A Bob's Life: Monday Musings

Monday, May 18, 2026

Monday Musings - May 18, 2026

Mount St Helens Erupting
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Published: February 09, 2010

1. The third Monday of May has arrived. Yup. Only one Monday remains in May and that is also Memorial Day. There are 32 Mondays remaining in the year.

2. Aside from a trip to Home Depot, Chris and I stayed in yesterday and watched movies. None of them were particularly special, but they were entertaining. We tried to watch the Director's Cut of Alien, but gave up after about an hour. I had forgotten how plodding that movie was.

3. It was oppressive outside. Hot and humid. A true South Florida beginning to Summer. I was encouraged, however, because the high in Odenton, MD, was 86 degrees and we only reached 85 degrees with a nice wind from the ocean.

4. The Orioles managed a couple wins this past week. They are still playing sub-optimal baseball. They have slipped to fourth place in the division, ten games out of first place.

5. How interesting is it that a treaty from 1797 provides clear insight into the minds of the founding fathers with respect to the establishment of religion in the United States. The Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary, signed January 3, 1797, lays out clearly that the current Christian Nationalism push by the administration is not in keeping with the intent of the Constitution's Article 1 regarding the "establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". Article 11 of the referenced treaty makes a very clear statement:

Article 11.

As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, — as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, — and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

6. Today in History. At 8:32 a.m. PDT on May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens, a volcanic peak in southwestern Washington, suffers a massive eruption, killing 57 people and devastating some 210 square miles of wilderness.

Called Louwala-Clough, or “the Smoking Mountain,” by Native Americans, Mount St. Helens is located in the Cascade Range and stood 9,680 feet before its eruption. The volcano has erupted periodically during the last 4,500 years, and the last active period was between 1831 and 1857. On March 20, 1980, noticeable volcanic activity began with a series of earth tremors centered on the ground just beneath the north flank of the mountain. These earthquakes escalated, and on March 27 a minor eruption occurred, and Mount St. Helens began emitting steam and ash through its crater and vents.