Tag Archives: Great Blue Heron

A Kinda Sorta Political Post

Weather in the Tries:
Oooooh! Temps will be mostly in the 80s with a couple dips to the 70s, and the weekend in the 90s. Can ya dig it? And the lows will be in the 50s with the weekend being low 60s. A few years ago, this week, I went to the hospital to give birth to my Favorite Daughter. It was sunny, warm, and summer. When I came home a few days later, it was cold, rainy, and fall. Ever since then, I’ve associated her birthday with the advent of cooler weather. Her birthday is Wednesday, which should be spelled Wensday.

A Kinda Sorta Political Post:
I watched most of the DNC in highlight snippets, but the last night, I watched live. What a blast!  What humor! I don’t recall any of it being put-down, with the possible exception of one guy who said he was very impressed with the AI audience that filled the auditorium. He even managed to deliver the line and keep a dead-pan face, for a couple seconds.

The night before, I watched Tim Walz make his acceptance speech and was truly impressed. I would gladly sit at the table in the Walz kitchen and share an iced tea and maybe a white man’s taco/Bwahahahaha. One of the biggees of my admiration for them is the way they have raised their kids. OMG, that young man, Gus! Wow!! He was so proud when Dad gave his speech, Gus stood with tears of joy running down his cheeks, pointed at his dad on the stage and said, “That’s my Dad, That’s my Dad.” I nearly had tears running down my cheeks, too, from sharing his joy. 

I’ve tried not to go political here, but, alas, I’ma gonna do it. Admittedly, I watched only the highlights, and darned few of them, of the RNC, but the biggest difference I saw between the two was Joy. The DNC was full of it, the RNC sorely lacked. In seeing the snippets on the news, the MAGA crowd are always not just serious, but angry, vindictive. Or they look that way. As do a tremendous number of the evangelicals supporting the MAGA movement, whereas the MALA (Make America Laugh Again) people, whether democrats or republicans, find humor in their lives. MAGA wants to destroy, tear down, lock up, kill. MALA wants to build, unify, help, laugh. Pessimists v. Optimists.

Several years ago, when I was a good bible-toting Christian, Pastor brought up the subject of humor in church one Sunday (Baptists allowed humor? /snort.). Based on the adage that the nut seldom falls far from the tree, he decided Yahweh, father of Jesus, had a sense of humor—somewhere. But he had biblical proof that the son, Jesus, had humor: Matthew 19:14, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” New International Version.

Yep, that was his proof. Remember when you were a kid at the park, and at one end was a guy yelling at the adults and any kids who wandered by, shouting about sin and salvation, heaven and hell, with more about the latter than the former? A ways down the park was a guy making balloon animals and telling funny stories? Where did you and your mates go? I can pretty much guess—you went to the guy who smiled, who made you and your mates laugh. You went to the guy who told funny stories, who made you laugh and feel good about yourself and being alive. Unless, of course, your masochism made an early debut and you went to the angry preacher and reveled in the pain.

Jesus tells stories that make children feel good about being alive, who makes them laugh. I don’t know why so many (alleged?) Christians are so severe, so lacking in humor, so angry, unless it’s power. Some will have power and therefore will continue the severity, the beatings, the hate, until morale improves. Because everyone knows if you make people fear you, especially through your God’s anger as delivered by his “chosen” modern day prophet ie, you, that person, that prophet, will   have   power! The great Walt Whitman once said, “Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul.” [emphasis mine]

Photos of the Week:
The Great Blue is usually on the big pond, this is the only time I’ve seen him on our pond, and yes, that’s ice next to and on top of, the water. The pix were taken Jan ’23.

from the desk of the confused chihuahua;
my human got stitches out of her toe last week, and then her toe was taped down. I don’t understand, was it flying away. and why would she have stitches in her toe, was it falling off. anyhow housemate dan is walking me. my human says her toe doesn’t hurt, but it isn’t comfy. I still wonder how she got her toe in her sewing machine. and why she would do it. and why couldn’t she pull her stitches. humans are very, very strange. 

MALA

Make America Laugh Again

And along came Jones…

Weather in the Tries:
   Looks like we’re getting into some Seattle weather, gray, cloudy, and good chance of rain most days. Highs mostly in the low-to-mid forties, and lows in the low-to-mid 30s. As we used to say when I lived over on the Dark Side, if you can see across the street, carry your raincoat, if you can’t see across the street, wear your raincoat. 

And then along came Jones…
   Okay, I don’t know if his name is Jones or not, or even if he’s a he or a she. But that song is all I could think of when I started to open the door to take the Brave Dog for a walk on Saturday and Jones slowly swiveled his head to watch me. I dropped the leash to take photos through the door. Then decided to take the Brave Dog outside. Alas, he was a.) more afraid of Jones than Jones was of him, and b.) enough ice remained on the pond that Grandfather Sky’s tears didn’t leave pocks, but the Brave Dog could feel them. Uh. No. No way was he going out in that. So, he went back in, and I went back out and followed Jones until he couldn’t be seen through the branches.
   This is the first Great Blue (in courting colors, by the way) I’ve seen in our finger of the pond. S/He is usually over in the larger pond. And too far away to get a decent photo. I got one photo last summer. Do you know how to tell a male from a female Great Blue Heron? I don’t, so looked it up. I must see them together; the male is the larger. But hard for me to tell when they are not with a mate for comparison. So I still don’t know if Jones is a he or a she.

Photos of the Week: Hokey Pokey
In case you’ve forgotten, you put your right foot in, you take your right foot out, you put your right foot in, and you shake it all about.

Entertainment:
Books Read:  If I finish it, I review it:  https://lenoragood.blogspot.com 
   Haven’t finished any this week but bought a (so far) wonderful hard science fiction, Meru (book 1 of 2) by S.B. Divya. It’s a long one, and it’s my bedtime read. Loving it. At least so far 😉

Movies & TV:
Almost through with Season 3 of Babylon 5. Best Winter gift I’ve bought myself since I bought my Sleep By Number bed a dozen or so years ago!

Sammy:

 He really enjoyed the warmer days we had and thinks they should all be warmer. AND that Grandfather Sky should confine his crying to the hours between ten at night and five in the morning. Somehow, I find myself agreeing with that. Maybe we should move to Camelot? (And if you promise not to tell anyone, I’ll tell you a secret—the link goes to Richard Burton singing Camelot in 1978. I was sniveling and sobbing by the end of it. I’m so darn pathetic!)