Back

 I am back from my little trip. It was a wonderful little getaway. There was a picnic in the park. A dance competition, followed by a dad grilled meal on the back patio. Dad and Mom got a date night. The girls and I used 'little eyes' to see the teeny tiniest wild flowers that are all around us. We planted terrariums in little 5 inch tall jars I brought with me. I introduced them to the Ramona series my kids watched on PBS when they were younger. When the oldest was at school on Monday and my son was at work, we were able to give mom a morning off. The youngest and I spent the morning playing. It is a wonder to watch her. She played independently for the entire morning. All that was required from me was to 'neeeeeeigh' at the appropriate times when she needed her 'oonyhorn' to speak.

So it was an ordinary stretch of time filled with quiet joys, an it could not have been more perfect.

Tuesday saw me headed home. I started out just as soon as the oldest was on the bus. Mama needed to drop the youngest off at preschool. I needed to get my hiney home asap. I needed to be at the lawyer's office to sign important papers. So it was the 5 hour trip. The car was unloaded. We hopped back in and headed to Warren.  It just made for a loooong day. 

While I was gone, Tim bought a car. Wednesday morning, we got up and headed out to pick that up. It is pretty, black metallic paint, so it sparkles. It is a hybrid, completely new technology to us. Tim drove it while I worked out the computer system. It has Sirius Satellite radio. Not sure how long that goody will last. It is quite the fanciest car we have ever owned. He is pleased with himself.

So that is the recap of life in my corner of the world. 

Outside of my bubble, Orban lost the election in Hungary after a 16 year dictatorship. Jd Vance even went there to campaign for him. Why? Well...there's this:

New Hungarian PM says Orban government was using taxpayer money to fund US pro-Trump activist group CPAC | LBC https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/new-hungarian-pm-says-orban-government-was-using-taxpayer-money-to-fund-us-pro-t-5HjdXp8_2/

I am sure that this is a coincidence though.

Trump's messianic visions have taken front stage. He's blasting the pope at this point. Posting AI of him as Jesus. Him with Jesus. MAGA is talking about blasphemy. Such a shock, isn't it? They were completely okay with his blasphemy until he began to mock their God. 

Let's just stop right there.

Going, going, gone

 I am heading out tomorrow morning to my son's house for the weekend, me and Flat Stanley. He went to Drake's Well, if you're curious. He has a nice story with pictures and brochures. 

My youngest granddaughter called this afternoon to tell me that she helped her mama get my room ready. She did the dusting all by herself and it was perfect. She also wanted me to know that she could hardly wait. I told her I could hardly wait either. We talked about what fun we would have. 

I won't be protesting on Saturday, although Tim will. I have a dance competition to attend. I probably won't be online much either, but I will catch you on the flipside, with plans to come back either Monday or Tuesday, depending on whether a plot I am plotting works out.

I told my sister that i had made a chicken pot pie for supper last night. The left overs will make a meal for Tim. I made two quiches today and for good measure made a meatloaf, which he can have with mashed potatoes and gravy one night and use for sandwiches. For good measure, I bought him 5 frozen dinners.

 My sister laughed. 'You know he will head for DQ' at the same time I said, 'he will probably just go to Dairy Queen.' 

SNAP!

Have a a good weekend everyone and remember this helpful tip of the day.

I haven't listened to the news at all. But boy, they are playing some great music on the classic rock station. Neil Young, U2, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith.

They did not play this though.

It is an old one. You might even call it a classic. 

Protest

 Saturday was the protest, as usual, and it was a beautiful day for it. 78°, sunny and a warm wind blowing. It was spring. 

Tim carried the signs and I carried a little folding table and a plate of 'oatmeal resistance' cookies to share. (Come to the dark side! We have cookies!) 

We are getting a lot more support from passersby. Lots of car horns. I also noticed that there are many people who don't toot, but as they sit at the light, they smile, doing the thumbs up, and if you are only waving one digit, that is the digit to wave!

One elderly couple had two large dogs in the back seat. They were sitting at the red light and the dogs stuck their heads out the window to say 'hey! How's it going!' Terry's dog, Carlos yapped back 'Pretty good! Join us, why doncha?' The poor owner looked embarrassed as she tried to stifle her two who were joyously barking their big barks, as Carlos happily yapped back. It made us all laugh, inside and outside of that car.

It used to be that business trucks didn't wave, but we are seeing more participation there, too, which is cool. They have big horns. 

'Airhorn guy' comes through blasting his horns enthusiastically. You can pretty much set your watch by him, and we always wondered. Turns out that he drives by multiple protests to show his support. We are part of his route. When gas is $4.39 a gallon, that's commitment to, isn't it?

Of course, there is the flipside. A woman walked over to scream about abortion. Sally answered, 'if you don't believe in them, don't have one.' The woman shrieked that she hoped if Sally had grandchildren, they were aborted.  A ripple of shocked murmuring followed. Ain't no hate stronger than Christian love, is there?

When it was cold, people often drove by. You could tell they were  not fans, but you could not hear them. Now you can because the windows are down. 

'How much are you getting paid?' (Answer: nothing...I hate this for free!)

'Why aren't you working??!!' (Same reason you aren't!)

One woman shouted,'if it weren't for trump, you would not even be here!!!' The guy next to me looked puzzled. 'What does that even mean?' he asked. 'Dunno,' I answered, 'but she's right. If it wasn't for him, we all wouldn't be standing here.' He let loose a laugh and passed the comment down the line.

I talked to the organizer. "We need a busker!"

Wonder what Jesse Welles is up to Saturday?

 Gas went up 20 more cents today. It was $3.19 on March 1st. It is $4.39 as of April 5th.

It is cold and spitting snow. (If someone has a protest for that, we'll show up for it.)

Night Noise

 Last night, Tim woke me up coughing. He coughed and coughed to the point it sounded like he was choking. This cold/plague/evil curse is awful stuff, but what makes it worse is that he will not take anything for it. I found a night time cough suppressant which works on the cough. It doesn't have all the added ingredients for sinus, body aches, fever, etc. Just the cough. I drink ginger tea through the day, just keep adding hot water to my cup. At night I take a dose of the cough suppressant which allows me to get some sleep.

Tim does neither and I don't know why, but he is a bullhead man. (Luckily, I, myself, have not a stubborn bone in my body. 😏) So he hacked himself awake, and on the other side of the bed, I was awake too. Even worse, I began to cough right along with him. 

He was fine, he claimed. Didn't want to take anything for it, so I came out to the living room for awhile. Being a companionable sort, Mr Cough-y followed me out, sitting in his rocking chair. We were sitting there in the dark when suddenly there was a loud crack of thunder. Immediately after, it began to pour, the rain pounding down on the tin roof. There were a couple more cracks of thunder, and then as suddenly as it started, the rain began to taper off. While it was an astonishingly brief storm, it was intense. 

So what was missing? Lightning. We saw no lightning. I have been puzzling over that. My first thought was that the fast moving storm was accompanied by extreme cloud cover we could not see in the night sky. Maybe the lightning took place above the clouds? But then, wouldn't it have muffled the thunder too? I mean those thunderclaps were sharp and loud. 

Reading about it, thunder simply does not occur without lightning. So, I throw it out there for your consideration. What did we witness?

So eventually, Tim wandered down the hall and back to bed. I listened to him coughing in bed.

The sound was a lot more tolerable from the couch than from the bed, so I stayed right where I was, and eventually dozed off.

The motion detector light came on outside and I was jolted awake by the sound of two cats fighting and squalling. I leaped off the couch and went to the sliding doors. I expected to see Phantom, the mysterious new cat who sneaks in at night to finish off the extra cat food left from the two remaining ferals. I expected to see either of them doing battle. Much to my surprise, it was not Tiger or Possum. It was Freddie, who I did not know was outside!

I flung open the door and went flying out in my nightgown. Usually, Phantom runs away at the sight of a person, but not this time. To make it even worse, Houdi tore outside when I opened the door. Now there were three of them squalling. Only two were actually fighting. Houdi was merely stalking around with his tail straight up and three times its normal size. He circled the fight yowling the cat equivalent of 'Yeah! Take that! My brother is going to whip your butt!!' Meanwhile, Phantom and Fred were going at it hammer and tongs.

I had to go back in to put shoes on. The ten tons of gravel we had dropped earlier in the week was too much for my bare feet. When I came back out, Houdi was circling the car growling. I hopped in the driver's seat and started the car thinking Phantom would run back to the old house, and Fred would head to the porch. Instead, Phantom ran for the old house with Freddie hot on his heels, both of them screaming their heads off. 

It was a long night, but Fred was waiting on the porch this morning. He had a snack and then arranged himself on the same couch I had spent the night on. He did some stretching and yawning and then tucked his chin on top of his murder mittens. 

Unlike me, the stinker fell soundly asleep and is sleeping still.

Big and small

 During trump's 19 minute speech, the price of oil rose $4 a barrel.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260402-oil-prices-rise-after-trump-speech-as-gold-and-silver-fall/

Tim and I went to the gym. Price of gas was $3.99 when we went in. After an hour workout, it was $4.19, which was a shock. 

Pam Bondi got fired. Everybody is celebrating that. I am not. The reasons given were two-fold. The first was her handling of the Epstein case. (Personally, I think there is this idea that once she is gone, the focus at next week's hearings will be on her, not on trump.) 

The second reason is that trump believed she was not moving fast enough on the prosecution of his 'enemies'. 

The thing that gives me pause: from all indications, Republicans are going to get trounced at the midterms. Strongly red areas are voting in democrats during a spate of special elections. 36 Republican House incumbents have chosen not to run for reelection.

I think that Bondi was removed in favor of someone who is willing to create more chaos in the seven months before the midterms. According to Lindsey Graham that is trump's genius: maintaining unpredictability and confusion.

So...I can't really celebrate Bondi's departure. But I am glad she is gone. I will never forget this:

Today, I made two boxes from greeting cards for the gifts for my granddaughter's fairies who live on her windowsill. In just a week and a half, I am headed to my son's house to unselfishly give them a date night or two while selfishly taking granddaughter time.

Two gifts wrapped and four to go. 

Two trees came down, aspen. They will be cut into logs and allowed to rest for 2 weeks. When I get back from my time away, it will be time to innocculate the logs for mushroom growing. I want to take a log up, predrilled for Rudy. He has some hand deformities, but I am sure that he can handle the rubber mallet and the pegs and daubing the paraffin. Lion's mane is believed to have medicinal properties and is prized by the Amish. It might be a nice little business of his own. 

Everything is starting to green up here. It will also be time to think about begin to plant the garden. 

The big stuff needs to be counterbalanced with the small stuff. I am lucky to have plenty of that.

Emotions

 This cold has been a bad one. I thought I got past the worst of it only to discover that I haven't.  The cough is horrible. 

So...it has been another quiet week.

One thing I discovered is that it is possible to share FB posts to IM without realizing it. I have conservative Christian and Christian Nationalist family members. 

We simply don't talk politics, but it gets very tricky. What I have discovered is that very suddenly politics encompass a lot more territory than it used to. For instance, my nephew had some very strong opinions of a religious leader. I countered with how what he was saying did not align with biblical teachings. He got very angry and accused me of arguing my politics. I said that I thought we were discussing a religious figure. 

It didn't help that I thought I was 'snoozing' him. I figured we would both benefit from a break. It turned out that I had blocked him, which made things worse. He blocked me back.

Last week, out of the blue, I got a message from my sister about two articles she had received from me via instant message. I was astonished to see that there were two of those highly charged over the top things along the line of 'Trump humiliated when....' and 'GOP demolished after...'. 

The thing is I don't even read crap like that myself. When I see all caps and exclamation points in a headline, I assume that it is something that is designed to draw you in emotionally. I am more of a 'just the facts' type of a person. As in, I want to read it and decide how I feel about it, as opposed to getting the emotions decided for me. Those headlines are designed to attract the eye of angry people who read along angrily muttering and angrily share the angry post  which is read by other angry people who read it angrily muttering.

That's some bullshit, isn't it?

Anyways, I read my sister's message and she was mad. I didn't blame her either. It was a disrespectful thing to do. The difference was that I knew I had never intentionally sent them. She believed I had. 

I began reading. During their last upgrade/change, FB added a feature called 'auto share'. People don't like it. It seems to be something that is easily activated unintentionallywhen you are quickly scrolling through FB. This is something I do when I am looking for a funny picture to go on the  blog. 

(So it is your faults really)

I sent the information to my sister who luckily believed it. I apologized for the offense. I promised to be mindful. I also noted that emotions are very near the surface everywhere.

My oldest daughter is a person whose emotions are very near the surface. The Epstein stuff has been very triggering for her. In talking about things, she decided that after some very strident posts from a relative, she was not sure about attending the family Easter. After all, she has posted some pretty strident stuff herself.

In the end, she and her husband decided to have their own quiet Easter. 

I respect that decision, but it left me in a hard place. In the end, Tim and I decided to celebrate where our grandson will be. I know that decision will be seen as political. It isn't. It is based on emotion, pure emotion. It will cause hurt feelings though. 

So that is where I am, right now. I am still sick. I am just weary. I don't sleep well. It is not covid though.

I did not go to the No Kings Protest, which made me very sad. I wanted to be there. Tim went and he carried my sign 'Ain't no faux king way!' What a turn out we had! Estimates of between 320-350, quite a turn out for a town of 9500 people. Tim said that there was huge support from the people passing by, too.

3300 events around the world, drawing an estimated 8 million people. The organizers really stressed that the biggest growth was seen in red, rural areas that had supported trump in the last election. The tide is turning. I was at home on the couch, probably sound asleep.

There was a terrible tragedy here on Friday in our Amish community in Spartansburg. An Amish school was burned to the ground when two girls and their teacher had lit a lantern which had been filled with the wrong fuel. It exploded. The girls were life flighted to burn centers, one to Buffalo, the two others to Pittsburgh. Their burns were described as severe, noting that their clothing had been entirely burnt away. 

There have been no updates on them. The community has collected money for the families. One person (English, not Amish) posted that two of the girls were on their way home and exhorted us all to give the glory to God. I will hold my glory. When someone has been burned over that percentage of their body, they are not likely to be released the next day. 

Short one

I have a cold, so that has sidelined me. Hard to work when you can't breathe through your nose. 

Still we have been puttering around here. Tim is cleaning a shed out down at the old house. I worked on plants inside. I have about 4 dozen plants started on a table at a southern window. Such a hopeful thing...especially since it snowed yesterday. 

We had ten ton of gravel brought in yesterday. Spring = mud. This should help a lot. 

Hung a bat box today.

I am going to take a break from world events. It is just too much tonight.

I have been worried about a lot of bloggers this year. Tasker, at Yorkshire Memoirs. Northsider Dave. Tom. Joanne over at A Cup on the Bus.

Now I have to add Catalyst from Oddball Observations to that list.