Bear!

 

This is the best bear picture I have ever managed to take! Don't worry, I'm actually inside my dining room and not outside. This is the actual picture with no cropping as it comes up our drive to take a nap behind the garage.

Here is a cropped image, but it's grainier. It's best to embiggen the first picture for a full bear experience.

This is a juvenile black bear, and I saw it earlier in the morning too. It is actually one of two siblings in the neighborhood. A neighbor has video footage of the two siblings hanging out in her backyard before this one decided to eat some grass in our field and nap behind the garage.

Just after this picture a young woman was running on the street below, down by that white fence in the background. This caught the bears attention, and it watched her carefully partly to determine if she was a threat and partly to perhaps consider giving chase for funsies, because juveniles of any species learn by testing their environment which can be dangerous for both.

Two days later a 16-year-old boy hiking on a VERY popular trail called Mt. Si an hour away, had a run in with a momma bear while with his friends. Fortunately, he's okay, but he made the mistake of panicking and running. Never run! Prey runs; predators chase. I have instilled this in my son since he was young. Back away and never turn your back. Make yourself big and be noisy. Maybe this is why Americans are so noisy?

I'm glad he is all right!

About two days after that then there was this story of a 19-year-old Autistic boy being clawed in the face by a black bear through his bedroom window. I know that this area in California is also an area with a high black bear population, so is Taos, NM and Denver, Colorado suburbs. This is an active time of year as they look for food. Still, there seems to be quite an increase in the number of bears and I predict more encounters happening. Bears used to be commonly hunted, but as developments spread into more wilderness and bears are forced to live in areas with people more conflicts will continue to occur.

I'll probably post some variation of this on my other blog, but hey, you guys are getting first scoop!

💗💗💗💗💗💗

In other news....

Happy Gay Pride Month! 🌈🌈🌈

I pay my respects to your Majesty by Eninaj27 on Deviant Art

Japan - Was awesome! We're still thinking about it. It is mentioned on my other blog with some nice pictures.

Things are going okay here. The shite doth hit the fan around here often. Always drama with the parents. My health is up and down, but I dare not speak of it. If health insurers discover that you have some ailment that might cost them a lot of money in the long run, they'll find a way to justify: DENY, DELAY, DIE (at their convenience.)

America is the richest country in the world because of our GDP, it is not a richness of life. I'm sorry that Canada and the UK are also so keenly affected by this pernicious disease of capitalism. What my son saw in Japan is that every country has its struggles and challenges, but also that the American Dream of exceptionalism is a lie.

In Alaska around the fish cannery sites, you can see the truth that the noble eagle is no better than seagulls circling the county dump. Filthy beggars. People are suffering and dying and Elon Musk is a fucking trillionaire and we are supposed to feel what? Proud? Jealous? I hope he chokes on a chicken bone!

This is a poster from our favorite cafe in Hiroshima:

I love you my bloggerati peeps, crack on!

Catch Me on the Upbeat

 What's up sugarplum? Let's have some light and whimsy up in here!

Jon reminded me of a fun song I like. While I like the official animated video, let's go with this cool bloke and artistic design:

Another thing that attracts me to this video is that the little garden through the window behind him looks similar to the kind of little garden a Japanese home would have called "Tsubo Niwa." I'm obsessed with these little gardens and if all goes well I'll be visiting my favorite one soon!

That's right! I've been quiet because I'm excited and nervous about a very excited trip starting next Sunday. It will be my son's first international trip and second for my husband (because around here, Canada doesn't count as "international", it's just Canada aka "over yonder up North."

You know two years ago I had cancer and a major surgery to remove it, all them "reproductive bits" and then my feet were messed up last year. So a couple of months back I was having trouble sleeping and thought, "What if I never get to hug Keiko again?" and I started to cry, ugly cry, wracking sobs you know. I decided the thought was unacceptable. I don't know what's going to happen in the future, I just know I want to hug one of my favorite people in the world -one-more-time!

They don't make it easy. The flight is really expensive. They no longer offer a straight flight from Seattle, WA, USA to Osaka, Japan anymore, what was a 10-hour flight there and 11-hour back (due to the Jetstream)

Now its 6-hours to Honolulu, Hawaii, a short layover and 6-hour to Osaka. I wish we could stay longer than a week, but with the cost of food, hotel, etc. and that the kiddo will have to come back in time to start some state testing, we had to work with what we got. I will do my best not to ugly cry all over my dear Keiko, but to be fair, she's the one that did it to me last time had to part ways.

If you're lucky, you meet a few people throughout your life in which you share a deep sense of kinship with. The downside is that it you end up leaving more pieces of your heart in the care of others.

 

(Image is from this lovely site: 17+ Inspiring Rural Acreage Landscaping Ideas, check it out, it's a good site, not a bunch of digital noise, no Flash Animation or popups that I saw.)

Hopefully I'll have some nice pictures for you all in a few weeks! Take care! 💜

Floodgates

 My family and I are fine. I have a house on high ground and most of my friends are fine as well. One friend lives near the Puyallup River, but the levee held and so did the pump. We had Thanksgiving in North Bend which is in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains where my Maternal Aunt and Uncle live. I knew when I hugged my uncle and looked him in the eyes it would be the last time we would see each other, so I hugged him again. A week later he had a massive heart attack and died.

Yep, so I've lost two uncles this year. Both of my aunts live within an hour of me. I've been checking in with them, and my younger cousins regularly. I'm supposedly "the smart one" on both sides of the family. My Paternal and Maternal aunts were roommates for a year when they were in their 20s back when my parents were dating/married since they all went to the same high school. It's a silver lining that they have each other to lean on as well. I've got one uncle left in Texas. He's on the outs with his sister, so he had to hear it from me that his brother-in-law died. I'm not mending that through bridge, I just gave him the facts as they are. None of us need to hear his MAGA fanboy bullshit right now.

We had to cancel my shared birthday dinner with friends because the Cherry valley flooded between us and they became an island. Still, looking forward to a good dinner with them in January, so something to keep looking forward too. My birthday was nice, I can't complain.

I'm sorry First Nations, Sumas flooded again. Makes me grateful you left for Idaho when you did. B-ham wasn't without its problems either.

Pics from the Cherry Valley flooding, one of three big valleys in the Puget Sound that were flooded:

Despite over 150,000 people being told to evacuate I've only heard of one death and two serious injuries. There were over 1,000 water rescues. What bothers me most is that our disaster wasn't bad enough for some people, so they felt they had the right to make AI images with false narratives adding to the confusion and chaos. I had friends as far away as Japan concerned for my safety!

I'd always held onto the illusion that this Washington (the State) could insulate itself from whatever kind of crazy went on in the other Washington (DC), but it isn't so. The funding cuts are painful. A lot of people are suffering. The economy is great when you can choose what numbers to show.

I'm not online much these days because my real-life community needs me. I'm volunteering for an organization that offers housing and donations for children, young adults and their families that have nowhere else to go. The family shelters are full with long waiting lists. There are also some kids who are kicked out of their homes by their parents for being... ~out of alignment with their parents' value system~ you're smart people, you know what I mean.

Despite all this talk of dour things, I am happy. We're strong here and we look out for each other. Today is the day of the winter solstice and I walk as easily through the dark as I do through the light.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Keep moving forward

 

Dirt, paint, blood, ink stain my fingers

keep moving forward

don't drown

Does putting it on a frame make it art?

I revived a baby oak tree...

I write my dark little stories...

I spared a tiny rowan tree from dog piss...

I ponder ways to subvert fascism.

The Pleasure of Bathtime

It will t-minus four weeks before I can have a bath or go to the public swimming pool. Until then, I do my best to enjoy hot showers. My bathtub is not even a particularly nice tub. It makes me feel like a whale in a fishbowl. We bought this house as a "fixer-up" but never got around to fixing 'er upper. Maybe we'll get a new bath when this one finally falls through to the basement.

One of the reasons I love Japanese culture so much is that they too revel in the joy of a good bath. The Osen is often a hot spring fed communal Japanese bath. Some pipe the hot spring water into private pools for rent others follow the traditional route of a larger communal pool. Some have a partition for a male side and female side, because you go into an Osen naked after you have bathed in the washroom. While now harder to find, some still offer mixed gender communal pools. Last time I was in Japan I went to one of these with my long-time college friends. Here's something you likely didn't know about me, I have two modest tattoos, one is the Japanese Kanji word for "Tiger" because I was born Year of the Tiger. (I spent 8 years learning Japanese history, literature, language and culture y'all! This tattoo is all I've got to show for my love and appreciation of the culture!) The second is a very simple wrap of what look like dots around my left ankle. It was inspired by a pattern from a border fragment on a piece pottery from 400 BCE La Tène era. To me it represents a reminder of where my family came from, a small bond to my European ancestry. I would like to get one more tattoo. A nod to my deep connection to this land of my birth.

My favorite bath of all! A private Japanese hot spring bath in an old ryokan (Japanese Inn.) I had the pleasure of such a bath years ago at a ryokan attached to a female Buddhist monastery in Kyoto!

Bath in an old Japanese Inn

***

A men's bath in Luxembourg circa 1905-1950 (Postcard on Catwiki)

***

French soldiers bathing WWI. Guerre, France 1914-1918

***

Robert Fuller in the Laramie TV Series (1959-1963)

***

I've hoped I've all inspired you all to go take a nice relaxing bath on my behalf! I've always been a simple lass, myself. I appreciate a hot soak in a bath of plain old Epsom salt for sore muscles and smooth healthy skin.

Standing on a Corner Going Nowhere

We had an epic windstorm Tuesday night known as a "Bomb Cyclone" where the barometric pressure suddenly drops and creates high winds. There were even tornado warnings on the Washington coast at the city of Westport, which is really just a long spit of sand. As far as I know two people were killed. Some poor lady crushed by a tree while taking a shower (honestly my worse fear manifested; to die unceremoniously while buck ass naked! Did she even get the chance to rise the shampoo from her hair? We'll likely never know.) The other lady was living in a homeless encampment when a tree fell on her.

The highest recorded wind gust was from a buoy just off of Vancouver Island at 101mph! We have a gas fireplace, its stinky, but it helps keep us warm. On Thursday, a neighbor decided to go ahead and head to Vancouver, B.C. for the Bruce Springsteen concert instead of sitting around in the dark waiting for power. It was our luck! He loaned us his portal generator while he was away that was so helpful and we are now looking to purchase our own this time and not just keep talking about it! It really makes a difference when you can plug in the refrigerator, a coffee pot and the blower for the gas fireplace to make it more efficient. We were also able to charge a phone, one at a time.

Before that though we had to find a place with hot food and got a lead that there was a nearby city that had power that no one else seemed to know about, that's because the city of Duval is usually one of the first places you would normally expect to lose power, but I guess the previous storms had really strengthened their infrastructure before this storm came. We ate at the Tavern and it was delicious! It's more like your traditional pub, because kids are allowed to eat within the front section, but adults only in the back half.

I had to go through six, normally lighted, intersections to get there. This matters, because a bunch of people forget how to approach an intersection when the lights don't work. The busiest intersection near a grocery store was the worst. People just don't know what to do with themselves when there are turning lanes involved and a pedestrian. Technically, it was the pedestrian turn before mine. I was looking at him waiting fro him to go, but he was lost somewhere in his head. I couldn't make eye contact with him, and he seemed to have no intent to move, so I had no choice but to go ahead. Maybe I should have been more blunt and rolled down the window to yell at him and say, "Hey Dumbass, it's YOUR TURN!"

When we passed through on our way home, he wasn't there, so I guess he made it across eventually.

Well, hopefully we'll get to here how Ms. Nations fared in a few days. I'm going to sign off now because my internet is still as slow as molasses.

I Don't Abide a Floggin' Rooster

 

Well crap, I have to drive over the mountains again. The window is quickly closing on how long I can keep rushing over to get things done there before the snows come. I drive a minivan; it was just the most practical vehicle when we bought it fourteen years ago. I like that I can haul around a bunch of plants, help friends move and bring home a full sheet of plywood without getting rained on, but the downside is that it sucks in the snow! It is just not a good snow vehicle! I also enjoy the times when I can gather my whole posse of friends or family for a trip where I can be the designated driver making sure all my loved ones get home safe after our shared adventure.

Surely it has come across to most of you that I tend to be a bit of a "take charge" sort of person. I'm always happy to defer to others outside of my expertise, but most of the time I end up being the natural leader in whatever group I'm in. Yesterday my son said "Aye, Aye, Captain" when I was giving him instructions on how to do something.

An approximation of my son:

At any rate, the Garden D'Lite party is currently going on over Inexplicable DeVice's place as most of you know and I brought turkeys to the party. (Rather uncouth of me, I know.)

Well, now you know just how rural I can get! Here's a good approximation as embodied by Renee Zellweger's character Ruby from the movie Cold Mountain. I hope this clip isn't region locked and I hope you enjoy it! It's a really good movie that takes place during the American Civil War. I think the ending could have been tightened up a bit, that's my only real complaint. If you haven't seen it, give it a try!

Wish me luck on safe travels!

The days are rough.

 Ophelia By John Everett Millais

The year has been rough, and the day starts off with wordless screams and soft sobs. Both of my parents have advanced Parkinson's disease. It's not what they want people to think of when they think of them.

My dad forms thoughts, but cannot speak them. He suddenly lacks the articulation needed to form words. We don't know if this is temporary or permanent. My stepbrother, who now cares for him, has been a truer brother to me than ever my blood brother could hope to be. I've been informed now that it is Parkinson's with Aphasia and someday soon, he'll no longer remember me.

My mom's Parkinson's is similar to the kind Michael J. Fox has with extensive trembling. Hers progressed slowly over twenty years, whereas my dads has been quicker, less than five years. She's been falling down a lot and tries to hide it. Her body marks the daily beatings she inflicts upon herself. She should be in an assisted living or provided regular in-home nursing care. I've been fighting for the in-home care because that's what she wants, but there aren't enough nurses and there are even less nurses doing in-home care. People are dying on the waiting lists. This is a massive crisis. According to the U.S. Census bureau 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 every day.

No one wants to do the grueling, emotional labor for pay so low you barely make the poverty line. So, families do what they can. Quitting their jobs for labor with no pay, invisible. Private Equity firms buying up and profiting off of everything we need, housing, healthcare, and food. Many of these invisible labors are women, but plenty of men do it too. We're called the "sandwich generation" now. Crushed between unaffordable childcare and eldercare costs with long waiting lists for both. We can't even take care of ourselves.

Today, I'm about to receive the last of five weekly iron injections after becoming anemic due to low iron. A healthy adult should maintain 30-50mg of iron per unit of blood. I was at 6mg, nearly completely depleted. It didn't happen overnight; it was years in the making. I just had more important things to do than worry about how much iron I had. The cost of these injections is very high. There's a saline shortage because the one company with a monopoly on saline production was damaged during hurricane Helene and the government had to bail them out because they couldn't afford not to. People are dying and getting prioritized by who can pay for it.

My mom is now in the hospital, a laundry list of the extent of her injuries has been revealed. It's appalling! If someone other than herself had done this to her I would be sending them to the hospital! They must think we're a terrible family, that we don't really care. I told her last month when I dragged her to a doctor that I would file an elder abuse claim against her for abusing herself if I could.

What's going to happen tomorrow? Fuck if I know. I have to keep looking for a job before our health insurance runs out.

Lost and Found

Lament of the Modern Parent

Don't ask me where I've been, I don't know. What have I been doing? Stuff surely, but nothing of note. Nothing overly remarkable. I enjoy an early morning walk and then I lay my head on the pillow when it's late and dark. Whatever necessary things get done in-between, boring, mundane things not worth mentioning.

My only child starts high school in two days, so that's weird. Could they give us a convenient bus stop right at the top of the street where the bus must pass us by anyways? No, no, of course not. Budget cuts and bus shortages, you know. Instead, he must pick it up at the middle school just shy a mile away in the opposite direction to only minutes later ride past and look down the street from whence he'd just come 20 minutes ago.

You know what this means right? Right!?!? That freedom I had so been looking forward to for years that I could finally, after patiently, politely waiting, could untether my morning schedule from his is likely gone. Teens are not known for get up responsibly and timely in the morning. I had always walked him that other way where it is dark and quiet and the bears roam in the dark early morning hours to look after my own cub vigilantly. Finally, I could send him the other way, the bright way towards the busy street and just a short walk and easy view line from the front window. Nope, like water in a desert it evaporates.

I could be hands off. Try not to worry. Let him deal any consequences if he's too late and misses the bus. Do they make tardy exceptions for being mauled by a bear? 

Musical Interlude

Where did I leave that fire? By Neko Case
(You can skip a minute of sonar pings by skipping to 1:04 if you don't like the slow build-up)

Life Goes on...

I'm currently addicted to this song I recently discovered thirteen years after its peak popularity. Late to the party as usual.

Somebody I Used to Know By Gotye 

I love Kimbra's haircut. One of my dearest and oldest friends used to have a similar haircut. I always loved the look on her. I don't think I have the face to pull it off though.

Final Interlude

That's it, that's all I've got for now. It's back to another busy week of the mundane. If you want to put a fairy ring outside my door, I'd probably hop right in. 

The Young One

 There's been a lot going on around here and for the first time in 23 years I'll be sleeping alone for an unknowable amount of time. My other half needs to take care of family in another state. I will hold the fort. Make sure the dog gets her walks...keep a regular schedule for the whippersnapper who is now a proper young teen coming into his own sense of self. 

The era of my heydays began in the late 1980s and into the early 1990s. (Ahem, I might be turning 50 this year.)

The song playing in my head after dropping Mister Prox off at the airport:

As a teen, I went wherever I wanted, often by bus, all over town with my yellow Walkman usually listening to either Joan Jett & the Blackhearts or Pat Benatar.

The Lost Boys movie came out in 1987 and was Rated R. I snuck into the movie theater TWICE to watch it because who didn't I have a crush on in that movie? So many cuties! "The Coreys", Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz.

And Diane Wiest really was the perfect mother in that! I love her for her normal but strong mom vibes!

My sexual awakening was thanks to the Goblin King.

❤

I hope you are all well. Take care!

One-eyed Raccoons and Incorporeal visits

 Troubling discoveries here at Fernmire...

I've made notes of multiple injuries among my wildlife friends this year. A coyote, a doe and this raccoon which I've decided to call "Wally" for no particular reason.

The deer and coyote recovered from their injuries. For the coyote it was the front left paw. For the deer it was the back left knee. This raccoon also has a damaged left front paw and missing an eye. (Note at the end of the video that only one eye refracts from the camera's infrared light.)

The good news is that this raccoon has shown up twice on camera with a month apart of each visit and seems to be managing well enough.

It's nice that Blogger will let me upload a video for free while WordPress insists on making me upgrade to a more expensive paid account. I'll give a broader Fernmire update at my other site, but I'll have to rely on screen grabs.

I'm trying to get back into regular writing again. I've gone back to my Medieval short stories when I should be working on my career-making book. I'm currently working on the third story, The Miller's Wife.

Incorporeal visits

I keep finding myself in East Anglia, haunting mills and mill ponds along the rivers for an understanding of what a Miller's life might have been like circa 1016-ish. After the Romans, but before William the Conqueror. As interesting as I personally find the Woodbridge Tide Mill it won't work for my story. Nixes live in fresh water.

The Sculthorpe Mill in Norfolk seems like a good candidate. IDV, be a dear, and run over there and snap me some fresh pics from as many angles as you can!

The Heron Corn Mill in Beetham, Cumbria is also tempting but I feel the story needs to stay in the South It just feels right. Why are so many mills currently listed as "Corn mills" which is a New World crop, and no one was milling corn in 11th century East Anglia! Was it really that much better than the barely, wheat and rye previously milled? It's weird to think of cornfields in England. I'm trying to imagine an English version of Iowa hiding over there.

Picture from: Norfolk Mills - Sculthorpe watermill

This broader UK Mill Database is also very useful...

Mills – The Mills Archive

Do you know of any interesting information or resources about Medieval Mills or Peasant life of the time?

Finally, I watched Midsommar last night. It's supposed to be a cult/pagan horror movie, but I found it "Meh", I mean, yeah, a little weird, but not the nightmare fuel I was expecting it to be.

There's only one movie scene so far that has scarred me for life and that in the 1991 movie adaption of the book "Naked Lunch". Kiki should have never gone in that room to look at the damn birds! The bad special effects made it all the more terrifying. Kiki! Nooooooooo! 😱😭

Is there a movie that has scarred you or that you could never watch again?

Found it! The Crystal Disco Ball of Unsealed Fate

 We haven't had any house guests since before Covid, but at the end of this week one of my dearest friends is coming to spend a couple of nights with us. As is proper host etiquette I've been cleaning. I try not to leave it all until the last minute and really the house did need a good deep cleaning!

So, there I was dusting the clock my dad gave us for our first Christmas as a married couple many many moons ago. He knew I'd always wanted a Grandfather clock (preferably one with a secret passage behind it.) but ain't none of us rich enough for that! So this is my consolation prize? Sure, why not.

As I was dusting the clock, I spied my gargoyle box. I like gargoyles, I've got eight or nine at least. Lo and behold what was in there besides my sniff boxes from my trip to India in 2004, the object that henceforth shall be known as "The Disco ball of Unsealed Fate" which is conveniently pocket-sized! This is very fitting as I am currently obsessed with the ideas and possibilities of pocket dimensions.

Thanks mostly to The Legend of Vox Machina adult animated series, because who doesn't want a pocket bear?

The Legend of Vox Machina Episode 1 Recap/Ending, Explained: Is the Boy Dead or Alive? (thecinemaholic.com)

Oh sorry, I got distracted. Where were we.....

Right! Lets open the Gargoyle box and see what's inside:

There it is with the three snuff boxes.

So nice to see these things again.

And there it is, in all its non-glory. 

You won't be changing my destiny anytime soon!

Now back to the study of pocket dimensions....

If you had a pocket dimension, what would you put in there?

My answer: A forest full of animal friends with a creek and a little cabin.

Can't stay down for long

 Grief is a weird thing. I'll be perfectly fine for awhile than some silly little thing will spark a memory and I'll storm cloud for a short time. Grief rolls through me like the brief summer thunderstorms of my childhood in the hot dry clime of Eastern Washington. Here in Western Washington, they are much less frequent. The pines and grasslands are replaced with firs and maples.

It's so green here and Seattle having the nickname of "the Emerald City" made my dumb kid brain spin a whole new level of story building. I thought that The Wizard of Oz was a story of magical realism, and that Dorothy was picked up by a tornado in Kansas and dropped in Eastern Washington, outside of Ellensburg to be exact, with all their sleepy golden wheat fields. Then she was given her vision quest to Seattle, the Emerald city, where the wizard lives. Alas, it's just a man behind a curtain pulling the gears of capitalism. Had she come to Spokane I could have told her told her to never trust those city folk in their fancy suits and sent her home on a Greyhound bus. In some ways I like my version better even if it only amuses me.

I was wrong on every account, except that there are definitely shady men controlling the gears of capitalism and I'm still more likely to trust a man wearing jeans than one wearing a suit.

Transitioning to a completely different train of thought now in 3...2...1

We should give more respect to our middle school teachers! I forget what middle school translates to in Europe, but basically, we're talking about the teachers that must suffer the classes of newly pubescent boys that are still learning how frequently to shower and use deodorant as they walk around proudly displaying their little miniature baby moustaches. Aw, so cute!

I'd forgot to share this picture with you last month. My child so far seems to be cis hetero, but some of his classmates that I've known since kindergarten have come to redefine themselves. My love for them doesn't change of course and parents in this mostly blue liberal utopian nook embrace their children for who they are. A mom from the PFLAG group shared this wonderful picture of their pride float requesting a donation for new shoes to freshen it up a bit for this year.

 and finally...

I was at the grocery store yesterday and this wine gift bag made me think of ya'll. So yes, thoughts of our little blog ensemble have a way of cheering me up. 😆

It's currently mojito season in this house because it's hot, it's damn hot.

Stay cool friends!

Grieving

 Not much to say. I went to say goodbye, drove five hours to get there on Wednesday and five hours back to get home yesterday. This afternoon she passed away. I'll be driving back on Monday. These two songs will be on frequent repeat.

Fleetwood Mac - Landslide

and

CCR - Long As I Can See The Light

RIP Ann from Nutbush, Tennessee

 After three days together my mom and I would often end up fighting like cats. Camping, road trips and music were things that we bonded over though. 

Sidenote: We're also a vicious pair of pool sharks. When money was tight either of us could walk into a bar or arcade hall and relieve a few men of their cash over a couple of games of pool. 

Once when I was 16 my mom asked, "Where'd you get all that money?"

"Applied geometry" I said.

Neither of us has ever been good at "book math", but we can apply geometry and physics naturally in the real world.

Did you know Ann Wilson wrote the song Barracuda after some guy gave her shit about being a female rocker in a bar? She went back to her table and wrote the song on a napkin.

One of my fondest memories is heading out for a camping trip. The windows down, wind in our hair and my mom and I singing "Magic Man" at the top of our lungs.

We had this on 8-track and cassette tape:

but no,

We're not here to talk about that Ann, we're here to take a moment of remembrance for the Ann who was born in Nutbush, Tennessee and would later go on to be the amazing, talented and strong woman known to the world as Tina Turner.

We loved her and we morn her now together in spirit. Women of grit, recognize other women of grit and Tina Turner was definitely that. A woman, that despite so much hardship overcame it all to be the best of her true self. We love you, Tina Turner! Rest in peace now.

Starting the New Year with Mischief

 As you might have noticed I temporarily stole the box from Schrodinger's cat. All so I could jump eight hours into the future and arrive before midnight in England.

Why? Because I threat/promised IDV I would mess with his sideboard just one more time before we said goodbye to 2022.

This also gave me the opportunity to play with a new Christmas gift. Eat your heart out Ms Scarlet! (Although you probably already have one.😄)

I've had this little fox stamp for a while now, but I lost it and then found it again.

"Reynold's Fox"

I hope the start of the new year is treating you well. We started off with whole house electrical problems that left us in the cold for a few days, but at least we had blankets and a respectable attitude about it. I am comforted most by witnessing my child's resilience to unexpected change. If he acquires no other trait of mine, this one will at least serve him well.

Remember that when you find yourself in dark places to live for the now, not in the past.

💜 I am my own light. 💜

Bioluminescent

bio- lumen- escent

(life- light- process or state or being)

Take care, my friends!

Grief & Frustration

 Last week was a shit week.

My mom is in poor health, and they were supposed to move to somewhere safer (and with less stairs), but they panicked and squashed the deal. They'll continue to stay where they are, and I'll continue to worry about them there. Sometimes it feels like my parents and their counterparts are racing each other to the grave. The whole lot of them are falling apart, Mom, Dad, Stepdad, Stepmom. Then last Monday Mister Proxima Blue got laid off from work, just like that. On a Monday morning with no warning after twenty years of service to the company!

The next morning, he gave the kid a hug right before walking to school and our poor son burst into tears. It's bewildering, disrespectful and just so frustrating that a career can suddenly end like this. We're all in a state of shock and grief. I think maybe I should man up and start earning the bread around here. It shouldn't just be him. I'm grateful for this time I've had to be a stay-at-home parent and come into my own. One way or the other, we'll be all right, but our families depend on us. It's an extra element of pressure. We've always been the stable, responsible ones that others count on. We can't falter now!

It was terrible the way they did the layoffs. It was a video call with multiple people. They couldn't use their mics or the chat function. They just had to sit there and listen to the Vice President and a Human Resources person give a canned speech and that was that. It was also some poor bastard's birthday too!

We're trying to thinking of it as a new (albeit forced) opportunity.

The night before the layoff we were talking about doing a really big vacation. The vacation of a lifetime, two months in Europe! We'd start in the UK. Our son is currently obsessed with all things British. (Maybe because most of his favorite Youtubers are British?) He said once, "We're basically British." No kid, we're not. I can hear all my proud wartime ancestors rolling in their graves, especially the ones from the American Revolution. There's also no way this kid would ever give up his PB & J sandwiches for beans on toast!

Of course, Germany is on the list too! We'll have to go to the Czech Republic because Mister Prox has a childhood friend there. We could happily eat our way through Italy and Spain. Alas, this dream trip is going to have to be on hold. I was hoping we could do it within a year or two, but now we've got a lot to figure out.

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And finally, I submitted a short story to a local contest. It's nothing much but wish me luck! I write and write, but I rarely ever share it. I've got to toughen up on this account or stop calling myself a writer.

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When I was nine, I told a woman that Stevie Nicks was my godmother because I wanted it to be true.

I 💜 Fleetwood Mac

Going back is hard to do

 

I have to go back this weekend. Away from the home I've made and back to the place from where I came. Might be fisticuffs. Wish me well.