Tuesday, December 5, 2023
In bed at 9:30 and up aat 5:30. Let Lilly out. 33°, cloudy, high of 38°, wind NE at 3 mph, 2-12/17. Sunrise at 7:07, sunset at 4:16, 9+8.
Treadmill; pain Starting the day w/ PF tightness, pain, continuing all morning. Breakfast: CBH & eggs. Lunch: salami & havarti sandwich, Pringles; Dinner: mac & cheese, sliced peaches, 6 pm. 00:00 & 0.00.
I'm grateful today for hired help. When we moved into our current home on 9/15/2011, I was 70 years old and Geri was 67. Youngsters! Now I am in the middle of my 83rd year and Geri is halfway through her 80th. When we moved from our 3.75 acre Saukville home, we brought our John Deere lawn tractor. Then I wasn't able to tolerate the bumpy ride because of my delicate nether region, but Geri, ever the willing worker, took over mowing our new 0.62 acre lot, as well as all the gardening, maintaining the gardens that were already here and adding to and improving them each year. Eventually the lawn maintenance became too time-taxing and we resorted to hired help, a lawn service. Our current lawn service guys just finished the final Fall leafage cleanup and I'm grateful for their service. They are professional, reliable, diligent, and thorough and we are no longer able to do the kind of work they do, though Geri is never daunted by any job, large or small. Without a clean and tidy lawn, we would be unable to live here unless perhaps we had the extensive lawn ripped out and had Astroturf laid in, or perhaps had Japanese rock gardens installed all around the house. I'm only too aware of the environmental and financial costs for suburban lawn maintenance so our lovely lawns provide me with yet another cause for feelings of complicity and reckless privilege. I think back to my childhood years living in the basement at 7303 S. Emerald Avenue, and looking out windows to the crappy lawn at eye level mowed, I suppose, by Sam, the janitor who serviced our three-story, 12 unit apartment building plus our basement digs. I suppose I should feel good about ending up where I am, and indeed I do; this is a grand home to live in, both upstairs and in my basement 'sanctuary.' But I think back, and . . .
We increasingly must rely on hired help to continue living in our house. I have never been a reliable DIY guy; I shy away from even trying, fearing that I'll make the problem worse. My son puts me to shame with his home improvement jobs and the repair/replace work he has accomplished. Also, I'm not able safely to climb a ladder above the second rung without losing my balance and risking a fall. Thus, I can't even replace light bulbs in our ceiling fixtures in the kitchen, tv room, and 2 bathrooms. I'm also not able to do anything that requires me to get down on the floor. I'm able to get down, but I can't count of being able to get up. Geri is still strong, agile, and (as always) ever ready to take on any task that needs to be done, but as she approaches that 80th birthday and copes with increasing chronic aches and pains, she talks more often of eventual condo or apartment living, with maintenance help available.
WaPo series on Ukraine counteroffensive & US planning & training. If the information reported in this 2 part series is accurate, and it rings true, this is yet one more massive SNAFU and FUBAR on the part of the U.S.'s political and millitary establishments. Without air supreriority - caused by U.S. refusal to provide F-16s - the Ukrainians were fighting with one arm tied behind their backs. Biden will be blamed for this. Also, Biden's decision to ship cluster bombs to the Ukrainians was a desperation move brought on by the shortage of 155mm artillery shells. Also, re: all the hoopla about providing the Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Germany's Leopard tanks - these sophisticated million dollar lethal gadgets were destroyed by simple Russian drones costing about $1,000. Bottom line: the Ukrainian counteroffensive is a failure, full stop.
The battle field around Zaporizhzhia is a horor story, like all battle fields, like Gaza since early Octobeer. Biden will get most of the blame. Homo hominis lupus.
USA! USA! USA sets new mass killing record!!! From WaPo:
In less than 90 minutes on Sunday afternoon, two 911 calls led police in Texas and Washington to two mass shootings that pushed the nation to a gruesome milestone.
They were the 37th and 38th shootings this year in which four or more victims were killed, the highest number of mass killings in any year since at least 2006. Last year’s 36 was the previous record.
The latest deaths brought the 2023 total to 197, not counting the shooters — yet another record. Ninety-one people were wounded in those events but survived.
More than 48,000 people died of gunshot wounds in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which averages out to about 132 deaths per day. More than half of those were suicides.
Joh Kabat-Zinn. I watched a 2 hour lecture on mindfulness (and medicine) by him on YouTube. Very interesting.
The Pier: an Irish movie we watched on Acorn at night.
No comments:
Post a Comment