On the sixth day, it rained…we had rain for the sixth consecutive day yesterday and it really rained. The rain, wind and thunder didn’t bother me. However, I had never seen lightning like last night’s; the entire sky kept lighting up almost non-stop like a flickering light bulb times a million. That lasted for at least 25 minutes and was unsettling.

Evidence of last night’s downpour could be seen everywhere during our breakfast run this morning. Official measurements of rainfall over the last 24 hours show the micro-climatic variations here, with some places recording less than a tenth of an inch of rain while other places recorded almost two inches. I’m guessing we received between a half inch and an inch at our house.

Of course, I plugged in my phone to recharge the battery mere minutes before the storm started so I didn’t get any photos of the deluge. Here is a pre-storm picture.

 

 

That mountain, which sits to our northeast and has been shown here many times, began to disappear even though the rain approached from the south. Seeing the very dark sky, to the south the sky was almost black with only a hint of blue, and feeling my sinuses hurt I was virtually certain we were going to get a storm. (Sorry for the reflection of the window shutter in the photo.) Eventually, that mountain did disappear in the blinding rain.

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I guess my priorities might be changing. I was watching coverage of the recently concluded Mecum auction from Harrisburg, PA, skipping through the pickup trucks, when I realized I didn’t want to watch the auction. I left Hulu, went to Amazon Prime where I have purchased the first two seasons of Transplant, and watched two episodes I have seen at least 3-4 times already.

Why did I buy the seasons? I no longer have streaming access to season one. (I don’t know why.) Anyway, I think it’s significant that, at least at the moment, I would rather watch an episode of a show I’ve already seen than a Mecum auction. Is this a permanent change? I don’t know.

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I have never smoked in my life, not once. That statement of fact includes tobacco and marijuana. If people don’t believe me, I don’t care. “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” – Aldous Huxley

The only time I have been drunk was by accident and it didn’t come from drinking alcohol. During one lunch while I was working for the Orioles–dining alone as I often did–I ordered chocolate mousse for dessert. I had not yet been diagnosed with diabetes.

When I had almost finished the mousse I felt strange, even stranger than usual. 🙂 I asked the waitress what was in the mousse. She said chocolate, whipped cream and chocolate liqueur. Bingo!

I knew it was not a good idea to drive back to work at that moment so I waited 40-45 minutes at the restaurant before I left. It was a good thing I didn’t punch a time clock and had no real supervision over how I spent my time.

While I don’t think the consumption of alcohol is a good idea–ask the 14-15 million alcoholics in the US if they want to go back to the day before their first drink–I am not so naive as to think it should be illegal. Remember, the US tried that once. Even though the best available evidence suggests that alcohol consumption declined by two-thirds at the beginning of Prohibition, it increased during the period from 1920 to 1933. That same evidence suggests that alcohol consumption doubled in that span.

I do think, though, that the legal drinking age should be 25 and not 21. From this article comes this conclusion that is consistent with most published research:

 

“Under most laws, young people are recognized as adults at age 18. But emerging science about brain development suggests that most people don’t reach full maturity until the age 25.”

 

I know that change will never happen, but think about how many lives might be saved. The best estimates by NHTSA are that between 10,000 and 15,000 people die every year in the US because someone was driving under the influence of alcohol. I also think that any non-zero BAC level while driving should be a crime.

 

I would very much like to read your thoughts on this issue, or anything else written in this blog. Thanks.

 

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