4/16

Thursday, April 16, 2026

1962 Walter Cronkite began anchoring the CBS Evening News

1993 The jury reached a guilty verdict in the federal case against police officers (two convicted, two acquitted) who beat Rodney King.

2007 Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. The gunman killed 32 people and injured 23 others before committing suicide.

In bed at 9:30, and up at 4:10.  128/63/34 119 202.8; 56/56/46 rain, flood watch.

[I deleted accidentally everything I wrote before these words] jowel with neighbors.  More severe thunderstorms expected tomorrow.  It was last August that we experienced about 11 inches of rain in 2 days and basement flooding that cost more than $20,000 to repair/restore.  I'm remembering all those Republicans denying the reality of climate change, the goofy senator from Oklahoma who gleefully was filmed with a snowball during an unusual snowfall and offering it as proof that climate change was a hoax.  The village of Sussex in northeast Waukesha County suffered quite a bit of tornado damage last night, reminding us that it's foolish to think Milwaukee County is immune to tornados.

Rainfall in Fox Point just south of us since Sunday has been 6.27 inches.  In Mequon just north of us, it's been 5.87 inches, so we've had pretty close to 6 inches so far this week, with much more coming tomorrow. 😱

Nesting time.  I bought a big cotton ball at Wild Birds Unlimited a week or ten days ago and hung it on one of our shepherd crooks.  I saw sparrows filling their beaks with the cotton a couple of days ago.  This morning it was pairs of house finches.  I love watching them.  The birds remind me that, come what may, life goes on.  Consecutive days of powerful thunderstorms with torrential rains and gale-force winds, the birds survive, just as they survive (most of them) the bitter weather of our winters.  When the skies clear, they fill their little beaks with cotton, dead grasses, and twigs and prepare for their eggs and coming offspring.

Desmond has a barrow in the marketplace, Molly is the singer in a band

Desmond says to Molly, “Girl, I like your face,” and Molly says this as she takes him by the hand

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da,Life goes on, brah, La-la, how the life goes on

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, Life goes on, brah, La-la, how the life goes on.

The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevski.  I been thinking about reading this novel for years and finally started it today.   

 

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