National Sons Day

 

Colin and Jamie
a marathon somewhere, sometime.

Losing my grip as a doting mother. First, I almost missed Daughters’ Day, and now I’m about to miss Sons’ Day. Who knew they came one on top of the other? But here they are, after a race though I'm not sure where. And a shout-out to sons-in-law Christian, who puts up with me daily, and Brandon, who shares my love of books. And to grands: Sawyer, Jacob, Ford, and Kegan.

I seem beset these days with AI—took me a while to figure that is artificial intelligence. But between ads online which seem to know every little detail of your life and automated conversations with service companies, I’ve about had it. Only the hardiest of us can resist those ads that broadcast an alarming health symptom and suggest something dire may be wrong. We read on. The one that caught my eye recently asked, “Do you wake at 3:00 a.m.?” Well of course I was hooked because I do wake at three. And at one and at five. But three is a dark hour, and I sometimes have to bat away negative thoughts at that time. I remember my brother talking about three-o’clock-in-the-morning thoughts, most of which led him to say, “Ooh. Wish I hadn’t done that one.”

Well this ad suggests you may have sleep apnea and I forget what other serious conditions, but if you read on, in small print, it says that wakefulness may be due to a list of other causes, among them drinking too much (either alcohol or non-alcoholic or even water) just before bed. I keep an insulated glass of water by the bed and sip frequently which means I wake frequently needing to pee. And finally, it says, we wake more often as we age. Sleep cycles for the elderly are about an hour and a half. Well, hello! That describes me perfectly. I don’t need ads suggesting I have sleep apnea, which seems to be a fashionable thing to have.

I have given up the hunt for my missing keys and moved on to the process of acquiring a new key fob. I recounted my long and fruitless chat with an ADT representative the other day, but the part I left out was my first chat. I told an automated chat person that I needed a new key fob because I lost mine, and she/it/whatever responded with directions for reactivating my key fob. How can I reactivate what I don’t have? Today I dealt with Protection One, the company that installed my system but was subsequently bought by ADT. Three representatives, each apparently with a specific duty. It took at least forty-five minutes, but they were all pleasant and sympathetic, and I got a discount for being a long-term customer. Still, nothing happens fast –a service tech will come out October 10. By serendipity, Jordan and Christian have a tech coming tomorrow, because their system was disarmed when they replaced the back door. Christian said he’d ask if they couldn’t do mine at the same time, but I am sure life is never that easy.

My good friend Melinda came and brought lunch today—chicken salad on croissants. Melinda was production manager when I was director at TCU Press, and we have remained close though we don’t talk often. Being both of the same strong political persuasion, we intended to watch the January 6 committee hearing, but it worked out just as well because we got to catch up on kids and grandkids and talk politics and have a lot of good laughs. I think the longer the committee waits, the more stuff that turns up. Timing is a delicate matter with that committee. I’m sure out of good manners they won’t announce anything until after the mid-terms, but surely people can figure out for themselves what happened. You think? On the other hand, my personal opinion is they need to make a final recommendation before trump truly launches a presidential bid.

Meanwhile, DeSantis, now trump’s rival, is in big trouble. We’ll see how he weathers the storm—and I mean that literally. The pictures coming out of Florida this evening are horrifying. God bless those with damaged homes and protect those stranded by flood waters. Seems even worse than Harvey. Until we reverse climate change, the storms are going to continue to worsen. I can’t wrap my mind around the idea. Nor the idea that people see the storms and fires and floods and still deny climate change.

Despite all the bad in our world today, do have sweet dreams. Seems an oxymoron.

 

An off week, to say the least

 

Jacob and my brother
Looking for jackrabbits
at the ranch

It’s not been a week for blogging. I have started several times, even wrote a longish blog about what I feel is ludicrous objections to any sort of gun control. But then I thought who am I to preach on a subject so well covered in the media? Or is it?

It seems to me this country bounces from one crisis to another. Right now, there are three huge balls in the air, and we cannot afford to drop any of them. Public furor was high over the carnage at Uvalde—until Thursday night, when the first public hearing of the January 6 committee captured everyone’s attention. Well, not everyone, but some twenty million of us plus who knows how many who watched it after the fact or livestreamed it, as I did. And, of course, the third big ball in the air is women’s reproductive rights, which sort ol leads to a fourth ball—how in heaven’s name did we end up with such a mess in the Supreme Court as the Constitution seems to be being overridden in favor of personal beliefs.

I guess at my age it’s good to feel passionate about anything, but I feel passionate—and helpless—about those three problems. I cannot weigh one more heavily than the other, and I have done what I criticize in others: I’ve become an extremist, thinking the claims of the far right are ludicrous (that seems to be a favorite word of mine recently).

At any rate, with our country beset by such complex problems, it seemed a bit lighthearted to write anything like, “Guess what I cooked for supper tonight?” or “Know how many words I wrote today?” The one constant I hold to is that I am an optimist. My mom used to say to me, “All things work to some good.” I wish she were here now to say that, because sometimes it’s hard to see. Yet, maybe it’s my faith that tells me fascism and authoritarianism won’t win, that we will have effective gun control laws, that trump and company will be not only exposed but appropriately punished, that women will always have access to good reproductive health care.

When I expressed outrage on a Facebook post (yes, I’m out there and vocal—I can’t walk the block, host campaign parties, etc., but I can sure speak out), someone who basically agreed with me wrote that she avoided outrage because she thought it put bad stuff into her system. It probably does, but in this case, I think it’s necessary. If we aren’t outraged enough to fight for our way of life, we’ll lose it. And the absurdity of some on the right causes my outrage—charging a woman with murder because she miscarried (what the medical profession calls a spontaneous abortion and what, to my mind, indicates that God and our biological systems know best), the congressman who said banally that he was sorry Uvalde happened but it didn’t change his mind (how could it not?), the cultists who deny the facts presented by the January 6 committee and call it partisan even though the co-chair is a Republican (isn’t she tough?)—it all outrages me, makes me fighting mad, and maybe that’s been what’s stifled me. I have no place to go with my anger, but I don’t want to foist it on others.

There have been pleasant moments this week. One morning I watched Mama Cardinal hopping around on the deck. To my disappointment, Papa didn’t join her this time. I guess I was looking for the comfort of thinking two from the other side are sending me messages. Another day the most magnificent blue jay hopped among the pentas, which are just now blooming. I watched him in fascination for a long time. Yeah, it was not a week when I got a lot of writing done, but I did start proofreading Finding Florence.

Posting two pictures with this because they are pictures that make me feel good. Maybe they will you too. They reflect, to me, the fact that our peaceful world of home, families, and friends goes on despite those who would destroy our way of life.

The most spectacular orchid
in its second bloom