My brother sent me two plastic jars along with a note telling me not to deny his brother-in-law his beloved pickles simply because he is clumsy.
I had to laugh, as I had been researching plastic jars for pickles but hadn't yet made a purchase. My brother said he uses these for pickles.
So I am happy that my brother thought enough of my husband to send him plastic jars for his pickles, and I had a good chuckle.
Yesterday, the former president presented himself to a jail in Georgia to have his fingerprinting and his mug shot taken.
It's been all over the news.
This is his fourth indictment since he left office. While I strongly believe he tried to stay in office illegally and, at the least, incited a riot, I find it sad that this is now what the world sees of America.
The world sees that we are a bunch of haters who elected someone who is a grifter, a con man, and a not-nice person by any stretch of the imagination.
Hopefully, though, the world also sees that we are a nation of laws, and if one breaks those laws, then one is tried, and justice is served.
I take no joy in knowing that (a) this is the type of person so many people adore and want to follow, for reasons that continue to elude me and (b) that our government and our national reputation has been so wounded by this person and his ilk.
I have always believed in the power of the government to better the lives of its citizens. I have believed it can happen at the local level, and I believe it can happen at the state and federal levels. But the people in charge also must believe that.
The former guy believed, as best I could tell, that the government should only help him. I certainly didn't see much come out of his administration that helped me. Even the monetary loans during the pandemic were giveaways of federal funding to those who didn't need it, for the most part. Maybe they helped out somebody somewhere.
While seeing our country diminished makes me sad, I think it is important that the former guy be charged with conspiring to defraud the American people out of their choice for president. It is how we move forward from this and defend democracy and maintain the rule of law. I do not see this as a failure of the legal system, nor do I see these charges as political. I see them as necessary if the republic is to continue to function under the U.S. Constitution.
If these charges had not been brought, then the U.S. Constitution may as well be, as the former guy has suggested, tossed out the window. I would be less confident in the judicial system had charges never been brought, and even now I have concerns about the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and what role it will ultimately play in all of this. Because you know eventually, that is where some, if not all, of these indictments will end up if the former guy is found guilty. Maybe even if he is found innocent, I don't know.
I look for calmer days sometime in my lifetime. Preferably they would be ones where I don't have to look at the mug shot of a former president.
This may not seem like a big deal, but I have not had spaghetti of any kind for over 3 years. I had such a horrid time with an ulcer and accompanying acid reflux that I'm only now slowly trying new foods. Or rather, old foods that I used to take for granted.
It was so good! That first bite was like nirvana.
So maybe spaghetti is something I can add back into my diet occasionally. I know to eat foods that bother me before 2 p.m. and we had this for lunch.
This is progress!
Oh, and my husband's year follow-up on his hip replacement (which was the reason we were out in the first place), came back great and he doesn't need to return for five years! So yay for that, too.
He dropped a pickle jar as he was putting it back in the refrigerator, and it shattered. A big piece hit his leg and shaved off a good inch of skin. It wasn't deep, but it bled a lot.
I rushed around trying to take care of him and clean up pickle juice all at the same time. I was trying to keep the pickle juice from running under the refrigerator, plus there was glass everywhere, and he was bleeding somewhat profusely.
After I got him in a chair and his bloody shoes off of him so I could see what he'd done to his shin, I saw that he probably didn't need stitches. I hunted up the bandages and patched him up, then cleaned up the mess. After he rested and the blood finally stopped oozing, he helped me clean up. I was having difficulty with the mopping, so I was glad he was well enough to help me with that.
I told him I was not buying him anymore pickles. This is the second jar of pickles he's dropped and busted in the last year.
Pickle juice is very hard to get up off the floor.
It has been a while since I edited a full manuscript for someone. This would be the 12th book I have edited. I have learned a lot since I started editing manuscripts and I think I do a much better job now than I did when I first started. For one thing, I learned that the manuscript needs to be as perfect as I can make it in all ways. Publishing houses do not check for discrepancies or fix things anymore. The first book I edited had mistakes in it because the author told me not to fix them - he said the publishing house would correct things and he didn't want to pay me to do it (mostly the problem was different spellings of the name of the same person). However, after the book published and I received a copy, I saw that the publishing house didn't correct hardly anything, if anything at all. So now even if I'm not being paid to fix something, I do it anyway.
To ensure I catch everything, I read most of the book aloud as I go through. Generally, I read through a chapter, make changes (using the track changes feature in MS Word), then go back through the chapter again using the "final" view and read that chapter aloud to ensure I didn't miss anything. Then after I have finished, I review the whole book for consistencies in headings, chapter headings, numbers, etc., and pick out chapters or paragraphs to review to make sure things are flowing properly.
I use Chicago Style but most authors also have their own preferences, so I keep a notepad of those to refer to as I go along. I also list names here, characteristics if relevant (you wouldn't want Barbara to show up with green eyes in chapter 10 when they were blue in chapter 2), and things like that.
This project made me happy because it is something I do well and it was enjoyable work, if a bit stressful because of a deadline. I actually like to work when I enjoy what I'm doing.
I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.
The 19th amendment legally guarantees American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle—victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change of the Constitution. Few early supporters lived to see final victory in 1920.Beginning in the 1800s, women organized, petitioned, and picketed to win the right to vote, but it took them decades to accomplish their purpose. Between 1878, when the amendment was first introduced in Congress, and August 18, 1920, when it was ratified, champions of voting rights for women worked tirelessly, but strategies for achieving their goal varied. Some pursued a strategy of passing suffrage acts in each state—nine western states adopted woman suffrage legislation by 1912. Others challenged male-only voting laws in the courts. Some suffragists used more confrontational tactics such as picketing, silent vigils, and hunger strikes. Often supporters met fierce resistance. Opponents heckled, jailed, and sometimes physically abused them.By 1916, almost all of the major suffrage organizations were united behind the goal of a constitutional amendment. When New York adopted woman suffrage in 1917 and President Wilson changed his position to support an amendment in 1918, the political balance began to shift.On May 21, 1919, the House of Representatives passed the amendment, and 2 weeks later, the Senate followed. When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920, the amendment passed its final hurdle of obtaining the agreement of three-fourths of the states. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920, changing the face of the American electorate forever.The campaign for woman suffrage was long, difficult, and sometimes dramatic; yet ratification did not ensure full enfranchisement. Decades of struggle to include African Americans and other minority women in the promise of voting rights remained. Many women remained unable to vote long into the 20th century because of discriminatory state voting laws.
If we are not careful, if we don't watch who we elect and understand what is going on around us, we will lose this right that our foremothers fought and died for.
Today, I am happy to sound the alarm: rights can be taken away. Be careful, watchful, and diligent.
Things I would never post on Facebook but would like to (so of course I post it here instead):
1. I am holding out a slight hope that saner minds will ultimately prevail but can only wait and see. It's been a sh*tshow here for months, thanks to a few loudmouthed bullies who think their tax dollars count for more than anyone else's, and that their morals are the only morals. They define the word "bigot" in all of its definitions.
2. Moms for Liberty - aka Klanned Karenhood - best thing I've seen today
3. #bannedbooksareworthreading
4. If you haven't actually seen the movie, read the book, or watched the show, you have no right to bash it simply because your conservative friends think badly of it.
5. We don't do that because there wouldn't be any daddys, daddys' best friends, grandpas, uncles, mothers, aunts, or siblings left once they were all dead, plus people are innocent until proven guilty. 1 in 5 women and 1 in 20 boys have experienced molestation before they turn 18. Who do you think does that to them? It isn't a book, I can tell you that. There aren't enough orphanages to take in all the kids who would be left without parents if you did that. Who do you think molesters are? Sneaky people the kids don't know? It's their family members and family friends. - in response to a meme saying "we put dogs that molest kids to sleep, why don't we do that to child molestors [sic]."
6. [Name of person], most of these are fake, and they use them to hack your account. Your friend is right. You should delete this right away. - in response to the multitude of "lost dogs, children missing, or house for rent really cheap" posts.
7. Using "for the children" is the last refuge of scoundrels and fascists.
8. Some of these people wouldn't know an intelligent thought if it came up and bit them square in the a$$.
9. Take that "perfect" phone call and stick it where the sun doesn't shine.
10. Go away, you damn scam man. - in response to all the pretty men who post on my page and want to be my friend. (I block them.)
11. There is no price tag on stupid. Stupid comes free.
12. I'll believe I have fiber Internet availability when I am actually paying the bill and it's been installed. (I still have DSL. A local company constantly advertises it on my FB page, but I am "not eligible" to receive it.)
13. The "independent thinkers" haven't had an original thought since they fell out of the birth canal. If it hasn't been fed to them by some group, they just have dead air between their ears.
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Today is house cleaning day, meaning that the young woman who has been helping me clean the house once a month for several years came in to help.
I keep the place generally picked up, but she does the heavy stuff for me now - the mopping and such that I can no longer manage thanks to that bum abdominal surgery I had in 2013 that left me in chronic pain. I am unable to use my abdominal muscles for the things one must use them for - like slopping water on the floor or running the vacuum for several hours.
During the month, I keep the clutter picked up, dust, and run the vacuum from time to time - I can manage it infrequently and in small time frames.
But I can't mop.
So yay for a clean house.
I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.
Today I am happy that the grocery stores are stocked. I remember during the pandemic when the sight of shelves instead of products scared me, along with everyone else. So, I am happy today for a full grocery store, even if some things I used to purchase seem no longer to be available (at least not around here).
I am also happy that I had a long chat with my friend today. We hadn't talked for a day or so and I missed her. It is amazing how much a conversation with a similar soul can lift the spirits. So, thank goodness for friends!
I am also happy that I ate a little pizza, and it didn't upset my stomach. I don't think it's something I can eat often, but it's nice to see that perhaps a piece every now and then won't do me in.
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Each day in August you are to post about something that makes *you* happy. Pretty simple. And, it doesn't even have to be every day if you don't want it to be. It's a great way to remind ourselves that there are positive things going on in our lives, our communities, and the world.
This meme comes from The Gal Herself.
I saw a buck in velvet this morning. He was like a shadow, moving quickly across the glen, but I caught a visual of him and his beautiful horns. My deer always make me happy.
Today I worked on an editing project, and it is nice to have work to do. Especially this kind of work, which I can pick up and put down at my leisure. And it's work I enjoy. That always helps.
Most of the day I was alone, and I enjoyed that as well. I like my alone time.
I finished a Neil Gaiman audiobook, Norse Mythology, this morning, too. I learned a lot about that mythology that I hadn't known. I knew a bit of it, and I could hear echoes of other mythologies in it, but it was good to learn something new.
We didn't get the rain we needed, but today was a pretty day. It got a little humid after lunch as some storm clouds rolled through (they dropped no rain), but I thought it was lovely outside.
The garden is producing in abundance, especially tomatoes. It is too bad I cannot eat tomatoes much anymore, and my husband doesn't like cooked tomatoes at all, so it is not worth the effort to can or freeze tomatoes. It is unfortunate that the produce all comes in at the same time, but I guess summer abundance meant not starving in the wintertime in the old days, when that was all one had to eat.
Also, I went over to my father's for a guitar-playing session with him and a friend of his. I like playing my guitar.
