Another year flashed by. in A small but passable life.

It took them two weeks but they finally found that little girl’s body. She had been washed downstream all the way to the lake. So sad. I’m glad they found her before the coyotes did.

When I went to the library I’d found “Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress” by Christopher Ryan waiting for me on the hold shelf. I had seen the author on Joe Rogan and had to read it. The library had to purchase a copy because they hadn’t yet. Always nice of them to purchase books for me to read for free.

The book was an affirmation of a theory I believe is close to reality, that I’ve heard espoused in many disciplines, that our hundreds of thousands of years as foragers was the evolutionary goal. And the author’s theory as to what happened to spark our settlement into civilization is the same as Graham Green’s. (Look up the Younger Dryas). Anyway, we’re just overflowing bacteria in a finite sized Petri dish now.

There were a couple of comments on my last entry about how I could have gone across the border to a dental clinic in Mexico for cheaper dental work. But the thing is I don’t feel like arguing with Mom. She has friends who go to a clinic across the border from Yuma. She has a nephew and his wife who go to a dental school for work. Her opinion is that she thinks that’s stupid and a bother. She likes her dentist, that he treated Dad with all his poor teeth problems well, and that she’s been using him for twenty years. And now I agree. He’s one of the good ones. And about trying to save some money? Mom doesn’t care. Mom buys what she wants when she wants to. Perfectly good items we’ve tossed to buy new in the last five years: a car, a stove, a frig, a desktop computer, four old CRT TV’s, and yes, even the kitchen sink. And let’s not talk about that $400 mobility scooter she doesn’t even ride.

Anyway, the dentist says a few more visits and we’ll be good to go.

It started raining last night. It looks like it should be cooler than the current of 55 degrees out there. It is supposed to be cloudy and rainy for a few days.

I’ve got Christmas dinner ready to go tomorrow: a seven pound pre-cooked bone-in ham, a box of scalloped potatoes, leftover peas, and a cheesecake for desert. It’ll be good.

I found a free bicycle offered here in the park. I took it home. It’ll come in handy here in the park. The back tire went flat. I’ll have to get a patch kit. And of course, get around to patching it.

The new car is now a year-and-half old. And the odometer has just turned over to six thousand miles.

Anyway, I’ve got another non-fiction book to read.

I’ll just sit here and wait for the sun to come back out so I can head to the pool again.