Life of Wry

Can’t take the time to rant right now. It’s unhealthy.

I have plenty of rant in me, as I am in a perpetual state of incredulity.. like, the released-in-time-for-Easter bibles that he started hawking this week for the bargain price of $59.99, or last month’s gold sneakers that go for something like $399.

There is no bottom.

Amusing or sad..?

It was a lovely day to do stairs at the UCD parking garage.

The stairs, of course, are not in this shot.. they’re part of the parking structure off camera to the right of this sign, south of the field where that woman is playing with her dog (also off camera to the right).

Enjoyed a good stair routine today, about 15-18 minutes, this time placing my entire foot on each step as I climbed. I broke it up by crossing the upper deck a couple of times, using both sets of stairs. Last time (about a week ago), I went much faster, did only one set of stairs for about 30 minutes, and stepped only on the ball of my foot. Took nearly a week for my calves to calm down. Musta shredded the hell out of them. Which is weird because I actually do calf raises.. part of my regular strength routine. Anyway.. it was fun. And a gorgeous afternoon.

Alexis’s beautiful photos of her acorns….

River

Magnolia

Juniper

Fun to have a photographer mom. I spend a lot of time following her work on Insta. These are all low-rez screen grabs!

It was the millionth annual, if late, January birthday celebrations of Kari and Elliot today! Always love our birthday breakfasts and walks around Berkeley.

The birthday celebrants, with Sather Gate in the background, and the Cal band to boot (a fraction thereof)! Nice of them to come out and serenade the crowd.

Saw a few new corners of campus today.. nice weather, fewer students than usual (spring break), and then happened upon this installation in a grove of redwood and camellia trees ….

David was, of course, my immediate thought…

In the latest installment….

I’m just reflecting, yet again, about the con, the GRIFT of epic proportions, that our country is witness to on a daily basis …

Now really, I plan to waste not a milisecond on the freak show running (again) for president (this time in an effort to dodge the numerous lawsuits and criminal charges brought against him, “you can’t go after me, I’m a candidate!”). I’m not wasting a millisecond because: he ~nauseates~ me to my core.

And I just can’t.

I tell you though… the con! And the schlubs who eat it up. While he nauseates me (and I go out of my way to avoid seeing his face and listening to his voice), those who believe his obvious lies, buy his merch, scream and laugh in delight at his rallies, proudly display his ugly name all over their lawns.. THEY fascinate me.

Right now I’m just smh at something I saw on Twitter this week: footage of Lindsey G begging people to send poor trump money to help pay his legal fees.. and, in particular, to cover that payment of 1/2 a billion to secure a bond on what he owes in the NY trial. Lindsey claimed trump needed money desperately. He needed THEIR hard earned (I assume hard earned) money (of which they likely don’t have much). I mean, he begged these poor people to send money to TRUMP — $5, $10, $25, whatever they could afford. Meanwhile….. on Monday, the bond amount trump had to come up with in the NY case was cut to a manageable sum, just $174 mil (how does this happen??). Meanwhile again, trump, TODAY, made the Bloomberg list of the 500 wealthiest people on the planet, probably cuz he went public with his stupid low-performing Truth Social (please…) and financial experts estimate he netted many billions on the first trading day alone, at least on paper, thanks to the stock prizes rising. A meme stock they call it. I ask again, how does this happen??

I can’t fathom any of this. But I do know a grift when I see it. Mr Billionaire apparently needs money from his poor (literally) minions. Please send it STAT, and by the way, if you need me, I’ll be playing in a golf tournament at one of my golf courses. A tournament I will win, btw.

These poor, stupid people. Sorry, but that’s just what it is. He’s laughing all the way to the 18th hole.

How’s about a few memes…. (they make me feel better).

I swear… just reading the titles on this list took me right back to high school.. (could have been the end of my sophomore year, or beginning of junior year.. heh heh, or both). Sorry it only has the first 81.. that’s the way I found it on somebody’s FB. Still.. fun to look at.

I can smell high school.

(Almost… the day was actually March 23, 2003.)

Peter would soon be graduating from Davis Parent Nursery School (an institution in Davis that is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year!) and heading to kindergarten at Cesar Chavez in the fall. We started to spend time on the playground over there to get him excited to start a new school. Here are some shots from one of those playground days.

Like father, like son.

Peter took one of us… so young we were…

This afternoon’s walk was a lovely 5 1/2 miles through some of the North Davis green belts, plus a bit of the ditch. I listened to a decent Spotify channel for about 3 miles of it, and when I got tired of that, I switched to the NYT’s Daily podcast and listened to a good discussion of how the RNC and DNC work to support presidential campaigns (and of course how the twice-impeached, four-times-indicted former guy has gutted and hopes to rebuild the RNC — with his daughter in law at the helm, no less — in time to squeeze more money out of others in order to bail him out of his legal debts… I mean, really).

Oh! But back to the gorgeous day we had in Davis today and my fun walk! Some pics….

The highlight of the day, I have to say, was talking to Peter and Maya and catching up on Ann Arbor life. We then did a pub quiz… they whooped us. Peter’s off camera eating a late dinner, but weighing in. He joins Maya in a sec…

Seven of the ten answers below were correct! Though we ended up with only 18 out of 30. Peter and Maya got 25!

Went out to Ikeda’s to grab a few fun things (that’s what they’re all about, right?). I’m telling you… it was a big, dramatic sky day. We’ve had on and off rain all day. I love when it’s pouring rain with bright blue sky and sun just a short distance away. I’m glad I got out to the outskirts to expand my horizon a bit. This is shot from the parking lot.. looking west. Looking east toward Sac, the sky was black.

.. and yet… the memes… they come so fast, so furious.

For the historical record: this refers to the fact dumbo’s gotta put up a 1/2 a bil bond by Monday to cover the judgment against him for fraud in New York. No doubt in my mind that he’ll pull a rabbit out of the hat… but it’s fun to read all the trash talk on twitter anyway about him losing his mind at the thought of having his prized properties seized, or the prospect of his declaring bankruptcy. Never happen. But it’s fun to dream. And laugh at memes.

There’s also no doubt in my mind that not a single one of the cases against him will resolve by the election. (Did that sentence make sense?) Our legal system allows just too much wiggle room to those who would abuse it. And abuse it, he absolutely does. I just don’t know enough about the law to argue about whether this is ultimately a good thing or a bad thing (the wiggle room, that is), but it’s starting to seem a lot more like a legal system than a justice system.