In The News – Page 4 – This Old House 2

Kung-Flu and other nonsense

Watching Trump’s Tulsa rally the other night was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Such a rambling jumble of nonsense. Not three notes strung together on Unity – and if you don’t have your head up your ass right now the unrest in our country is alarming to say the very least, the continuing unjust deaths and blatant racism, and the most ignorant statements on Coronavirus that his handlers later tried to spin as a joke. Of course.. today he corrected his own staff by saying he was not joking. Since that rally, 8 of his staff at the rally have tested positive for the virus. His direct quote “”Here’s the bad part: When you do testing to that extent, you’re gonna find more people, you’re gonna find more cases. So I said to my people, ‘slow the testing down please!'”. He also called it the “Kung-Flu” – That .. is so… fucked… up. As a person who lost her father this month to the disease, and as a person who as empathy for the families of the other 122,000 people who have died of it…. (and he has expressed ZERO empathy for the lives lost, zero) …. believe me, having witnessed a person die of it personally – it’s no flu. My father’s entire organ system shut down going from 0 symptoms to dead in days. Days. To hear the President of the United States speak this way is truly unbelievable. That whole speech was truly unbelievable – That he even HELD A RALLY despite health officials in that town asking him not to, despite the ongoing pandemic, is unbelievable.

I’ll share with you some photos and funnies to cleanse that ugly palette of information up there…

This morning’s mist was so thick if I had a bar of soap with me it would have lathered up as I drove the gator to the manure pile.

My new kayak, a perception Tribute 12.o they don’t make anymore for some reason, is everything I hoped it would be. And I got it for a bargain basement price – score! I just can’t gain any weight – like not 2 more pounds. really. 😳

A lovely person left this beautiful rock in my mailbox this morning with a card full of kind words. I had posted a video some weeks back on FB of my chickens walking with me to the coop – and mentioned perhaps my Indian name might have been Walks with Chickens.. She got such a kick out of that she decided to make some art for me… I just love it and she’s so talented!

These two memes below made me laugh right out loud and it’s been a difficult week, I sure needed it.

I hope you are well and staying sane. Thank you for stopping in –

Till soon –

Observations from a Person of a Certain Age

I am editor of a small town publication and I sometimes ask Mom to write a piece for me when I feel a topic needs mention but submissions or my own writing don’t cover it. I have to be careful not to inflame, my job is to stay neutral, and in a small town like ours that’s monumental. With all the racial upheaval, I felt somehow it needed to be addressed in the next issue, and yet I knew it’s nearly impossible not to insult someone. I wasn’t looking for finger pointing or shaming or blaming, but an acknowledgement of some sort. So… I tasked my mother with this difficulty… and I think she nailed it.

Observations From a Person of a Certain Age – by Kathleen Amoia

As a white middle class woman of a certain age, I spent my childhood and teen years within the safety of what those adjectives implied. In the late forties and throughout the fifties, my friends and I felt simultaneously free and watched over. We had an unspoken sense that the future would treat us kindly and our comfort and success could be taken for granted. In our ignorance, we imagined most kids lived the same way.

But as our teens morphed into young adulthood, we saw another America. Our TVs brought racial injustices and brutality into our living rooms. The childhood and teen years I had experienced were the polar opposite of what black children my age had lived. The Civil War was only yesterday, and Jim Crow was now.

By the time we were taking on the responsibilities of career, marriage and families, we were also facing multiple protest movements and assassinations. I was teaching fifth grade when an ashen and shaking principal came to my door and told me that John Kennedy had been assassinated. I was teaching third grade when Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy and Malcolm X were assassinated.

Our city streets were afire with the anguish of inequality and its blow back. Marchers were beaten, hosed, attacked by dogs and jailed. Fires were set, city blocks destroyed. Black and white civil rights protesters were murdered. Through the fire and pain, President Johnson, a Southerner, a Texan, pushed Congress to act on his Civil Rights agenda and bipartisan progress was made. It was slow, sometimes ugly and painful, but it was made.

The struggle for racial justice is front and center again, sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. It is hard to predict just what will galvanize a mass movement, there have been similar cases very recently. But Floyd’s death triggered this one.

The marchers today are more numerous and significantly more diverse. Positive interactions with police and National Guards men and women have been encouraging. The movement is being carried into all corners of our democracy. And with some unfortunate and regrettable exceptions, the protesting has been remarkably peaceful.

The understanding that systemic racism needs to be eradicated wherever it lives is gaining wider recognition and acceptance than ever before. From my prospective as a witness to both the 60s and today, I think we are in a better place to get this done than we were then. We are starting farther down the road and therefore closer to bending that arch of history toward justice.

What I have seen throughout my life is that good people usually do good things. Most often they are our family, our friends, our neighbors, our local officials. There is no perfection here. Mistakes will be made, fault lines will surface. “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in. ” (Leonard Cohen.) But I think we can come out of this movement a stronger and better nation. It is not guaranteed, but if we are willing to do the hard work ahead, thinking of ourselves as “each other” and not “the other,” we can get there for ourselves and all our children.

“ It is in the shelter of each other that we live,” an Irish blessing for the times.

I Can’t Breathe….

“‘I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.’ George Floyd’s last words. But they didn’t die with him. They’re still being heard. They’re echoing across this nation,” ……
“They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk. They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to a virus and 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment — with a disproportionate number of these deaths and job losses concentrated in the black and minority communities …..And they speak to a nation where every day millions of people — not at the moment of losing their life — but in the course of living their life — are saying to themselves, ‘I can’t breathe.'”

– Joe Biden

Our Country in Orange flames

Another black man dies at the hands of a racist, Riots in the streets across America, looting, cars on fire, National Guard called in. 103,000 dead in three months from a pandemic our President and his son initially called a democratic hoax. 40 million now unemployed. Yesterday he retweeted a message that included “ the only good democrat is a dead democrat”. By anyone’s account that alone should be considered an extremely poor choice for the leader of this Country. Last night instead of addressing the nation, he continued to spar on Twitter.

Sooo much winning. This is not a Great America. M A G A

Cops are not the problem

Cops are not the problem. Disturbed sick people who take the position of power because it gives them license to do heinous things that appeal to their mentality are the problem.

Priests are not the problem. Disturbed sick people who take the position of power because it gives them license to do heinous things that appeal to their mentality are the problem.

Trump is not the problem. People who applaud a man who is proven by his own deeds and words to be divisive, lies regularly, spreads false accusations and conspiracy theories, has cheated his entire life, a mocker of handicapped reporter, a self proclaimed pussy grabber who believes there are good people on both sides of a white supremacy event… because some of what he does appeals to their mentality are part of the problem.

For those who will say “Oh look, she’s politicizing a racist event” … you’re damned right I am, because it’s all interconnected. We are not totally powerless when it comes to horrible events such as the death of Mr. Floyd at the hands of a racist officer. There are steps we can take to fight the negative tide. And if each one of us did those simple things, we are each and then as a whole the collective answer to that horrible scream of violence and injustice everywhere.

Stop supporting or defending the undefendable. It comes in many forms.

My “thoughts and prayers” go out to the Floyd family, to all families who have suffered loss at the hands of racism, which is still rampant ! , to all the decent law enforcement folks, first responders and healthcare workers who are doing the good work every day, literally putting their lives on the line for all of us, every single day… but my “thoughts and prayers” aren’t anywhere near enough. It’s going to take more than a village to clean this world up…. it’s going to take every single one of us to realize we each at least have the power with our own actions, and at the very least to vote hatred out.

I hope that’s your choice come November. I don’t know of any peace that can be bestowed on Mr. Floyd’s family, there’s no taking back what’s been done… but I hope justice is served.

Love in the Time of COVID-19

In recent years the political and ideological divide we’ve all been a witness to here in our Country and around the world has been tremendously disconcerting. It bubbles over as our governments and our peoples struggle to sort out and best react to the tremendous challenges of fighting a worldwide pandemic. Both economic and health concerns put an additional strain on an already beleaguered civil unrest and it can be hard to find a balance, to look for the good when it feels like the whole world has been shaken like a snow globe and the dust has yet to settle. Some of us have lost our jobs, our source of income – or it’s been put on hold temporarily. Others are on the front lines either in hospitals or food service stores, pharmacies, etc trying to protect their own health as well as that of their patients/customers. Many are isolated from their loved ones, most are not living the life they had just three months ago. The worst off are dying without family nearby to comfort them and say farewell.

When something as awful as this pandemic grabs us by the proverbial throat, something else happens along with it. Remember the response we all had to the 9/11 terrorist attacks? As horrifying as that event was, and I hope we never witness something like it again, it also brought us together. There were flags everywhere! People waved, honked, and thanked first responders, healthcare workers, police and firemen – those whose careers and COURAGE! put them on the front lines every day. We were nicer to our neighbors, didn’t matter what their political affiliation or nationality, they were us and we were them. We were proud of our flag and it stood for what it should – our pride and love for our Country. We were Americans, all. This virus spans the globe, not just our Country. We’re really and truly all in this together. Perhaps some good will come of it, a coming together of sorts as we figure out how to wade back into some sort of normal. Those flags are now rainbows drawn on sidewalks, hearts in windows and on mailboxes, red ribbons tied around trees. They say – THANK YOU, WE’RE WITH YOU, WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. And indeed, we are, once again. Let the good things that come out of this pandemic ripple out and the togetherness remain.

In the meantime… I’ve picked up my paint brushes again to see what I can create…..finished this last night … Little Cinnamon Beach, Peter Bay, St. John…

Made this a few days ago and oh, man.. easy to make, delicious too – give it a go if you like to cook, and maybe even if you don’t! It’s sooo good…

And… I’ve been playing with goats! Our new little Star and Bella have been a wonderful distraction from the troubles of the world. Goats are so friendly when raised with kindness. They call out to us when they see us walking up to their little pasture and come running to rub up against us. If we’re sitting with them, they’ll lie next to us or try to climb up on our shoulders, no kidding! No pun in tended!

As the world begins to lift the stay at home orders and businesses begin to re-open, stay safe and be kind. Those with significant health issues will need to be as vigilant as ever. Anxiety will still be present, the concerns are real and the virus has not gone away. As my friend Sean says at the end of every post… WashYourDamnHands.

Till soon, friends…

COVID-19 Perspective

For those who need perspective to understand the severity of Covid-19, in 2018 in Connecticut approximately 700 people died a flu related death. This year so far coronavirus has taken more than 3,000. Can you imagine if we had not used the difficult precautions put in place? Precautions we do not take for the flu. The symptoms have been growing as they learn more, and right now there are children at Yale with strange symptoms of the virus. In otherwise healthy people, Organ failure, heart inflammation, blood clots throughout the body are just a few odd symptoms for some patients with the disease. This is not a joke, it’s not a hoax meant to take down the President ( yes I still have a FB friend who believes it ) it’s serious shit, so Thank You to all who are on the front lines, thank you to those doing kindnesses where you can, Keep wearing masks in public for now and keep washing your damn hands, as my friend Sean hashtags regularly. It’s important. ❤️

Spring Cottage Gardens and Wild Woods Blooms

Having come off a mild Winter, I had assumed incorrectly we’d have a mild Spring. It’s been a cold wet one here in New England and today only underscores the statement with more rain in the forecast. In between the raindrops I’ve been visiting the cottage for things like tiny garden cleanup and beginning the restock of the refrigerator and cupboard. The 140 “island” cottages have many little gardens, not so much groomed as a bit random. Depending on water from little wells on a rocky outcropping of land jutting out into the salt water of Long Island Sound into the Atlantic, a peninsula not-really-an-island, water must be conserved so as not to use it up. Hence, big gardens are discouraged. Most of these cottages are seasonal and aren’t inhabited by their owners or renters until the summer season has arrived. For that reason I have been pleasantly surprised by all the spring blooming tulips, daffodils and forsythia planted across the community. On a grey day it’s a cheery sight…

In our Stella’s little waterfront garden, the Parsley from last summer is still growing in abundance. I have literally been pulling parsley from it all winter long , see it in the right hand bottom corner?- who woulda believed it.

The little cottages each have their own personality, no two are the same. I have had the opportunity to see the insides of at least 10 of them now and each has it’s own unique charm, I love seeing what people do with their spaces. Below are a few photos from a neighbor… Love the fireplace and the checked floor!

Yesterday I took the dogs for a walk down the trail behind the farm, and found wild spring blooms in abundance….

Swamp Marigold…

Trout Lily…

and wild violet? Pansy?…..

The goat girls, Bella and Star – have captured all of our hearts, even the Mr. They are so very friendly, call to us as we approach their pen and cry for us when we leave it. They lay in our laps, enjoy head scratches and are discovering the mini horses Coady and Lacey are their neighbor buddies.

We’ve loved having our show horse, Leah, home…. and she’s loved being a real horse again without all the constraints of show horse life. The show season has been postponed yet another month or two, which I think is very wise – and I am so glad we brought her home. Not just for the financial reasons, but for all of our well being.

I’ve started another painting, a tiny oil on canvas depiction of Cruz Bay in St. John – lots more to fill in…I’ll share it again when it’s done… I am finding much more joy in painting as an older person than I did when I was young. The reason is simple – I am … a simple artist. I will never have the patience to draw out and execute a spectacular painting, like those you see from the truly gifted, truly patient, truly educated greats – That used to disappoint me, but it no longer does. I paint for enjoyment, for stress relief. My simple method pleases me in the ways it needs to, and if someone else likes looking at it too, icing on the cake! but not the main goal. If you’re so inclined to create art in whatever form, don’t ever be discouraged by what you might believe is – not good enough – There’s no such thing with an expression of art. Just do it, and enjoy the process. There are some benefits to aging – and that’s been one of them for me.

During these strange social distancing times, have you picked up something you put down long ago? I’ve been painting, cleaning, cooking, baking, eating, cursing all the eating, wash, rinse, repeat. We are all well and I still have a job, thankfully – and have been working in my home office, thankful for that too. I hope you are all finding ways to enjoy this down time, also hoping you are staying well and have not come across too much financial hardship, sadly that’s the case for many workers and businesses.

Closing this post with a little COVID-19 humor, because we have to find ways to laugh, amIRight?

Till soon, friends…

How Y’all doing out there

Dear Georgia – Shout out to the brave ones as your Governor has opened your doors again, with the high praise of Tr*mp and P*nce. Let us know how y’all make out, we’ll be paying attention. Of course.. you won’t be seeing Tr*mp & P*nce out there among you, because they do still care about their own asses, just not yours so much as the all mighty dollar as it pertains to their re election prospects. Of course, with all the MAGA stupidity going on, those rallies to be set free again with our own POTUS calling for civil unrest – set yourself free!!…. and don’t leave out the can’t-make-me-wear-a-mask bullshit… sad but true – there might be fewer MAGA voters come November.

Mask wearing no longer feels weird in a grocery store, hell, everyone’s doing it. If I could only master the damned arrows in the aisles!… sheesh, such a simple thing and yet so many of us are getting it wrong. (hand raised high here). I don’t wear gloves except at the gas pump, where they are thrown out as soon as the handle is back in it’s holder. Hand washing is so frequent my hands are sandpaper, but MOM to the rescue – have you tried Cetaphil ultra healing with ceramides? It’s not cheap but it’s magic on rough try hands. Thanks, Mom – it works!

I’m eating more than I should because I’m cooking and baking more than usual because I’m home and there’s the damned refrigerator every time I turn around and you know I have to open it and take something out and shove it in my mouth. Right now I’ve got a blueberry buckle baking in the oven, and Maple BBQ Ribs and green beans are on tonight’s dinner menu. Tomorrow night I’ll make the New York Times recipe Caramelized Shallot Pasta. All are delish recipes, easy to put together if you have the ingredients.

Farm news! – the baby goats, Star and Bella will be moving in this weekend. YAY!!… It’s been 40 years since I’ve had a goat – that’s an actual fact.. and I am so excited to welcome them home. My first goat was one I had adopted at the Staten Island Zoo while I worked there at the pony ride track. The baby goat had eye ulcers and they were going to put her down. I begged them to let me take her, and got her to the vet immediately. We healed her ulcers and she lived on our little plot on Staten Island until she became much bigger and a neighbor’s daughter who had a farm took her to live a bigger farm life. Her name was Casey – She was a black goat with a white star on her forehead just like our Star. We’ve got the goat house ready and their goat yard properly fenced in for their safety, now to create a little bit of a playscape for them. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, Stella is open and ready for the season… we just need some warm weather…. Some scenes from “down island” after yesterday’s rainstorm…

I hope you’re well and staying sane. We’re all good here, working from home and out on job sites with caution of course. Our business has definitely been affected, as several tenants have notified us they will be abandoning their lease (hair dresses among them). Time will tell how it all pans out.

Closing out this post with a little quarantine humor…

A New Season

Who in their right mind would have ever guessed we’d be in the middle of a pandemic come Spring? How are you all coping, I hope this post finds you well and sane, if nothing else. We are all (crossed fingers) healthy here and practicing as much safe social distancing as is possible. My hands are sand paper from all the washing. I have now begun wearing a face mask in the grocery store, as are most other people. I also see others wearing them when walking outdoors – I think that’s a bit of an overkill in areas like ours, perhaps not in the big cities and in stores, etc. When will it all end? Well, when will we feel comfortable sauntering around a store or sitting in a crowded restaurant when someone coughs? *sigh. When there’s a vaccine, I suppose? …. we can only wait and see.

We opened the cottage for the season last week – water turned back on, lawn is mowed, garden beds raked out, the beds newly made with fresh-washed linen, floors and furniture wiped down, outdoor furniture back in it’s place. There is fresh dirt in all the pots and I’ll plant annuals once the threat of frost is gone – Mother’s Day is a good rule of thumb but this year I’m a little impatient.

I bought two new candy and dog bone glass jars for the counter – they look like Fire King jadeite type glass but I’m not sure they actually are. The Pioneer Woman’s line in walmart.

We moved our Miss Leah home because I do believe the show season is official deceased. I could be wrong about that but I don’t feel comfortable putting myself and my daughter out there while they find out. She has adjusted very well to home life and we continue to give her exercise as she would normally get at the show barn. My daughter and I have actually ridden together again for the first time in a long time! In the photo below I’m riding her old boy, Max. He has glaucoma in one eye now but we are managing it with meds.

The farm has been such a blessing as we wade through this time of quarantine, social distancing, etc. The fruit trees in the orchard are blooming, the berry bushes we planted last year are greening up, and most of the christmas trees we planted for the third time the wrong way are actually alive. They might just live to see Christmas in a tree stand some day.

My kitchen junk drawer got cleaned out and organized – holy crap, I found christmas ornament hooks I didn’t know I had, baby aspirin that expired five years ago, four pairs of dog nail clippers, at least five collars, 5,000 hair elastics, and I could build a bathroom with the tools in there, I’m almost not exaggerating. Below is the “after”.

I’ve been exercising more, which is a good thing, and I finished the painting of Opie, which I started last year after he passed on. It was just too sad to sit there reminded of him, so I left it unfinished for a long time. I’m no professional, my work is primitive for sure.. but I’m happy with the result and finishing it was therapeutic. And maybe that was because I was watching episodes of Outlander ( watching Jamie Fraser if I’m being totally honest) as I went along. The painting is of Opie standing under our ancient pear tree on a misty fall morning.

A few funnies for you below and an old recipe a friend shared – wishing us all good health and peace of mind as we carry on through and past these weird days –

Till soon, friends…