Mockingbird Hill Cottage

I’m not even going to speak about yesterday’s travesty. I get too enraged. You know how I feel. And you absolutely know that you must VOTE.

If you haven’t mailed your ballots in, mail them in today. Kavanaugh and SCOTUS are doing everything they can to block any ballots that are postmarked before the election but received after the election from being counted. Get them in the mail today and better yet, take them and drop them off in person.

We are voting today. Period. Nothing will stop us.

Vote them all out. Every last one of these enablers, these power-hungry public servants who care nothing about our lives, but sure care a lot about controlling women.

See, I’ve started to get enraged again.

Don’s news from the doctor was not good. He was hoping it was tendonitis or something that could be dealt with with some therapy. But the x-rays showed very, very bad arthritis in that finger, so much so that the top joint in his pinky finger has no cushioning between the bones. That’s why he’s in such pain. The guitar technique he has been diligently learning and practicing over the past two years or so involves the use of that finger – a lot. So all of his practice has only made it worse. And there’s nothing that can be done but to wrap the joint and take pain meds. That’s it.

He was very down when he got home. He kept saying he was too young for arthritis but he was in actuality acknowledging that he isn’t young anymore. This means he really can’t play the guitar for a while and when he does, he’ll have to learn a new way to play the pieces that involve that finger.

It’s all relative, of course. There are far worse things. But that doesn’t matter. He’s hurting and I’m hurting for him.

Time to get something to eat and prepare to go to the polls early. They don’t open until noon today. We’re going to get in line and wait. I’m so excited to cast my ballot today.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

A somewhat brief post today. We have to grocery shop this morning – soon – and then Don has to go to his doctor’s appointment. He briefly cancelled the appointment over the weekend because he needed a break from social distancing and worrying about masks and COVID, etc. But he woke up this morning with his finger very swollen and painful, so the appointment is back on.

But we have no food in the house, so an early trip to the grocery store is on the docket.

Tomorrow, we vote.

I spent much of the afternoon yesterday text banking for Biden. Then we watched 60 Minutes – frankly, because we wanted to see Trump’s childish fit of temper directed at Lesley Stahl. What a giant baby he is. He is simply incapable of telling the truth and he has to attack whoever calls him on it. Pence is a vacuum, a guy who smoothly talks all around the question and never answers it. Let’s not forget that, in addition to being a petulant brat, Trump is a sociopath – and you could see it in the looks he gave Stahl.

I won’t even talk about the travesty that is going to happen to our Supreme Court today. I can’t go there. So I’ll keep doing what I can up to and including the day of the election.

It’s raining here today and I can’t complain because we need it so much!

I finished Troubled Blood – didn’t want it to end, it was so good – and I decided to re-read Louise Penny’s very first Inspector Gamache mystery, Still Life. Comfort reading.

I hope you taking care of yourselves in this week which will seem like a year. Self-care, my friends. Take time for whatever makes you happy. Find pockets in which you can find stillness. Take walks. Find moments of laughter. (Don made me laugh so much the other night that I was crying! I realized how very much I needed that.) Pray, if you are so inclined. Find some peace.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Good morning.

First off, you are such lovely people and I’m glad you care about us. But you never have to warn us about ladders. No one goes up a ladder here without the other one holding it at the base and monitoring the climb up and the climb down. We are very, very careful.

That being said, losing half a tree and having the branches of the big maple pruned has made a difference in our gutter cleaning schedule. We have only had to clean them once. Yesterday. And we’re done. We used to clean them out 3 or 4 times during autumn. I hated losing half that tree but there’s no denying that it was quite close to the gutters on the back of the house. Anyway, all went well, it didn’t take long. Don also raked a lot of leaves but we have a lot more to go.

I want to recommend something to you; Sir David Attenborough’s A Life on our Planet. It just premiered on Netflix and it is extraordinary. It’s his witness statement as to the state of our planet. He is a longtime broadcaster and natural historian. Over the course of his career he produced Life on Earth, The Living Planet, and several other series about the world we live in. This particular program chronicles the changes he’s seen and witnessed in his 93 years. The destruction of the planet by man, climate change, extinction of animals, the dire state of the ocean, etc. It’s beautifully done and it’s clear that this is his testament, his warning. It’s beautiful, upsetting, and yet, hopeful, because he gives us real steps we can take to change the course we’re on.

Also, I have 20 pages left in Robert Galbraith’s Troubled Blood. At this point I know who the murderer is so I can take a break to write this post. Galbraith is, in reality, JK Rowling. It is such a good read! I have to share this with you because the book itself is 927 pages long and I never, not once, checked to see how much more I had to read or, as is often the case with a large tome, got bored along the way. In fact, I wish it wasn’t going to end! She is such a good writer. It’s a complex mystery and is deftly and skillfully plotted. It’s also character driven, which makes it all the more engaging. This is the fifth volume in the Cormoran Strike series. If you like mysteries and you haven’t yet read any books in this series, you should start at the beginning, with The Cuckoo’s Calling. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.