Memorable May

Well we've come to the end of the month of May and also the end of the journey for Bill's mom. She passed yesterday morning. I was there with her until the end and even though she didn't quite make it to her 100th birthday (July) she definitely gave it quite a ride.

This is her shortly after we brought her down to live next door to us on December 31, 2022. Fortunately she made her wishes known to us and we are not left wondering what to do. Arrangements have already been made for cremation and she will be buried next to her husband. There is not a lot of personal stuff to go through and her finances were all in order. 

When I see this picture, though, I realize how far she had declined in the past year. At the time this was taken we were going on weekly trips to the library and the grocery store. For the last year she has had no interest in reading at all and she rarely left the house. Our last outing was in March to get biscuits and gravy for breakfast. She loved her biscuits and gravy. 

Anyway, just wanted to put this out there as the last few of my posts have been updates on her. She will be missed.  

G is for Getting Along

Hi all, just wanted to give an update and thank you all for your support. My MIL is in a skilled nursing and rehab facility so she is getting great care and is slowly improving. She fell and fractured at least one rib, was having trouble breathing and had a slight infection. Our hope is that with the physical and occupational therapy she will be able to come home soon. I am going to see her at least once a day, usually around a meal time so I can help her get situated and make sure that she has everything she needs. That takes a good few hours, but I don't mind. You may or may not remember that she used to live in Oregon and when she needed us we'd have to get on a plane and fly up there. This is much easier than that! The nursing home is near the ocean so I get to see this when I visit:

In addition I got in a lot of transcription work which is my "real" job when I'm not blogging or working in the studio. I am so grateful that I am able to do this work from home so that even if I have to spend some extra time with MIL, I can still do the typing. Sometimes I'm up until 10 PM but I'm in my jammies so it's all good. 

Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone again for the well wishes and who knows, we still have half a month left, maybe I'll be able to do a couple of catch up posts or even extend it past April. It's my blog and I can do what I want, right?  

Have a great week everyone! 

F is for Forgive Me

 Hi all - I am afraid I may not be able to keep up with the A to Z this year. I had to take my mother-in-law to the ER twice since Friday and she has been admitted so I need to be with her. If I can I'll try to do two posts in a day to catch up but family first, right?  It will also mean that I probably can't comment as much on others. So sorry about that! She's going to be 100 in July and I'm going to do all I can to make sure she gets there! 

E is for Economic Opportunity Over Extremism

My theme for this year's A to Z is democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

E is for Economic Opportunity Over Extremism 

Economic Opportunity	Extremism
Education Employment Financial Resources Health Federal Assistance	Uncompromising Outside the mainstream attitudes of society Zealous Out of control

I don't have to do much research on this one. A simple look at the stock market lately will show you that Economic Opportunity is rapidly diminishing in our country. Opportunity Economy was one of the cornerstones of Kamala Harris' platform when she was running for president. Her vision of assisting new businesses to get started, a tax break for first time homebuyers and cancelling out of control student debt would certainly lead to a better future for most people. 

I have been very fortunate to be able to work from home for the last 28 years and being able to claim a home office deduction on my taxes has been a huge help. The sale of the stock we had through my husband's employer allowed us to get the downpayment for our home. Because he was subsequently disabled, the loans we had to take for our daughter to go to college were forgiven by the Department of Education. All of those things have really made a difference in our lives.

And now look at the extreme plunge the stock market has taken in the last week, the overzealous use of tariffs with no actual planning or foresight, the uncompromising situation in the Republican controlled congress that is allowing the unqualified cabinet members to be appointed and the insistence that the tax breaks for the extremely wealthy are necessary.

Our retirement is in question, general prices are continuing to rise and #47 is off playing golf saying that he "doesn't care" about the situation. Great. 

Today is a day where there are going to be protests all over the country. Will that make a difference? Let's hope so.

As always, thanks to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries for giving me the basis for this year's challenge. 

Tomorrow is a day off. I am grateful for that. These posts are heavy. See you next week. 

D is for Democracy Over Demogogues

My theme for this year's A to Z challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

D is for Democracy Over Demogogue

Democracy	Demagogue
Power in the hands of the people Guaranteed civil liberties and human rights. Free and fair elections.	Political leader who seeks support by manipulating and appealing to the prejudices of others. One man has power.

  

One of the ways that man gained power again was by telling everyone lies, lies and more lies. He manipulated the truth so many times and was never called on it. He also railed and railed about things like immigration, which admittedly needs to be reformed and adjusted but by no means is it as bad as he made it out to be. People were not eating dogs. He made big promises about deporting people who were in this country illegally and that appealed to the prejudices of a lot of folks. However, as we can see now, he is not doing the deportations in a democratic way. There has been no due process and a few US citizens have been taken from their homes and families unlawfully. 

He (I refuse to write his name, you all know who I'm talking about) had said several times on the campaign trail that he didn't need votes or only "vote this one last time and you won't need to vote again." Now he is talking about running for a third term, which is against the constitution. He believes the rules do not apply to him.

I want to live in a country where I can vote and have a say in who our leaders are and I want there to be secure guidelines about what those leaders can and cannot do. I am lucky, for now, that I am a white woman and there is less of a chance that immigration officers will come knocking at my door. Who knows if those rules will change at the drop of a golf club? Maybe someone will see these posts and think I need to be silenced. (LOL I wish I had that readership). 

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

One more post this week and then we have Sunday off. I am trying to get to visit other folks who are participating as best I can. It is beginning of baseball season and my Giants are doing well plus I have had a fair amount of transcription lately which is my "real" job so time is precious. Thanks for stopping by!

C is for Constitution Over Cult

Welcome to my A to Z this year where I am covering the theme of democracy.This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

C is for Constitution over Cult

Constitution	Cult
We the People Freedom Rights Rule of Law Separation of powers	Great devotion to a person or idea. Worship Extreme Beliefs Psychological Manipulation Brainwashing

 

It is true that our constitution was written many years ago and has had to have a few revisions over time but the basic principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have always been at the core. We the People is a powerful phrase. It signifies that we work together as a collective and not just blindly following one person or ideal. We have a say in what those changes need to be and we vote to make them happen. 

If there is any question about whether a cult has now invaded the country, these words from Representative Troy Nehls shortly after Trump won reelection are pretty cult-like. He said, "If Donald Trump says jump 3-feet high and scratch your head, we should all jump 3-feet high and scratch our head."

I don't think there will be too many pictures in this A to Z but I did come across something last night that I think perfectly fits here. I was on my way to visit my daughter who lives in the area around the Facebook/Meta buildings. This is one of the street signs:

I know which direction I'm going.  

If you want to see Speaker Hakeem Jeffries' speech which is where I got the idea for this year's challenge, you can see it here. Also make sure to visit some of the other participants in this alphabetical endeavor. See you tomorrow!

B is for Benevolence over Bigotry

This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

B is for Benevolence over Bigotry.

Benevolence	Bigotry
Kindness Good Will Charity Compassion Volunteering Social Conscience Generosity	Narrow Mindedness Prejudice Injustice Intolerance Racism Homophobia Discrimination

Now I am not saying that ALL Democrats are perfect.  And I am not saying that All Republicans are bigots. Let me make that clear. It just seems to me that the policies and laws that each party wants to make are so vastly different. 

Take the new budget. Why in heaven would you want to take away funding from cancer research or giving food to children? 

Does the color of one's skin or the fact that two men or women love each other change the fact that they are human beings?  

Is it so hard to care about someone other than yourself? I just don't get it. 

The basis for this year's A to Z has been taken from the speech that Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, delivered on the opening of the 218th congress, which was the least productive congress in history up to that time. I'm not sure what's going to happen this year but we are not off to a good start!