With the core of (what’s left of) Beryl passing overhead now, the rain is relentless. I had to empty our rain gauge (at 5″) before it overflowed. That’s after I emptied it yesterday after 2″ so we are at 7″ total in this storm so far.
We’ve been under a flood watch for a few days that are now turning to warnings for the rivers in the area. Luckily, we are situated pretty high but travel is quite interesting. Even being at a higher elevation, the standing water pooling in the yard is a pain but thankful that is all we have to worry about.
This is so typical of the gaslighting that has been painfully obvious to many the past several years. But are automatically labelled as MAGA-Extremists if they dare to bring it up.
Instead, we are schooled that Mumbles McGoo is a sharp and focused dynamo behind the scenes working late into the evening solving the world’s problems. They just seem incapable of demonstrating that vigor in any public appearance. As each public event approaches, we hear it is a make or break opportunity and just need to watch him astound us all. Then, he reliably falls on his face and we learn it was a cold, his schedule, jet lag, the sun was in his eyes, the dog ate his homework, wasn’t his fault, Trump did it or whatever other feeble excuse appears in his fogged brain.
In the most recent ABC interview, he was asked if he’s had a full neurological exam since the debate, Biden retorted, “I get a full neurological test every day with me.” It was clearly a scripted line and he repeated it twice more in the interview.
“Have you had the specific cognitive tests?” “No. No one said I had to,” Biden said.
Well, his mental health has been in question since before the 2020 contest and now EVERYONE is calling for such a test. To any sane person, that would be a trigger to complete such a test to alleviate those concerns. But not to this self-absorbed mental titan living in his own dream world though. We are all expected to shut up and go along with it or we are threats to democracy.
As to Dr. Jackson’s original post above, the “apology would be nice” line stands out. How many have heard any such admission or realization that they’ve been constantly fed a line of BS, and those contradicting that BS have been right all along. Now, it has all blown up in their faces.
When they trashed Trump while in office, they are “saving Democracy”. When they trash Biden, they are a “threat to democracy.
And then, they will effortlessly slide into denying the election and interfering in the transfer of power. You know, the thing Trump was accused of and all of those J6 protestors were imprisoned for.
My favorite in these marching orders: “Trump said that the pro-Trump Nazi march in Charlottesville was made up”. Did he? I seem to remember he said the QUOTE of him saying the Nazi’s were fine people was made up (or, selectively edited removing the context where he specifically condemned those idiots) and that fine people comment was meant for those opposing removing of statues from our storied past. In that line of thinking, do we progress to tearing down the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington monument?
I’ve said it all so many times before, I’ll let her sum it up for you.
Anyone who committed the sin of using their own eyes on the 46th president was accused, variously, of being Trumpers; MAGA cult members who don’t want American democracy to survive; ageists; or just dummies easily duped by “disinformation,” “misinformation,” “fake news,” and, most recently, “cheapfakes.”
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove any doubt”.
That’s been replaced with (paraphrasing):
“All it takes for evil to take root in this world, is for the good man to stand by and remain silent”.
Since it is calling me out by name, it strikes a chord but also explains how we got here. Way too many have been sitting on the sidelines, not wishing to make any waves to keep the peace and accepting the constant gaslighting that’s been happening nonstop for 8 years now. Well, how has that worked out for you?
You’ll keep hearing from those that refuse to face reality that Trump is only in it to serve his interests. Well, I’ll let this meme speak to that thought.
I realize many are dealing with monsoon rains and major flooding these days. I just saw the video of the white home toppling into the river at the Rapidan dam in southern MN. That is tragic and my heart bleeds for that family’s loss. It very much reminds me of 1993, when a similar scenario hit the upper Midwest – only to see Missouri succumb to the same flooding later on as both the Mississippi and Missouri river watersheds channel that water downstream.
However, down where we are in the southern part of the state, it’s been stinking hot and we haven’t seen rain in 3 weeks now. It’s supposed to happen overnight tonight and into tomorrow. But the closest we’ve come is a storm that formed overhead, but then moved east and is now “severe” in the bootheel/Memphis area. I am still praying we get something tomorrow though to green things back up.
As for the heat, we are dealing as best we can. Today topped out at 108 (feels like) degrees. 90 degrees is our threshold for running the AC and it’s been on for about 5 days now. I hate AC and having a sealed up house but would rather have it than not. Unfortunately, many of our neighbors (Amish and off grid homesteaders) have no such refuge and are suffering right now.
We also take care to make the critters as comfortable as possible. Jack enjoys the AC (and his personal fan) indoors. The younger dogs are out all day but have plenty of shade on the porch and also enjoy the fans we have set up at the doors to keep the flies away. Lydia acts like a fashion diva laying directly in front of one of them with her hair flying in the breeze. They get plenty of water and today we set up a small wading pool that they jump in to cool down. We also bring them to the river up the road where they get to swim in the cool water.
Incidentally, our pool is now getting much too warm for my liking but has been a godsend that gets used around 4pm each day. I am hoping for some rain to cool it off.
The chickens are uncomfortable but hanging in there. Today, we only had 4 eggs – a record low for the 15 hens. I’ve made canopies for each of the 3 runs and they get plenty of water – both in their waterers and via a sprinkler that they all enjoy. They also have fans in each of the 3 coops.
As of now, the major storm activity is up in the Omaha area but seems to be slowly sliding east and south so we appear to be still lined up for some action later this morning. Let’s hope so.
I wrote most of this post at 1am, when the weather alarm blared for a Severe Thunderstorm Watch. Now at 7:45am, the front of the storm has finally reached us and everything has dropped below the severe level so looking forward to a good ol’ fashioned soaking. No wind. No hail. Just RAIN. Bring it on!!!
I realize we need to get used to the comings and goings of the critters but it’s always hard when a loved and trusted pet departs. With that, we gave Lola a proper send off on Friday evening.
Wouldn’t you know, the very next morning we just got done with the morning feeding and discovered 7 (count them 7) new kitties born overnight in the feral cat lair. The other 2 feral cats are ALSO pregnant so we’ll soon be overrun with them.
All appear to be healthy and have the preferred darker coloring – meaning no Donald clones. “Donald” is the brother of the 3 hyper-fertile mommas that populate our barn cat enclosure and is the one continually impregnating them. Thankfully, we haven’t seen him in weeks and he will be chased off if he shows up again.
Did you know a majority of orange cats turn out to be male? Something like 85% turn out to be male. Now that “Donna” (one of an earlier litter) has grown a bit we checked and sure enough has now been renamed to Don Jr.
These (and the upcoming litters will all be looking for new homes when they are ready. Actually, they are pretty easy to get rid of as others are always looking for barn cats. All it takes is a trip to the Walmart parking lot, or in our case the Dollar General in Summersville and they are claimed within 20 minutes.
Yes, “Hola” technically means hello but I am altering the meaning to say goodbye to Lola, our loving furry companion for the past 15+ years. He, (yes HE) has been with us since a bitty kitty and spent his first dozen years as an indoor cat in Lakeville. We’d let him out on the deck for some outdoor adventure, where he’d manage to snag an occasional songbird and usually always figured out a way to escape.
His life in captivity was altered drastically when we moved to the farm and he spent the past few years exclusively as an outdoor cat – hunting and exploring whenever he cared to. However, he spent a majority of the time curled up on the front porch napping with his buddy (and nephew) Luther.
His passion was raiding my garage and seeking where I had hidden my work gloves. He would drag them out and distribute them around the yard and driveway. It was a little game for us.
Prior to that, he was notorious for finding little bags of stuff and scatter them around as well. Everything from sewing bobbins, pins and metal sewing machine parts in Sherry’s sewing and monogramming shop to my nuts and bolts in the garage. If they were in a baggie, they were fair game.
He never tore anything up or damaged them in any way. It was simply a game of hide and seek for this prankster.
And, I will add that since he moved outdoors, we definitely do NOT miss the gobs of fluffy white fur all over the house – choking the fans and air filters.
Sadly, Lola passed unexpectedly on 6/20/2024.
When Sherry got home from the goat farm that afternoon, we jumped in the pool to cool off. While soaking, we were discussing Jackson’s last days as he gets feebler and feebler as his rear legs are beginning to fail him. As an 18+ YO Border Collie, his longevity is already somewhat astounding.
Wouldn’t you know a half hour later, as we were feeding everybody, we noticed Lola was in distress. He is nearly as old as Jack and had his tongue hanging way out and appeared to be struggling to breathe. We felt so helpless. He’d still move around trying to get comfortable so Sherry grabbed a box for him to curl up in. Once he was placed in the box, he moved around a bit but ended up laying down on his side but his head was against the side staring up at us with his eyes wide open. I’m not sure if his eyes were seeing anything at that point but he was as loved as he could be. He was in there maybe 3 minutes and let out 2 (almost) “chirps” and he was gone. Thankfully, he passed quickly. Afterward, we repositioned him in a natural way and closed his eyes.
Lola is the first loved pet to be buried in our pet cemetery. The other burial there was the feral momma cat that left us with her hyper-breeding offspring barn cats. So for Lola, she got a burial with full feline honors.
Not much more needs to be said. They will continue to wail about their perceived “threat to democracy” – just like they did in 2016, without any factual basis or proof and their lapdogs (learning nothing) will obediently eat it up again.
For those still confused, Mr. Lee’s reply below sums it up well.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I intentionally omitted the “under God” (added in 1954), simply to avoid triggering the godless who have dragged us all to this present bottom of the drain existence.
Defend Democracy?
The question is who will protect your Constitutional freedoms. Anyone who’s head isn’t in the sand of up his backside knows the answer.
1st Amendment. Who forcibly shut down churches? Who wants to prosecute people for so called hate speech? Who actually bullied the press with government power and spied on reporters? 2nd Amendment. Who want to disarm the public? 4th Amendment. Whose DOJ sends FBI agents armed to the hilt to arrest political dissenters? 5th Amendment. Who are the judges making arbitrary decisions against their political opponents and denying fair trials? 6th Amendment. Who stacked a jury against its political opponent to convict on an un-named crime? 7th Amendment. Even though it pertains to Federal courts, what State judge has entered ridiculous judgements against Trump? If you don’t think they’d do this on a Federal level, think again. 8th Amendment. Cruel and unusual punishment. How many people caught up in J 6th have under gone that? 9th Amendment. Which party wants to restrict our God given rights? 10th Amendment. Which party wants to restrict States Rights.
As far as the 3rd Amendment goes no soldiers have been quartered in our homes, yet? I’d say throwing Veterans out to house illegals comes pretty close.
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