The Ultimate Answer to Kings: And...more wind.

They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means "The Ultimate Argument of Kings," and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. "We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it's about: You'll do as I say or I'll send my goons to kill you."

I thought about that for a long time. If there's an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I've got bullets - he's got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that's not going to happen. So if there's an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain't bullets.

It finally came to me - and that's when I left the city, abandoned a goodly percentage of my goods, and gave all that was behind me a good, stiff Randian Shrug.

The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

And...more wind.

GC Guy's component woes have still not come to an end. He asked me to report for duty this morning, and we ended up hauling garbage. Which isn't exactly what I signed up for, but there it is.

Good news is that I got a (paid!) ride to town out of it, which means I'm now the proud owner of five gallons of diesel for Gulchendiggensmoothen. Then we actually did some paying work, finishing up 300 ammonia testers for his company. But by the time I left the wind was blowing again and I was getting tired and stump-sore, so the tractor gets a visit mañana. Here's hoping the wind isn't pushing all that dirt back into the hole in the meantime.