We start with massive new cases of Covid-19, mostly (and almost entirely) with the new highly transmissible omicron variant. Idiots still refuse to get vaccinated or boosted. The republican-led states continue to lie to their people, actually TELLING them to not get vaccinated or wear masks. A year ago I called it Covid soup. Now it’s Covid stew, with someone dumping in a whole jug of cornstarch for thickening.
It’s the eve of the first anniversary of the horrible, heinous attack on our Capitol, the breathtaking blitzkrieg on our democracy that continues beyond this day, and the relentless, vicious effort to overthrow the results of a free and fair election and stop the peaceful transfer of power. In other words, it’s the eve of the first anniversary of the attempted coup. We are still awaiting accountability for trump and his plot co-hatchers.
Understatement to end all understatements: We are in ugly times.
The rains finally came and the snow finally melted, but we still couldn’t get out until Tuesday. The private roads out to the county road were still clogged with snow and ice, even after torrential rainfall all day Monday and throughout the night. Today was the first time we got an Amazon delivery since before New Year’s Eve (after placing those orders well before New Year’s Eve…) So, John headed early to the grocery store (into the Covid stew) and it was wonderful to finally replenish bread and eggs and produce and WINE! Heh. And today we actually received our current Home Chef box! We have food!
Yesterday my phone rang and it was NATE!! They were at a place where he was able to call briefly, so he called his Mom! (Well, after calling Sandra and Quinn, totally understandable). He sounded relatively upbeat, and it was great to hear that familiar voice. He let me know that he’d been awarded Sailor of the Quarter! (That’s actually a pretty big deal). Rather amusingly—and to his chagrin—he’s been assigned to supervising the kitchen (galley) crew, until they are well into their deployment and he’ll need to focus on his sonar. He said it brings back too many memories of working at Anthony’s Homeport.
You might remember that John’s mom’s truck had been absconded by a family friend right after she’d died, and John had to have the estate lawyer send him a stern letter to return it. Which he did. And the truck has been here at our house ever since. John hired a guy to detail it (lots of dog hair…) and he tried to take it to the Ford dealership to get a trade-in price for it. (The dealership’s offer was hilarious). So, home again it came. THEN, I happened to see a post on Facebook’s “Harstine Community” from a woman who was looking to buy a truck that perfectly described this one! A flurry of texts, then finally a visit to look at it once the snow was gone, and SOLD!!! And for a fair and decent price. Woohoo!
And finally, John was able to go to the Hydroplane Museum this week, where they put on the vinyl lettering:
And if you’re a boat nerd, into building things, enjoy seeing the process, John put together a slide show that shows (and textually narrates) how this restoration has come together from the beginning and up to just before the lettering was placed.
This link takes you to “Slides” and just click View and Slideshow, then either click or scroll through the slides. Enjoy!
“You can either be for the Constitution or you can be for Donald Trump, but you can’t be for both.” -Liz Cheney
