These tiny isles of wilderness in a dense urban area always surprise me. They’re gathering places for all kinds of birds and other animals. At this time of year, the bones of the old growth trees stan out against a stark blue sky. Tangled masses of vegetation are shades of orange, red, green, red, and brown. Every so often, one of those ugly pop-up houses tarnish the landscape, but most of the houses are older and suit the landscape.
I’ve eaten out more in the last couple of months than I have in the past two years. Eating out is expensive! I don’t eat at fast food places, but I do eat at chain restaurants that are not considered fast food. I spend about twenty dollars or more and I’m not ordering the most expensive item on the menu. How is this affordable? In the past, eating out was no big deal, now it is a treat.
On Winter Solstice sunset was at 430 pm CST. Now, December 29th, sunset is440 CST. Yay!!! And today, the moon was visible in the afternoon between 1 and 2 pm. When I go home, because of the angle of the sun, I could no longer see the moon which appeared to be a full moon. However, later that evening, I took a picture of the moon and it was like a three-quarter moon.
I got the picture on the afternoon of December 30th between 2 and 3 pm!!! Even caught a streak of an airplane’s contrail! I think this is an enhanced picture. Whatever that means. Mt phone’s camera’s options are normal and enhanced. Yesterday, I chose enhanced for a picture and the picture really was more striking than the “normal”. 
This is what a “normal” picture would look like. I didn’t upload the “normal” picture of the “enhanced” picture. The enhanced picture shows more color and definition–don’t you think?
I watched Ken burns “The American Revolution“. One takeaway from it is how stupid the American poor are. While the rich class in the colonies lives were barely interrupted, the poor whites, the free Blacks were maimed and died so that the rich could continue to exploit them. Sure, the rich made promises of land to the poor whites and no promises whatsoever to the free Blacks. If one died of fever, cholera, dysentery, bullet wounds, bayonet stabs, etc., I wonder if the poor whites’ heirs received anything? And the promise of land was premised on stealing lands from the Native Americans.
This country has not changed. Follow the money and you find the greed, the graft, the grift, the theft, the exploitation. All dressed up in words that meant nothing to the men who wrote them and everything to those not of their class. That’s what this country is built on–hypocrisy, greed, theft, and lies–that’s what I heard and saw. I do agree with some of the critics that the Founding Fathers were romanticized and white-washed, but if one saw the entire documentary–some of the truth showed itself in slivers.
Why would some marketing person rename “chicken feet” to “chicken paws”? I’m trying to eat more bone healthy and chicken feet broth is now on the menu. However, the grocery store where I usually shop doesn’t carry chicken feet. It does carry pig feet. go figure! Anyway, my sister found chicken feet at a grocery store near her and bought some for me. And the label says…”chicken paws”. Chickens don’t have paws. Cats, dogs, wolves, foxes–those kind of animals have paws…never, in a million years, would the word “paw” come to mind when labeling chicken feet.
Anyway, my grandmother would make chicken and dumplings with chicken feet. Tha’s the only time we had chicken feet. Usually…after a chicken had been killed for supper. (That wasn’t often. Only after the hen had aged out of laying eggs.) The chicken feet would be put in a pot of water to simmer and the next day we would have chicken feet and dumplings.
You know…it really bothers me that the legacy corporate media sane washes whatever this administration does. Instead of decrying the attacks on other sovereign nations, the corporate media speculates as to how such attacks should be carried out. But this is all part of the patriarchy…make war…for resources, for ego, to kill off the young male competition, to enrich the rich, to be the white ape beating its chest over the body of its prey. The lizard brain rules!
I wonder if it is better to know that one is living in hell and the history of the why or to live in the hell without that knowledge. Knowing how horrible people are and how they express their horridness does not make it easier to bear. But, in not knowing, one is always fleeing from the monster under the bed. If one knows, then there is no where to flee to. In not knowing, there is hope that there is a better place. but it is a vain hope. I don’t know. Hope can freeze one into acceptance of what should not be tolerated and knowing can freeze you into withdrawing into a bubble of false security. However, in the end, the only thing one can truly change is one’s response to one’s environment.
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind? lyrics from Auld Lang Syne
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