Scaramucci is GONE!

Trump and  Saramucci break the record for most short lived communications director of all time! Just 11 fun filled days and the stinking fish head is gone! What a shock it must have been for that narcissistic showboat to find out he had sold his business and given up all ( including wife, although I think she gave him up) to find his career cut EXTREMELY short...11 days...11DAYS...and they were long days at that. He consumed the MSM for the entire time with his brash and totally inappropriate behaviour...much akin to his boss who he love, love, loved!! This bromance could have gone on a lot longer had it not been for the incoming chief of staff who I'm certain said him or me! Plus it has been mentioned that, much like Spicer, ScareY Moochi was having entirely too much air time than the president!
Well here's to the Generals, may they serve well and long in this administration and may they put trump into a veritable choke hold until the end of his presidency in 3 1/2 years or sooner!

Fibro Finale

This past month has been excruciating, with the weather being so wet, and trying to keep up the house between floods and trees falling, the stress has peaked my pain threshold to maximum.  Being the only adult in the house means when I'm struck down with pain, nothing gets done. My physical stamina has been drastically diminished from years of reduced activity, and when I have a good day I tend to over do it to catch up from all the bad days and then that inevitably results in a crash, which means NO energy, as if sedated, LOTS OF PAIN, all over my body, muscles and deep bone aches.
I'm having difficulty motivating my 20 year old to do anything to help! Cutting grass and cleaning up after himself is a constant battle which when confronted results in a huge fight so I walk on tender hooks trying to be diplomatic but there is no diplomacy left, only consequences, like taking the car away, which again means war is declared.
I don't know how to get help anymore. I just watch as things fall apart, things that I would never have allowed before becoming ill are now standard practice like the house being a mess. I am embarrassed when my son brings his friends in...I don't understand how he has such little pride as to let them see the squalor his room is in.
I suppose this is when you start to scrape the bottom of the barrel! When you really begin to think "is this what it's going to be like forever? Is it going to get worse? How can I possibly get out of this situation ?"
I have no answers anymore...no cute little sayings to sweep the truth under the rug. It seems pretty hopeless to me.

The Wrath of Don

Trump has turned the page on the 1st Amendment by suggesting in a video retweet that it would be his wish to take down a CNN journalist and smack him/her down. He then followed up on that idea by stating in a speech to veterans that the media is trying to "shut us down" but they won't because "I'm the President and they're not"! What exactly does that mean in combination with his call to his followers to beat down the media? It reeks of censorship! If you're a friend of Trump and groom his ego you get airtime and mention. If you push him to explain his decisions, activities, multiple investigations, you are subject to the wrath of Don!This behaviour is eerily familiar. Censoring the press (which is his ultimate goal) taunting "Fake News" to his followers like a cult leader to his Trumpsters, who readily taunt the term over and over again refusing to properly debate the facts ... If you get even close to pinning them down they just cry "Fake News" or change the subject!
The use of social media over a free press is nonsense. That's not getting the message out to his people its summarizing, in 140 characters or less, a statement or taunt without the benefit of scrutiny or even explanation of the meaning of these oft times strange messages.
These messages, a small percentage of them being announcements, are mostly filled with rhetoric and accusations which will forever be documented as he goes down in history as being the least articulate president ever to hold office! School children will be exposed to these tweets as official records!
Gone are the days of remarkable, inspirational orators,raising the worlds consciousness. Instead they will see name calling, bullying, and downright vile thoughts tossed into the political atmosphere without caution or concern.  As Melania Trump lays claim to her anti bullying campaign her husband remains the king of bullies, like a grade schooler, he lowers himself to name calling, and mimicking.
The biggest fear in this downright bizarre situation is that he will bully a bully who holds the key to some nuclear or chemical weapons and uses them on the innocents the president has upheld to represent. He has no self control, no insight into his own narcissistic behaviour!
The saddest thing is that the very people who helped to elect him, along with Russia, are the very same people who will suffer the most by his decisions. Tax cuts for the rich, incentives to businesses, (Trump has yet to move his clothing companies and his daughters handbags back to be manufactured in the USA) reduction in healthcare and Medicaid which he promised not to touch, leave the most vulnerable out to dry under his leadership.
It is no wonder that the leaders of foreign countries are confused and bemused by this characature of a man who has accidentally come to represent the leader of the free world.
#SAD

Insurance/contractor nightmares ( I need some balls )

Last year I had the opportunity to access a program to help low income home owners address issues in their homes which may cause them to have to move out. Don't get me wrong they don't come in and "renovate" your home, it's very specific and only the major issues under a certain budget get addressed and over 10 years you have a loan and lien on your house.  I live in a small village of 1000 where most of the houses are older ( mine was built in 1880) and every spring the rows upon rows of sump pump hoses line the streets as homeowners deal with the inevitable. My home is no different, so when I accessed this program I spoke to the contractor I had chosen about making sure the new furnace I was getting was elevated, maybe suspended from the rafters, to keep it safe from water issues. At first he said it couldn't be done as my basement is not full height and I asked for it to be raised at least as high as my previous furnace.  I was on a waiting list from the fall 2016 into mid January 2017.  They lent us a heater to help with the cold while we waited. Once the job was completed the furnace had been placed on maybe 2 inch slabs! I said that I was concerned but the job was done. Then comes April downpours and my basement floods like everyone's did and my beautiful new furnace sinks under the cold icy water and my house fills up with propane! I've never heated with propane and it terrified me...I waded around in the basement and hooked up a fan to try to blow it out all the while expecting to be blown up! I realize this event was not typical weather but what is typical weather these days? So my concerns born out I contact the insurance company and begin the task of quotes.  I contacted my original contractor who then told me the furnace could probably by hung from the rafters but it wouldn't be covered by the insurance company because it would represent a change from the original set up and would increase the cost by $700.00! Sooooo I could have had it raised in the first place but I think my contractor ( who seems to be a nice enough guy) was more afraid of losing the bid than my concerns over possible flooding!!! We're still in the process of finalizing this endeavour and even though I'm a woman I'm intending to pursue it to the bitter end even though I will most likely lose out.  It sucks being a woman in these scenarios because if you're not a bitch in the first place you're a sucker in the end.  I have often said that one day I will buy myself a penis just to carry with me in case I need more balls...maybe that time is now!

Wren update!

This morning after my dogs woke me for their morning constitutional I sat down with my coffee and gazed out the window to check on my wren family but something was different.
Since April the business of birds had been to nest, lay, hatch and feed, all under the watchful eye of the parents, chattering orders to each other at every step of the way. Mom and Dad frequently tag teaming, feeding larvae and insects into the dark hole of the bird box, disappearing inside, then within seconds flying off with baby bird poop in their mouths (yuk!) to procure more tasty morsels for their unseen, but loud little babies.
As I looked closely at the "black hole" of the wren house this morning there was a little face, followed by another little face above it! Over the course of the next hour more faces appeared and a great deal of pushing and shoving ensued. Eventually one little face pushed himself to the front and bumbled around trying to get his body out of the small hole without tumbling to the ground. First the head, then a foot waved around looking for something to cling too...push, push...push...then POP...his whole body appeared on the outside of the box he'd called home for 2 months. He looked surprised! Gazing around nervously, #1 seemingly wondered "okay what's next?". He looked up, he peered down, and seemed undecided as to what to do. His decision was made for him when wren #2 pushed himself out of the box knocking his brother off the perch! Amazingly #1 flew off the box as if he'd been doing it everyday! He landed on the vines on my deck much to his parents dismay as they chirped wildly at him ( I wondered what they were saying...as parents we all know the terrifying moment when we have to let go of our children to learn from their own mistakes). Meanwhile, back at the box, #2 was already on the perch and hopped on top of the bird box to get a better vantage point! Within seconds, during which #3 was almost out of the hole, wren #2 flew off in the opposite direction from #1!!!
As the parents became more frantic the mass exodus continued, rapidly producing 5 infant wrens in total over a period of just a few minutes! When it's time to go, it seems they go quickly! ( unlike human children!)
So my little bird drama is over for the moment, and the nest in my honeysuckle bush?...it's empty
now too! The wrens will stake out another nesting area for their second round before the season ends, so I will continue to see and hear these chattering little birds until the end of the season when they will fly off to warmer climates (smart little birds!) and I will replace the old wren house with a newer, prettier version. They deserve a renovation for all the joy they bring me!

The wonders of Wrens

I am unabashedly, a bird lover. Wild birds, pet birds, injured birds, well birds, hungry birds, fat birds, I love them all.  I love to watch their quirks, their comings and goings, their flirting, their nesting, their parenting skills and the feeling of sadness when they head off to warmer climates and the world becomes many voices quieter.
Of all my garden birds my favourite is the little spunky, saucy tail up, common house wren! That may seem strange when there are so many more "flashy" birds to choose from, but when I hear my little wrens chattering in the spring I can only smile a big smile and think "they're back! Yeah!"
My house wrens have been nesting in my garden for 22 years, establishing their territory and growing in number throughout that time. I live right next to a forest and actually since I've been ill my "garden" has become a bit shall we say "wild". Although my neat flower gardens, vegetable garden, and pond are no longer, my berry bushes, trees, and lots of fragrant shrubs have made this corner of my world very attractive to birds ( and I feed them!which helps!).
As I have mentioned in other posts, I became ill back in 2003, and most of my energy now is focused on the most basics of life, and dealing with constant pain which is very tiring.  Whereas I used to be out in the garden everyday possible, now I spend more time in the house. I used to erect a screened gazebo every year and feed and watch the birds from there, I now have a window by the couch where I sit and watch as the world goes by, so I had a brilliant idea! I mounted a wren house on a pole right outside my window! Best idea I've had in a long time as this has brought me much joy as I have a front row seat to the busy nature and highly protective qualities of these tiny chattering birds.
In cleaning out their nest this spring I came across a wide variety of nesting materials which included pine needles, feathers, some branches and amazingly a few large screws and nails which certainly must be decrorative because they're shiny and I can't see how comfortable they would be!! But maybe
they were trying to fix this old house as it is in great need of renovating ( a replacement was in the plan but they came home earlier than expected).
I love witnessing the focus spent on choosing their nesting materials. They are very stubborn birds and fly in with branches 4 times too big to be moved through their nest box hole! They try and try over and over again, dropping the branches and flying down to retrieve them. Eventually they satisfied and begin the task of egg laying which obviously is Mom's job but after that Mom and Dad are equally invested in the parenting and guarding their babies. One wren flies in relieving the other to go in search of food and on it goes like a well oiled machine.  They chatter in their wren language
And alert each other when anything seems threatening, like our dogs bounding around rambunctiously, or me trying to get a great photograph ( not ) of them. When it's really hot they perch on the roof of the house (which has a split in it ) and flap their wings rapidly in an effort to cool the house down ( always make sure there's water nearby that they can drink and share with the little ones.
It may seem silly, but watching them has become a big part of my day and I worry when it's hot, cold, or wet!
When they finally leave for the season I hope they are safe and miss they're presence in my garden.
But I know they will be back, or they're little ones will be back to nest somewhere else in the area next year.

A bird in the hand is worth 9 in the bushes?

As I mentioned before my poor garden has gone wild since my illness starting back in 2003. My lilac bushes are now at least 10 ft. high along with my honeysuckle bushes. I had decided that this was the year to trim them back, especially one of my honeysuckles, which has grown so high that it covers my window! I wanted to wait until they had flowered so the bees and I could enjoy their beautiful scent and flowers. There's nothing quite like it. But now I have a problem! Another wonderful delay! I peeked out my window and in the middle of all those branches sits a little nest overflowing with hungry chicks, mouths open leaning perilously close to the edge and risking falling out in an effort to be the first one to eat!
I've been trying to get a photograph of them but once Mom noticed me at the window she flew away with a juicy worm hanging from her beak and hasn't returned yet so I certainly don't want to interfere with dinner!
So it looks as if my yard will have to undergo some inspection into each bush to choose which ones are uninhabited and which have little tenants! As much as those shrubs need trimming I hope I find some more tenants too!
Wren update: my wren's eggs hatched a few weeks ago which means a flurry of activity is going on outside another window! Like a relay race the parents fly in with food and wait for the exit of the other who has fed the chicks and leaves with clean up duty while the other sits with an insect in his mouth. Efficiency to the max!
So while I continue in my life of isolation I have my dogs and nature's gifts to lift my spirits. Okay it's not the same as real human relationships but they have few expectations and don't care if I'm too ill to meet a prior plan. No ones disappointed and my pups just curl up with me until I'm well enough to take them on an new adventure!