It's the End of the World as We Know It.

I will leave my unhinged stuff to the end.  Where have I been? 

We hosted a surprise party for our youngest son's 40th birthday. Took this group of hooligans out to dinner and they met more young people at the Cleveland Cavs game. The old people went home to bed. 

Then I dropped my laptop about 8", breaking it at the hinge so that all kinds of wires were hanging out. I took it to my friendly neighborhood computer dealer who was able to order parts for I think $50 and charged me another $50 to put it all together and replace the top half completely. Which I thought was crazy reasonable for a $900 laptop that is about a year old. It did take 10-14 days . . . 

Meanwhile my meat arrived. 

Whatever I wrote here.  The last time we bought a beef quarter it lasted us almost a year. 

Lots of trips to the store to restock the pantry since who knows what games we are playing with groceries and tariffs.  

We are still getting our eggs from my lesbian chicken farmer. We did have a shortage when we were below zero for too long and they were freezing in the coop before she could grab them. But we are stocked up again with enough to share with my favorite people.  

This is one of our security cameras watching it rain ice.  We started with a doorbell camera, I think because my husband doesn't like to answer the door. He loves looking at the camera from his phone, but my ginormous hanging baskets block them in the summer. I bought him one for the front of the garage for Father's Day and then for Christmas I bought him two more.  I think we are covered. He doesn't have to leave the recliner to look outside. 

Not cute.  There were four going by and they like to play around our cars at night. Sometimes we have 6 or more. Here they are headed straight into the street and traffic.  They sound like horses going by our window. 

We had a bunch of snow days and I think this was a cold day - too cold to wait at bus stops and too cold to walk to school (if you live within a mile, you are a walker). So they are playing . . . school. 

Took this ruffian with us to the dealership for service on my car. Mr Merry prefers a garage two towns away so it is always an outing. 

We waited at the diner.  I ordered one egg and bacon per his request. He told the waitress he needed more eggs. She asked how many he wanted. He said nine. 

And we came home to find an illegal semi traveling our street at 25 mph had snagged our wires. And that four cameras did not pick up anymore information than it was "white".  Six hours later a repairperson came and fixed them.

Just in time for the next morning when we took my husband's truck to the dealership with this roughneck who had a kindergarten in-service day. 

He arrives a little later and had breakfasted at home. We ended up at a coffee shop which thrilled grampa. There were some complications and this trip took an entire day. 

Thrilled to sit in the coffee shop. 

My middle son brought me a package of the Viral Sam's Club Crab Legs to try.  We did not think they tasted like crab legs.  I would give them a C and would not bother to make them again. 

A very sad groovy ground hogs day celebration. 

This 6' tall sixth grader placed 7th in the spelling bee and lasted 9-10 rounds.  We were very impressed since he comes from a large family of spelling challenged people. All the kids did a super job. 

I'm still very busy in the charity church office. One member has covid. One lady who just came back from breast cancer has shingles.  One member is in Florida and the other on a cruise. I'm trying to count on my fingers. So, we are open 4 days a week and I am working a minimum of 1 and 1/2.  Oh gosh, the member whose wife fell and broke her shoulder, elbow and wrist.  

I like helping people but it is getting very hard to make decisions with prices rising higher than donations (our only source of income). With our cold weather this winter, utility bills are sky high. We also got a letter this week from our national instructing us that church sovereignty has gone out the window and  what to do if federal marshals come to our office and request our records. We haven't had a meeting since the letter, but my choice is to light a match. We will see what everyone else thinks. We do not require anything but a picture id (we look at it but don't copy it) and copies of bills, but they could use our records if they are looking for a specific person.  It is just too uncomfortable to me. 

And after saying that, I did work this afternoon and I will be working all day tomorrow. Today I had a mother who was laid off from her job, unemployment is lagging, her adult son attempted suicide and is living with her while going to daily counseling and she has zero income aside from food stamps. She needs her mortgage payment by next week. 

My niece and her husband live out of state. I am afraid to say which state.  They are both federal employees, professionals who work at a VA medical center. Yesterday her husband got the email requesting everyone at the facility resign. He deleted it and it popped back up. They cannot use screenshot so he took a grainy photo with his camera.  They are in their 40's and this is their pension/retirement as well as what supports their family. A supervisor did tell him that he might be kept on . . . but then he would be doing the work of the entire department. All social workers are being let go.  Yes, veterans.  

I have two daughters and a daughter in law who are teachers.  One is a college professor. Her job is in jeopardy between our state legislature and governor and President Musk.  The other two are elementary teachers. They are in the same predicament. The entire staff at all the schools are terrified as to what is happening.  Both of the elementary teachers have several Title 1 students including a deaf boy. All the modifications will be dropped. They both teach at schools in lower income areas where the majority of students qualify for free breakfast and lunch. This program is on the chopping block too. 

A close friend of twenty five years has had a series of hardships in her life. She is now 69 years old, divorced and disabled.  You may remember me talking about a friend who was a hoarder who I helped empty her apartment. She qualified to move into subsidized senior housing in our community and receives meals on wheels since she really can't leave her apartment.  This complex is wonderful and is run by the Lutheran Church.  For some reason, President Musk and his high school bomb squad are threatening the Lutheran Church and it's charities.  She and all the residents are afraid they will be in the street.  

I have been calling both of our new state senators who are supporters of President Musk. When I expressed concern over the fact unauthorized teenagers are in the treasury department copying my IRS and Social Security information, the aides in both offices laughed.  Today they have taken their phones off the hook.  A friend traveled to our state capital yesterday to plead on the behalf of veterans (she is a veterans advocate) and she was met in the lobby by federal marshals who marched her out. She had called ahead to see if she needed an appointment and was told no.  

 

So today an old high school friend that I have reconnected with asked me to drive an hour or so away to go to Trader Joe's.  I bought myself roses and set my table pretending I am having a party (I am not).  

Tonight while I was typing, a friend's house burnt to the ground. I live on the edge of town and they bought property just outside of town during covid to build one of those barn houses, their forever home now that they are retired. Her husband built it himself and they moved in maybe two years ago at the most.  I don't' know what happened, but she and her husband made it out. The house and all their belongings are completely gone. Over five community fire departments had to respond. The flames burned for hours. I saw a video where a firefighter lost his footing on the ice on a metal roof, slid down the roof, fell one story and landed on his head in the driveway, dislodging his helmet. I am beside myself.  But they are alive and I am waiting on word about the firefighter, a friend of one of my children. 

Could I make this more sad? We used to live up at the top of the hill in our younger days. The white sticks are on the road at the bottom of the hill. The road goes over a creek. One spring the water rose to emergency heights, but a nurse traveling to work in the dark did not see the reflection and drove into it. It carried her in her Volkswagen down the river and she was drown. The white sticks are there now to gauge water levels on the road. I was listening to my scanner that morning too. She was on the phone with 911 and they were trying to get her to get on the roof of the convertible, but lost her. It was so tragic.  I'm so tired of sadness and fear.