I didn’t mean to craft a two-parter, but that seems to be the way the wind is blowing. Big storms overnight soaked the pine pictured above, the instant carpentry solution that keeps the old cistern from filling with water and being a problem beyond merely existing. The pine boards are now even better mated and have started to conform to the terrain. Yeah, I shoulda sealed ’em or painted ’em or something, and I might yet in thirty days, but for the moment, the cistern crisis (of my own making) is averted.

I remarked on Facebook, and I repeat here, that Lawrence O’Donnell astonished me with his logic on his Monday night program. (MSNBC, Lean Forward. Watch out for the shit.) O’Donnell’s program is called “The Last Word,” in the event you are unfamiliar. He follows Rachel Madcow (er, Maddow), and Ed Schultz. (The “Ed Show.”) O’Donnell looks right into the camera and reads his teleprompter down. I’d been yelling at the TV and my long-suffering wife about how if Obama did any of the stuff he’s been talking about doing (4 trillion debt reduction, cuts in the entitlements), I was not going to vote for him. Let Bachmann bring the Republic to the civil war that is spoiling to get going. It’s such a complex demographic that it might be every pitchfork for himself. O’Donnell seemed like he was speaking just to me. Del had just gone to bed, and here was the soothing suggestion that Obama knew exactly what he was doing, and has known from the outset of the negotiation on the budget. He is, O’Donnell said, playing a brilliant game of ‘rope a dope.’ He’s figured out that by playing the opposite game, he can lead the buffoons right into his trap. The one thing, O’Donnell pointed out, that the President said he would NOT accept was a temporary deal. He wanted a big deal, the biggest he could get, and he wanted it all done before the debt ceiling is reached this August 2nd. 

The very next morning, I learned that McConnell (what’s with these Irishmen?) had offered a temporary deal. He’ll sponsor a bill that will give Obama the authority to raise the debt ceiling, the congress will vote to disapprove the authorization, and the President will veto the disapproval, everyone knowing that the votes are not there to override a veto, and thus, for the next 30 days, the debt ceiling will be raised. This scenario assures that there will be continuous bickering about the budget from here until the election, and that very little else will get done. Almost instantly, the writers on the Red side were foaming at the mouth. The Blue dogs were a bit tepid, also, but clearly, there was a way forward. (Maybe. The President has also said that ‘nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to.’)

Mumbai. 

The conservative cats, Mumbai and Chanel, spent the entire day yesterday within ten feet of each other. There were occasions where there was some growling and yelling (from Chanel), but for the most part, they are beginning to come to some uneasy agreements. Mumbai, has, for the most part, dropped her bitch.

Chanel. 

I thought of a way to short circuit the memoirist feel of the webinovel. This was just in the nick of time, because my mother discovered it and sent me a message of shock and congratulations on Facebook. Yes, it’s outrageous and pornographic. I’ve thrown things in that might have happened back in the day, but I’ve spread the incidents around far fewer characters. The population of the fiction is beginning to demand a plot of its own, and I see now that I cannot paint an accurate, memoirist picture. The prose virtues and the devices of plot demand that details be chiseled further to fit like bricks in an arch. Dean Moriarty will still have elements of Cassady, but his persona will be enveloped by many other models. This is writing, not typing. Of course, there will remain the occasional homage. Some affectionate portraits will be only slightly embroidered. Most of these folks are dead. Brahms will appear as himself. One dramatic gesture after another.

There is calm brewing after the storm. Let us pray.