Belated Happy Thanksgiving -- November is Almost Over

 

The sunset a couple of days ago was breathtaking.  I never get tired of taking pictures of the sunsets (and the moon when I can catch it when it's not covered by clouds like it was last night for the full Beaver Moon).   Speaking of photos, I have a Mac Pro laptop and for some reason it isn't showing my photos from October 26, 2023 through today when I pull up photos to share some on my blog.  Anyone out there that can help me figure this out?  I've tried numerous searches and attempts to sort it out but so far I'm not having any luck.  And it's one more aggravation that I definitely don't need.

I am oh so slowly starting to feel like my body is starting to heal, and I'm able to do a little bit more each day for myself, like laundry and scooping out the litter boxes for these Shetland ponies.  :D. I am so grateful for all of the help that everyone has given me, especially my two neighbors who have carried the burden of running the vacuum here and taking care of the litter boxes.  My neighbor, Cathy, who did all of the group texting for the multitudes about my adventures in the cardiac unit of two hospitals, has herself ended up having to have a pacemaker put in last Tuesday.  She is doing great, although she is chomping on the bit because of not being able to do what she normally does.  Her restrictions won't be long-lasting, though, and in 6 weeks (instead of 6 months-year) will be back to running around like she enjoys.  :)

Our early morning temperature this morning was 28, and our high today is only supposed to be 45.  Quite nippy.  This is how it should be going into December in a few days.

The Summer I Completely Missed

 Here it is September 29, 2023, and I cannot begin to wrap my mind around what I have gone through since the beginning of May.  Actually, starting even earlier in the year, as I had finally convinced my GP to do an autoimmune panel on me and got the results back the first part of April, a week before I had my annual checkup with my Cardiologist.  Several of my siblings have autoimmune disorders.  As I suspected, I have rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogrens syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and another one that my GP said she simply did not know what it was, that I would have to go to a Rheumatologist.  I couldn't get an appointment with a Rheumatologist until October 3, which is coming up next week.

Meanwhile, back to April, I had my appointment with the Cardiologist and she felt like I might need a pacemaker because my heart rate kept jumping up with the least bit of movement.  I've had irregular heart rate for years, and have been on medication that has worked well all of these years to control it.  However, Marlee turned 13 last year and in July or August (?) she had to have emergency surgery to remove her spleen.  She recovered well from that but her congestive heart failure was getting worse and I was carrying her in and out more often.  Not all of the time but occasionally, and I would notice that I was getting short of breath and my heart rate would shoot up.  By the first part of this year it was obvious that Marlee was getting much worse and I was mostly having to carry her in and out.  Marlee died on May 3 and on May 5 I had a heart catherization.  Rather than a pacemaker, on the 31st of May I was in having open heart bypass surgery.

I did really well with the surgery.  My recovery was going extremely well.  I was two months post bypass surgery and at the end of July I thought I had come down with a virus.  The last weekend of the month I was so sick I could hardly stand up without holding on to something.  By the time I was able to make contact with someone at the Heart Center the following week I knew that I was really really sick---I just didn't know what I had.  I ended up in the ER where I spent all afternoon, and was admitted to the hospital that evening.  A cardiologist came in and told me that I had had a major heart attack that had blown a hole in my heart, and that when this happened in an adult, it killed the adult immediately.  They couldn't figure out why I hadn't died, but they could not do the repairs that would be necessary.  I was in the hospital here on and off for two weeks and then they got me admitted into the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, and I was transported to Cleveland.  Apparently only the best heart surgeon in the country was capable of doing the repairs that I would need done.  I was there for a week while the surgeons met to try to determine the best way to repair the damage that had been done to my heart.  On August 25, I had the repair surgery which was lengthy.  I spent another week in the hospital there and then was released to come back home where my local cardiologist would take over my care.  

I was sooooo happy to be home!!  I was a totally different person to the one who started this year, but Lordy I was just so relieved to be back in my home with the cats and my books and my bed.  No matter the pain, and the fact that there will be someone here for the first two weeks home from the hospital, it was just so wonderful to be home.  I am really so very grateful for everyone that was taking care of me, but I was in serious need of alone time.  I am such an introvert, and I am so possessive of living alone that the two weeks with someone ( my wonderful friend, Janet) were really wearing on me.  I hung in there for those two weeks, LOL, and then I had my space back.  I still have a couple of neigbors that take turns coming over to take care of the litter boxes for me, but I'm pretty much on my own, well, as much as I want to be.  

I have been working on this post for what seems like forever and I still haven't finished it.  However, I'm going to publish this for now, and pick it up again later.  

February 1, 2023 My Birthday Month—-Death Anniversary of Randy and My Three Other Dogs

The roller coaster continues.  Marlee is still with me, defying all odds.  One minute she acts like she’s still fit as a fiddle, the next minute she collapses.  My nerves are strung tight as banjo strings.  My brother-in-law stopped by yesterday.  She greeted him like she was a puppy—then immediately collapsed.  After maybe 5 minutes she rallied.  When I say she collapses, she literally just falls over, goes rigid, her heart and breathing stop, a couple of times she has voided her bladder and bowels and I’ve been sure she was gone.  Then she will ‘come back to life’.  The not-knowing is aging me in a big hurry.  Every night when we go to bed I wonder if tonight will be the night she leaves me.  I try to figure out in my mind what I will do if she dies during the night.  I guess I feel like some kind of plan, any plan, will help me prepare for mechanics for dealing with that possibility.  

So my pharmacist, who is such a good friend to me, has suggested that I just delete February from my yearly calendar.  My birthday is the 26th, and not only did my other three dogs cross the bridge around my birthday—-one the day before, one the day after, and my beautiful beautiful Bayley on my birthday—-but my beloved, Randy, died on my birthday.  So so hard to believe that he will have been gone 4 years on the 26th.  Makes for some strange ‘celebrations’ but I do celebrate the beauty in each of those relationships.  Of course, one has to have some distance from those sad events to be able to look back and cherish and celebrate the riches in each of those unique relationships.  So, now, the question is, is Marlee waiting for my birthday to cross the Bridge, you know, just so we don’t break the tradition? 😏

I pulled some fabric a couple of weeks ago, cut and sewed and reverse sewed and sewed again one single Bear Paw Block.  How hard can that be, right?  Well, evidently for me, very hard.  Of course it’s been ages, literally ages!, since I have tried sewing anything.  I eventually got it together but it was a struggle.  I am now working on piecing a bee block.  We’ll see how that goes.  I have really been hankering to just cut and sew for months now—-like I need another agitation in my life.  LOL But there you have it.  Sometimes I think I’m just a glutton for punishment.  😂

I took my Christmas tree down yesterday.  I got it up just days before Christmas, and it’s artificial so why not leave it up for the whole month of January.  I love the lights at night and in the early morning hours and on cloudy days.  And I did so enjoy it.  But now it’s in its box and headed to the basement.  Maybe I need to think about hanging some fairy lights just for the warmth and coziness that they would cast.   I’ll think about that.

Merry Christmas

 

Post Thanksgiving Day Thoughts

 I had no idea it had been so long since I’ve visited my blog.  So much has happened in those months now passed.  Time flows through my fingers and around like fog swirling.  We are at the end of Marlee’s life, and the last three months have been an anxiety-producing roller coaster.  

One of my only two remaining sisters has been having mini-strokes, which have led to manic-depression and psychosis.  We are quickly approaching the one year death anniversary of my sister who died suddenly and tragically last December 28.  So much to try to process and come to terms with.

Marlee is in the end stages of Congestive Heart Failure, and there’s nothing else that can be done for her except try to keep her as comfortable as possible.  She’s rallied the last two weeks, but last night was a real struggle for her, which makes me start second-guessing myself on helping her cross the Rainbow Bridge several weeks ago, and which I will still do if I have to, in order to avoid her suffering unduly.  

For the first morning ever, Marlee is refusing to eat.  The vet keeps telling me that I will know when it’s time to help her cross, that when this all really kicked into high gear (about 3 months ago now), she would get to where she wouldn’t go out without being carried to do her business (which I’ve had to do for several days or more now), that she would stop wanting to eat, and he really thought she would probably die from a heart attack before I would have to make the decision to help her earn her wings.  Well, I guess that we are in those final days.

So many things that I will have to learn to do without her by my side, like how to sleep alone in the bed that she has shared with me for over 4 years now.  She turned 13 this past June, and she has been with me through so many happy times, as well as those heart-wrenching agonizing times.  Saying goodbye, in all of its many varied ways, is so very hard to do.

Nazis in our Country---Orban to speak at Republican CPAC next month

 

Hungarian leader Viktor Orban's 'mixed race' speech condemned by ex-aide and Holocaust victims' group

By Rob Picheta and Boglarka Kosztolanyi, CNN

Updated 10:04 AM ET, Wed July 27, 2022

Orban during his election campaign in April, which resulted in a landslide victory.

(CNN)Hungary's hardline nationalist leader Viktor Orban is facing international condemnation after making remarks on race and multiculturalism that were slammed as a "pure Nazi text" by his longtime aide.

Zsuzsa Hegedus, who served as an adviser to Orban for two decades, quit Tuesday over what she called Orban's "illiberal turn," describing his comments in Romania on Saturday as a "pure Nazi text worthy of (Nazi propagandist) Goebbels," according to her resignation letter published by Hungarian outlet HVG.

He was also denounced by the International Auschwitz Committee after comments in the same speech that were interpreted as a joke about the use of gas chambers against Jewish people in Nazi Germany.

Orban told a crowd that Europeans do not want to mix with people from outside of the continent.

"This is why we have always fought: We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race," Orban said.

He warned that "Islamic civilization" is "constantly moving towards Europe" and that in the future, "those whom we do not want to let in will have to be stopped at [Hungary's] western borders," regardless of the country's membership of the Schengen Area of open borders across 26 European countries.

Enter your email to subscribe to the CNN Race Deconstructed Newsletter.

close dialog

Race Deconstructed

Sign up to learn about race in America and the role it plays in culture, politics and more.

By subscribing you agree to our

privacy policy.

Hegedus, one of Orban's closest aides, said the speech contradicted her values and made her position untenable. She added that Orban's lurch toward authoritarianism during his 12-year stint as Hungary's Prime Minister had previously eroded her support.

Orban has received a groundswell of support among some American conservatives, and is still due to speak at next month's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) conference in Texas despite his Saturday remarks.

"A few thoughts for those of us who live in states that are outlawing abortion and criminalizing those who get an abortion as well as those who aid and abet your plans to end an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy. It's not enough for these extremists to make it illegal to get an abortion in their state, they are also trying to make it illegal for you to travel to another state to have a legal abortion and they will prosecute. They believe they have the right and power to prevent you from traveling for the purpose of getting a legal medical procedure or medication that they don't approve of.

Remember that the data on your phone, laptop, and desktop is not private. If law enforcement believes you are seeking an abortion or have had an abortion, they can and will confiscate your electronics and use your search history and/or your period tracking app as well as your online purchasing data and use it against you. If you have conducted searches on these devices, erase your browsing history and all cookies.

Delete your period tracking app if you have one.

Stock up on home pregnancy tests and over the counter abortion pills.

Tell no one you are pregnant unless you trust them implicitly.

Buy and use burner phones for any online searches related to pregnancy and abortion, erase your browsing history and cookies, and then destroy the phone. You cannot be too careful.

Be wary of strangers in your state or in states where abortion is legal that offer to aid and abet your traveling and abortion. While many may be legit, many may also be setting a trap. Do not count on entrapment being a defense against prosecution.

Use your burner phone to contact legitimate organizations for help.

Do not count on HIPAA to protect you and your medical data from law enforcement. Unfortunately certain conditions require medical confirmation and medical intervention in a pregnancy like ectopic pregnancies, spontaneous miscarriages, fetal death or fatal malformations in the womb, and a cancer diagnosis. These conditions require abortions to save our lives but some states would rather have women die than terminate pregnancies even if the fetus isn't viable.

A child whose body is not fully developed and would never be allowed to adopt a baby at that age should not be made to give birth to the baby of their father or brother or uncle or cousin or step-father via incestuous rape. A grown woman should not be forced to have the baby of her rapist. A woman who finds herself pregnant from her abusive husband/boyfriend should not be forced to have that baby. Any woman whose birth control failed should not be forced to have a baby she doesn't want, can't afford, and is unprepared for. Any woman who finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy for any reason should not be forced to have a baby. 

It sucks that we have to go to such extremes to protect ourselves and establish a new underground railroad of sorts. It's imperative that we get out and vote in November. The depressing polls are speculating that republicans will win big because of inflation and high gas prices and McConnell's promise of a nationwide abortion ban if they get control of Congress. We cannot let that happen or things will become infinitely worse."   

All credit goes to  www.ellenshead.blogspot.com

 

"Fascists achieve power by creating parallel institutions – schools, universities, media platforms and paramilitary forces – and seizing the organs of internal security and the judiciary. They deform the law, including electoral law, to serve their ends. They are rarely in the majority. The Nazis never polled above 37 percent in free elections in Germany. Christian fascists constitute less than a third of the U.S. electorate, about the same percentage of those who consider abortion to be murder. 

Chris Hedges

Source: chrishedges.substack.com

" The Supreme Court is relentlessly funding and empowering Christian fascism. It not only overturned Roe v. Wade, ending a constitutional right to an abortion, but ruled on June 21 that Maine may not exclude religious schools from a state tuition program. It has ruled that a Montana state program to support private schools must include religious schools. It ruled that a 40-foot cross could remain on state property in suburban Maryland. It upheld the Trump administration regulation allowing employers to deny birth control coverage to female employees on religious grounds. It ruled that employment discrimination laws do not apply to teachers at religious schools. It ruled that a Catholic social services agency in Philadelphia could ignore city rules and refuse to screen same-sex couples applying to take in foster children. It neutered the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It watered down laws allowing workers to combat sexual and racial harassment in court. It reversed century-old campaign finance restric­tions to permit corpor­a­tions, private groups and oligarchs to spend unlim­ited funds on elec­tions, a system of legalized bribery, in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission. It permitted states to opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. It undercut the ability of public sector unions to raise funds. It forced workers with legal grievances to submit their complaints to privatized arbitration boards. It ruled that states cannot restrict the right to carry concealed weapons in public. It ruled that suspects cannot sue police who neglect to read them their Miranda warnings and use their statements against them in court. Outlawing contraception, same-sex marriage and same-sex consensual relations are probably next. Only 25 percent of those polled say they have confidence in Supreme Court decisions. "

Fascists In Our Midst

Source: chrishedges.substack.com

Clarence Thomas - He is resentful how the media covered his confirmation hearings how liberals treated him for 43 years prior to confirmation He told his law clerks that he wanted to serve 43 years to make liberals' lives 'miserable' #wtpBLUE #ONEV1 #DemVoice1 #Fresh His ill will is obvious.

 

Marla W

@marla_vous

·

9h

The people who are applauding forced birth are the same people who say “no more entitlements

… tell ‘them’ to stop having so many kids”.

Southern Sister Resister - Wordsmith #IAmTheStorm Retweeted

Robin 

@rob0349

·

1h

Mitch McConnell & the Federalist Society have FOR YEARS been plotting & planning & working toward exactly the Conservative Christian dominated SCOTUS we have now. They WILL strip away every established right that doesn't adhere to their so called Christian beliefs.

Dash Dobrofsky

@DashDobrofsky

·

18h

IMPORTANT: Rand Paul is up for reelection this November. Rand is pro-life, pro-guns & pro-Russia. His opponent is Charles Booker, a Democrat who is gaining GIANT momentum in Kentucky. Kentucky is fed up with Rand.

Julian Zelizer

@julianzelizer

The U.S. is watching SCOTUS systematically dismantle social rights that were achieved through the hard-fought struggles of the 20th century. Instead, a legal vision freezing the nation in an era when so many Americans did not have any rights at all is gaining hold.

Southern Sister Resister - Wordsmith #IAmTheStorm

@ResisterSis20

·

51m

If what “should be” mattered to the white male patriarchy, America would not be so extremely divided along social lines. This current ruling patriarchy on the Right are steeped in generations of racism & sexism. They hold power. For them, what should be is what they say it is.

"The constitution wasn't written by God; it was written by slave owners."