well, assuming the house stays in one piece....

we've got winds, which we hate. Our roof tends to go to pieces in bad wind. One section came flying off awhile back and is now covered with a tarp. That keeps most of the rain out but not all. And with this wind we worry that the tarp will go sailing away.

Be that as it may, I sometimes get tired of the bad news. There's enough of that, isn't there? And I know I contribute to it, being embittered in my old age. I was snookered! Bamboozled! I was led to believe that things would get better, that the evolution of the species was leading to a new Golden Age of Even More Reason.

When I go over to see what those #$#%**s are saying at a place where I don't post any more, I notice all sorts of articles reminding me (because what? I'm too dumb to remember since yesterday and the day before and the day before that and the week before that and always?) that Republicans are mean/evil/the problem. And then some days when I come here (and again, I contribute to this) I find out the Democrats are the problem because they should know better but are, in fact, corrupt and just as mean and just as evil.

I want to find hope, some good news. I love music and maybe I'm just crotchety but I am not a big fan of today's popular music. I prefer going off the beaten path. Unfortunately, Portland radio, except for a couple of stations, is similar to the radio of other towns, dominated by the Big 5 companies that turn out autotuned vocals that are as formulaic as anything that's ever come before. By the way, I don't mind formulaic music. Two verses, bridge, verse, instrumental verse, bridge, verse, coda works for me. I'm just saying that today's pop music can't consider itself revolutionary. I listen to these tunes and think "ok, in a few seconds the singer will jump an octave, sing with more oomph and all the instruments will kick in."

But there is good stuff out there. Some of it is retro and thus, to my taste. My band is like that and there are a whole bunch of that sort of thing here in Portland. Here's a video from some friends of mine.

There's other stuff, too. Some of this is old news, I know. When I was a kid every year was very, very different from the one right before. The music of 1964 was wildly different from that of 1963 and 1965 was wildly different from 1964. And four years...well that was forever! The difference between 1963 and 1967 was insane. So any music I might mention that's from 2011 is way out of date. Still...it's new enough to qualify as "new" to me!

And I know this is a real oldie but hey...

Ok, so now...what's some good news around the world? Surely there's something besides all this gloom. Let's go to the headlines first!

San Bernardino shooting: At least 14 people killed; one suspect killed....no, that won't do. What's next?

UK Parliament votes in favor of bombing ISIS in Syria....no, not that one either.

Everything You Need To Know About The Latest E. Coli Outbreak....maybe I need to look elsewhere.

I'll try this Good News Network.

The US Government Is Retiring All Research Chimpanzees

The National Institutes of Health shut down most research on chimps in 2013, but kept 50 of the apes in case of a public health emergency. On Wednesday, NIH announced those last chimps would sent to a sanctuary to live out their lives in the midst of nature. Another 82 chimpanzees the NIH supports at other research laboratories will also be headed into retirement.

ok, that's nice. Anything else? Let's try the ABC site. They've got something.

Lava Mae: Creating Showers on Wheels for the Homeless

San Francisco, unofficially dubbed one of the homeless capitals of the U.S., counts nearly 6,500 homeless people in 2013, according to recent city numbers, with 4,300 people living on the street.

Among the many problems the homeless face is little or no access to showers. San Francisco only has about 16 to 20 shower stalls to accommodate them.
...............
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has donated one bus for the cause and is willing to donate three more in the future if the project succeeds. Sandoval hopes the first bus will be able to hit the road in March.

And there are always cat videos

I would have embedded one here but after watching a few I was getting depressed. But cats are good! Cats are nice!

Perhaps there'll be even more good news tomorrow. And maybe this wind will die down.