At Least That Is Over

Mother's Day

I don't recall when I last dreaded a Mother's Day so much as this one. There was no reason to dread it, particularly, but it is not my favorite holiday anyway. I suspect my upcoming 60th birthday had something to do with it.

So, I stayed off of Facebook with its syrupy photos of happy mothers and adorable children who are now old, stodgy adults trying to rebuild a 20th century that hasn't existed for 50 years, and tried to ignore other aspects of the holiday as well. I did my part by ensuring my husband's mother received her due as matriarch, and gave my stepmother flowers, but otherwise, I was over this "holiday" before it even began.

It's no secret that my mother and I had a bad relationship. I have had trouble with this celebration ever since I was a teenager. Hallmark doesn't sell "I'm sorry I was born and ruined your life," cards. At least, not around here. Not in the hardware store where the Hallmark cards are now.

It doesn't help when the bank hands out presents to you without even asking if you're a mom. I guess they assume everyone with gray hair has children. But not all of us have moms, or had good moms, and not all of us have children.

There are women like me who have no mothers and no children, making us what, irrelevant?

Book Banning

On the local front, I hear through my line of contacts that the library board meeting last week was a doozy, complete with screaming, invasion of personal space, and possibly throwing things (I heard two different versions of that so let's just say something happened). Someone should have called the Sheriff's Office and asked for a deputy. I hope they do that next month.

The issue, at this juncture, is LBGTQ+ books in the children's section of the library, along with some other books that show how babies are made that narrow minds consider pornographic. I have only checked out one - the only one I can find that's available as an audiobook - and didn't find any issues with it.

Of course, I have no children, so I suppose some might say I have no dog in this fight, but to be clear, neither does the person who is causing most of the uproar. My dog in this fight is this - if I want to read a book, then I want it to be available or I want the library to order it for me so I can read it, and not be stifled by these Christian Nationalists who think anything that doesn't portray what they approve of shouldn't be purchased.

As if they are the only people in this county who pay taxes. Plenty of other folks who don't subscribe to their cult pay taxes, and we want our books.

Matters of the Heart

Tomorrow, I go to see a cardiologist. I have developed a new heart murmur and my doctor wants me checked out. She's been very helpful, saying things like, "Your blood pressure is at stroke level," and "You don't have to worry about getting dementia, you're going to die of a heart attack long before that happens."

She is trying to ensure I follow through and go see this person, I suppose. She doesn't have to try that hard. I am old enough to die, but I'd just as soon it not happen right away.

This first visit will likely just be a howdy-do and the cardiologist will listen to my heart and then order bloodwork and maybe an ultrasound to start. Maybe he will do an EKG since I haven't had one in 10 years. That would make sense.

The doctor my GP wanted me to see is not taking new patients, so I'm seeing someone I know nothing about, except for what I found on the Internet. He studied internal medicine at Carilion - VA Tech School of Medicine in 2014-2017, then went on to do heart stuff in Louisiana. He can't have been in practice very long, but perhaps that means he's current on all the new stuff. Some of the older doctors still do things like they did 20 years ago.

I am trying to be positive about it, but I don't do "positive" very well sometimes.