Officially Autumn

So thankful to have four different seasons here in Northwest Pennsylvania.  Autumn officially began on September 22nd. Yet -- I am still waiting for brisk afternoons and evenings.  The season seems to have the cool mornings down pat, but as for the rest -- too warm for me.  Still waiting, a bit impatiently as well, for the brilliant colors of changing leaves.  Fall is my favorite of all the seasons. I love to walk through leaves and have the occasional evening fire in the patio firepit.  I love to wear thick socks, jeans and sweatshirts, or soft wraps over long-sleeved shirts. I love the comfort of flannel sheets.  I love to warm my home with a welcoming fire in a fireplace. I have one in my living room and a smaller one in my book room where I write every morning in the predawn hours when the world is quiet and calm.  Fireplaces are a double blessing in this neck of the woods when winter hits and sometimes before. They are warm in the comfort sense and they take the chill off as we say around here.

I have been working in the pasture cutting up downed branches to use as firewood and have cut back all the wild geranium and weeded around the house. I am letting the rest of last year's Spring cleanup go until next year.  Ready for snow here. Even Margaret, my trusty old Bush Hog Trail Hand utility vehicle has been serviced and stored for the season - although am going to keep her in the garage this winter instead of the barn ... just in case I decide to put her in 4-wheel drive and head to the mailbox on a snowy day, use her to take the garbage to the road, or decide to take a trip around the pasture to see what is going on.  Ready here.  Yet -- the days are still in the 70's, low 80's. What's with that? I am sick of this nice weather.  I would move south if I wanted to sweat. I live here because there is usually more cold/cool weather than hot/warm. Some years are just weird.

Maybe Fall will come tomorrow and set in to stay for a while.  Hope to have a few days to enjoy my favorite season before the snows hit ... breezy open window days between AC and furnace days.  Just sayin'.  We will see. Before we know it, it will be time for hats, gloves, scarves, heavy coats and time to move from flannel to fleece sheets.  Mother Nature has a mind of her own.  Sometimes one just has to go with the flow.  I remember putting snowsuits over Halloween costumes -- more than once. It's a common practice in these parts.

 

A letter to the Vice-President

Note -- this blog was written prior to the 2nd assassination attempt of Donald J. Trump. Had it been written after, the questions may have been different.

Dear Madam Vice-President,

The following questions are asked with all due respect for the office you hold. After careful deliberation over the past week, I ask them because I need to know your answers and thought for sure that the ABC news team moderating the recent debate would ask them.  They did not. (I am boycotting the entire ABC network and Disney now, by the way.  Their obvious bias and one-sided-only fact checking was shameful and ... inaccurately misleading with obvious ill intent.) I have many questions, but have limited them to my top ten or so concerns. My confusion stems, in part from the clips I have seen of you saying one thing and then saying the opposite in current time. Some call it flip-flopping. Others call it pandering for votes. It's confusing. Anyway --  following the debate, I also watched what I could stand of your campaign stop in North Carolina to see if you would be more specific about your "plans".  Alas you did not find your way there.  I am hopeful that you are able to understand my confusion. Saying you have a plan is too vague for me.  It seems like your solution to everything is to throw more taxpayer money at it.  Throwing money at something doesn't work -- our educational system is an obvious example of that. I might also suggest that you go a bit lighter on the glad hands, dancing on stage, loud laughter and hugging. It's a bit much. These are serious times. Pretend joy doesn't cut it. Plus this "act" blatantly contradicts your nastiness toward your political opponents. Okay -- here we go...

Are you at all embarrassed or remorseful that you repeatedly reassured the American people that President Biden was fit to be President - alert and "with it"?  You lied. You covered up. Have, you, in fact, been running the country for the past almost four years? Or ... are you a puppet of some sort? If so, who is your real boss?

Do you find any crisis in conscience, as a former prosecutor, that you encourage illegal entrance of millions of unvetted migrants across both the southern and northern borders? I don't understand why you did and continue to do that. I can't seem to find exact numbers of how many people have entered our country illegally under your watch ... not to mention "got-a-ways", but... even if 11 million encounters does not equal 11 million people, estimates are that it is at least 9 million plus another million or so of "got-a-ways" who have crossed our borders illegally under your leadership. We have no idea who they are or where they are. That is a lot during 3 1/2 years. It's a lot to handle for American communities. Too much really. Schools, hospitals, social services --- overwhelmed. You never even mention that hundreds of thousands of children are missing. It's shameful! What's your plan?

And related to that...  Do you see that you are prioritizing illegal immigrants over American citizens and, to add insult to injury, that you are making American citizens pay for all the goodies you offer to those who disobey the law? To be more specific -- do you understand that the American tax payer is concerned about paying for things like phones, food, housing, debit cards, etc. for illegal aliens?  They also have concerns about their tax dollars paying for gender reassignment surgery for illegal aliens or the incarcerated -- both groups have broken the law and hurt others in doing so. As you say, "Let me be clear". Our objection, in this case, is not to their gender preferences, but rather to their criminality.  These are people who have broken the law. Do you not see that?  On to the next question .... Are we no longer a country of law and order in part because of you? i.e. no cash bail / defund the police.

Do you realize that you do all the things that you accuse former President Donald Trump doing?  i.e.. name calling, acting on self interest, lying, fear mongering, etc.?  Must mention also, that you, like Biden, are also a plagiarist -- low in my book for sure. Do you not see that this is shameful, wrong, deceitful and just plain lazy? Does that not matter to you either?

Is it really true that over 90% of your White House staff have resigned -- perhaps, as suggested by some, because you are mean, intolerant, short tempered and do a really bad job of it and ... they really don't want to work with you or ... have their experience with you on their resumes? Some say you do not do your homework? Is this true? It appears that you did not in your selection of a running mate. Who are you really?

What do you love more than power? 

And finally (asking for a friend) -- does it feel weird that no one voted for you to become the Democrat party's nominee for President?  Does it make you feel like a cog in a machine or a token?  Do you find it insulting that people may vote for you because of your gender or race rather than any demonstrated accomplishments or simply because they have been led to believe that your opponent is a big meany sometimes? Are you aware that some find you to be the dangerous one? 

Thank you, Madam Vice-President for your response to my concerns. I don't really think that you will respond to this or even see it, but sometimes questions need to be asked. Anyway -- just in case... mine is a small audience with some readers from other countries, but each of the American readers' vote counts, and I am sure that others across the globe may be interested in your responses as well. We are, after all, The United States of America. The world is watching you now ... and all Americans come November 5th. We would like to know who you are before we have to vote. How can anyone vote for you if they don't know what you stand for or details of your plans? You might be the opposite of what people hope you are. Do you hate Donald Trump because he will not play the politician games and because he actually gets things done? What have you done?

P.S.  You may not buy back my guns or anyone's, for that matter. Check the Constitution. The Second Amendment. I am embarrassed for you that you think you are able to do this. Thinking you can control my rights in this or elsewhere is a serious and the real threat to Democracy. You might want to reverse your position on this as well.  Obviously you know how to do that.  Oh wait -- maybe you have already put that promise of a mandatory gun buy-back on hold.  I get confused. Are you able to understand why?

TMI

I am sure you have noticed that over the past several decades our mother tongue has suffered an infestation of acronyms that sometimes seems to threaten the fundamental vocabulary of all Americans -- or else it's a new vocabulary sort of like no punctuation is becoming a trend and confusing everyone.  Anyway -- I am not sure where it officially started, but I recall the use of LOL in the 80's. Then again AWOL probably came before that .. as well as SOS.  Who knows? Does it matter? Is this happening in other languages? 

The thing is that acronyms seem to have become a little on the out of control side with their use on social media and in texting. Did you know that internet acronyms are also called "universal strings"? TMI? I bought a little dictionary of acronyms a few years ago so I could figure out what people were talking about, but ...  it appears to be hiding somewhere in my book room. I sometimes struggle to know what people are talking about, but I do try to figure it out.  I also use punctuation as I think it is helpful. Call me OF (old fashioned? old fart?)

ASAP, LOL, FYI, TTYL, OMG, BFF are pretty well known.  BRB (be right back), GMTA (great minds think alike), IMHO (in my humble opinion), and MTFBWY (may the force be with you) are somewhat less popular, but I have run into them more than once. Current in the political arena are MAGA (Make America Great Again) which triggers those with TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome). SMH (shaking my head).  Do you have a favorite? ROTFL (rolling on the floor laughing)? POS (parent over shoulder)? What is your point of view (POV)?

The thing is acronyms are getting longer and longer and harder and harder to decipher.  Received a meme in a text a bit ago. JOGAYOP If it had not had an explanation with it, I don't think I would have "gotten it"  I will share.  The joy of going at your own pace.  I like JOGAYOP.  It's what I do. IWID. (I just made up that last one. I think I like it. (ITILI). Actually it probably already exists. (AIPAE).  Like I said -- an infestation.

Perfect ... Not Perfect ...

My sister once wrote to me about perfection and talked about all the effort wasted in trying to attain something that was impossible to reach -- ever --- that sometimes good was good enough. Oh how I wish she were still around so that I could ask her about it. She said it so well -- much better than I can relate the idea to you. Anyway --  I sometimes have to remind myself that the effort for perfection can be a waste of time ...  so that I don't keep on keeping on when I could have stopped whatever it was and it would have been okay -- just fine really and much less stressful.

A favorite refrigerator magnet reminds me of this every day.  "Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful." Neither do you...  nor do I.  Nice; isn't it?  

My grandson seeded a "repair patch" the other day that covers a new drainage pipe the runs the length of my front yard.  We were walking the "pipeline" and checking out every little thing when I heard myself telling him that grass is nice to have, but weeds are just as green. Guess I wanted him to know that I wasn't that concerned with or interested in perfection.  I am okay with a good effort. Weeds, after all, have a certain perfection of their own.  Plus the fact...

Imperfections are sometimes the most fascinating characteristics of something or someone... at least I think so. Imperfection and/or uniqueness are things that make life truly interesting sometimes. Effort counts, but sometimes it is important to relax a bit.

You Deserve Better

Ever fascinated with language, I am finding it particularly interesting to see the evolution of descriptive phrases and terms within the "progressive" branch of the Democratic party. 

Within a short period of time we have seen a hidden-away President Biden transformed from "sharp as a tack", through mentally in decline, into beloved harmless old man supposedly running the country from his beach chair. We have seen a most unpopular Vice President evolve/drop into the position of Presidential "candidate by placement" and suddenly she is moved from an inept DEI appointment that few can stand to work with, to savior of the country.  She is no longer "radical", but now "moderate". Good grief she is even mimicking some ideas of Donald J. Trump.  Who would have thought? Does this smack of desperation?  Is it just more lies?  Is it an attempt to rewrite history?  Do the "Woke" need to wake up? Are they and others allowing themselves to be lied to and manipulated?

Further -- the mainstream media has helped the progressive Democrats in this transformation for sure.  I have seen/heard the exact same descriptive phrases or words repeated on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC.  It's like all received the same memo with instructions such as ... these are the words you need to say....  Who is the puppeteer? (I have been asking this question in this blog, off and on, for almost four years now.) Repetition of favorite words does not make them true. Progressive Democrats hope you will forget what they were or what they said before and latch onto their catch phrases of the moment. It is their modus operandi.

            Recent favorites: Sharp as a tack. Weird. Joy. 

Pitiful and shameful really.  It's what people do when they are weak, and lacking in the ability to formulate strong, independent thoughts.  But then again -- we have become used to slow-to-react, short-sighted, stupid, inept and weak responses from this progressive Democrat leadership. (The rapid and chaotic departure of Afghanistan was just the beginning.) I keep waiting to hear/see something of  wisdom and substance. Saying someone has accomplished things without details of what those accomplishments are doesn't work for me.  Please... give me a list of things accomplished that have helped all Americans during the current administration.  They have had almost 4 years to prove themselves.  We have all been waiting now throughout those 4 years. I don't know about you, but I am sick of it. I am sick of all the lies. We cannot survive another four years of the downhill same. There is only muck at the bottom of that hill. Plus ... I don't vote for someone because of their gender or skin color.  I vote for someone who can get the job done and has a proven track record of doing so. For me  -- that is not Harris as Border Czar in name only. It is the track record of Donald J. Trump. I could easily give you a list of accomplishments during his term of Presidency starting with, energy independence, stronger borders,  peace in the Mid-East and Europe, and strong status and respect for our country throughout the world. Plus... I felt safer.  Did you?

Please do not let "progressive" Democrats and the mainstream media erase the past four years of history. They are trying to cover blatant errors of the Biden Administration. The United States under Biden and Harris was not at its best. Google has already started to control and manipulate their search results in an effort to support progressive Democrats in denying these weaknesses and errors.  Scary times and Kamala is laughing at you all the way along her path of "transformation".  (That laugh, by the way,  is another whole concern. Laughter is not always the best medicine nor what one wants to see in a leader who will be negotiating with other world leaders. Picture her talking with Putin or Xi Jinping...and bursting out into a cackle? We need to take a look at that laugh. What are the "root causes" of that? Whatever they are ...  it's disturbing.)  

Kamala has not spoken to the press or answered questions of significance in almost 6 weeks now.  It is not enough to say what she will do for America as she reads a prepared speech from a teleprompter. I need to know the who, what, when, where, why and how of all her future plans for America.  Does she know the answers to these basic questions? Can she talk without notes?  How well does she think on her feet? People voted for an incompetent, silent basement dweller once before and look what happened. Do not be duped again. You deserve better. 

Reach out...

Am trying to avoid the DNC this week -- just as I tried to avoid the RNC in July. I understand Ronald Reagan's concerns when he said,  "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." I am a small government kind of person. I am not a fan of politics.  I like independence and a bit of isolation from the outside world. The rolling hills and woods of Northwest Pennsylvania are, therefore, a great place for me to live.  I live here on purpose -- sort of out of reach and even ignored. Must mention though that I am not totally out of touch. I do keep track of things including some of the insanity.  I do, however, consider being remote (living in the sticks) a good thing. People tend to underestimate you and therefore put themselves at a distinct disadvantage when thinking they are special and above you. People who live in the sticks also tend to have their feet planted firmly on the ground.  If you live around here you know what that means.  It's a good thing.

We may be behind in style here.  Don't care.  We may not be considered with it or cool.  Don't care about that either.  I just want to live my life in peace and be able to reach out to those with whom I am able to interact directly.  It's simple really.  Remember that old AT&T jingle from the late '80"s-- "Reach out and touch someone"? I am comfortable with that.  It isn't always possible to sit down at the kitchen table with people or even to get them on the phone, but ... with texting and some forms of social media nowadays, it's even easier to stay in touch than in the "olden days". (Even writing a blog works and... I have been known to use snail mail as well.)

Back in the day when I was young, feeling helpless, and seriously concerned about saving the world, my Mom said to me -- "... just reach out to the ones you are able to touch.  That may make all the difference... even something as simple as a smile counts."   I think she was right.  Then again....

Note.  I am reaching out here... this time without a smile. Having said all the above, I find that I just can't leave my mentioning of the DNC without asking this question.  Does anyone else find it disturbingly odd that a Planned Parenthood mobile van, all the way from St. Louis, is parked outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in order to give free medical abortions, emergency contraception, and vasectomies?  Reports indicate that all appointment times have been reserved and that medical abortions and vasectomies are occurring at a steady assembly line pace. I couldn't find any information on the quantity of emergency contraception that has been given away for free.  Wonder if St. Louis Planned Parenthood are paying for their parking? 

Seriously... here I had been thinking the attending Democratic Delegates went to Chicago to gather with like minds, clap together, and perhaps to brag when they got home that they survived long speeches, late nights and a trip to crime ridden Chicago.  Guess I was wrong at least in part. I think I would be especially disturbed by this if I were a member of the Democratic party who did not believe in abortion. Did the DNC or pro choice Democrats invite them to Chicago, or did St. Louis' Planned Parenthood just assume they would be welcome and roll in uninvited to snuggle up a bit? There are conflicting answers to that question. Apparently neither Planned Parenthood nor the DNC have answered directly ... as of yet. Either way The Pope and pro life Dems cannot be pleased. 

 

Autumn is a comin'....

It must be almost Fall (my favorite season).  I see a touch of red in a far off tree and the bottom of my driveway is covered with gnarly apples as it is every other year or so. It's time to clean them off before I break my neck stepping on one of them when I get out of my Jeep to get the mail. (I almost did this the other day. Managed to grab a door handle on the way down.  So graceful... not.)  Actually there are way more apples this year than normal.  I wonder if that means we are in for a real winter. (That reminds me -- I need to purchase a 2025 Farmer's Almanac.) We haven't had an old fashioned winter in several years now.  Anyway -- think I will pick up driveway apples until they stop dropping and move them to the back pasture to feed the deer, bears and maybe the wild turkeys (not sure if the turkeys eat gnarly apples -- not sure if bears do either but the deer that hang out in and around my pasture definitely love them.  If I dump them in the right place, I will be able to watch a few of them dine every evening until the apples are gone or under deep snow. It's a peaceful sight.) 

Thinking of wild animals who seek haven in my back pasture -- it is also blackberry time ... and ... I seem to be in competition with what I call the neighborhood bear(s) because he/she/they have been around quite a lot this summer. One of my pasture neighbors has wonderful photos of at least one of them. It looks quite tall in the photos as he/she/it reaches up toward their bird feeder.  Let's say there is only one just to make the pronoun thing easier.  Anyway ... this particular bear does not share well. I have been trying to get enough berries for even one pie.  It's taking way too long. This bear hogs all the best berries.  I just hope I don't run into him/her while on a mission to get a few more.  For now, I just try to make a lot of noise and to have my trusty garden/yard/pasture vehicle nearby for a quick escape. Ah life in rural NW Pennsylvania.  I so love it. I really do.