Dear Madame Zoltar

♪ Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday JT Irregulars, happy birthday to you! ♫  How are you, my birthday boys and girls?  The weather's been great, although I did hear a gardener complain about our lack of rain.  He said we're three inches below normal.  We need some day-long, soaking rains instead of these sudden downpours that just wash aay.  Pick your day.  It can't be sunny every day.  Plants and trees and shrubs need water as well as sunshine.

I was just reading on The Journal Times site about the woman who died to save her dog:  "Woman killed by truck in Yorkville died for dog"  http://journaltimes.com/news/local/woman-killed-by-truck-in-yorkville-died-for-dog/article_1177f927-6c8a-516f-b83f-82b2b46cd615.html  It's hard for me to read because my tears keep getting in the way.  What a sad story.  What love for a pet.  

Many people appear to love their pets more than other people.  I believe that's because a pet's love is unconditional and a pet will never betray you.  Do the pets understand our love for them?  I believe that they do, to whatever extent is possible for them.  Over the years, I've had a number of different pets.  Would I run out in front of a huge truck with a trailer full of gravel to save one of my pets?  I guess I really don't know.  Add one more point for indoor pets.

Unfortunately, much of today's online Journal Times is filled with woe.  Sex crimes and a stabbing and more sex crimes.  It's getting hard to read much of it.  Indeed, it's getting hard to live much of it.  I'm much less trusting than I was ten, or even five, years ago.  When out shopping, I always keep my eyes roving, looking for troublemakers.  I want to head in the opposite direction from them.  I dislike living in a society where I have to be ever-vigilant for crime.  This once was the province of the police, but the devolving of society keeps them busy with more "crime" than they can handle.  Much of the "crime" is due to bad parenting, which in turn is due to bad parenting, ad infinitum.  The vicious cycle of poverty and crime will not be broken by throwing more money at downtown or lying to the voters.  First you have to admit that you have a problem, but the official word out of City Hall is that crime is at a 50 year low.  There are many "official words" out of City Hall that make no sense or defy reality altogether.

It's hard to believe that the 4th of July is just a little more than a month away.  That's the woo-hoo event of the summer.  I was in Walmart yesterday and saw all sorts of fireworks for sale.  Unfortunately, Junior has a penchant for explosives.  The bigger and louder, the better.  It will be a miracle if he sees adulthood with all his fingers intact.  And his eardrums not ruptured.  I try to keep the stuff away from him, but he can get it at any of the fireworks stands that pop up yearly about now.  Let me get this straight: it's legal to sell and possess fireworks in Racine, but not to use them, right?  Sounds like the usual garbagese cranked out by government.  How about we stick a firecracker up every politician's butt and blow them all to hell?  That's legislation I could get behind.

Given the current crop of politicians running for president, I wonder if there's some way we can remove the nuclear option from them and instead make it a democratic decision?  My God, I can't imagine any of them with their finger on the button.  Please, Lord, save us from that.  Make it a Cabinet decision.

Thank you all for reading my blog.  Congratulations to the JT Irregulars for eight years, for better or worse!  Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my thoughts.  I love each and every one of my readers.  And just about everybody else, too.

How many more years will the JT Irregulars make it?  Ask: madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com

Thank you again for reading my blog.  I love visitors and readers.  You don't even have to read my blog.  Just say, "Hi!"  Enjoy the weather.  Soon, it'll be time to complain about the heat.