6/23/2025

 Monday, June 23, 2025

D+208/140/1307

Sick Day #10, but better (I think)

1960, the first contraceptive pill was made available for purchase in the United States

1996. Archbishop Tutu retired as head of the Anglican Church in South Africa

In bed at 9:30, up at 4:30.   72°, high of 90°, partly cloudy.

Kevzara, day 13/14; Trulicity, day 4/7; morning meds at 8:50 a.m.; Blink pill at 8:50 a.m.; Eye wipes at 5 a.m. and 8 p.m.; Eye mask at 8:40 a.m. and 8:30  p.m.; Ketoconazole wash and cream at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.  Eye ointment at bedtime.  

Early morning epiphanies.  I sat on the patio for half an hour this morning enjoying life, my own and that of the cardinals and robins I could hear, and that of the trees, shrubs, ground cover and other plants I could see.  The air was 72℉ with a very gentle breeze, hardly enough to call a wind.  The sky was blue and cloudless.  The Callery Pear tree in front of me was loaded with little black berries where flowers had been a few weeks ago, and with dead twigs and small branches that should be removed, but not by me or Geri.  The Merlin app on my phone excited me by signaling that there are Cedar Waxwings in the neighborhood, but I can't see or hear them, only the cardinals and robins.  I can't see (thankfully) but always hear the dull sound of the traffic on the freeway a quarter mile away.  The mostly white hum of the cars and trucks remind me that as I sit motionless taking in the soft ambiance of our backyard, thousands of other nearby persons are driving at 65 miles per hour to get from someplace to someplace, most of them to an office or other workplace, I suppose, others perhaps to home, and still others to make a delivery of something to someone somewhere.  I am happy that I am going nowhere, doing nothing but sitting, looking, listening, apprehending and appreciating, blessed.  At 6:48, the central air conditioner comes on, reminding me that we're at the tail end of days of 90° days, and that, in Alexandria, where Katherine, Jordan, and Jimmy are living, the temperature will be 97° today and in the 90s all week.  I am reminded for a moment of the two hot, humid, miserable summers I spent down US 1 at Marine Corps Base, Quantico, but a chipmunk scurrying across the yard brings my thoughts back to here and now, and to the Buddha's reminder that all things are transient, impermanent, and to Heraclitus's truth that we cannot step into the same river twice.  All is flux, but this morning I enjoyed the here and the now, this moment, these moments, with these birds, squirrels, chipmunks, trees, ferns, soft breezes and warm air, and am thankful.

Two years ago on this date,  I wrote.

Will the morning be half-over before I finish reading the papers (and magazines)?  Am I in for hours of being reminded by my watch to STAND and BREATHE?😲Maybe I need to head to the patio to be with the birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and if I'm lucky, a white-tail.

Patio time, 9 to 9:30, 4 hours post-dawn, watching the leaves on the ornamental pear tree waft in the very gentle breeze, ditto the ferns.  listening to the birds, mainly a cardinal, blue jay, and robin, but also the loud drum of a red-bellied woodpecker (?), wondering whether the chipmunks that scurry within inches of me in my chair will climb on my Haflinger slipper to inspect it, hearing the dull sounds of the heavy construction equipment down the road working on the County Line bridge and close-by projects, a blue jay flies into and then out of the pear tree, a male cardinal lands on the nearly empty platform feeder and I resolve to fill it this morning.  Two smallish squirrels scurry across the yard in tandem, with me wondering whether it's a male chasing a female or perhaps two sibling young ones.  How beautiful the annuals Geri planted and potted on the little table next to my favorite chair.

One and done?  J. D. Vance: "This is not a war against Iran.CDC: Attacking another sovereign nation with 125 hostile aircraft and submarine-launched missiles = WAR.  Gen. James Mattis, USMC, DJT's Defense Secretary in his first term:  “No war is over until the enemy says it’s over. We may think it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote.”  CDC, broken down old coot: Wars are never 'over.'

One year ago yesterday, Sarah acquired German citizenship, a significant event.  Time will tell how significant.

Test message from KAT:

Katherine Aquavia Thomas:

Hi UC!  Sorry not to reply sooner.  Much going on here in D.C. despite us being housebound because of the heat.  I am so glad that you both are feeling better and that AG is back out in the garden between heat spells.  In addition to my birthday, Gretl’s is tomorrow (3), Dad’s is Saturday (91), and Hamish’s is on July 4th (10).  Dad is doing well!  That supra-pubic catheter was a Godsend and I wish we had known about it as an option years ago.  For the last few weeks he has been remembering me and repeatedly asks if I’m married.  😀  I think he worries about passing away and my being left alone.  It’s nice not to be working as I am able to check in on him every other day.  On the job front things are picking up.  I am in the middle of interviews with Jenner & Block out of Chicago for a Practice Manager Position.  I have a Chief of Staff to the General Counsel interview with Anduril next week (big drone company).  And last week the managing partners at two D.C. AmLaw 100 firms reached out to me (!) to apply for a Senior Healthcare Practice Manager (Sheppard Mullin) and the Director of Administration (K&L Gates).  All pay more than government work and I was happy with my government salary but I’m sensitive to the fact I got a late career start being a military spouse and so hope to make up for lost time.  Our kitchen remodel is just a matter of time - the cabinets are being made.  Otherwise all of the products have been purchased and are in the basement including the beautiful tile I had shipped from the Netherlands.  Remember all of the tile in your house in Shorewood?  Speaking of which, I just regrouted our bathroom floor last week and it now looks brand new.  If these legal jobs don’t pan out I may go into the grouting business.  Much love to you! 

I wrote back: 

Hi, Sweetie.  It seems that things are going well for all of you, for which I am very glad.  We’re just recovering from nasty head/chest colds for which I’m also very glad.  I wish we could be in Alexandria for the big birthday season, especially for your Dad’s.  I’m hoping that AG is able to get out to visit you folks one of these days.  I mentioned you guys in my journal this morning which I copy below to show you the very active life I live in Wisconsin:  (sending my entry about this morning's time on the patio)”❤️ 

 The VA visit with Dr. Ryzka went as expected.  Wait and see.  I wasn't put back on prednisone, thankfully.  No explanation for my painful shoulder and hips, or stiff hands and fingers.  So it goes.

Iran has fired missiles at a US airbase in Qatar.  No surprise, no casualties.

My comment on a Facebook posting by JJA.

There was a brilliant Israeli Orthodox Jewish polymath at Hebrew University in Jerusalem who wrote extensively and warned , though he wa a Zionist, that for many the State of Israel had become more important than traditional Jewish values. After the Six Day WAr in 1967, he argued strenously that Israel should not occupy the West Bank and Gaza, and that if it did, it would inevitably turn the occupied territories into a police state. In the 58 years since the war ended, successive Israeli governments have rejected his advice. Quaere whether Leibowitz was a cranky contrarian or a prophet.

FB exchange with JJA:  Charles D. Clausen

I am not a member of our quixotic president's cultish fan club, but I have been struggling with what to think of his attack on the Iranian uranium enrichment sites. Not on the constitutional issue, which I think is clear. As Senator Murphy points out, absent an imminent threat, the decision to send an aerial armada to drop bombs on another country requires at least congressional consultation and concurrence, under Art. I, sec. 8 of the Constitution. Scholars and politicians may argue about how much consultation and what kind of concurrence is sufficient, but what is beyond argument is that, absent an imminent threat (another subject for arguments), the president is not authorized by the Constitution to do unilaterally what Donald Trump has done unilaterally. But this is a procedural issue: where within the divided structure of the federal government lies the ultimate and preclusive decision to wage war on another sovereign nation. It is on the substantive question of whether there are good and sufficient grounds to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities that I have doubts. I'm inclined to answer that question affirmatively based on Iran's entire history since 1979. Maybe our intelligence community knows just how close Iran is (or was) to having nuclear weapons, and maybe it doesn't. Let's remember how the IC failed to foresee the collapse and dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the attacks on 9/11 , and the financial disaster in 2008 for that matter. How about the 1993 car bombing of the World Trade Center? Or the 1993 truck bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon? Have we forgotten CIA Director George Tenet's telling George W. Bush that the case for Saddam Hussein's having weapons of mass destruction was "a slam dunk"? If the IC was wrong in its judgments about Iran's progress in producing nuclear weapons, and we found out too late that Iran already had such a weapon, the strategic situation in the Middle East and in the world would be irretrievably changed. Trump wasn't willing to take that chance and I'm inclined to agree with him, though not without a good amount of dubeity. My greater concern is with Trump's taking this action completely independently of Congress. That is the action of a dictator.

Janice Jenkins Anderson:  Charles D. Clausen I certainly think he once again disregarded the Constitution by doing an end run around Congress. As to whether it was prudent, without knowing what intelligence was provided, we can’t know. There’s no question that it’s an evil regime - Iran has been the mastermind of terrorism around the world for decades and especially hates the US. Trump telegraphed his plans on X for days so I will be shocked if Iran hasn’t moved much of their materials and uranium. Again, we won’t know that for some time. Just like we don’t really know how much damage was done by our strikes. It will certainly increase the danger to our troops in the area. Netanyahu will of course be thrilled that we have entered the conflict. Based on history, we certainly haven’t heard the last of it from Iran.

I definitely don’t trust Trump’s motives or any info he provides since he has zero regard for truth or facts. I suspect that he has determined that it polls well- and it distracts from the myriad of other issues that were tanking his approval polls.

Trump never acts unless it personally benefits him. We can only hope that, in this instance, the country’s interests align with his.

Charles D. Clausen: Concur on all counts.