Chamblee54

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

The path journal from last week, Losing IQ Points, was published this morning. The walk today happened. 36 minutes, some dizziness, and the knowledge that the heat was coming. The show was “Star Witness: Paul Skalnik, the Jailhouse Informant Who Sent Innocent Men to Death Row” on Gone South. Paul Skalnik was a cop, conman, and jailhouse snitch. Pinellas County FL used his services a lot, sending men to death row in questionable cases. At one point, the show mentioned that Mr. Skalnik had been sent to prison for grand theft. Right after that, there was a commercial for Chumba Casino. A story about grand theft, sponsored by grand theft.
0718-0840 – The walk today was different. I walked up to the MARTA underpass on Peachtree Road, and took the long way home. It took 40:00 to do 1.31 miles, with no problems whatsoever from the feet. The first podcast was Drabblecast 510 – Storage Spaces on The Drabblecast. DC is a delight when it appears, and this was one of the good stories. A kid makes friends with a man in his building. Mr. Denison hooks hard drives up to a cut in his arm. The kid proceeds to steal a data card out of his dad’s camera. He bites down hard on the card, and sees pictures from last summer’s vacation. The next show was Manuel’s Tavern (Interview w/ Megan Maloof) on Archive Atlanta. Manuel’s tavern is an Atlanta institution, currently managed by Manuel’s granddaughter. The episode was a tad boring, with few quirky details to remember.
The walk today was hot. I did 44 minutes, with minimal foot problems. The first show was Min Jin Lee Reads “Testing” at The New Yorker: The Writer’s Voice. A young man in Korea is taking scholastic tests, with unsatisfactory results. A girl wants to be his gf. He wants to wait until after they are accepted at the schools they want. After the second test score is bad, he breaks up with her. After a couple of laps, “Testing” became unlistenable. The second story was Riverwalk on Criminal. Zac Brettler is a troubled teenager in London. He makes friends with shady mentors.
Zac’s parents “Rachelle and Matthew check Zac’s bank account. They had saved checks from his grandparents over the years, and money he’d gotten from his bar mitzvah and put it in a savings account. They’d given it all to him after he turned 18. It was about 18,000 pounds. · He had kind of blown through that money, it turns out, pretending that he was the Son of an oligarch, paying for meals, doing this and that kind of here and there to seem credibly like a rich person. And in the days before he died, Zac, in his bank account, had only 4 pounds. He was close to empty.” This is the first indication that Zac is Jewish.
0720-0818 – The walk went well. I started early, and saw the early sunlight floating through the mist in the leaves. The show was Episode 317: Literally Knitler (with Jessica the ’80s Baby) on Blocked and Reported. The guest was Jessica the 80’s Baby, who is a researcher for the show. JT8B lives in a lot of cool (and not so cool) places, out of a London base. “Do they eat dogs in Vietnam? · Uh they do, but only in the north. I was living in the south. And people in the south are quite proud of the fact that they don’t eat dogs.” The show covered wokeness in the knitting community, which is about as interesting as it sounds. The accent did not help.
Today’s walk happened. There was mild dizziness, and I quit soon after the 36 minute buzzer. The show today was Dolly Parton: How the Country Icon Nearly Became the Subject of Her Own Murder Ballad on Disgraceland. Disgraceland is about entertainers who behave badly. In Dolly’s case, they had to rely on outsiders for the dirty deeds.
Did Dolly really write “Jolene” and “I will always love you” on the same day? In an appearance on @BobbyBonesShow, the conversation went like this: “you wrote the song how long ago · in 1972 I think I wrote it at the same time I wrote Jolene. It was a good writing day.” A few years later, Dolly said to TED speaker Adam Grant, “Well I don’t really know if they were written in the same night. When we found an old tape, they were on the same cassette. That could have been a few days apart.”
0722-1059 – There was no walk on the path today. The lawn needed attention. Cutting a white trash lawn is enough exercise for one morning. My feet had no problems at all, which is normal. When the dizziness has been at its worst, the feet never have a problem with cutting the lawn.
0723-0900 – Today’s walk lasted 51:15. On the first lap, some dizziness was noticed, and my intuition told me that this might be a bad day. Fortunately, the voice in my head is often full of shit. The show was Hillbilly Heist: David Ghantt and the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Robbery on Gone South. Another bank robbery goes bad due to human stupidity. At one point, David Scott Ghantt takes two surveillance videos, but leaves a third behind.
This was followed by a break, and a commercial for Chumba Casino. Online gamers have lots of money to spend on podcast advertising. Once, there was a show about Hunter S. Thompson. HST kicked his own bucket in 2005, long before the advent of cell phone clip joints. It is fun to speculate. OTOH, online gambling is the sort of capitalist fuckery that HST despised. OTOH, those digital gangsters have lots of money, and might have been able to buy HST off. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the social media picture in July 1942. “Rupert, Idaho. Former CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) camp now under FSA (Farm Security Administration) management.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah