the blue plate special and other thoughts on turning 65

Yesterday was my sixty-fifth birthday.

While I do not feel particularly old today, by all governmental metrics, I am now a senior citizen.  I am eligible for discounts on the Long Island Railroad, movie theaters, museums, amusement parks and a bunch of diners, if I feel like showing up to have dinner before six o'clock.  Then again, why wouldn't I want to have dinner before six, when I am likely to fall asleep right afterwards?

As for the things I would really like, there are no senior discounts, like airline tickets, the good seats at ballgames and driving into Manhattan without paying tolls.

My family and friends have taken great joy in telling me how old I now am.  The exception is my wife, who tells me my age at this time does not matter because I was old when we first met.

I was nineteen at the time.

Turning sixty-five does have its benefits.  Well, at least "benefits" that include being eligible for Medicare, which means that I go from a health insurance policy that was about as good as it gets to a steaming morass of something that a Nobel laureate would have trouble understanding.  I am sure the benefits administrator at the school district my wife taught at where our insurance originates must wake up each morning by now, shaking with fear of the thought that I will contact her with yet another question about our coverage.  You would think that those in charge would want to make sure the average senior could understand coverage rules and procedures under Medicare; however, as an Ivy League graduate, I am as much in the dark about this stuff as I am about theoretical physics.  

Then again, I think I can actually figure out black holes and that sort of thing.  Black holes are where claims under Medicare go to die.

 I was in Wyoming when I originally applied for Medicare.  I was told the process would take about three or four weeks.  Eight weeks later, I went to the local social security office to see what was holding things up, and was told the office in Jamaica, where my application was referred to had received it, but...  well that was all they could tell me.  I was given a direct phone number for somebody in the Jamaica office, who acknowledged they had received the application weeks ago ad done nothing with it.  She then took a bit under ten minutes on the phone with me to review and approve the application.  One wonders what would have happened if I had not gone to the Cody, Wyoming office to find out what was happening.

Or maybe black holes are something invented by the post office for those trying to figure out Medicare.  As noted above, we were in Wyoming when I originally applied for Medicare.  After the application was finally approved, our time was running short before returning to New York.  I placed a hold on all mail, figuring that my supplemental Medicare card and information would be waiting for me when we got back to our Long Island home.  In the mean time, mail kept arriving in Wyoming.  I went on line and placed another hold on the mail, which kept arriving anyway.  When we arrived in New York, I went to the post office to pick up the held mail, and was handed about a month's worth of junk mail.  The rest of it, the real mail, had been forwarded to Wyoming, where it apparently still sits, including various bills, my supplemental Medicare card, handbook and instructions.

A friend went to the mailbox in Wyoming last week and told us it was stuffed.  She says she mailed us the stuff that was not junk mail.  We expect to receive it some time before the next Millennium.  Either that, or I will show up at the post office next week and find out they just discovered the hold order on the mail, and are now storing it up for me even though the order has expired.

At least I still have my health, or at least I better until the forwarded mail arrives.

I still have my family, including my wife, who if I was old at nineteen, must think I am on the edge of fossilization by now, and my sons, who must think the same.  At least my granddaughter has yet to make fun of me.  Then again, she is only eighteen months old and refers to the family cats as "Mama".

That said, I am lucky.  There has been little heavy lifting thus far in my life.  I am told they save that for the time you get a hernia lifting paper plates in the buffet line at the company picnic.  I have a wife whom I absolutely adore even if she thinks I may be Methuselah.  I still have Mom, who still is as sharp as ever, and may be the one person left who believes I am young enough to carry out the garbage.  I have my sons, my daughter in law and my precious grandchild.  I have most of my wits still about me and the ability to travel and enjoy life with friends.  Life has been good to me.

So fit me for a hearing aid -- if my Medicare supplement ever arrives -- and bring on the blue plate special.  I have always liked meat loaf anyway.

park county fair-y tales

 As many of you know by now, our living in Wyoming for the past few years has been a bit of a challenge, with the traditional friendliness that attracted us in the first place having, shall we say... evolved over the past two years. I bring you the latest in Wyoming wholesomeness... 

This is the week of the Park County Fair here in Wyoming.  You know, a good ole fashion hokey, wholesome county fair fresh with corn dogs, cotton candy, demolition derby and parade through town complete with small floats and shriners in little scooter/motorcars tossing candy to the kids lining the sidewalk, where they have to fight the adults for it -- like me.  The fair and the parade are supposed to bring out a certain community spirit that you tend to see in small town America, a certain "can do" in the face of all that keeps seeming to happen to all of us.  There is a certain pride associated, as people working in the local stores come out and watch along with the locals as the parade goes by. 

We were in the local Ace Hardware today as the parade started to make its way down the street, and had a good smile and laugh with the employees as the candy was being tossed to the kids.  We felt a certain sense of community pride as a small float went by urging all to go to Yellowstone "come hell or high water", obviously referencing recent wildfires and the cataclysmic flooding that closed the park for a while last month.

And then...

There is a guy who owns a very large, very yellow station wagon he parks on the side of the main road connecting our small town with Cody, the nearest town of any consequence anyone outside of the area may know.  He calls the big yellow monstrosity "the Trump Train".  As you can imagine, it is festooned with all sorts of Trump paraphernalia, including flags, signs, banners, and the recent addition of  a life sized cut out of cadet bone spurs himself seeming to drive the station wagon, wherever it may be going.

And there it was today, toodling down the parade route in the middle of town, flags and banners flying, with the guy who owns this thing at the wheel, gleefully waving to the crowd.  

Now I have no problem with this guy owning his station wagon and doing whatever the hell he wants to do with it, including hanging Trump stuff all over it and parking on the side of the highway for all to see as they drive by.  His car.  I believe his property.  His choice.

But...

Does he have the right to drive this thing down the middle of the street in the Park County Fair parade fully adorned with all the Trump paraphernalia, including the addition of a flag and painted sign on the side of the big yellow monstrosity, cheering "Let's Go Brandon"?

We all know that "Let's Go Brandon" has become a sophomoric tag line for those who either do not want to or do not have the guts to say in public "Fuck Joe Biden".

So there this MAGA genius goes down the middle of the parade route with his "Fuck Joe Biden" signs and flags, in front of children, among others, and most in the crowd think this is okay. The same people who will scream if you say something like the first word in that slogan near them without attaching "Brandon" to it, and will wash their kids mouths out with soap if they dare.

And trust me, the kids in the town -- and all over for that matter -- know what "Let's Go Brandon" means, unless they are less than three years old.  This has been pushed on them for the last two years by the townsfolk, including their parents.  Remember, that this town is in the county in which the County Commission took the ridiculous vote after the second impeachment of the yellow monstrosity's hero to declare that Liz Cheney was no longer their congresswoman.  Yes, they took the taxpayer's time and money to debate and pass that resolution.

On top of all of this, you need to get approval from the Park County Fair Commission (or whatever its actual title is) to ride your bike, your car, your float or your Trump Train in the parade.  So the Commission apparently thought it was okey dokey to drive this thing telling us all to say "Fuck You" to the sitting president of this country right down the main street of a parade designed to show off community pride.

I do not know what is worse, the idiot driving this thing, whoever at the parade governing body approved it knowing what the message was, or the town cheering him on.

So apparently, we are now to be swelling with community pride to tell our sitting president to go fuck himself.

I am bursting at the seams...

The Silence of the Lambs

I watched the January 6 committee hearing today. I did not originally intend to, but it came on before the hockey game I intended to watch had started, and then I became hooked.

And then I realized I was watching history.

I was watching one of those moments that over the course of your life you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when they happened.  They are moments that define your life and society in general at each distinct time.

I heard the news that Kennedy was shot while walking home from school.  I was in the drive of the school a matter of a few feet from turning onto Virginia Avenue where my family lived then and still does.

When Neal Armstrong stepped out onto the moon's surface, I was a camper at University Settlement in Beacon, New York.  We all thought the bigger deal at the time was Pete Seeger coming to the camp to perform for us kids.

When Nixon resigned I was sitting on the steps of a general store in Willow Creek, California near the end of a bike trip to San Francisco.  That night, the group I was with would celebrate, if that is the term you want to use, at the campsite we were at for the night by drinking just a wee bit by the fire and reciting comedy routines by Cheech and Chong.

I was sitting in my office at 111 John Street on the twenty-second floor when the planes hit the World Trade Center.  I watched from there as the first tower fell.

And today, I watched a congressional committee set out in chilling detail how a president and his followers tried to subvert an election by force.  It was clear from the testimony ad the videos shown that the mob brought to the capital and incited by a seditious, treasonous group would have killed members of Congress and the Vice-President if they had been able to.  All the while, the President did nothing, and in fact, cheered the mob on.

When the hearing was over for the evening, I logged onto my social media account to see what friends, and that includes my friends on the right had to say.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

The former president has done a lot of awful things over the course of the past several years.  He has been racist.  He has been homophobic.  He has used the highest office in the land to enrich himself and his buddies.  He has turned the Constitution into his own little plaything.  Every time, the voices in opposition have grown just a bit more quiet.

And now, nothing.

Of all the horrible, diabolical things this man and his thugs have done, they have managed to beat us down by numbing us to the insanity to the point where the worst imaginable merits not a peep in response.  We in opposition are done and done for.

And we will find this out this coming November when there have been no consequences or recriminations, and the forces let loose by this maniac and his thugs come home to roost.

racism in america

Colin Kaepernick did not do anything to anyone.

He simply kneeled in quiet, respectful protest of the way Black people have been historically treated in this country by the formerly white majority, who still maneuver frantically to retain power.

He did not break any laws.

He did not make a scene at the local Wal Mart by trying to spread a deadly disease to other people because it is a violation of his "freedom" to act responsibly and wear a mask or get vaccinated.

He did not put others at risk when he kneeled during the national anthem.  There was no physical danger to anyone posed by his decision not to stand.

He did not try to strike police officers with flag poles, fire extinguishers bear spray or anything else he could get his hands on.  Nobody was at risk when he kneeled.

He did not threaten the life of any public official or anyone else when he stood for his own rights.  No gallows were erected in the public square, ready in case he caught any public official who did not agree with him and did not act upon his first amendment protected right to protest peacefully.

And he was protesting peacefully.

He did not tell his followers that this was "trial by combat", urge them to "fight like hell", to vandalize, to threaten or to commit any act of violence in his name.

He did not break any windows or deface any public buildings.

He did not steal anything, let alone documents from the office of a member of congress.

He did not interrupt any act of any level of government at any time, nor did he try to improperly influence or intimidate any public official in either their official or unofficial capacity.

He did not try to steal an election based on a lie.

He did not destroy evidence.  He did not hide evidence.  He did not obstruct justice.

He did not defame anyone else.

He did not block any chain of commerce, thus causing or contributing to supply shortages and ultimately to inflation.

He did not ban any books from schools or libraries, and in fact, never said what could or could not be said in any classroom in this county.

He did not push to make it a crime to say anything he did not agree with.

He did not try to take away anyone's right to vote for the candidate of their choice, or make it so difficult to do so that it was nearly impossible.  Nor did he fight for the right to overturn the results of any election he did not like.

He did not ridicule science or threaten scientists and/or their families, or use his position in any public forum to urge others to do so.

He did not threaten to jail or summarily execute anyone who disagreed with him.

He did not try to impose his religion on anyone.

He did not deny medical treatment to anyone or force them to travel hundreds of miles to get the treatment they needed because he did not believe in the treatment or procedure being sought.

The people who did all of the above and more are being exalted, praised and practically granted sainthood by certain politicians, public figures, so called journalists and media.

All because the vast majority of the people who did all of the above are, for the most part, white conservatives. 

And Colin Kaepernick is Black.

Those folks who did all of the above were doing nothing but engaging in "legitimate political discourse", all as they violated constitutionally guaranteed rights to others, caused the spread of disease and misinformation, contributed to supply chain shortages and inflation, interfered with constitutionally mandated government functions, banned books, and much more.

They are heroes.

They are white.

They are going on with their every day lives, and will continue to do so until a sense of decency and morality returns to this country.

Colin Kaepernick is Black.

He was, in fact, participating in "legitimate political discourse".

He did not harm anyone, he did not interfere with anyone's rights or any governmental functions or duties.  He did not tell anyone what they could or could not do, what they could or could not say, what they could or could not read, or what they could or could not believe.

He simply kneeled during the national anthem, thereby standing up for his rights.

And for that he was ostracized, vilified, threatened, libeled and banned from his chosen profession.

Colin Kaepernick is Black.

Those other miscreants are white.

They go on with their lives.

This is one of the ways racism in america looks like in the twenty-first century.

top ten worst persons in the world, 2021

We once again present the annual Top Ten Worst Persons in the World, annual being a bit of a misnomer, as we did not publish this last year, although I am sure you can guess who the top ten worst persons would have been.  We invite comment for your thoughts in that regard, as well as the list for this year.  Once again, Cadet Bone Spurs did not make this list, as he could have taken up all ten spots and retired lists of this type permanently.

As always, there are honorable mentions, this year being Karen Fann, the president of the Arizona senate, who authorized the cadet bone spurs paid for Cyber Ninja audit of the presidential vote that ended up finding that Joe Biden won the state by more votes than originally announced, yet somehow still announced that the audit showed massive fraud, and Mark Meadows, who appears to have been one of the driving forces within the White House behind the January 6 events and cover up.  His spine has been exposed, as he was willing to cooperate, until it looked like his information would indict his boss.

And with the preliminaries out of the way...

10.  Boris Johnson --  Well, I said I wasn't going to put Cadet Bone Spurs on the list, but I didn't say anything about not putting his clown, er... clone on the list.  We may begin calling this guy Cadet Bone Spurs, Jr.  No mask mandates in Britain, No vaccine mandates.  Brexit without a viable plan.  Etc.

9.  Eric Clapton -- Keeping the international flavor of this year's list, this one really hurts me.  When I was a kid, I really loved this guy, and saw him in concert any number of times.  Always a great show.  His music is still great, but I won't listen to it anymore, now that he has demonstrated how he feels about Jews like me and sensible people who do sensible things to protect themselves and their friends and neighbors, like just about everyone...  well, except for about a third of the population...

8.  Prince Andrew -- The Brits must hate me by now.  Here's a guy who has literally been handed everything in life, but still managed to drop it.  Lots of guys have been implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein/Ghislaine Maxwell scandal, but at least the rest of them have managed to stay out of the spotlight.  For not managing to keep his yap and his zipper shut...  Cheers mate!

7.  Mitch McConnell -- Well, he had to be here somewhere.  I had thought that loyalty to country topped loyalty to party, but I guess I was wrong.  This guy has enabled everything that has happened since January 20, 2017, and now openly says his job is to make sure nothing good happens during Joe Biden's presidency.  He will allow the country to suffer just so he can be back in charge of the Senate, and the guy he blasted for January 6 back in the White House.

6.  Joe Manchin -- Never before has such an inconsequential politician become such an omnipresent oaf.  Somebody should buy this guy a very large mirror so he can admire himself all day long and leave the rest of us alone.  Voting rights?  Feh...  Climate Change?  Coal!!  Public health?  My daughter is a big pharma exec who skyrocketed the cost of critical medications.  Without this guy, Mitch McConnell would have been an afterthought this year.

5.  Ron DeSantis -- Also known in these parts as "I Wanna Be Cadet Bone Spurs".  The Guv spent the year protecting the citizens of his state by refusing to make anyone wear a mask, refusing to make anyone get a vaccine, even health care workers, trying to punish companies, even private companies large or small, from imposing any health related mandates on their employees or customers, and then trying to reward the most irresponsible amongst us who refuse to do anything to help in the face of the pandemic

4.  Matt Gaetz -- It was a real close call here between this guy and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has demonstrated in a single year how singularly unfit she is for public office of any kind, including sanitation engineer; however, unlike Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene has not yet shown herself to potentially be a sex offender.  We would expect sometime soon, Matt will be out of the House and into the Big House.  In the mean time, Matt, you are still a member of Congress, so how about sponsoring a piece of legislation, any piece other than something designed as a piece of red meat to a bunch of toothless, brainless yayhoos that has no chance of becoming law and is simply a publicity stunt.  You know, like maybe doing the job you were actually put in Washington to do...

3.  Sean Hannity -- This was another real close call, as any number of Fox Cheerleading Network personalities could have qualified here, especially Tucker Carlson, who is well ahead in the early running to be on this list next year, if not win it outright.  Sean Hannity gets the nod here, however, as it turns out he likely was in on January 6, or at least had a clue about what was coming, then after it got out of control, went on the air to denounce the violence, and the almost immediately tried to blame the left and was active on the air in downplaying everything that happened, giving, or at least trying to give, Cadet Bone Spurs cover.

2.  Paul Gosar -- Aside from the fact that it appears he was one of the insiders to the January 6 insurrection, he published a cartoon depicting himself killing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a fellow sitting member of Congress, and attacking the president.  In the past, this would have resulted in immediate criminal charges against just about anyone.  How on earth do you threaten to kill a sitting member of Congress and attack and presumably threaten the life of the sitting President and get away with it, let alone still be a sitting member of Congress?

And this year's winner is...

1.  Kevin McCarthy -- That's how.  Then again, we could put here the entire congressional GOP caucus.  We single out Kevin McCarthy here because he wants so badly to be the next speaker of the house that he will enable anything, and I mean ANYTHING, from his caucus.  Kevin McCarthy began the year properly calling out Cadet Bone Spurs for his fomenting the insurrection, and then suddenly became the poster boy for the whole thing after a visit to you know who at his little palace in Florida.  How much do you want to bet Cadet Bone Spurs told Kevin he would be speaker of the house if he backed off and the denied the former guy had anything to do with January 6, and that January 6, in any event, was not a big deal.  For obsequiousness beyond the call of duty, Kevin, you are our winner this year.  Congratulations.

Or should I say fuck you?

Wyoming, Part Two...

After a few days in the relative sanity of Southern California, an oxymoron in and of itself, we returned to Wyoming.  We returned to the scenery, the fresh air, the serenity, the horses...  and the nut jobs...

I will grant you that there are nut jobs everywhere.  Some would say Southern California is the grand daddy of nut jobs everywhere.  But here in Wyoming is where we witnessed it first hand on our very first day back.

Our travels on the first day back took us to the local Wal Mart.  Don't laugh.  They have a decent grocery section with better prices than the local supermarkets.  Besides, as many of you have seen from our Facebook posts, the bean grinder for our coffee broke -- both of them -- so this was an absolute emergency.

We parked on the side of the store, as we usually do, and put on our masks to go in, even though we are fully vaccinated including boosters.  On our previous visit to this Wal Mart, we were pleased that about forty percent of the folks in the store appeared to be masked.  Mind you, just about everywhere else we have been since the spring, the number of masked clientele has hovered somewhere between eighty and one hundred percent, but for Wyoming, this was a vast improvement.

Apparently, somebody sent a memo around to the locals.  On this occasion, it would be a stretch to say that ten percent of the customers were masked.  Somewhere in Wyoming, over the first weekend of October, COVID was declared cured for all, masked or unmasked, vaccinated or unvaccinated.

And then we walked past the pharmacy department.  Considering that boosters are now available, I was interested in seeing if there was anyone waiting for a vaccine  Nobody was in the waiting area.  Nobody appeared to be in the vaccine rooms.

There was, however, one man, who we will refer to as WMC -- Wyoming Maga Cowboy, or maybe the Wal Mart Cowboy.  Take your pick.  WMC was front and center at the pharmacy line -- there was nobody else in line.  He was a tall, thin drink of water with longish white hair and a thick droopy moustache to boot.  On top of the white mane was a summer weight, stiff straw cowboy hat.  The rest of the outfit was traditional cowboy in every sense, from the cowboy style button down shirt, to the blue jeans, to the boots.

And WMC was there with a purpose.

A loud purpose.

He started off by demanding a dose of Ivermectin.  You know, the paste/concoction/whatever you want to call it used to deworm farm animals that some on the far right of the mental universe have come to believe without any proof whatsoever will cure COVID.  We can start off this aspect of the discussion by noting that WMC was in the pharmacy department of Wal Mart talking to the poor victim of a Wal Mart pharmacist, demanding an animal dewormer.  It apparently did not occur to him that the pharmacy department at Wal Mart, surprisingly enough, only dispenses medications intended for humans.  It also did not apparently occur to him that if you are standing in a Wal Mart pharmacy speaking to the Wal Mart pharmacist about a medication, you likely need a prescription to get it.

As a side note here, I would offer that when we got home, my wife went on line.  Apparently, you can get Ivermectin on line without a prescription.  We have a large farm and supply store here in town.  I have no doubt you could get Ivermectin there as well.  Maybe WMC should have looked there.

Needless to say, the Wal Mart pharmacist was a little short on supply of horse de-wormers, but offered WMC a vaccine injection, considering there was no wait for one, and most likely considering where we are, nobody had made an appointment for one anytime that morning.  WMC declined, offering that he was not going to have anything injected into his body the ingredients of which were not known to him.  Putting aside for the moment the fact that WMC probably did not know the ingredients of the groceries we later saw him buying, I would be willing to bet just about anything that he did not know the ingredients in Ivermectin either.  

Undeterred by the looming lunacy in front of him, the pharmacist assured WMC that the vaccine was safe and had been researched, reviewed and approved by experts.  WMC wanted to know how the pharmacist knew this.  The pharmacist replied that it was in the medical and pharmaceutical journals and was in the news, to which WMC replied that he does not believe half the things he hears in the news.  At this point, I wanted to ask him if he believed half the things he reads in the medical or pharmaceutical journals -- or the farm report for that matter -- but it was at this point that my wife, who has much more sense than I do, decided we had heard more than enough and steered me away from WMC and towards the automatic coffee grinders.

We are guessing that WMC did not take the pharmacist up on the vaccine offer, as he was seen walking around the dairy section of the store less than fifteen minutes later.

And all of this is a tragedy.  Not only did WMC not receive a COVID vaccine that day, but he likely remains at risk for getting worms as well.

oh, wyoming...

This is one that has been waiting to be written since this past spring, just after we arrived in the Cowboy State.

Over the course of the summer, my wife and I have been unfriended by a person on facebook.  This is a person who is part of a group we had hung with for several years during the summers, with whom we had attended concerts and shows and we had to the house overnight on more than one occasion.  This person had been one of the friends my wife turned to for help when she was hospitalized while I was out of town.

During the course of the pandemic, we had been unable to get to our summer house in the west.  We spent a great deal of time dreaming of when we would be able to return and resume our friendships and enjoy the beauty of this great state.  After more than a year and a half, we were finally able to come here in May, and have been here ever since.  Once we got here, we notified our friends that we were back and looking forward to seeing all.  

Then we waited.

And waited.

After about a month, we finally heard from our "friend".  We got together for drinks and dinner, and were told, in essence, that we were on the outs with everyone.  I am not going to name the "friend" or even identify the "friend" by gender.  The plural will be used where otherwise indicating gender is unavoidable.

Our crimes(s)?

For the both of us, it turns out that our joint crime was Stitched Together Long Island, the group we founded together and was run primarily by my wife, that in the earlier days of the pandemic ended up with more than two thousand members on Long Island, and with our sister groups, primarily the original founding group in California run by my sister in law and her daughter, ended up making and distributing approximately five hundred thousand masks to need based groups, first responders and medical organizations that could not gain access to them via ordinary means.  As you can guess, our "friend" is anti-mask.  We were proudly told how they ripped their mask off the moment they were leaving stores, shooting the bird at the employees inside, to show they are independent and cannot be denied their "rights", whatever those rights are.  They will now not go to stores, restaurants, etc. that require masks.

We were also told that the friends all believe that we founded and ran Stitched Together so that we could get publicity.  For what, I am at a loss over, but there you go.

Our "friend" is, as you could also guess, anti-vax.  Part of our friendship banishment is that we have been vocal in pushing for everyone everywhere to be vaccinated.  Our "friend" claims the vaccines are nothing but poison.  They cannot tell you what the poison is, but it is poison, by golly!  

They also claim the rest of us are being manipulated by false statistics of deaths caused by COVID.  The logic here is that a person who dies of cardiac or respiratory arrest has not died of COVID, even if the death certificate states the cardiac or respiratory arrest was caused by the virus.  The further logic, if there is any, is that if the cause of death on the death certificate says cardiac or respiratory arrest, then the death was not caused or contributed to by COVID; therefore, it should not be counted as a COVID death, even if it is listed as a causal or contributing factor.

Mind you, our "friend" has taken the vaccine, but only did so when told they would not be allowed to visit grandchildren in another state.  In other words, when it suits their purposes, they will inject this "poison" into their system.

My personal crime?

This blog.

You know, the one that has had a total of five entries this entire year prior to this one.

Our "friend" tells us that the entire group is sick of the blog and how I "go on and on".  They wish I would just shut up.  Mind you, none of the others have told me this, then again, none of the others have said anything to me since our return in May.  It appears possible that our "friend" was sent as an emissary to shut me up, or they took it upon themselves with the tacit approval of the rest.

To put this mildly, I am not going to shut up, even if this blog is only published occasionally.

When I pointed out to our "friend" that the tenor of the posts in this blog has not changed at all over the course of the past couple of years while we were in New York, I was told that this is true, but times are now different.  There is no longer any tolerance among the friends for the kind of thinking and statements that are made in the blog, even if nothing in the blog is personal, and I try to avoid profanities, for the most part.  So, if I want to maintain certain friendships, I should no longer speak my mind on this blog, or anywhere where our "friend" and the rest of the "friends" may either see, hear or read it.  My First Amendment rights be damned, but they are still free to tell me what they think.

So I guess we are looking for new friends.

We will probably not look for them in Walgreen's, where just about nobody is wearing masks, and those few who are seated in the waiting area for vaccines of any kind are doing so without masks, right under signs that say anyone seated there must wear one.

We will probably not look for them in a couple of the auto repair shops and a laundromat in town that have hung signs pronouncing their undying MAGA love and "Trump Won!"

We will also probably not look for them from the various folks in the area who drive around or park their vehicles alongside the road festooned with MAGA flags and banners of all sorts, including the red, white and blue flags adorned with that all time great campaign/political slogan "Fuck Biden".

Finally, we will also probably not look for them at the announced "freedom" rally scheduled a couple of towns over from us in the next week or so, in which the speakers are going to be at the VFW railing about their freedoms being taken from them by anyone, especially anyone in the government or a school, who tells them to get vaccinated or wear a mask.  Our freedom to be able to go out in public confident that the person standing near us will not infect us with a deadly disease does not enter into the equation.

We will look for these new friends, and we will keep looking for them.  They have to be somewhere around here.

Oh, Wyoming...