PRIDE OF BEING AMERICAN.

My friend Domenic Torchia says:

“We must undo the damage done by the hateful rhetoric from the teapublicans and bring back civility and respect for all Americans and American institutions. Opinions will differ (hate is not an opinion) but in the end we all must be Americans.”

Americans build together, have faith in each others goals, no matter what party. Americans believe that differences of opinion are healthy; working together with opposing views brings out our strengths. That was once upon a time… Things have changed dramatically.

 (Image by Getty)

Here is how the Miami Herald assessed the hypocrisy of this election:

Bill Clinton cheats on his wife. Impeach him. Trump proudly brags about sexual assault (and has cheated on his wives). Elect him. Hillary oversaw the department of state while 4 people died in an embassy attack. Put her in jail. 2 Republicans were in office while over 200 people died in embassy attacks. No problem. Immigrants don’t pay taxes. Round them up and kick them out. Trump doesn’t pay taxes. He’s a business genius. Hillary’s foundation only spent 87% of their donations helping people. She’s a crook. Trumps foundation paid off his debts, bought sculptures of him, and made political donations to avoid investigations while using less than 5% of funds for charity (and he got shut down by NY State). So savvy... Put him in the white house. Trump made 4 billion dollars in 40 years, when an index fund started at the same time with the same “small loans” he received would be worth $12 billion today… without a trail of bankruptcies, thousands of lawsuits and burned small business owners. He’s a real business whiz. Hillary took a loss of $700k. She’s a criminal. Trump is the first candidate in the modern era not to release his tax returns, and took a billion dollar  loss in 1 year. Genius. Hillary takes responsibility for private email servers and apologizes. Not credible. Trump denies saying things (on the record) he actually said (on the record), he’s just telling it like it is.

Your arguments are thin. Your ignorance of reality is shocking. Your double-standards are offensive, and your willingness to blindly support him and recycle the rhetoric is absurd. Your opinion is not fact. Your memes are not news articles. And your hypocrisy is not a platform.

Alex Schiller

I thought it was worth repeating. Thank you Alex Schiller.

GOING THE DISTANCE.

In Oregon, on Thursday, my cabinets were delivered. They wait installation by another crew.


I'm certain the delivery guys have to be careful. There was a tear in one box. I took a picture. They denied they had torn it. I could feel around inside and could detect no scratches. Two bugs came out of the hole. One was a  roach. Nope, they said, that bug must have just crawled in. One big cabinet barely fit through the sliding glass door. It scratched the paint on the door. Nope, that scratch must have been there. It was almost comic, but the scratch was no big deal.

On Friday morning, Jim drove north and I drove south. I arrived in Davis, about 330 miles later, to meet Cedric and Virginia. Cedric had just arrived after a five hour drive from Mendocino. We loaded into their Prius, the five of us, within about 15 minutes and hit the road for Reno to attend my oldest grandson's graduation. Actually, not to attend it, but to be there for dinner and recognition.


This is Momma Laurie who stated that her oldest son, Stewart,  is the first in her family to obtain a college degree. In my family and my husband's family, my two daughters were the first to obtain college degrees. Seated next to Laurie is Cedric, his sons, Theo and Owen and Poppa Ken.


On the other side of the table, Virginia and my two oldest grandsons, Mason and Stewart. Of course conversation all around table was much about what will you do with your life, from the youngest, Theo, who thinks he'll probably be a vet, to our graduate, Stewart who wants to go to Japan and teach English as a second language, and, in the process learn to speak Japanese.


After dinner, we spent some time in Ken and Laurie's room, chatting. We drank a bit of wine and enjoyed our short time together after the long drives.


On Saturday morning, while Stewart and family got ready to attend graduation, at his suggestion, we went to a local breakfast joint all the locals adore. It is Peg's Glorified Eggs and Ham. The menu choices were wonderful and varied. The food delicious and the service excellent. Thanks, Stew.


The boys had some variation of pancakes/waffle which came with has hash-browns and fruit or meat.


I had a vegetarian eggs Benedict, that was delicious with spinach, onions, mushrooms, tomato, avocado and cheese. Yum.


After breakfast we drove to the University of California Field Station for Virginia's meeting on invasive plants.


It was partly gravel road to get there. No fancy quarters, people pitch their tents.


She reported to the office to join her peers.


She noticed a nest of baby birds and took a picture for me. I love seeing baby birds and especially watching them fledge. She will get a ride home from a colleague.

Cedric drove us  back to Davis,  and for me, another two-hour drive back to Murphys. I guess  I can safely say, we went the distance. Laurie promised to take gobs of pictures of the graduation ceremony.  I hope to see all of my grandsons graduate college. Five more to go.

BRING YOUR BOOK, READ DIRECTIONS.

From the window of my car, I took this photo of the mist clinging to the pines on my way to Rogue River, Oregon on Tuesday. My son and I went to arrange for prep work on re-building my place that had to be demolished last year. Photos from the windows aren’t great but it was a beautiful drive all through the mountains.


At a rest stop I got a shot of this common little bird. Pretty boring stuff, of course, but my camera always wants to capture everything I see, so I can see it again. And, there is a point this.


At the property, Neighbor Phil was passing by with five of his dogs in his all terrain vehicle. He joined a gaggle of us talking on the driveway. Deanna Granacki, Stephanie Khrone, Bill Regal, and over a period of two hours, Pat Murphy, and Tim Hart, two contractors we had appointments with. It was really fun to talk to my old neighbors I hadn’t seen in a long time.


Phil drove me up to his house to say hello to Ginnie, and check out all the work they’ve done on their property since Phil retired.


And, it was all downhill from there. At this point, I didn’t know it.


This is supposed to be a photo of Doug and Deanna. But, no, it is “downhill”. I later determined, when I went into the house at Ginnie’s, their new shepherd puppy, (not one of the five on the ATV) jumped on me and I must have hit something on my camera buttons that put my camera on a 10 second timer.


From that point on, none of my pictures turned out. Bummer. I went to take a picture of some gorgeous yellow crocuses. Then moved to a lesser grouping of purple crocuses. Since I stayed on a subject for 10 seconds. I got the shot purple crocuses.


The same for this photo out the window on the way home. Not the photo I was trying for, but I had my camera focused to take another, and this is what I got. I will say the drive up and back in the overcast was beautiful, the misty cloud formations and verdant hills, patterned fields.  I tried to get a picture of the lowest I’ve ever seen Lake Shasta. Nada! Well, the lesson here, is bring your book, read directions. It was in the car I realized my photos hadn’t turned out but I couldn’t remember how to get it off timer.  I hate it when I do stuff like that. But, the trip was very productive.

GOALS

Goals come and go or  they change with the passing years. When I was a kid, I wanted hair as long as this woman.  Now I’m quite happy with short hair. At one time it was my goal to parachute from an airplane and try hang gliding. My husband convinced me it was unfair to risk leaving my children without a mother if something went wrong. I never regretted rearranging my goals over the years because life was so full of wondrous things.

I first considered walking  the Appalachian Trail about  25 years ago, but it wasn’t a fire-breathing dragon goal, just a simmer at the back of the brain.  The length of the trail, which stretches from Maine to Georgia, is about 2,150 miles. Pretty daunting when you realize you have to carry everything with you, cooking utensils, tent, emergency medical kit, food, water. Adventurists who have done it term it a  life changing experience.
That goal re-emerged when I met a friend of Jim’s who is walking the Appalachian Trail in pieces.  Hilda is in her late 70′s, a former marine and in good health. She walks with two other women bit, by bit, mile by mile, each year. There are others who tackle the entire length, which takes around 5 months.  Jim and I have entered small areas of the trail while traveling the East Coast. Once in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina, and again at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and several places on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The urge began to stir anew. Good health is key to a 2,000 mile hike no matter how you do it.
Last night, we went to a seminar on hip, knee and shoulder replacements. I’m a candidate for hip replacement. I know I can’t walk the trail without doing something about an arthritic hip. I was amazed at what I learned about hip replacement, including an opinion from one participating surgeon that surgically replacing hips will be a thing of the past in possibly 20 years. I can’t wait that long for new technology. Now, is the time.
Pain is a motivator. For me, a greater motivator to consider hip replacement  surgery, is the current book I’m reading, Bill Bryson’s, A Walk In The Woods. Bryson walked the  Appalachian Trail in a five month stretch. I’m hoping that someone out there has walked the trail and will message me about their experience.  And, I will post some of Bryson’s  observations as I read. I’m also looking for a walking companion because this is not on Jim’s agenda.