Picking Roses In Eastern Kentucky On Thanksgiving Day 2024!

 

Yesterday, Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2024, my wife Candice and I chose to travel to Prestonsburg, Kentucky, for the Thanksgiving Day Buffet at Jenny Wiley State Park Lodge rather than cook a Thanksgiving dinner for the two of us.  When we are away from the house and have the time, I nearly always try to walk or hike somewhere while Candice waits for me in van at a safe parking area and reads.  Since it was fairly cool and damp, I chose to not hike in the woods near the lodge. There are several fairly good hiking trails in the park and I have used them quite a bit over the last few years. We have also attended other holiday dinners at the lodge with members of my extended family over the years. I went to Big Sandy Community and Technical College to walk on their paved walking path near the Big Sandy River instead.  I have walked there numerous times and actually enjoy that walking path since it is mostly paved with an unpaved gravel loop around a grassy area near old US 23 or North Lake Drive.  The paved area is a big loop with one fairly good uphill which overlooks the river.  Between the river and walking path, there is also a fairly large, relatively flat grassy area which can also be used for walking if it isn't too wet.  There is also a consistent population of black squirrels in the trees around the walking path and along the river bank.  I only saw two squirrels yesterday while I was there and never clearly established that either of them was black since both were on the ground near trees and probably at least a hundred yards away when I spotted them and they immediately ran up the back side of the trees.  

 

I only saw one other walker while I was there yesterday and he only made one loop before disappearing.  He was wearing shorts and the temperature was only 40 degrees or so.  I suspect that he might  have not been enjoying the shorts.  But, to my amazement, I spotted a few late fall roses blooming on some plants which are situated at a little memorial rock garden between the college parking lot and the hiking path.  The rock garden is dedicated to some former employee whose name I don't remember.  There were also some beautiful flowers on several small shrubs at both the rock garden and near a swing which is situated at the opposite end of the grassy area in the center of the walking path.  Since it was already only forty degrees with a subfreezing forecast, I chose to cut one of the roses and several of the other flowers for Candice who was waiting for me in the van.  It was a pleasant surprise for both of us to learn that all these flowers were actually still in bloom on Thanksgiving day.  It also amazes me  how many people choose to totally ignore signals such as these flowers about the fact that global warming is very real and very dangerous for the planet.  

After my walk, we drove up old US 23 from Prestonsburg to Allen where I showed Candice some of what is left of Allen.  Then we returned to the lodge for the buffet.  It was acceptable but a bit overpriced.  There was ham with pineapple served in thin slices, fried cat fish which the lodge serves at nearly all of their major events, turkey served sliced and/or shredded, some turkey dressing which I chose not to try, some fairly good shoe peg corn and carrots, and banana pudding, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie for desert.  The lodge was fairly crowded with what was almost universally an older crowd. It was an enjoyable day all things considered. 

"An Inconvenient Truth"---Comments On A Movie

Only eleven years after it was released and immediately recognized as one of the most important American documentary movies ever made, I finally watched "An Inconvenient Truth" starring former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Al Gore and directed by Davis Guggenheim.  I finally caught the movie on Turner Classic Movies a couple of nights ago.  I had always known that this was one of the more important documentaries ever made and had known that I needed to see it but had never carried through.  Al Gore has devoted his life since the miscarriage of justice in the 2000 Presidential Election to the environmental cause which he had always been actively supporting.  

The movie is a very cogent, well organized, easily understandable discussion of global warming and the potential worldwide disaster which it is likely to cause.  I have known for many years, ever since reading "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson and "The Everglades River Of Grass" by Marjory Stoneman, that the cumulative damage we are doing to the world with industry, overpopulation, and blatant disregard for their inherent damages, that we are at great risk of making many areas of the world uninhabitable and further complicating world overpopulation.  I have also read other books such as "Chomolungma Sings The Blues" by Ed Douglas and "Never Cry Wolf" by Farley Mowat which have furthered my awareness of the potential natural disaster which hangs over our heads.  As the seas rise, more and more densely populated areas along our coasts are prone to become flooded forcing huge populations to move inland in order to survive.  The tiny country of Kiribati has actually moved to buy land from neighboring Fiji in order to relocate their entire population when they become the first nation to be totally inundated by the ocean.  The Maldives are also likely to disappear underwater.  Numerous coastal cities all over the world are likely to loose hundreds of thousands of acres of land over the next few years.  Millions of people will be required to relocate and the total worldwide damage and costs are impossible to calculate.  Kivalina Alaska is also doomed to disappear under water.  

Sadly, at the present, the United States government is being held hostage by a criminal organization which evidence strongly indicates colluded with Russia and is fully committed to continuing and expanding many, if not all, of the practices which are destroying the environment.  They are also fully committed to destroying the Environmental Protection Agency.  Watching "An Inconvenient Truth" has reminded me of many things I already knew about the environment, taught me a great deal of new information, and renewed my commitment to fight for the environment even as we are engaged in the greater and more important fight to save American Democracy from the TRAITOR & International Terrorist Trump and his Russian Owned Criminal Syndicate.  It greatly increases the likelihood of disastrous environmental outcomes to have such an illegitimate and ignorant group actually holding the country and our environmental policies hostage as part of their usurpation of political power with the assistance of Vladimir Putin and Russia.  

Every reader of this blog should make an effort to watch "An Inconvenient Truth" and its sequel "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power" if you have not already seen them.  Additionally, we should all fully commit ourselves to making changes on both micro and macro levels to improve environmental conditions in our communities and the world at large.  Read environmental books.  Watch environmental movies.  Attend speeches by environmental leaders and scientists.  Learn all you can on a daily basis and take some action on a daily basis to help save the world and the human race.