Kingfisher Cove

Observations

Yes, it’s sobering that we’re at this moment for our country, that a former president has now been indicted and booked for 91 felony crimes. But you know what? I absolutely saw the truth of what the country was in for on the evening of November 8th, 2016. It was perfectly clear. Obvious as rats drawn to the garbage dump and maggots burrowing in rotting flesh. “When they show you who they are, believe them.” He’d been showing us who he was for decades.

So, I do take satisfaction in his well-rehearsed villainous mugshot—the only one required in all of his indictments. (Two-tiered justice? At least DA Fani Willis recognizes that this quadruple indictee deserves no less, no better than any other indictee). This photo will live in perpetuity, printed or posted in every single newspaper, every single digital news outlet—and eventually in every high school U.S. History text book.

Here’s a little brain bleach to help diminish the stain of that previous photo. The kids in Quinn’s daycare did a “Build A Bear” project (it wasn’t officially BAB, but something like it) and look how pleased he was with his accomplishment! He’d picked it out from several options weeks beforehand, and then stuffed it. I couldn’t tell if it was a dog or a bear with a bunny tail but it does look cuddly!

They also went to a farm and were able to ride a horse and pet a donkey!

Rather looks like Virginia, don’t it?

It’s been several years since I’ve been to the optometrist and I’ve noticed that my eyes don’t see through my eyeglasses as well as they used to. So I’ve made an appointment for this upcoming week for an eye exam and to probably get me some new specks. I’ve noticed that larger frames are quite “in” again these days and I’m hoping to find something that doesn’t scream “old lady.” ALTHOUGH—do not expect to see me in ROUND frames. I’m seeing them everywhere and I don’t believe they do anybody any favors. I also have a dentist appointment coming up (again, it’s been a while…) I kept putting these off because we don’t have dental or vision insurance, and apparently Medicare doesn’t consider them important. I keep telling myself that if I’d opted to pay extra for dental/vision plans, I’d likely spend more on the insurance than I will for my upcoming exams. But isn’t there something wrong with a for-profit health care system that doesn’t even consider your eyes and teeth as part of your body?

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                            Those that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it

                          Those that prevent history being taught fully intend to repeat it

Scratching Itches

So far, no fruit flies this year. I fully expected to once again plop glasses on the kitchen counters of apple cider vinegar + a drop of Dawn, with fork-poked plastic wrap to trap those assholes. (Such a miserable enterprise). But no, this year it’s GNATS. About the size of fruit flies, but fully black and not as substantial, but equally as aggressive and beyond annoying. Plus, THEY BITE! It’s possible that I’m somewhat allergic because my face, head, ears, nose all itch like mad as they ricochet off me (as I try mostly in vain to smash them). (And yes, I have inadvertently slapped my face a few number of times). John often sometimes likes to leave the deck door open, plus there is the bedroom window so the cats have deck access, so those would be the ingress culprits. Like fruit flies, they do not die easily! Today was a reprieve because it rained, so no need or desire to wander out to the deck.

A couple of the 19 defendants from the Georgia RICO case turned themselves in today (e.g., they were officially under arrest). A few are working hard to weasel out of the entire thing because they apparently believe they are above the law, better than everyone else, and have some magical force shield to protect them from (gasp!) accountability. Good luck with that—Fani’s not taking any crap. They all have until noon this Friday to surrender, and trump is due to appear Thursday during PRIME TIME, because, of course. Las Vegas is taking odds on his weight, mugshot, and whether he will wear his MAGA hat which should be revealed after his ARREST.   I continue, every day, to be bewildered, appalled, and furious at this unhinged cult who persist in supporting this malignant, narcissistic autocrat.

Donald Trump lied about the money his father left him, lied about his bone spurs, his SATs, about graduating at the top of his class at Wharton, about his charity, his university, the value of his properties, about where his father was born, where Barack Obama was born, about helping at Ground Zero, about paying a porn star hush money, his wife being a genius, about the existence of Covid, about HAVING Covid, about voter fraud in the 2020 election, about his “perfect phone call”, about January 6, and about the mountain of classified documents piled up in his bathroom.

He lies about being a family man, about being religious, about supporting the troops, and about putting America first.

He paints himself orange to look “healthy”, wears lifts in his shoes to look “taller”, and has a 14 step combover to look like he has a “full head” of hair.

The guy is a Russian nesting doll of lies.

But when you ask MAGA who they trust above all else - more than their friends, family, conservative media, religious leaders, more than their very own eyes and ears, they say that they trust Trump.

And that is how you know it’s a cult.
-JoJofromJerz

Yeah, I’m crabby (I itch!) I read earlier in the month that the studios creaked open a door in talks with writers, but they’ve since stalled. I am aching for my Colbert and Seth Meyers! Oh, how I miss them! (Especially during Indictment Summer!) Update: studios have made an offer to the writers! I wonder what the writers will make of it?

I also miss the kids and Quinn and I have no idea when we’ll be able to see them.

John’s teeth/mouth are ever-so-slowly improving, but not to the point where he can bite anything yet. Chewing is painstaking, but a leeetle bit better than a month ago. He doesn’t see his dentist for serious denture adjustments until the end of October. Ugh.

The wind kicked up a little today while it was raining and I was reminded how much I love the wind chimes I got for John for his birthday. They hang outside the computer table window and they always make me smile. They are deep toned and musically tuned to randomly play notes from Pachelbel's Canon in D! Lovely!

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“The only way we grow as individuals and as a democracy is to not only speak truth but to hear truths that make us uncomfortable.” -Matthew Dowd

Mob Boss RICO Indictment (#4!) and Other Musings

It’s been a HOT week around these parts (in multiple ways!) Four days in a row in the 90s. Pant pant. I keep watering my deck pots most mornings before the sweltering starts, and they’re still looking pretty dandy! (It’s such a pleasure to peer at them). I am so very thankful that we have A/C in the house. I can vividly remember all the years of my life without it and the misery during heat waves. All the do-nothing fans placed strategically. Ugh.

But the big news came Monday night with trump’s 4th indictment in a few short months. While I think Jack Smith’s election indictment (#3) is likely the granddaddy of them all, this one out of Georgia as a RICO indictment is sprawling and all-encompassing, including 19 defendants and trump charged with 13 crimes. Finally Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and the idiot “election fraud” attorneys Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis will face accountability. "Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment… knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump." Now we’re on multiple “Trial Date” watch. 2024 is gonna be WILD.

John and I attended the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum’s annual “gala” at the Seattle Yacht Club last weekend. We attended last year, too, at the same venue where they had the Miss Squire Shop posed in front. It was a different boat this year, so we weren’t so inclined to get pictures in front of it, but it was a fun time hanging out with the Squire crew who have become good friends. It’s the Museum’s big fundraising event that involves an auction, and the dinner was once again wonderful! Delicious salmon and beef tenderloins with lots of sides and salads. I especially liked the mountains of fresh raw veggies, like those miniature corn cobs that people like to mimic eating like Tom Hanks in “Big.” Just for the fun of it (and the cause) I won the bid on two pair of earrings of the Squire and the Miss Circus Circus.

I’m not sure where I’ll wear them, but for sure next year when/if the Squire motor is fixed. John and crew are currently in the early stages of starting work on the Circus Circus restoration. Anyway, after the Gala, a few of us drove to Ivar’s Salmon House on Seattle’s Lake Union for a drink. I’d never been there before, and what a great (and HUGE) place! It was a beautiful evening and we sat out on the sprawling deck, watching all the yachts go by and the Space Needle across the way.

Here are a couple of ditties for you: John watched an otter in the small cove between us and our neighbor, crawl out of the water and climb the pebbly berm (where we find agates and arrowheads), then turn and SLIDE down the berm back into the water, over and over again. Oh, what a video that would have been! But, alas. And then I saw that the James Webb telescope (which mesmerizes me) has discovered a star 28 billion light-years away. TWENTY-EIGHT BILLION LIGHT YEARS. To put that into perspective, one light year = 6 trillion miles. (That’s a six with 12 zeros). My calculator errors out when I try to multiply 6 trillion by 28 billion. We are so incredibly insignificant.

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“A helpful and proper reminder that trying to change the result of a free and fair election is a crime. Indeed, in a democratic republic it is among the gravest crimes.” -Josh Marshall

Fast Boats, Dead Boats, Loud Guns, Cute Puppy

Am I recovered from our SeaFair weekend? I should be, since we were only there for one day, but I’ve been dragging butt since we came home! It was fun, and Helen and I had such a wonderful time (with our heads on swivels because there was always so much to look at). First, we stopped at the Boat House in Allyn for a yummy lunch, then hit the road north to our hotel where we met up with John. A few annoying things, such as setting my navigation wrong (to John’s oral surgeon instead of the hotel—totally opposite directions. D’oh!) And then the hotel guy telling me that he didn’t have a reservation for us. I showed him the confirmation on my phone and then he told me he didn’t have that number in his system. I had fantasies of coming across that counter and grabbing him by the neck. (Fantasies only!) Then he said, “Oh. There it is.” There was also the A/C unit that sounded uncannily like a Merlin engine, so John raised the thermostat to minimize its running. We had to keep a window open since it was HUMID, and we all laid in our beds listening to freeway traffic, grinding gears of semi trucks on the local road, and also TRAINS. All night. None of us slept. OK, maybe a bit more than “annoying.” But wait! There’s more! At 5:30 a.m. while we were getting ready, there were gunshots just below us (with the window open) at a gas station followed by squealing tires and lots of shouting. Turns out nobody was actually shot, but one vehicle intentionally plowed in to another then peeled off. Cops came. And really, this wasn’t a terrible part of town. The hotel was a Red Lion (not fancy, but fine). It was all just…a bit much.

We’d been expecting warm, sunny weather but the forecast changed in time for the weekend. It actually rained on our drive from Harstine Is. to the hotel! (It hadn’t done that since June 21st). But we lucked out Sunday because even though it was cloudy, it didn’t rain and while humid, it wasn’t beastly. (The breeze was nice). But the biggest bummer was that John wasn’t going to be driving the Squire that day. The day we came for. You know, to watch him drive the boat. The day before, while all four boats were doing their thing side-by-side, on the final lap John’s boat motor (80-year-old Merlin!) threw a rod. Blew a hole the size of a soccer ball through that massive engine. I still can’t believe it didn’t damage the boat itself, but John immediately knew from the violent shudder that Something Was Bad so he shut the motor off post haste. Then he was towed to the docks by the rescue boat. I guess I’m glad we weren’t there to see it happen, but it would have been awfully nice to actually see him drive! And yes, the motor is toast. As John says, “That’s boat racing.” Lots of things go wrong, and that’s just a common phrase in hydro-speak.

But we made the best of it.

Below is from Friday’s successful run. John’s driving da red boat!

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In other news, Quinn got an early birthday present!

Her name is Coco and she is a Morkiepoo—a mix of Maltese, Yorkie, and Poodle. What a cutie! (Both of ‘em!) Look at that face!

Sandra says she reminds her of Chewbacca. Lol.

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“They aren’t indicting trump in the middle of his campaign, he’s campaigning in the middle of their indictments.”

Not Really Jack Smith, But Still…

This was posted on Twitter by “Jack E. Smith.” I know it’s not really him, but holy hell!!

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By now someone has explained the J6 indictment to him.

They’ve explained he cannot claim any forms of privilege. None apply.

He cannot fight it on constitutional grounds, such as 1A, because he isn’t being indicted for his speech.

He cannot argue the validity of the laws he has broken. They are clear and have been successfully applied to numerous cases.

He is being indicted for his deceitful actions. Actions that will be attested to by his lawyers and inner circle. His own people.

This is an indictment purposefully built for clarity and speed.

It terrifies him.

As it should.

Indictment #3

Relief. Guarded relief. It won’t feel pure until he is convicted and sentenced, but yes, I’m relieved. While the previous indictments and the upcoming one in Georgia are important and necessary, it’s this one that is vital. We can’t have a president trying to overturn an election, hell-bent on overthrowing the constitution. We. Just. Can’t. Have. It.

In just a few hours from now, the disgraced twice-impeached, thrice-indicted ex-president will be arraigned.

Helen comes Friday from Oregon and will spend the night, and then on Saturday afternoon we’ll drive up to Kent to a hotel (where John will join us from Seattle that evening), so we can get up at the butt-crack Sunday morning to head to SeaFair. John’s heading up (at the butt-crack) tomorrow morning, which is setup day in the pits. The turbine hydro races will have their final on Sunday, so it’s the culmination of the SeaFair festival and the awarding of the Gold Cup. And I know that I can really only handle one day of the crazy and the loud. Blue Angels, anyone? John will be driving the Squire once each day (at least that’s the current schedule) for the vintage exhibition runs, four pickle-fork Thunderboats running side-by-side, which is so impressive to watch. The Squire’s motor is running fine, so hopefully there are no disappointments (as there were several times last year).

Just a quicky—I need to get up and moving tomorrow to head to town and get this house tidied. Plus think about what to pack so I don’t have to think about it later.

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"Anyone who cannot fathom how Hitler got control of Germany need only look at Trump’s hold on the base of the GOP and the refusal of GOP leaders who know what is happening to call out his criminal conduct.” -John Dean