We Are A Threat

No, not we-the-Iranian-nuclear-threat.  We the people who voted for James Talarico.

At least, that's what the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas said tonight in his victory speech.

Texas Tribune

I'm getting used to everyone, including politicians, getting younger and younger as I get older and older.  It makes me happy.  It's what I've been preaching for a long time - young people need to be involved in this world.  But watching it is just making me feel old.  

Be careful what you wish for, I guess.  

I liked James Talarico when he first showed up in my messages, asking for money as they all do.  But his words felt different and his message resonated so I sent him $3 and moved on.

I like Jasmine Crockett.  I like her a lot.  I'll miss her voice as a public servant.  But I wondered why she entered the primary at all.  

Talarico's message was simple.  We have to stop picking on one another, because that's what our corporate overlords   the Epstein class  billionaires want.  

It's as old as Aesop - united we stand, divided we fall.

Grapefruit in the Garden

One of The Girls harvested grapefruits from a neighbor's tree and gave me a big bag full of sweet smelling treats for the Prince scholars.  As always, when there is food to be had, there are lots of I've never been in your garden before visitors.

The Garden Leader hands out the slices I cut with the knife that lives in the bench.  No,  They don't get to use it, though they all ask to try.  I haven't killed anyone yet and I'm not looking to start now.  

The blue watering cans served as our trash can, and most of the rinds ended up properly stowed and deposited in the garbage bag in the corner.  

Not everyone comes to the garden to get their hands dirty.  Some just like a shady place to sit and sketch while they snack.

Did they enjoy the treats?  Her smile gives you the answer.

It's sweet and sour at the same time.

It's like an orange and a lemon all together.

What is this called again?  I'm going to ask my mom to buy 15 of them.

We're so lucky to have generous friends and donors.

Release the Epstein Files

Wag the Dog.   IMDB describes it thusly:

A spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to fabricate a war in order to cover up a Presidential sex scandal

Is it a true story?  The AI Summary* tells us

No, Wag the Dog is not a true story.

Apparently, Google Search has not been updated.   Replace spin doctor with America's Goebbels and Hollywood Producer with Former Weekend Anchor and it is absolutely a true story.

Whatever is hiding in the interviews with the 13 year old survivor who bit him must be beyond horrible and completely reliable and undeniable.  He's destabilized the world to keep it hidden.  

Think I'm overreacting?  Bibi has tried for 47 years to get the US involved in a war on Iran.  President after President has turned him down.  Only this one, a fool and a coward and a petty tyrant interested only in himself, said yes.

Now, tell me again how Wag the Dog isn't a true story.

* I didn't link to this.  I'm embarrassed that I used it instead of scrolling down and finding real reporting.  But Arizona is playing Iowa State right now and I'm sorry but I have to go.

Release the Epstein Files

 

I read Nobody's Girl today.  I'm glad the sun was out and TBG was next to me.  I needed all the comfort I could find, and I was just reading it.  Virginia Giuffre lived it, until she took her own life.  I am amazed that she survived as long as she did.

It's difficult to read how easily Maxwell brought girls under Epstein's influence.  The survivors call her evil and the devil.  I think that's too mild.  That the procurer of hundreds of girls is in a minimum security facility filled with women is frightening.  She obviously has very well connected protectors; Ms Giuffre refers to a former Prime Minister among those who abused her.

Her story of her father's sexual abuse started when she was just a little girl.  By the time she was a teen, working in the spa at FFOTUS's resort (a job her father found for her), she was ripe for Maxwell's offer to learn massage therapy.  Her descriptions are graphic without being pornographic; I'm not sure I could have read any more details.

There were rich financial rewards while she was in Epstein's orbit, but they were all tinged with terror.  There were rides on private planes, parties with famous people, all tinged with terror.  Escape was nearly impossible.  Her family was threatened.  Her home was burglarized.  Strangers appeared in her driveway, their headlights blaring through her front door.  

She bounced around the world with her Australian born husband, about whom she has nothing but wonderful things to say.  Unfortunately, the Introduction by her co-writer reveals that they eventually divorced, that her family describes physical abuse, that she was prohibited from visiting her children.  Even when she was telling her deepest, darkest secrets to the world, she was hiding her reality.

She was brave.  Her Survivor Sisters refer to her as their guiding light, the one whose public statements and law suits gave strength to the rest of them.  Speak Out, Act, Reclaim (SOAR), the foundation she started with the funds from her lawsuits, exists to help other survivors.  

Maxwell and Epstein were horrible people.  Our government is covering up FFOTUS's involvement.  Her story is hard to read, although the book is well-written.  You should read it too.   After you finish, call your Senators and Congresspeople and demand that it is all revealed to us.  The FBI seized thousands of video tapes.  We owe it to Virginia Guiffre and the others to see that the truth comes out.

Taking The Night Off

It's been a long week and a long month and I'm ready for a reset.  

I'll be back on Monday.

Did I Miss Spring?

I was wearing a sweater or a sweatshirt or a long sleeve flannel shirt until I wasn't.

I was planting and enjoying the breeze until I wasn't.

There wasn't a lot of warning.  It just happened.  The weather forecast tells me to expect temperatures in the 90's this weekend.  

Half the people I know are snowed under, with no end in sight.  The other half have been enduring rains and clouds.  Only we here in Southern Arizona seem to be moving right on into summer, without giving Spring a chance to say hello.

Taos Bubbe and I laughed last night - it seems we've waited too long to walk outside.  When she wondered how we got here I realized I wasn't hallucinating.  I've gone from jeans to sundresses without the usual pause for t-shirts and shorts.  

It goes down to the 50's at night.  We can still sleep with the window open for fresh air that won't boil us in bed.  The mornings are perfect until the sun begins its real work.  There was a line of sweaters on Grandma's Garden's wall; nobody needed them, especially when we were working hard.

The plants are wilting without irrigation.  We were forced to transplant some petunias from the low wooden bed to individual plastic hanging baskets to see if some personal care and attention will revive them.  

I'm not complaining.  I love my warm weather gear and the warmth and persistence of the sunshine.  I just wasn't prepared.

Hmmmm....

 It's seven minutes to the top of the hour.

The clock will tick and tock and we'll have to make a decision.

Somehow.  

We've been vacillating all day.  Blather vs physical prowess.  The certainty of cringe vs the expectation of excellence.  Allowing that man into my living room.  

We're recording both. We're watching MS NOW as the Supreme Court justices faux smile at the parade of faces passing before them.  

So far, we haven't changed the channel and now FFOTUS is shaking hands and walking to the podium.  There aren't very many Democrats in attendance.  

He's finally buttoning his coat... TBG was just appalled and even though it didn't resonate that way for me I'm delighted to have another thing to dislike about him.  

The commentators have been talking over all the procedural stuff so we switched to NBC, whose feed was a good bit ahead.  

Did you know this is the Golden Age of America?  Me, neither.  He told me the things that are happening, all the wonderful things going on in just one year, have never been seen before in this country.  I cannot disagree with that.  He says What a difference a President makes and I feel a hollowness in my soul.  He says he's lifted millions of people off food stamps and the damn Republican lackeys stood and cheered about denying sustenance to their fellow citizens.

Oh No.  The men's Olympic hockey team just came through the doors.  They're taking selfies.  The goalie is chewing gum as FFOTUS tells him he's getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

And at this point TBG has had enough and we're switching to Uof A vs Baylor men's basketball.  I'm breathing more deeply already.

Just When You Think It Can't Get Any Worse

Kristi Noem found a pilot dumb enough to fly into a massive, windy snowstorm and land without warning at a New Hampshire airport that had closed due to bad weather.

Inside that plane were detainees,, all those dangerous shopkeepers and grandmothers and infants in respiratory distress hiding in plain sight among murderers and rapists.  

Whoever they are, they sat on that plane for 12 hours, or 15 hours or some amount of hours but the point is that it was reckless and ill-conceived and typical.  

I am just so tired of being embarrassed by that man and his cast of clowns, but I'm planning to watch the State of the Union.  I don't remember which Substack suggested  that we pay attention to the clapping.  Who claps and for how long - that was monitored by Nazi's and Communists, with dire consequences for those who stopped first.  

It can also show us in real time those whose moral compass is directed toward the podium, regardless of the blather pouring forth.  They are all complicit.   

Marty Supreme

The Doula and The Kibbitzer are in Tucson for their annual visit, and this year the sun is actually shining on them. We've been friends for more than 50 years. That's a lot of memories and stories to tell and retell, but there's one that always comes up first - the 2019 Oscar nominated Live Action Short Films at The Loft.  I wrote a post about it, and I think the title - Why? - says it all.

The Loft is Tucson's art house, showing films the chains ignore. I decided long ago that lunatics have never heard of it so I don't have to worry about intersecting with guns (cf Aurora and The Dark Knight). We three have seen lots of wonderful films there and I've seen some duds on my own.  But until Friday night, we've never seen one without a single likeable character.  

Not one, unless you count the Auschwitz survivor, and he's onscreen for two short scenes.  

That alone tells you something about the film in general, though there are lots of particulars to dissect.  The music is fabulous.  It tries to tell you how to feel, and, for the most part it succeeds.  That's important, because the unlikeable characters do unlikeable things and you're not supposed to smile at the silliness in which it's wrapped.  

Your eyes and ears are at war for two hours and thirty minutes.

Timothee Chalamet is a chameleon.  There was no boundary between the actor and the character.  He was totally believable.  Why anyone would want to inhabit that character is another story.  He is selfish and reckless and untrustworthy.  He's a grifter who avoids responsibility, invoking his talent and the respect he must show it as justification for putting his friends in jeopardy.  

And, it was long. 

Some of us liked it more than others, and all of us were glad that it wasn't about an abandoned kid on a beach; or a son, a father, and a shotgun; or quicksand.  Those 2019 films will live in our heads forever.

Painting Pots

Once again, Rillito Nursery provided the fun.  This time it was box after box after box of 2" ceramic pots and another box of 4" pots.  After a quick stop at Dollar Tree for paper plates and Harbor Freight for two 20 packs of tiny brushes, I was off to Grandma's Garden.  

I've had a 12 pack of acrylic paints in my car for a week or two.  I don't remember buying them but I'm glad I had them.  This is why.

         

 

Some of the pots were quite detailed.

  

But mostly it was about the smiles.

The seed which started in her red SOLO cup is now big enough to be transplanted into a 4" pot.

One of these scholars wondered if I had a bird house to paint.... and it just so happed that I did.  He was happy to share the chore of painting, 

but he took it home for himself.

Happy Birthday, G'ma

 Reprised from 2021. Only her age has been changed to protect the integrity.

This is how she looked when she met my father.

This is how she looked when she lived in Tucson.

I never knew the first woman.  I enjoyed meeting the second woman, the one whose memory was failing but who always knew that I loved her.  

Some things never changed. There was always a straw in her Diet Sprite.

Her purse was always over her shoulder (see blue strap, above). She was cold, but never wore a hat - "I don't look good in hats!"

There were some things she never forgot. Good grammar was imperative and bad grammar demanded correction. Yellow was her favorite color and chocolate was her favorite food.  Wrinkled shirts and sagging hems were unacceptable; she made her opinions known even when she was no longer in charge of choosing the outfits herself.

.

Today would have been her 103rd birthday.

I'd have brought her a prune danish for breakfast, accompanied by a gardenia corsage on the tray.  I'd have taken her out for a tuna-and-tomato-on-toast for lunch.   We'd have shared shrimp for dinner.

We would certainly have stopped for some chocolate ice cream along the way.

By the end, there were no books to share nor Scrabble to play.  There was her shell and her soul and the connection between the two became more tenuous with every passing day.

But now, on her birthday, I remember the smiles and the advice and the kisses.  Oh, the kisses.  She had the softest skin to receive my love.

I'm kissing the air right now, sending the love out into the ether.   Wherever she is, I know she's feeling it.  She's my mom.  We're attached, forever.

Happy Birthday, Mommy!  I hope that there is chocolate in heaven.

Sigh

Note to self:

The stainless steel pan you use to  brown the chicken on the cook top will be hot. Do not use your bent finger to give it a nudge after you use the potholder to finish it off in the oven. 

I will be back tomorrow when I can type without pain.

Notes On A Federal Holiday

I'm typing this on the third Monday in February.  Waste Management came for the recycling and the trash, but there was no mail in the mailbox.

Oh, right.  It's Presidents Day.

*****

Seeing it there I'm wondering if it's Presidents Day or Presidents' Day or President's Day.  But that led me to thinking about our current President and so I stopped.  

*****

I thought about Presidents and how few of them were good people.... it seems.... who knows what we don't know we don't know.... but given what we know, most of them have been scoundrels, in one way or another.  

Great things have been accomplished by dishonorable men.  That is a truth they don't emphasize social studies .... if such a class even exists anymore.  

*****

My grandkids have Presidents' Recess but the Prince scholars were in school today.  

Don't tell the current Administration,  but they get the last Thursday and Friday of February for La Fiesta de los Vaqueros, or as it's usually called,  Rodeo Week

Yes, I'm Piling On

It's just low hanging fruit these days.  With no real power to wield and no real leadership to wield what's left, the Democratic Party is flailing.  Stating this is probably not a revelation to you.  Just turn on the talking heads and listen to the same sentiment.  The worst President in history is being contested by a misguided bunch of I really want to keep my job and to hell with doing my job leaders.

The Democrats are lauding their victories in the polls.  There is no arguing that the voters are moving away from the right with surprising alacrity and vehemence.  Apparently, masked government agents murdering American citizens with impunity has grabbed the attention of that portion of the voting public which was mildly engaged before the videos surfaced.  

That is good news, and we should welcome them to the fight.  But let's look at where they are going.  WTOP News, writing about the special election in New Jersey, posted this headline: 

Analilia Mejia, progressive ally of Bernie Sanders, wins special New Jersey House primary

then goes on to tell us that:

(I)nstead of backing a more moderate replacement for Sherrill, primary voters chose Mejia, who campaigned on populist economic policies and the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Axios went a bit further 

The left smells blood after shocking Democratic primary result

The Democratic political machinery did everything short of seizing the voting booths to prevent it from happening and yet Zohran Mamdani is now the Mayor of New York.  He's making a name for himself on his own, taking meetings with high profile names including Minneapolis's Mayor Jacob Frey, who told us that

“Mayors work together.... we're all operating in the reality business, and the reality is, what just happened with ‘Operation Metro Surge’ is not constitutional, is not okay, and is anti-American.”

Act Blue has sold or shared my phone number to any number of candidates for dog catcher in Montana despite my efforts to control the texts spamming my inbox, and I know I'm not alone in this.  Trees are dying and energy is expended so that Hakeem Jeffries can ask me to send him money to keep the wins coming.

How dumb do they think I am?  

Happy Valentine's Day

 

Sharing The Love

This happened on Valentines weekend, 2012.  

I remember it as if it were today. 

Shockingly, G'ma was willing to forgo her post-prandial nap and accompany me to Target.  I hustled her into the car before she could change her mind.  We admired the clouds and she told me I was driving too fast and not stopping for the yellow lights and following too closely and she was my mother again, except for the clacking dentures. Be careful what you wish for, I guess.

There was an electric cart in the unloading area next to the handicapped parking space and it was calling her name.  She's still got left and right implanted in her memory bank, so directionality wasn't an issue.  She took a turn or two too closely, but the t-shirts didn't seem to mind the little bit of sway she put into their hangars.  Humans managed to get out of her way, and her enjoyment of the scene washed away frowns before they could be formed.  We chose Valentines Day cards and bought mini-packs of tissues for her purse and we giggled over but didn't purchase any of the soft pink socks with hearts that were tempting me at the register.  Sorry, Little Cuter........

Pie wasn't nearly enough lunch for me, so I suggested ice cream.  "Drive faster!" was her reply, so I did.  There's a new Dairy Queen in the neighbrohood and that's where we headed, $5.01 bringing us her sundae (all chocolate....did you really have to ask?) and my strawberry milkshake and more napkins than we needed.

Sitting there in the parking lot, sipping whipped cream and watching chocolate sauce melt into chocolate soft serve, feeling the warm breeze on my bare arms, I was 10 years old again, in the drive-thru with Mommy.

It felt really really good.

Lincoln and Washington and Their BIrthdays

 

I first published this in 2011; only Lincoln's age has changed.

 It remains one of my favorite rants.

I remember when THIS was the most aggravating thing our government did.

Sigh.

*****

Mary Ball Washington gave birth to a boy child on February 22, 1732. Unlike many of the stories surrounding this man (think cherry trees and coins across the Potomac and standing up in an open boat as it crossed the Delaware) this is an indisputable fact.

Mary was not in labor on the third Monday of February.  She produced her child on a specific day - the 22nd day of February.  His birthday didn't move around with the vagaries of the federal holiday calendar.

Nancy Hanks Lincoln met her second son, Abraham, 217 years ago today.  Like Mrs. Washington before her, she was not in labor on an indeterminate day sometime in the middle of the month.  It occurred on a certain day, a day formerly commemorated by school children and mail carriers alike.

Alas and alack, these fine gentlemen have been conflated into Presidents and their birthdays combined into a generic celebration designed primarily to afford employees the opportunity for a 3-day weekend in the middle of the winter. What was wrong with the old system, I wonder?  As an elementary school kid I looked forward to those random days off in the middle of the month.  One day, breaking up the routine.  One celebration for each president - pennies examined on the 12th, leadership and lying (not) on the 22nd.

There was no time for a weekend away (not that G'ma and Daddooooo could have afforded to take us anyplace anyhow) and there was no competition between students for who went the furthest and had the most fun.  It was an opportunity to go sledding at Bethpage (the Black Course was used for many things in my youth; this was the best of them) or to meet friends at the bowling alley and then walk to Smiles (our precursor to a 5-and-dime) where we cruised the aisles until our parents picked us up.

It was grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon on the side, eaten on paper plates and accompanied by the admonition Don't Tell Daddy since the bacon was not exactly kosher and he cared a lot more than did G'ma.  There were snow forts to be built, snowball fights to be fought, snow men to be built. The entire neighborhood roamed from front yard to front yard, creating and tumbling and finding warmth and drinks and the occasional bathroom in whichever house we happened to be in front of when the need arose.

And now?  Now President's Day is always an event.  It's a long weekend for which plans must be made.  It has no intrinsic meaning, no relationship to George or Abe or any of their colleagues.  Their faces are used to advertise white sales and car sales and furniture sales and The History Channel runs back to back episodes of The Presidents but that's about the size of the historical component.  What began as tributes to great men has devolved into spending opportunities for the masses.

Am I bitter?  You bet.  A day off followed by another one 10 days later.... what better way to combat the winter doldrums than that?  A random day, a day to cuddle under the blankets with your sweetie or to do all that laundry that interfered with your weekend plans and so still sits in the basket, mocking you.  A day to explore the neighborhood and have lunch in that place you've driven by 100 times before..... a day just to be.

Sometimes, when I was a girl really was better.

Silly Names

I've always respected the work but I never gave much thought to the physical effort involved in being a teacher.  But having spent eight hours over the last two days reading and gardening with the Prince scholars, I am a physical wreck.

Two cups of robust English Breakfast tea provided the fuel; I didn't yawn all day.  But when the pre-K teacher asked her student to go back to the classroom and tell Mr. S that nap time was over, then smiled at me and said, sotto voce, So I don't have to get up off the floor, I completely understood her situation.  I was pretty comfortable on the tiny chair beside her; the walk to my next class was a distant 10 feet away.

So, denizens, forgive me if my only original thought is why do female skiers have silly first names?

Okay, a Google search revealed only the two I already knew, but I think the question's still valid.  

Breezy?  Who names their kid Breezy?  Apparently, the Johnsons.

Picabo Street's parents called her Baby Girl before she needed a passport and thus a real name.  Picabo was a neighboring town in Idaho.  It was also Baby Girl's favorite game - Peek a Boo.  Still.......

Feel free to ruminate on this bit of insignificant trivia.  It's all my brain can handle right now.

Love of Reading Week

We were asked to send our schedule to the coordinator.  We provide the availability, she would assign us to the classrooms.  All we had to do was bring ourselves and the book(s) we chose to read aloud to the appropriate classroom at the appropriate time.

My schedule arrived, then arrived again with the classroom numbers included, then didn't arrive which I didn't know until I showed up 4 hours earlier than expected in a 3rd grade classroom and that teacher printed out the revised version.

I'm not complaining.  The new schedule allowed me a break for breakfast bagel sandwich at a nearby cafe.

Fully fortified, I gardened and read and realized, once again, that not everyone has had the same upbringing as I did.

For the first graders, I read Pickle Things, a sure fire winner with its rhymes about pickle things you never see.  The third graders were treated to the d'Aulaire's verbiage and illustrations of Greek Myths, the fifth graders dove into an illustrated copy of The Odyssey.  

The younger ones learned about Hermes boring Argus of the 100 eyes to death, marveling at the notion that the eyes they've seen at the zoo on the peacock's feathers were once attached to an ancient human and that the notion of being bored to death had its roots in ancient stories.

The fifth grade was treated to a picture of Polyphemus the Cyclops king with a sharpened, heated, wooden spike being driven through the eyeball in the middle of his forehead.  Crafty Ulysses's hug the bottoms of the sheep so we can escape the cave ruse was somewhat less impactful.

Everybody got poems, too.  Billy Collins on Turning Ten was a little too ephemeral for the 10 and 11 year olds in 5th grade.  Ogden Nash's Who wants my jellyfish/ I'm not selly-fish missed the mark entirely, as did The Lord in his wisdom made the fly/And then forgot to tell us why.  Word play that resonates with my grandkids landed with a thunk at Prince.  

A fifth grader wondered if the myths were fiction or non-fiction.  Roll that question around in your brain for a moment before you jump to a conclusion.  Did the ancients consider them to be literal truths, non-fiction in this student's view?  Without science, perhaps they did.  Now, though?  I was flummoxed, the teacher smiled but offered no assistance, so I punted.

It's like Aesop's Fables... you know Aesop's Fables, right?

Their blank looks astounded me.  I've already come to terms with the fact that little ones are no longer read nursery rhymes at bedtime, but being unaware of the fables and their morals?  This was news to me.  

Missing out on silly rhymes about the Black Death (Ring Around the Rosy) or the British monarchy (Jack and Jill) doesn't seem like much of a loss.  But the fables are a shorthand for morality and consequences.  Sour grapes, slow and steady wins the race, the list goes on and on.  Those morals were the underpinnings of my ethical education, though I didn't realize it at the time.  

What are my scholars using instead?  Does Bluey fill the gap?  

In any event, I know what I'm reading to everyone next year.

Tucson in the News, Again

The FBI is ringing doorbells, asking for any video surveillance of the street and permission to search your yard.  

There are news crews trying to find something to report.

The sheriff admits that releasing the house back to the family before the FBI arrived with its forensic magic might not have been a great idea.

There are tearful pleas for information and contact, heartbreaking in their honesty.  

Friends and relatives and relatives of friends have reached out to be sure I'm okay.  TBG was anxious about my Saturday foray to Grandma's Garden; being alone, even behind a gate I'd be sure to lock behind me, just didn't seem safe to him.

Ransom.  Kidnapping.  

It's a hell of a world, denizens.  

Television - A Snippet

Paladin was on H&I, until it wasn't.  Now it's on in the afternoon, on something called INSP.

I laughed as my brain went to INSP Gadget, one of The Cuters' favorite tv shows.  TBG brought me back to reality; it seems to be shorthand for inspiration.

I couldn't tell you the numbers to press to bring it up.  I couldn't tell you how to get NBC or PBS or anything but 576, Turner Classic Movies.  For the rest, I talk into the remote.

Finding Netflix or Apple+ requires my husband's presence.  Apparently, they are apps and have their own special section of the guide.... I think.  Left to my own devices, I'd rarely turn the thing on.  I really don't care.

But there is YouTubeTV and other services that promise to give me freedom and free services, or at least less expensive services than I have right now... if only I could figure out if I have a Smart TV or if it's connected to Bluetooth or any of the myriad factors I need to consider.

TBG loves all his channels.  He has no problem navigating the system.  I'm sitting here wondering why I'm worrying about this at all.

Something tells me I need a break.  If this is all my brain could churn out for you, it's sending me a message.  I'm off to have dinner and a Simon Toyne novel.  I'll try to do better on Monday.

Unleash The Hounds

I've forgotten where we are going to war this week?  

Are we finished with Venezuela and those nasty little boats in the ocean?  

Greenland seems safe for the moment, FFOTUS having walked away from some meeting or other with a shiny object in his tiny hand.

That old staple, Iran, has been back in the news, but the absurdity of an American President with his own private police force cracking down on the Iranian government for going after protesters in the street has been too much for me to bear.  

I've been focused on local issues (Savannah Guthrie's mom; the RTA; what to replant and replace in Grandma's Garden).  I thought that the national issues could do without me for a while.  

Yesterday, I read several reports of Congressional leaders talking about the phone calls they've been getting.  There are lots of them and they are not happy and our representatives seem to be taking notice.  

Suddenly, I'm feeling quite guilty.  I haven't been making my phone calls.  

My phone refuses to sync to my car.  Without that connection, my drive to Prince or Pilates or mahjongg is not longer my place to vent.  I knew that the vehicle had to be stopped to press 1 to leave a message with Sen. Gallego or 2 to holler at Rep. Ciscomani; I dialed as the traffic lights turned red and made my point as I drove across town.  

This was an efficient use of my time.  It allowed me to vent my spleen and leave the residue in the car.  I really don't want FFOTUS or his minions in my personal space at home, but now, in order to be a diligent practitioner of democracy I have no choice.

I tried sitting in the driveway and talking, but it felt ridiculous.  I can't hold my phone while I drive because that's just not safe.  I really should figure out why the Bluetooth isn't syncing well with my hearing aids as well as the car, but until I visit the Verizon store that's just not going to happen.  

It's not a problem my usual fix (turn it all off and wait) has solved.  I'm going to have to bite the bullet and spew political venom all over my house so that I, too, can once again be counted in all those phone calls demanding that ICE lose their masks and their warrantless searches and their Director and everyone involved in this travesty.

Sigh.

Senorita in the Garden

She's been a regular in Grandma's Garden since she was in kindergarten.

She's taken on more and more tasks as the years have gone by; now she's the one offering assistance. 

Watching her teach her classmates - supervising the creation of just the right number of holes of just the right depth in just the right size pot - makes my heart sing.

She was the only one interested in filling the big black container with soil, refusing offers to use the hose or join a friend.  She chose one of the three varieties of carrots from our storage bin, and I left her with the packet and instructions - 3 seeds in each evenly spaced hole around the edge and one in the middle - and went on to other things.  

Soon she was by my side, a few round seeds in her palm, the left overs.  We went back to admire her work.  We used the trowels to cover her treasures with a fine dusting of soil, moved the container to the corner, next to the other carrot container, and watered it thoroughly.  

But before we got it settled in, she said I could take her picture, and asked if I could send it to her mom, even though she didn't know the new phone number.  Not to worry, Senorita.  A printed copy of this post will be in your hands this afternoon.    

418/419

If you live in the Tucson metropolitan area you have no doubt seen the sighs urging you to VOTE YES ON 418/419.  The signs tell you that you can fix our roads without raising taxes.  

That's not really true.  I know this because I am the person who reads every page of every Sample Ballot and Publicity Pamphlet that comes my way, in this case all 132 pages (the English version; the 280 pages include the whole thing in Spanish, too..... don't get me started on English as our common language).

It is true that our taxes won't go up.  They will also not go down.  The same half cent sales tax (a totally regressive measure) instituted when the first RTA plan was passed in 2006 (the year we moved here) will remain in place if the voters vote yes on 419, the funding package.

We were thrilled that there was a regional plan back in 2006.  Single lane roads with unimproved shoulders suddenly became 4 paved lanes with cut outs for left turns and buses.  Some even had bike lanes, although only a few with curbs separating the cyclist from the motorist.  Tucson prides itself as being a biking community; protecting those on two wheels was obviously not that important to the planners.

Railroad crossings were made safer with overpasses and underpasses.  More of that is planned in the next 20 years, along with widening arterial roads to facilitate speeding through the city.  The 2006 major crosstown road reconstruction project (Grant Road) has been going on for a long long long long time and is still nowhere near complete.  Neither are several other projects from that election.  

There is some money reserved from the revenues collected to cover some of those costs, but some is not all.  The RTA pamphlet uses COVID and 2008 to explain this failure of revenues not keeping up with expenses.  I'll grant them that.  But there were cost overruns and miscalculations too.  

Tucson's pot hole infestation has spread alarmingly in the 20 years we've been here.  The plan allots 6.6% of the project's expenses to Pavement Rehabilitation.  Orange Grove Road, recently widened and repaved, is going to be widened again.  I drive across the area in question most days, at high traffic and low traffic times.  In 20 years I've never been in what I'd call a traffic jam.  

Sure, the road now has 4 lanes then 2 lanes then 3 lanes then 5 lanes but the cars flow smoothly and I rarely miss the lights because of traffic.  The same can be said for Ina Road and Prince Road, both of which are in line for moderniz(ing) existing roadway including bicycle, pedestrian, and associated intersection and drainage improvements.  Notice that there is no mention of resurfacing, or pot hole filling, or fixing the damn roads themselves for crying out loud.

We just spent $4000 replacing TBG's engine mounts and oil pan, victims of the potholes (and our excessive heat... but that, they said, was less of an issue).  Driving up to Dr K and Not-Kathy's house is an adventure in off-roading... only we're on the (supposedly) paved surface.  Where there used to be holes in the asphalt, now there are mounds.  It's a toss up which feels better when you're over them.

Counting on the RTA to make smart decisions is put to the test when considering what's been going on since 2006.  Grant Road is home to my hairdresser.  In order to return to my house, I need to make a left turn and drive west.  From the salon to the nearest available left turn is now a nearly 3 mile drive.... which brings us to air quality and environmental safety.

The Vote No Arguments in the pamphlet are peppered with bicycle, pedestrian, and transit advocates, all of whom wonder about the air we breath.  They wonder why transit related projects comprise only 27.1% of the expenditures.  Expanding the highly successful Streetcar to serve more of the city is nowhere to be found.  With Tucson's COVID era free bus service and the concomitant rise in unhoused and unruly passengers, riding the buses has become less safe for both passengers and drivers.  Yet only 1.9% ( $51,000) is allocated.

There are broader concerns about the structure of the RTA, the dissolution of the citizens' advisory committee, the disproportionate allocation of funds to the outer rim rather than Tucson itself.  The Yes arguments are from developers and realtors and builders and elected officials (although Mayor Romero's argument is signed by her, without her title).  The No arguments are from pedestrians and cyclists and health care advocates, Democrats and Republicans and Libertarians.

I read it all.  I've thought about it for a while.  My favorite argument is this one, which I will quote in its entirety.

I live in unincorporated Pima County.  Like most of us, I spend too much time in my car.  Everywhere I need to go is far away from me.  I had the same problem when I lived in the city.  New roadwork won't solve that problem

Pima County's best regional transportation plan, the updated version of our 2045 Regional Mobility and Accessibility Plan, looks at average daily travel times under "build" and "no-build" scenarios.  Under a "build" scenario, the average person saves 36 seconds of daily travel time.

The projects funded by Prop 419 will cost $2.67 billion.  There are about 430,000 households in Pima County.  That's $6,200 per family.  There are better ways to save 36 seconds a day.

I'm leaning towards a no vote. 

 

You Must Listen

This is the Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio) from YouTube.  

10 million plus views in 4 days.

MS Now says it's not a masterpiece, but it is enough.

I think it's our new anthem for protests everywhere.

Listen with the sound on.

A Blast From The Past

The librarian left bright red papers in our mailboxes.  What was your favorite book as a child? 

I loved my illustrated copy of Washington Irving's tales, even though most of them scared me silly.  The Headless Horseman's cape flying behind him as his horse raced through the darkness was only tolerable because I was surrounded by my stuffed animals.  Why I thought it was a good idea to read myself to sleep that way remains a mystery to this day.

I loved Nancy Drew, and the little blue bound biographies at school, and A. A. Milne's poems and Pooh.  If pressed, I can recite Disobedience, another terrifying tale. Again, a lost mother is not the best notion to take to bed.

But this one,

The Pink Motel, a 1960 Weekly Reader Book Club selection, was the hands down winner.  

Miss P. DeGree, who owned poodles.  Miss Ferry, the artist.  Marvello, the magician.  I read and reread that mystery, taking the characters and the plot with me into adulthood.

All my blogonyms?  Miss P. DeGree started me off.  Mysteries?  My go-to genre.  And Miss Ferry's notion that meals should start with dessert is the reason FlapJilly remembers the breakfast we ate the day her brother was born.  Who could forget whipped cream and sprinkles?

So I Googled the author's name - Carol Ryrie Brink - and filled in the librarian's form, and I've spent the day walking in the sand on the Florida beach in front of that pink motel.

Teaching to the Test - A Snippet

Every few years, I am asked to teach the 5th graders plant science.  I have a lesson plan, handouts, and two different experiments in my tool kit.  The scholars are respectful and attentive, for the most part.  After all, Grandma's out of the garden and in front of the classroom; that's enough to grab their attention.

And, I must admit, I have a lot of laughs built into the presentations.  Some are silly jokes, and some border on the uncomfortable for these tweens.  After all, sex is a big part of plant life (the birds and the bees play an important role) and thinking about sex is a big part of fifth grade life, too. 

Today, though, something changed.  The teacher coordinating my appearances started out by asking if I'd help them with the test.  

The test?  What test?  She promised to send me more information about it.  

But all of a sudden my foray into the classroom has real life consequences.  I thought I was extra curricular.  Turns out I am integral to measuring their performance.

I'm just a little bit more anxious now.

Really Good Medical Care

A surprising headline, right?  But after a month of utter frustration with the medical system TBG and I were the recipients of really good medical care.  

We love the practice.  The lobby is cheerful and has fabulous poster art on the walls.  Checking in is painless and simple.  They rarely run late, yet everyone always has as much time as we need.  These days, that alone makes them a unicorn.

Blood pressure and temperature and all the what's wrong with you today questions were handled with sympathy and concern, efficiently and thoughtfully.  Her He'll be in in a minute turned out to be inaccurate; the door had barely closed before TBG's Family Nurse Practitioner walked in.

Old enough to inspire confidence, he reinforced our belief that doctors are not really the people we need in our lives.  We need FNP's and NP's and PA's, all of whom have far surpassed most of the physicians in their offices in terms of time spent and connections made.  Every one of them could be described the same way - they are agreeable.

Not that they aren't challenging, if necessary.  But they share a real acknowledgment of the human sitting in the patient's chair that medical school seems to have beaten out of physicians.  That was certainly in evidence today.

We've spent the last month in limbo, waiting for the specialist to return calls, watching the situation deteriorate.  I'd go to the office, but there is no office.  The practice dissolved and the doctor went to the hospital's department and all one can do is leave a message and hope for the best.  This is not optimal care, especially when conditions change and advice is needed.

Today, FNP Marvelous gave TBG advice, encouragement, explanations, suggestions, a useful prescription, and a change in another that ought to alleviate most of the problem..... which is about as good as it gets and is a totally manageable outcome.  

He did all that calmly, sympathetically, and efficiently.  He texted in the prescription while he was telling us about it.  He had a brochure right at hand, the pictures accompanying his explanation.  He wasn't typing as we spoke.  He was listening and watching and didn't make a big deal of my tears as I watched TBG's shoulders relax for the first time in way too long a time.  

If TBG has another problem, he can call FNP Marvelous, not the specialist.  If he has questions, he's to call FNP Marvelous.  

The appointment was the most delightful encounter I've had with an adult in a while.  It's nice to have a person you can trust with your health.

Therapy For My Soul

I renewed my faith in humanity by visiting with the scholars at Prince today.  The woes they shared were within my ability to heal, with fresh cut aloe or a hug.  It felt great.  

I needed a dose of pure intentions.  Everything I considered writing about made me sad.  I didn't and I don't want to dwell on the Pretti's anguish; it's too close to my own.  Outside in January, participating in democracy, not expecting to die.

So.

Instead of going down that rabbit hole, I decided to show you the big fat cactus in my front yard.  

It's a true survivor.  After about 100 years, before being decapitated when the palo verde collapsed. it had just begun to sprout the buds that would have grown into statement arms.  

Instead, all that energy went into the stump it left behind.  There was obviously a lot of energy.

The main trunk is now 5' tall.  There are a few more baby arms on the other side.  

People stop and stare.  

To me, she's a sign of resilience, of harnessing what's available and doing your best to make it work.  I really should give her a name.  

*****

Now, don't you feel better?  I do.

Self care is crucial.  This week is testing us all.  Take care.

What They Are Saying

 

ICE says violent mob helped criminal escape and left ICE agent permanently maimed

That's the headline on Fox News website Sunday at 5:17pm.  I went there out of curiosity.  The videos are clear - Alex Pretti was shot to death while lying on his face on the ground.  The assailant stood over him and pumped bullets into his back.  

According to Homeland Security officials, Pretti approached Border Patrol agents while armed with a 9 mm pistol and "violently resisted" when agents attempted to disarm him.

That's their description of the event.

As for the permanently maimed agent?  Someone bit off a piece of his finger. 

DHS thoughtfully put checkered blurry things over this photo they released of the poor fellow.

Digging further, clicking a link or two, I came upon some fairly sympathetic content.

The family said they did not know about the shooting until they were contacted by a reporter and couldn't get any information from Border Patrol or local hospitals.

.....his parents said they had not heard from any federal law enforcement agencies as of Saturday night.

"The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting," the family wrote in a statement obtained by the AP. "Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs.... 

My positive impression of the site quickly vanished when I noticed this between those quotes:

BONDI BLAMES MINNEAPOLIS LEADERS AFTER ARMED SUSPECT KILLED, UNREST ERUPTS DURING ICE OPERATION

I spent some time thinking about alternative facts and character assassination and The Ministry of Truth and then totally lost it when I remembered the headline JannyLou showed me before she drove home this afternoon:

Minneapolis shooting: Judge rules DHS can't destroy scene evidence

This is Fox's interpretation of the headline she read to me.

We said the same thing at the same time - DUH!

I think I'll go on believing in the Constitution and the rule of law and what I see with my own eyes even as my country sinks further and further into disastrophe.

Call your Senators.  Have them remove the DHS funding piece from the spending bill.  Let the business of governing continue while voters can consider their representatives' opinions on masked murderers roaming our streets.  There need not be a shut down.  There is a way around it.  Make the calls.  This cannot be allowed to continue.

US Senate Switchboard:  202-224-3121

Luck in the Library

There were no books by authors I recognized on the open shelves in the library's lobby.  There's a New Mysteries bookcase and a Large Print bookcase and New Fiction and Non-Fiction and Children's bookcases and nothing there caught my eye.  

I took a chance on the only mystery which didn't have another in the Detective So-and-So series on the cover.  I don't like picking up the backstory in the middle.  When I've chosen a book in the middle of a series I wonder about the minor characters who are referenced as having done something notable two books before.  

It turns out that The Busy Body is the first of three novels by Kemper Donovan.  

I liked it.  Didn't love it but found myself thinking about it after I turned the last page.  Went to return it to the library and there on the New Mysteries shelf was Loose Lips, book 2 in the (so far) 3 book series.

These aren't my usual fare.  The author is an Agatha Christie junkie, and these are cozy mysteries with over the top characters.  The narrator is unnamed; for the first 50 pages or so of The Busy Body I wasn't sure what pronouns to use to refer to her.  That was annoying until it became obvious that this was one of the tropes of the series.  

It's called The Ghostwriter series, because that's what she is.  She's the literary brains behind other people's stories.  Anonymity is her gift.  There's a back story alluded to but not yet revealed.  There's catty dialog and great attention to tiny details;  I can describe every hair on every head of every character, every ingredient in the dishes served.  Those aren't details included in most mysteries, but they are crucial to these.

Like most cozies, they are short, hovering around 200 pages.  Unlike most mysteries, I didn't race through them.  The prose is dense and satisfying.  The characters are memorable and their words are often hilarious, though their actions are less so.  I've spent a fair amount of time today imaging myself on the Loose Lips' cruise ship; it's been a long time since that's happened.

There's one more book in the series.  I'm hopeful that it will show up on the shelf when Loose Lips is returned.  I'm feeing lucky.