Changing attitudes

Yesterday at 1:30 returning from the pool, the thermometer made it to a hundred. There was no consolation that humidity was low. You could fry an egg on the sidewalk, but who would do that when a dozen eggs are pushing two dollars a dozen?
So, today, I was happy to stay in and find out what the rest of the country was going through. It occurred to me that the last two weeks of August are supposed to be lagtime for most everyone who has labored hard. With the President and Congress out, I could perhaps find some worthwhile news. The weather trumped politics. Did the North Koreans ever get outside help after their big flood? Texas’ hurricane season loomed. In midAmerica 40 deaths were attributed to the heat. Sometimes it’s hard to concentrate on the orneriness of politics.
Whammo! The auxiliary generator kicked in and the CRTs went black. Maryville’s electric service feeds from TVA’s wholesale supply. They’re stressed, but nothing like brownouts and rationing we had in the 80s. I read where TVA had to shut down one reactor’s output, because the cooling water from the Tennessee River was above maximum allowable temperature.
Sometimes it’s nice to have print newspapers. In culling out a whole section of high school football machismo and the latest angst over stock markets, I lit on the Nation/World page of The Daily Times.
BUSH TURNS TO EXECUTIVE ACTION TO ACCOMPLISH HIS AGENDA, (enough for a full column) written by Deb Reichmann of the AP, was datelined Crawford, Texas. Not newsworthy if one has been following almost eight years of Shrubbery, but mind jarring if one has followed our Times and “our President” for that long.