Vicki Lane's Blog, page 27

Rabbit Rabbit

                                                                                    

My Window Garden

Breakfast: six-grain toast with mango/jalapeno hummus and a white nectarine.

And what is probably the last bloom of the amaryllis Claui's folks gave us which has been blooming since Christmas.

 

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

                                                                             

Ethan, my older son suggested this for me. It's a kind of dark comedy with a reliable narrator who constantly breaks the fourth wall to address his readers and tantalize them with clues.

Harking back to Agatha Christie and the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, the character are marooned at a ski resort --and people keep dying. The author/narrator plays fair--the clues are all there.

It's a fun read, especially for a fan and/or writer of the genre.

I Must Be Woke

I've written before about Singing Wheels--the iconic textbook from my fourth-grade years. It's a kind of Eric Sloane for kids-- a reader-friendly look at life on the frontier in the early 19th century, as a town comes into being with a blacksmith, a sawmill, and a gristmill, adding in time a teacher and a cobbler. 

There are lots of line drawing cataloguing the clothes and implements of daily life, as well as color illustrations showing the myriad activities of the settlers--travel by stagecoach, spinning, hog butchering, bridge building, on and on.
I thought it might be good to try it on Josie--she has the reading vocabulary to deal with it--though she may be daunted by the density of the text,
So I began to reread it and almost right away, my woke sensibilities hit (see above) a silly woman having trouble telling her left from her right. Hmm. Okay, I'll let that slide, particularly as the other women in the story are admirable, but I don't like it.
Then Tom asked his father if there were any Indians around and was told "the government bought their lands and moved them west. . ."
Oh, how much double-dealing and misery is dismissed in the sentence. While I'm not sure of the best way to explain to a child the Trail of Tears and the terrible treatment of the Native Americans, I couldn't just leave it at this.
And then there's the chapter where wolves are killing the livestock and the men and boys surround them and kill them all. Yikes!
I know, I know, back then it was a matter of survival for the settlers. Today it's about the survival of an endangered species.  Weird how that works.
Still, I think I'll hold off on offering Singing Wheels to Josie just yet.

A Promise

                                                                            

The first crocuses seem to me a promise--Spring is coming. Though there may be snowstorms and nasty weather yet, daffodils and tulips are on their way, along with blossoming fruit trees, and soon a gentle haze of green will creep across our mountains.
Through all the political turmoil, it's good to watch Nature doing her thing.

Today's Text

                                                                       

 

As the president and Elon Musk continue to hollow out our government,including the DOD, Putin must be congratulating himself on installing thisuseful idiot in the Oval Office. What are you doing to push back against this underminingof our country?

That's the text of yesterday's call/email to my congressmen. Musk's email to 2.3 million federal workers demanding they  document their actions the previous week or face firing has engendered mass confusion. What if said actions are classified? Who (or what) will be evaluating all 2.3 million replies? 

The DOGE team has gotten so many things wrong, yet they careen ahead, an indiscriminate wrecking ball aimed at the heart of our government. 

What better time for our enemies to take advantage of the disarray our government is in? 

With a singularly incompetent man in the Oval Office, a man who chooses a Secretary of Defense because he looks the part ("right out of Central Casting,") a man who has given/sold unprecedented power to Elon Musk, a man who admires and excuses Putin, our country is in grave danger.

And all I can do is make those calls, send those emails.

Josie the Disciplinarian

I found this list of rules (or as Josie spells it rools) taped to the bannisters at the top of the stairs. I was puzzled at first then remembered that Josie had spent much of the last snow day playing with her dolls in the comparative warmth up there. There was a lot of talking but not that I could follow.
Now I deduce that she was holding school, and the rules were for her four scholars. Good rules too: 1. Raise your hand. 2. Hands to yourself. 3. No name calling4. Follow directions.5. Have fun (in a kind way.)6. Use manners.
I further deduced that Dolly and Sophy were very good, and Summer was very naughty while Lily got mixed reviews. 
And I deduce that Josie is in good hands at her own school, if she is following her own teacher's example.

 

Icicles

After snow all day Thursday and the temperature in the teens that night, we were happy to awake to sunshine and a melt in progress--and we still had power and running water.







 

We Are Not Okay

                                                                                                                                    

Today I am embarrassed to be an American. Our president appears to be in thrall to Russia's Putin. In the Bizarro World of the FOTUS, Ukraine started the war and Zelensky is a dictator. Meanwhile our amazingly incompetent VP lectures our European allies and takes meetings with Neo-Nazis.

I recognize this feeling. When we were traveling in Europe during the Vietnam war, we tried very hard not to be recognized as Americans, toying with the idea of attaching a Canadian flag to our motorcycle. 

It's appalling that it's come to this. The stranglehold Musk and his wealth have on the GOP, with threats to primary any who don't support the agenda, has effectively put an end to democracy. 

With all the information and technological expertise at his fingertips, Musk is capable of re-making our reality. 

Where are the brave men and women in Congress who will take a stand? 

(I was happy to read that Tillis (R, NC) did a bit of pushback on the FOTUS's lies about Ukraine. Speaking on the Senate floor Tillis called Putin a liar and a murderer and said we should treat him like one. Well, okay! --Tillis occasionally locates his spine.)

And Snow

Paltry by Canadian standards but enough to call off school. The mountain roads the school busses travel are too dangerous when icy to risk.

My call/email today is about the lack of support for Ukraine.