#ThursdayThoughts: Only under John Roberts’ joke of a Court.

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It’s sunny, still chilly but I am feeling much, much better. I think allowing myself rest for the last couple of days really did the trick. Still a little bit sneezy but very manageable.

What isn’t manageable is the fact that SCOTUS is hearing arguments that trump should be able to throw a coup if he wants, or at least that’s what the bits of argument we’ve seen boil down to. Right now they are determining whether he has “immunity” from prosecution for criminal acts while president.

I think the issue is limited to his actual time in office but I’m not exactly sure.

But that is one of the most outlandish things to normalize in a sea of normalizing the unthinkable. If a president is immune from all criminality while in office, what is to stop Pres. Biden from giving trump the Navalny treatment right now? What is to stop Pres. Biden from jailing all the conservative SCOTUS Justices the minute the ruling comes down?

Essentially it would be a granting of unlimited power to the person with the most power in the United States. How can anyone seriously consider that to be a possible interpretation of the Constitution?

Let alone handing that power to someone who has already said if he gets it again he will use it for revenge. None of us thinks Pres. Biden would actually do the things I just listed but trump has said he would be a dictator on day one, and would use the office for revenge.

Remember when an appellate court asked if immunity meant trump could use Seal Team 6 to assassinate a rival? And trump’s lawyer gave that a thumbs up?

Do you think trump wouldn’t? Because I think he’d make good on his promise to shoot someone on 5th Avenue.

This is ridiculous, and that the Court is giving it any consideration is equally ridiculous. So should SCOTUS say sitting president is immune, or worse, a president, no matter whether sitting or not, has “absolute immunity,” I think that would have to be put to the test. Because if it applies to trump, it applies to everyone.

And he’s not in the White House.

Hopefully he’ll never see it again, but that doesn’t mean someone as despicable, as self-serving, as evil won’t get there some day.

Possibly not the most uplifting post, but reality is reality. I hope you have a good Thursday regardless.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#WednesdayWisdom: The saying’s “indulge a cold,” right?!

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It’s chilly today, and gray, and my personal game of Allergies or Cold? has been resolved. It’s a cold.

Symptoms are about the same as yesterday, and I would think if they were allergies they would have improved by now. I am also tired, which, granted, isn’t a ironclad proof in this day and age, but it seems hinty.

So my wisdom for the day is to take it easy when your body tells you to take it easy, and that is precisely what I’m going to do. We have such a culture of “fighting through it” or “working through it” but I’m not going to feel better faster if I pretend my runny nose and sneezing aren’t bothering me at all, ignoring them like you would a pesky sibling in the back of the car.

Couldn’t really ignore them either, anyway.

I am off to maybe slightly wallow a little, definitely rest a little, and maybe be less vertical because it seems to be better that way.

I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday, and should the need arise, listen to yourself.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#ChatTuesday #TuesdayThoughts: Achoo.

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It’s gray and we’re supposed to get thunderstorms but I’m not sure if that’s going to happen. Yesterday I was out at the lakefront and the crabapples and other trees were in bloom, it was gorgeous.

Today I’m sneezy, and it might be allergies, it might be a cold, I really am not sure. I may never get a definitive answer.

My head is definitely swimming, but again, not really a clue about which way these symptoms are headed.

So I’ll just say a hello–“Hello!”–and call it a day and a post. Unless you would like a post that’s mainly a collection of sneezes, which to me, doesn’t sound entirely awesome.

Who knows.

Have a great Tuesday.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#MondayThoughts: It’s a gathering, not a languishing.

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It’s sunny today, and I find myself thinking of a character in one of Margaret Atwood’s The MaddAddam Trilogy. She was lethargic and unable to do much of what she used to do, and they described it as being in a “fallow period.”

While you’d likely agree much of Atwood’s writing sticks with you regardless, that description has stayed with me, and comes to mind as I watch the buds returning to the trees almost in real time, and see color starting to run down branches in the race to summer.

I’ve had my own “fallow” period, soil frozen with the coldness of the world and my own personal tragedies, and I can’t help but feel that same warming as the ground outside. Of course I want to temper it, out of fear of those unpredictable meteorites that seem intent to knock us down.

If such things can have intentions.

Whatever your personal season, the fact is that they never last forever. The ebbs and flows may feel like they span full epochs, but even the dinosaurs arrived and departed.

I really love the idea of that time not being fruitless. Instead, it is the very fertilizer for the fruit, the thing that makes growth sustainable and even possible. It’s a gathering, not a languishing.

And with that, I wish you a wonderful, fruitful start to your week, and if you’re in a fallow period, allow yourself to be replenished.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#FridayThoughts: Baby Reindeer (no real spoilers) and my reaction.

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It’s brightly sunny today, but chilly, chillier than it looks, apparently. I am still having some side effects from my vaccines, but nothing serious and much better than the illnesses, that’s for sure.

I watched Baby Reindeer and I have a lot of thoughts. It’s based on a true story, though details were changed, ironically to protect the identity of the stalker. And here’s the thing.

I’m sorry he went through so much, it sounded terrible and like a constant grind. But my issue with it all is women experience things like this, often from more than one man during the course of a life, and with a greater explicit threat of violence. Women are sexually assaulted and sexually extorted in pursuit of creative dreams, but rarely does that lead to huge opportunities like a show on Netflix.

None of this is to minimize anything, especially sexual abuse. But the show had this tone, at least to me, like this was the first time any of this had ever happened to someone and it was the worst example of it all.

Again, terrible. But when Donny (the main character) went to police, he used the example of a younger woman with an older man sending these messages and if the police would do something, and the officer sheepishly said they would.

And that really sticks in the craw because would they? Or would the woman be interrogated about how she encouraged him and what she did and how she should just ignore him? Why she saved his messages? Why she spoke to him? What did she do to lead him on?

Listen, law enforcement is generally terrible about dealing with any of this. And I don’t know the laws in the UK versus the laws here. But it seems to me as though all the millions of women who have had to change their lives completely to try to rid themselves of a stalker and all the ones who didn’t survive it because the stalker killed them are seen as less important.

Maybe I’m wrong, maybe that’s not true, maybe it’s just a different story of stalking. Maybe given the opportunity Netflix would tell a similar story about a woman.

But I can’t let go of the fact the story it’s chosen to tell in the past is that from the perspective of a woman’s stalker, in You, which I couldn’t stomach.

Again, Richard Gadd’s story of that period of his life is awful, and I do not deny that or lessen that. But I wish women who have gone through similar experiences were treated as though it was equally important.

I think that’s my issue. Not minimizing his experience but acknowledgement it’s just as awful when a woman is the target. That it’s common doesn’t make it less awful.

And with that, I wish you a wonderful Friday and a great weekend.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#ThursdayThoughts: If you’re behind on your boosters, boost up.

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It’s gray again, and I think it’s going to rain but I thought that yesterday and we got a minor sprinkle or two. Although today it’s the whole sky so who knows.

I got a COVID booster yesterday, I was behind, and I also got an update on tetanus, the vaccine with whooping cough, which you are supposed to get every ten years. Both of my arms are a little sore, and I’m feeling a bit tired.

Whether that’s down to a very small reaction to the vaccines or just being tired or even the weather, I don’t know. I mean the arms are obviously the vaccines but still better than getting sick.

Much better.

Instead of rambling (what make it different than any other day?!) I’m going to wrap it up here, but I hope you have a fabulous Thursday and if you’re behind on your boosters, boost up!

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#WednesdayWisdom: Heads just get crowded sometimes.

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It looked like it was going to rain and then it cleared up and now it looks like rain again. Who knows what it’s going to do. Certainly not the weather, I’d say.

Today my head is cluttered with unwanted things, not the least of which an earworm which has been there for DAYS. So much so I’m not even hearing it anymore when it starts up.

Maybe that’s the way through it.

My own personal head background music. That’s what you’re supposed to do when meditating, too, when thoughts arise. Acknowledge them, and let them go.

Maybe I need to acknowledge the song and let it go. We’ll see if that does the trick, at least in that aspect.

The other? Well, heads just get crowded sometimes.

Life moves and doesn’t move in ways you don’t expect and don’t always predict. That’s easier for some people than for others, we all handle things differently.

And yet we all get earworms.

You are correct, that doesn’t exactly follow but it only occurs to me now that maybe there are people who never get earworms? Is that even possible?

Probably. That’s likely amazing.

Sometimes it’s like an archeological dig in your own head, layers and layers, things shoved aside for “later,” and then later arrives. Our own personal epochs defining the strata.

Fossilized remains of our pasts long gone.

Sooner or later, I guess you have to get out the shovel. Do archeologists use shovels? Just imagine whatever tool makes the most sense here.

And with that, I wish you a wonderful Wednesday, with or without one of those brushes they use around the bones, whichever works for you.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#ChatTuesday #TuesdayThoughts: Mindfulness only minds so far.

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It’s largely sunny this morning, though we are supposed to get rain later. Maybe. Who knows.

I’m in a kind of a restless mood, I couldn’t tell you why, it is what it is. Some days are like that, some weeks are like that and some months are like that.

This month is definitely like that.

I am worried about the little things and the big things. And maybe all the things in-between. The worst part is not knowing if it’s baseless or not. Baseless is, of course, better in the long run.

Everything now feels like it’s at a fevered pitch, at maximum everything, and maybe that’s by design and maybe that’s just where we are in this particular moment in time. A decision away from a world aflame, really.

Months away from an election that could determine the history of the world and whether there will be anyone left to record it.

All the way down to the cost of prescriptions.

That’s a lot of levels of worry.

Sometimes I envy the go-with-the-flow types, the people who can view now only as now and deal with later as it comes.

Me, I like to be prepared. I like to have a plan, no matter what that plan is for, no matter what that plan entails, no matter how unlikely that plan is to be utilized.

Sometimes that helps with the worry, sometimes it doesn’t, but what else can we do? Mindfulness only minds so far.

Have a great Tuesday.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#MondayThoughts: Beginning of the end, I hope?

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It’s sunny and warmish, cooler than it was, but yesterday everyone was out at once and it was so many people. I am not as good with crowds as I used to be.

We’re back around to Monday, Tax Day–in case you forgot–and I’ve had a song circling around in my head for days now, ever since a snipped appeared in a show.

You can too, why not.

I’ll be back, my coffee has to be ready by now. It was delayed by the small, small, small factor of me not starting it.

And apparently there not being enough water. I’ll get there. Eventually.

I did. Coffee acquired.

Jury selection begins in trump’s New York trial where he is “accused of” paying money to Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about their, well, let’s call it an “affair” in order to influence (or interfere with) the 2016 election. Trump allegedly had Michael Cohen, who went to jail for this, pay Daniels $130,000 and then repaid Cohen through fake “legal fees.”

We kind of watched this all unfold in real time, so I’m not really sure why there are so many articles questioning how the trial will go. It’s like there is some kind of agreement when it comes to trump to pretend the obvious is not obvious.

But it’s really obvious.

Personally I’m hoping this is the beginning of the end of having to ever see or hear from him again. I’d like to see him spend his remaining days in prison, and the world slowly heal itself from his presence.

He could take putin with him, while he’s at it, I wouldn’t mind that at all.

It’s incredible how some people seem to exist solely for the purpose of doing evil, for harming other people, to take as much as they possibly can. And even worse, how those people seem to get through it all unscathed while leaving the scars of the consequences of their actions on others.

I’d like to think the universe always reverts to balance but honestly a world without evil entirely doesn’t seem like a bad idea. A universe without evil.

Sigh.

But our universe seems to have an overabundance, and it’s Monday, and much as I like it, I don’t have the power to make them go away.

So best I can do is wish you a great Monday and a wonderful start to your week.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#FridayThoughts: Full of Friday.

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It’s a sunny Friday in April and finally I think it might really be Spring. How about that.

It’s tax time, in case you’ve forgotten, you have through Monday to file on time. Yay.

One of the many fun things of being an adult American. And by fun, it’s as though the government teamed with a supervillain’s lab to create the world’s largest psychological experiment.

Besides that, my head has finally settled down, along with the weather. When it’s off, it’s always hard to know the source, whether it’s food or weather-related. Foods get the suspicious once-over. But this time, maybe it was weather.

Hard to say for sure.

Anyway, I don’t have anything particularly deep or insightful for you today, I’m essentially coasting along in that Friday feeling, but I hope you have a fantastic day and a truly restful weekend.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.