Blah Blah Blah
27/03/22 07:00
Just when you thought you've heard everything, there was this: NBC is being accused of airbrushing a photo of this trans swimmer person to make him look more "feminine." You just can't make this fucking stuff up. It isn't bad enough that you have a man wanting to compete in women's sports events and someone is pushing for that to happen? Who the fuck thinks this is normal in any sense of the word? What is NBC trying to accomplish? Do they think "feminizing" this freak will change the hearts and minds of Americans who find this tomfoolery to be a bridge too far? Let's call it what it is.
The missus and I stopped by the Ev man's place yesterday. We thought it might be a good idea to lend a hand and see if we couldn't spruce things up a bit while he's away. His only concern was that he might have left something or other out that would go bad and smell up the place. He's not much of a housekeeper so we weren't surprised to find his place in need of a good cleaning. Yes, there was organizing to do but we needed to do a few washes, clean up a few dishes, vacuum this and that, and I'd rather not comment on everything that we ended up carrying out to the trash bin.
All in a good day's work, I suppose. By the time dinner time rolled around, we were done. Not finished, but done. All the twisting and turning, all the bending and all the lifting, and that was about it. We were done. To do any more would have been to risk injury or perhaps having to endure days of recovery with maybe ice packs and heating pads or maybe just taking a break from our normal activities until such a time we were once again up to the task as it were. I'm feeling better after a good night's sleep but that could be short lived so we'll see. Baby steps.
We stopped by a local burger place to pick up something to go for dinner on the way home. The missus ordered a fish sandwich and I ordered their burger of the day. I'm not a big burger guy but I hadn't had one in a while so why not. "Pink or no pink," they asked when I placed my order. I like a good medium rare and was about to say as much when the missus replied for me. "No pink." she said. I was too tired to argue and the horse had left the barn so I may have huffed and puffed a little bit but then it was over. It was just as well. When I finally sat down to have my burger, she was pink as can be. Just the way I would have ordered it if I had placed the order. The Lord works in mysterious ways!
Russia's Putin said something recently about denazification as being one of his goals while invading Ukraine. Who could disagree with that? Nobody wants Nazi's roaming around their neighborhood. It sounded a bit far fetched truth be told. When is the last time you heard of Nazi's anywhere except in history books going back to World War II? Well, I'm watching Tucker on FOX last night and he's going on and on about Nazi's in Ukraine. So, it is a thing? That has me jumping on the Putin bandwagon so far as it involves doing away with the Nazis. Maybe Putin isn't a madman after all.
We've heard too about the Nazi's that escaped after World War II and we've heard about the jews who tracked these war criminals down and brought them to justice. That's a good thing. Tucker went on to say that many of these Nazi's are now aiding and abetting President Zelensky in Ukraine. I suppose you can't be picky about your alliances when you're trying to stay alive so that's fine. And then Tucker starts talking about how Zelensky outlawed his political opponents and shut down many of the television stations that supported them. Only despots do such a thing and democracies in Europe and elsewhere should want nothing to do with someone who wants to fashion their government after the China's and Venezuela's of the world.
Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, you have all these politicians here in the United States singing Zelensky's praises. I'm talking about politicians on both side of the political aisle. Are they tone deaf or just abominally stupid? It's one thing to want to help defend a country whose President represents one of many democracies in Europe but it's quite another to help prop up a dictator in the making. Not a one has said anything about Zelensky's latest moves to quash or maybe even destroy his political opponents and that has to have you scratching your head. Just what the hell are they thinking?
Were it not for the good people in Ukraine whose lives have been uprooted as a result of Putin's invasion, I would be rooting for Putin. I would want him to go into Ukraine and burn the Zelensky government to the ground. Just take them out root and branch. Take that little mother fucking pip-squeak of a president out to the woodshed and teach him a lesson he'll never forget. This is how you go from hero to zero overnight. Enough of your Churchillian speeches and enough of your lectures to the western world about how Putin's invasion of your country is going to be the start of World War III. You're the dictator wannabe so you figure it out. Ain't nobody coming' to your fucking rescue, dawg.
This whole thing has gone from good versus evil to evil versus evil for me. Putin is certainly just as despicable if not more despicable than the dictator wannabe, Zelensky, so let's just put that out there. The politicians here into US may not care that Zelensky has gone full despot but here's hoping that the democracies in Europe are taking notice. Give him just enough of whatever it takes to repel the Russians or maybe force them into a stalemate. Then, the Ukrainians should insist that their country be restored to the flourishing democracy that it once was. Well, "flourishing" might be too strong a word.
I wasn't planning to watch any of the hearings on Katanji Brown Jackson, Biden's nominee for the Supreme Court, but I thought better of it when I heard through the grapevine that the Republicans were asking real honest-to-goodness questions about her judicial record when and where it involved child pornographers. I thought she was probably a shoe-in to get the position and the usual cadre of two or three republicans would join the democrats win putting this woman on the court. After listening to the Republicans and their questioning of her yesterday, I'm no longer certain that she will get the votes she needs to get across the finish line.
I won't say that her inability to define what a "woman" is was the defining moment for me but it was a damnable moment. Thank you, Senator Marsha Blacburn for asking the question. In a day and age when the left is trying to redefine every cultural norm under the sun, including the definition of "gender", it is supremely important that we Americans put our foot down and say no to someone who holds such radical beliefs and who aspires to sit on the highest court in our land. It is the proverbial slippery slope into the abyss at a time when majorities on the court are fickle and can change overnight. We do not need this nominee being the deciding vote on anything or any issue. How hard would it have been for the nominee to respond as follows: A "woman" is an adult female?
I was very troubled by her continuous harping on the issue of disparity in sentencing. That's code for black men and women receiving disproportionally longer sentences than their white counterparts for the same crime. I won't deny that it doesn't happen but I also detected a certain social justice tinge to her responses that left me wondering just how far she was willing to go to correct the "wrongs" of the past. It's one thing to want to correct the wrongs of the past while working the night court circuit and it's quite another to do the same when you're a Supreme Court Justice. It gets even more incendiary when you consider her record of leniency when it comes to child pornographers and what that could mean to our society at large. It's the stuff that nightmares are made of.
She said that she didn't know much about Critical Race Theory other than the fact that it was some theoretical framework that was studied at the college or law school level. Her response to that question was pure unadulterated hocum. It turns out that she is a board member of a private school in Washington, DC, where the curriculum includes books like "Antiracist Baby" and other works by radicals and leftists. She sat slack jawed as Cruz laid bare her lies and deceptions. It was astounding. Senator Cruz had posters prepared which further exposed her lies for all the world to see. I couldn't have been more proud as a conservative to see that the gloves had come off on my side of the political aisle and the world would come to know this nominee for better or worse.
At the end of the day, I just don't think that this woman has the chops to become a Supreme Court Justice. I wouldn't say that she's dumb as a bag of rocks but I certainly was not impressed by the lack of heft in her responses when asked about this and that precedent by republican senators. By her very admission, she has been a district court judge for several years and that is the sum and substance of her experience. We're still waiting to see her LSAT scores and the 14,000 pages of documentation relating to her time on the court that the Biden White House will not release. Might there be something in there about affirmative action? If the democrats are looking for a rubber stamp, she's their girl.
I was showing the missus a picture that the Biden Administration had posted to Twitter yesterday where Biden was approaching a waiting helicopter with the White House in the background. He had on his usual aviator shades and was saluting the marine who stood at the entrance of the helicopter awaiting his arrival. Biden was on his way to visit his European counterparts in Europe to discuss strategies to assist Ukraine. There was only one problem. The photo was taken sometime last year. The trees in the picture around the White House were in full bloom. That's hardly the case at this time of year in Washington. It's just more smoke and mirrors from this smoke and mirrors administration.
I'm actually embarrassed to think that this feeble old fuck is the best we can do as the most powerful nation in the world. You can hide a lot of things but dementia and senility are not amongst them. Is this jackass supposed to be projecting American prowess and muscularity on the world stage at a time when the Europeans are looking to our country for leadership? Surely, our adversaries are laughing hysterically at the sight of this benevolent old fool mumbling and fumbling as he attempts to read his cue cards at opportune or, worse yet, inopportune moments. Not to worry. Unless we somehow catch sight of it thanks to the Europeans, it will be whitewashed and disappeared by the American media as though it never happened. They've propped up this fool this far. They can't stop now.
I was pointing out to the missus the other day that the local home heating oil companies hereabouts have stopped posting their prices outside their establishments ( or on the backs of their trucks). I found that to be interesting to say the least. Why would they do that? It was okay to post the prices when the prices were in the $1.75 to $2.00 a gallon range but now that prices are hovering at $5.00 or more a gallon it's not okay? Do they think that any price starting with a "5" is just too scary for prospective buyers? Am I not correct in assuming that they post their prices to begin with because they want consumers to see that they have the best prices in town? Why is it any different now that prices are at or above $5 a gallon? Inquiring minds want to know.
I got a card in the mail the other day from our neighbor. It was a very nice card and enclosed with the card was a gift certificate to Penzy's. If you know anything about Penzy's, you know that they sell every spice under the sun and then some. We've actually been to one of their stores in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and it was a fun place to visit. If you need or want some newfangled spice the likes of which you'll never find in your local supermarket, Penzy's is your place. Anyway, the gift card was her way of saying thank you for my snow blowing services over the course of the winter. The gift card was unnecessary, but I knew it was important to her that she be allowed to express her appreciation so that was that. The missus now tells me that Penzy's is a very woke company. Should I care?
There are very few things that bring a tear to the missus's eyes but getting a birthday card from her son with a nice note is at the very top of the list. I would post that note here if I thought I wasn't betraying any confidences but I'm thinking better of it so it will not appear here in any way, shape, or form. Suffice it to say, it did bring a tear to her eye and it may have even made up for my not making a comment on the very same card. I had no intention of stepping on the Ev man's sentiment and I surely didn't want to detract from his note and the impact that I knew it would have on the missus. As we all know, and can surely appreciate, there is no greater love than that that a mom has for her son (and maybe vice versa?)
I had high hopes that I might be able to take the missus out to a nice restaurant for her birthday. That seems unlikely as I sit here this morning. I think she's still just not ready. Maybe this is what they mean when they reference the term "long Covid." Long in the sense that it's been around seemingly forever seeing as we are now in our third year of this dreadful ebbing and flowing of the viral shitstorm delivered to our shores from the wet markets of Eastern Asia back in March of 2020. Every commercial nook and cranny of a shop, restaurant, or store is now, and has been since 2020, a veritable Petri dish of Covid-19. I know it's not the medical definition of Long Covid but there you have it. The missus is dug in deep. I'm less so but along for the ride.
We spent the day, the missus's birthday, staying under cover for the most part. It was a rainy and dismal day weather-wise so that seemed to be the best course of action. We picked up the Ev man and waited while he did his business over Exeter way. We then grabbed lunch at Jersey Mike's and the three of us hunkered down back at home. What more could mom have asked for on her birthday? She was spending time with the people she valued most in her life. If she wanted to have more than her allotted share of potato chips from the small bag that came with the subs, then I was good with it. There are always more potato chips. The same cannot be said for more moms.
We got a call from Mrs G in the early evening. She sounded her usual chipper self. There was noise in the background on the call that I mistook for a raucous gathering at her independent living facility. She doesn't usually call us while partying with her buds (bud-ettes?) but I dismissed it as a fanciful thought and went back to what I was doing while the missus and her mum carried on. That background noises that I mistook for partying were actually the muffled but busy sounds of a local hospital emergency room. You quickly try to make sense of what you're hearing, a sub-conscious reconciliation really, of what you're being told and how that compares or doesn't compare to the voice and associated intonation of the message being communicated.
She sounded fine but she wasn't fine? What on God's green earth was she doing in the emergency room then? How did she get there? The clarity in Mrs G's voice betrayed nothing more serious than a garden variety this or that until she told us her story. Yes, there was an accident and, yes, she had been injured in said accident. The injury was certainly not garden variety but it was all very early in the game and things were moving ahead, maybe a little too slowly for Mrs G's tastes, but moving ahead nonetheless. The experts would soon weigh in but nothing happens quickly in an emergency room so everyone waits.
It was helpful to Mrs G's loved ones to hear from Mrs G herself that she was in good spirits and not in any pain. Her injury, at least what we know of it as we sit here some 12 hours later, is correctable. That's what hospitals are for. Right? They fix things. The fixing is not usually the problem if that's all there is to it. It's all the things that follow the fix that make for a quick recovery or a less-than-quick recovery. If the Baby Jesus has his way when it comes to Mrs G, it will be the former.
So you take things one day at a time and, with the support of your family and loved ones, you do what you have to do to get back to where you started before all of this happened. For now, the card games, the pool aerobics, the trips back and forth from the cafe for your favorite dishes, the trips to and from the library to read the daily newspapers, the online chess games, and the quick drives into town and back, will have to take a back seat to something more important. It's all about the healing now. Her coffee flavored Nips, her 12-ounce cans of sugar-less A&W root beer, and her leisure time with her peeps back in the hood will have to wait.
You do worry about the person or persons doing the fixing when it comes to your loved ones. Are they up to snuff? Do they have the qualifications to do what they're doing? There comes a point in the process where you just have to hold your breath and hope for the best. An older more experienced hand might be able to do a rote job but nobody wants rote when it comes to your family members. It's not always about just getting in and out. When they're in there, and we're taking about surgery here, they had better damn well know where they're going and what they're doing. If they can perform a little magic while they're in there, all the better. God loves a good magic act.
The patient is resting comfortably or so I'm told now that we are some 24 hours out from the surgery. In hospital nomenclature, that means that the drugs are doing what they're supposed to be doing and the patient is not experiencing any discomfort. There will be difficult days ahead but today is not one of them. Starting today, she will entertain visitors one at a time as per the hospital policy while precautions remain in place due to the presence of Covid in the community. Reconnecting with reality after going through surgery means seeing familiar faces, hearing familiar voices, and playing once again to the audiences that were in attendance before the accident. We now present to you, the inimitable, the implacable, the always impressive, and now better and stronger than ever, Mrs G!
Speaking of hospitalizations, what the heck was going on with Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas? Word got out a week ago that he had been hospitalized with an undisclosed illness. In some news reports, there were references to a flu-like illness. The last thing we need these days is to have our Supreme Court up in the air not knowing what there is to know about Thomas's return to the court and seeing as we have the introduction of Biden's leftist and woke nominee to the Court, Katanji Brown Jackson. It goes to show you how fickle a majority we conservatives have (6-3) and how important it is to protect that majority at all costs. Thomas is now out of the hospital and apparently no worse for wear. The prospects of Jackson sitting on the court have, unfortunately, improved albeit along party lines. Am I the only one still asking to see her LSAT scores?
I was almost certain that Justice Thomas would suffer the same fate as Justice Scalia back in the day when they found justice Scalia dead in his hotel room. There were rumors at the time that they found Justice Scalia with a pillow over his head. Who doesn't think for a moment that the leftists are capable of such a monstrous act? It's a small price to pay, assuming someone goes to jail for the crime, to make sure that they have the last word when it comes to signing off on their leftist wet dreams. In other words, I put nothing past the democrats when it comes to solidifying their power at the highest levels of our government.
On last thing. Bumbles Biden is running around Europe giving speeches about how everyone is going to have to make sacrifices now that we've got this Ukraine thing going on. What the hell is he talking about? And what does he mean when he makes reference to food shortages coming to our country because of the war? Does he not know that America is a major producer of crops like wheat, corn, and soybeans that have reliably fed our nation though thick and thin for decades? These are not the words of a can-do president. It makes you wonder if he knows what our great nation is capable of. I, for one, know that our nation would be better off without this loser at the helm. I'm not sure how we survive the three long years remaining in his first term. God help us all.
The missus and I stopped by the Ev man's place yesterday. We thought it might be a good idea to lend a hand and see if we couldn't spruce things up a bit while he's away. His only concern was that he might have left something or other out that would go bad and smell up the place. He's not much of a housekeeper so we weren't surprised to find his place in need of a good cleaning. Yes, there was organizing to do but we needed to do a few washes, clean up a few dishes, vacuum this and that, and I'd rather not comment on everything that we ended up carrying out to the trash bin.
All in a good day's work, I suppose. By the time dinner time rolled around, we were done. Not finished, but done. All the twisting and turning, all the bending and all the lifting, and that was about it. We were done. To do any more would have been to risk injury or perhaps having to endure days of recovery with maybe ice packs and heating pads or maybe just taking a break from our normal activities until such a time we were once again up to the task as it were. I'm feeling better after a good night's sleep but that could be short lived so we'll see. Baby steps.
We stopped by a local burger place to pick up something to go for dinner on the way home. The missus ordered a fish sandwich and I ordered their burger of the day. I'm not a big burger guy but I hadn't had one in a while so why not. "Pink or no pink," they asked when I placed my order. I like a good medium rare and was about to say as much when the missus replied for me. "No pink." she said. I was too tired to argue and the horse had left the barn so I may have huffed and puffed a little bit but then it was over. It was just as well. When I finally sat down to have my burger, she was pink as can be. Just the way I would have ordered it if I had placed the order. The Lord works in mysterious ways!
Russia's Putin said something recently about denazification as being one of his goals while invading Ukraine. Who could disagree with that? Nobody wants Nazi's roaming around their neighborhood. It sounded a bit far fetched truth be told. When is the last time you heard of Nazi's anywhere except in history books going back to World War II? Well, I'm watching Tucker on FOX last night and he's going on and on about Nazi's in Ukraine. So, it is a thing? That has me jumping on the Putin bandwagon so far as it involves doing away with the Nazis. Maybe Putin isn't a madman after all.
We've heard too about the Nazi's that escaped after World War II and we've heard about the jews who tracked these war criminals down and brought them to justice. That's a good thing. Tucker went on to say that many of these Nazi's are now aiding and abetting President Zelensky in Ukraine. I suppose you can't be picky about your alliances when you're trying to stay alive so that's fine. And then Tucker starts talking about how Zelensky outlawed his political opponents and shut down many of the television stations that supported them. Only despots do such a thing and democracies in Europe and elsewhere should want nothing to do with someone who wants to fashion their government after the China's and Venezuela's of the world.
Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, you have all these politicians here in the United States singing Zelensky's praises. I'm talking about politicians on both side of the political aisle. Are they tone deaf or just abominally stupid? It's one thing to want to help defend a country whose President represents one of many democracies in Europe but it's quite another to help prop up a dictator in the making. Not a one has said anything about Zelensky's latest moves to quash or maybe even destroy his political opponents and that has to have you scratching your head. Just what the hell are they thinking?
Were it not for the good people in Ukraine whose lives have been uprooted as a result of Putin's invasion, I would be rooting for Putin. I would want him to go into Ukraine and burn the Zelensky government to the ground. Just take them out root and branch. Take that little mother fucking pip-squeak of a president out to the woodshed and teach him a lesson he'll never forget. This is how you go from hero to zero overnight. Enough of your Churchillian speeches and enough of your lectures to the western world about how Putin's invasion of your country is going to be the start of World War III. You're the dictator wannabe so you figure it out. Ain't nobody coming' to your fucking rescue, dawg.
This whole thing has gone from good versus evil to evil versus evil for me. Putin is certainly just as despicable if not more despicable than the dictator wannabe, Zelensky, so let's just put that out there. The politicians here into US may not care that Zelensky has gone full despot but here's hoping that the democracies in Europe are taking notice. Give him just enough of whatever it takes to repel the Russians or maybe force them into a stalemate. Then, the Ukrainians should insist that their country be restored to the flourishing democracy that it once was. Well, "flourishing" might be too strong a word.
I wasn't planning to watch any of the hearings on Katanji Brown Jackson, Biden's nominee for the Supreme Court, but I thought better of it when I heard through the grapevine that the Republicans were asking real honest-to-goodness questions about her judicial record when and where it involved child pornographers. I thought she was probably a shoe-in to get the position and the usual cadre of two or three republicans would join the democrats win putting this woman on the court. After listening to the Republicans and their questioning of her yesterday, I'm no longer certain that she will get the votes she needs to get across the finish line.
I won't say that her inability to define what a "woman" is was the defining moment for me but it was a damnable moment. Thank you, Senator Marsha Blacburn for asking the question. In a day and age when the left is trying to redefine every cultural norm under the sun, including the definition of "gender", it is supremely important that we Americans put our foot down and say no to someone who holds such radical beliefs and who aspires to sit on the highest court in our land. It is the proverbial slippery slope into the abyss at a time when majorities on the court are fickle and can change overnight. We do not need this nominee being the deciding vote on anything or any issue. How hard would it have been for the nominee to respond as follows: A "woman" is an adult female?
I was very troubled by her continuous harping on the issue of disparity in sentencing. That's code for black men and women receiving disproportionally longer sentences than their white counterparts for the same crime. I won't deny that it doesn't happen but I also detected a certain social justice tinge to her responses that left me wondering just how far she was willing to go to correct the "wrongs" of the past. It's one thing to want to correct the wrongs of the past while working the night court circuit and it's quite another to do the same when you're a Supreme Court Justice. It gets even more incendiary when you consider her record of leniency when it comes to child pornographers and what that could mean to our society at large. It's the stuff that nightmares are made of.
She said that she didn't know much about Critical Race Theory other than the fact that it was some theoretical framework that was studied at the college or law school level. Her response to that question was pure unadulterated hocum. It turns out that she is a board member of a private school in Washington, DC, where the curriculum includes books like "Antiracist Baby" and other works by radicals and leftists. She sat slack jawed as Cruz laid bare her lies and deceptions. It was astounding. Senator Cruz had posters prepared which further exposed her lies for all the world to see. I couldn't have been more proud as a conservative to see that the gloves had come off on my side of the political aisle and the world would come to know this nominee for better or worse.
At the end of the day, I just don't think that this woman has the chops to become a Supreme Court Justice. I wouldn't say that she's dumb as a bag of rocks but I certainly was not impressed by the lack of heft in her responses when asked about this and that precedent by republican senators. By her very admission, she has been a district court judge for several years and that is the sum and substance of her experience. We're still waiting to see her LSAT scores and the 14,000 pages of documentation relating to her time on the court that the Biden White House will not release. Might there be something in there about affirmative action? If the democrats are looking for a rubber stamp, she's their girl.
I was showing the missus a picture that the Biden Administration had posted to Twitter yesterday where Biden was approaching a waiting helicopter with the White House in the background. He had on his usual aviator shades and was saluting the marine who stood at the entrance of the helicopter awaiting his arrival. Biden was on his way to visit his European counterparts in Europe to discuss strategies to assist Ukraine. There was only one problem. The photo was taken sometime last year. The trees in the picture around the White House were in full bloom. That's hardly the case at this time of year in Washington. It's just more smoke and mirrors from this smoke and mirrors administration.
I'm actually embarrassed to think that this feeble old fuck is the best we can do as the most powerful nation in the world. You can hide a lot of things but dementia and senility are not amongst them. Is this jackass supposed to be projecting American prowess and muscularity on the world stage at a time when the Europeans are looking to our country for leadership? Surely, our adversaries are laughing hysterically at the sight of this benevolent old fool mumbling and fumbling as he attempts to read his cue cards at opportune or, worse yet, inopportune moments. Not to worry. Unless we somehow catch sight of it thanks to the Europeans, it will be whitewashed and disappeared by the American media as though it never happened. They've propped up this fool this far. They can't stop now.
I was pointing out to the missus the other day that the local home heating oil companies hereabouts have stopped posting their prices outside their establishments ( or on the backs of their trucks). I found that to be interesting to say the least. Why would they do that? It was okay to post the prices when the prices were in the $1.75 to $2.00 a gallon range but now that prices are hovering at $5.00 or more a gallon it's not okay? Do they think that any price starting with a "5" is just too scary for prospective buyers? Am I not correct in assuming that they post their prices to begin with because they want consumers to see that they have the best prices in town? Why is it any different now that prices are at or above $5 a gallon? Inquiring minds want to know.
I got a card in the mail the other day from our neighbor. It was a very nice card and enclosed with the card was a gift certificate to Penzy's. If you know anything about Penzy's, you know that they sell every spice under the sun and then some. We've actually been to one of their stores in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and it was a fun place to visit. If you need or want some newfangled spice the likes of which you'll never find in your local supermarket, Penzy's is your place. Anyway, the gift card was her way of saying thank you for my snow blowing services over the course of the winter. The gift card was unnecessary, but I knew it was important to her that she be allowed to express her appreciation so that was that. The missus now tells me that Penzy's is a very woke company. Should I care?
There are very few things that bring a tear to the missus's eyes but getting a birthday card from her son with a nice note is at the very top of the list. I would post that note here if I thought I wasn't betraying any confidences but I'm thinking better of it so it will not appear here in any way, shape, or form. Suffice it to say, it did bring a tear to her eye and it may have even made up for my not making a comment on the very same card. I had no intention of stepping on the Ev man's sentiment and I surely didn't want to detract from his note and the impact that I knew it would have on the missus. As we all know, and can surely appreciate, there is no greater love than that that a mom has for her son (and maybe vice versa?)
I had high hopes that I might be able to take the missus out to a nice restaurant for her birthday. That seems unlikely as I sit here this morning. I think she's still just not ready. Maybe this is what they mean when they reference the term "long Covid." Long in the sense that it's been around seemingly forever seeing as we are now in our third year of this dreadful ebbing and flowing of the viral shitstorm delivered to our shores from the wet markets of Eastern Asia back in March of 2020. Every commercial nook and cranny of a shop, restaurant, or store is now, and has been since 2020, a veritable Petri dish of Covid-19. I know it's not the medical definition of Long Covid but there you have it. The missus is dug in deep. I'm less so but along for the ride.
We spent the day, the missus's birthday, staying under cover for the most part. It was a rainy and dismal day weather-wise so that seemed to be the best course of action. We picked up the Ev man and waited while he did his business over Exeter way. We then grabbed lunch at Jersey Mike's and the three of us hunkered down back at home. What more could mom have asked for on her birthday? She was spending time with the people she valued most in her life. If she wanted to have more than her allotted share of potato chips from the small bag that came with the subs, then I was good with it. There are always more potato chips. The same cannot be said for more moms.
We got a call from Mrs G in the early evening. She sounded her usual chipper self. There was noise in the background on the call that I mistook for a raucous gathering at her independent living facility. She doesn't usually call us while partying with her buds (bud-ettes?) but I dismissed it as a fanciful thought and went back to what I was doing while the missus and her mum carried on. That background noises that I mistook for partying were actually the muffled but busy sounds of a local hospital emergency room. You quickly try to make sense of what you're hearing, a sub-conscious reconciliation really, of what you're being told and how that compares or doesn't compare to the voice and associated intonation of the message being communicated.
She sounded fine but she wasn't fine? What on God's green earth was she doing in the emergency room then? How did she get there? The clarity in Mrs G's voice betrayed nothing more serious than a garden variety this or that until she told us her story. Yes, there was an accident and, yes, she had been injured in said accident. The injury was certainly not garden variety but it was all very early in the game and things were moving ahead, maybe a little too slowly for Mrs G's tastes, but moving ahead nonetheless. The experts would soon weigh in but nothing happens quickly in an emergency room so everyone waits.
It was helpful to Mrs G's loved ones to hear from Mrs G herself that she was in good spirits and not in any pain. Her injury, at least what we know of it as we sit here some 12 hours later, is correctable. That's what hospitals are for. Right? They fix things. The fixing is not usually the problem if that's all there is to it. It's all the things that follow the fix that make for a quick recovery or a less-than-quick recovery. If the Baby Jesus has his way when it comes to Mrs G, it will be the former.
So you take things one day at a time and, with the support of your family and loved ones, you do what you have to do to get back to where you started before all of this happened. For now, the card games, the pool aerobics, the trips back and forth from the cafe for your favorite dishes, the trips to and from the library to read the daily newspapers, the online chess games, and the quick drives into town and back, will have to take a back seat to something more important. It's all about the healing now. Her coffee flavored Nips, her 12-ounce cans of sugar-less A&W root beer, and her leisure time with her peeps back in the hood will have to wait.
You do worry about the person or persons doing the fixing when it comes to your loved ones. Are they up to snuff? Do they have the qualifications to do what they're doing? There comes a point in the process where you just have to hold your breath and hope for the best. An older more experienced hand might be able to do a rote job but nobody wants rote when it comes to your family members. It's not always about just getting in and out. When they're in there, and we're taking about surgery here, they had better damn well know where they're going and what they're doing. If they can perform a little magic while they're in there, all the better. God loves a good magic act.
The patient is resting comfortably or so I'm told now that we are some 24 hours out from the surgery. In hospital nomenclature, that means that the drugs are doing what they're supposed to be doing and the patient is not experiencing any discomfort. There will be difficult days ahead but today is not one of them. Starting today, she will entertain visitors one at a time as per the hospital policy while precautions remain in place due to the presence of Covid in the community. Reconnecting with reality after going through surgery means seeing familiar faces, hearing familiar voices, and playing once again to the audiences that were in attendance before the accident. We now present to you, the inimitable, the implacable, the always impressive, and now better and stronger than ever, Mrs G!
Speaking of hospitalizations, what the heck was going on with Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas? Word got out a week ago that he had been hospitalized with an undisclosed illness. In some news reports, there were references to a flu-like illness. The last thing we need these days is to have our Supreme Court up in the air not knowing what there is to know about Thomas's return to the court and seeing as we have the introduction of Biden's leftist and woke nominee to the Court, Katanji Brown Jackson. It goes to show you how fickle a majority we conservatives have (6-3) and how important it is to protect that majority at all costs. Thomas is now out of the hospital and apparently no worse for wear. The prospects of Jackson sitting on the court have, unfortunately, improved albeit along party lines. Am I the only one still asking to see her LSAT scores?
I was almost certain that Justice Thomas would suffer the same fate as Justice Scalia back in the day when they found justice Scalia dead in his hotel room. There were rumors at the time that they found Justice Scalia with a pillow over his head. Who doesn't think for a moment that the leftists are capable of such a monstrous act? It's a small price to pay, assuming someone goes to jail for the crime, to make sure that they have the last word when it comes to signing off on their leftist wet dreams. In other words, I put nothing past the democrats when it comes to solidifying their power at the highest levels of our government.
On last thing. Bumbles Biden is running around Europe giving speeches about how everyone is going to have to make sacrifices now that we've got this Ukraine thing going on. What the hell is he talking about? And what does he mean when he makes reference to food shortages coming to our country because of the war? Does he not know that America is a major producer of crops like wheat, corn, and soybeans that have reliably fed our nation though thick and thin for decades? These are not the words of a can-do president. It makes you wonder if he knows what our great nation is capable of. I, for one, know that our nation would be better off without this loser at the helm. I'm not sure how we survive the three long years remaining in his first term. God help us all.