My Wish....

Well hasn't the Presidential race suddenly become much more interesting? Watching 45 "deflate" even just a little is so satisfying. And seeing people "discover" what his VP choice represents is almost comical.

My first wish is that there are going to be debates between 45 and the most likely Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Just fingers crossed because I would LOVE to see him try to dominate the stage and throw lie after lie toward her.....not a chance that she would not be able to cut him off quickly.

But my almost as high on my Wish List is to see Kamala Harris on stage behind her podium and when the camera pans to the other side we see a podium and blank space emtpyness  behind it. Or maybe a cardboard cutout of 45 with blue suit, red tie and orange hair.....fist in the air.

Come on 45....go ahead and step on stage. Or, if he won't, PLEASE ABC show the one-sided debate so the public can watch the democratic candidate answer the questions from the moderator. And when she finished each answer, with no interruptions, please ask her to turn and stare at the empty podium for about 30 seconds.

And at the very end watch the Democratic candidate look to the empty podium one last time, drop the mic and walk off the stage.

Dry Beauty....

A few weeks ago I got a lovely bouquet of flowers from my son....Mother's Day I think! I enjoyed the beautiful arrangement for many days, taking out the dying flowers as needed. I cut off the yellow roses and let them dry out

I now have a lovely glass bowl of forever roses. They make me smile every time I walk past the coffee table in the living room.

:-)

Bleak(er) Future???

So....reading Heather Cox Richardson's long letter this morning a section really jumped out at me:

"Tonight, speaking to Christians at the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump made his plans to become a strongman clear: “Get out and vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what: it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians…. Get out, you’ve got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”"

Really.....so what does that forecast for the 2028 election? Many of us think 45 is just really "losing it"....brain wise and his choice for VP is in lockstep with him. A frightening (for me) view into what 45 sees as a future for America.

He wins....we don't have to vote in four years.

Just what the signers of the Constitution intended.

My Humble Opinion....

Just a few words in a Saturday post turned America upside down. In the middle of a Presidential campaign the current candidate for the Democratic Party stepped back and handed the torch to a younger generation. The talking heads have been on television constantly ever since. What will happen? How will this work? Are the democrats in a complete and fatal state of confusion??  

Ii have been listening/watching some of this but keep coming back to my feeling that we are watching democracy in action and I feel very hopeful about the end result in November. 

And I look at this man as an amazing patriot....he made what must have been an extremely difficult personal decision and he did it for America.

This is the picture of a successful President. An American who loves his Country. His fist is not in the air.....but in my book he is a winner and leave a legacy of which he can be proud.

Thank you Mr. President. Thank you.

Once Again.....

 I wrote this one back in 2018....but it resonates for me today so I am re-sharing.

A Single Root...

I spent a quick few days reading another Lee Child book featuring Jack Reacher. We've read a lot of this series.....they are quick and I like the main character. And about half way through this one I realized "I've read this before!"....but I couldn't remember the ending so I just kept on.

There was one paragraph, early on, that made me stop and re-read it several times....and made me wonder. "Fourteen miles. Aspen groves blazed like flares on the slopes. Whole copses of hundreds of separate trees, but all joined together underground by a single root" An aspen wood was all one organism. The largest living thing on earth." Really??? How did I now know this??? How is this possible??

It made me start thinking about inter-connectedness....and how one tree supports the next and the copse just keeps growing. I found a drawing on the internet.....and began remembering our trips west and all of the aspen trees we've seen. Never knowing that they were so closely related.

And then my imagination spun off from there....and I looked at the drawing and thought about family. My little family....spread out all over the country but connected by heart strings and in spirit. And the larger family of man. Wishing the world population could see it self as an aspen grove.....individuals but connected. By blood lines, heritage, culture.....and if you trace history back far enough, we all came from one small "aspen grove".....and spread from continent to continent.

Wondering why it is so hard for us to see the similarities....instead we focus on the differences and let those drive us apart. An aspen wood = all one organism, but not the largest living thing on earth....that would be man. So shake hands with a neighbor, smile at a stranger as you walk down the street, contribute some school supplies to a child who needs them.....we're connected....just below the surface....

Elbow Grease and Damp Eyes....

When my mom and dad got married her brother gave them a desk for a wedding gift. It was a prized possession where my dad studied for his college degree after coming home from serving in WWII. After they moved from their Chicago apartment to the first house in Park Ridge the desk came along....I was in kindergarten so don't know where it sat, but probably the living room. Then it migrated to a larger home across town and finally, after my dad left and they divorced, into the small home where Mom lived until she died. At that point the desk was in the semi-finished basement room and didn't get much use at all.

When we got back from our sailing adventure and prepared to live "on dirt" we needed furniture. Mom said we could take the desk so it has been in our apartments/home/condo where we've used it almost every day.

I realized awhile back that the leather inserts on the top were drying out and fading and the wood along the top edges was also discolored. Resting our hands on the edge to use the computer keyboard took a toll. 

An antique dealer recommended a special leather "refresher" and a polish so I bought them both and added DESK to Dave's to-do list. The task remained on the list until yesterday. While I was out he took the supplies, a few rags and the time to little by little wipe, clean,  polish, refurbish the desk.

I walked in to print a meeting agenda early this morning and a brand new "old" friend greeted me. I sat down and was surprised that my eyes got wet and my chest felt "full". Why this reaction to something we've had since 2002.....just sitting at our new desk made me think back to my mom and what this first good piece of furniture meant to her.

It's hard to see the difference in my poor photograph, but the leather is soft and happy and the wood gleams. She would be so happy and even as I write this I have that huge lump in my throat. Thanks mom and thanks to Uncle Marty for providing a young couple with this so many years ago. We'll take better care of it now.