So much has happened in the last two weeks. So much. But that's not why I'm typing today. Today I just want to say that I am so disgusted with our leaders for not being able to negotiate a middle way. It doesn't have to be shutdown vs. party in the USA, you know.
It would be so simple to do this in a way that isn't divisive-- to recognize that different regions of the country are at different places; that the need to reopen the economy and restore people's paychecks can go hand in hand with cautious practices like social distancing, wearing a mask, washing your hands, avoiding large public gatherings-- and being prepared to shutdown again if the virus starts to surge.
But we are so in love with being angry at each other. Apparently, we can't give it up. Of course, I blame this on our current president, who can't even be bothered to wear a mask while he's in a hospital. If you like him, you blame it on the Democrats. Whatever.
Could we just get over it already? For awhile, at the beginning of the shutdown, it looked like we had finally found something that would unite us. But now, at least around here, it's just been turned into another thing that polarizes us. The people who wear masks feel persecuted by the people that don't. The people who don't wear a mask feel bullied by the people that do. I've heard friends of mine on both sides of this issue say that they've been approached in public by someone criticizing them for their choice, and each side is convinced that they are the victim here.
*deep cleansing breath* I'm getting wound up, because I'm just so damned tired of it. I'm tired of us letting a TV news station control our minds and opinions. I'm tired of feeling bitter, angry resentment everywhere, among people I know and love on both sides. I want someone to be the mom and shout sternly go to your rooms until you can come out and be civil to each other. NOW.
Be smart, people, and be kind. And to those who say we never needed a shutdown in the first place (which is quite common around here where the virus has never really gained a foothold), I'd like to say this: our hospital is prepared now. If we'd had a surge in cases two months ago, they wouldn't have been. The shutdown did its job. Now it's up to us to make sure we don't undo it.
Showing posts with label Montana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Montana. Show all posts
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Friday, June 29, 2018
7ToF: Nerd Central
1. I thought it would be so fun to do book puzzles on my bookstagram account. The first one was books with numbers in the title, and I spent hours gathering up the obvious ones (1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Two Towers, Station Eleven) and combing my shelves for less obvious ones (The Thirteenth Tale, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Tenth of December, Hyperbole and a Half). I even created rules: the number had to be in the title, not in the subtitle; collections like Best American Short Stories with the year in every title didn't count; Stephanie Plum didn't count, because it would have taken all the space.
2. Perhaps not surprisingly, no one else thought this was as much fun as I did. Only two people bothered to respond, and no one took up my challenge to think of more (although I have to admit I took all the easy ones). When I told MadMax about it, he started laughing and said affectionately, Oh, Mom, you are such a nerd. (I'm sure he meant it in the nicest possible way.) I already had a list of possible future puzzles going before I posted, though, so I will probably keep doing it. I may put less time and effort into future versions, though.
3. Best outcome: I re-discovered Eight Cousins, by Louisa May Alcott, which I adored as a child and read several times. I always liked it better than Little Women, which-- to be honest-- I never read all the way through until I was in my twenties. But now I can't really remember either one, so I'm in the midst of a re-read. Thirty pages in, all I can say so far is that Rose (from Eight Cousins) is more of a prissy snob than I remembered, sort of like Amy in Little Women, but we'll see.
4. Not long ago I wrote about my obsession with finding the perfect tea. I mentioned that I always warm the cup before I put tea in it. My reasoning was that if my tea was made in a warmed cup, it would stay hot longer than it would if made in a cold cup, and I lose interest in tea (or any hot drink) once it's cold.
I decided to put that to the test. We have a motley assortment of mugs, but we do have two that are the same. So I pre-heated one with hot tap water, then heated water in the electric tea kettle and poured it in each cup. After one minute, the water in the pre-warmed cup was four degrees warmer than the other cup; after five minutes, the difference was three degrees. Not as big a difference as I would have thought. NOW YOU KNOW.
But being a creature of habit, I still made my cup of tea the same way this morning.
5. Once again I got in a discussion with some friends about genre fiction. It just astonishes me how anti-romance people are. And honestly, I think it's a completely false opinion. I'm pretty sure if I handed them one of my favorite romance novels and actually forced them to read it, they'd come back and say, that's not a romance novel! It's just a good story! And yet it IS a romance novel, and the problem is that they don't know what they're talking about because they've never read one. Or maybe the problem is, as one Book Riot editor realized in this week's Interesting Read, our culture's misogyny has created a disdain for romance.
6. But having said that, I have to say it's been a long time since I've read a current romance novel (published in the last couple of years) that I finished. I'm all in favor of occasional escapist reading, but all of the ones I've read recently have been of the fantasy type-- the hero is fabulously wealthy, drop-dead gorgeous, and his only faults are the adorable sort. And/or they're so insanely attracted to each other that there is almost no story besides their physical attraction. I'm good for one or two of those a year--they can be fun to read-- but that seems to be all that's being published these days.
7. Summer is here. I lose faith every single year--winter lasts so dang long, and then spring never really seems to come, and then suddenly it is gorgeous and I almost get teary-eyed when I go outside to feed the chickens. We had record breaking heat and then wildfires for most of last summer, so this year is especially appreciated. Here is the picture I snapped this morning, strategically aimed so that you don't have to look at chickensh!t (you're welcome)(Past the fence is our neighbor's field).
And that's it for me. Have a great weekend.
2. Perhaps not surprisingly, no one else thought this was as much fun as I did. Only two people bothered to respond, and no one took up my challenge to think of more (although I have to admit I took all the easy ones). When I told MadMax about it, he started laughing and said affectionately, Oh, Mom, you are such a nerd. (I'm sure he meant it in the nicest possible way.) I already had a list of possible future puzzles going before I posted, though, so I will probably keep doing it. I may put less time and effort into future versions, though.
3. Best outcome: I re-discovered Eight Cousins, by Louisa May Alcott, which I adored as a child and read several times. I always liked it better than Little Women, which-- to be honest-- I never read all the way through until I was in my twenties. But now I can't really remember either one, so I'm in the midst of a re-read. Thirty pages in, all I can say so far is that Rose (from Eight Cousins) is more of a prissy snob than I remembered, sort of like Amy in Little Women, but we'll see.
4. Not long ago I wrote about my obsession with finding the perfect tea. I mentioned that I always warm the cup before I put tea in it. My reasoning was that if my tea was made in a warmed cup, it would stay hot longer than it would if made in a cold cup, and I lose interest in tea (or any hot drink) once it's cold.
I decided to put that to the test. We have a motley assortment of mugs, but we do have two that are the same. So I pre-heated one with hot tap water, then heated water in the electric tea kettle and poured it in each cup. After one minute, the water in the pre-warmed cup was four degrees warmer than the other cup; after five minutes, the difference was three degrees. Not as big a difference as I would have thought. NOW YOU KNOW.
But being a creature of habit, I still made my cup of tea the same way this morning.
5. Once again I got in a discussion with some friends about genre fiction. It just astonishes me how anti-romance people are. And honestly, I think it's a completely false opinion. I'm pretty sure if I handed them one of my favorite romance novels and actually forced them to read it, they'd come back and say, that's not a romance novel! It's just a good story! And yet it IS a romance novel, and the problem is that they don't know what they're talking about because they've never read one. Or maybe the problem is, as one Book Riot editor realized in this week's Interesting Read, our culture's misogyny has created a disdain for romance.
6. But having said that, I have to say it's been a long time since I've read a current romance novel (published in the last couple of years) that I finished. I'm all in favor of occasional escapist reading, but all of the ones I've read recently have been of the fantasy type-- the hero is fabulously wealthy, drop-dead gorgeous, and his only faults are the adorable sort. And/or they're so insanely attracted to each other that there is almost no story besides their physical attraction. I'm good for one or two of those a year--they can be fun to read-- but that seems to be all that's being published these days.
7. Summer is here. I lose faith every single year--winter lasts so dang long, and then spring never really seems to come, and then suddenly it is gorgeous and I almost get teary-eyed when I go outside to feed the chickens. We had record breaking heat and then wildfires for most of last summer, so this year is especially appreciated. Here is the picture I snapped this morning, strategically aimed so that you don't have to look at chickensh!t (you're welcome)(Past the fence is our neighbor's field).
And that's it for me. Have a great weekend.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
pictures and not much else
When we first moved here, for several years we went camping on Memorial Day weekend. The weather was so awful that we finally gave up. Kids in diapers and cold, rainy, muddy camping trips do not mix. I don't think anyone around here expects Memorial Day to be nice. So when it is, it's like a bonus--it's not just a holiday, it's a holiday you can spend outside!! woot!
Today actually ended up a little rainy (I'm writing this while it's still Monday), but the rest of the weekend was gorgeous. I took a bunch of pictures of the trees trying to catch the bright, new green colors, but they didn't photograph well with my little camera, so I just ended up with a bunch of pictures of trees. oops.
We spent Saturday at the state track meet, which was here this year. When you attend a high school sporting event in Montana, you experience why they say Montana is a giant small town. There can't be more than two or three degrees of separation between any two people in the state--in spite of being the 4th largest state geographically, we only have a million people. The kids drive all over to compete against each other, so by the time you get to the state meet, everyone's pretty friendly. The competition is fierce, but the vibe is fun.
MadMax made finals in javelin and discus, but didn't place in either. He was disappointed at first, but since he spent several weeks of the season with an injured back, we were pretty proud. He made definite improvement, and he set himself up well for next year. (And for the record, MadMax's blog name was chosen years after the original movies--which I never saw--and years before the new one was even a twinkle in George Miller's eye.)
So all you get this time are some pictures from our weekend, because although I have three blog posts half-written in my head, none of them are ready for typing. Hope your holiday weekend was fun. There may be a few extra posts this week because I've got a lot on my mind. Or maybe not.
And because it's Memorial Day: thank you to those who have given their lives in the service of their country, in the military or otherwise.