Farewell Huckleberries

Huckleberries Online blog is being put to bed. It has been the anchor of the local blogging community for the past 16 years or so.  Thursday it is closing up shop.  Dave Oliveria, the blog meister,  is going to take a well deserved rest and then who knows.  I  certainly don't see him fading away.

I haven't been involved in the day to day for some time now.  Time constraints being one reason and struggling for direction for my own blog another.  During Huckleberries heyday, however, I was in the thick of it! And what a trip it was.

Thanks to Dave my blog got some national exposure and I got my 15 minutes of fame.  A friend of his, a writer for the AP, was doing a story on seniors who blog.  She interviewed me and ultimately included me in her article.  Things soared from there.  On air  radio interviews with the likes of CNN and others.  Picked up from the AP wire articles began appearing across the country and people who are to this day cyber friends contacted me.  Even the AARP magazine did a story and some of my peers who knew me ages ago wrote to see if it was really me.

I was approached by publishers who had books written by seniors asking if I'd review them.  Of course I would and did. I was even asked to audition for a Centrum Silver commercial. I didn't get  it but even the audition was an unexpected experience.

In the early days we bloggers were a voice to be reckoned with locally.  We even socialized at an annual blog fest that has continued to this day.   Differences were put aside for the sake of community.  Lessons could be learned from that concept. The photo of Dave, the day I met him, was taken at the first one I attended where maybe a dozen people, if that, showed up. It grew from there to be sure!

It was heady stuff in those days.  People came and went.  There were bad apples as well as those who shined.  I made some great friends and even more acquaintances I'd never have met otherwise.

So here's my tip of the hat to you Dave.  Job well done.  The blog under your steady hand will be missed.

I'll feel some emptiness in my heart as those in this unique and intriguing community begin to go their separate ways. But that's okay. Good things do end.  And this one ends happily.  I'll end on a personal note.  Thanks Dave, for everything.

New York Must Be So Proud

Well, here they are.  Mr. Rude and Mr. Crude.  Actually they are interchangeable. My husband keeps asking me what I expect; they're New Yawkers.

Piffle.  We lived in New York and I never met a native that was as rude and crude as these two.  At least not in public.

We in the nation should be appalled at the behavior of both. Actually I would guess most of us are.  What an image they put out to the rest of the world.  At least the President has cleaned up his rhetoric to some extent.  Mr. Scaramucci needs to get with the program and do the same.  It isn't cute nor funny.  It's disgusting that a grown man would think such language is acceptable under any circumstance.  Besides, the President has enough problems with his Tweeting.  He doesn't need another bad boy to answer for. Can you imagine if these two would get into a war of words?  Talk about scorched earth!

No wonder Sean Spicer looked ten years younger on his way out the door.  I'm sure Reince Priebus will too in time.  While not unexpected I imagine for the moment he's smarting. But then no one held a gun to their heads and said they had to work for the President.  There is a hunger for power or proximity to it in all of them.

It's Friday.  Unless Bannon is given the axe over the weekend I expect things may be quiet. Health care reform is dead for the moment.  Everyone will be licking their wounds over that debacle.  Maybe the President will actually worry about what's going on in North Korea and maybe not.  Who knows.

If anything is just, however, Scaramucci's wife filed for divorce today.  I hope she takes him to the cleaners.  Maybe cleaning him out will clean him up.

More Than One Man/Child

Last evening I got to thinking that, despite media reports to the contrary, Congress actually is working.  Well, sort of.  They fall short at the last minute.

That Republicans finally have the courage to step up and refuse to vote for a bill they feel does not sufficiently address the needs of their states and constituents is great.  Hooray for them!  The other part of the equation, however, is compromise.

The word is in neither party's vocabulary.

That's where the man/child, or woman/child if you please, analogy comes in. Everyone seems intent on pouncing on every utterance out of the Trump Twitter account, and in most cases rightfully so.  But are these Congressional blowhards any different?  The Democrats refusing to involve themselves be the reasoning right, wrong or indifferent?  What's more childish than marching in lock step  for a bad idea?

Then there are the Republicans who cannot sit down together and work out a bill.  First they're addressing the wrong issue.  The issue is health insurance not health care.  There is a huge difference and I see far too many legislators seeming not to get it. But then they seem not to get a great deal.

If only their actions would only affect themselves but ironically and sadly they are the least affected.

Headlines this morning indicate John McCain's recent bazaar behavior may have been caused by the blood clot behind his eye.  Perhaps it's time for everyone in government from the President on down to have a brain scan to see what sort of intelligence hindering growth may be hiding within.

Media - Just Quit It!

Boy, do I have a headache!  No, nothing like a brain tumor though it might be less painful.  It's from watching too much news.  Old story, isn't it?

I have a cure in mind, however.  It will never happen but when I get these bright ideas I like to share them.  This is for both the main stream media and FOX News.  Quit!  Just quit covering government all together.  They aren't doing anything anyway.

Just look at the health care mess.  Tell us when something positive happens.  Otherwise ignore Congress.  Did it ever occur to you that the reason why Congress holds so many hearings is because it gives them an excuse to not legislate?  Why do they have to investigate every little tit and giggle as a potential crime when they know it isn't?  Because they then don't have to do anything else because they don't have the time.  Those vacations, you know.

Then there's the administration.   Stop already.  You are reporting fake news about this hapless bunch and you know it.  Collusion is not against the law, besides both parties are equally guilty of the practice so quit trying to make a story out of it.  Donald is going to continue being the man/child he has always been.  He loves the attention it gets him and you all in the media just feed into it by reporting every Tweet.  Give it up.  You're not winning anyone over to your side.  You just keep alienating.  Is that your intent?  If so, quit it!

I no longer have any idea what is true and what is not in the jumble of mixed messaging.  I never thought being in the "middle" meant trying to figure out where the truth lies.

Not that I've been missed, but this is why my posting has become nil.  Actually I miss it but that takes me back to subject matter.  I found trying to be positive about a failing organization might help but the organization is still failing and I'm no longer with them.

My time has been spent trying to do my share of keeping up our 5 acres.  At our age it's no easy task. We're in the yard by 7:30 or 8 and shot by eleven.  So much for stamina.  Of course we use heat as an excuse and there is some merit to that but I'm not sure how much.

Oh well, if I ponder long enough I may come up with something.  There is beauty in this world of ours.  The last two nights we could get a rare glimpse of the northern lights.  I didn't make it to mid-night but those who did had some spectacular photos.

I've never tired of photographing our yard birds.  Yesterday it was a pair of baby Robins trying to earn their wings in between stints of trying to decimate my raspberry crop.  At that they are succeeding.

My headache feels better now.  I've an errand to run before dinner.  By the time I get home the local news may be on and I can catch the weather.  By the time dinner is over the news will be too and FOX will not be on the agenda.

So.  What shall we talk about now?

How Low Can We Go?

The shooting of Representative Steve Scalise and the other intended Congressional targets  that were fortunate enough to escape the rampage is only the first part of today's horror story.  Have we really sunken so low that anyone - anyone could think this is acceptable behavior?

I know the progressive left has lumped everyone who disagrees with them together and has decreed Trump their leader.  How dimwitted.
I had hoped those who do feel differently would be more aggressive in their opposition.  The Republicans certainly are not leading the way.

Someone, however, should be out there shouting at the top of their lungs that this is not acceptable in this country.  It would preferably be a Democrat but then they are the ones most complicit. The Republicans tend to little more than run  around in little tight circles ringing their hands.

The comments on social media have absolutely made my skin crawl.  What kind of people are these and where did they come from?  Who are their parents and what in the name of any almighty were they taught?

I can remember when Michelle Obama claimed she had never been proud of her country until her husband was running for President and she felt there was hope.  Hope for what?  What we have now?  Don't tell me this was Trump's fault.  It has been brewing all throughout the Obama administration and now that the Democrats have lost power it has erupted thanks to those like Bernie Sanders and Rachel Maddow who through their rhetoric spur on the hatred.

I can honestly say I've never been more ashamed of my country than I am now.  That there is opposition to the President's agenda not because it's a bad one but because of who the President is.  That all his supporters or at least those who feel some obligation to support the office he holds and the country he serves are called  every name in the book.  That the vile name calling and celebrity commentary is worthy of consideration.  That someone can take aim at a Congressman with the intent to kill.

My Mom used to tell me she lived in the good old days.  Well, so did I.  Politics have always been sticky yet interesting to watch.  No more.  People used to be civil to one another regardless of their political leanings.  Today it's disappearing even in small burgs such as the one in which I reside.

It's sad and demoralizing.  How do we combat it?  I have no idea.  I feel it is just going to have to run its course.  Maybe the shooting of a Congressman will jar some of his colleagues into thinking about  the consequences of their behavior, their hate and fear mongering.  However I doubt it because they are the cause of all the nasty discourse and it takes a certain type of person to perpetrate then condone it.

Will the pendulum ever swing back? Who knows.  The people have already said enough but the Republican party couldn't come up with a credible candidate to counter punch the progressive left agenda.  Of course the Democrats couldn't come up with an acceptable candidate either.  So we have what we have.

Hate mongering and worse won't solve the problem for either side but will destroy the country.  Then who will be proud?  Only the powerful who call the shots.  And it won't be for our benefit, but rather their own.  Bet on it.