9/10/2025

 Wednesday, September 10, 2025

D+309/234/-1228

1943 German troops occupied Rome and took over the protection of Vatican City

1984 First episode of the daily TV game show "Jeopardy!" with Alex Trebek as host

1991 Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings on Clarence Thomas' nomination to SCOTUS

2019 US President Donald Trump fired his third National Security Adviser, John Bolton

2024 Second debate between new candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump hosted by ABC in Philadelphia, with most commentators giving Harris the win

2025 Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University

In bed at 10, up at 5:15.  54°, high 72°, partly cloudy day.  Sunrise is at 6:26 today, and the first bird showed up on our tube feeder at 6:23 when it was still too dark in the crepuscular light to know what kind of bird s/he was, but it was quickly followed by the ever-present chickadees, both on the tube feeder and the tray feeder.  It wasn't until 7:15 or so that the neighborhood birds showed up in numbers on all the feeders, including the two suet cakes.

Meds, etc.  Morning meds and Kevzara injection at 9 a.m.   

The sanctuary.  I used to call the finished area of our basement my sanctuary.  Most significantly, it was where I did my painting, my 'studio' or 'atelier', where I spent hours ignoring everything but the canvas or other surface that I was working on.  I had a radio/CD player there and sometimes listened to my favorite music while I worked, either from a CD or from a playlist on my phone.  The walls down there are covered with paintings I created over many decades, dating back to the 1980s. These include portraits of Geri and Caela, as well as Vietnamese and religious subjects, along with copies of other painters' work that I admired.  I have a desk down there made from a heavy oak butcher block table that I've had for years, and that Sarah had for several years, a credenza that I used as my desk during the days Geri and I had an office on Ironwood Drive in Glendale, bookshelves loaded with books acquired over decades, and holding precious family photos and memorabilia.  I kept the 'hard copies' of my daily journal in white, 3-ring binders down there, more than 3 years' worth of personal reflections and commentary on current events, along with the 5 watercolor sketchbooks of 'Life in the Time of Covid", a chronicle and commentary on Trump's first term.  My favorite recliner chair is down there, flanked by two leathertop end tables that were bought by my mother when we still lived in the basement apartment at 7303 S. Emerald Avenue, the first good furniture we ever owned, now close to 80 years old with broken wheel-feet, but precious to me, as is the leathertop drum table in the storage area that I have held onto since my mother's death 52 years ago.  It was a centerpiece (is this the correct term?) in her living room when we moved next door to 7307 S. Emerald.  It held pride of place in front of the center window in our living room, with a fancy lamp and a fancy lampshade on it.  The room had nice chairs and a sectional sofa covered in 1950s plastic.  There is a small alcove in the basement with 4 shelves mounted on the back wall.  On those shelves, I had the City of Chicago Emerald Avenue street sign that Steve gave me, a treasure.  Also, a collection of stray cobblestones from Rome, Parma, Ravenna, and Florence, a photo of me and all my regular van passengers/friends in front of the St. Francis of Assisi church van, a photo of me with one of my Trial Practice II classes celebrating the end of a semester at Hagarty's, the local pub patronized by generations of law students, a couple of Royal Doulton porcelains and other 'stuff.'  Almost everything has been displaced to prepare the area for the removal of the flooring and lower drywall panels on Thursday and Friday.  Going through this process has been an emotional process.  

High Noon, and I am exhausted, as I have been all morning.  I despair of getting much done today, although I managed to move all my Italian cobblestones up the stairs and out to the circular garden around the pear tree.   I also did a full load of laundry, and stopped at the Senkik's Stop 'N Go on Brown Deer & Port Road to get some strawberry preserves and some cherry Coke.  I'm too tired to think or write.

Our World.  There is distressing news this morning of Israel's attack on alleged Hamas targets in Doha, Qatar, an American ally, and of Russian drones being shot down by NATO F-35s in Polish airspace.  This afternoon we learned that right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, 31, was assassinated at a speaking event at Utah Valley University, south of Salt Lake City.  I fear there will be hell to pay.