Sick of it.

Yesterday, before the protest, we drove to the rollerrink. She had a donation of 40 skate passes (skate rentals included) for our Helping Hands Toy Giveaway. I was delighted by her donation. Last year, we were a bit light on gifts for older kids. They donated 40 passes, which dumbfounded me. Even more surprising? She had 3 large bags of brand new toys. There had to be a couple dozen of them. The stuff on top seemed to be radio controlled cars. Things that would delight older boys. Not finished, she carried out a dozen rolls of gift wrap and tags.

I thanked her, but it seemed inadequate. She waved me off.

We went to the storage unit and met up with another woman and her son. They were donating a Thomas the Train railroad set. A Hotwheels racing track. Another thing I didn't quite understand, but I am sure that any adolescent boy will see that and know exactly what it is. The thing that was so sweet about that was that they had carefully sorted, cleaned and boxed up their donations. The thing that I did not quite understand was in its plastic carrying case. 

When we carried things inside, she looked around. She said, "wait...you are taking games?" 

"We sure are. Everything. Puzzles. Books. Anything like that."

She looked at her son. He said, "We have got a lot of things!" She said, "Let us do some sorting. We will be in touch." 

Tim and I locked up. We still had time before the protest, so we stopped into the Goodwill in town. We had not been there for a while. We ran into my young hippie friend. 

it is odd, this friendship. About 3 years ago, he just started talking. He had been locked into a dysfunctional relationship. I think he just needed a sympathetic ear. His girlfriend would leave, and come back, only to leave, and then come back again. Tall, skinny, tattooed, deadlocked, pierced...for all of that, he looked like a lost puppy as he told me the story.

I had read a book, so I explained the 'Let them' philosophy. About seeing people for what they were. Accepting what they are. Letting them go. 

He said, 'She has another guy.'

'Let her.' 

'They are living together.'

'Let them.'

I had watched the comprehension light his face.  The next time I saw him, he had a new tattoo to show me. In cursive it said simply 'Let Them'

When Tim and I walked in yesterday, I saw him and called out a greeting. After a year and a half, he'd heard from his old girlfriend. I looked at him. "So, what did you do?" He said, "I told her not to call me anymore." I said, "There you go. Good job!"

As I walked away, I heard him tell his coworker, "She is so great." Made me smile.

Tim and I went back and looked at games. $1.49 each, and there were tons of things that looked as if they had never been played. We picked up a cartful of stuff and headed for the register. It came to $24.00 even. We dropped them off at the storage unit. 

Seriously, we literally have hundreds of toys already, and it makes me so happy to think of it. 

After that, we went to the protest. Lots of support. I was tickled to see a couple waving and tooting. They recognized me from the fair. It was Lou and Lynn, two 90 year old teachers. We had talked at length at the Democratic booth.  A big tractor trailer went by blasting his horn and giving us a thumbs up. We laughed to see that he was from Ontario. We all planned for next week's 'No Kings'. I love these people. 

We came home. Tim worked in his garage. I cleaned the chicken coop. I finished pulling the garden, weeding the beds and topping everything with a couple inches of composted manure. It was a good day to work outside.

There is a lot of good things in my world, and I am trying to focus on all that. I am not going to lie. Current events have really been overwhelming

Those Trump accounts? Even  Dave Ramsey dismisses them as 'a political stunt'. He advises to take the seed money but not invest their own money. They are tied to the stock market. The money can be lost. When you have a president and high level insider trading, my question: is this a scam to get more money in the stock market for rich people to get their hands on?

Kim Guilfoyle peddling access to power for hundreds of thousands. 

Just weeks ago, we were threatening 100% tariffs on China and India for buying Russian oil. Now  we are buying it.

Ukraine hit a Russian data center. Turned out to be a major hub in the whole Russian bot system. Sharp decline in pro trump propaganda.

Trump sorely aggrieved he did not win the Nobel prize again. Claims it is "a stain on Norway".

The situation is devolving at such a rate, it is hard to keep up with. Every single time I watch the news, there is something new. Every fucking day.

I shut off the news and ponder the happy things in my corner of the world.

A new low.

The Y has stepped up once again, allowing us to hold the Christmas Toy Giveaway in their gym. They approved our dates. Drop-off is Dec 11th, the Giveaway is the following day, on the 12th. We have donations coming in already.  I am picking up one donation and meeting another person at the storage place before we protest tomorrow. 

The other leader, Kathy is a driving force. She lives in town and has been hauling stuff to storage every other day. An old friend, Jill has jumped on board too. It almost seems to be going too easily. People are volunteering to help. People from last year. New people too. 

Like last year, this is moving along under its own momentum. Last year, it all came together in about 3 weeks. None of us can even imagine what can happen with two months of lead-in and publicity. 

Remember, I told you I was going to try to over winter some pepper plants? I pulled up my four biggest plants, plopped them into an old galvanized wash tub full of potting soil. I lugged it inside to the basement, set it under the fluorescent light and left it to decide what it was going to do. 

After a week, it seems like it is kind of happy where it is.  That little experiment might be successful too.

My sister messaged this evening to tell me that there was a large bear crossing to our side of the road. "Watch your chickens!" she warned. He did not come chicken bothering. In fact he never happened by at all. 

All this babbling, all of it is because I am sick about current events. Nidal Hasan did a horrible thing. A radicalized army officer opened fire inside a Ft Hood in processing center, killing 13, wounding 32 more. I remember the horror of that day. Tim's daughter was in-processing at Ft Hood, and it was a sickening wait until the phone call came that she was okay. She wasn't in that building. 

So yes. I understand. It was a heinous crime, a brutal betrayal of the oath Hasan took to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic".

But to live stream his execution by firing squad? My God.

Remember how sickened we were at the brutal public executions carried out by ISIS and the Taliban? The stonings, the beheadings? We thought they were barbarians. 

And yet, here we are. This public debacle allows us to be added to the list: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen, North Korea and now the US. 

I watched Hegseth almost gleefully making his big announcement in California, acting as if the military was chomping at the bit to witness this, as if he was doing this for them. 

I suppose that barbarians are 'high t', something that seems very important to Pete Hegseth's Department of War. Interesting tidbit of info: any soldier over 30 is required to disclose whether they wake up with erections. 

(Republicans are way too interested in other people's genitals, in my opinion.) 

So...here we are. Hasan is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 3rd. Between now and then, we got midterms. Can it be stopped? I don't know. 

Vote. 

Jabblog!

 I want to thank Bex for word on Janice. You can read her post here. 

https://river-driftingthroughlife.blogspot.com/

Look for the October 3rd post entitled She's Okay.

One mystery down. Now, if we only had word on Northsider and Tasker, I would be a happy woman!

Not Much Today.

My Affirmation/Mantra cards were a disappointment, but then I picked up a box of breakfast cookies.

 

 Vòila. Affirmation. 

I am putting my gardens to bed for the winter. Tomorrow I will lay down some organic fertilizer (aka well rotted manure) do a layer of mulch, plant my garlic and close everything up for the winter. 

I read a post about digging up pepper plants and bringing them inside to winter. It says in the spring, you can put them outside in your garden. They will take off again in the spring and provide early peppers. So, I pulled up four of my sturdiest plants and we will see. It it does not work, I also have seeds drying in the green house. That is my experiment, and I am curious to see how it works out.

Cleaned my chicken coop out today. No eggs yet. I am trying to be patient. 

No update on the other Tim.

We spent a beautiful fall day replacing a rotten support beam for a back deck on one of the rentals. William worked with us.

That's it. That's all I got.

The week in review

 There was a post from my cousin Tim's wife, Noreen. After a week, his labs were looking good. He was eating a regular diet. It just seemed such a remarkable recovery from a heart transplant, at least from my perspective, which I admit comes from a place of ignorance. 

Friday, just before 10, a post went up that there was a complete electrical block in the new heart, and he was back into surgery just over an hour later to install a pacemaker.

The latest that I have heard is that he is doing well. 

Latest update: he is showing mild signs of signs of rejection. They are trying to control this with drugs.

This has been a busy week. I tweaked my back helping Tim carry 16 12-foot boxes of siding from the front of the old house to the back. We got it done. 

At the same time I did myself damage, I was coming down with the dreaded 'Dylan-bug' that my son carried home from a California convention. To be honest, I did not realize I'd hurt myself until the flu went away and I was still gimping around. 

It has gotten cold enough at night that dehydrating has begun. Carrots, celery, onions, potatoes, corn and green beans for my 'soup jar'. I will do some potato slices for 'instant' scalloped potatoes. The dehydrate over night. The low oven keeps the house warm without turning actual heat on.

I have been collecting seeds from the garden for drying in the greenhouse. As they dry, I put them in pill bottles and label them for next year. I have Roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers, sage, dill, basil, hyssop, and spearmint. That is always such a hopeful thing...planning for next year's garden.

We built a grape arbor today. The back needs attached still, but I did get the four grape vines planted.  

I also planted six raspberry plants Tuesday behind the house in my 'berry patch'.

So, that's what we have been up to. 

At yoga class, the instructor always ended the class with an affirmation, an encouraging word. I thought it was a nice thing. When I saw a deck of mantras at a thrift store for a buck and a half, I picked them up. Midterms are coming up and it is hard to keep myself focused and positive. 

(Example: today at the protest an ugly MAGA rolled down his window and yelled, 'Why don't you all get a life??!!!' I came back from a place of peace and light and yelled, 'We all have lives. What are you doing with yours, loser??!!' He wasn't prepared for a comeback and tried to come up with a retort but it just sounded weak. I sent him off with one more mighty 'LOSER!' One of the protesters laughed with raised eyebrows. I said, 'I just did not want him to feel like he got the last word...')

So...yeah. a little affirmation would probably do me some good. I opened the cards.

Just great. The universe throws me a deck of MAGA mantras...

Plagues and pickles

 Well, I am back home now. We got things done while I was there, but it was plain to see that my daughter-in-law was tired. When we found out that my son was returning home sick, I had this quiet niggling fear that she was getting whatever he had. 

She was. 

In the meantime, I managed to start coming down with the cold William was recovering from when we took everyone out for my daughter's 45th birthday the previous week. 

A plague of plagues.

The girls enjoyed crafts. 

I showed them how to make a jack-o-lantern that stood on its own and and had different faces.

We collected pine cones to make these:

We did not actually get them done. The eyes for ours will be made from acorn caps, and the wings are made from paper hearts cut in half lengthwise. 

We did make bats. 

Even our simple plan to go to dinner Sunday night when my on-the-mend (we thought, anyway) son began throwing up.

In the end, I took my sniffles and body aches home. It was a long drive, but I got here. As I feared, my daughter in law is currently flat out with whatever my son had. I am hoping not to get it. 

I came home to quite a pickle. One of our tenants moved an acquaintance in. He is having mobility issues. We were shocked because we know this person. She has a drug history, and she has a criminal background that goes along with a druggy lifestyle. Burglary, disorderly conduct, assaults, possession. 17 pages of it. She has been incarcerated. She has 5 counts on an open case which will be heard on Oct. 14th.

Most alarming is that she was taking care of her mother during her final months and had a history of taking advantage and manipulating her. She was part of a drug trafficking scheme out of the old lady's home. 

All of a sudden, there were security cameras going up on our house.  Tim caught her smoking dope twice in the same week on the back porch. 

The issue became security. Providing a safe place for the two elderly tenants in the duplex. She is always there, so I tried to message the tenant with our concerns. Much to my surprise, she took his phone saying that it was better that I talk to her. At that point, we feared that she was intending to control the situation with the tenant just as she had with her own mother. 

It is not the pot. It is her history, a history that the tenant is well aware of. Somehow, she convinced him that she had changed. He needed in home assistance. She was going to help him.

After discussing it with the police, we made the decision to start the eviction process. We gave her 30 days. She should receive the paperwork today. The tenant is upset. We feel bad. In the end, we feel like it was the only way to handle it. 

The other Tim continues to improve. He is on a regular diet again. Amazing.

Update

 The 'other' Tim is off the ventilator. His wife Noreen says that he sleeps a lot, but she managed to get a picture of him awake while the nurses had him sitting up. For being 3 days post transplant, he looks surprisingly chipper to me although I am admittedly no expert in this field.

I am at my my son's house. He got home from a business convention in California late last night. He began to feel unwell on the flight home. By the time the plane landed he was decidedly sick. He still had an hour and a half drive from the airport. He made it but date night was definitely not in the cards. He slept all day but managed a light supper, so it looks like he is getting over it

One fairy tea party and a craft day. Bats today, cheese cloth ghosts drying, and they each made a 'squishy'. Tomorrow we will finish our ghosts and we have a pine cone owls to make. 

Tomatoes were canned, peppers and onions chopped and frozen for the freezer. 

 It just goes by too quickly.