Today Travalon and I took a hike on the boardwalk on Lake Waubesa to enjoy the beautiful weather, then we went to dinner at the Nau-Ti-Gal with our neighbor and sat outside. This unseasonably beautiful weather is supposed to continue through tomorrow, and then we'll get back to cold and dreary. Sorry, I have no photos of the boardwalk (although I thought Travalon took some), so enjoy a couple of photos of pretty bushes with autumn foliage in our neighborhood. The second one is the viburnum bush that has such fragrant blossoms in May.
Our neighbor says blueberries are the perfect bush: fragrant bell-shaped white flowers in the spring, delicious indigo berries in the summer, and bright red foliage in the fall. She is from Maine originally, where they have lots of blueberries. I have never been to Maine, nor indeed any of New England, either Carolina, Oklahoma, or Texas. And I don't count Idaho, because that was at night on the train while I was asleep. Travalon has been to every state, and he was supposed to write a short blurb about each one, but he hasn't yet, so here are my impressions of a few states:
Alabama: Montgomery has a lovely capitol building like we do, and I lost a fight with a luna moth there. Birmingham has a terrifying statue - not to look at, but to go up. When the elevator in the pedestal opened onto the balcony around it, I took one look at the floor that was grating you could see through, went, "Oh, HELL, no!" and got back on the elevator. When that guy in the middle of nowhere asked, "Y'all gone vote for Trump agin?" I wanted to say, "No, I can't wait to vote against him again!" but I should have said, "Bless your heart!" which is Southern for F--k you.
Alaska: Everything is so, so, so big. The Kenai Peninsula is like a magic fairyland, with the mist curling around the mountains. Fireweed honey ice cream is amazing. The taiga is cute little Christmas trees on a bed of springy moss. And, we have the same birthday!
Arizona: Really beautiful, if you're into deserts. Which I am. I love cacti.
Arkansas: Everything is closed on Sunday except churches, so I snuck into Johnny Cash's boyhood church to powder my nose.
Speaking of countrywide things, I feel like this election was decided for me when I was a teenager. That was when I came to hate Trump because he was so greedy and lustful. Joe Biden was running in the primaries against Dukakis, and I was too young to vote, but I liked him after reading an article that started: "He was born the oldest of four children in a working-class Irish Catholic family." I thought, "Hey, he's just like me! I'm the oldest, I'm not rich, and I'm Irish Cathopalian!" But when Ma Hat asked why I liked him in particular, I was all embarrassed because my reasons seemed so shallow, not having anything to do with his policies. Now I look at him as a deeply empathetic man who has suffered unimaginable loss: his wife, his baby daughter, and his grown son. Who better to empathize with people suffering from the pandemic? Trump never seemed to give a rat's patootie about anyone else suffering from it. Just because he survived with the most elite medical care that none of the rest of us have access to, we shouldn't be afraid of it. OK, weirdo. So glad you'll be vacating the White House in a couple of months!
Famous Hat
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