2/27/2025

Thursday, February 27, 2025

D+112 

q2w

w3e

r5t

In bed by 9:30, awake and up at 6:10 !?!  Calloo callay!   

Prednisone, day 312, 5 mg., day 23, Kevara, day 9/14.  2.5 mg. prednisone at 6:20 a.m. and 5 p.m.  Other meds later this morning.  .

LTMW at 7:30 a.m., I see a gray squirrel engaged in his or her acrobatic feeding on the sunflower/safflower tube while a young male house finch approaches the tube, hovers momentarily, and then does a "wave off" and perches on top of the shepherd's crook, patiently and futilely waiting for the squirrel to complete the meal and move on.  After several minutes, the finch moves to the nearby bush and continues tarrying until s/he gives up and flies away.  Meanwhile, a group of finches gathers on the ground, working on the many seeds I spread there yesterday when I filled the tube feeder.  I wonder why the niger seed tube doesn't attract more goldfinches.  Then the same or probably another squirrel climbs up the niger crook and executes an amazing leap from it to the crook supporting the sunflower/safflower tube.  What strength and agility.  He floats through the air with the greatest of ease, the daring young man on the flying trapeze.  I wonder whether they are the ones who prefer safflower seeds to sunflower seeds; I suspect they are.

Oliver Cromwell: 'I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.'   This famous advice was given by Oliver Cromwell to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland before the Battle of Dunbar in which the English defeated and subjugated the Scots in the Civil War.  The advice is universal; it ought to be heeded by each and all of us.  It ought to be heeded by Trump, Musk, Vance, their acolytes, and their cheerleaders.  It ought to be heeded by the rest of us, including we who despise and fear them and believe that they are taking us on the road to perdition.  They are right about the unsustainability of the national debt and the urgency of the need to address it.  There's a small kernel of truth in Trump's claim that Zelwnaky ns Ukraine provoked Russia's invasion by their tilt to the West, especially their move to join the EU and NATO, too big a poke at the bear.  None of this excuses the ham-handed, disrespectful, cruel, and probably illegal way Elon Musk and his young myrmidons are going about decimating the federal workforce, or Trump's pulling the rug out from under Ukraine, another of his many betrayals.  None of this excuses the cascade of lies that pours from the mouths of Trump and Musk.  Since so much of what they say is deceit, it's hard to believe anything they, and their Republican  defenders, say, but I'll try to follow Cromwell's advice,  

Geri is struggling mightily (painfully) with her straightening and bending exercises in an attempt to avoid a "manipulation," which is not without substantial risks.  Tomorrow is D-Day and it's not looking good

I worked on the tax returns today and shopped at Metro Market, where I had a "Willy Makit" experience.

This Ole House

This old house once knew my children / This old house once knew my wife

This old house was home and comfort / As we fought the storms of life

This old house once rang with laughter / This old house heard many shouts

Now she trembles in the darkness / When the lightnin' walks about

Ain’t gonna need this house no longer / Ain't gonna need this house no more

Ain't got time to fix the shingles / Ain’t got time to fix the floor

Ain't got time to oil the hinges / Nor to mend the window-pane

Ain't gonna need this house no longer / I'm gettin' ready to meet the saints

]

This old house is a-gettin' shaky / Tthis old house is a-gettin' old

This old house lets in the rain / This old house lets in the cold

Oh my knees are gettin' chilly /But I feel no fear or pain

’Cause I see an angel peekin’ / Through a broken window-pane