Remember what I said about rain this time of year?

Blew in around 7pm. 'Blew' as in high gusts, pouring rain, but- amazingly- no hail. And, in a magnificent feat of timing, about four minutes before the burgers I was grilling were done.

I was under the carport, so the grill was ok, but I was trying to figure out how to get them into the house without them getting a shower when I spotted the bucket.

Yes, it was clean.

Enough.

Hell with it, it kept the rain off, and they were good.

Since I haven't heard anything, looks like the big fireworks shows were called off, which sucks. We did need rain, but would have been nice if it'd been after, for those going to them.

Of course, it would also have been nice to receive rain as in 'light to moderate water fall from the sky' as opposed to 'don't try to walk into the wind and breathe, or you'll drown'. In any case, it did indeed water everything. Some sprinkles off & on since, and the weather weenies say chances remain until about 1am. Or so. Damned if you can trust that time.

This morning I ran out to a flea market to look around, and found something I'd been wanting: a cast-iron cornbread pan that makes the ears of corn. Had found several before, but the people were wanting to sell them to collectors, not people who wanted to cook with the damn things; when you ask price and they turn it over, look at a name or makers mark on the bottom and say prices more than I've seen .22 rifles for...

I'll end with words from Mark Steyn on the Palin situation:
In states far from the national spotlight, politics still attracts normal people. You're a mayor or a state senator or even the governor, but you lead a normal life. The local media are tough on you, but they know you, they live where you live, they're tough on the real you, not on some caricature cooked up by a malign alliance of late-night comics who'd never heard of you a week earlier and media grandees supposedly on your own side who pronounce you a "cancer".

Then suddenly you get the call from Washington. You know it'll mean Secret Service, and speechwriters, and minders vetting your wardrobe. But nobody said it would mean a mainstream network comedy host doing statutory rape gags about your 14-year old daughter. You've got a special-needs kid and a son in Iraq and a daughter who's given you your first grandchild in less than ideal circumstances. That would be enough for most of us. But the special-needs kid and the daughter and most everyone else you love are a national joke, and the PC enforcers are entirely cool with it.
I don't mind people being tough on politicians, though I'd much prefer a media that actually gave a crap about facts and was somewhat even-handed; I very much mind a bunch of assholes spreading flat lies, and attacking a politician's kids. If your kid is in their 20's or 30's and part of the campaign, they're legitimately part of the story; when you attack a baby with the kind of disgusting crap we've seen, when- as Steyn notes- rape jokes about your daughters are considered 'all in good fun', that's bullshit. And when the media is so bigoted they'll send whole teams of investigators to Alaska to look for dirt on Palin(one of the worst examples of 'reporting' the last while) but won't investigate crap about Obama, they've forfeited any reason for us to believe them on anything: if they'll pull this crap for political reasons, why should we trust them on anything else? When they'll report bullcrap rumors as if they were real, then make 'corrections' as small as possible, why should we trust a word they say? We have the spectacle of some major media "You can trust us" journalists, after the election, saying "Well, we don't really know what Obama believes", why should we trust you to do the job on ANYTHING?

And to every slimy jerk like Letterman, and the sleazes at Huffington Jackasses: you have no ground to stand on, at all, when someone finally goes after you, your personal as well as professional life. You said it was just fine when done to Palin and her family, so shut the hell up when someone starts digging into your family life; your friends.

You know, thinking about it, how about independance from restrictions on digging up everything possible on these people and broadcasting it far & wide?