I have a bunch of kindness set aside, time constraints are really limiting my ability to post much these days. But I thought we could all use a lift as we head into this crazy week.
I’m off to walk the dogs and then run some errands. Lasagnas are all in the freezer, bread is ready to go into the oven when I get back, then I can deliver them tomorrow, along with the toffee. I think then the week should go pretty smoothly, hopefully, work will be quiet.
Watergirl sent me a little note yesterday, saying someone was wondering where I have been lately. Thanks to whoever it was who missed me. 😘 I’ve had a very busy month+ Back in July, my Dad decided he wanted to go to his 68th class reunion and I was hellbent on making that happen. It took a lot of planning to make it into a trip that was doable for him, at 86 and in a bit of frail health. We had a very fun trip at the end of October and he had a great time – there will be a bonus photo at the end of this post if you’re interested in our trip.
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Let there be more “Wombat Guys” in the world and fewer assholes:
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I wish I would have had time to see this while I was back East, but it was a bit busy.
OMG, did you know they had EYES???!!! I’m both fascinated and a bit creeped out.
Bon dia! Els caragols de mar tenen ulls? 🤔 Sí, en tenen dos que no perden detall de tot el que passa fora de la closca. Igual que els de terra, els tenen a la punta dels dos tentacles llargs del cap. No els has vist mai? Doncs no et perdis detall. 👀 pic.twitter.com/0wzw3KVmP2
Translation: Good morning! Do sea snails have eyes? Yes, they have two that do not lose details of everything that happens outside the shell. Like those on land, they have them at the tip of the two long tentacles on the head. Have you never seen them? So don’t miss a detail.
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And just because your day needs a baby kookaburra:
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Here are my ducks, enjoying the fall after a blustery, snowy few days that quickly turned back to summer-ish. I’m literally going to have to water this weekend because of the heat and wind.
Okay, you’ve made it this far, so I’ll tell you a little bit about my Dad’s adventures.
He’s had some rough years – in 2020 he had a stroke, which he has mostly recovered from – nagging daughter tells him if he would continue his physical therapy it would benefit him – but his speech is clear and his mind sharp, so I’m grateful for that. Then my mom died in 21 and Dad had Covid pneumonia last Christmas.
So when on his birthday this year he reconnected with a good friend from high school (that I’ve come to find out, never dated, but wanted to, only to be thwarted by her very strict Italian father) and decided he wanted to go to the upcoming reunion, I set about making plans for that to happen.
To keep the ridiculously long flight doable for both of us, he flew here for a few days and then we flew out of Denver to Boston, where we hung out with friends and family. I wish I could tell you all the fun stories about his reunion and his week back in his hometown, but he probably wouldn’t like that. Let’s just say, it’s clear my dad was quite the ladies’ man and age did not diminish that…and I learned some things a daughter probably shouldn’t know. LOL
He managed the trip very well and honestly, it really changed his demeanor, back to his old self which I’m happy to see. There were a few grumpy moments, as you might expect from a retired USAF MSgt, but we weathered those brief moments when he decided, much like the Danes do, that a scowling TaMara is not to be messed with…just sayin’.
While he was here, Zander did not leave his side, much to my father’s delight. For a “not a cat guy” he sure enjoyed the Z-man. Here they are watching Sunday Night Football together after our long flight back (and you must never tell him I posted this, LOL):
This is a good news thread….post your good news in the comments.
The best part of putting these posts together is I spend an hour or more looking through “good news” stories to share. Some get bookmarked, some I include, but all make me happy and start the day off on a good note. Here are a few I chose for today:
Someone in Melbourne put googly eyes on Birds-of-Paradise
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I feel like I shared this one already, but still fun. This is Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary in Tasmania, and the phone was successfully recovered. Albeit with a few bite marks.
If you need to brighten your day, just search Tasmanian Devils on Youtube and oh, boy, cuteness overload.
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Steeplejack sent me this (ages ago, but still special)
Misha, a non-verbal teen with Down’s Syndrome, didn’t understand why his family had to flee Mariupol this year.
To placate him, his mother told him they were travelling to meet John Cena.
Looking for some good news stories this a.m. I fell down the Steve Hartman hole and am glad I did. Y’all get two:
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A little bit of a tearjerker with a happy ending…
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As someone who worked hard with local tree experts this summer to save my plum tree, I felt this one. Sometimes, they can’t be saved, but something wonderful can come from it:
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Adam sent me an entire article filled with these, so be prepared for the Vet Sign version of Dad Jokes to be shared liberally:
I apologize for any repeat videos. Sometimes I cannot remember if I posted or not, but today I did remember to delete the bookmarks, so they won’t be repeated, hopefully, anytime soon.
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For those keeping track, my backyard spigot was fixed and in the process found a fantastic plumber, he and his wife came out because…wait for it…they wanted to meet the dogs. They named their business after their dog, an 85 lb Lab rescue mix (I bet you can imagine why I chose them). Sweet young couple, just starting out with their business.
Now the ducks can have fresh pool water while I’m out of town and my petsitter won’t have to jump through hoops to get the pups fresh water. Which brings me to the next thing – my dad is coming out next week, and then we are going to Boston for his 68th class reunion and to see family. So no kindness for a while, I’m sure. And pray for me, because traveling with my dad…I’ve already threatened to leave him in Boston if he doesn’t behave.
Here’s a little (ha! 16.5 lbs!) Sully, my familiar, ummm, blackest of black cats.
This is a respite thread. Share your good news or if you’re struggling and need folks to point you to some good news, we could all use a little lift. Trust me, been difficult for me to focus on good stuff lately. But we all need a mental break.
I had a vanity plate for years that read Whimsy. I miss that plate, but now my plate looks like this:
So I’m okay with that.
Someone sent this to me this past spring, but it was WaPo link and didn’t have pictures. Cleaning up my files I was re-reading it and randomly clicked on a link in the pdf. It took me to the original article in Hometown.com
Don Powell opened his mailbox one day last August and found, along with the usual mix of bills and pizza coupons, two small dolls sitting on a miniature couch near a tiny table.
The pair and their furniture came with a note: “We’ve decided to live here. Mary and Shelley.”
Powell first thought the homely wooden figurines – a man and a woman – were put in his mailbox by mistake. He wondered if someone in the neighborhood was playing a joke.
“I went around to the other homes on the cul-de-sac to see if anyone else had gotten dolls in their mailbox,” the 72-year-old said. “No one had. There’s a neighbor across the street named Shelly; I knocked on her door and asked if she had done it, but she said no.”
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He was amused, but his first thought was to evict the couple and their belongings into the garbage can. But then, struck by a change of heart, he pushed the couple and their belongings to the back of the mailbox and went about his business.
That was just the beginning of the story. When Powell wasn’t looking, someone dropped off a dog for the couple living in the mailbox, along with a rug and even some art for the wall. Then came a four-poster bed.
The article is free to read, so click on over, because there’s so much more – Halloween costumes, Christmas decorations and hopefully a children’s book to come. And if you sent this to me, please identify yourself in the comments. It brought me a lot of joy.
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These people belong in our tribe for sure:
If you need more of these cute kitties, there’s also a Dodo video here.
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This is so heartwarming:
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How about we finish up with some whales enjoying music:
Just a note: If you sent me any good news twitter links, most don’t work now, I found as I was cleaning out my email files. Maybe the change over to X or people just leaving in droves and deleting their accounts.
Hope that ends your week on a high note. Share some good news in the comments
A friend of my family recently had Covid and has had a really rough recovery. She’s going into a long-term care facility, and her two kitties need a new home. Zoey and Lucy are a bonded pair, about 3.5 – 4 months old. They have been dewormed and gotten their first round of shots; they will need round 2 and to be spayed when they are old enough. They are very sweet and playful. I currently have a cat who will not tolerate any other felines, so I can’t take them. I’m hoping the jackaltariat can help me find the perfect home for these cuties.
Hola, Juicers! We have 2 lovely ladies in LA that need a new home. I’m gonna let friend of the blog, Maxim, tell you all about Zoey and Lucy.
As you can see, these two starlets are lovely, talented and perfectly worthy of gracing the firmament of your home. Please reach out to us here at the Juicy Blog Council and let us know. I know this place is the best non-animal charity site possible to get things done for animals so, have at it, Jackals. – RM
I’m pretty sure my biggest accomplishment at 10 was convincing my classmates to pick up trash along the fence line during recess and writing tv show episodes to perform with friends in my garage. This kid:
I’ve been told I don’t post enough photos of my cats. So here is Willow, guarding the yard.
(Following up on yesterday’s promise) I don’t wanna be the Black Reporter for Balloon Juice, but I think there’s unexpressed importance in the recent Alabama Asswhooping.
For those unaware: When a Black riverboat worker asked some White people to obey the laws of the place he worked, they chose violence. A very racially-charged brawl ensued.
Responses have ranged from the pride in self-defense among a number of Black folx (and White supporters), to…well, selective editing and outrage in the people you’d expect.
There’s a lot here. So I’ll focus on those eager with the “violence isn’t the answer” prompt. Those uneasy with how easy so many seem to be with the asswhuppin’. You’re right! Violence isn’t the answer to all the issues plaguing Black folx in America — much less, the issues around Reproductive Justice, or attacks on LBGTQIA+ folx, or the treatment of people with disabilities.
And yet. If we don’t all work together to resolve these issues, and the issues of so many others. If we don’t start to recognize the source of so many challenges in America…well. I mean, Dr. King said it, a few months before White violence took his life:
First, is the guilt for riots exclusively that of Negroes? And are they a natural development to a new stage of struggle? A million words will be written and spoken to dissect the ghetto outbreaks. But for a perceptive and vivid expression of culpability I would like to submit two sentences that many of you have probably heard me quote before from the pen of Victor Hugo. “If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin but he who causes the darkness.” The policy-makers of the white society have caused the darkness. It was they who created the frustrating slums. They perpetuate unemployment and poverty and oppression. Perhaps it is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes, but these are essentially derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society.
(Emphasis mine – MD)
It’s also important to understand that “enjoying” this moment, in the Black community, isn’t carefree. It’s with the background of the weight of centuries of oppression, and the very real issues of the present moment that reflect in this brawl. In the people who almost certainly chose violence against a Black man because — in the American South, yes, but elsewhere as well — his life and liberty isn’t worth the same as them. And that some Black folx aren’t about losing any more liberty, without a literal fight.
[Back in the day] There were no consequences for [White Folx] and deadly ones for us if we tried to fight back. Well that era is done and it ain’t coming back, no matter how many sundown-town fantasy songs their country singers make. Seeing Black folk come as a community to that security guard’s rescue, one guy even swimming over like Aquaman to help him, was a ‘Wakanda Assemble’ moment, in which a group of old school southern bullies effed around and found out.
Those “greater crimes” are not things that a whole group can ignore, forever. You cannot say that one side gets all the Stochastic Terrorism they want, and expect the attacked people to bend over and take it, forever.
I don’t know who needs to hear this. But I hope they do, and do so with a quickness.
I don’t wanna be the Black Reporter for Balloon Juice. I cannot be the Marginalized People Reporter for Balloon Juice. But Alabama might be a sign of things to come, if we aren’t real damn careful as a country.
