Chamblee54

0807-1015 – The path journal for last week,Inter-City Beauties, is now playing at your favorite browser. Today’s walk was terrific. 39 minutes, no dizziness. The amusement was Ambient Summer, by Daniel Hawkins at Low Light Mixes. This was an ambient music mix, instead of a podcast. It is always a happy moment when I see that LLM has a new mix up. We will be back to the tyranny of words soon enough. Reading text is overrated.
0808 – The walk today was free of dizziness. I did 1.77 miles in 55:41. The entertainment was EP:57 – Cooper Escapes Wildfires! on Provoked. Darryl and Scott were saying basically the same things as before … the wars are stupid, we are running out of munitions, the defense budget is giving us little protection for a lot of money.
“The example I always give people is when we hit that Syrian airfield, after Assad supposedly gassed people during the first Trump administration. We shot like 80 something tomahawk missiles at this airfield. It was back up and running a week and a half later. They’ll blow up your building that you’re in, but they’re not things you’re going to go level a city with. We would need a thousand times more standoff munitions than we actually have to pull something like that off. That’s just not what they’re built for. It’s kind of in the name, you know, precision strike missiles, and precision munitions.”
“It’s very hard to get them to to look inward at their own behavior because … like all paranoiacs they have this built-in mechanism that the minute you criticize them then you’re part of the conspiracy.”
One of the things I do is keep my eyes open. This is a good thing when you see old ATT land line wire on a sidewalk. This wire is a safety hazard waiting to happen. I also know, from past experience, that asking ATT to fix it will be a pain in the butt. ATT repairs is another bureaucracy providing jobs for lazy people. I called to report the downed line, and was surprised at how smoothly the bot menu worked. Then I found out the office was closed for the weekend. … The repairman is scheduled to come Friday, August 14. As with all things ATT, I have received dozens of texts about this.
The second thing I saw was an amazon package in the street. I picked it up, intending to throw it away. The package had not been opened, and had the merchandise inside. I walked over to the address, a quarter mile away, and left it on the front porch.
0809-0941 There was no walk today. It was time to cut the lawn. Summer is … finally … winding down a bit, and the lawn will not need much more cutting. Hopefully, the mower and the mower pusher will be up to the task.
0810-1039 The walk today was terrific. I did 47:45, and my feet did not give me any problems. My head compensated for this by exploding, because of the podcast.
The show was Episode 318: Tick Talk on Blocked and Reported. At 11:03, Katie started talking about Henry Hay Jr, better known as Harry. HH was a key figure in 20th century Gay history. Katie started talking about HH because of the term “two spirit.” HH was one of the founders of the radical faeries, which provided some amusing quotes.
“The radical faeries, this was a group founded in the late ’70s by Harry Hay. It still exists today all over the world. I’m sure it’s more gender- inclusive than it was in the beginning. · “The first radical fairy gathering has 200 men doing workshops on “such varied subjects as massage, nutrition, local botany, healing energy, the politics of gay and spirit, English country dancing, and auto fellatio.” · “He would have these radical faerie gatherings in the woods or in the desert. They would get naked, do rituals, and wear beads and feathers. It’s all quite problematic by today’s standards. I do wonder how they’ve dealt with the Great Awakening.”
Eventually, Katie got tired of the titillating details, and moved onto “Two Spirit.” Basically, Katie thinks TS is cultural appropriation. The white man wants to justify his foolishness, and so he talks about “Native American Tradition.” I am going to remain neutral in this debate. A blog post was cited, “The Origin of ‘Two-Spirit’ & The Gay Rights Movement … The Strange Story of Harry Hay and Will Roscoe.” The article described an early faerie gathering: “The Dionysian frenzy which took hold of the participants at the first gathering would be savagely condemned today as denigrating Native culture and role-playing of the highest order. … Many would come to adopt pseudo-native monikers, like Crazy Owl and Morning Star.”
“I want to skip forward to the point where Harry Haye becomes truly problematic. I’m not talking about feather headdresses. I’m talking about Nambla. … Yes. That Nambla. So starting in the late ’70s and continuing until his death, Harry Haye was an unapologetic supporter of Nambla.”
0811-0925 – The walk today was splendid. I did 52:19, with undetectable foot dizziness. The show was The Utah Entrepreneur Trying to Remake Pine Bluff, Arkansas on Gone South. John Fenley decided to buy a warehouse in Pine Bluff AR. Things did not go as planned. At one point, Mr. Fenley bought a competing company named Murfie. Mr. Fenley might have considered Murphy’s Law at this point. … At one point somebody said “this is where the s*** hits the fan.” Immediately after that scatological landmark, there was a commercial for Chumba Casino.
0812 – The walk today went well, with 36 minutes of no dizziness. I would have enjoyed walking more, but I had a chore to do. The show was J.J.: The Undercover FBI Agent Who Took Down Len Davis and New Orleans’ Dirtiest Cops on Gone South. JJ told his story to GS host Jed Lipinski. Considering that this is an admitted undercover agent, a certain amount of skepticism is in order.
0813-0926 – The walk today was hot. Soon we will wait until mid morning so it will be warmer, but today you are sweating at 9am. The feet were behaving, which is appreciated. The canned entertainment today was Red Hot Chili Peppers’ John Frusciante and the Death of River Phoenix on Disgraceland. Whenever drugs kill a famous person, there is speculation galore. Some say that John Frusciante gave River Phoenix the drugs that killed him. This episode respectfully disagrees. … For more information about why I do these walks, see The Path Journal. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in July 1940. “Family of migrant fruit workers. Berrien County, Michigan” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah

On Friday morning, I post the path journal. These are the notes from my morning walk. This post is a commentary on this habit. It will be listed as a page on my blog.
A couple of years ago, I noticed my feet becoming numb when I stand. Sometimes it was a nuisance, and sometimes it was debilitating. Sometimes it is just the feet. Sometimes the dysfunction spreads into my calves, and even thighs. The cause has not been determined. I began to call it dizziness, and say that my feet were dizzy.
After a while, I noticed that if I go walking in the morning, there is less dizziness. In November of 2024, I started walking in the morning. At first, it was two laps on the path. (We will discuss the path in a minute.) I kept a log of these walks, noting how long I walked, and how my feet felt.
Soon, the walk went from two laps, to three, four, five. Soon, I got tired of counting laps. I set the timer on my phone to a half hour. Eventually this expanded to 36:00, which became the standard setting. I start walking, and go until the alarm sounds. If I my feet feel good, I might do more.
Since my feet were still going bad, I did not want to get far from the house. This is why I started walking on the path. The path is a cut through leading to a school. It is .08 mile, or 245 steps. There is a 26 foot rise in elevation. The path is not paved, which can make walking a bit tricky. You do not want to fall down here. Here is the view from the west end (across from the school), and the east end.
At first, I tried to meditate, or let my thoughts wander. Soon, I began to listen to podcasts and music. I was always hearing things that got my attention. I began dictating notes on the phone, which led to writing these thoughts into the path journal. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. These are details of a panorama shot, “Inter-city beauties, Atlantic City, 1926”
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah

0731-1052 – There was no walk on the path today. I cut the lawn. This is prime time for the weeds to grow, with abundant sunshine and rain. Combine that with an aging machine, pushed by an aging cracker, and you have a chore. As usual for lawn day, there were zero problems with the feet. … The path journal for last week, An Unusually Heavy Fog, is up. I sold it thusly: Another seven days of walking back and forth on the path. Some days are more fun than others.
0801 – Today’s walk was a banger. 1.92 miles, 1:08:48, 6169 steps, 96 foot elevation gain. There was a bit of dizziness about a quarter mile away from the house. I had the frightening thought that this might be the start of debilitating dizziness. Fortunately, the dizziness quickly wore off.
The destination was an estate sale on a nearby street. I had driven by there yesterday, and noticed signs everywhere saying not to park on the north side of the street. The signs were furnished by the estate sale perpetrators. I talked to one of them. We agreed that both sides parking is trouble.
The show today was “Man-Eating Cats” on The New Yorker Fiction Podcast. An old lady lives alone with three cats. The old lady died suddenly, and was not found for a couple of weeks. The cats got hungry, and ate her remains. … The story got better. A married man meets a married woman at work. Soon, they left their spouses, and moved from Japan, to a Greek Island.
Meanwhile, I was stuck .61 mile away from the house, and seriously needed to pee. The estate sale lady firmly told me the house bathrooms were off limits. I walked to a nearby nature preserve, and found some weeds to water.
After 51 minutes, the story ran out. The second show of the day was EP:56 – Wars & Rumors of Wars on Provoked. Darryl told us about his getting food poisoning, and throwing up all over the place. The first part of the show was about COVID and the devil incarnate, Anthony Fauci. Once again, I agree with a lot of what they were saying, but find the umpteenth retelling to be a touch boring.
0802 – The walk today was fine. Overcast, threatening to rain, the air was bursting with humidity. Fortunately, the cloud cover moderated the temperature. The feet had nuisance level dizziness. The show was Big Man on Campus: The Hoops Phenom Who Tried High School Twice on Chameleon. Rashun Richardson shows up at a North Texas high school. He has no id, but claims to be a Hurricane Harvey refugee. The young man is a phenomenal basketball player, which smooths his acceptance into the community. Of course, the story is BS.
There was another animal on the path. A turtle was resting about twenty feet from the west end. On the second lap, I put a stick behind him. Two laps later, they had moved into the ivy, and did not move the rest of my walk. The rabbit was off in the weeds, doing what rabbits do.
0803 – Today’s walk was 36 minutes, with mild dizziness fading after a few laps. Today is the first day of school, which means the path will be full of schoolpeople from 0715 to 0745, and from 1415 to 1445. I will have to schedule my walks accordingly.
There were two podcasts, neither of which was especially amusing. Rachel Yoder Reads “The Promise” on The New Yorker: The Writer’s Voice was about a young girl getting used to farm life. The next show was The Finnish Baby Box on 99% Invisible. TFBB is about a box of baby care products that new parents receive from the Finnish government. The baby box is a beloved institution in Finland, and an introduction to socialism and regulation. The box does not include a bottle, because the government wants to encourage breast feeding.
0804 – The walk today went well. 49:20, 1.38 miles, no foot dizziness. The entertainment was “COVERUP!” – Charlie Kirk Investigator UNLOADS on Rigged Case | Baron Coleman • 458 on Julian Dorey Podcast. George Baron Coleman has produced tons of content about the Charlie Kirk killing. In many instances, 2+2=√-1. … I wear hoodies and t-shirts. If you catch me in a Little Bo Peep outfit, something’s gone terribly wrong.”
0805 – The walk today sucked. The dizziness began as I was walking across the street to the path. I only did 24 minutes. If I absolutely had to, I probably could have finished 36 minutes, but I didn’t see the point of trying. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. … Yesterday I was worn out by 1730, but took a shower, got dinner, and stayed up until 0100. I got up at 0430, unable to sleep anymore. Maybe this has something to do with the foot dysfunction.
The canned entertainment today was Darryl Cooper Iran Deep Dive: How the War Will Change America Forever, Nukes, Zionism, and Islam on The Tucker Carlson Show. For all I know, Darryl was why my feet were acting up. I started listening to this while going to Stevie B’s pizza on Pleasant Hell Road, the same route I took while listening to episodes of Fear & Loathing in the New Jerusalem.
@martyrmade “Always a great time hanging out with Tucker.” @chamblee54 “Please, no hyperbole about WW2 this time.” The reply was liked by @martyrmade.
DC: “George Kennan, when talking about the Soviet Union, he said something. I won’t be as eloquent as he was … it’s the privilege of every paranoid man to eventually prove himself correct. And it’s because when you believe everybody’s out to get you, you interact with everybody as if they’re out to get you. And then eventually they get tired of it and they’re out to get you.”
DC: “When I made those comments about Churchill, as anodyne as I think they were, afterwards I did wish I hadn’t put it that way.” … This reminds me of a situation I found myself in. An “entertainer” got in trouble for saying the six letter word. The overwhelming majority of the people going into convulsions were privileged white men. After watching a youtube video of the talent in action, I decided that this person was not that important. I made the unfortunate decision to say “Just ignore her, and find something more important to whine about.” Sometimes, bluntness is not a good idea.
0806 – The walk today was something to be grateful for. After the troubles yesterday, the only thing to do is put the shoes on, and try again. Today I did 47 minutes with no foot trouble. The first show was The Archangel Made Me Do It: The French Mayor And The “Fortune Teller” Who Has His Ear on Chameleon. A village in France has a funky mayor, whose actions are directed by a psychic. This got old after a few minutes, so I shifted gears. The second show was What’s Jeff Bridges’ Secret to Creativity? on Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin. Jeffrey Leon Bridges comes across as a warm, friendly person. I would enjoy listening to JLB read the phone book. JLB talks about thespian judo, and how his mother’s advice may have saved his life.
When JLB was a young man, his actress mom told him “Remember, have fun and don’t take it too seriously.” Many years later, JLB got cancer. When the chemotherapy took away his immune system, COVID came for a visit. “I was on deaths door, and what I found sitting at the doorstep, there is where you pull out all your tricks, man. All your spiritual, philosophic, you know, tools that you can. And the one that gave me the most succor was “Remember, have fun and don’t take it too seriously.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. These are details of a panorama shot, “Inter-city beauties, Atlantic City, 1926” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah