Show & Tell...Monday: A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

I didn’t post yesterday, because I couldn’t find one picture worth “showing.”

Then today, I saw this:

Show & Tell Sunday: Finally Found the Owls

Three years ago, I tried to salvage an anxiety-shortened vacation by following a tip to a local place where I was told I might see short-eared owls.

Lo and behold, the tip proved good, and I got my first glimpse and photos of the little munchkins (which are not so little when they spread their wings.)

Unfortunately, in three years, I've returned to that location time after time, but have been unable to duplicate the experience.  

Until this week.

I finally hit on the right combination of weather (not rain), timing (just before it got too dark to photograph), and patience.  

And was well rewarded.

So of course, stoked by my success, I've been out there twice more in three days.

And got skunked both times.

Just goes to show, you have to take the gifts the Universe provides as they come.

   

Turnabout is NOT Fair Play

 

There’s no question that Twitter is a much less objectionable place now that Cheeto Jesus and many of his lying cohorts have been forever banned from its platform.

That said, it continues to be the first place one would go to witness glaring examples of why this country is where it is today.  And why we’re not likely to speedily recover from the crippling malady whose death grip we’re struggling to loosen.  Or not.

All over the internet, “blue-wavers” are pushing the “turnabout is fair play” directive for our narrowly Democrat-controlled government.  What they seem to have learned from four years of bottomless dive into the depths of leadership depravity is, “They did it to US, now we get to do it to THEM.”  Forty-eight months of passionately crying out about the hypocrisy, immorality, greed and dishonesty of Trump and his GOP buttsuckers and the takeaway is “Oh boy!  It’s our turn to make THEM suffer!”…?

These blue turds have raised their ugly heads and started yapping their perverted payback logic most recently in reaction to the weather disaster that hit Texas last week.  Apparently, because we don’t like Texas’ politics, we’re perfectly justified in denying Texans federal aid while they’re sitting in the dark freezing, with no running water.  Let Texas take care of its own people!  Texas has billions squirreled away in various nefarious pockets!

Let me be first to say I don’t approve of Texas leadership, politics, or economic theory.  The “theory” is all couched in free market and low tax and small government lingo.  The FACT is that Texas has had a longstanding dedication to making the rich richer and keeping the not-rich joyfully tossing the few pesos they have to rub together into the coffers of the rich, because “freedom.”  Texas has designed its infrastructure and government as a colossal upside-down funnel through which the rich suck up billions, which they then channel offshore to places where the money can compound without the burden of taxes, or of providing any guarantees of service, safety or livelihood to the peons they are bleeding dry. 

And that’s not even touching upon the not-so-tacit racism that boils deep in the heart of Texas.

Be that as it may, Texas is STILL one of the United States of America; in fact, the second-most populous state therein.  AMERICANS live in Texas.  Americans who are freezing, sitting in the dark  and have no running water.  In the middle of a pandemic.  While their political leaders head to Cancun to get away from the horrible conditions. 

And there are asshats with little blue waves in their twitter handles arguing that we should abandon those Americans because their politics don’t line up with “ours”.

I don’t know about anyone else, but to ME, that sounds way too much like the crap that Cheeto Jesus and his buttsuckers spouted during the four years THEY viewed federal coffers as their own personal pot of gold from which they meted out coins only to those who “liked” or “were nice” to them.  We screamed bloody murder about that, then.  As well we should have. 

As well we should NOW about those who would have us act in EXACTLY the way our “enemies” did, now that WE hold the purse strings.

Four years of impotent rage against Cheeto and his minions didn’t teach us NOT to be assholes. In fact, we’ve tucked the GOP’s dirty tricks into our own toolbag, and want to pull them out and use them against the “enemy”—the people whose politics are opposite of our own—because we CAN.

Now that we have the ability to point a loaded gun at the opposition, we don’t know enough to drop it in horror.  No.  It suddenly becomes allowable, even righteous, to pull the trigger. 

Because WE are the GOOD guys.

Maybe…not so much.    

 

Show & Tell Sunday: This is WAAAY Too Cool

 

I originally received this image via text from my niece. I was totally blown away by it. 

I felt like it embodied my spirit...or at least, the spirit I aspire to possess.

The artist is George RedHawk.  He is a Native American Artist who is also legally blind.

He says he creates these images to give his audience a sense of what HE sees, as his brain struggles to complete the incomplete information his eyes provide. 

I can't even imagine actually seeing the world this way.  I don't know whether it would be an enormous blessing or some kind of impossible burden to bear.

But the images he creates...are magic.

May He Spend Eternity in the Hell He Tried to Create on Earth

Much of my identity here on the interwebs is tied up in my liberal politics and my sanctimonious political commentary.  I've been speaking (writing) out about political issues since the Bush II Administration.  One of my first posts--back in October of 2003--was about Arnold Schwarzenegger being elected governor of California. So it's not like my blog hasn't dived into political controversy from the very beginning.

And I wouldn't be worth my salt as a progressive commentator if I didn't in some way make mention of the death of Rush Limbaugh this past Wednesday.  

I think if I got going on about him, I'd never be able to stop.  And I don't seem to have the will to organize a comprehensive post about a man who single-handedly perverted the minds of discontented white middle Americans for over 30 years--filling them with lies, racism, misogyny, disrespect, xenophobia and hatred.  A man who conjured up and normalized every dirty little secret residing in the soul of every disaffected white American from Atlantic to Pacific.  

"You hate blacks?  That's ok.  They ARE uneducated monkeys out to steal your women and jump ahead of you in the employment line." "You hate immigrants?  That's ok!  They ARE here to rape your sisters and steal your jobs!"  "You hate feminism?  That's ok!  Women belong at home behind the stove or in your bed with their mouths shut!" Et cetera.

Ahhh...see what I mean?  I was just going to write a short introduction for the pictures I'm going to post, and I'm already up to two paragraphs.

So, anyway...

In the heat of the Twitter moment, I made some comments about Limbaugh and his demise.  Twitter can be a great editor...the 280 character limit can really help one to distill one's thoughts.  So rather than go on for pages and pages of impotent rage, it seems easiest to just put my original off-the-cuff thoughts here:

Clarence Darrow wrote: “All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike some one they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.”

Darrow was much more PC than I.

Show & Tell Sunday: Four More Years! ❤️❤️❤️

 

Show & Tell Sunday: Wildlife and Instagram

Yes, yes...I'm falling flat on my commitment to post regularly.  Looks like "Show & Tell Sunday" is going to save my bacon.I do like to post my pictures.

Pictures.  

I discovered that I could go online to obtain the parking permit I would need at ODFW (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife) sites--like Sauvie Island and our new haunt, the Fern Ridge Wildlife Area.  No stopping at the smarmy little convenience store on the island to pay for a permit! Have to admit, I was ecstatic at the idea of "contactlessly" obtaining that precious little scrap of paper.  Obtain it I did, and on Wednesday I took my jonesing for owl time 120 miles north and was amply rewarded.

 

We have also been spending a lot of time at Fern Ridge, which we were surprised to learn has quite a large area of wildlife viewing accessible by car.  It was there that we experienced our first encounter with mass quantities of Western Bluebirds.  People out here in the west do nothing but harp on and on about how the bluebirds are disappearing, and non-native birds are competing with them for food and nesting sites.  And up til now, I was inclined to believe this, since in 36+ years of living in Oregon, I've only had one other encounter with a bluebird.  Maybe they all moved to Fern Ridge, I don't know.  But there sure are a lot of them there.

 Up until the last couple of weeks, we haven't had a whole lot of success in the wildlife-viewing department.  We've been to Finley several times, and we've been haunting a place outside of Harrisburg where I once photographed short-eared owls.  But even though I've packed the camera every time, we've hardly had more than an eagle fly-by or two.  There haven't even been a lot of geese at Finley.  I was wondering whether the wildfire/smoke event we had in September had an impact on the wintering birds. 

Finally, in the last couple of weeks, some good bird viewing has come our way.  And, boy, did I find out how rusty I am at handling that fancy-ass camera and its huge lens!  I'm determined to take the thing out and get some practice.  

The other thing I found out is that yet another social media outlet has chewed me up and spit me out.

I finally got some pictures of which I was proud enough to post on Instagram.  And...well, the response has been underwhelming.  So...

Here.  Here is where my pictures will go.  To my own little corner of the internet.

A little lonely, a little echo-y.  But mine.

Here are the pics.

Enjoy! 

  

Show & Tell Sunday: Dodie

Not doing too well on the "posting regularly" thing, am I?

Well, since I started a "day" last Sunday, I might as well go with it.

Today's "Show & Tell" picture is of Dominique, the back yard cat.  On a distinctly sunnier day than we have been having lately. 

 

 

Miss Do has moved into the yard for good and all.  

During the summer months, she was content to camp out for the night on any available chair with a cushion on it.  It doesn't rain much during the summer, so open air or slightly under cover was adequate digs for the season.  But what about winter?  I had no covered spot out back that was not going to get wet when winter storms blew in.  

What about bringing her indoors?  Well, not so much.  She has been invited in the back door several times, but doesn't seem to view "indoors" as a place she wants to spend any amount of time.  She'll politely sit by the door for a spell, happy to receive a few pets and some love.  But she resolutely plants her nose five inches from the glass of the sliding door, and within ten minutes she makes it clear she belongs on the other side.  So, as summer waned and the nasty weather approached, I was desperate to make a place, either on the patio or the "shed deck," where she could stay at least dry if not terribly warm for the duration.

Husband and I set about creating a protected space where she could snuggle in and eat and sleep dry while the winter storms raged.

We extended the "shed deck" by six feet to make it 10 feet square.  Then we added a "shelter logic" canopy as a roof.  But a covered 10 foot square with no walls offers almost no reliably dry space when the winds start to howl and the rain blows sideways.  A trip to the Habitat ReStore scored us enough doors and windows to enclose the space on the south and west.  And, voila! 

 

The Dodie deck.

She's content to curl up on one of the several chairs enhanced with blankets, old sleeping bags and pillows.  She stays relatively warm and dry.  And has basically become queen of the back yard.

Husband demonstrating the Dodie-coffee lap sit.

Every morning, I take my coffee outside, she takes up her position on my lap, and we sit and watch the birds and the squirrels come to the feeders.

Makes up a little for the loss of my three boys over the past year.  The Universe never leaves me lonely for long.      

 

Post a Picture Day: Love This!

 Looks like I just created a new “day.”  

Back in the olden days, we used to have “Photo Fridays.”  So what can we cal this?  “Show and Tell Sunday.”

Needs work...

Anyway, I’ve started this “day” because I have this photo that I want preserved for posterity, and this seems the best place to put it.

After the inauguration, the internet was alive with memes of Bernie Sanders attending the festivities in his beat up old coat and wool mittens.  THIS was my favorite creative interpretation:

❤️❤️❤️ it!

Looking for a Home

 

I joined Twitter in 2017, because I was desperate to make some noise in the direction of Cheeto Jesus.  Some feverish delusion led me to believe that someone higher up the political food chain than the White House doorman would see my tweets and they would make a difference.  Somewhere. 

Yeah, right.  Me and 50 million other disillusioned, desperate Americans.

In June of 2019, I had finally had my fill of Facebook, Mark Zuckerburg and his megalomaniacal view of his “responsibility” (or not) for the havoc his platform was wreaking world-wide, and especially in Trump’s America.  I deactivated my Facebook account.  Closed the door and walked away.  And I’ve stayed away for going on two years.  Going back over old journal posts, I see I had actually been contemplating the move for years before finally pulling the plug.

Now that Trump has been pushed aside, and there is arguably more about the US government to be hopeful about than to (impotently) rage against, I feel it’s time to take a serious look at my social media presence.

I’ve been on Twitter for a little over 3 years.  It’s a cesspool.  But it doesn’t present itself as anything other than a cesspool.  Which has been part of my defense for staying with it as long as I have.  At least it’s honestly a cesspool.  Facebook, on the other hand, presents itself as some kind of warm, fuzzy place of welcome; a fertile ground for building communities of friendly people with shared history or like interests.  That FB makes the most money off, and therefore encourages, communities of warring, polarized political factions is not something they choose to advertise.  Nor officially acknowledge at all, as far as I can see.  Facebook is the classic wolf in sheep’s clothing.  It is founded upon fundamental dishonesty.

With the election of Joe Biden and the changing of the guard in Washington, I feel like my work is done, as far as throwing stick pins at the colossal  juggernaut of fascism that loomed over us for four years.  I’m faced with the question, where in the world of social media does an exhausted invisible political warrior go for positive connection with welcoming people?     

Twitter?  After about 30 hours of calm, Twitter is already crackling with combative political wrangling and snarky commentary.  I’m sick to death of it.  I guess I don’t want to pretend it doesn’t exist…I just don’t want to be a part of it right now.  Or maybe ever again.

Facebook?  I did briefly consider going back to Facebook.  Whatever else it was, it WAS a point of connection with some of my old internet friends with whom I’ve not connected since I left.  But then I went back and read my old “Coming to Terms…” posts, dating back to when I first considered  leaving FB.   And I realized the community I “belonged” to was already disintegrating when I left.  It’s one of the reasons I left.  There’s no guarantee there would be anything to go back to…in fact, following the direction things were going two years ago, I think it would be safe to assume there’s nothing left of my connections on Facebook.   So, why would I sidestep my very real moral objections to Facebook’s “mission” to go back to…nothing?

Nope.  Cross out that option.

So that leaves me…  Right here.  In the relative calm and quiet of my own little corner of the internet.  It occurs to me that there is no “community” here.  I’m basically talking to myself. 

But I also realize the concept of “community” on the internet is largely an illusion.  For me, anyway.  Did I belong to a community on Twitter?  Hell, no.  I did a lot of “talking,” in the middle of a very crowded room.  But nobody really heard, and certainly no one, in three years, ever connected with me on a level deeper than a passing, “Hey! I heard that!” And Facebook basically chewed me up and spit me out.  So there’s no community there for me either.

Coming to Terms.  Calm.  Quiet.  A little lonely.  But mine.

I think this is where I’ll set up camp.  I’ve become pretty good at being on my own.  Maybe just being on the outside for awhile is exactly what I need right now.