Paid Ransom?

5/13/21 Daily Wire about payment of ransom by Colonial Pipeline says what Biden will do:

Yesterday, the White House announced that it would respond to the shortage by forming a blue-ribbon committee to explore the possibility of forming a second committee to develop proposals....

A committee to form a committee?

Sore

My wife and I started assembling the telescope storage shed this week with assembling individual subsections.   We had arranged to hire a friend to help us but he decided heart surgery sounded like a better way to spend his time.  

This was theoretically a 2-3 hour job.  After 3 hours of pre-assembly, our son came over last night and we spent four hours assembling.   We reached this stage last night.

Doors should be pretty quick to do.  At current housing prices around here...$400 a month.  Bring your own 5 gallon bucket.  Water from the hose.  Showers in the house by appointment.  

It may look small but all three telescopes will roll into it.

In the process, my wife's love for little helpless creatures came into play.  Frogs hiding behind wall panels to avoid the cat and dogs. At one point the dogs tried to climb a conifer.  Some foolish robin had built a nest with three little freshly hatched babies, so we constructed a temporary barrier to keep the dogs out of the tree.

Now that CDC has given the (mostly) all-clear signal we can invite all our friends who helped with the move over for barbecue and star party.

CDC Says the Chipped Are Now Free

 Except if you are immune compromised, you can stop masking and social distancing:

If youi thought this would go on forever, this is good news.  If you are not vaccinated get it done and join us outdoors.

Another Bunny Hop Market Day

Two cringeworthy days because of inflation numbers.  Today mostly recovered with no obvious good news, except that stock prices fell so much that buyers saw some opportunities. 

Top of the World, Looking Down on Creation

 Yes the song the Carpenters recorded.  But also from Haleakala:

Great Moments in Deadpan Internet

 The Center for Applied Eschatology

The Top of Haleakala

 The Danish exchange student was amazed as we rose through Denmark's highest altitude.  Here is the summit.

And observatories:

The dome is a solar observatory; the weird one is USAF space junk tracking.