Open Thread 1/23/23

Alas, I currently cannot see much of anything at all so carry on in my stead.

Open Thread Bouquet

 

The day after my infusion someone rang my door bell and hander Raj this unbelievable, lovely flower arrangement.

It made me smile!

I can’t thank you enough for everything you have done for me; prayers, cards, letters, emails and flowers. My vision has gotten so bad that the spider web of floaters blocks even my yuge 27” monitor, so Raj has to read and type for me.

Stay prayerful and carry on…

ps: I think the purple-blue flowers are anemones if anyone is curious.

Sunday Open Thread

Open Thread:

Have at it.

Happy New Year 2023

Given the state of my eyes I can’t really post anything new but I have assembled a few excerpts from previous New Years’ posts which are mostly still relevant.

From revelry:

To those who made it to midnight on purpose to usher in the  new year I salute you. To those who were forced to make it till midnight by merrymakers in your neighborhood ushering in the new year, I sympathize. And to those who were awakened from a sound sleep by neighborhood merrymakers ushering in the new year, I empathize.

to predictions, 

I’m not making any more predictions because I just realized they’d be mostly pessimistic which somehow doesn’t seem appropriate for a New Year post. I’m still optimistic about some things but at my age it takes infinitely more effort to convince myself that logic and circumstance warrant such irrational exuberance. So I tend to conserve my optimism these days for really important stuff, like saving the world. [Relevant current article]

and resolutions:

Happy New Year everyone! We’ve made it through one Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year.

I don’t know what year that last excerpt was from but I must say, it  applies to 2022 as well.

When my eyesight improves I might just muster enough energy to make a couple of casual promises to myself.

Until then I wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year.

Christmas Eve, 2022

A version of this was originally posted December 24, 2021

My Christmas Eve posts of the past have been some of my favorites, starting with the very first one in 2009. You remember - the year the Obamas decided they simply must continue their family tradition (est. 2008) of spending 2 weeks over Christmas at a luxury resort in Hawaii on somebody else’s (ours) dime. Raj did a short video of that trip that I think I’ve used every Christmas Eve hence so tradition demands I use it again. Mele Kalek-Obama: (I, Motus make several cameos in this short musical so watch for me!)

Amazingly the opening sentence in that 2009 post is still mostly true, only the dates have changed:  

Santa and his elves are hanging around D.C. just long enough this morning to vote on how much they’re going to charge for processing and handling on this year’s free gifts.

Then there was the year that the seeds of the BLM movement were sown and it became clear that there was no winning the Left’s race war.

I can’t keep up with the ever shifting sands of racism and political correctness. One day Santa is okay, but(t) his sidekick, Black Pete is unacceptable. The next day it’s Santa himself who;s unacceptable: too white, too fat, too cis, too privileged:

In the twinkle of an eye, only black Santas matter:

Some years we did mostly recipes and cute stuff to eat and drink:

instructions here

I’ve tried to keep Christmas Eve as politics-free as possible, but that grew more difficult as the country’s deep divide grew ever deeper. People began to dread even seeing certain people/relatives over the holidays:

Things have only grown worse since then so let’s hope families either abstain from discussing politics or simply refuse to engage in bait-setting scenarios with warring members of their tribe. A truce for Mom’s sake would be nice…

And I see the country is as divided over Hallmark Christmas movies as politics. It’s like asking people whether to put rum or bourbon in their eggnog or Tom and Jerry punch bowl. Feelings run high.

With the assistance of this helpful Hallmark plot generator anyone could write a Christmas movie.

And that brief look back brings us to Christmas Eve Present where Progressives everywhere are celebrating Festivus, although they’ve expanded the Day of Grievances to include all 365 days (366 in Leap Year).

Raj and I will be spending a quiet Christmas Eve at home this year. We would both like to thank all of you for your prayers, good wishes and cheer through this rather difficult year. I am so appreciative to the MOTI for brightening our days throughout these sometimes dark months. I am happy to report that I am beginning to feel a bit stronger, far from “normal” whatever that is now, but definitely better. My current course of treatment will continue at least through June and possibly longer so it’s still a long haul but one I’m grateful to be able to make. I will see what can be done about my eyes (and jaw) issue after the first of the year.

Meanwhile, behold this wonderful Christmassy floral arrangements which arrived yesterday from the MOTI.–

My eyes prevent me from taking photos that do this arrangement justice  but it’s breathtaking and very Christmassy with evergreens, ever-reds, a dozen and a half of huge pinkish roses, burgundy peonies and even 4 rosy cheeked PEARS! The only thing missing is the partridge and as luck would have it, I have one of those hanging on my Christmas tree.

So again, all I can say is thank you from the bottom of my heart. I’ve gotten this far through your love, prayers and the mad skills of modern medicine, all of which I am most grateful for.

 

So I wish you all good health, good travels, good friends and good cheer and a very Merry Christmas Eve, wherever your sleigh may take you. 

 

It’s Still A Marshmallow World

This is a repost from 2018, one of my favorite Christmas posts and a good way to kick off Christmas week:

Marshmallows scream “Christmas!”

They needn’t come from bags, apparently you can make them yourself. And if you are truly OCD you can even make them into marshmallow snowflakes.

What a great gift for all the, um, snowflakes in your life.

They come in multiple flavors of the season:

chocolate caramel, peppermint, gingerbread

as well as multiple species:

But is there any marshmallow as cute and fun as the snowmen?

When I saw these little guys I immediately recognized them as a modern adaptation of the puffy little Christmas decorations I made one year when I was in high school. I tracked their provenance back to the pages of the December 1960 Better Homes and Gardens magazine. I found me an archial magazine website that has every issue, ever published, of dozens of iconic magazines.  And there they were, on page 58, in an article titled:

In my house the December issues of the “ladies” magazines were never disposed of, they were stashed away after Christmas to emerge again every year as inspiration for the upcoming holiday season. What didn’t get baked or made one year might just make it into the rotation in a subsequent cycle. And so it was in 1966, a sad year for my whole family as my dad had died late that summer, I finally set about to make the marshmallow men that made their debut 6 years prior.  While Gingerbread Snowflakes’ updated version uses colored markers to make eyes, nose and buttons, the original BH&G specs are far less benign. Check out the materials listed for the construction of the original snowmen:

Glass-head pins!!!! In cute little marshmallow men that look like confections?! Can you imagine what the publication’s lawyers would say about that today? In 1966 however I headed off to the fabric store to procure my glass headed pins and non-digestible green sequins without batting an eye. And what? - white resin glue! That’s awfully toxic isn’t it? Pretty sure I used Elmer’s because that’s what we had, not because you can eat it.

I remember my creations being adorable, if not quite perfectly constructed. In fact they were probably more than a bit rough around the edges because crafting has never really been my forte. But I remember them making me happy for the first time in what seemed a lifetime. They were a tiny part of learning that life goes on, that pain never goes away but it does abate. Although oblivious to it at the time I was beginning to discover, as Deborah’s Palm has reminded us time and time again, that we choose life and blessings, not the other way around. Choose wisely.

I wish each and every one of you a wonderful Christmas Eve…and a marshmallow world.

Oh, the world is your snowball, see how it grows
That's how it goes, whenever it snows
The world is your snowball just for a song
Get out and roll it along

/

We Need A Little Christmas

 

Oh dear, oh dear: we definitely need a little Christmas around here.

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but SrDem’s daughter wrote to let me know that her mother had a fall last week and broke her arm, hip and suffered a concussion. She is currently in the hospital but will be transferred to a rehab center shortly.

Please add her and her DD to your already long prayer list.  I will try to get the address of the rehab place so you can sent good wishes if you want.

God bless us everyone, as we so dearly need it.

If It’s Not In the MSM, It Doesn’t Count

I’m sure this has already been posted but it seems a fine story to begin a new thread. ELON MUSK (AND MATT TAIBBI) HELP EXPLAIN ‘WHAT REALLY HAPPENED WITH THE HUNTER BIDEN STORY SUPPRESSION’ (WOW); Updated.

There is some fine reading there. Will the MSM find time this busy holiday season to mention it? Don’t be silly.

 

Health Update:

My latest: brain MRI and body scans last week revealed no new or spread tumors/cancers so that is good news indeed. And I thank you for your ongoing prayers and positive vibes. The bad news is my eyes, as I think I’ve mentioned before, are giving me additional trouble. Both eyes now have a detached vitreous which present as very thick tangled masses of black, web-ish clouds. These are no simple floaters.  It’s more like advanced cataracts. Even blown up YUGE and set to dark mode for high contrast screen time is difficult and frustrating. I can’t see pictures on my computer at all so…seriously vision impaired for now..

Theoretically this should clear up as the brain "adjusts" although my doc told me that generally people have time for the brain to adjust to the first eye before the second eye detaches so I don't know how this will work. Ophthalmologist's advice is to give it 6 months and if it isn't better give it a bit longer. There is surgery that can be done but he's apparently not a big fan, nor am I at this point so we shall wait and, hopefully, see.

Anyway I'll take bad sight and misaligned jaws if the scans keep coming back clear. I've much to be grateful for so will try not to complain (too  much) about the rest. I will continue on my regimen of chemo/immuno-therapies for the foreseeable future. I’m getting somewhat used to it and seem to have a little more energy some days.

Hope you all are well and stay that way. I don’t know about you but we’ve got our lights and tree up; if you haven't do it now! We need a little Christmas as the song says. Where I am, the steel gray days, late mornings and early evenings require the twinkle of Christmas lights.

So forgive me, I know I owe many of you emails and such but I really can’t see well enough to do so. This short post took me 2 days and Raj’s tech support to get up and probably still has typos. Hopefully things will improve but until then I will likely not be around much but will be thinking about you all.