Life of Wry

I am a person with a fair number of sibs.. so I like these sibling day events in social media. I like seeing other people’s sibs. I mean, why not?

This was my post to the world today:

I like this picture.

I liked it so much, I turned it into a blanket and gave it to my mom many years ago. Chris ended up with it (maybe I should make another few of them for the rest of us??). It’s actually a bit creepy to see it as a blanket, but I still like the idea.

Here is what I saw when I walked into Chris’s place a couple weeks ago… mom hanging over the back of a couch… which a red pile jacket all crumpled up in the corner. I mean…

T’was a bit startling.

I believe today was the first real day of sun + warm. Bright, clear blue sky and 70s. Magnificent! It was a day made for a walk in a tee shirt and shorts, which I sure did!

Here are some pics on this Easter Day (Hoppy Easter to those who celebrate):

Our front yard is being swallowed alive!

And a few from campus….

I love the new growth that’s popping out all over.. seemingly overnight. The above at the creek, the below on the quad.

My title’s a bit of a stretch, but I like the word play.. so going with it.

Our garden is dotted with tulips way too pretty to cut, so I’m letting them flourish in the yard within view of the desk at which I sit to blog.

But I do buy bunches of them at this time of year because they are so damn wonderful… the PERFECT little tributes to a coming spring. Exclamation Point!

Here are a few shots of the ones currently on our kitchen island and dining table. I tried to capture the SIZE of the one… it is just huge, almost embarrassingly so. I got out a spoon for scale, but that didn’t really do it. Still… here are a few shots. Funnily, this batch of tulips is the same color as the ones in our yard. Which I may go get a picture of…

Okay… I did go out and get some pictures:

The week started with the ex-president under arrest and arraigned on 34 felony counts in New York, counts having to do with covering up payments he made to silence the porn actress with whom he’d had an affair.. knowledge of which might sink his chances to win the 2016 election. Ho Hum. (NOT ho hum!!). It continued with the Tennessee Three being expelled from their State House for protesting that body’s inaction to the shooting in Nashville, and concluded with Texas judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an antiabortion Trump appointee, ruling that mifepristone (an abortion drug) must be suspended. In between, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was found to have taken gabillions in gifts over two decades that he did not report… gifts from a rich republican guy about whom Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy said: “Important for news media to not simply label this guy as a ‘[Republican] mega donor’. It’s so much worse. Crow has many interests before the Supreme Court. His groups file petitions before the court. It’s the clearest, most brazen violation of judicial ethics you can imagine.”

Did anything else happen? Oh, in the good news column, Wisconsin voters elected a great dem judge to sit on their State Supreme Court which is hugely significant and shifts the dynamic back to the left, stopping the bleeding in that once blue state. And Dominion’s case against FOX [not] news is proceeding nicely and hopefully will send a few people packing, if not shut down that entire propaganda empire. We’ll see.

It’s a roller coaster, people.

My favorite memey thing was this one with a nice TRACK flavor.. the ex-trackster in me always enjoys a good track reference.

I feel like something’s really afoot here with the Tennessee State House’s expulsion of two young, black legislators. The two black men — Justin Jones and Justin Pearson — and a white woman, Gloria Johnson, have been challenging the legislature to deal with the recent mass shooting at a Nashville church school in which 3 kids and 3 adults were killed by a woman with an assault rifle. But the super-majority State House isn’t budging on gun laws.

But as the small minority of dems in the Tennessee State House spoke up in defense of the victims, and in alignment with the folks who elected them, they were shut down (like mics cut off, for example). So the two black legislators and the woman got louder and more aggressive.

But the majority wouldn’t listen. They are old, white, male and conservative, and gerrymandered their way to this super-majority and don’t have to listen to any damn dems, much less in-your-face black men and an uppity woman, and they certainly don’t have to change any gun laws. In fact, they, and a lot of the other red states are doubling down on the most extreme of gun policies. ANd not only gun laws. Red states are pushing the limits as far out as they can on all kinds of conservative policy. All this post-Dobbs abortion crazy, the book banning, anti-trans, all the nauseating anti-woke hysteria. Another commentator likened it to stacking sandbags: they are going as extreme as they can to protect against the rising tide of changing demographics. They fear societal and cultural change, they know they are a dying breed, they know the demographics will change the landscape… so they are digging in and doubling down and trying to pass a whole lot of outrageous laws… as protection against what’s to come.

And their (over) reaction to the efforts of Jones, Pearson and Johnson to get Tennessee to respond with decency and common sense to the recent school mass shooting by expelling them on a technicality is ill considered. In the end, they only expelled the two young black guys. The optics suggest blatant racism.

As Van Jones said tonight, it was more about propulsion than expulsion. They have just elevated two voices for a generation. That republican legislature has made a big mistake he said, (for their cause), by making those two young men famous.

Those legislators supporting the expulsion did so on the grounds these dem rabble rousers were disruptive and violated the rules of decorum. That’s rich. If you’re a republican today, you have no ground to stand on with that argument!

Anyway.. it feels big, especially in the context of the big win in Wisconsin two days ago (voters elected a democratic judge who shifts the political balance on their State Supreme Court). Especially as the 2022 election signaled great shifts in voter attitudes post-Dobbs and resulted in unexpected dem wins all over the place (like the dem sweep in Peter and Maya’s state of Michigan!). And especially as those spineless reps keep being forced to line up behind their now-indicted-with-lots-more-to-come, twice-impeached loser of a party leader on a road to nowhere. The criminal guy cannot possibly win (absolutely will not), but they can’t cross him. So, stuck with him they are. It is just hilarious.

And as heinous a move as the Tennessee legislature just made, it’s just one more indication of how far gone the party is. Supremely out of step with the majority of Americans. As they’ve been for years. And I’m hoping it’s catching up to them bigly.

~~

This is a statue that sits on the Capitol grounds in Atlanta, GA. Here’s what Tony said about it:

Sometimes an overgrown path is okay.

This is in our front yard. It’s sorta a path to nowhere (in particular). There is a bed of large rocks on the right that’s supposed to be a bed of large rocks, not a flower bed. And those rogue flowers are encroaching on that path to nowhere. But… really,… who can argue with this?

…… in 2016.

Peter was a senior at Davis High School, playing varsity baseball. Here are a few photos from a game played on April 6.

Peter Frame on the bump.

In this one, he’s strategizing with #9, short stop Ryan Kriedler, who, last week, started his first full year in the MLB playing for the Detroit Tigers.

I’m so glad for the experience of competitive sports.

His very best buddies.. Ray and Solly, this picture courtesy of Wes!

I loved everything about his baseball years.. from T-ball to Crush to Varsity (and a single year playing club ball at UCSD). It was a great, great ride.

Fun fact: Ray is getting his PhD at UC San Diego and the Scripps Inst of Oceanography; Peter’s getting his PhD at U of Michigan, and Solly’s about to enter law school. See? Baseball = good foundation.

Honestly, you’d think it was a big deal to indict a former president.

I tuned into CNN a few times today, and every time: BREATHLESS coverage of absolutely every millimeter of movement made by our newest little criminal. They covered the departure from his resort, the boarding of his plane in Florida, the landing in NYC, the motorcade making its way through the vacated streets of Manhattan (reminiscent of OJ’s Bronco), his arrival at his 5th Ave place. Jake Tapper was seriously peeved that they chose a helicopter angle for the 10 steps between his limo and the entrance because everyone wanted to see his face. Endless speculation about whether his body language suggested resignation.. he looked sober, he didn’t run his mouth, where was his usual defiance?! And then: will there be a mug shot, will there be a perp walk, what about cameras in the courtroom? Nobody has seen the sealed indictment, mind you, so nobody knows what the charges will be, but that hasn’t stopped anybody from their bloviations.

Exhausting. And we easily have months of this, maybe years before a resolution is reached. Don’t hold your breath for handcuffs and chains. At least not yet.

Some of the circulating memes … and other stupid things:

A little dramatic?

And of course he’s asking of money — 5-7 solicitations per day! — and people are complying:

Most corrupt president ever.

This has always made me laugh.

But it also kind of reminds me of me.. on most days. I don’t get rubbed and petted, but it’s pretty fair to say I like my life. A lot.

Driving back from Martinez yesterday, got jammed up in traffic along 680. It did not suck.

Well, this part did….

….but when traffic was at a standstill, I could take pictures out the window

Also: green.