Keeping Up Appearances

On 'class day' at the gym, I generally get there early. I get the equipment I need for the class, find a chair, get set up and then use the time before class to walk laps. I can get about a half mile in before class.

I am not the only person who does this and another woman and I sometimes walk together. She is a fast walker too, and we tend to 'lap' people, coming up on slower walkers, and passing them without comment. 

Last week, we passed a guy. I don't know him but he seems to know everyone else. He is a talker. Anyways. As we passed, he made some comment to my walking partner that I didn't really attend to. 

Then much to my surprise, he spoke to me, calling me 'crazy hair'. 

This is interesting to me. 

One thing that I have noticed is that a lot of women come to their classes with neatly styled hair, full makeup. Jewelry and cute little workout clothes. 

Then there is me, I suppose. My hair is combed but truth be told, it needed to be cut. I had an appointment. I imagine that by the end of class, I probably looked a sight. I just never bothered to look. I don't wear makeup because (to call a spade a spade) I sweat. I am not wearing jewelry. My workout clothes are a pair of sweatpants and a baggy tee-shirt.

I just find myself coming back to that comment and wondering why a man would call out something like that to a woman he doesn't even know. 

Anyway.

Supper is planned, recipe sent to myself.

We got through the cold snap. It is lightly snowing and very windy. Another storm moving in. The weather folks are not giving any estimates on snow amounts. The official quote seems to be 'it all depends...'

In the time honored tradition, we will pick up a gallon of milk after gym. We do not need bread or toilet paper.

This morning, I woke up early. I finally just gave up and got up. While I was making my coffee, I became aware of a plane. It sounded very low. Maybe it was a trick of the cloud cover. I don't know. I stood there at the coffee pot, listening. Both Freddie and Houdi stopped and stood staring curiously at the southern windows.

It suddenly struck me how surreal it is to be living in a time where a situation like this immediately leads to thoughts of 'dear heavens, who has he pissed off now?'

One last comment: Chris in the UK sent me a link in yesterday's comments. You know, Chris, I appreciate that. We are carefully vetting our news sources, and I am sorry to say, I get a far more accurate idea of what is going on from foreign news agencies. Gwynneth does a great job of that too. I welcome it, and am grateful. 

Indeed

 No good deed is too small to matter.

Today was so windy. We did make it to the gym. We needed milk and needed to go to town, so as long as we were there, we figured we might as well hit the gym. We carefully made our way there through snowsqualls and whiteouts and little swirling snow-nados dancing across the fields.

I will take the cold. Some areas north of the New York line are slated to get 55-70 inches of snow in this storm.

I talked with a local organization. They were enthusiastic about working with us for next year's toy give-away. They wanted to work with us as soon as they saw the write-ups in the paper. She guarantees, at a minimum, 300 toys. She also hooked me up with a contact that might enable us to add bikes to the giveaway. 

I am just so amazed at how an entire community has caught this vision. It is a nice counterbalance to the shitshow unfolding around us.

Short One

The protest was well attended despite the  cold. 

My sign said 'when our government starts quoting Nazis, we all need to speak up.' Tim's said, 'Christian Nationalism is not Christianity. Jesus wept"

It feels good to be with like minds. We got quite a bit of support from the cars passing by.

We also got the expected blowback. But this time, it seemed angrier. A woman approached us on foot screaming. "I am sorry you hate America." Drivers shouted obscenities. We waved cheerfully. We will be there next week.

Another gold medal:

 

Reasons to Celebrate

Today's shame was an American president accepting another leader's Nobel Peace prize, beaming with pride as if it actually did honor his work.🤡 (In case you didn't know, it doesn't.) He is like a child with a sparkly bauble. 

This story made me laugh.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/karoline-leavitt-fumed-protesters-flipping-102422682.html

 My kids loved this book and -ahem!- I do a very good Grover imitation. Just a thing you may not know about Debby.

I just thought you needed to know that book to understand this book, The Monster at the End of the End of the File. By Jeff Whitcher

A woman on Facebook reads it. I wish I could share. The reader's FB name is lyndseydotw

Also:

If you have Instagram and do not mind swearing, you can always begin following My Cluck Hut. Just a tip: they are a soap company and their motto is: "if you are not a fascist and you wash your ass, our soap is for you." Their videos are hilarious.

We have had people outside the country believing that things seem worse. In my opinion, they sure are. But the more outrageous this gets, the more it galvanizes people to stand up and speak out.  That's exactly what is happening: more and more people are coming off the sideline. However, it is ugly. It is likely to get uglier.

All that to say, Tim and I believe that when your government starts quoting Nazis, we all better get off our behinds. We have committed to weekly demonstrations. It is encouraging to spend time with like minds. It is encouraging to get more people cheering us on from their cars. We have seen examples of increasingly hostile behavior, but they are the teensiest minority. We stand fast.

If you are feeling hopeless, find something to laugh at. Heaven knows we have the best comics on 'our' side. Share that humor. Be an encourager. Don't give up. 

Things to be celebrated here: I have been having the worst trouble with bread, mostly because I have been trying new recipes. Yesterday, I went back to tried and true 🥳 Excellent results and Tim got cinnamon rolls.

Remember the successful toy giveaway before Christmas? There is a huge push to do it next year. A local storage company stepped up and offered a free storage unit for two months. They have offered to be a drop off site, so that people can drop of the toys for the entire six weeks before the event. We had such a great response but drop off was one day, and the giveaway was the following day. Extending the collection from one day to six weeks is going to be huge. I have a couple of other ideas percolating as well. Huge satisfaction out of that.

Princess dresses for the little princesses. That always makes me happy.

We did not get the lake effect snow we were were warned about. That was good news.  

I can't be with her but my youngest will be turning 36.  I will celebrate her anyway.

What are you celebrating today? 

Fear not.

TJ Sabula's words: "i don't feel as though fate looks upon you often and when it does, you better be ready to seize the opportunity. Today, I think I did that."

Suspended Michigan autoworker who heckled Trump gets outpouring of donations | Michigan | The Guardian https://share.google/xtEHvoI9ltkLwohXO

$335,000 raised so far. 

The right calls out his uncivil behavior while defending an administration with a longstanding history of uncivil behavior. 

Just a thing i noticed.

Security breech leaks names, addresses, emails, background info on 4500 ICE agents. Big uproar. 

Of course, when there was not nearly the outrage over right-wing patriots as they 'swatted' democrats, leaking their information, protesting in front of their homes.

Just a thing I noticed.

Kids are outing their ICE daddies on Tik-Tok. That gives me hope for the future.

The US Department of Labor debuted a new slogan. One nation. One people. One heritage.  It has sparked some backlash.

Labor Dept. Debuts Similar Slogan To Famous Nazi Phrase - Comic Sands https://www.comicsands.com/labor-department-nazi-slogan

Kristi Noem displayed her own slogan. 'One of ours. All of yours.'

Kristi Noem 'One of ours, all of yours' controversy explained: Podium photo with Nazi quote goes viral https://share.google/p5ENfKVpcJC69JCTa

That is a threat. We are meant to be afraid. 

Don't be.

The Meeting of the Minds

This morning, we kind of waited around for the trapper, but we couldn't wait all day. We had a new chimney built for the house by the Amish, and Tim is anxious to get that up in the 'Golden Hours', defined in this instance as the warmest part of the day: afternoon but before it started to get dark

After waiting until nearly 10, we had to go. We needed to get to the gym. 

When we came home, I was delighted to see the  truck parked in front of the old house. "Drop me off," I said. "I will grab the mail while I am down here."

I made good use of my time while I waited. When I walked to the mailbox, I saw a bit of plastic flapping in the wind. I did a little digging and discovered a package that had been delivered who knows when. The snowplow going by on the road had effectively buried it.

So I dug our package out and rifled through the mail, and my patience was rewarded. After 15 minutes or so, he came walking around the corner of the old house.

The first thing I noticed is that he wasn't a kid. I would guess he was in his 60s. He greeted me cheerfully. I said, "I wanted to talk to you about your exchange with my husband yesterday." 

I could tell that he knew exactly what I was talking about but he said, "I didn't mean anything by it."

I said, "Maybe you didn't but let me be really clear. You are here because you were given permission to be here." I pointed to the two white trucks back at the gas well. "You are not the only one. The well tenders will be here. We have a seed collector who will be back there from time to time. We have grandchildren too, and let me tell you , the first time you say anything like that to one of them, you and I will go toe to toe."

He got mad then. "I would never talk like that to a kid!"

"You have no reason to be talking to anybody like that." 

"Well, he scared the shit out of me!"

"For ex-military, you don't seem to be very aware of your surroundings. The man did not sneak up on you. He walked right along the stream bank."

He snapped, "I know he wasn't sneaking up on me..." and glared.

I continued, "and as far as the ex-miltary stuff, that doesn't impress me much. That log cabin three doors down? That's my brother in law. He's ex-military. Two driveways down this way? That's my nephew. Injured in Iraq. Up on the hill there? That's another nephew. He did two tours in Afghanistan. Me, myself? I am ex-military too. So don't be pulling that card here."

He changed tactics then. "Listen, I am just a simple trapper..."

"Who needs to have some respect. If that kind of talk is ever repeated, you will not be permitted back."

He did apologize but he also said, "I thought this was S---------'s property!"

Mr ex-military not only has no awareness of his surroundings. Poor bastard can't read a plat map either.

"No," I said. "His property is behind ours."

He said, "well. I apologize. It won't happen again."

I said "I expect it won't," and headed up the hill with the mail. 

So...that's done.

Differences

 Today, when we got back from the Y, there was a strange truck parked in front of the old house. Tim was not alarmed. Either 'the seed collector' had gotten a new vehicle or it was a trapper we had previously allowed to trap. 

I know that some will consider that controversial. I do not have the stomach for trapping. Neither does Tim. That being said, probably between 1/4 to 1/3 of our property had been underwater when we bought it due to beaver activity.

Some folks believe that we have encroached on their territory. The truth is quite the opposite. There is a very large dam way back in woods at the back of an elderly couple's property. The thing is as tall as I am and as the water levels have risen and covered more and more of the property, the beaver have expanded the length of the dam. At this point it would be dangerous to remove in the normal way. As a person chipped away at the dam, the water would begin to rush through. The sheer volume would make it a hazardous endeavor, with a danger of being swept away and pulled under.

Because the beaver have lived an unbothered life, the colony has grown to the point that they had begun to migrate down stream. They set up housekeeping across the road at my sister and brother-in-law's where new dams were torn out again and again, because they were flooding the pasture. 

No doubt irritated by the constant interference, the beaver pulled up stakes and crossed under the bridge to our side of the road. We tore out their dams. It is not an easy job, and sometimes they rebuilt over night.

So. We permitted trapping. 

Anyway, Tim walked down to the creek to see who it was. I came in to make the coffee that I hadn't had time to make before the trip to the gym. 

Before long, Tim was back. "Yeah, it was the trapper." He hung up his coat. "I followed his tracks right in. He didn't hear me. I scared him." He pulled off his boots and set them in the boot tray. "He told me that was a good way to get myself shot..." 

I turned from the coffee pot. "Was he trying to be funny???!"

Tim said, "No. He was serious. Said he was ex-military..."

I was shocked. "He said that while he was standing on our property???!!!!"

Tim stared at me a little surprised. His mind works differently than mine. In his mind, the man was all bluff and bluster, and he did not take him seriously.

In my mind, when you have been granted a courtesy from a land owner you have a bit of respect. In my mind, I am sick of people pulling this ''I am ex-military" as if this training makes them something to handle carefully or as if they warrant extra respect. In my mind, it doesn't matter one whit if I think he would actually follow through or not. Do not try to bully or intimidate me or mine on my own place.

I said. "I am going down there to have a word. I am ex-military too if he wants to play that card."

Tim said, "He has gone."

I have been stewing over this all afternoon. It is probably good I had time to think. When I am mad, I have a tendency to run 'hot'. I may say things that I think better of later. Maybe that is what happened here. Maybe Tim did actually startle him. Maybe he just blurted something unfortunate. It happens. I understand that as well as anyone. 

Tim and I talked when he got back from some errand running.

"I am still upset about this morning and it is not something I am willing to overlook. What if he had said something like that to a grandson? We need to go to the gym early and get back early, because I am going to be waiting for that young man to check his line. I will give him a chance to explain himself, but if there is any bluff and bluster from him, I am telling him to pull his traps and get off this property." 

Tim looked at me mildly. "That's fine," he said.