And it should stay mostly sunny, at least until my favorite 94-year-old Japanese client and I go to the Peony Bistro for sashimi, and then to the nature preserve by his house!
Then it’s supposed to get cloudy after that, but it won’t matter so much by then.
Yesterday, he said the funniest thing. I couldn’t believe it. I will share the short version here:
Loyal readers of this lofty blog will no doubt recall that he’s not allowed to have vodka in his house because he will drink vodka until he’s absolutely smashed.
His private nurse allows him to have ONE vodka cocktail of his choice if they go out to lunch, but other than that, only red wine is allowed in his house. Mostly because he’s not that crazy about red wine, so a little goes a long way.
Yesterday, we didn’t go out anywhere because it was really cold and gloomy out. So he started in on his desire for vodka, but I reminded him that his nurse says “no” to vodka.
He said he didn’t understand why.
I said, “Because neither one of us wants to come in one morning and find you dead on the floor because you had fallen while you were smashed out of your mind on vodka and all alone. How do you think that would make us feel??”
He grumpily said, “It doesn’t matter.”
Me: “It doesn’t matter?? Well, how would you feel if you walked into the room and found ME dead on the floor because I was smashed out of my mind on vodka and had fallen while I was all alone??”
He: “It wouldn’t matter.”
Me: “It wouldn’t matter if you found me dead???“
He: “No. I would know you had gone to a better place.”
I couldn’t fucking believe him! We both laughed so hard over that.
Okay. Anyway.
A quick kitten update!
They are officially one week old today and their eyes have opened! You can’t tell from this photo, because they’re sleeping — only Mommy’s eyes are open!
Little Blackie’s kittens, one week old today.
Other than that, today would have been my birth father’s 80th birthday. So, happy heavenly birthday to Donald Jennings May. I miss you so much.
In this photo, it’s 1965 and he’s home on leave from the war in Vietnam. He’s visiting his older sister, my Aunt Jo, down in North Carolina.
And that’s it for today.
Enjoy your Saturday, wherever you are in the world!
Oh! Don’t forget– this gets underway on TUESDAY in Boston!! Buy tickets here!
Okay. Thanks for visiting!
I love you guys. See ya!
****************
What I’m listening to at night right now:
The audio book version of On Union with God by Blessed Albert the Great (1193-1280 AD), translated by Benedictine of Prince Thorpe Priory in 1911. It is read quite masterfully by David Barnes. (1 hr 32 mins.)
Yes! It’s another gloomy day here in the Hinterlands! You know how much I love that. However —
Yesterday, gang, was a really interesting day for me.
First off, Peitor and I continue to get some really keen interest in our TV Pilot and series proposal, stemming from Series Mania in France a couple weeks back.
Reasonable facsimile of Peitor and I — if we looked totally different that is.
We still have a lot of work to do on revising the script — we’ve mapped it all out, we just need to actually format it into scenes and put it in the script. But we are both seriously energized about the interest we’re getting.
I have FOUR (!!) days off from caregiving this coming week. One day will be set aside to drive down and visit my dad’s grave. Half a day will be set aside for practicing at the shooting range (apparently spending spiritual time with my other dad — my birth father — whose heavenly birthday is tomorrow, btw. He would have been 80 !!! I cannot process this. He is eternally about 43 in my mind.)
My birth father on Midway Island in 1973, when he was around 28
Anyway, the rest of the time off will be spent on the script. (Oh, and looking after newborn kittens!!)
(Oh, and guess who kept walking back & forth past my kitchen porch yesterday, checking out the little straw-filled cat houses? The little girls from next door!!!! I know they are trying to find the kittens!!!!! (Who are here inside with me now.) Here’s hoping, though, that their mom will let them adopt at least one!!)
Okay, anyway. I digress.
So the reason yesterday was so interesting for me — I had a conversation with the woman who cleans house for the clients I was with yesterday. We talked about a lot of things — mostly Medicare, insurance in general, her grown kids & their lives, the scary health situations with most of my clients.
And I came away from that realizing that I have a really incredible life.
Even on my limited income these days, I still own my own home with a very low mortgage, I lease a brand new Honda that NEVER breaks down, I am really seriously healthy, my debts are manageable now, I live in a village that is peaceful, quiet, safe, with about zippo crime. I have had a wonderful career (and it isn’t over yet), and I somehow managed to get the most amazing insurance guy who has made the whole Medicare thing a truly affordable breeze for me.
I’m usually so focused on making sure the bills are paid, feeding 729 cats, getting to all my various clients on time, not feeling emotionally drained by the time I get home, etc., that I haven’t stepped back and gotten a broad view of my life, in general, for quite a while — and now, compared to the average person in the next county.
Wow.
But on that happy note — I gotta scoot. Another day awaits with my favorite 94-year-old Japanese client!! And who knows what sorts of jaw-dropping coincidences will be revealed today?! We shall soon find out.
Extremely reasonable facsimile of me and my client — if absolutely everything in this photo were different!
Okay!!
Enjoy your Friday, wherever you are in the world, gang.
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!!
************
Here’s this!! The countdown to Good Friday and Easter continues!!
James Tabor – Last Days of Jesus Pt 2–What Got Him Killed? (8 mins):
However, around midday yesterday, it was really sunny, blue skies and reasonably mild, so my 94-year-old Japanese client and I went to Geller Park. (See yesterday’s post.)
Gang, he loved every moment of it. All the dogwoods were blooming, and the other trees were definitely starting to turn green. Everything was just so peaceful and so beautiful, for as far as the eye could see.
The park as it looks in summer
Even though walking him from the car to the closest park bench is very difficult for him (the grass is soft and very uneven), he had such a great day.
If you’re a loyal reader of this lofty blog, you no doubt recall that my 94-year-old Japanese client and I have seemingly endless things in common — unexpected coincidences all over the place. The full spectrum from very large coincidences to teeny tiny ones.
Yesterday, I was down in his basement photography darkroom for a mere moment, when my eyes spied an unopened box of the model ship “King of the Mississippi”.
I could not fucking believe it. I walked over to the box and examined it just to be sure. He has no other model ships anywhere in his home. Whether still in the box, or assembled.
My father built this very same model ship years ago and it now sits on top of my fridge!! In fact, I have had it in 3 of my homes so far.
King of the Mississippi model that my dad built.
It really just spooked me, not only because he and my dad also have some striking things in common — and we’re pretty sure that he and my dad had to have crossed paths in the late 1960s, because both my client and my dad religiously attended the annual electronics shows in Chicago. Which were held in one big room. They probably brushed shoulders, at the very least!
Okay, so if that isn’t enough — a week from today is the one-year anniversary of my dad’s death, and so he has been constantly on my mind.
I will have the day off, and the weather (so far) is supposed to be perfect, so I want to drive down and visit my dad’s grave. But I have not made that trip in a year and it makes me really nervous — doing all that driving alone in very heavy traffic. But I am trying to psyche myself up because I don’t want to become a little old lady who doesn’t go anywhere.
Anyway, when I saw that model ship, I stopped in my tracks, got really spooked, but also took it as a sign that my dad was right there, telling me to take the trip, and not to become a little old lady who doesn’t go anywhere.
I mean, I don’t even know why I suddenly stepped into the old darkroom — although it’s awesome in there, my client has not been down there in many, many years and it’s FULL of more cobwebs than you can possibly imagine! Anyway. I was down in the basement simply to check on the laundry, and then something told me to just pop into the darkroom…. Hmmm.
***********
Okay, if you watched Phil last night, then you maybe are a little frustrated because 99% of the things he went over is stuff we already know. (Tariffs are great, the IRS is folding, etc.) But I’m guessing he was aiming his info at people who aren’t so deep into the Q-Truther movement and are confused about everything.
Still, especially the 2nd part, after his computer allegedly crashed, it was really great to just take in the full scope of all the great things that are happening right now.
And personally, I separate the CCP from Xi, and believe that Xi is part of all of this “public” take down of the CCP. And I also think Xi has already made great progress taking down the CCP behind the scenes.
Anyway, if you missed it, here is Part 2(47 mins) (and keep in mind, you have more control over the commercials if you click the link):
Well, this post will mostly be about our new family members. And a little about Nick Cave.
I have to say, gang, the little playpen is fantastic — and much roomier than I thought it would be. Little Blackie seems to love it in there — it’s safe, and she can still see everything around her. And it’s a lot warmer than being outside right now.
It basically puts itself together — you pull off an elastic band and it SPROINGS! right into shape.
It was such a relief, gang. because it got so cold again last night and I did not have to worry about them at all. (They are set up right next to my bed.)
So it turns out there are 4 kittens — not 3. There was a little grey one that I couldn’t see inside the dark cat house filled with straw.
But this is a good thing! Because you never want to not have enough kittens to try to find homes for….
We’re thinkin’ we might wanna move that guitar…
Anyway. All things considered, I am really happy with how this turned out. I will just take it day by day.
And the neighbors, who brought over the cat houses in the first place, are really excited so maybe we will get these kittens adopted somewhere really close to home. (And — NO! –I am not going to secretly bring their daughters in to play with the kittens & fall in love… that just wouldn’t be right…)
No, no, no! Not fair, not fair!!
***********
I will just say this quick thing about the pilot script, because I can’t really post the details on the blog, but Peitor and I got some FANTASTIC feedback yesterday from one of the producers he met at Series Mania in Lille, France.
As it becomes appropriate, I will fill you in!
*************
Nick Cave sent out another Red Hand File this morning, that was rather heartwarming!! There were apologies all around. If you read yesterday’s post — well, the woman who wrote to him and went off on his income, wrote and apologized. (I’m wondering if she will ever recover from having her bile spewed internationally?) Anyway you can read it in full here. (It takes about 3 seconds…)
***********
And I think that’s it!
Its chilly but really sunny today. If it warms up a bit, I will likely take my favorite 94-year-old Japanese client to Geller Park. I’ve taken him there before, but it was before all the dogwoods were in full bloom. He loves it there. But because of his wooden leg and his cane, we really can only just sit on a park bench close to the car and look at everything. But the park is built on ancient Indian burial mounds (2000 years old). I used to live a block from there and went there all the time. It is such a fantastic park.
Okay. Enjoy your Wednesday, wherever you are in the world!!
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
************
On this very day, 44 years ago, Chong Foun Kee and I got married at City Hall in downtown Manhattan!! We still wish each other “Happy Anniversary” on this glorious day. Even though we both kinda go “WOW” as the years continue to keep on coming.
Anyway! During our first year of marriage, this song came on the radio one afternoon when we were in our apartment in the Camelot Building — where we lived, a block from Times Square — and he turned up the volume and dedicated it to me. (We both found this very amusing.)
So, Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond — “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”, 1978. Enjoy, gang!!
It’s a little chilly here but, wow, is it sunny, gang!
And this afternoon, the little maternity playpen for the kittens arrives and I will no longer have to worry about those newborn kittens being out there in the freezing cold at night. Even though their little cat house outside is filled with straw, and I’m guessing that Little Blackie’s body heat keeps them very warm. Still, it will be a relief to have them indoors.
Well, Peitor and I got even MORE great work done on the revisions of the TV pilot yesterday. However, I have 6 (!!) pages of notes that he emailed me this morning. I need to try to go over those before I leave for my morning client. So this post will be brief!!
**************
First off, if you follow Phil then you are likely aware that we seemed to have passed a huge and wonderful milestone out there somewhere.
And in case you aren’t keeping track of it — nearly 70 countries so far have now negotiated better trade deals with the US due to Trump’s tariffs. So things are really looking good, gang. Hang in there!!
If you’re a subscriber to Nick Cave’sCave Things mailing list, this week you can get 40% off my most favorite item over there!!!
All things “Happy Tea Set”!!
Use THIS link. And if you’re not a subscriber, a link will pop up for you to subscribe today to get 40% off!
The tea set pictured below is only $12 million plus shipping!! (OOPS! My error. Apparently, it’s only $176 plus shipping, and then 40% off of that price.) (If you need my mailing address to have it sent to me, google it. It’s EVERYWHERE.) (But don’t use the Spring Garden Street address. I haven’t lived in Easton, Pennsylvania in many, many years.) (In fact, I have moved 4 times since then.)
And don’t forget!! THIS starts in Boston in just a handful of days!! Buy tickets HERE!!
Okay! I gotta scoot.
Have a terrific Tuesday, wherever you are in the world!!
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
***************
Yes, from this morning. Still on a Neil Diamond kick around here.
The fantastic “Soolaimon/Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show” live on Hot August Night (1972). Enjoy, gang and Happy Listening!!
The shooting range sent out an email yesterday, saying that the range is CLOSED today for cleaning. So. Darn.
Here’s hoping that I won’t have forgotten everything by next week, when I’ll have time to go to the range again. (You’re probably wondering why it is so difficult for me to remember how to load the darn bullets! But it is. Especially since each time I go in there, they give me a different gun. The simplest part is so hard for me!!!)
************
Okay! Today’s mini feature:
What’s wrong with this picture??!!
That’s correct!!NEVER knit around people who are cleaning guns!!!
***********
Meanwhile, Peitor and I got great work done on revising the script yesterday and so we will just continue in that vein today.
I have a new policy around here — my work day doesn’t end until 6PM, seven days a week.
So this means that even when I come home at 3 or 4 PM and am completely emotionally wiped out, I still have a couple of hours to sit at the laptop and work on the script.
Because we really, really need to get this done. And now, of course, Peitor is back in the South of France and so there is once again a 6 hour difference in our time zones.
Not to mention, a difference in our views:
Peitor and a friend on the terrace, overlooking the Mediterranean
*****************
And THIS is arriving tomorrow:
It’s a kitten maternity room for Little Blackie and her new kittens. Because they really need to come indoors and I can’t risk exposing the tiny kittens to all the many curious cats in here — all of whom Little Blackie has a history of attacking.
So Blackie and her tiny newborns will be kept in there — and you can see that the litter box house is attached! I’ll let her come out when I’m home, but she really just wants to stay close to her kittens right now, anyway.
I’ll probably end up putting it in my room, still farther away from all the other cats. We’ll see how it goes!!
BTW, you can also use this to take your pets camping with you! Here’s the link in case you’re interested.
************
Well. Nick Cave sent out an AMAZING Red Hand File just now!! It was just great — and this time, he wasn’t too hard on himself! I really loved it. It was in response to a fan thinking that he (and other “celebrities”) are paid “shit tons of money” for what they do, when other people who provide services are paid less. (She sounds a wee bit Neo-Marxist…)
Anyway, he replied, in part:
“Your letter felt a little ungenerous and seemed to contain a corrupting resentment – that kind of indignant, moral posturing where we blame others for our feelings of powerlessness. Resentment – that bitter cup of gall is not good, Carol, not for your heart, not for your soul, not for your digestion, not for anything….”
You can read it (completely and totally for FREE) here.
*************
Okay. I guess that’s it for now.
I gotta finish the laundry and then get back to work on the pilot script.
I am 100% thoroughly and entirely exhausted — on every spiritual plane!!
And at 7:22AM, I was lying in bed, scrolling through Instagram, and the agency texted me and asked me if I could cover someone’s shift this morning — last minute!
Indeed, I said no. But it was exhausting just seeing the text! And I hate turning down work. But anyway.
I have a ton of work to do over the phone with Peitor today, so even if I weren’t completely exhausted, I would still have had to say no.
Before I forget — here’s an updated version of our poster for the TV Pilot (keep in mind, these actors are just used as examples of the characters. They’re not in the show!):
*************
There is some very surprising news here — which I feel certain you will not be expecting. I certainly was not.
If you’re a loyal reader of this lofty blog, you know that Big Blackie (a stray cat who lived on my porch — who arrived here nearly dead, after the tornado hit our village last summer) died tragically back in February.
At that point, Little Blackie — another stray cat — followed Big Blackie to my kitchen porch and immediately started living out there permanently. This was back in September. And after Big Blackie died she wanted to come inside my house. She didn’t want to live on the porch anymore, even though neighbors had provided me with some really wonderful cat houses for them.
I let her come in, but it turned out that she attacked all my other cats, so I could only let her come in if I was around to supervise her. Otherwise, she had to go back outside and sleep in her little straw-filled house.
Little Blackie was oddly shaped from the start. At first, I worried that she was pregnant, but she was not. So then I thought that maybe she had some sort of tumor. Since I couldn’t afford to get her to a vet, and I certainly couldn’t afford any potential cancer treatment for her, I was resigned to just making sure she was fed, and loved, and had a safe place.
Friday afternoon, I came home from my shift and it was terrible weather. Rainy, windy, chilly. She didn’t come trotting out of her little house to greet me, as she always did. I peered into her little house and she was in there, big green eyes blinking at me. And I figured she just didn’t want to come out into the bad weather.
Friday evening, she didn’t want to come out of her little house to get her bowl of canned cat food — which is unheard of for her. But, oh well.
And then at 5AM yesterday morning, when I went out to try feeding her again, a (very cute!!) little raccoon was out there eating the dry cat food, and I thought maybe that was why Little Blackie still didn’t want to come out of her little house.
Then, when the sun was up a little while later, and I went down to the kitchen to get ready to leave for my morning shift, I opened the kitchen door to check on her, and she came trotting into the kitchen, all happy and frisky. Yay.
But wait! I thought. She looks suddenly rather trim (for her, anyway). No, no no, I continued thinking. And I hurried out to her little straw-filled house, and I peered into it again.
Why, yes!! Kittens!!!!!! 3 or 4 of them. Extremely tiny. Extremely newborn. Grey and white. And really cute!!!!!
Aaaaack! She was so large all the time that I never noticed she had, in fact, gotten pregnant. Back in February, apparently.
My house already looks like this!! (Okay, not really, but sort of.)
I absolutely cannot believe this. Kittens. But what are you gonna do at this point, right? And sometime soon, they’re all going to have to come inside because my porch is too close to the road and they’ll get hit by cars.
Anyway. I will find good homes for them. But in the meantime, my life couldn’t be more different than I was hoping it would actually be.
**************
Other than that, gang. Rain, rain, rain. The Wakatomika Creek is flooded. Luckily, I am a couple miles from the creek. But it does mean that for the next few days, I have to go the long way around to get out of town.
Part of the Wakatomika creek
But what’s nice about that, is that I get to see all kinds of flowers and flowering trees in bloom that I don’t usually get to see.
There is also this out there — not the best angle. It’s a huge church and it’s on some really beautiful grounds. Surrounded by rolling hills and farms. I often think about attending this church, but it is evangelical, which is pretty hardcore Christianity.
But look at it inside, gang! Isn’t it awesome? Hard to believe this is out in the middle of nowhere.
And churches are always looking for sinners, you know. If I showed up, they probably wouldn’t need any additional ones for a long time…
So I keep thinking about it. We shall see.
************
Okay, I guess I’m gonna scoot. Go take a peak at the little kittens! And get my day underway here.
Enjoy your Sunday, wherever you are in the world.
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
************
Still on that Neil Diamond kick in the mornings here. I woke up at 4AM this morning, with this song unexpectedly going over and over in my head. It’s nice for a Sunday morning.
“Play Me” 1972. Enjoy, gang.
“Play Me”
She was morning, and I was night time I one day woke up To find her lying beside my bed I softly said “Come take me” For I’ve been lonely in need of someone As though I’d done someone wrong somewhere But I don’t know where, I don’t know where Come lately
You are the sun, I am the moon You are the words, I am the tune Play me
Song she sang to me Song she brang to me Words that rang in me, Rhyme that sprang from me Warmed the night, and what was right Became me
You are the sun, I am the moon You are the words, I am the tune Play me
[Instrumental]
And so it was that I came to travel Upon a road that was thorned and narrow Another place, another grace Would save me
You are the sun, I am the moon You are the words, I am the tune Play me You are the sun, I am the moon You are the words, I am the tune Play me……
I slept in this morning because yesterday wound up being a really, really, REALLY draining day.
I am hoping that today will be completely different.
But this is just a quick post, because I gotta leave here soon. And if all things seem good with him when I get to his house, my favorite 94-year-old Japanese client and I will be going here:
Sashimi — and sake (for him).
It’s been raining a lot here so we probably won’t stop at the nature preserve, but I guess we’ll see. He really loves doing that.
Tomorrow should be a really nice day for me — my Q-following girlfriend from town and I are meeting for lunch after my shift. Going to our favorite place — Tequilaville!!
I really, really need a break. I need to have some fun and laugh and relax with someone who knows me well and who is not a client. Even though I really love my clients.
Hopefully, I’ll have enough energy when I get home later today to do some more work on the pilot script. We still have a few more revisions we want to do. But I’m still really happy with the direction the changes are going in.
Which reminds me —
I love this show!! It is so much fun. Valerie in Brooklyn turned me on to it last week. “Ludwig,” a BBC murder mystery series starring David Mitchell. There are 3 episodes so far on BritBox.
Yes, I wish it would quit raining, but, as we are constantly reminded when we say that: “April showers bring May flowers!” So I’m trying to be okay with it.
At least the weather is warm — no jackets necessary, for now. AND — my dogwood is blooming!
It’s an ancient dogwood tree, outside my kitchen window, but two seasons ago, it suddenly sprang an entirely new tree from it’s trunk and that one is blooming like crazy right now. (The older part of the tree takes a little longer, but it’s full of buds.)
Anyway. When I saw the dogwood blooming when I came home yesterday, it made me really happy.
Not mine
I had a rough day yesterday with my favorite 94-year-old Japanese client. I’m not sure what caused the setback, but when I arrived, he was already dressed and sitting in his wheelchair in the kitchen — right in front of the kitchen door. Totally silent. He scared the heck out of me when I let myself in because he is usually still asleep in bed.
The hard part for me was that he didn’t recognize me. He didn’t know who I was. I could see he was really struggling with it, so I just tried to act normal, do what I always do, say what I always say, and as the day went on he mostly got his bearings — I’d say 99%.
That depresses me when it happens, but it had been a really long time since it last happened, so it was hard. But I had to hide all of those feelings in order to not alarm him — which makes it even harder on me.
And today, I have a different client. She is in really bad shape. She is very emotionally attached to me when I’m there, so that is exhausting, too — and, again, I can’t show it.
Anyway. I’m working hard to stay aligned with myself.
******************
If you signed up for those White House text messages, then I’m sure you got the link to Trump’s speech yesterday — explaining Liberation Day.
Not just tariffs but the colossal amount of money that various countries and companies have committed to giving to the US.
From George News yesterday afternoon — (includes news footage):
“HAPPY LIBERATION DAY, AMERICA! 🇺🇸💰
President Donald J. Trump has secured nearly $5,000,000,000,000 in investment and trade commitments from across the globe.”
If you missed his speech, you can see it in easy segments HERE.
My understanding is that within 6 months, we should start to see some remarkable affects to our overall economy because of this.
“Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have been working tirelessly on taking the next step to pass the plan for our ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL, as it is known, as well as getting us closer to the Debt Extension necessary to continue our great work. The Senate Budget plan gives us the tools that we need to get our shared priorities done, including certain PERMANENT Tax Cuts, Spending Cuts, Energy, Historic Investments in Defense, Border, and much more. We are going to cut Spending, and right-size the Budget back to where it should be. The Senate Plan has my Complete and Total Support. Likewise, the House is working along the same lines. Every Republican, House and Senate, must UNIFY. We need to pass it IMMEDIATELY!”
*************
Okay, with that, I guess I gotta scoot.
Enjoy your Thursday, wherever you are in the world.
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
*************
The other day, I picked up a used Best of Neil Diamond CD at the Dollar Store. So that’s what I’ve been playing in the mornings.
What I find interesting is that most of these hits, I remember primarily from his live album, Hot August Night (1972), which both my mom and I listened to constantly back then. (My adoptive mother was a huge Neil Diamond fan.)
So listening to the original versions of these hit songs, the way they first sounded on AM radio, and not listening to them “live”, is sort of jarring. But in a good way. It makes the songs sound more immediate and intimate, and in some cases, heartbreaking.
As I’ve been re-listening to the song “Shilo”, it sort of stops me short now, because I see the parallels now between the lyrics and how my own life was back then — although from a girl’s point of view, and my “Shilo” was my imaginary birth father in my head.
If you’re new to the blog — I suffered from mental illness for most of my life, stemming from relentless mental, emotional, physical and (later) sexual abuse. I lived about 90% of my waking hours in an imaginary world. Especially when I was at home. And I didn’t talk very much. If I wasn’t alone in my room, I usually sat quietly and stared.
Anyway. All of this comes back to me while listening to this song. But it’s a beautiful song.
“Shilo” by Neil Diamond. Here is the Hot August Night version (1972) — the one I knew best. Enjoy, gang.
“Shilo”
Young child with dreams Dream every dream on your own When children play Seems like you end up alone Papa says he’d love to be with you If he had the time So you turn to the only friend you can find There in your mind
Shilo, when I was young I used to call your name When no one else would come Shilo, you always came and we’d play
Young girl with fire Something said she understood I wanted to fly She made me feel like I could
Held my hand out, I let her take me Blind as a child All I saw was the way That she made me smile She made me smile
Shilo, when I was young I used to call your name When no one else would come Shilo, you always came and you’d stay
Had a dream and it filled me with wonder She had other plans “Got to go” and I know that you’ll understand I understand
Shilo, when I was young I used to call your name When no one else would come Shilo, you always came
Allegedly, today is “Liberation Day,” but I have no idea what that will end up meaning.
I’ve heard it could involve something with the new tariffs. I’ve heard it will be the final closure of the IRS — the IRS building in DC has been closed down for years, and officially became part of the US Treasury. But people speculate that now it will be gone for good. I don’t know.
The Coinage Act of 1792 was passed by Congress on April 2, 1792 establishing the United States Mint and set up the country’s first standardized monetary system.
-It created the dollar as the official unit of currency (NOT the Federal Reserve Note)
It established a gold-to-silver ratio of 15:1 (NOT the ~90:1 ratio we see today) -It required an “impression emblematic of liberty,” the word “Liberty,” and the year. -It set harsh penalties for Mint employees who debased coins —up to death, reflecting how seriously they took currency integrity. (Our currency has been debased ~97% since the Fed was created in 1913)
Anyone think it’s a coincidence that Trump picked that date?”
**************
Meanwhile, I guess we just have to wait and see.
Speaking of the IRS, I actually enjoyed getting my taxes done yesterday. I had it done for free by the AAPR over at the Senior Center. (Which I found out yesterday used to be an Amish restaurant — it was so beautiful inside. So much gorgeous wood everywhere.)
The woman who did my taxes was about my age and she was so cool. I could easily be friends with her. I loved her sense of humor, as well as her hints that she was likely a Truther in her off-hours.
I owe money to the Fed, as usual. Not nearly so much this year as in years gone by ($90). But I’m getting money back from the State and can just turn it over to the Feds as soon as it arrives.
And on we go.
**************
Sad news this morning.
Val Kilmer passed away from pneumonia, after having lived for many years with throat cancer.
I loved Val Kilmer! I thought he was an incredibly fun actor. If you never saw the movie “Tombstone“, what are you waiting for???? He was so great playing Doc Holliday in that movie! Just a stunning performance. Funny, powerful, subtle.
Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, 1993
During the summer of lockdowns, he created a limited edition coffee mug, with one of his (many) famous lines from that film: “I have not yet begun to defile myself”. I bought the cup immediately — in honor of his passing, I’m actually using it right now — and I posted several photos of it to Instagram (summer 2020):
Me on my kitchen porch, summer 2020
And then Val Kilmer, himself, posted my post! Read to the bottom of two shots:
And then I found this other photo on my phone this morning — it got me sort of wistful because not only was my iPad still usable back then (you can see it to the left of my coffee cup — I used it constantly before it became obsolete), but my glorious maple tree was still outside my window back then. I loved that tree SO MUCH:
*****************
If you never saw “Tombstone” watch these clips:
***************
Okay.
I gotta scoot and head out to see my favorite 94-year-old Japanese man.
Enjoy your Liberation Day, wherever you are in the world.
Marilyn's Room 