The Night Before

 As always, I should be in bed but I am not.  Not exactly tired but will be soon.  Tonight I made the first wave of brownies for the Festival; five trays all sitting in the fridge (they look good).  I was tempted to go, cut them, package them, and then start the next five, but decided against it; rather, tomorrow I will bring them with me and let the ladies cut them, get the trays back, and ideally make the rest tomorrow night.  Certainly a bit much, but I was just too spent to do more and then do it again.  Reminded me of that book I read a few weeks ago about Civil War armies not pursuing their enemies, mainly because they were out of juice.  I get that -- my lack of sleep, age (not as young as I used to be), and the fact that I need my strength for the weekend.

Trying to finish Beevor's The Battle of Arnhem --- the Bridge Too Far battle.  One thing a friend and I always discuss is how MacArthur was sort of an idiot, but another good discussion topic could be how Allied intelligence always said "Gee, the Germans will NEVER recover from the beating we gave them" and then, of course, they did and often proceeded to give a beating right back.  This was certainly the case with this battle, with the Germans using literally ersatz formations to hold off/defeat Allied advances.  To be sure, the plan was probably unworkable, but no one expected the Germans to put up such resistance (again, in the face of all available evidence).

One thing I need to do is...well, everything.  Stuff is on hold with work and the Festival so eventually I will need to pay bills, organize my finances, do some house cleaning (I put the kitchen back together, left the traps up, in what can be called cautious optimism), handle some stuff piles, get some stuff ready for the OC, and anticipate the next round of food pantry paperwork (everyone knows I am occupied this weekend, otherwise that would be also an issue; now it is just a half-issue).  I think I will a have better time than the House GOP... I am not exactly surprised that Jim Jordan wants to be speaker, and I wonder if he would actually be a good one; I mean, for all of his bomb throwing, I think there is a seriousness beneath that, and I could see a Saul-Damascus transformation here.