Make hay while the sun shines

And shine it did today.

• Saw several large pastures out near White Settlement Road and Cattlebaron Trail chock full of round bales ($45/each) and several semi trailers transporting them, well, to somewhere else.
(near Horseshoe Bend)
• My hay hauling days are far in my past, but it appears from the spacing in the fields, they got a good cutting.  With the drought, I reckon the next will be pretty thin.
• Some 15 years or so ago, when local hay got really scarce, and diesel wasn't $4.00 a gallon, I used to finance a retired rodeo cowboy who would take a flatbed semi up to Kansas, Nebraska, or South Dakota (however far he had to go to get a load) to bring back round bales for Texas stockmen and suburban ranchette owners.
• With today's fuel prices, I'm not sure he could get north of Wichita.
• Next month marks four years since I lost my best friend.
• If I had college to do over, I think I would study mechanical engineering or economics.  I might would even go to divinity school after.
• Does that surprise you?  It surprises me.
• I have, in the past week, started two posts - one on morality, a fusion of the Weinergate debacle and Hefner getting hung out to dry; the second on finance and economics, with the conclusion that we may already be, financially as a nation, toast, and we just don't know it yet.
• Synopsis of the first: We've morally bankrupted ourselves under the guise of sophistication and diversity.
• Thumbnail of the second: We've bankrupted ourselves through abdication of fiscally sound money practices.  Our great-grandparents would disown us for what our parents' - and our - generations have allowed with regard to the proliferation of public, and private, debt.  I frequently harp about the abandonment of the Bretton Woods/gold standard, but that's only one piece of the puzzle.
• I think that morality and economics are intertwined.
• It sounds like the Mavericks' parade today was a success.  What to make of Vancouver's lawlessness?  Aren't Canucks supposed to be all peaceful and stuff, eh?
• If you haven't seen the civic booster video by a Grand Rapids, MI group, check this out from Lagniappe's Lair.  I know some folks thought it was great that Eminem was 'representing' Detroit in the new Mopar commercials.  Not being a Michigander, I don't have a dog in that fight, but I would say that I wouldn't want him representing me.  I'm more Jerry than Marshall Mathers.
• And, considering the prior morality and divinity talk, I'm still quite a ways off from Cotton Mather.
• I bought some AA NiZn batteries today for the camera.  NiZn, in contrast to NiMH's 1.2 vdc, has a nominal voltage of 1.6 vdc  -  I'm hoping this results in shorter boot-up times and faster cycling.
• The Angus Beef swiss and mushroom snack wrap at the Golden Arches today was pretty good - I probably don't want to know the calorie count, but hopefully it's less than the burger.
• Finally, Keystone posted last weekend's message - I'll put it up in a separate post.