One a day, plus iron

Mom (84 at the end of this month) and her younger sister Char (so... not 84, and still pretty spry because SHE opted for the hip surgery that my mom has been hard pass about every time I have had the conversation with her and if she warn't into it at 80, she for damn sure isn't gonna do it now) and my only niece (the maybe-going-to-medical-school one) and I headed out to Philadelphia this past weekend for the social event of the season. The event was the wedding of my cousin Beth's daughter Gloria to her fiance Logan. (Beth is the eldest child of mom-and-Charlotte's sister Linda. Linda died in 2022, her husband Richard remains, a bit adrift without her. Linda occupied a lot of space when she was here and she left a big hole when she went. Mom and I flew out to Seattle for her memorial, which was the last time we saw the whole family.)

Logan certainly seems to be a stand-up guy of good character and he makes Gloria absolutely radiant. Watching the pair of them recite their vows to each other was so human, vulnerable and touching. I wish them them the very best, not just because they put on a delightfully organized, beautifully planned, coherent, emotionally open wedding, but also because they seem so incredibly happy to be with each other.

I know people say brides are radiant as the done thing, but I am not the kind of person who says shit just because it's appropriate. Take it as read that if I say Gloria was radiant, she was fucking radiant.

Here follows a recap of my weekend, and it's gonna be lengthy as hell with very few pictures because I was attending the wedding and not photographing the wedding. The wedding had several soberly-dressed people lurking about with very big, obvious cameras who had clearly been hired to do the photographing so I left them to it and tried my best to be present in the moment. There is, for those of you who are curious, one cellphone picture of me and my mom in our wedding girl drag and some links to artwork I found interesting. Come along?

( Country mouse goes to the big city! )

The last couple of days, I got to spend some quality time interacting with the social safety net in the United States. It was not a fun experience and I learned things I did not want to learn. I'm now going to share them with you. This post is flavored by disappointment and impending tragedy.

( This is also a tenant problems post! )

As you know, Bob, I read a lot of Kindle Unlimited slush. This is for economic reasons (I read at volume and I am unwilling to spend real money on books that I will never ever read twice.) and I have made my peace with that. Yes, yes, libraries. I do understand. But KU is convenient and cheap-enough and readable-enough and produces the sort of slush that I currently want to read, to wit: wish fulfillment and power fantasy litrpg.

( In these dark and troubled times, I don't need grimdark in my fiction. )

No more Afghan Accountability. It's done. All done, done-ity done done done.

( Read more? There's a picture! )

I mentioned previously that I'd seen an uptick in emails from the Trump Machine (said emails arrive because I'm a registered Republican due to all politics is local issues) and that is true. What's honestly shocking is how hard they're trying to reach me.

( Smells like desperation... )

With rainy weather, there is time for laundry and Netflix (actually a free month of Amazon Prime so I'm watching stuff there for now until the month runs out) and... sustained knitting. There are two (2) squares to go.

In Pennsylvania, we have closed primaries which means that Only Democrats can vote in the Democrat primary and Only Republicans can vote in the Republican primary. If you are independent in Pennsylvania, you don't get to vote in any fucking primaries. I have Some Thoughts about closed primary systems and how they drive extremism in American political parties, but also I would like a meaningful voice in my local government. And so I'm a registered Republican.

( Read more? )

I mentioned a while back that I needed to have some dress-up clothes for an event. I've been putting this off, see, for a bit, but now it is time and I must pursue shopping for clothes for the event.

( Why is it time now? )

The world map has changed since I graduated high school in 1988. There are a lot more -stan countries than I remember there being. A bunch of countries I used to know are not countries anymore. Some things that weren't countries when I was a kid are now countries.

Not countries anymore: Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Soviet Union, Yugoslavia.

Now (or "again") countries: North Macedonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia, a whole slew of -stans, Bosnia and Herzegovina

There have been changes, is what I'm saying. It's time to learn geography... again. I'm using an app or a website or something. I dunno. It's here. Perhaps you would also enjoy upgrading your geography with a website/app that fits on a phone. You can do it in small bits of time during the day and it's not doomscrolling. It's got a daily five-country challenge you can try. Give it a whirl.

Since the temperatures are up over 90F, obviously it's time for hay. I am pretty interested in hay (because I have horses and horses eat hay) though I wish that hay happened at times of year that weren't over 90F.

It does not.

( Read more? Look, at least it's not snakes or fiber arts... )