We have a piece we are gnawing at. It is not ready for publication, and yet here is publication time. That means we have to generate something else. Splash likes it up here in Arlington. Loma concurs, since there are public taprooms within walking distance and not a four-mile drive to town. That first part is easy, the short drive at dusk toward Historic East Davis Street ‘downtown.’

The challenge was always the drive back in the rich country darkness. So, in the interest of public safety, we are restricting evening entertainment to those activities that can be done in ordinary shoes and without internal combustion or electric support.

The latter point is significant, since ‘electricity’ doesn’t refer only to vehicular transport. We have internet at Big Pink.

It really is startling. Down at Refuge Farm we had no “cable.” There was talk some would be coming in a year or two. We were thus forced into satellite connectivity. It had the advantage of putting us “out of plan” on bandwidth just by attempting to log on. We tried Hughes Net, and Exceed services, both of which were intended to connect the mostly immobile farm to a routing device in low-earth orbit. Melissa reported whichever of the networks we attempted to contact were not sufficient to do something she called “streaming,” which meant we were detached from a media source called “NetFlix” or something.

At Big Pink? Now, we are streaming fools.

In fact, that is where some of us are right now. Some of the rest of the group huddled for the morning production meeting. You recall that coffee and nicotine used to drive the meeting set up. The latter and more harmful product requires use outdoors. At The Farm, the Fire Ring made sense. Big Pink is a different sort of issue, based on floor space and connectivity. We could do a Zoom call and not smell smoke, and now share drafts of The Daily through the miracle of fiber-optic connectivity.

A larger question was where Buck, and Splash and Loma were going to sleep, out of the elements. There is a distinct trail of action items that go with that. Sleeping in the F150 or The Panzer required a cover for the truck bed or putting down the rear seats in the GLK350. Both were sufficient for the first few nights Up North, but we prefer not to be included in the other victim groups who live in vehicles up here. We understand there is an efficiency unit available on the 5th Floor, and we will take action to secure a safe roost for the Writer’s Section with central food preparation in the Chairman’s suite.

Does it make sense? We are trying the meeting this morning, breakfast dishes piled in the Chairman’s kitchen, the Zoom call video component on the 50” flat-screen, the sound track from the NetFlix rumbling from the back sleeping chambers. We have avoided any reference to the current national turmoil this morning. When not used to support the morning meeting, the flatscreen is concentrating on a bizarre mass killing in Idaho.

There seems to be several of those, not all in the Gem State. Our Attorney General has announced another Special Council has been appointed to look into the record of a recent former President. That seems a little redundant to many of us, since he has been under investigation since he decided to come down that escalator six years ago. Platoons of investigators were hard at work for a couple years to come up with indictable offenses, Congress held two impeachments, and now has appointed a second Special Council to look at issues that have only examined two or three times.

They could have indicted all of us with much less effort. In a stunning- yawn- development, the new House leadership has announced they will initiate a series of investigations into the current occupant of the White House. So, we will have competing claims of criminal behavior at increasing volume for the next 24 months. The end goal is gaining or retaining control of the Executive Branch of our government. They seem to have a lot of fun with that.

We here at Big Pink are in favor of knowing whoever it is that produces those note-cards for our current President. You know the cards. They are the ones that start with direction: “Enter the Room. Proceed to the chair in the Middle. Sit down.” Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires we support whoever is in charge. Our only minor issue in full compliance with the UCMJ will be resolved at some point, we hope. That is the fact that we are not sure who exactly that is. We assume it is whoever approves those cards, and wish they were available on streaming video.

That is a side issue this morning. We have vowed to stay as compliant as possible. We have the capability to stream digital information, we are confident that we will have all the information we can handle. And more!

Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
www.visocotra.com