Donna and I celebrated our 57th wedding anniversary yesterday with gifts, a matinee, and dinner out.
I gave her a coffee cup warmer and she gave me the replacement bracelet for my old Seiko that was originally going to be for Christmas. Actually I ordered the coffee cup warmer for Christmas as well … guess we’re both back to square one as far as what to give one another in what, 22 days? Better get busy!
The matinee was Devotion, the story of Navy pilots Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner in the Korean War. It’s both moving (and a true story at that) and realistic, far more so than either of the Top Gun movies … real airplanes, real flying, attention to detail, etc. It’s very like The Bridges at Toko-Ri, the 1954 classic based on the James Michener story of the same name, which I now think was a partial retelling (maybe more than partial) of the Jesse Brown/Tom Hudner story, Jesse’s color changed to white in deference to 1950s racists who wouldn’t have read the book or watched the movie otherwise.
Dinner? Prime rib at Jonathan’s Cork, a Tucson institution. Rare for Donna, medium rare for me. All in a, a most satisfying anniversary, and as I said on Facebook and Instagram (and Mastodon, and Twitter, good lord where will it stop?), who’d a thunk we’d still be together after all these years?
You can barely see my stitches in the dinner photo, above, but they’re more visible in this one, taken just now. Also more apparent is my swollen right cheek, which I can only blame on myself for not being more diligent with ice packs. The stitches, which follow my smile line, come out Monday, one week after Mohs surgery. I think the scar will be almost invisible after a few weeks … so long as I keep smiling, that is!
Long as I’m loading this post up with photos, here are our pups, whom (do dogs get the “whom” treatment, or are they just “whos”?) we’ve decided to leave home for Christmas. We’re driving to Las Vegas to spend the holiday with our son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren, leaving Mr. B, Fritzi, and Lulu home in the care of our daughter Polly. Polly works unpredictable hours at Safeway, so our friend Mary Anne has agreed to feed them at their accustomed times when Polly can’t, and to drop by for occasional canine welfare checks. It’ll be less stressful on the pups … and on us, as well. Mr. B, left; Fritzi & Lulu, right.
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Last one: my modest collection of self-winding mechanical watches, arranged by age.
From left to right:
- Seiko Pogue, purchased as a reward for becoming a fighter pilot in 1978, restored in 2022
- Breitling Chronomat, bought on a trip to Hong Kong in 1990 for our 25th wedding anniversary
- Seiko Diver, bought in 2015 because my old Pogue was out of commission at the time
- Seiko Beatmaster, a limited edition special Donna gave me for my birthday in 2021
- Seiko Recraft, bought in 2022 because I love the green dial and retro look
- Orient Bambino, from Donna for my birthday this year
Damn it, maybe I do need a bigger display case!
Freedom of speech advocate, the truth of the Government and left wing WOKE censorship of Twitter is now generally known. Secret Government censorship of social media is not confined to the kids section of a school library. The owner if twitter can do as they wish, but the Government secretly passing censorship orders, well the first amendment is involved because of the SECRET part of the arrangement. I don’t think you are concerned though. Some members of congress were informed (and we know this by documents just released ) about this and their response was — oh well the freedom of speech guarantee is not absolute. Does freedom of speech mean only that I have the right to talk to myself and my dog on dog walks and say what ever I want? Is that it?
It was not exactly orders: Twitter made the decisions. It is so ironic that after Trump used the Russians in 2016 to help his campaign it came back to bite him in the bum in 2020 as Twitter’s delay was from a concerned that the laptop thing was a Russian hack. Between Trump using the Russians (and Trump publicly requested their assistance in a debate on TV and the American federal and stateelection authorities confirmed interference or attempts from Russia). Then, the GOP was too cozy with the Saudis who conviently helped them in 2022 and then this! Significantly, Musk did not release on Friday the treasure trove of emails he had promised. Instead, we get a second hand reporting with any emails released being filtered through one journalist. As far as I am concerned, this balances out Comey’s 2016 inappropriate election interference.
MTM, we can have no meaningful fact debate. We would not agree on sources or fact validity checks. I have attempted this kind of debate in the past and it comes down to members of two different clans calling each other names. Pointless. The FBI knew the provenance of the laptop when they peddled this lie to the media, their obedient lapdogs. We can’t agree on this? Guess not.
There should be no debate on such matters this late in the game if both sides had a good will desire to find the truth, but alas, what we have here, is failure to communicate. We, you and I, are destined to be on opposite sides of the barricade in the end. There is no legal remedy to the culture war matters at hand. The law and courts are not designed to adjudicate such issues, and on top of that the FBI is now the praetorian guard of the WOKE world democratic deep state, and the DOJ, the only institution which can actually make physical arrests … is corrupt. We now are basically not just political opponents but culture war enemies . I have no desire to make you live under a state you loathe, and I do not wish to live under your yoke either.
The formal constitutional remedy for this situation is elections but that institution too is also too corrupt to be trusted. The nation must find some way to part ways, and this may be possible only with either cantonization on the scale of a country or large city or smaller, or mass migration of both sides into larger contiguous regions (several states or more) that feel affinity for their neighbors. Effective Cantonization requires mass de-federalization of every aspect of political power so the cantons can really prevail. It is the only practical solution. It is too late for marriage counselors and time for a divorce The civil war decided the rules on leaving the union. If you attempt leave, we will kill as many of you as it takes to prevent it. Same rules as the Latin Kings or Crips street gang.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and …
There is no point on going on an on about the motivation of Comey or what side he was really on. Way Way too late for that. We can’t argue math when the two sides can’t agree on the axioms on which assertions can be based. So we glare at each other now over the kitchen table, no longer seeking agreement about anything but who gets the dog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX5U5buUEvk
CSIA arm of DHS . we are a police state: around 12:20.
Can;’t resist this one attempt to respond in detail. but this is it.
You will just spit on the source as usual. ok ok. I will just wipe the spittle
off my face, and leave the room.