Fourth of July – The Burning Platform

Modern Meanderings in the Fire’s Light

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

For the most part, I’ve lost interest in the news. Ukraine war? Don’t care. Lost submarine? Yawn. Pride Month? Good luck with that. Canadian wildfires? So what. Russian civil war? Whatever. Elections? Been there, done that.

I believe it was French Philosopher Voltaire who defined “cynicism” as armor against despair, but, honestly, it’s not that. On the contrary, I am enjoying life more than ever and my days are meaningful and well-spent.

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One year ago, I wrote about helping a former business associate by driving a dumptruck a few days a week. In that moderately metaphorical article, entitled “Building Roads While the World Wilts”, I described my perception of America’s remaining attributes, particularly, out here in the “fringe” and mentioned how people “here on the edge seem to be ignoring The Borg”, then wondered…. “For how long?”

Now an entire year has gone by… and in spite of all the new headlines… very little has changed in my world. So far.

Continue reading “Modern Meanderings in the Fire’s Light”

Building Roads While the World Wilts

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

As mentioned in an article last month, I have been helping out friends by driving a 10-speed triaxle dump truck (6AM to 6PM) 2 to 3 days a week this summer.

Using older but well-maintained dump trucks and newer state-of-the-art excavation equipment, six guys working full-time, plus me helping out part-time, are removing the concrete on a stretch of road and several streets in a small town located in an adjacent county. Additionally, we are coordinating with two road engineers, and conferring with local utility employees overseeing the project. Our crew is handling the overall excavation, installation of underground drainage infrastructure, dumping the old concrete in designated land areas, hauling away dirt to two other locations, and hauling in rock from two separate quarries. All of this is being done in advance of a paving company’s final pouring of the concrete.

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It Is What It Is

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

I was in a gathering of folks when a dispute escalated between a husband and wife over what has now become the title of this article. During our discussion someone recited those words and the wife divulged how much she hated that statement. After quietly listening to the exchange for a few moments, the husband spoke up and said: “Well that must be more proof of how opposites attract, because I LOVE that phrase and I say it all the time!”

Which may have been part of the reason why the wife disliked the expression, but I wasn’t about to go there.

Instead, I mentioned how that particular shibboleth of sorts was surely defined in the minds of the beholders. On the one hand, its utterance could be an excuse – even a fatalistic expression derived from laziness or defeatism. Or, like the purveyor of produce in Ayn Rand’s epic tome, “Atlas Shrugged” – when Dagny Taggart asked the grocery vendor why she didn’t move her product from out of the sun and into the shade and her reply was: “Because it’s always been that way”.

Oh, the world sucks? Of course it does. Why bother.

It is what is.

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