madranchwife

I really don’t even know where to go first.  There is SO much out there.  I guess I’ll just start slinging some words around and see what sticks.  Sounds like an educated way to do business, right?

OK.  First up in the lineup.

I’ve got just one teeny, tiny, itty, bitty, eensy, weensy, little question for a certain Senator from Kentucky.  And it goes something like this:

Who exactly do we need to take our country back from?  Where did it go?  I’m so confused here.  I thought I was living on the continent of North America, in the country of the United States of America, on a piece of land somewhere in the rural West.  But according to the esteemed Kentuckian, that might not be true.  Some one or some thing took our country.  This is where I get a bit fuzzy.  Because if some one or some thing took this country, where’d they put it???  And where are we right now????  Wow, talk about alternate universes and such.

And that’s just the first piece of information that has my mind all aflutter this beautiful Monday morning.  I should NOT listen to the news or peruse the wide world of the ethos so early.  I really should just TUNE OUT.

Item #2:

Wyoming snowpack has now melted off six weeks early.  It’s official.  (As if we needed the higher-ups to make this an official statement.  If you don’t know this, then you’ve been being an ostrich for far too long.)  And said snowpack was only about 70-75% of normal this year (a range I’m guessing because it covers the entire state where some areas got more and some got less).  What is even worse about that low number is that the water content of said snowpack was only 67%.  All in all, not good numbers.  Now granted, those numbers are nowhere near the numbers California is dealing with, such as 5% snowpack this year.  But I would just caution anyone not in California to not get complacent.  Water is one of those finite resources I mentioned in a previous post.  Sure, this planet is approximately 3/4 water.  Salt water.  Desalination plants are all the rage right now.  Hmmmm……..perhaps I should scrounge together some funds to invest, eh?

Item #3:

On the topic of investing.  Sure as heck wish I was one of the one percenters so I could take advantage of that ginormously high stock market index.  Last I heard, the DOW was over 18,000.  That’s a lot of cash to those lucky ones who’ve got the means to benefit from it.  Right?

Item #4:

Another cop (white).  Another bad guy (black).  Another dead man (black).  Do I need to expound on the details?  South Carolina this time.  And the scale of badness of the bad guy?  Running away (meaning he was shot in the back as he was trying to run away) from a traffic stop for a taillight that wasn’t lit.  I have not read the details as I simply could not stomach them, so my facts may be not quite solid, but I also heard the dead man may have had some other issues such as unpaid child support or something.  Does it matter?  Does that make it justified to be shot in the back?  Does running away from a policeman make it ok to be shot in the back?  And killed?  Since when is running away a “killable offense?”  This goes along with item #1 in that it leaves me SO blasted confused.  What on god’s green earth was that cop thinking?  I caught a blurb this morning on a news page mentioning the cop stating he had an adrenaline rush.  Goody for him.  Got him an old adrenaline rush out of shooting an UNARMED, RUNNING-AWAY criminal with a taillight that wasn’t lit.  One can only hope that South Carolina will do the correct thing and convict this man of murder.  Because that’s what it was, plain and simple.  And may the Universe protect the man who came forward with the cell phone video.  That took an unbelievable amount of courage.

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”  (Edmund Burke, it is traditionally thought)

Item #5:

Let the Clinton bashing begin.  She’s in.  It’s going to be a long ride folks.  Hold on to your hats and everything else.  Let me be clear:  I’m not a huge Hilary fan.  It all started when she stood by her man.  That snake in the grass who charmed the world and so many women along with the damn world.  I am really not a Bill Clinton fan.  Never have been, never will be, world without end.  Amen.  (Catholic upbringing, remember?)  That being said, she really disgusted me when she didn’t turn him out years ago.  I said to myself, “Self, she’s only in it for one thing.  She’s got an end-game, an ulterior motive.  She’s got political aspirations.  And that’s cheesy.”  I said that.  And I think it’s true.  Whatever.  I don’t think that’s any reason to condone his ridiculous, misogynisitc behavior.  That being said, I will support her.  All the way.  It is about damn time there was a woman in the highest office in the land.  And if that woman is Hillary, then I’m in.  All in.  Warts and all.  Does that make me a hypocrite?  I’m not sure.  I’ll have to cogitate a bit on that one.  See where the chips fall.  I’ll get back to you.

I’m losing steam.  The coffee is gone.  Math and history and science and grammar lessons are screaming at me.  Dinner needs to be planned, as well as meals for the week.  The laundry is piled up, yet once again.  Time to attend to life.

I’m sure the rest of the items will be zinging around in my brain and will need to be released, so I’ll be back.

Happy Birthday to sister Kathe.

Enjoy the beautiful day!

Yep–me and Governor Pence got something in common.  Not much.  But it’s something.  I feel the need to clarify.  Though, truth be told, his clarification last week of the ridiculous bill in Indiana deeming it basically ok to discriminate state your hypocritical religious beliefs as reason for refusing to provide services to others left a lot to be desired.  And, again, I would pose the question, who orders pizza for a wedding?????  Gay or straight????  I mean really.

I just realized me and the good Governor Pence have something else in common.  My paternal grandmother was a Pence.  Georgia (Pence) Burnett.  Hmm.  Let’s just hope there are gobs more than seven degrees of separation between me and the honorable Gov.

On to my clarification:  I was raised a Christian.  Roman-Catholic to be exact.  So any issues I have with Christianity aren’t simply because I’m a hater.  What am I?  One who does not suffer intolerance and hypocrisy easily.  Hypocrisy of purported Christians is nails on a chalkboard to me.  Makes me crazy.  Bat-guano crazy to be honest.   I spent many, MANY Sunday mornings and summer weeks (Vacation Bible School) in catechism classes.  For those of you unlucky enough not to be Roman Catholic, catechism is basically classes for the masses, usually the youngsters–Catholicism 101 if you will.

Let me be clear.  I love the Catholic church.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Pope Francis.  He is the dude.  I love him almost as much as I love our President.  President Obama and Pope Francis–two dudes who did.  Back to the Catholic church.  I love the Catholic church.  I know, I already said that.  I’m making a point.  The church for me was a sanctuary growing up.  Sunday mass was a refuge.  It was always the same, week after week, year after year.  Sure, the seasons changed, the holy days changed, the sermons changed, unfortunately sometimes the priests changed, but in general, the church didn’t.  It was just there.  A comforting home from the chaotic times of my growing up years.  Enough said there.  Do I agree with some of the archaic principles and practices of the Catholic church?  Heck no.  But I love the Catholic church.  Not ever going to change.

That being said.  I do NOT love those Christians who talk REALLY loudly about their faith, and how we all need to think and be just like them, and how everyone who isn’t like them or who doesn’t believe like them is going to hell in a hand basket.  News flash.  There is no hell.  Hades is not underground with fire pits and whatnot.  Myths.  Scary stories told to get people in line.

Boy, I digress.

Where I was going with my clarification was this:  I’m not hatin’ on Christians.  I am extremely tired of the bigotry, the discrimination, the holier-than-thou attitudes, the cramming down our throats of the IDIOTIC, ASININE idea that this is a Christian nation founded on Christian principles.  Even my 8 year old daughter knows about the separation of church and state.  And that Thomas Jefferson specifically wrote that into the Declaration of Independence for a reason.  Good grief.  The Pilgrims/Puritans who landed at Plymouth Rock?  Christian maybe.  But certainly full of themselves and acting as if they were superior to everyone else as well.  I don’t know what it was like to live in that time in England.  Maybe I would have wanted to get away from good King George too. But they were after “purifying” the religion because it was too tainted.  And then they tried to persecute those who didn’t go along with that.  How is that different from today?

Again, give it up.  This is not a Christian nation.  Never was.  Not really going to be.  I read a post about the number of Christians and the number of Muslims and soon the Muslims will surpass the Christians.  I don’t think the graphic was for just the United States, but for the numbers in the world.  Wish I could find that source, I’d send you to it to see what I’m talking about.

OK, enough clarification.

So I took the dear daughter to church on Easter morning, dutiful Catholic that I am, and things were going swimmingly (the secret to Catholic mass on Easter morning is to get there at least 30 minutes early and to go to the 8:00 am mass as the 10:00 am mass is a High Mass and will last longer) and I was thinking this was such a good experience for her.  To maybe get a feeling of the security and peace and calm that I did when I was her age.  And then things went to hell in a hand basket……well, that may be a bit harsh.  And may cause you to have a horrid mental picture.  It wasn’t that bad.  Let’s dial down the hyperbole shall we?  Things got a little, well, skewed.  The priest was doing rather well, I thought, in his homily.  Very creative I thought and mentally I was giving him kudos for tying in the story of the man lost at sea (Jordan or something like that) and how he was just found on Holy Thursday and called home after being declared dead for a few months.  Get it?  See where we’re headed?  “Rising from the dead” so to speak.  SO TO SPEAK.  I thought to myself “clever, sir, very clever.”  But then.  BUT THEN:  he went on to say (and I knew he was headed here, but I didn’t know he was going to do it this way) that Jesus did the same thing, only he rose from the dead, IN HIS BODY.  He really rose from the dead, he said.  In his physical body.  He was practically shouting this now and I had to keep my jaw from dropping because the church was full and my daughter was sitting there and my mother (who goes to this church every week) didn’t need to have her adult daughter create a scene.  But seriously.  I have spent a long time teaching my daughter about life and death, and the finality of death, and the impracticality of “rising from the dead,” etc, etc, etc.  I don’t even let her watch The Walking Dead with me (I know–why WOULD I do that?).  Because eight-year-old children don’t need to think that if someone dies, it’s ok, they’re just going to come back to life in three days.  Cause the man at church said so.  Facepalm.  But when he doubled down and said it again, I double face palmed.

He did not rise up again, after being dead (and not just mostly dead, but really, most sincerely dead–mashup of Billy Crystal and the Munchkins).  That is a physical impossibility.

Unless……..of course………..he turned into a…….wait for it…………Walker.  Yep.  A zombie.  Jesus Christ Zombie.  (Get it, like Jesus Christ Superstar?  A new musical.)

I know.  The sacrilege is, well, sacrilegious.  Sorry mom.  I couldn’t help myself.  And don’t blame me.  The priest said so.

See how I did that?  Brought it all back to zombies.

Have a lovely spring day.

I highly suggest you head on over to http://www.stonekettlestation.com and peruse the latest post.  Absolutely, downright, without-a-doubt, knee-slapping, falling-out-of-your-chair and rolling-on-the-floor, side-splitting hilarity.

Well.  Let me preface the above endorsement with the caveat that if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool, true-blue Christian, caught up in the throes of the “woe is us, Christians are getting discriminated against crowd,”  then you might, just might, not think this is as funny as I did.  As always, the editor-in-chief of the blog hits the nail squarely on the head with his questions for the Christian community.  Regarding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act being put forth in the good ol’ state of Indiana of course.  Mr. Wright wonders about a few things found in the Bible, the good book that is, and with his inimitable fashion, proceeds to look at things from a fresh perspective.

Which had me holding my sides cause it hurt so much after the laughter.  As usually happens when I wander on over to his site.  To be sure, everything laid out in his post is completely sensical (opposite of nonsensical, but I’m not sure it’s a word, though I’m claiming literary license on this one), and one wonders why it’s not CW.  (Just getting geared up for Election season with my “conventional wisdom” abbreviation.)

And, on the topic of needing a laugh, did you hear the one about the pizzeria in Indiana who said they wouldn’t cater a gay wedding?  I’m not sure I’ve ever thought of a wedding being catered by a pizzeria.  Alright, I suppose it could happen.  Like in Mystic Pizza.  There you go.  I stand corrected.  I’ve heard of a wedding being catered by a pizzeria.  But in all seriousness, don’t you think that if a couple who was getting married (and they happened to be gay or lesbian or had blue skin) knew that a certain business wasn’t all that keen on their “type” then couldn’t you assume they just wouldn’t frequent that establishment?  Why make this big brouhaha about making sure that a business could discriminate refuse service to a certain “type” unless you wanted to make a statement about discriminating/hatin’ on the gays?  The whole thing is utter ridiculousness and I can not believe the Governor of Indiana (who has been said to have Presidential aspirations in 2016) thought he could just quietly slide this one under the radar.  And then to think he was going to try to blame everyone else but where the true blame lies (the bigots in the legislature) for the big brouhaha?  Acting as if this law wasn’t a license to discriminate?  What, does he think we were all born yesterday???

Gah.  The stupid–it burns.  The hypocrisy burns.  The bigotry burns.  Pretty sure Jesus wouldn’t be hatin’ on the gays, wouldn’t be hatin’ on the brown people, wouldn’t be hatin’ on the poor.  I’m pretty sure that Jesus, along with Mohammed and Mansa and Buddha and Siddhartha and countless other messiah-type figures who preached tolerance and love and peace…think Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr….would have said something about loving others and treating them as you want to be treated.  I’m thinking that’s what the message was.  But I could be wrong.  I could have misunderstood those Sunday lessons, every week of my life, all the way up through a year at a Jesuit college.

Maybe Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and Mansa and Siddhartha (though I’m thinking not so much Dr. King) would have said “yeah, I’m not making you any pizza. Go find yourself some other pizza maker for your wedding.”

I could be wrong.  It’s been known to happen.  Every once in a while.

Anyway.  Mosey on over to http://www.stonekettlestation.com.  He ALWAYS says it better than I can.

Yesterday’s “spring walk” netted us some real treasures!  Some I was able to capture, others you’ll have to take my word for.  Like the ginormous moose tracks up behind the house.  HUGE.  Holy moses they were big.  At first I thought the man of the house had set off up the draw for lord knows what purpose.  Then we started looking a bit closer and realized they were moose tracks!  Melted out on top (thus the reason for looking as big as a Sasquatch footprint) but with the obvious toe marks of a very large moose.  Very large.  And then the deciding factor–the scat.  We’ve become quite the scatologists here.  And moose poop (for lack of a better word, though the eight year old has been insisting on “feces” for a couple of years now, but I digress)–moose scat is quite distinct.  As we were walking on up the trail, breaking through what is left of the crusty snow, the scientist-in-training spotted several random pieces of hair scattered along the path.  “Moose hair!” she exclaimed.  I was, I’ll admit, slightly skeptical, until I squatted down and to my utter disbelief realized she was correct.  As the very large beast ambled down the draw, he (we’re assuming due to the size) was losing some of his winter coat.  The pieces of hair are gorgeous, silver-tipped and very thick.

We, of course, also had to bring home rocks and aspen branches.  I can not seem to get this to stop.  I have tried the whole “we live on the side of a mountain with aspen branches and rocks EVERYWHERE” lecture.  But it is just that–a lecture that goes in one ear and out the other.  So I end up with rocks and aspen branches in my house as well as outside.  Eventually I am able to gather them up and silently and secretly return them to the great outdoors, the backyard.

  The “wizard’s staff.”

One of the coolest things, sort of if I don’t think of the ramifications, was our find of several of these nest-type formations.  The snow has melted out in the “pasture” in front of the house and revealed these perfectly shaped spherical piles of cut grass.  The first one was frozen to the ground and as I tried to pick it up, the top half came off in my hands, revealing a hollowed out place inside.  The next two we picked up (of course) and after that, I said I thought we’d collected enough.  No evidence of what critter made its home there (no scat, no hair or feathers), just the hollowed out center.  Kind of cool, unless I cogitate long enough on the possibility of them being chipmunk or mouse homes.  Major eye roll.  But this is where we live.  On the side of a mountain, in the middle of nowhere, replete with myriad numbers of rodent-like creatures who would like to be inside my warm and cozy home.  Fact of life.  The sooner I accept it the sooner I’ll find some peace and calm.

Finally, we were visited the other day by one we are assuming to be Matilda, with her calf in tow.  I took umpteen pictures and a seven minute video, but I will not subject you to them all.  One, they were taken from inside the house as I didn’t want to scare them away by going onto the porch and two, they were taken with the iPhone, which just doesn’t measure up to the digital camera.  They were being, well, stalked is the only word I can come up with, by a third moose that I am assuming was not around for a friendly chat.  Men.  What can you say?

 Matilda

 Matilda and her calf (last year’s)

The bully, following them up the hill.

And that, as they say, is the rest of the story.

Blessings be.

This concerns me in so many ways that it’s going to take a bit for me to untangle the jumbled mass my cerebral cortex has become as a result of the cogitations and ruminations on one certain, infamous (and NOT in a flattering way), illustrious Senator from Texas.  They breed them big and weird down that way I tell you.  (My sincerest apologies to my Texas relatives.  I love you oodles and bunches.  I respect you for toughing it out in a state that is producing some of the oddest oddities in the political arena.  So please keep that in mind when my snark gets out of hand.)  Let me get back on track.  My brain actually hurts trying to get the thoughts out in some semblance of order.  I just want to run screaming out into the sagebrush (which is now brown again, not quite green yet and definitely not white anymore) at the sheer idiocy and asininity (LOVE, love, love that word I made up) and doggone unbelievedness of one Ted Cruz.  Actually, if one were to be honest, it’s more that I simply can NOT understand how he was elected.  That’s where the sheer idiocy and asininity lies–that people like him actually, ACTUALLY, get elected in the first place.  And then stay elected.  I can not wrap my thoughts around this fact.

So where to start this beautiful Saturday morning?  And not that I want to spend any more of my precious time on this nut job (sorry, let’s call gardening implements by their correct names, shall we?) then I absolutely have to.  But I need to get these tangles untangled so I can get some peace and calm up there.

I think the best way is to just start dumping.  There might not be any perceived order to my madness, but then the subject is completely mad so I don’t think order could be managed in any sense of the word.

By now, unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably heard that Senator Ted Cruz, R-TX, has declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President.  That in and of itself should make your blood curdle.  On the spot.  No questions asked.  Just some curdling.

This is the same man who instigated the government shutdown last year, throwing a temper tantrum about the Affordable Care Act and as a result:

~causing a near default on the United States debt (no easy feat)

~shaving approximately 1% off of the projected 3% GDP for economic growth

~causing an approximate loss of 120,000 jobs in 2 weeks

and….the cherry on top of the sundae…wait for it….

~costing the United States of America $24 BILLION.

Let’s look at that number, shall we?  $24 Billion could also be written as $24,000,000,000.  That’s a lot of zeros.  That’s a lot of dollars.  Can you imagine what that would buy?  I can’t.  I simply cannot fathom that amount of money.  I cannot see that much money.  Oh.  That would be about 24 times what the esteemed Koch brothers are planning on spending on the 2016 election cycle.  (Remember my earlier post on such?)  The numbers above are referenced from Standard and Poor’s reporting of the financial effects of Ted Cruz’s temper tantrum.  Google it for questions.

That is one of the issues I have with the esteemed Senator from Texas.  I guess on his website (the one that discusses his plans for becoming President and what he’ll do when he gets to the White House) he touts the above numbers and his role in the government shutdown as a way to create jobs.  OF NOTE:  I have not visited said website (and don’t ever have plans to do so as I’ve got enough crazy in my cranium right now) but have read an article referencing it.  I’m guessing he sees the shutdown in a different light than I do.  Perspective, no?

Second on my list of issues with Senator Cruz (seriously Texas–Cruz and Gohmert?  What were you thinking????):

~With the shellacking in the Senate last year, many Democrats were replaced on committees and groups and in positions of importance and such.  One of the positions that came open?  The chairperson of the Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness, which among other things, oversees NASA and science programs.

Guess who was appointed to fill this position?  (Three guesses and the first two don’t count and it’s not like I’m writing about anyone else giving me cranial cramps at the moment.)

Yes!  You are so smart.  Senator Ted Cruz, R-TX.  The one and only Ted Cruz.  The same man who just this last week compared “climate-change believers” to “flat-earthers.”  I have tried to read the transcripts of what he said, and then I tried to read the transcriptions of the transcripts.  And then I quit, because they are reminiscent of a certain female who blew on to the political scene in 2008 and hasn’t quit spewing word salad since.  I can’t even mention her name but those who dearly love and appreciate me know who I am alluding to.  He is the exact same as she.  Just as inflammatory.  Just as completely, asininely stupid (whew, I just made up another new word from my favorite word AND I called another human being stupid).  Stand back.  I might be struck down by a stray bolt of electrical charges flying through the air.  “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Right.  Sorry.  Couldn’t help myself.  I’ll go back and strike it through.  There.  Just struck it through with a little line so you can see what I’m REALLY thinking, but should have more tact in saying.

Flat-earthers?????????  And then he goes on to compare himself to Galileo.  The hubris of this man is simply breathtaking.  I can’t even figure out how to challenge this.  I can’t even figure out how to rebut him.  The writers of the transcriptions of the transcriptions are just as baffled.  In fact, the comments by Senator Cruz are SO blindingly stupid that they cause one to just gape, open-mouthed, and shake one’s head back and forth.  Galileo?  Are you flipping kidding me?  Galileo was jailed because he said the earth was not the center of the universe.  He wasn’t jailed because he challenged the notion of the earth being flat.  Galileo wasn’t even born at the time of that debate.

Here’s the scary thing.  There are people out there who don’t know a single, cotton-pickin’ thing about Galileo.  Well, they may know that he was a scientist-type dude who lived a long time ago, but that’s where the knowledge will stop.  And these people are gullible and afraid and will believe the snake-oil salesman who tells them that science is bad and scientists are bad and the earth is going to hell in a hand basket, NOT because of climate change and anything that we as a species are doing, but because the cotton-pickin’ libruls are in charge and so they better listen to him, the snake-oil salesman, because he is the only one who can save them.  And the scary thing about this scenario?  He has followers.  He has people lined up thinking he’s the messiah, the great white hope, the savior.  Lord love a duck but we’re in a world of hurt.

And this is the guy who sits on a committee that influences the financial world of science here in the United States.  Actually, my bad, he chairs the committee.  Now that should be the cause of a few nightmares.

There’s more stupid, but my coffee is gone and I’m tired of sitting here and the sun is shining and the forest is calling.  We’re off to the woods on a ‘looking-for-signs-of-spring’ walk.  (We’ve given up on wanting winter and are embracing the coming of spring.  Seemed the right thing to do.)

From the book “Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus, 2014” by David Quammen which is an excerpt from his 2012 book “Spillover:”

“We live on a complicated planet, rich organisms of vast diversity, including viruses, all interacting opportunistically, and although there are seven billion of us humans, the place has not been arranged for our convenience and pleasure.”  (emphasis mine)

Let’s look at that again, shall we?

“…the place has not been arranged for our convenience and pleasure.”

Maybe one more time?

“…the place has not been arranged for our convenience and pleasure.”

Now, is it firmly planted in your psyche?  Can you walk around today repeating that a few times, while standing in line at the grocery store, checking out books at the library, driving along a very crowded freeway, standing on a mountaintop gazing at the horizon, sitting atop a horse moving cows (H/T to the dear husband today)?  Or just doing whatever it is you do during your day.

This world is not here for our convenience.  We happen to inhabit it.  We happen to have survived long enough to attempt to mold it and shape it into something that we think is necessary for our continued survival.

And I’m not just referring to the Ebola virus, which very probably should have us all a little bit concerned as it relates to emerging diseases (zoonoses to be exact) and the susceptibility of the human population to such.  But I digress.  Quammen’s book about the Ebola virus is haunting.  It is a good read.  I highly suggest it to everyone, not just to Liberians and Sierra Leonians–West Africans to be exact.  It is prescient to all of us, each and every single inhabitant of this planet.

However, that last line, specifically the last phrase, is even more so.  And it pertains to so much more than just an emerging virus.  It pertains to the changing climate.  It pertains to the overpopulation of this world by an intensely damaging species (Homo sapiens if you can’t see where I’m headed with this one).  It pertains to our FINITE amount of resources.  Yes, our resources are finite.  This world is not growing.  Unless you’ve attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy and have mastered the magical arts, I’m not seeing how we’re going to be conjuring more water and soil and land and grasses and food out of thin air.  I’m just not seeing it.  There is a finite amount of carbon, fossil fuels if you will, to be tapped.  Don’t blather on to me that there is so much more we can drill for.  Eventually, we will drill it all.  Eventually, we will reach the end of the line as to how much we can find and then use.  This planet is not expanding and adding more of the resources that we use.  And don’t blather on to me about genetic engineering and the ability to create crops.  If there isn’t any soil or water, those genetically modified crops ain’t going to grow either.

So why the bee in my bonnet?  Because (and I know you don’t ever, ever, ever begin a sentence with ‘because’ as I’ve been drilling into my sweet daughter’s brain, but dire times call for dire measures)…because I read something last night that set the bee buzzing around in my cranium.  It goes like this:  several, very-right-leaning, socially conservative (whatever the hell that means) groups led by very-right-leaning, socially conservative, religious leaders are starting to amass and band together (redundant, I know) in the lame (sorry, snark) attempt to elect a very-right-leaning, socially conservative, Republican nominee for President.  They are absolutely sure that the ONLY reason the black man won the Presidency the last two elections was because the Republican nominee was not socially conservative enough and was too moderate.  So, by their calculations and what could be construed as totally mixed up thinking, more socially conservative Republicans would have voted if they would have liked the candidate.  And then the black man, who happens to be a Democrat and according to them a secret Muslim who hates this country and wasn’t even born here and wants Sharia law and, etc, etc, etc, wouldn’t have been elected and run this good ol’ United States of Amurica into the ground.  Lord love a duck.

Seriously.  I read this in the New York Times (and don’t get all hatin’ on me sayin’ it’s a liberal ‘rag’ etc, etc, etc).  In the last few weeks, several religious leaders of religious groups are massing together to try to get a socially conservative (there are those damn two words again) Republican elected so that the establishment Republican (seen as good ol’ Jebbie) will be kicked to the curb.

So why has this started the bee buzzing specifically you ask?  What’s my beef?

These religious leaders of these socially conservative groups (nails on a chalkboard now) are pushing three items for their agenda, which they say are the absolute most important things that should drive the election.

Ahhhhh.  Socially conservative Republican platform planks.  Now you should see the light.

And so it goes like this:

1.  Make all immigration illegal.

2.  Ban all same-sex marriage.

3  Ban all abortions.

THESE are the things the socially conservative Republican groups see as the biggest threats to mankind, here in the good ol’ United States of Amurica.

THESE are the things that must be abolished for us all to ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after.

If I could give you a mental picture of exactly what this does to me it might go something like this:  woman grabbing her head with her hands and screaming “aaaagggghhhhhh” as she runs around in circles in utter disbelief.  The things that make me insane, crazy, nutso, just plain mad.

Or something like that.

This is wrong on so many levels.  Don’t you think we should be worried about the other things like, say, the fact that if the Arctic sea ice truly all melts (which is now predicted in the next couple of decades I believe) then the scramble by A LOT of this world’s countries will begin and we just might end up with some wartime scenarios up there to the north (I’m sure the Republicans will just be lapping that up, but me, not so much).  If all of that ice melts, it doesn’t just disappear.  Think BASIC science.  It changes into a different form.  And it’s not going to be steam.  And we don’t want it to be steam.  That would be a tad bit uncomfortable.  No.  It will go to water.  And where will that water go one might ask?  Right.  Do I even need to continue on with this scenario?

There is a cascade of events that will change our world drastically.  And the predictions for it happening by the end of the century have now been altered to have them happening within decades.  DECADES.

And these bimbos, idiots, asinine-excuses for leaders are worried about same-sex marriage???????????

The Ebola virus, when it first emerged in 1976, was seen in small outbreaks, but still with a very high mortality rate (Quammen reports from 60 to 80% I believe).  That’s a lot of death.  It also has a very high morbidity rate (meaning LOTS of people get sick with it).  It mutated at a rate of 32%.  Then it was quiescent for approximately ten years.  When it began re-emerging, it came back with the same characteristics (as pertains to morbidity and mortality).  This latest outbreak (the West African one of 2014), at the time of Quammen’s writing which was just in the middle of it (September) before the peak of it, had the virus mutating at a 78% rate.  That’s mutation of the virus between people.

I’m not saying we’re all going to be wiped out by Ebola virus.  That outbreak was contained, albeit after A LOT of death.  But I refer you again to the last line of Quammen’s book:  “…the place has not been arranged for our convenience and pleasure.”

We are simply species inhabiting this earth.  Mother Nature always wins.  Always.  It is the great hubris of man that will be our downfall.

And these idjits are worried about abortion and gay people getting married?

The idiocy and asininity is simply astounding.

I leave you with this:

“…the place has not been arranged for our convenience and pleasure.”

It’s snowing.

I know, right?

And blowing.  Basically snowing and blowing now for several hours.  Like a little blizzard or something.  It actually looks like winter out there.

And I do NOT know why I am so bloody shocked. I mean really.  Right?

It did this yesterday and when I woke up everything that had been brown was white again.  Then it all melted away by noon or so, and I was left wondering if I dreamed the white stuff. Because all that had been brown, then white, was now brown again.  Crazy times dude.   It started snowing after dinner and basically has not stopped, just gotten more intense.

OK.  Now I’m peeved.  There is a mouse bebopping around the living room as I write this.  I keep seeing him (her???) out of the corner of my eye as I’m sitting here.  Which is making me crazy cause it’s like seeing things that you know aren’t there.  What in the sam hell is this mouse doing???  There are umpteen traps set in strategic locations throughout the bloody house.  Why is he not trapped???  And now I’ve got a dilemma.  Should I get up and move the chair to see him scurry away?  And then what would I do?  Remember the mouse in the daughter’s t-shirt drawer?  Right.  He traversed every damn drawer and then the length of the bedroom to finally end up in the far recesses of the closet.  It is 2:30 a.m.  I do NOT want to wake the household hunting a flipping mouse.  Little bastard.  OK. I’m going to ignore him.  Tonight he gets a pass.  There he went, under the footstool.  What I wouldn’t give for a cat right now.  And I don’t do cats let me tell you.  I am sooooo not a cat person, nosirreebob.  But right now–my kingdom for a cat! (H/T to Shakespeare.)

OK, back to the snow.  I was just about to make an appointment for Friday to get the snow tires taken off my car.  We’ve practically given up on skiing, both downhill and cross-country and have been considering turning in the equipment.  I started filling the drawers withher spring and summer wardrobe.  I put the wool hats and mittens away with the cedar pieces.  I had actually accepted the fact that we would not have winter, nor any snow to speak of.

Now what am I going to do??????????????

First thing?  I’m working on NO EXPECTATIONS.  As in, I’m not going to expect a single, darn-tootin’ thing.  Not going to expect snow and winter.   Not going to expect sun and spring.  Not going to expect more ski days.  Not going to expect raking days (as in raking the bazillion leaves I didn’t get to in the fall).

I’m just going to be.  As in, I’m going to be one with the Universe.  And I’m just going to go with the flow as it flows on by.  If it’s going to snow, I’ll wear a sweater.  And plan a ski day.  And leave the damn snow tires in place.  And if it’s going to be sunny and warm and all spring-like, then we’ll go outside and rake some dead leaves and soak up some Vitamin D.

And I’m going to stop looking at the calendar and trying to figure out what season we’re actually in here.  Sound like a plan?  Yeah, I think so too.

Blessings be.

Or something like that.

Meaning, one who wishes for lots and lots of snow in an area of the country where there is lots and lots of dirt, should know damn good and well that once the temperature begins to rise, the snow starts to melt and the melting snow (now water of a sort) mixes with the dirt to make………..wait for it…………..MUD.  Lots and lots of it.

I know.  I know.  I’ve written about the infamous mud season for the last couple of years.  In fact, I could simply write “see post #such and such from such and such a date” and you’d have an excellent picture of what’s happening here right now.

Mud.  Lots of it.  Everywhere.  Especially on the driveway.  Which, if you’ve been fortunate enough to drive, is approximately one and a half miles long.  That’s a long driveway.  That’s a lot of mud.  Ooey, gooey, sticky, slimy, mushy mud.

I should have just been content with a snow-less winter.  And left it at that.  Forget Boston and their almost record year of 8 feet and counting snow levels.  Forget our piddly little piles and the nonexistent sledding days and only one day of cross country skiing thus far and no days of ice skating and just a few days of downhill skiing.

Wow.  I can throw a pity party with the best of them, can’t I?  And I’m no mental midget, let me tell you.  I know exactly what happens when lots of snow melts around here.  It ain’t a pretty sight, let me tell you.  So what on earth was I thinking????  I should have just kept my little (big) mouth shut, my head down, thanked the Universe for the world around me and just waited silently for spring to really take hold and move on along.

Speaking of spring.  Gophers on the road man.  Gophers on the road.  It’s just a matter of time til I have gophers in my yard.  Yay me.  A bluebird flew by the car on the way home from Fort Collins on Tuesday.  And today a red-winged blackbird was perched on one of the bird feeders.  The winds have changed as well.  Warm, and from the west, not the bitter north winds of winter.

It’s all good.  It’s all good.  I’ll deal with the mud.  I’ll deal with the blasted daylight savings time (see last year’s post on that as well).  And if we don’t get the late spring snows or rains, I’ll deal with the fire season.  One day at a time.  The earth just keeps on turning, and so will I.

Speaking of making beds and lying in them.  The good ol’ bunch of Senators who thought they’d be cute and strike up a pen-pal relationship with the Iranians might want to think twice about their new BFFs.  And the volumes it speaks about them and their allegiance and loyalty to this country.  (That would be America, as in the good ol’ United States of America.)  I’m thinking that in the good ol’ days (that would be back in the time of the Founding Fathers and the writing of the Constitution and that little piece of paper declaring independence) speaking out against the leader of the country could possibly be construed as high treason.  (Definition of treason: the crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.)

Wow.  I just googled that definition (too lazy to go get out the dictionary) and found out I’m not the only one who thinks this!!!!!!!!!!!!  Seems 155,000 have signed a petition calling for the 47 idjits (sorry, Republican senators) who signed the letter to their Iranian BFFs to be charged with treason.  Seriously.  Seems it might have violated a law called the Logan Act, ” a 1799 law which forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.”

Course, it was then written in the article that President Obama and Vice-President Biden both dismissed the lawsuit letter and the 1799 law.

Whatever.  I just think it’s so cool that I wasn’t the only one thinking TREASON!!!

Hope those beds they made with their new BFFs are cozy.

Yep.  Now we’re cookin’ with gas.

I realize it’s not the 8 feet that Boston’s gotten in the last several weeks, but it’s a mite bit more than the 2 inches Anchorage has had in the same time period.  So, we’ll take it.  And be super happy about it too.

Snow fort under the patio table.  Sledding down the driveway.  It’s all good.

Hoping for cold temperatures so it doesn’t melt too fast.  Not only do we want to play for awhile, but we need the moisture to stay around as long as possible.  If it all melts quickly, before the ground is thawed, we’ll lose the benefit of all the pretty white stuff!

Blessings be.

At the end of February.  But we’re not complaining.  No sirreee bob.  Nuh-uh.  No way jose.  We are happy.  HAPPY!  Happy, happy, happy.  Joy, joy, happy, happy.  Happy dance, happy dance.

OK, maybe that’s a little heavy on the happiness factor, but seriously man.  It is about time.  About damn time.  And no, it’s not anything like Boston’s 100 inches of snow in the last month.  But it’s snowing now.  It snowed yesterday.  It’s forecast to snow, at least a little bit, every day til next Wednesday.  Happiness.  Pure and simple.  And it’s downright chilly out there right now.  18 degrees Fahrenheit and holding.  Which means none of it will melt any time soon.  All good, all good.

Again, it’s not a few feet of snow falling, just a few inches.  But beggars can’t be choosers right now.  You know what I mean?

We went skiing yesterday and it was cold and snowy and just like skiing is supposed to be in the winter.  A goggle-worthy, hand-and-toe-warmers kind of day.  It was fantastic.

The extension cords are covered up out front, the icicles are hanging off of the garage roof, the sage brush is sort of turning white, I can’t see the dirt on the road.  Life is good here.

(Not file photos!)

Now I’ve just got to keep my happy on by not turning on the radio and hearing about the antics of Mr. Boehner-who-should-be-imagined-as-a-“Walker”, the Congress who should definitely all be reanimated and zombie-ing around the Capitol, the hysterics of one FAUX NEWS, bloviating, talking head (I see you Billo), the ridiculous number of registered Republicans who believe that dinosaurs and humans inhabited the world at the SAME time, and so on, and so on, and so on……………………………………

Blessings be.