Bits and Pieces

A fourth dead humpback whale has washed up on the Virginia shore today - this time on the beach of Assateague Island, on the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.  A necropsy team is on the way.  It seems really odd to me that we're having this spate of humpback bodies in a period of less than 35 days.  I hope the scientists can figure out what is causing the deaths of these magnificent creatures.
   Tonight, Cheeto Voldemort will address a joint session of Congress.  I've decided not to watch this live - his almost constant use of incomplete sentences drives me crazy.  But MSNBC is holding a special late-night Hardball episode at midnight on the east coast - 10 pm here - and I'll be watching that.  The comments of Chris Matthews, Rob Reiner, and Bill Maher will be killers, I'm sure.
   Let's see - after the 8 inches of snow last week, some of which is still on the ground, we're expecting more snow this afternoon or evening.  The cats really wanted out on the balcony yesterday - it was bright and sunny - but the lady who lives above us doesn't clear her balcony of snowfall, so there was a constant shower of snow melt out there.  Both Lovey and Nedi went out, but they didn't stay long when they realized their was a cold shower from above.
   I had the weirdest dream the other night:  I was in a large bedroom, and I heard a big thump from the next room.  I looked out into the hall way, and my friend Beatrice came running out of door and into the hall, yelling, "Flitch back board and split green beans!"  I woke up because it was so weird, and the words made no sense.  I actually wrote the words down so I could ask Beatrice about them when we got up.  Of course, they were nonsense to her, also.
   A pigeon just flew past my window with a bunch of dried grasses in its beak.  I guess it's time to start nest-building around here.  There are three eggs in the bald eagles' nest on Assateague Island.  I'm looking forward to watching them hatch and then fledge. (They're on an eagle-cam feed.) Usually two of the three hatchlings will survive, so we will hopefully continue to help regenerate the species.
   I finally had my hair chopped off Sunday.  I had let it grow out for 3 years, since my sister's cancer diagnosis, but my hair is very fine and it seems to tangle instantaneously.  I'd spend 45 minutes getting all the knots out before I went to bed, and then have to do the same thing in the morning when I got up.  I tried putting my hair in one large loose braid, and in two braids, to sleep in, but I couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep.  So I donated 15 inches of grey hair to make wigs  for folks with cancer.  And now, my hair is standing up like a cockscomb across the crown of my head...  I just laugh.
   

I'm So Lazy...

Things have been going on in the world, and I've just been so lazy that I didn't care...  I just returned from having Mercedes cut my hair - and I do mean cut.  It had grown out, over the past three years to almost reach my waist.  It's now about three inches long on top, and about an inch long on the back...  Looks pretty much like it used to look.  Short.
    I went into the market the other day to pick up a few items, and I was trying to decide between ham steak and chicken breast.  I saw a tray of sausage that had been shaped into a laughing pig's head and body.  I laughed and made a comment to the meat manager that it was very cute - and if it wasn't made with peppers, I'd purchase some.  The manager assured me that the peppers were very mild, and actually gave me a half-pound at no charge.  I made half of the amount into seven small patties and cooked them this morning.  I ate one-quarter of one patty, and it took an hour for the fire in my mouth to die down...  Very mild, my mucking boots!  Beatrice ate a whole one, and said it was more than enough.  The uncooked portion, and the other 5 and 3/4 patties are wrapped separately and in the refrigerator.  Maybe my sister or nephew would like them...
   Well, I'm still frightened by the power that "45" has.  At least Flynn has stepped down, and Pudzer had the sense to excuse himself.  I'm still amazed (and dismayed) that the other Cabinet appointees have been confirmed, so far.  DeVos is still astounding me with her idiocy as the Secretary of Education.  Pruitt frankly scares the hell out of me as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.  With Rex Tillerson as the Secretary of State, Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury, and Jeff Sessions at Attorney General, it seems as if almost all the evil genies are out of the bottle.  I have to say that I do think that Linda McMahon is a good choice for the Small Business Administration - if she keeps politics out of her office.  The others are all just as scary, just as racist as can be possibly imagined.
   I'm also laughing at the Town Hall meetings being held (or not held) across the country.  In Melfa, Virginia (on the Eastern Shore, in my old home area), a ten-year-old girl asked her State Representative, "Why isn't the President honest?"   She prefaced this by saying she had been taught to be honest by her parents, and that she really liked honest people.  Then she asked her question...  The Representative had to say that he didn't know why the President isn't honest, but that he would always be honest with his constituents.  It was a great moment.
    I'm still recovering from my swollen lips episode - taking an antihistamine every night before bed, and my lips sometimes tingle and burn.  Rosie seems to be doing well...  Her hindquarters are getting weaker - she'll be 15 next month, which is pretty incredible for an Irish Setter - but last night she got up six times without assistance while I was with her.  Of course, at her age, she has good days and bad days.
  Surfer Princess, my Chincoteague filly, has migrated with her best buddy, Badabing, from the north end of Assateague down to the south end.  Workers have not found any broken fences, so the two girls have either jumped everything, or gone around the ends, out into the waters...  Hopefully she'll stay put on the north end after the Spring Round-up.  She was born and raised on the southern end, and keeps going back there - but  her her full brother, Riptide, is the main stallion in the south, and that's the herd she's attached to.  Can't let her stay with her brother!   Her dam, meanwhile, seems very happy with Hoppy, the big bay stallion on the north end...