#1—
I went out Wednesday to get some groceries, and when I turned toward the garden, a small yellowish blur flitted past me and landed on a plant nearby.
I recognized it, and out came the phone/camera.
It was a Skipper butterfly, probably of the “Fiery Skipper” variety. The camera’s zoom lens worked fine.
Usually they skip away quick. But this one stayed and seemed to preen, opening its segmented wings to the sun, and it was still there when I got in the car.
Skippers are small — tiny, really, maybe an inch. But they can be vivid.
#2–
A couple miles away, we passed a familiar sign, bearing a sirptising and unfamiliar number.
Good grief. Was it real?? Again, out came the camera, to prove I wasn’t spreading disinformation.
Since the Fair Wendy bought an EV last December, this sign has become less central for us; but most of the country is still fixated on it.
I checked when I got home: in North Carolina it was early March when gas prices here broke the $4.00 barrier. That’s eighteen weeks flirting with $5. Yesterday the June inflation number came out very high. Today the president is in the Middle East, trying to turn some of it around.
Maybe at least one part of it has now peaked?
We hope!
How was your day?
If you were from New Orleans, you might have said, “I went out today to make groceries.” Just saying…
Gas prices are an example of how we create our own prisons. The economic principle of supply and demand doesn’t apply, only the concept of greed, and not so much the greed of suppliers as the greed of consumers.
Gas companies accept any excuse for price gouging. We accept that must have our gas at any price. Until the pain at the pump moves us to abandon our cars (oh wait, I mean step up to electric, they will never take our freedom to be imprisoned by our cars), we grumble more as we greedily consume our steady diet.