Today was beautiful.  Yesterday it rained all day.  Sunday was beautiful.  We seem to be in the south Louisiana pattern of Good Day, Bad Day.  But I kinda like rainy days.  The sound of rain whacking the metal roof of our Airstream makes it easy to sleep nine or ten hours, which is nice even if you’re retired.

Big House on the River (Nobody Knows What It Means)

Pink and I just walked.  It was an hour after sunset.  The moon was already up so high it was no longer that gold to orange tint it gets when you catch a full moonrise.  I wanted Kat to get some pics here like those she made in The Badlands, but it was a busy day and I remembered too late.

An old National Guard buddy, George Tolar, hated full moons.  He was a New Orleans cop, a “uniform” as they say, and he swore that everybody in his precinct fought to take vacation days on nights when the moon was full.  “People just go nuts when the moon’s full.  They cut each other; they shoot at each other.”   According to George, it’s safer to be shot at than cut at, because while they won’t miss with a knife, most gunmen never practice and they’re so full of adrenaline when they shoot that they jerk the trigger, and miss.

George had some stories, him.  My favorite story was one he told about going to his bank on payday, to deposit the check and maybe get a couple of twenties for donuts.   (“You would think people feed cops, but that happens maybe twice a damn year!  They like to have us around, but as for coffee or food, then they want our money.”)  Anyway, as George pulled open his bank’s front door, he noticed a fellow coming out, sort of pushing the door open with his back.  George politely opened the door for him, and the guy whipped around pointing a pistol at George’s face.  The guy had just robbed the bank, and was backing out covering the customers and bank employees with his weapon.  The guy yelled “Get in there, and get face down, now!”

George continued, “I did what he said.  They teach us to follow procedures, not to try to be Dirty Harry.  I always hated that, I thought I was Dirty Harry, until I saw that .45 a foot from my nose.  Turns out the fool took about $4,000.  The robbery bait cash he took blew up on him, and the red paint got him busted an hour later.  I thought the day shift was safe, but hey you know, the moon was full.”

I like to see my full moons from campgrounds.