4/7/23

 Friday, April 7, 2023

97/268

In bed around 10, up at 5:45,  6 pss overnight. with thoughts of PT today.  30℉, sunny, high of 40℉, wind NE at 6 mph, gusts to 13 mph, wind chill is 24℉,  sunrise at 6:21, sunset at 7:54, 13+1

Cauliflower-Bacon soup I made yesterday isn't as good as the last couple that I made.  I waited too long to cook it (CPP) and had to hurry it.  Good, but not great.

VA PT  with Jennifer Garrison this morning.  Helpful, as usual.  Talked women's basketball tournament while she did 'internal work.' A bit bizarre.  I learned she has 3 children, 6 and 1/2, 5, and 3 and 1/2.  She looks like a teenager to me.  Another appointment next week and the week after that.

GOP members expel 2 Black reps, not the White co-offender.  This action which is getting wide coverage on MSNBC and CNN is related to the State Senate election in our Bayside district, won by Knodel and lost by Jodie Habush Sinykin.  Knodel's win gave the Republicans a 2/3rds majority in the Senate on top of their majority in the Assembly meaning they are positioned to impeach and remove Democratic elected officials (like supreme court justices) and appointed officials.  Power obtained by extreme gerrymandering compounded by power of impeachment and removal of lawfully elected and appointed officials.

Children.  I saw an unusal sight at the VA this morning, a young mother walking down the 1st floor corridor with her young child, hand in hand.  Afterwards, I stopped at Kopps to reward myself with a cheeseburger with the works and a vanilla malt and I saw 3 different young fathers with their young children.  I get all gushy when I see young children, any children I suppose but especially young children, full of energy, innocent, deserving of a better world than the one they are entering.  I feel appropriately guilty, shamed, about my own unadmirable combination of cynicism, pessimism, and lethargy, enervation.  Watching the little ones jumping up and down, blowing off excess energy, excited about the treat being ordered for them, gives me much delight, a melancholy pleasure, but pleasure nonetheless.  

Religion in The Holy Land.  "The current overlap of the Jewish Passover holiday with the holy month of Ramadan brought tensions to a head, as far-right Jewish groups threatened to slaughter a lamb on the site in their long-standing bid to change the status quo. The site is administered by a Jordanian religious authority and while non-Muslims are allowed to visit the mosque, they are not permitted to pray."  Lord, protect us from your followers.

LTMW at a female downy woodpecker hanging upside down working diligently on the suet cake which has been very popular today - downys, red-bellys, snowbirds, chickadees.  Not many goldfinch visitors today, must be abundant food supplies elsewhere.

Home by Marilynne Robinson has captured my interest just as Gilead had.  What is the story behind Glory's homecoming?  What is the deal with Jack?  Why he was always in trouble, why he left home, where he went, what he did, why has he come home?

My Detachment by Tracy Kidder also holds my interest.  He hs just arrived at the big air base at Bien Hoa, north of Saigon  where many are arriving, apprehensive, and many are leaving, jubilant.

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai.  I can't say I enjoy reading this novel dealing as it does with the effect of American war efforts on the people of Vietnam but I want to continue with it.  The problem is my presbyopia, eyes unable to focus on the print after just a few pages.