radiator's $172 at Checker and a new water pump's $54. I have about $57 to my name right now, and that has to last me another week and a half.

My inclination is to take the radiator out to get to the water pump and check it out. Not supposed to work on cars at my apartment complex. Probably gonna, anyway.

Even if all of this is right and gets fixed, the engine still makes strange noises. But then, maybe the weird noises are just the water pump. But I can't imagine it'd be that loud. God only knows.

Progress is being made, and I'm not quite as depressed about this whole thing as I was. But.

Boy, have I been grumpy lately. Sorry. I think it's the car troubles and the generalized money troubles. Sorry, all!