The Burrow

We vote. We protests. We call and write and meet office staff.  We are incidental to the results.  There's an empty space in my brain where a conclusion ought to sit.  I'm used to being the master of my fate, directing my life, answering only to myself and those I love.  But the world has taken a darker turn, and I seem to be powerless to change its course.  FFOTUS and his uber-Christian-nationalist minion are planning to send ground troops to the Middle East to open a waterway.  My poor brain cannot comprehend it.   No one wanted this war.  We wanted to see the Epstein tapes and files.  Instead,  FFOTUS has set us on a path of destruction with nary an exit strategy in sight.  My head hurts. My heart is sick.  

The crowds stretched from one end of town to the other along a main north south corridor, fanning out from the major east west intersections. There were the usual wonderful signs.  There was a 3rd grader inside an inflatable pink hippo in the family group beside me, his soccer cleats beating out a tune known only to him.  There were young mothers and middle schoolers and lots and lots of people born after voting for Obama, the first time.   It's usually the plus 60 crowd, waving home made placards and smiling at the honking horns.  These newbies just added to the joy.  Tucson hosted a multitude of No Kings! events; they were packed with unhappy voters. No one I talked to had received a paycheck.  As one sign read: I'm not getting paid.  I hate you for free.   ***** It was almost as much fun when I drove past the last half hour of the demonstration.  I plastered part of my sign to my passenger side window and drove up and down, ...

Thanks to Lisa Donnely for the free download. 

It's been a week.  My brain is fried.  I'm taking the night off.  Happy No Kings Day!

Five days after bullets perforated me and killed my little friend, the Director of the FBI visited me in the hospital.  He was surrounded by many minions, who he introduced as colleagues: the US Attorneys and the FBI agents and the support people who would be in our lives for a while.   He leaned over and asked if he could take my hand.  His was long and large and gentle and comforting.  His gaze was unwavering as he apologized  for this terrible thing happening on my watch.  He promised that he and the minions were at our service.   Then he bent over even closer and squeezed my hand and said I am so very sorry this happened to you. ***** Months later, he met the survivors and families of the dead inside the US Attorney's Office, to update us on the legal matters, and to take our temperature on sentencing.   It all became very real to me, the whole death penalty thing, and it must have shown on my face.  The people next to me r...

It was approaching 100 degrees.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky.  There wasn't a breeze to be found.   The Assistant Principal addressed each group of scholars as they left the cafeteria and were lined up along the garden wall. Don't stay out in the sun too long.  Play under the solar panels or in the shade near the K-1 building.   I put up the umbrella in the garden.  We still have no water to keep our plants alive, so we didn't stress the spinach and celery by picking off leaves and sharing them with friends.  Instead, I got out the paper plates and the acrylic paints and the tiny paint brushes and the dozens of ceramic pots Rillito Nursery donated last month.   The gardeners did the rest. They wanted to take them home, for their brothers and mothers and grandmas.  But, we are saving them as gifts for the teachers and staff as an end of year gift from Grandma's Gardeners.  It's a secret.  Don't tell anybody. By th...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, here in the circus we're calling American Governance right now, our leader is dancing on the grave of one of the most honorable, kind, sincere, sensitive, smart people I've ever had the joy and honor to meet, more than once. In a terrible moment, he was a north star. I have a proper tribute coming (tomorrow?) but this asinine, hurtful, mean, petty man must be called out.  This cannot be normalized, sanitized, dismissed.  It is out there and it's awful and I just had to say it. On the flip side, I have now given myself permission to use his words , with a small grammatical change, when he is at death's door.  I'm not waiting for him to be completely gone.  I want him to know how I feel. Good, I'm glad he's dead. He ( Donald J Trump) can no longer hurt innocent people!  

It started when Siena ran Duke ragged. It ended when VCU sent North Carolina packing and St. Louis sent Georgia home.  In the middle, there were moments of bliss and moments of frustration and, once again, I was reminded that reputation takes you only so far in March Madness.  The mid-majors want to play with the big boys.  Charles Barkley still loves our Arizona Wildcats (there are lots of Wildcats in the brackets; one must be precise). So a day full of basketball preempted my blogging.  I'm sure I'm find some time this weekend to type some more.... although,  be warned,  it will probably be about basketball.  I love this time of year!

This afternoon TBG and I watched Barbara Stanwyck sleep her way to the top in Baby Face .  I've never wanted to be a brazen hussy more than I do right now. She started out poor and abused, found a drunken mentor who encouraged her to broaden her horizons, and took off with her maid for the big city.  She flirts with a policeman, seduces an office boy, and as the camera shows us from the outside of the bank building, she works her way higher and higher. Her clothes and jewelry get better and better.  Her apartments get bigger and bigger.  Her maid wears furs and is really more a companion than a servant.  She breaks hearts and lives and careers along the way, but none of it stays with her.   It's the little things that make Ms Stanwyck and the movie so special.  How her hand lingers in his before she sweeps it away.  How she perches on his desk.  How she turns down fabulous offers with a smile and a smirk.   Men become obsessed ...

For the backstory, click through to this post. I was the guest of honor at lunch today, and I've been smiling about it ever since.  There were gifts. TBG and I chose the venue, not knowing that our favorite Mexican restaurant would be hosting what appeared to be the entire population of Northwest Tucson.  We gathered on and around the chairs on the edge of the small lobby, chatting up a storm.   TBG sat quietly, as is his wont.  He wasn't uncomfortable with the silence or the conversations swirling around him.  He was, as I knew and he admitted through gritted teeth, practising the virtue of patience.  He's never been good at waiting; it's the part of travel that annoys him the most.  As for waiting in a restaurant?  Not gonna happen.  But this was organized by The Girls, so he sat and stewed.  No one noticed.  After about half an hour, I decided to evaluate our chances of being seated in a reasonable amount of time.  The ...

I was excited to type about it. My computer was fully charged. And then, there was this: Updates underway.  You are (insert scrolling %'s)) there.              Please keep your computer on.   Well, of course I am keeping my computer on. I have something to say and this is the place to do it. And so I watch the dots go round and round as the %'s get bigger and bigger and then, finally You're 100% there. Please keep your computer on. As Inigo Montoya says, I do not think that word means what you think it does.  To me, 100% is everything.  If I am at 100% then I'm through.  I shouldn't have to wait for anything else, right? Apparently, my operating system operates within a different framework. It probably means that the updates are downloaded, which is confusing in and of itself.... up and down have such screwy meanings in the interwebs.  To me, it means that I still have to wait. And wait I did.  The screen went bl...

The annual Tucson Festival of Books happened this weekend.  There are stuctural issues (getting tickets,  parking, old people walking long distances) but it's still my favorite weekend of the year.  The lineup of authors was skimpier than in years past, but I managed to find sessions that appealed to me.  Here are some snippets. ***** John Scalzi had the crowd eating out of his hand before he sat down, showing off his new UofA chapeau and complimenting the Wildcats on their victory the night before.  It was a room filled with rapt fans; their eyes never left his face. "Loyalty and ruthlessness is my life." ***** The difference between science fiction and fantasy?  According to three writers in the genres, it's Sandals vs Robots. ***** Tochi Onyebuchi, who's written Captain America and Black Panther movies, said he turned to fantasy/sci fi because everything he was writing aboout turned out to be about race and he wondered if he could turn those ideas into m...

I called the Tucson office this morning, in the ten minutes I had before Pilates.  The usual young man answered the phone.  I stated my name and asked how his day was going.  That was the last pleasant moment of the conversation. I told him how deeply disappointed I was in my Congressman's nay vote on the War Powers Resolution.  You can imagine all the points I made - the cost in human lives, the lack of proper intelligence, the money spent on weapons instead of food here at home - and you can imagine my surprise when he offered to read my the Congressman's statement on the war.   I'm reprinting it so you can snort along with me. Today’s action by President Trump sends a clear message: the Iranian regime’s aggression and destabilizing threats will not go unanswered. For decades, the Iranian regime has funded terror, attacked our allies, and threatened American servicemembers. President Trump and his administration have continually been seeking peace, but Ir...

This showed up among my texts today Susan, I'm AZ State House Leader Oscar De Los Santos, and I just stood up to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. Here's what happened. Kristi Noem just visited Arizona to push for the SAVE Act, Trump’s voter suppression law that blocks married women who changed their names from voting unless they get a new birth certificate. She called our elections an “absolute disaster,” repeating false claims about widespread voter fraud by undocumented immigrants.  But when reporters and I asked for examples, she couldn’t name a single one.  This is embarrassing and disgraceful, but it's also dangerous. Arizona is a swing state, and the 2026 and 2028 elections could come down to just a few votes here. Susan, that's why we need to elect leaders in our legislature who will fight to protect our election laws and our democracy. Will you chip in today to help us elect a Democratic majority in Arizona?  odls4az.us/0311a?t=qeGoWs Text STOP to quit This is what...

We've already won in many ways, but we haven't won enough. Those ships should go through the Strait of Hormuz.  There's no danger. We have enough oil.  No one should worry. FFOTUS via MSNOW I'm sorry to inflict that upon you.  I am.   But this post was to be about his inability to calm even the calmest of Senators; the moving of the Overton Window to make saying the Department of  Defense  War commonplace; and the general terrifying-ness of the whole situation being run by a man who used to (sic) drink his lunch supervised by a small man who punches little girls in the head when they bite him.   (Until I see the FBI's handwritten notes disputing the girl's claims, yes, I'm believing her.) One wants to dispense with silly rules of engagement.  The other .... the personification of evil, unable to see beyond himself.  Never having faced consequences, he bumbles on and on. Cuba is next, unless he decides to cancel the mid-term election...

Once again, I broke out my folder and organized my mind for a presentation to the 5th grade.  From pollination to photosynthesis, with a slight diversion into human biology around the whole seed/embryo/ovule situation, we covered the life cycle of the plant.   There's a test on the basics coming up soon, and I was entrusted with the responsibility of preparing them for the plant part.  Teaching to the test isn't something I love, but it was a useful rubric for a rookie. I looked at the sample questions, reviewed the information I've collected over the years, and consulted with my handwritten suggestions to myself.   I was ready. Starting at 9am, I had 45 minutes with each of three groups of scholars displaying varying degrees of interest. Some were totally engaged, willing to try even if the answer wasn't at the tip of their tongues.  Some were delighted to be chosen for the starring role of Plant With Roots.  Some had very interesting questions a...

That's all I have these day, random thoughts.  ***** I've gone a week or more without a good book to read; the library's Lucky Day shelf has been empty all month.  I found Bill Clinton's collaboration with James Patterson on the Large Print shelf at my last visit, though, and it's just perfect.   The story is so light it practically floats which fits well with my inability to think deeply right now. ***** Billions of dollars of ammunition are being rained on Iran instead of being shipped to Ukraine.  The start of this war was triggering for Queen T, whose brother has been living under constant bombardment for four years. This is something that I cannot think about without spiraling down the rabbit hole. ***** TBG and I have been watching old tv shows.  The sartorial choices of the 1970's - long pointy collars on men's jacket and overlapping shirt lapels on Columbo just now - are striking.  The writing - Have Gun Will Travel - is often very good. ...

Not for the murder of two American citizens on American soil by masked officers under her command.   Not for lying repeatedly to Congress and the press. Not for moving counter-terrorism experts to deportation duty. Not for posing in a tight t-shirt in front of bare chested imprisoned deportees in a foreign land. Not for non-compliance with dozens if not hundreds of judicial orders. Not for being an adulteress with an adulterer, her supposed subordinate, in violation of moral and civil and federal employee laws. Not for her self-promotional gazillion dollar DHS advertisement. Not for awarding a no-bid gazillion dollar contract to a friend's 4 month old business. Nope. She was fired because she threw her puppeteer under the bus.  She told Congress that the President knew about and approved her gazillion dollar luxury Deportee Express.   She was fine as long as she was prevaricating and protecting the brand.  But telling the truth (sic) was apparently a step t...

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 wha...

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 o...

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 lin...

  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 bei...