Here are the rest of the JB photos.

As alluded to, we went hiking at John Bryan Park after being away all winter.  It was in the 60s and very green for February, as is predicted for the whole week.  E has lived her whole life here, and says it has never been this mild and green in winter.  Crowds of people and dogs were out walking.

I’ll post this in two parts.

The old bridge was more dilapidated than ever, but we crossed it as usual.  We were glad to see old and new evidence of beaver activity.  There were lots of fascinating bright fungi and lichens, and lush colorful green mosses, ferns, herbaceous natives, and water plants, as well as impressive tree sculptures.  The river, streams, and waterfalls were gushing.  It felt like the verge of spring, in winter.

Please see part 2.

I skipped yesterday, because we and a friend drove up to Columbus for a routine procedure (his first).  It being an Occasion, we stopped to eat somewhere.  By the time we got back, I forgot all about writing.

[PSA: when visiting Ohio, do not, I repeat, do not eat out anywhere, unless you know it’s safe or have a strong constitution.  You take your life in your hands.  Take it from me, just drink beer.  Also, they don’t do coffee in Ohio.]

Here are some shots of Columbus flying by.

My “salad” had an extra day to make progress, as you can see.

And for your obligatory cute endangered animals…

More later.  I think we’re going to attempt a hike, it being unnaturally warm in February.

First, a Happy Birthday Shoutout to my B-I-L, so not just an ordinary erev.  Aquarians Unite!  Here’s his birthday picture.  And some Breakfast of Champions, in his honor.  Hey, we’re on Dublin time here, when it’s an Occasion.

My seedlings and herbs are feeling frisky, basking in the bright sun, which means that Spring can’t be too far away, so that’s something.

Here are the Skullies, waiting for me to get back in the kitchen where I belong.  They are guarding the lovely birthday cards from my son and grandson.  (The meal will be Cajun-style, in homage to Carnival.)

Now I really do have to get back to it.  Happy erev!

So yesterday I officially turned old, as defined by SSA/Medicare, i.e., even poorer.  As threatened, they started deducting more $$ out of my meager income to pay for Medicare, so effectively we have even less to live on.  But it’s all good.  We’re still alive, and I had a very fun birthday.

We went to our Equitas meeting as usual on the third Wednesday of the month, which happened to fall on my birthday.  Apparently most of the board didn’t get the memo (there wasn’t one) so our little core group, now all good friends, adjourned to Rex’s house.  We had a gay old time. So to speak.  I can’t tell you all the substances involved, but suffice it to say, hilarity and Deep Conversations ensued.  I got to drink scotch and play with kitties, and my son called, so my life was complete.  We’re fortunate to have such good friends.

I have to say, being a part of the LGBT(XYZ) community has been very, um, educational!  Also generally more relaxed than with their straight counterparts.  There are many health-related issues here, but it’s been illuminating and valuable for us to feel like part of the solution.  In many ways this group is part of a pioneering vanguard here in this troubled area.  Maybe one day, in a far,far future, it won’t be so hard for marginalized people to access basic healthcare and civil rights just like other citizens.

Here are photos through the window of the medical building where Equitas Health is located, the historical Dayton Carillon belltower against the sky, and the Miami River.

Here are views from Rex’s plant room, and the ever-playful kitty.

And, of course, your obligatory seedling babies, making progress.

Just an aside–it seems pretty ironic and a sad commentary that the best news we can hope for each day is the continuing trump implosion and self-destruction.  What a disaster our process has become.  We celebrate every defeat and failure, bringing us hopefully closer to trump’s demise.  One can only wonder what history will say about this shameful reversal of progress in our country.

I leave you with what these wild animals think of trump.  Oh wait, they’re critically endangered or recently extinct, and can’t voice their opinion.

Here’s a limerick I wrote for the occasion:

***

There was an old lady in OH [“O”]

Who wasn’t exactly a Poe

It wasn’t a fable

She loved some Black Label

And now she can rhyme like a pro!  😉

***

See, I saved a little for later.

Meanwhile, out in my vast fields of lettuces, this just in:

And now, a rare sighting, on this singular occasion of turning officially Old and Destitute.  Not much of a stretch from this…….to this!

While mysterious noises and smells are emanating from the kitchen, I’m banished to the nether regions, where I’ve been being decorative.  The Skullies are pretending not to be eyeing the See’s heart box…which “somebodies” may have unsealed last night, erev V-day.

My seedlings of course have been busily growing.  Pretty soon they’ll be a salad.

Happy Erev B-day to me, if I do say so myself.  If it is happy.  I’ll be officially an old person.  Officially destitute but still here, still going on.  “Gaiety.  Song-and-dance.  Here we go round the mulberry bush…Bon-hommy,” went on  Eeyore gloomily…”I’m not complaining, but There It Is.”    Eeyore

(from A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh)

I found this, from the Washington Post, interesting, and not for the reason you’d think:

‘Ray Buckley, the longtime chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, likened the DNC to a car that’s broken down on the side of the road but really only needs a tune-up. He said he’d reallocate money from television advertising toward field organizing. “We need someone who can lift up the hood and fix the damn car,” he said.

“While many of you know that I’m openly gay, many of you don’t know … that I come from the lowest of the white working class,” he added later. “We ran hundreds of millions of dollars of commercials telling the voters that, ‘Oh, our opponent if [sic] offensive.’ When you’re worried about your damn paycheck, about your job, about where you’re going to live and if your kids are going to go to school, you don’t really give a crap if the president is insulting. The reality is we didn’t have a positive message for anyone I’m related to. We didn’t offer a message to my neighbors. We didn’t offer a message to the people in Indiana or Ohio or Pennsylvania or Kentucky.” ‘

See, it must be an indication of my residual east coast privileged bubble mentality, that I still find the above statement surprising.  I get the worried about basic survival part, having lived in Ohio, where many folks are transplants from rural Kentucky, and the negative campaign part, not positively addressing real needs of working class America.  But it’s still so hard for me to understand the not caring if your president is offensive, vulgar, greedy, ineffective, phobic, infantile, a liar, and all the other disqualifying character/behavior flaws.  Is there such a disconnect that poor white voters don’t worry that their candidate spews contradictory rhetoric with no intention of serving them, the actual people who need help?  Do traditional American “values” somehow not apply to a Repub extremist, only to the Dem opponent?  I’m still perplexed.

I guess I’m looking for logical sense and ethical standards where there aren’t any.  I’m still thinking like a liberal progressive from a privileged background.  The trump voters I’ve met here are not educated enough to think critically or skeptically, just brainwashed to echo media propaganda.  They were simply fed up with their lives never noticeably improving during any administration, and blindly took a stab in the dark for “Change”, some vague wishful thinking involving better economic living conditions, not based in reality.  They don’t get that the very government programs and services they depend on could get much worse under a trump.  It’s a paycheck to paycheck mentality, or rather, reaction.

I just wonder if Dems will ever be able to comprehend or bridge this gap between haves and have-nots.  They assume working class middle America must think reasonably and make educated decisions, just like them.  The majority of progressives have never lived hand-to-mouth, with few opportunities.  If they’ve had the good fortune to work their way up out of poverty, and educated themselves, they may assume others can manage it, too.  In other words, they’ve either never lived in the midwest or deep south, or they’ve forgotten their roots.

Well, I wasn’t going to do the political commentary thing, but this DNC Chair candidate’s unique point of view and take on the disconnect and impasse that persists in this country got my attention.  The fact that he’s openly gay is noteworthy but not unusual.  In fact, more peculiar to me is the unexpectedly high number of gay Republican conservative trump voters from poor rural backgrounds that I’ve encountered in this state.  It seems all out of proportion and defies logic.  You’d think they of all people would know better, but they seem to see no contradiction or conflict there.  I think it’s cognitive dissonance.

OK, enough with the politics.  On to more practical topics, like the imminent prospect of drinking scotch, a very rare occurrence down at this economic level.  I don’t officially know this yet, but I have it on good authority (someone so inexperienced at booze that she had to consult me on my own birthday present)!  I also “don’t know” about those yummy cake-baking aromas emanating from somewhere… I do, however, officially know these wondrous See’s items are in our immediate future, thanks to The Bobs:

While E is doing “top secret” kitcheny things for some upcoming occasion, I’ve been banished to outer space, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to delve deeper into the “kooky” corners of our little habitat.  It’s all G-rated, don’t worry.  (Just channeling my inner toddler.)

Our bathroom has crabs!  (Marylander and Proud.)  And rubber duckies!

As promised, yet another photo of my new baby seedlings.

And some other herbaceous pets.

Here are bats, presiding over booze.  Because you can never have too many bats in your belfry.

Here are some seashells and rocks.  My trademark.

Some more animals and skeletons, just hanging.

In fact, a lot of just hanging happens in our little waiting room.  But never fear…

 Spring is Coming.    Or, if that seems like a distant improbability—

(Sorry, couldn’t resist.)  (NOT a hint.)

I was going to write a whole long thing about how my “normal average” education turns out to be privileged and elite here in the midwest (and no doubt the whole of middle America), but never mind all that.

I’m too mentally exhausted by recent political developments and fallout to get energized enough to bother.  I think the repressive atmosphere itself is sapping all energy and motivation.  (Or maybe it’s the toxic water, who knows?)

At any rate, it would be more productive to get back to reliably mindless themes, like cute plants and ornamental animals.

Here are some artifacts from the crypt.  I’ve always been a big amphibian fan (though not much of a painter).  Those are genuine “real” animals from way back in history.  On the left is Bambi (I know, very original), and Cuddles from Saturn, my native planet, is on your right.  You could use him as a phone, back in the day, to communicate with Saturn, by holding his head to your ear and tail to your mouth.  Seriously.  Now he’s old, and just sleeps all day.

My son gave me the frogs and bear, sitting in the place of honor over the desk where I’m typing this.  They are among my most treasured animals.

Here are some more of our “pets”, lurking about.  My brother gave me a couple of them.  You can see some of them are out and proud!  If you look closely, there’s a human baby in the litter.  They never noticed!

Yes, we’re very pet-deprived.

Last but not least, plants!  As promised, here are my latest seedlings germinating!  These are a spicy mesclun mix (no, not a drug, although they do promote health).  Aren’t they cute?!  

And these are my perennial herbs being adorable in the late afternoon sun.