Ooooh, can I be…first?

ooooh tejan you certainly can :) how ya doing tonight?

woo hoo! Hey, Suzanne! Just driving by on my way to bed…as usual lately, up too late. How the heck are you, my distant friend? Twelve weeks done yet?

Hey, Suzanne! Missed you while I was in Montana. Hope things are going well for you.

they will be done on the 15th and i see the surgeon himself on the 17th… will know more then

Eyelids drooping, is how I’m doing. Gotta run, but since I had to pay a bill before my internet got cut off, I had to come see if you might be on duty.
take care, girl, and good night.

hey dearie — missed you while you were in montana too :) how’s the newest grandbaby? and his brothers? and the rest of the family?

Kewl! Barely a week! Keep that full-range knee working!

g’nite tejan

Some great diaries today: MaryMac’s tribute to Maurice Sendak was lovely. Confessions of a ‘failing’ teacher is well worth a read. Ubethaiam’s piece about the Democratic convention is right on. It’s wonderful to be back at the Lake.

Good evening

the lake is a special place — i’m honored to be a part of it

hey bev — how’s dc tonight?

The grandbabies are great. My professor daughter wore her two week old in a mobey wrap to graduation. My girl was on the stage because she’d won a university award……and the President of MSU, a new grandmother herself, introduced my daughter AND the new baby to the whole crowd! Fabulous. My daughter does a lot for women at the university and she really models how a young woman can actually do it all.

Dark. Nice weather 70s with some rain, much needed. How’s the other coast?

A very cool track, Suz.
And a southpaw on lead!

How you doing?

wow — how forkingn kewl! were you there to see that! didja take lotsa pictures?

70′s, some sun some clouds — front came through tonight with some wind but no rain. supposed to be 85 this weeked

hey newton — glad ya liked it — i really loved the music in it. i’m doing ok — how ’bout yo?

Pretty good, thanks.
Been, to put it lightly, busy…
We’re getting real A/C weather here now, which is why I will be sitting at my mechanic’s joint at 7am… freaking car is blowing hot, hot, hot!

Hi everyone.

another cover

yikes! i gotta admit, i do like the a/c here :)

hey tuez — hows floriday tonight?

Hi Bev W Mr, Rathke of Acorn international had a conversation with one of our citizens group yesterday and myself today. He offered to come out to our community and had some approaches to our situation. Mr. Black has not connected. He seems really active on the mortgage mess and other issues. Thanks for getting us connected.
Amy Goodman had a very interesting interview with Robert Reich. It was awesome in that he actually wants to fix thing in D.C.

An interesting diary yesterday, wanting to debate what could be. That I think has fallen off the list and I didn’t comment cause I had 100 ideas.

http://my.firedoglake.com/martincohen/2012/05/07/dialogue-is-better-than-monologue/

I think summer has come to Floridaze.

Hi! I’m glad Mr. Rathke is helping you. He seems like a very genuine person when I get to talk to him. Mr. Black is busy from what I’ve seen, with writing, interviews and especially teaching classes. Robert Reich is good, would like to have him on the salons, I’ll keep trying.
Hope you are doing well tonight.

tis headed here too. 85 — lard love a duck, that’s when i start to get cranky. i don’t do hot well

You are the best alltime Salon arranger. I am good hope you and yours are fine too. Hope fire dogs are all progressing.

more natacha:

Translation: – Why are We Fighting? Why are we fighting when we are all together? Listen to you heart and you will know the truth Listen to your heart for it knows the truth Between us there is a long history In love there is peace In peace there is love Let’s make good for we are brothers How great is the mercy and blessing of God Let’s return to peace Between us there is a long history Let’s return to love How merciful God is Let’s make good for we are brothers God bless and have mercy *******

Mark Zuckerberg owes some royalty payments to Abraham Lincoln. Oh, and hi.

x a gadzillion

hey hannibal — how ya doing tonight?

Pretty good tonight, last week was rough, with my grandmother passing away. But things are returning to normal, more or less.

screaming jay

i’m so sorry for your loss hannibal.

95, sunny, chance of afternoon storms; 95, sunny, chance of afternoon storms; 95, sunny, chance of afternoon storms; 95, sunny, chance of afternoon storms; 95, sunny, chance of afternoon storms; 95, sunny, chance of afternoon storms; 95, sunny, chance of afternoon storms; 95, sunny, chance of afternoon storms.

Until October.

Sorry to hear that.

dang tuez…. are hurricanes and tropical storms the only other weather option ya get?

Thanks, but in the end, it was almost more of a relief. She’d been going downhill for a long time, suffering from a particularly bad form of OPMD. Couldn’t swallow, eyelids didn’t work, legs didn’t work. Was hard seeing her go, but I’m glad her suffering is over.

Hello, Folks.

Was 91 here today. Forkin’ hot.

Pretty much.

my grandma had a rough last two years…. sometimes it is a blessing when they go

hey senator — congrats on getting the front page!!! how’s the grandbabies?

Thank you, I learned from the best – especially Suz, when it came to learning my way around FDL. Michelle and I are doing well, thanks.

The last week my dad was alive, I drove home every night bawling and screaming at god to just be done with it (and I’m on the atheist end of agnostic).

It ain’t easy. I feel for ya.

Yeah, hard to watch her like that, in her last couple of days, she couldn’t do much more than lay there, gasping for air like a fish out of water. Yet all we can do is sit there and watch it happen. We treat our pets with more dignity than our elderly.

Thanks, Suz.

We are going to Sonoma tomorrow to visit with everyone. My daughter, her partner and the baby are staying there while on vacation. My other daughter, partner and her pregnant self are coming over from Marin for dinner. We are all cooking. And bringing Suke, the dog, too.

yay! sounds wonderful mary!!! gonna take lotsa pictures?

Sure am. It is gonna be nice.

(((hannibal)))

So am I. I didn’t scream at god, just had to bite my tongue a lot around the more devout Catholic relatives. And resist the urge to punch the deacon who gave the service (Grandma didn’t want a religious service, but the deacon was a compromise to appease her sisters). Guy sure was a preachy asshole.

Preaching out of his ass?

Hey, Suzanne, good choice of music for me. I’ making Samosas [fried pastries] this week to freeze! Now I’m in the mood!

hey openhope — how’s the sound tonight? tis good music to dance around to in the kitchen

Good night all, thanks.

Is it the sign a a bad daughter to wish for that fuckin’ blessing now, as opposed to learning life’s lessons of infinite sacrifice for the betterment of the soul?!
Probably, that’s a yes.

g’nite bev

Fortunately, most of my relatives are just as agnostic as I am. Once they figured out I didn’t feel the need to be there, they put in their wine and liquor orders (I had said my good byes the night before, knowing it was my final good bye).

Ain’t death strange. Typing this seems so surreal.

Don’t they all? All that “Believe in God and go to heaven” shit just grates on me. Doesn’t help that my grandfather has pretty hardcore emphysema (On 4 liters of oxygen) and the deacon guy kept telling people to stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down. The old guy’s wobbly enough as it is, and at his wife of 61 years’ funeral, it wasn’t any better.

Heh, Spell . . .

I know it from Animals, then Alan Price Set (organ for Animals), then later in life learnt Howlin Wolf did it.

THIS version, Suz, totally reminds me of pure 70′s satire.

Like This.

*G*

how horrible hannibal

91 ! We still have flannel sheets on the beds. I just got all the cool weather veggies planted these past 3 days.
I dream of the hot sun shining down. And nights without flannel.

hey larue — how goes dood? there’s always gilmour

You are right. We do much better by our pets.

I’m so sorry.

I need to get to sleep. Good night and sweet dreams to you all.

I hope tomorrow is bright.

g’nite tuez

sorry to be fading so early tonight peeps but i was woke up at eight forking fifteen this morning by the construction at the house next door. lardy, tomorrow morning i fear it will be the roofers banging away and the framers will be starting to put up the walls on the house being built across the street. the only lot left is on the other side of jen’s house and i hope i don’t get all 3 sites going at once. *shrudder*

thanks for letting me hang out with ya tonight but i’m fading fast

g’nite all

Hi Suzanne.

I’m still stunned by Eliot Spitzer’s last-night inteview of Thomas Drake and other NSA whistle blowers as reported this morning by Kevin Gostola. My comment was:

When Drake pushed back, he was told that the US was living in “exigent circumstances.”

To quote William Pitt the Younger:

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

The quote that I wish now that I had added is this from Benjamin Franklin:

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Per the Wikipedia:

This was written by Franklin, within quotation marks but is generally accept as his original thought, sometime shortly before February 17, 1775 as part of his notes for a proposition at the Pennsylvania Assembly, as published in Memoirs of the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin (1818).

So, why in God’s name, can we not now heed Franklin’s warning, which is directed exactly against everything we’ve been done in response to 9/11, most especially the so-called “Patriot Act.”

We have friends who’s elderly parents are at the end of life, cogent but with terminal illness, with a suicide pill option on their nightstand. It helps the person who owns that pill make a daily decision whether to go for another day, or not. They have control. It’s something they value.
Dementia isn’t that kind. There are no choices except for loved ones to take care , love, feed and dig in for the long haul. I hate the whole process that basically undermines the wishes of the person afflicted.
But, I’ getting better at not spinning out emotionally. Maybe there is a life lesson,et al.

Night,Suz.

Well said. Unfortunately, defending Liberty requires the sacrifice of safety and property. And personal health.
At least that’s the learning I took away from my father’s reading out loud of history in my childhood.
There is a physical reality to the words. Franklin lost less than many patriots of his time.

The burden on care givers is enormous. My sister bore that burden in my mother’s later years. My brother and I were in almost daily contact with her, and the strain was enormous. And she has a great deal of background in care for the elderly.

That said, count me in for Liberty, Community and Constitution. “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their Country”
I learned that in 1968 high school typing class and it’s stuck with me. I’ve changed “men” to People.
Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their country.

I’m going to take some caregiver classes because I’m not trained for this next stage. It’d also be good to talk to people who have skills in dealing with situations.

Those people that Spitzer interviewed have each lost a lot. Ultimately, Drake had to plead guilty to a misdemeanor. The presumable alternative being huge attorney fees.

Obama’s war on whistle blowers is a key reason that I cannot vote for him. OTOH, I expect that Romney would be worse. Nevertheless, I have to make a statement with my vote.

I
Obama’s War On Whistleblowers snugs up nicely to his War On Pot and fits perfectly into his War On Immigrants to compliment his War On Women stitched into the tapestry of American Debt.
I don’t worry about voting anymore. The game is rigged and broken, literally. Time to deal with it and learn to think outside the mindset of every fucking thing we were trained to think.
And spend more time on Local.

Good night, all.