Monday

I had an epiphany as I was walking the dog this morning: I really need to put a skirt on.

I picked up this very cool voluminous knit poncho thingy over the weekend and it looked great over a turtleneck and a pair of leggings and boots. My first bad idea were those leggings - they were very badly behaved leggings, they were the first to go, they rodedown!

 The first version outfit will look great over a weekend sometime but in the work environment, it needed a little more coverage, so I added a black skirt and a different pair of black leggings and it looked great in the office.

I'll also have you know that there was a protest this afternoon and it went off without me, I don't want to get burned out on protests. Also, it was a the office  of one of our Senators and it turned out to be a very photogenic picket line and I don't want to show up in pictures at this point, there are still too many McCrory Republicans between me and my check. I need to be careful.

I did avoid the line though, as a practice though, I do not cross picket lines - not that I have had much chance to do so being that I have always lived in "right to work" states where you are not likely going to run across many picket lines to cross. So, for the first time ever, I think, I did not cross a picket line. The dog and I walked all the way around the building to avoid getting in its way.

Good for them showing up though and holding Sen. Tillis to the heat though and I do like the picket line idea, its a new one. It was a good use of not that many people and it looked good for the rush hour  traffic passing by. Good for the organizers.

Another Day another Protest

You go years without having to hit the bricks and then the world comes to an end and you find yourself  singing the old songs again and again and again I have the very bad feeling that we're going to be thrown into our own Ground Hogs Day Hell  for the foreseeable future.

The expected 150, they got 1500.

I went out early and got a good standing place and was shocked yet again when the crowds just did not stop arriving. Raleigh didn't let itself down, we are not happy and we are not afraid. The bear has been poked and it is not going back to sleep. There is a another rally already scheduled for the weekend of the 4th  and there is an even bigger rally long scheduled for the weekend after that. Being angry about politics and  policy is apparently a group activity. Who knew PoliSci could be fun!

But the thing is, its not fun.  None of this is fun. There are real people who are suffering  very real hardships because the cheeto is letting a Nazi make his policy  for him. We are the bad guys and suddenly? So are the British? Gawd! The Germans must feel so confused right now, they are on the moral high ground for the first time ever. I bet there is a nation wide epidemic of dizziness and disorientation. The grandchildren of Nazis are looking down on us. Thank you Cheeto,

Friday Cats Blogging

Carry On.

After this week I've decided that I'm going to get myself this:

It's going to be for Tiny. Ace would not like this and he weighs too much to carry around any way. Tiny, however. this is doable.  I'm going to need a pet therapy to get through the coming apocalypse and having a handy cat to snuggle is going to be my key to sanity.

You think I'm kidding. They are cracking down on pets wearing fake service pet yellow vests, when the going gets tough the tough get snuggies for their cats.  If this doesn't work out with Tiny I am going to get some yellow fabric and wrap the dog up. Watch me. #resist.

Stop censership

This is your to-do list. I know you're on Twitter.

Go and follow:

@AltNatParkSer
@NatParkUndrgrnd
@AltForestServ
@altusda
@ActualEPAFacts
@AlternativeNWS
@RogueNASA
@ROGUE_USBGN
@AltUS_ARC
@BadHombreNPS
@AltHHS
@Alt_CDC
@AltUSFWS
@AltUSFWSRefuge
@alt_fda


These is your tax dollars trying desperately to work.

Your Purpose

Okay! I was bad! I went to the movies instead of being good and writing an entry. I'm sorry, not sorry.

I went to see A Dogs Purpose , controversial? Not if you don't use TMZ as a news source or think of PETA as any type of animal welfare group - because  I don't and they aren't. They are dedicated to self aggrandizement and they care little to nothing about the actual care and welfare of animals. They suck.

The movie does not. It is very sad, SPOILER, the dogs die. They live out their natural lives,  or some some of a bitch kills them, and then they die. Over and over. Kind of like they do in real life. And that sucks, however it's the same dog in spirit and he just keeps trucking along "Wow, that life was awesome!, Ew. that life was kind of short and to the point, hmm. Better luck next time, Next life here I come!" - Only better than that.

If I had just lost a pet I could not have watched this, it would have been way too hard.

And there are actual real people involved and there lives are kind of sad too. The dog at least gets to die  and sometimes die heroically, every 12 years or so, these poor people just have to keep plugging along even though alcoholic parents and shattered dreams and house fires and occasional heroism, and clinical depression. And happiness and marriage and children and joy and life stuff and our little buddy just keep scampering along. Sob!

Still? Go see it, not however, for small children.


Yes, I know the Oscar (tm) nominations came out. I went to see a movie! 

The best thing about the march is that I no longer have to hate every one out of hand, not everyone that I run across in a given day is a mouth breathing, scum sucking,  Trump voting shit heal - worthy of my deepest loathing. The march let me know that there are actually a lot of people out there who think the same way I do. It's kind of relief . It can be exhausting planning in detail how I am going to kill that many people over a given day.

Today I went to Sams and paid my bill. Tomorrow I'll go back to Sams and pick up meds, get lunch and possibly put gas in the car. That ll might not happen. I might have to wait for the meds, there might be a line for the food. there might be a line for gas. There are a lot of mights my plans. I should make my lunch just in case and bring it in . I don't want to, but if I do I'll have an escape hatch if I run into a problem.

Today, I did not get lunch or gas and I was able to go to Sam's and make it downtown and get the cats more food. I could have done it on our walk but I had concerns about the weather and the possibility of rain and I didn't want to risk it. No walk, no food. As it turned out it did not rain and we had a nice walk, it looked like it really wanted to though.

But then it didn't.

I do have to remember that Rock dog has an appointment to get his bordetella shot or spray or whatever it is that they do tomorrow at 5pm -  so that ultimately I can take him back to day care. I was supposed to take him to the vet around Christmas but that was not going to happen and since it didn't happen he couldn't go to day care and that was actually kind of sad for him and for me. My futon will never be the same. 

Women's March on Raleigh January 21, 2017

'I marched with my family in Raleigh, and I  found my parents run-away cat.

I went to the march with the idea that I would see other people I knew, I knew several other people going, not including the air horn people who I assumed would be there and I figured I would see. I also figured that I would be able to see them because there wouldn't be that many people there because this is Raleigh after all, I mean come on, how many people would possibly show up. I've been to many protests here and frankly, Raleigh is not a big protest town. It throws a lot of protests but the attendance rate is not great. But then Trump got elected and the times are not normal.

Sunday, while I was a Lowes doing some grocery shopping a girl who came up to me because she saw the Hillary sticker on my car in the parking lot ,  told me 30K was the final count.  We had a quick bonding session because we were both there and that was fun, she told me there was another march on Feb. 11, I also got a flyer for that one but hadn't thought about going, maybe I will. Note to self, get pussy hat prior to march.

I thought there were a lot of folks at the march, we were walking up the street and there were all these other people also walking up the street and I was "Wow, there are going to be a turn out for this, how neat!" and then we got to a stopping place and lo and behold, we were several blocks from the place we were supposed to be because there were so many people already there. Thousands of people already there.

I saw that it was thought to be about 17K, I saw a report on my phone while we were still at the march that gave the attendance number and it seemed like a good figure on  Saturday while it was still happening, but that was preliminary . That seemed like a really big number to me. Later on they revised the figure upward and they were saying 20K but, people were still streaming in even as we were leaving so the 30K number could be good.  The people just kept streaming in! So many people! We were leaving and new people just kept streaming in.

We were leaving we had been there for a couple of hours at least, the signs are the crowds of people streaming in from Fayetteville Street hours after the march started. The cars are parked because they could not pass due to the sheer number of pedestrians.

It felt like 30K. I really did think that it was going to be just a handful of people and I was going to be able to easily find my friends and we would all have lunch together! I didn't even bother to set up any kind of meet up because why bother? We would be able to see each other, I had no idea it was going to be like that. And by "that" I mean shoulder-to-shoulder-across-the-street-for-blocks-we-got-there-late-and-we-were-among-the-first-to-Moore Square-and-we-still-could-not-even-see-or-hear-the-speakers. We were pretty sure that there were speakers but we were never sure if they were speaking or why periodically we all got very excited. We did a lot of cheering and chanting. Chanting is fun.

January 20, 2017. The end of life as we know it.

It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I ( don't) Feel Fine),  from REM

That's great! It starts with an earthquake,
Birds and snakes, an aeroplane.
Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn.
World serves its own needs, dummy, serve your own needs.
Feed it off an aux speak, grunt, no strength.
The ladder starts to clatter with fear fight, down, height.
Wire in a fire, representing seven games
In a government for hire and a combat site.
Left of west and coming in a hurry
With the furies breathing down your neck
Team by team reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped.
Look at that low playing! Fine, then.
Uh oh, overflow, population, common group
But it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself.
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed,
Dummy, with the rapture and the rev-'rent and the right, right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light
Feeling pretty psyched.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I (don't) feel fine.
Six o'clock - TV hour.
Don't get caught in foreign towers.
Slash and burn, return.
Listen to yourself churn.
Locking in uniforming, book burning, bloodletting.
Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate.
Light a candle, light a motive.
Step down, step down.
Watch your heel crush, crushed.
Uh oh, this means no fear, cavalier.
Renegade steer clear!
A tournament, a tournament,
A tournament of lies.
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
And I decline.
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine (It's time I had some time alone)
I feel fine
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine (It's time I had some time alone)
The other night I dreamt of knives.
Continental drift divide.
Mountains sit in a line.
Leonard Bernstein, Leonid Brezhnev,
Lenny Bruce, and Lester Bangs
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly beans, boom!
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam book neck, right? Right.
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine (It's time I had some time alone)

Or if you are from a different generation,  from Bob Dylan

Come gather around people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
And if your breath to you is worth saving
Then you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changing

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no telling who that it's naming
For the loser now will be later to win
Cause the times they are a-changing

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's the battle outside raging
It'll soon…

Thursday

I solved the problem of the uneven  episodes of M*A*S*H, two different networks running reruns! It would be one thing if the episodes were  separated by multiple seasons, but they are only a season or so separating the episodes.  M*A*S*H ran for eleven years, they could do a lot better than than that. So it's not a single network running episodes out of order, it is two networks running reruns concurrently. It's like they are singing a round. I feel better now.

I've also discovered that even though two networks are running reruns, they are not running episodes every day. Thursdays for example, are episode-less - which would be tragic, except I have other actual first-run shows from this century to watch instead, so I'll survive.

On a totally different topic. I just cleaned my bath tub. It looks exactly the same. This is not the look I was going for, it may look gross but it was just literally soaked with a bleach bathroom cleaner and the room reeks of bleach. The tub doesn't look very nice but its probably cleaner than yours is.

On to a different topic : When is the new Match Game going to get good? It is just so bad! The  celebrities are okayish, they try hard and for the most part they seem to at least want to be there, or not, one or two seem to have woken up on the set and behave like caged animals ( looking at you Chris D'elia).

The real issue are the players. Real morons! Idiots! Where do they get these people! Back in the day the players were at the very least clever. The writing isn't great, it needs help, but still. My Gawd. The network is burning episodes ( Now on Twice a Week!), so  clearly they aren't happy with it, but  they could fix it. It was a funny game show. Now its a ... show.

On to a different topic - Puppy Days , a good show,  brutally honest about living with a puppy and how not fun it is.  I thought it was just going to follow these folks on Day 1 with their new puppies and that was going to be cute but in reality, its going to follow these people and their puppies through the unfun challenges of potty training, teething, obedience, learning to live with this new creature. Its fascinating. Six families, in six different locations with six different kinds of puppies. Its very good and the puppies are adorb. All puppies are cute if they aren't yours and you are cleaning up their pee or scooping their poop. This show pulls no punches. Puppies are hard. And squishy.

Rerun Land

I got a happy surprise over the weekend, M*A*S*H reuns! and lots of them!  A good hour and half a day of soothing, televised mac and cheese. Just when I needed it the most.

It was absolutely comforting to see an episode again. I as like Oh, Hawkeye! BJ! Father Mulcahey!  Col. Potter! Margaret!, Radar!, Klinger! OMG I've missed you!

Sadly, they are being aired out of order. The episode I watched today was Col. Potters first show, and early in the BJ years, tomorrow the episodes feature Henry (alive!) and Trapper. The first episode I ran across over the weekend was Henry's son being born. It was happy and sad because Henry doesn't live to get to meet the baby. It doesn't matter that Henry wasn't real, he didn't live to meet his son!, his plane spun into the Sea of Japan and there were no survivors.  I would not watch that episode again.

I aced a M*A*S*H quiz on Buzzfeed and I hadn't watched an episode in years. Of course for years I watched  the show every day, years? Did I say years? I meant decades. I also aced a quiz on great works of art just to make sure my brain wasn't completely full of TV trivia. I aced the art quiz because I was able to place the location of the scene to Spain by the gowns the women were wearing, because I took costume history and I remembered that only ladies in Spain wore that horrible silhouette  and that allowed me to guess the name of the work, i.e it was by a Spanish artist vs. Italian or French.

Will and Grace is reruns and totally available and now my DVR is so busy and that makes me so happy because living in the past is going to be my happy place for the next while I'm thinking.

This morning I woke up with the dogs head on my shoulder, it was the nicest thing ever.

Friday Cats Blogging

Friday

On Monday I crept out of the house to carefully walk the dog ( wearing a furry hat and a full winter coat) through the ice and snow in inadequate gloves ( fingers took hours to stop tingling) a heavy wool coat, flannel lined jeans, leggings, snow boots ( toes did not regain feeling for hours), a heavy wool sweater and two layers under that and I was still cold and I think I ended up with  touch of  frost bite on my face.

On Thursday, I  swept out of the house in a thin sweater sweater and a pair of slacks, the dog was without a coat or hat and we had a lovely time.  I even put the wool coat away in the closet, practically in Siberia.

Today I bought tee shirts for my mother and I to wear to the March in Raleigh on the 21st. #Resist. You can see if there is near you .

The TV Guide

Welcome to the Chaos. The movies and TV and other entertainment made over the next whatever are going to be very easily identifiable in the future. There will be stark differences in what we are seeing in today's Pre-Trump presidency productions and what will be rolled out in the fall, the tone, the themes, even the colors of the sets and the wardrobes. 

At first they are going to try to make friends with poor white trash, make more Khristian centered family sitcoms and Khristan Dramas, a whole lot of bad shows along the lines of Touched by an Angel or That other Bad Show but when these fail because no one really watches these, the industry will attack and  instead of stories featuring bad foreign terrorists we will go after the real enemy, domestic terrorists. The ones who really destroyed our country. But Trump and his ilk won't like these stories at all.

Eventually, some of it will no doubt be straight up Trumpian propaganda, because he or the people around him do know TV, -  bad TV, Reality TV, but you would think he would understand the importance of  story telling, although that complete mess today does make you question how much of his TV experience he brought to the party because applause at a press conference? really!? He will get better and he will eventually find people who will be willing to produce pro-Trump TV programming on the main networks. It won't be pretty. But first they have to cut off his coke and start feeding him downers, lots and lots of downers and hide his damn phone.

 Thus far he has not found his own Leni Riefenstahl but let's be real, he doesn't have the vision for that kind of vision. He's more of a late infomercial kinda guy. He can talk big about vast Reifenstahlian productions but he but he can't pull off a really big show because he can't get really pull that kind of show off, not any more, Before he was just an asshole, now he's a known predator and a hated figure. He insulted Meryl Streep. 

The  best way to reach "his" people - the poor, the drunk, the drug addicted, the mentally ill. the isolated, the ignorant, the angry,  the unemployable is the cheapest, fastest, easiest thing to produce: The lowly Infomercial Run them all night, every night. He would reach millions of his foot soldiers and never have to lift a finger or leave his tower.

Chachi could be in all of them.

Buzzfeed dropped the report a couple of hours ago,  here it is . Read it, don't live it because you were raised better than that, learn it. Call you representatives both local and federal and demand action.

Monday

I was finally able to get the last bag of dog cookies distributed to the intended party! I had almost given up on getting it to them and was just about to give it to Rocket.  

The neighbor came to the door because she had noticed that one of our other neighbors dogs was tied up on their porch and its water bowl had frozen and the dog was very cold and barking and her pit hates being cold and she figured that I must know them. I do know them, I do not know the dog. The dog, I suspect,  belongs to a new boyfriend.

 I knew the last dog that lived there but she, the current homeowner, daughter of the original home owner who I was friends with, who has since died, a lovely old man who was a Tuskegee Airman. The daughter inherited the house after he died and she is a nice woman with a really sweet little girl.

They got rid of  their dog, at some point. His name as Tiger and he was a pitbull. She then got some kind of small yappy dog. There is a new male living there, the suspected boyfriend, and he brought a pit with him, he seems to take care of it more or less, he does make sure its safely tied down outside and it is usually on the porch where it has water and a bed but its too cold for that right now, there is a real threat that could freeze to death . 

I checked before, no small task, and he seemed to be inside. That was the dog that startled Rocket and got him all barky other morning, I think we scared him too. I'm not sure what I think about him being out there at five whatever ayam - know ing that he may have spent the night out there. I didn't see him the next morning but he could have been on the porch - but he also seems pretty alert so I think he wouldn't have let us pass. I just hope he was inside. 

Weekend

Well, the snow fell,  it rained first though and for longer and that did not add to the over all mood . It did eventually snow but not as deeply as advertised and not as long as they had told us it was going to. They were spot on about the temps though. Cold as a witches tit all weekend.

The streets are icy. Can't leave the house unless its on foot and the cold is bad on feet. I can't feel mine right now, its an off an on condition. I do miss summer.

Dog and I  left the house  to  walk downtown on Saturday and that was fun! I discovered that those nifty little one-size-fits-all knit gloves are absolutely no help at all in 19 degree weather. None. Might as well not be wearing gloves at all. It got better as time went on but I wasn't happy.

Rocket seems to like the cold better than he likes the heat. He plays in the snow and ice and seems to get genuine joy from it. I think it hurts his feet though. I should have made him wear his shoes with the ice and snow and attendant salting but I didn't think of it - he hates them anyway. The best thing about  spending time in the bitter cold outside is it makes the cold inside seem absolutely balmy by comparison, at least briefly when we come home.

To warm up the house and myself I made myself a lovely chicken pot pie with a home made white sauce to boot. It turned out very well.

Sunday  wewalked downtown again, gluttons for punishment are we. This time with awkward ski gloves protecting my hands. My hands were fine, my feet, however, haha! on our way back. the sole of one of my boots fell clean off. Without a sole, a snow boot is like a really heavy ballet shoe. A clearly not waterproof  ballet shoe. For a good half mile on a mostly shady, icy street. So much joy.

Saturday I stripped the tree, Sunday I  took down the tree and boxed up indoor Christmas. After out walk I made a very good spaghetti squash with venison and red sauce, warmed up the kitchen and me very well.

Friday Cats Blogging

TGIF

We have been assured that it is going to snow this weekend so I dutifully went to the store and panic bought staples so that while the snow was on the ground I would not starve to death.

Snow is the white death you know. It falls to the ground and so do you. Its all very sad. You can survive but you must go to the store and buy all the milk and bread you can get your hands on because they are White also and even if you are lactose intolerant and a lifetime Atkins member you must drink only milk and eat only bread during a snow moment because you must have power over the White. Tomorrow at lunch I am going to panic buy toilet paper.

In real life I am going to make a chicken pot pie, useing a homemade white sauce, utilizing white meat because I will have power over the White, during the snow moment.

Wednesday

I had to work very hard at work today.  So hard. All day.  I don't get compensated enough to work all day, I didn't even get lunch. I  sat at my desk and worked through - I was able to do so because we had pizza today to reward us for working harder than we should have. In reality, some of us worked hard, some of us let our work pile up until  rescue missions had to be staged. Those people also ate pizza. And also probably took lunch.

But. I got business taken care of. I did two days of work in one and did it with a sore back. WHich is feeling better, thank you for asking.

As for my new alarm clock, I am happy to report that my new alarm clock does work and did successfully alarm this morning, I know because I was awake and waiting for it to not go off. It did go off and it did so in a fancy starting off softly and gradually getting more peircing way. It is hard to properly turn off and then reset. And its hard to tell if  the alarm is on, it could be clearer.. I guess some people like to really study the faces of their alarm clocks. I would prefer to glance and go.

My old clock was very clear on that. I liked that, you could tell at a glance if it was set or not. This new one and I are going to have to learn each other. I mean, its not going to have to learn about me, i could care less about me, about my hopes and dreams... On the upside, this new machine has a radio! I haven't had a radio in the house in ages. I'm pretty sure its just FM, but I haven't listened to AM in , ever, but hey alarm OPTIONS!

But to be honest, if I'm going to have options, I would prefer multiple buzzer options if options are being handed out. Mood buzzers.

Back to Work.

My lower back seized up, my Rudolph nose flew off my car,  and my basement has water in it again.

So here are so pictures of New Years Eve in Oriental, NC