Thank God it's any day, as far as that goes. I just happen to feel pretty good now and want to say so. To whomever might happen to read this. I often feel well when I'm up late at night like this.
My friend David is 59 today. Considering that, several years ago, he was nearly dead from drinking, smoking, and weighing twice as much as he does now, his having reached this age as a nondrinker, nonsmoker, careful eater, and an ardent fitness disciplinarian -- it's a modern miracle.
My friend Larry got a Toyota this week, a cream puff, and I'm very glad for him. He does home health work and needs a reliable car and his Toyota has a lot fewer miles on it than mine does and mine is a reliable car. Even if it doesn't have air-conditioning or an outside door handle on the driver's side. (Got to get exercise somehow.)
Friends Sam, Lee, Joe and I had a meeting together this evening in the college boardroom. It was swank and we didn't let it intimidate us. We have the place all to ourselves this summer. It has been a gorgeous day after a lot of humidity and rain and it was sweet standing outside schmoozing in the beautiful outdoors after the meeting.
Last night I brought home four quarts of strawberries grown around Lexington, Indiana, about the prettiest strawberries I've ever seen. Rosie made a dessert with ice cream and angel food cake with some of them and sure enough they were delicious. And we have more!
This morning I bought a vinyl terlet seat at Lowe's and replaced the wooden one. The nurse in the house likes to bleach things and the paint on wooden seats bubbles and blisters. I like the new seat better too. Before the meeting this afternoon we planted two tomato starts in a hanging arrangement. I hope they make it.
Listening to Peter Van De Graaff's show ("Beethoven Satellite Network"). Need to get to bed.
Reading Elmore Leonard's Road Dogs. Good read.
If we meet again, we'll smile. If not, this parting was well made.
Gentlemen -- good night.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Hail* to the Spokesman for Fear and Hate and Greed
While a member of the U. S. House of Representatives as the at-large congressman of Wyoming, 1979-1989, Richard B. Cheney:
* Repeatedly voted against programs designed to provide assistance to displaced workers.
* Voted against legislation requiring factory owners to notify employees before closing their plants.
* Cast 10 separate votes against funding nutrition programs for children, including one vote opposing a move to protect food programs for women and infants from budget cuts.
* Repeatedly voted against maintaining funding for Head Start programs.
* Voted against a measure that granted time off for federal employees to care for sick family members.
* Voted against the Hunger Relief Act, which expanded eligibility for the federal food stamp program.
* Voted against providing mortgage assistance for low income home buyers.
* Opposed college student aid programs contained in the Higher Education Act.
* During the recession of the early 1980s, voted to block extension of unemployment benefits, including a provision that would provide health insurance for unemployed workers and their families.
* Voted against the Equal Rights Amendment.
* Voted for Ronald Reagan’s veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act.
* Voted to limit Social Security cost-of-living adjustments for retired Americans living on fixed incomes.
* Was one of only eight members of the House to vote against renewing the Older Americans Act, which provided nutritional and other support services for elderly Americans. (If Cheney’s opposition had succeeded, the entire nutritional program would have effectively been shut down).
* Voted against limiting out-of-pocket expenses for Medicare recipients, most of whom were senior citizens. His votes were so consistently counter to the interests of the elderly that a Cox News Service headline declared, “Senior Groups Call Cheney’s Voting Record a Disaster.”
* Not only did Cheney’s votes tend toward unfairness on domestic issues, he actually voted against sanctioning South Africa’s apartheid regime for its repressive policies. He was also a vocal opponent of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison.
from "Dick Cheney’s Contempt for Americans," a post on the blog, God's Politics, by Obery M. Hendricks, Jr. Mr. Hendricks is the author of The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus’ Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted.
(*Did I say "hail"? That's the way we Madisonians pronounce H-E-double-hockey-sticks.)
* Repeatedly voted against programs designed to provide assistance to displaced workers.
* Voted against legislation requiring factory owners to notify employees before closing their plants.
* Cast 10 separate votes against funding nutrition programs for children, including one vote opposing a move to protect food programs for women and infants from budget cuts.
* Repeatedly voted against maintaining funding for Head Start programs.
* Voted against a measure that granted time off for federal employees to care for sick family members.
* Voted against the Hunger Relief Act, which expanded eligibility for the federal food stamp program.
* Voted against providing mortgage assistance for low income home buyers.
* Opposed college student aid programs contained in the Higher Education Act.
* During the recession of the early 1980s, voted to block extension of unemployment benefits, including a provision that would provide health insurance for unemployed workers and their families.
* Voted against the Equal Rights Amendment.
* Voted for Ronald Reagan’s veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act.
* Voted to limit Social Security cost-of-living adjustments for retired Americans living on fixed incomes.
* Was one of only eight members of the House to vote against renewing the Older Americans Act, which provided nutritional and other support services for elderly Americans. (If Cheney’s opposition had succeeded, the entire nutritional program would have effectively been shut down).
* Voted against limiting out-of-pocket expenses for Medicare recipients, most of whom were senior citizens. His votes were so consistently counter to the interests of the elderly that a Cox News Service headline declared, “Senior Groups Call Cheney’s Voting Record a Disaster.”
* Not only did Cheney’s votes tend toward unfairness on domestic issues, he actually voted against sanctioning South Africa’s apartheid regime for its repressive policies. He was also a vocal opponent of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison.
from "Dick Cheney’s Contempt for Americans," a post on the blog, God's Politics, by Obery M. Hendricks, Jr. Mr. Hendricks is the author of The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus’ Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted.
(*Did I say "hail"? That's the way we Madisonians pronounce H-E-double-hockey-sticks.)
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
A Little Hard News
"Half-past eight. The Jefferson County Courthouse in downtown Madison is badly damaged by a fire which started in the cupola at the top and, by the time I saw it, at least an hour after it started, was still raging. The roof was ablaze then.
"I took pictures with THE DIGITAL CAMERA I BOUGHT YESTERDAY (The Canon, Chip!) and then came back home with Rosalie. I’ve barely learned to take a picture in the automatic mode and I’ve barely learned to upload it into the computer. I could go so far as to try to make a post on my blog."
The preceding has lost its immediacy because I've waited until I've seen programs and studied the iPhoto tutorial in hopes I might be able to learn how to move photos from iPhoto to here. Given up at ten. My learning curve...
Anyhow, I've emailed one of my photos to family members.
The courthouse is pretty much toast. (11:12p.m.)
Picture was just added. (4:00 p.m. 5/21/2009)
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