Watching the news reports from Israel. The level of anger, grief, outrage, and excruciating frustration has come to a boiling point.

Timelies all!

So we have a hamster. The first few days Mr. S kept taking it out of the cage. Today he's letting the critter stay in the cage. We'll see how this goes.

I have today and tomorrow off--I had a dentist appointment tomorrow (which I forgot to cancel today) and was going to go up to Brevard today and spend the night (I still use the dentist in Brevard); however I realized I really need to let my shoulder heal and try 2 days of the full muscle relaxers as prescribed. So next Mon/Tues we will go to Brevard after the appointment in Ashevile.

I have basically slept or dozed all day thanks to the muscle relaxers but my shoulder does feel better. I moved it around some and it doesn't feel tight or sore but I also haven't used it that much.

Work this week will be interesting. Our interim Store manager is on vacation, my team lead is on vacation and the injured Academy trainer who has been out may or may not be able to return to work. And they are supposed to announce the new store manager. My Team Lead said in his 17 years working for Wal Mart he's never seen a store manager replaced so quickly or without a candidate doing a store walk through with higher management. We had one candidate who came in and introduced himself one day and walked around (and managed to ruffle feathers) . I feel like it was done that way because they had either already decided on him or already decided on the guy who is currently the Manager for the Remodel and so it was only a token thing.

anyway next week is going to be weird at work.

I have fallen down the Wikipedia Rabbit hole yesterday and today over Arctic and Antarctic Explorations. It started yesterday in the wee hours when I woke up and couldn't sleep and was scrolling online and read something that led me to reading about The Franklin Expedition and The Northwest Passage (I can't remember but it wasn't Due South Fanfic). That led me to reading wikipedia about Mysterious Disappearances at Sea---and then complaining at lunch that most of them were not mysterious at all. The entries are things like "the ship was last seen sailing into bad weather" and then describing how no trace was ever found. That isn't mysterious. The ship ran into bad weather and sank with all hands or the crew got on life boats and then all died. Or the accounts of the flying aces who were shot over the Channel and whose bodies were never recorded. Again that is not mysterious. They were shot down and their bodies were never recovered. We know what happened.

That led me to read about the Dole Air Race because 2 of the competitors were listed as "mysterious disappearances"--meaning the planes went down over the ocean and weren't recovered. This is the entry of it [link] and this is the most ill conceived race. James Dole (the pineapple dude) sponsored an air race from Oakland, CA to Honolulu, HI with first prize being $25,000 and 2nd prize $10,000. He hoped Lindbergh would participate and this was supposed to be the first time anyone had been able to do it. The race was set for August 1927 but a couple of people ended up making the journey in July but the race went on. I don't know why Lindberg didn't participate but he was smart to stay far, far away.

There were supposed to be 15 planes competing but it got whittled down to 9 after there were 3 crashed and 3 deaths in 3 days just before the race and then several crashes and disqualifications. Nine started the race :Oklahoma that was forced to return after 30 mins, El Encanto wrecked on take off, Pablo Pacific Flyer managed to crash twice on take off attempts, Golden Eagle which was lost at sea, Miss Doran which had to turn back after take off due to engine trouble and then managed to take off again but was lost at sea, Aloha finished 2nd, Woolarc finished 2nd with 1.5 pints of fuel left, and Dallas Spirit which was forced to abandon the race with engine trouble. Then the pilot of Dallas Spirit decided to help with the search for the missing 2 planes and was--- lost at sea.

You would think after 3 planes crash and 4 people die they would have called off the race but they did things differently back in 1927.

Then I got back on track with Franklin and ended up reading about him and then Shackleton and Robert Scott and then a bunch of other expeditions and ....there were a lot of bad decisions made by those men as well. Although sometimes the decisions were forced on them by Royal Societies, the Royal Navy, or sponsors. (although pride and stubbornness also seemed to play a big role in why there were a lot of dead explorers) but also things like sending someone with no experience with horses to buy ponies that were needed for an expedition.

But pride and hurt feelings cost a lot of lives ...Shackleton made some really bad choices because he got his pride hurt and he was feuding with Scott and his support party, the Ross Sea Party, really paid the price for that.

Now I'm reading an e book from the library about Franklin and having to remind myself I'm reading about the Northwest Passage and not the Antarctic because I've spent so much of the day reading about various South Pole explorers.

Sheryl I hope the hamster does well and Mr S is able to enjoy his pet.

I'm hoping that it helps a lot, Sheryl. We've had so many problems because of Male Pride(TM), askye.(Women occasionally do it, too, but I think we're copying male style, most often.0

True although there weren't a lot of women involved in the polar explorations.

It also makes me understand how Stockton Rush of Oceangate wasn't such an anomaly. Apparently alot of the issues with survival came from explorers ignoring the Inuit and assuming they had better ideas. So Stockton Rush would have been one of the Polar Explorers who "mysteriously disappeared at sea" or or tried to get some place on the ice and "either they fell through the ice or part of the ice broke off and floated away". Or maybe the guy who nearly died of scurvy and starvation because he hated seal and refused to eat it when it was the main food source.

I’m back from the annual family trip to Lexington, MI. It’s a small village on Lake Huron. There were four kids under six and seven adults, so coordinating things was an ongoing challenge. But I got time in the lake and time with my family, so it’s all good.

I wish I was still on Lake Huron. (I checked a map and it looks like Lexington is about as far as it's possible to be from the North Channel where my family's place is, but still! Lake!)

School has FINALLY started here on the East Coast, but since both of my kids are upper classmen (8th/12th) they're on a weird schedule. Our district has 6th and 9th graders come in by themselves on the first day for orientation, so D only had to go in for the club fair (he's an officer in Creative Writing and Drama clubs), and A is on a three-hour delay.

Good, bad, and ugly long weekend. The local firehouse fundraising event was a complete blast with the best music they have had in years. Good food and turnout. Made lots of bucks. It was 38 degrees when we got up this morning which means that fall is falling, it will get to the mid 60s with full sunshine so not complaining. My sister tested positive for covid yesterday. She has had lots of doctor visits preparing for knee surgery so probably got it at some office. Of course, that means surgery delay. I've been going to the gym with her daily meaning about 45 minutes a day sharing the car and lots more contact generally. So guess who has the faintest of faint lines today on my test. I'm only sniffly like a mild cold, but annoying because I have to let the construction guys know to hold for a while.

Oh, boo, Laura. Feel better and may it be mild and short-lived.

We had a chill week. Saw friends and read. Did some chores but not much.