It Could be Worse

 It all started with the Suburu. It needed to be inspected. Tim made the appointment and took it in. I went off in another direction with my own errands. I finished off by going to gym and then headed for home. 

Tim was not home, but I did not expect him to be. He had called with the unfortunate news that the car needed a ball joint. He had replaced one, but thought the other one would pass. It is a hard job. The last one took a while to replace because it was so rusted. He decided to let the garage handle the replacement this time around. He called to tell me that he would not be home any time soon probably.

Imagine my surprise when Tim opened the door for me. 

Turned out that in removing the ball joint, damage had been done. Another part needed to be ordered. The garage drove Tim home. 

Ah well, as the story goes: 'It could be worse.'

We still had my car. And the truck. The new old truck, anyway, the 'old' old truck having a tarped load of 200 4 x 8 sheets of hardy backer board that Lowe's had clearanced out for a mere $2.39 a sheet a 90% discount.

We got our snow storm the next day. It was then that the hydraulic pump on the tractor went. This was a huge blow. The tractor was our snow mover.

Bring out the shovels. 

Except Tim had a plow for the old dump truck. He switched out the battery, and amazingly it fired up. He hooked up the snow plow, and plowed. 

That night he found the part he needed on ebay, and I ordered the $400 part for him. He said, 'Lucky we had the dump truck.'

Yes. He was right. It certainly could have been worse.

Except the very next day, the starter went in the dump truck. 

Tim placed an order for a $200 part from Rock Auto. The snow had pretty much let up. He said, 'Ah well. The next storm is not due in until the weekend. By then. One of those parts should be in by that time. Until then, we just drive the 'new' old truck."

Such a sensible idea. The truck sits higher than the car, and if we ran into trouble. It also had 4 wheel drive. His solution was perfectly sensible. It could after all, be worse.

Until, the very next morning, when the truck would not start. Tim popped the hood and began testing this part and that and. Unbelievably, once again, this truck also needed a starter.

We were down to one vehicle unless we wanted to unload 200 sheets of hardy backer board. Lord knows where we could put it. It was supposed to siding on the garage when we got a break in the weather.

At that point, I put my foot down. More money or not, we needed to take my car (our last driveable vehicle) to Titusville and get a starter for that truck. We had another storm due in. 

Except...When we got to the parts store, they explained that year truck had two different possible starters. He would have to bring the starter in to figure out what starter he needed.

Of course. 

But, once again, we were saved. The garage called and the Suburu was fixed. What perfect timing. It is all wheel drive and can handle snow better than my car.

Just to prove it , my car slipped sideways in the snow and got stuck. 

It could be worse, I suppose. We might not have had a brother-in-law with a big truck to plow us out. Once plowed, Tim was able to back my car out of the snow bank. Also, the starter for the dump truck arrived today.

An old post with a sad update.

This column is about 11 years old:

Long ago, there was a girl who left for Afghanistan. While she worked at the university there, she met a cat, Maki, a large Afghan street cat who had been picked up so many times by the Nowzad animal shelter for getting his butt kicked by other Afghan street cats that the shelter finally did not return him to the street. They got tired of treating his wounds.

When Cara went to the shelter, Maki saw her from across a crowded room, marched square over and climbed up next to her. She felt that the cat had chosen her. She decided to choose him. 

When Cara and I were in New Orleans about six years ago, we stayed in an artist's home, and she had a portrait of her golden retriever painted in the manner of a religious icon. Cara thought it was hilarious.

When I came back, I contacted an artist that I know and commissioned a portrait of Mack for Cara's Christmas gift. 

                                              I'd found a portrait of the Emir of Caubal

and had Mack painted in the same manner. 

Ellen, being a gentle soul fell in love with the story of Maki, and to this day says that he is one of her top selling prints. A percentage of her Maki sales goes back to the Nowzad animal shelter.

It is a funny thing to think of Mack these days. He is actually a citizen of Great Britain now and is currently wintering in Tlibisi, Georgia...this after summering in Spain, which happened after a year in the UK with stops along the way in France and Switzerland.  He has learned to unzip tents in Italy, and sometimes the campers there left notes and gifts for him when they decamped. His picture hangs in the homes of people we will never know.

Ellen published a book of her work and I bought an autographed copy for each of the grandchildren. Much to my surprise, Mack was in it.

He's come a very long way from the war torn violence of Kabul's streets, hasn't he?

Today, January 27th. 2026, old Maki passed away in the arms of the girl who loved him, held to the window of the orangery so that he could look out at the beloved garden he'd spent so much time in. 17 years ago, he was born in the  streets of Kabul, Afghanistan. He died a British aristocat. 

Quite A Weekend

 

First of all, I want to provide a link to Fresca's l'astronave. As a protester on the ground in Minneapolis, her insights are invaluable.

I am not going to post the video. The gun was in a holster. Pretti was licensed to legally carry. The videos taken from all directions show him filming with his camera while reaching down ro help a woman who had been knocked to the ground by ICE. Agents gassed them both. Pretti still held his phone. His empty hand was held in front of him. Agents shouted "He has a gun". The gun was taken by an agent in a gray ICE jacket. Only after that did the shots ring out.

According to the Star Tribune, witnesses were rounded up 'for their safety and protection'.

In Court Filings, Witnesses Describe Fatal Minneapolis Shooting

 https://share.google/i7aXruNwQQwKibYuz

Despite this, Kristi Noem immediately claimed the agents had been rushed by Pretti brandishing a weapon. Trump immediately began referring to Pretti as 'an animal'. The MAGA faithful claim the video plainly justifies ICE actions.

It doesn't.

Alex Pretti's parents spoke.

 https://share.google/pVa7hFNqdGqQlqdvV

Even the NRA spoke up, and lord knows, it has been forever since they have said anything I agreed with.

 https://share.google/XJftcbPC7ydYqteXV

Remember that the Revolutionary War was ignited by the Boston Massacre. The British fired into a crowd of protesters. 

A lot going on, so:

Weatherwise: still snowing. The hydraulic pump on the tractor chose this moment to quit. New pump ordered. $400  and a week will get that taken care of. Unfortunately, the snow was not willing to hold off. Fortunately, the man who has shit stashed everywhere had a snowplow to put on the dump truck. So we were saved from shoveling.. I made home made pizza instead.

It is still snowing. There is probably a foot on the ground.

The Storm Approaches

Steve over at Shadows and Light noted that he can't reply to comments on his blog. At this point, I am having the same issue. My apologies to the missed comments. I tried. 

It was cold this morning. Single digits. After all the uncertainty, it seems the weatherman are agreed. Tomorrow is supposed to be another cold windy day. The storm proper is supposed to hit Saturday night and go through Monday morning. They are calling for a foot of snow.

The gas has stayed steady. The house is warm. Since this cold snap is the first prolonged test of the new regulator, we have decided to stick close to home this weekend just to keep an eye on things. 

No protesting tomorrow.

The day started at the gym, back home. Tim went into town to take care of a tenant issue and some banking. I kept myself busy hanging pictures that have been leaned against the wall since August. I didn't want to hang anything until I was certain of furniture. I guess it is as settled as it is going to get.

Mattie had sent along a box of freezer containers that Levi had picked up at auction. That was a fine gift. Probably came from someone's cellar. I put them all to soak in hot water and then wrote a thank you to Mattie for thinking of me. I gave everything a run through the dishwasher to sterilize it.

I have a pot of beans soaking. Chili is a good storm meal. It is -5°F right now.

I can't comment on current events right now. A 5 year old child. And still there are those noble minds standing in the middle, yelping about both sides, unwilling to simply say it: using a five year old child as bait is wrong. That handcuffeing someone who was following the rules, who was in the middle of processing is wrong. That putting a child in a detention center is wrong....

But no. 

Tasker has been much on my mind today 

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: