All I Got.

 

Something to Consider

From Mariana Hernandez:

Not Just a Camp. Not Just a Tragedy. A Mirror. 

This isn't just about Camp Mystic. 

It's about 82 lives lost across Central Texas.

It's about 27 girls and counselors at an elite camp and dozens of everyday Texans whose names you haven't see in the headlines. 

We've heard the polished grief for Camp Mystic. We've seen the prayers, the ribbons, the televised tears. And that grief is real. But so is the silence around everyone else who died in the same flood --in the same night-- just without the privilege.

Was this preventable?

Yes. 

Meteorologists screamed warnings days ahead. 

The National Weather Service issued flash flood alerts hours before the water rose. 

But the systems meant to respond had already been cut, gutted or ignored. 

FEMA funding slashed. 

NOAA and weather science jobs eliminated. 

Local counties, like Kerr, still lacked sirens or river alarm systems even after decades of prior flooding.

And now? The same politicians who cut preparedness budgets are offering "thoughts and prayers" on camera. 

Camp Mystic is a sacred name in Texas elite circles. Girls of governors, oil families, and even former first ladies have attended. 

This summer: 

~750 campers

~$4500 each,

Estimated $3.3-3.5 million in one session alone. 

And yet, no real evacuation plan. 

No sirens. 

No weather-proof bunkers. 

No required flood training. 

Just prayers and hope on a river that's flooded before. 

In 1932. In 1978. In 1987.

This was known.

And still, kids were sleeping in cabins on the banks.

While the nation grieves the girls at Mystic, 41 other Kerr country residents also died. 

They weren't from legacy families. 

They weren't in matching Mystic uniforms. 

But they mattered. 

RV families from Odessa, gone.

A 92-year-old swept from her attic.

A father-of-four drowned saving his kids. 

A beloved camp director from a different girls' camp, lost

No headlines. No hashtags. Just grief. 

While politicians bickered, Mexico sent firefighters.

Yes, Mexico sent trained first responders across the border to help rescue Americans.

Why? Because they know what community means.

Because some of the bravest acts that night came from two young Mexican counselors who rescued 20 girls, wrote their names on their bodies with Sharpie in case they didn't make it. 

Let that sink in:

The same country demonized at our borders just saved our daughters. 

We failed these kids. 

All of them.

Nor just at Camp Mystic, but across the Hill Country. 

We failed the RV family. 

The old woman.

The teacher.

The father.

We failed the weather scientists who warned us.

We failed the responders who did not have the resources. 

And we failed the Mexican heroes who won't get headlines but gave everything.

So no. I'm not in the Mood to Be Witty

Because this wasn't a tragedy. It was a choice.

A choice to ignore science. 

A choice to protect profit over planning.

A choice to treat some deaths as national news and others as statistics.

We can't claim that "nobody could have known." 

We did know. 

We've known for decades.

We just decided it wasn't urgent.

Until now.

If you're reading this: 

Say their names, all of them.

Demand sirens in every river town.

Fund FEMA.

Fund science.

And never forget that when the river came, it didn't ask what color your skin was or who had money.

It just took.

(Note that the death toll is currently at 104 with 41 still accounted for. Roughly half of that number are children.)

The Fourth

We celebrated our holiday quietly. Tim went to the parade. I did not. I made a dish to pass for a family celebration, which, as it turned out was not until the following day. 

So instead, we went to the new house. I had steaks marinating, and vegetables ready to saute, and new potatoes. We had our first proper meal in the new house. 

When we were done eating, I gathered up the dishes, and popped it all into the dishwasher. It took just a few minutes to put the kitchen back to rights with only two pots to wash. I came out to the living room to where Tim was sitting in a chair and sat down too. I said, "I will enjoy getting used to this." 

And I think I will. 

Afterwards, we went up to Levi and Mattie's. We had fireworks for the children, which they love. We get the fountains and sparklers, no noisy ones. The kids were beside themselves with excitement as we waited for it to get dark enough to begin. We'd brought the makings for root beer floats which helped to pass the time. Levi and the boys had been in the hayfields all day for the first cutting, so it was quiet. Mattie was making new dresses for the girls when they go back to school in the fall. A neighbor stopped in to visit. Levi said, "We call him 'Blister'. He always shows up when the work is done." We all laughed, 'Blister' as hard as anyone. 

Finally, it got dark, and the fireworks were opened. The oldest 3 boys and their daring sister took turns running across the yard to the far end of the horseshoe driveway to light them with a blowtorch. (!!!!!) 

It was a satisfactory show, with some surprisingly good fireworks in the box, and there were 60 sparklers to keep the kids entertained. 

We drove home and the sky was the faintest pink and blue across the mountains and the lightning bugs sparkled in the hayfields we passed. 

It was a quiet 4th of July, but it seemed fitting. I didn't feel like celebrating, and it is not because I do not love my country. 

Thanks to Ellen D.

 In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Maybe we should once again declare the causes which impel us to the separation.

Frederick Douglas

 I cannot celebrate the 4th of July this year. Instead, I offer up a portion of a speech given by Frederick Douglas 173 years ago. While he was addressing the evils of slavery, let there be no doubt that what was being addressed here was that one class of men had power to dominate and control another. 

"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour." 

173 years later, people are being snatched off the streets by masked men and taken away to undisclosed locations. They are being backed up by military force called in by our own government. 

There are people who have built a tent city in the middle of an alligator infested swamp. They plan to fill this with people, children included. Laura Loomer, one of the president's advisors gloated, "The good news is the alligators are guaranteed 65 million meals if we get started now."

Think of it. 

Desperate people in the middle of a swamp. Insects. Tents that leak and flood (and have already done so after only two days). Parents. Children. Families. Old people. Very young people. The inhumanity of it is bad enough, but to be joking about it is pathologically lacking in empathy. 

Yet, here we are. 

So, I quote Frederick Douglas once again. "There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour."

 

Discouraging Day

 Deb asked a question that made me stop and think. "Has it been the two years you projected for the new house?" I looked back through my posts, and found that Carrot Top, aka Johnny began pouring our basement June 1st of 2023. So. Yes, it has been two years. Two years, 1 month and 2 days to be precise. It seems like such a long time ago, and I am grateful this project is winding down. We have the next big project which is the attic, and then it needs to be sided this summer, which can wait until we are moved into it to get done. 

We've been cleaning up around the outside of the house now that the house is no longer a construction zone. William was a big help with that today, neatly stacking some wood. He also helped put up some lattice on the raised beds for the cucumbers. I've never done that before, but I see other people doing it, and it will save garden space if the vines are going up instead of sprawling out. 

I am discouraged today. I've been working very hard on lifestyle changes. Part of that has been paying close attention to what I eat. Part of it has been walking faithfully. It is frustrating to me that my healthcare provider is really, really pushing the metformin. My A1C was 6.4, which is prediabetic levels. That really galvanized me into making those lifestyle changes. My A1C dropped to 6 which made me feel better. Much to my surprise, I still received a phone call. "The doctor has reviewed your test results and wants to put you on Metformin."

I told her that according to NIH, themselves, they do not recommend treating prediabetes with metformin. They encourage healthy eating and exercise and watching the numbers carefully to see if the levels respond to that. There was some polite disagreement. In the end, I refused to medicate.

My next well check? They wanted to send me to a podiatrist for a diabetic foot evaluation. I was starting to get frustrated. I said, "I am not diabetic. I am prediabetic, and after three months of exercise and good eating, I've reduced my A1C by .4. So no. We're not doing the foot doctor."

Today, I had another A1C test to monitor the situation. I walked to the appointment, which was a mile and a half. I was feeling pretty confident about the whole thing. I've lost 25 pounds now since making the big changes back in December, so I was pleased with that. Surely, surely, all my hard work would pay off. 

I looked at my A1C results just now. 6.1. How disappointing! Mostly because I know I will have to argue with the doctor again, and I hate that. 

 So.

That's my day.

America has had even a worse day. I'm not going to go into it. 

But here are some words of wisdom from Pete Buttigieg:

"The thing I would like for Americans to feel is that it is the very pain of this moment that signals how important it is. All the moments in history that we study, admire and romanticize were pretty brutal to be in the middle of and that's what makes it so interesting. For better or worse, we are in one of those now and that should propel us to think more originally as things get burned down around us - about what we would build instead." 

(Thanks to Jackie for passing that along to me. If ever was a day that I needed to read an encouraging word, this is that day.)

Just another day...

 I spent a couple hours working with my raised beds today. I ran string between stakes to make a lattice for my peas. I have stakes for the beans, but I didn't bother putting up the string, since the beans are not beginning to 'vine' and wrap themselves around things yet. I planted chives and an oregano. I pinched off the bottom leaves of the tomatoes. Everything looks hopeful. 

A lady was redoing her flower beds and had a load of lemon drops to give away, and I love them, so I said I'd take a shovel full. Long story short, we got to talking (you may not noticed, but I'm a bit of a blabber), and it turns out she also takes care of ferals, getting them neutered and trying to find homes for them. On top of everything else, she's just made the decision to get a knee replacement, and was most interested to talk to me about it. 

LATE EDIT: 

I had no idea that there were so many flowers referred to as 'lemon drops'. These are the ones I have. They are an evening primrose.

Tim was supposed to pick up my lemon drops since she lives close to his church. Bless her heart. I got so many lemon drops.  I also got spiderwort, some kind of lily that she can't quite remember, and a bag of bulbs dug up that certainly were something. (Oooh...I love surprises!) They all went into my rag bag flower garden. At some point, I am hoping that it becomes lush and green with flowers for all seasons. But, realistically, this will not happen over night. 

Today, I painted trim boards. We are finishing up the trim on the bedrooms, and putting on bedroom doors. Tim has been working hard. We've got family coming and a lot to be done in 3 weeks. It won't be done, of course, but we are hoping that we will have it settled enough that everyone can be there, instead of here in town. 

I'd like to begin filling the new house with memories, but it will work out the way that it is meant to work out.