Gratuitous Sunday morning randomocity

I'm taking a couple of days off from work this week. Monday and Tuesday.

Originally, I took this time because I was expecting to have a bit of a problem getting a new tag for my truck, since I've moved to a new county. I was at least expecting to have to go down to the tax accessor's office and do something there. Turns out that's not the case. I was able to get it handled over the phone. I mailed them a check and got my new tag in the mail.

So, now I'm going to use those two days to work on The Harvester of Faces. My goal is to be at 25,000 words on this second draft by Tuesday. Right now I'm at 20,000 so it is doable. I may even surpass my goal. We'll see. That would put me at around one-third of the way through it, as I'm expecting it to finally weigh in at 75,000 words.

I'm also going to do my xmas shopping, probably tomorrow. I'm only going to get something for my best friend and her daughter--my goddaughter. So, it won't take long and I can take care of it all online.

I was watching Sunday Night Football in America when Bob Costas spoke out in favor of gun control, and I'm watching with fascination the reaction to it. It's crazy--the far right is saying the celebrities need to keep their political opinions to themselves. But they don't say anything about Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Clint Eastwood, Meatloaf, or any number of other celebrities who spoke out politically that they agreed with. So, the only celebrities who should keep their mouths shut are the ones with opinions that would offend the far right, I guess.

My own opinion? For one, Bob Costas is perfectly within his rights to say what he said, and I found his opinion to be quite measured and reasonable and logical and worth consideration. Do I agree?

Yes and no. I grew up around guns, so they hold no special power over me. I don't find them particularly fascinating. I used to hunt, mostly dove, quail, with some deer hunting (killed a few doves and quail, never even saw a deer until I'd quit hunting altogether. Now they seem to be everywhere.) For a long time I was against any form of gun control.

Now, though, I think we do need to do something about it, though I don't know what. I feel that if we did make it harder to buy guns the people who would use them to commit crimes would still manage to get ahold of one.

There is a deeper issue, though, that is not being addressed at all that I can find, and it's something that will need to be addressed before anything else would work. That is: why? Why do people feel the need to kill other people when they get angry? Why is just arguing no longer enough? Why has the value of human life declined so much that a simple disagreement can result in someone being murdered?

But finding the answer to that, and addressing it in a meaningful way, would be really hard and probably expensive. Which means we may never have an answer.