To The City

I’m off to Vancouver but when I come home the plane will be waiting for me. As soon as I can get to it after my appointment with Dr. Shoja, we’ll fly home. I am the only passenger today for the return flight. I can hardly wait to get home for pie and the Olympics. I made the star (apple) pie last night.

And I’ll find out if Darrell did anything here today or if he decided to wait until tomorrow when I am back. The screen has arrived, so we’re on our way.

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The sun doesn’t hit the hot tub until nine-thirty am. I’ve been waiting the past two mornings because it was friggin’ cold out. Come Daylight Savings Time in a month, it’ll be 10:30 before I want to tub. It’s worth the wait to have sunshine on my face; that’s when I really feel like I’m at a spa.

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I’m going to Vancouver yet again on Thursday — this time by ferry — to return a bedside table that has (living) worms in it. I’m getting a replacement. It’ll will be my third visit to the city in a week. I’m commuting six hours for a two-hour errand but I plan to enjoy it while Chalise sits the pets.

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And speaking of the pets: Fred and Ethel are not affectionate in the same way Leon was but I sense that the intimacy I enjoyed with him may well be forthcoming from them as they age. They are wonderfully welcoming now; the past two nights, Ethel has come to sleep on my bed with me at night. Fred continues to sleep with Sheba but we are all the trusted friends.

The next horror at Pinecone Park will be Sheba’s spaying. I am dreading it but it has to happen.

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Wow: Unilever, a monstrously huge global conglomerate, has taken an initiative I admire. They released a statement yesterday in California. This sentence — one of many that impressed me — says it all: “Unilever will no longer advertise on [digital] platforms that create divisions in society or fail to protect young people.”

Here’s a corporation impressing me with an initiative to advance a social policy I respect, while Trump leads his nation in the opposite direction.

Here’s more from Unilever’s statement: “2018 is either the year of ‘techlash,’ where the world turns on the tech giants … or the year … where we collectively rebuild trust in our systems and in our society."

There are headlines all over news media about a new Canadian first at the Olympics: An “openly” gay man won a gold medal for the first time. What’s an openly gay man? He’s gay, period. What other kind is there? It’s not like the media is going to identify anyone as a “closed” gay man — presumably closeted – so why do they need to say “openly?”

And should his sexuality be news at all anymore?

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Today is my fourth to last appointment with Dr. Shoja.

I feel like a child with a strong attachment to my single mother who is about to go on a long unplanned trek that will take me out of communication range with her. I want to go but I’m worried about being out of touch with my “rock.”