Summer's View

 December 31, 2016 The champagne has been uncorked...not celebrating the end of the year or the beginning of a new year. Celebrating that I lived another year and made it through the worst presidential campaign of my lifetime. I figure I may have two or three (on average) more presidential elections if the "creek don't rise and the Lord is willing"...(or something like that) And then again maybe we won't have any more elections... I have had some bad years -- 2004 was the worst when I lost my son and my sister,  but aside from my grandson graduating from UNCG, this year really sucked!! Not feeling very optimistic about the New Year, but I do love champagne...guess it is time to put on my "big girl panties" and fight like a woman!!    I do wish everyone all the best for a Happy New Year...may all your dreams come true. May your electricity not be hacked by the Russians. May you find affordable health insurance and jobs that put food on the table and a

    About ten days ago, my door bell rang.  I was going to ignore it since we have been hunkered down for the last seven months while living in a gated community.  We don't get visitors and we don't visit anyone.  But the door bell rang again very persistently so I knew it was my next door neighbor.  Reluctantly I went to the door, she had her mask on and I said just a minute so I could get my mask. Instead of calling me, she chose to come to my house to advise us that they would be gone the following week.  Here are some highlights of our conversation: Me:  I don't like wearing a mask, but I know it is necessary. Neighbor:  I think it might be a hoax. Me:  No, it's real. Neighbor:  Biden is too old to be president.  He has dementia. Me:  No he doesn't.  He had a stutter as a young boy and sometimes he has to pause...  Seriously, you think he has dementia when there is a person in the WH who cannot complete a sentence and speaks in circles. Neighbor:  Well, Biden is

    Jakelin Maquin Seven Years Old   Felipe Alonzo Eight Years Old   I cannot stop thinking about these two children from Guatemala, seven-year-old Jakelin Caal and eight-year-old Felipe Gómez Alonzo,  who died in Customs and Border Protection custody.   I am sickened by the horrors of the Trump administration and their cavalier  attitude toward the loss of these children.  GOP Congressman, Peter King had this to say:  "These are the only two children that have died, certainly in recent memory ... considering what does happen in housing projects ... I think ICE has an excellent record." An excellent record would be no DEATHS, you moron!  So the two children are simply statistics, is that what you are saying Mr. King?  Do you think DHS should be given a pat on the back for only having two children die while the children were in the custody of our country?  The children had names.  They were part of a family whose only crime was bringing their child

After living in a flood zone for over 12 years, my husband and I made the difficult decision to evacuate when faced with the impending arrival of Hurricane Florence.   We had ridden out Irene and Matthew, but the warning for Florence was different.  I could physically feel the fear and my family kept chanting: GO!  Go now!  Leave!  The county had issued a mandatory evacuation which only means that you are on your own if you need help.   As we prepared to leave, I moved the 15 scrapbooks I had made for my "grand"son for his graduation from college, the three scrapbooks I made of the graduation trips I had given to my two nieces and nephew; photos of my late son, brother and sister to the room over the garage.  I looked around at this room that seemed to be the Museum of my Life:  a wall of my "grand"son's achievements; photos of his high school and college graduation; the painting my niece did of Democrats for Hillary and Obama during the 2008 primary campaig

 Update:  February 22, 2021 If you watched  Chuck Todd on MSNBC, you may have noticed that Steve Scalise who has zero credibility and has shown his true colors too many times was welcomed to voice his opinion.  WHY?  When Hillary Clinton lost in 2016, the media gurus kept telling her and her supporters to MOVE ON.  Why does the media keep giving the far right Trump wackos a platform?   I don't need to write a new blog post on this because it is the same ole, same ole garbage being regurgitated.  Below is a headline from the end of December 2020.   "Beltway media fears the loss of Trump gravy train..." The answer, my friend is in the lyrics from Cabaret's Money:  "Money makes the world go around The world go around The world go around"   ***  Update:  December 30, 2020                                                     BREAKING NEWS:  TRUMP LOST!    (sarcasm alert)    It is long past time to stop normalizing this man and his administration.  There is nothing

The other day I read a Facebook  post that insisted that it was unfair and offensive to compare the Holocaust and Nazis with the separation of migrant children and their parents.  Below is a response to that post from a woman who also happens to be a middle school teacher.  The thought of her teaching makes me cringe. Like most Facebook posts, it verges on the edge of some facts, but most of it is opinion.  Below is the post that set my hair on fire.  I did a copy and paste for the sake of accuracy and not paraphrasing.        "Our situation is not born of racial hatred. It is born of safety concerns, economic stress, and fear that instead of being a great country that receives and nurtures refugees, we are becoming a struggling country that has become a dumping ground. They come here of their own volition, knowing that detention centers and jail are possibilities. Some are legitimately escaping catastrophic circumstances. Others are seeking economic gain and are willing to co