Thankful for Healthy Life.

"Where's Your Gobbler?"

If You Love Someone, Set Them Free.

If they come back, maybe they're yours...
If not?  They never were.

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“It is easier to live through someone else than to complete yourself. The freedom to lead and plan your own life is frightening if you have never faced it before. It is frightening when a woman finally realizes that there is no answer to the question 'who am I' except the voice inside herself.”
~ Betty Friedan

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If freedom is slavery, as Orwell posits, then self-enslavement is a good thing. It means you alone hold the power to free yourself...



Sending mid-week well wishes to our "Wintertime" growing online friends. (Growing as in, personal growth...) You're stronger than you know. Smarter than you think. Yadda yadda.

When life starts throwing you different pitches you haven't yet seen, eventually you have to get the bat off of your shoulder and swing for yourself. There are other ways to get on base -- and advance -- but the game is built around hitters who make contact with the ball, not those who get hit by a pitch or passed by on four bad balls...

Aberrations aren't the game.
Swinging and connecting solidly are.
Sometimes even sacrificing too, in the right situation...

Baseball and Religion: the game where the team scores when you bring them home. (hey batter, batter batter... Swing!)

Saturday... in the Dark...

"Wait, that's not Woodstock..."

It's a sweet morning when it is warmer, and you're waiting for the daybreak.

Have I told you how much I love the open promise of empty Saturday mornings?

Make it a great day, kids.

Deval Patrick... David Paterson.

Deval's not blind.  (That's Paterson, who sounds like the more authentic of the two East Coast politicians.)

 But Patrick allegedly has the backing of former President Obama, and it will be interesting if he can repeat the political pattern of success -- two black men plucked by fortune from obscurity to be educated at the Ivies, who built comfortable professional lives for their families while articulating promises of hope and help to the larger black community.

There must still be donor money in Democratic circles for also-ran's willing to capitalize on their overall likeability package. For some reason, former Lt. Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg isn't seen nationally as a leader who can close the deal on his own, without court help...

Here. We. Go.

The cup of life, this is the one
Now is the time, don't ever stop
Push it along, gotta be strong
Push it along, right to the top
The feelin' in your soul is gonna take control
Nothing can hold you back if you really want it
I see it in your eyes you want the cup of life
Now that the day is here, gotta go and get it
Do you really want it? (Yeah!)
Do you really want it? (Yeah!)
Here we go! Ale, ale, ale!
Go, go, go! Ale, ale, ale!
Tonight's the night we're gonna celebrate
The cup of life! Ale, ale, ale!
The cup of life, it's do or die
It's here, it's now, turn up the lights
Push it along, then let it roll
Push it along, go, go, goal
And when you feel that heat, the world is at your feet
No one can hold you down if you really want it
Just steal your destiny, rght from the hands of fate
Reach for the cup of life 'cause your name is on it
Do you really want it (Yeah!)
Do you really want it (Yeah!)
Here we go! Ale, ale, ale!
Go, go, go! Ale, ale, ale!
Tonight's the night we're gonna celebrate
The cup of life! Ale, ale, ale!

Eric Ciaramella is the "WhistleBlower".

He's a young man who made a fasst ascent in political Washington based on his Democratic contacts. Released from service for leaking, he had one of those soft-cushion Washington landings, ending up as a CIA agent. The young man is political to the core -- no wonder the mainstream media is trying to hold back on reporting his background as long as possible until, like with Epstein and Weinstein, Prince Andrew and Matt Lauer too, the leaks become a torrent and there is nowhere left to hide...

a Pajama Boy, Grown.

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Not to be confused with the dead genius hacker Aaron Swartz:

(I think that's just the scraggly leftist "hero" look...)

Hypocrisy.

The New Democratic Party.

So busy looking behind, making excuses for their 2016 presidential loss, that they forgot the next contest is in Nov. 2020, and the best way to win is to learn from your past mistakes and put up a strong field of candidates for the next contest.

Instead... candidates are still scrambling to get in the race less than a year out, understanding finally that it just won't do to re-run a warmed-over Hillary Clinton-candidate in the body of Elizabeth Warren, or to serve up a corrupt Joe Biden from the Old Dems whose nepotism is called to mind daily with the impeachment entertainments.

I remember when the Democratic party stood for workers, immigrants (legal immigrants, duh), and strivers on their way up. Now, they are just another establishment party, trying to preserve the status quo and carve out preferences for this group or that, acknowledging that the economic and political game is so rigged that it takes "help" from higher-ups (no, not that Higher Up) to find a snuggly ensconced place in the system right now...

Soft they are.

God help those getting fat on favors, when the time comes to stand on their own two and carry their own weight. Nevermind the children, their adults won't be able to move fast enough to avoid disaster.

Ah, Man and the earthly goods he clings to....

In the In Box -- Friday edition.

"He's on his my pillow so I'm not going to wake him he feels good and the Chili's bubblin homemade he's doing good keep in touch"

In the In Box...

Found:  Buddy's jacket! I think it was missing all last year...

"... on the catwalk, baby..."

This is his pre-haircut pic from this morning. I've requested a post-cut shot too, so who knows what tomorrow's in box might bring...

Such a good dog. Getting older, aren't we all, but doesn't show it and adapts easily to his bodily challenges.  (It's in his hips, that's where it is...) We're not exactly sure of the age, him coming to us a few years into his life, but his heart and lungs are strong from his early years chasing deer through the UW - Barron County (Rice Lake) campus' open fields and disc golf course in the off season.

He can still open up and sprint a solid 30 or 40 yards, maybe more, that's all I dare get ahead of him with the poor eyesight and hearing that picks up the echoes and leaves him looking when I get too far ahead in our walks now...

OK, after-haircut shot tomorrow then; supposed to get down to 18F tonight... You can't cancel these grooming appointments, but she was asked not to shave him, just a short cut.  Still, he must think we're nuts taking him in to lose that fluffy coat now... The nails needed clipping; the face gets mid-appointment groomed in 5 minutes for 10 dollars which extends the need for the next haircut, and the length of the nails too though...

Life is all in the timing, isn't it? These grooming appointments, anyway.

I just hope the parents out here are ready with gloves, hats and warmer jackets for the "people" children.  This cold spell has caught a lot of us by surprise, not that it wasn't predicted, just that... mid November --  who's really ready ?!?

God bless, stay warm.

Random Archive Pick of the Week...

It's 7/6/08 - 7/13/08.
Not much there at the link for that week: four WARM looking pictures...
That was the year Lake Delton spilled over, iirc, because of the floods and broke through a dam or something... Newsworthy enough then I stopped to snap a picture, and...

it appears the midsummer garden was loving the rains!

Sometimes, it can be good to look back on the sunny days... (oh yeah!)

Boomers Begat Millennials...

while the silent generation and their offspring watch the show:

Boomers have hogged the spotlight and taken heat for years, been blamed and lauded for just about everything. Woodstock changed the nation, the me generation broke America. But “OK, boomer” isn’t about history or culture; it’s just the latest iteration of “OK, grandpa.”

Which stings, of course it does, but guess what? This is exactly how it’s supposed to work. Social progression is fueled in large part by generational tension. ...

Who do these kids think they are anyway? Fully enfranchised citizens with rights? Who are they to suggest that the generation that gave us increased sexual freedom, advanced civil rights and invented tie-dye might have a thing or two to learn? These are the kids who got trophies just for showing up. Right?

I swear if I hear one more thing about those damn trophies or the languishing work ethic of anyone under 40, if I see one more person over 40 tear themselves away from their smartphones or laptops just long enough to complain about young people being addicted to screens, I will burn all the bras. (!)

Just Do It.