GRRR!!  Lisa’s and my tax prep didn’t get finished yesterday. The AARP tax preparers at the main library in Puyallup ran out of appointment slots within minutes of opening. So we got the pre-prep paperword, filled it out, and will need to return next Friday to keep the appointments they made for us. Uncle Sam will just have to wait to hear from us, which is probably okay with him, ’cause we’ll both be getting refunds, I believe. And mine might be several thousand dollars.

 

The appointments are at the same time, so we can travel together again. That’s good.

 

Lisa and I see each other so rarely anymore that we only connect when we shop for groceries or do other stuff that needs to get done. She has a horrendous work schedule and other social, business, and appointment obligations. She really needs the vacation in New Zealand.  I don’t need it — I’m not insanely busy — but I’m looking very much forward to it.

 

I have never had a two-week vacation in my life.  Not all at once.

 

When I was an employee, I took my vacation time by way of three or four day weekend vacations, as I never traveled anywhere for any length of time.  I flew home to WA a few times from Hollywood for vacations, but usually never stayed more than a week. The only time I stayed longer was when Mom was dying and Jackie’s Family Leave Time ran out.  I was up there for the last three weeks of Mom’s life. Needless to say, that did NOT feel like a vacation!

 

NEW FRIDGE

 

It took two and a half days for the freezer part of the new fridge to get truly frigid. The unfrozen, lukewarm homemade soup that I put in there developed crystals and semi-hardness within 12 or 14 hours, but it took more than two days to solidly freeze.

 

The care manual (which I read belatedly, when I noticed that the freezer wasn’t freezing fast) says not to fill the freezer space with more than a few unfrozen items at a time. Some percentage of the space needs to be filled with already frozen food before unfrozen items go in, apparently.

 

The freezer floor was more than half filled with lukewarm soup. So, the ice cream melted around the edges of the carton and the frozen vegetables didn’t thaw, but they did become less solidly frozen. I believe they’re still good to eat. I ate some of the frozen soup yesterday and it didn’t kill me, so it was kept cold enough in there not to foster bacteria.

 

SUMMER AND SOLSTICE ARE STILL AROUND

 

     

 

The two raccoons I rescued, raised, and released a year and a half ago are still around.  After midnight, night before last, I noticed that the security light in our back yard was on.  I gazed out the kitchen window and spotted two raccoons immediately outside on the other side, sitting beside the trash can that holds the dog food I put in the “wild ones” feeding station in the goat shed.

 

As soon as they saw me, they skittered away, so I opened the door and poured them a little dish of dog food. I told them, “Don’t be afraid. Here you go!”  One of them came scampering back the moment the door was closed. I figured that one is Solstice, the male, who took longest to leave home and become “independent.”

 

I’m next to positive they’re Summer and Solstice (or Solstice and possibly his mate) because the cats have absolutely no fear of them. They don’t hassle the cats at all.  S & S were raised in my den and became accustomed to my cats, and vice versa, so they would recogize each other and co-habit without issues. They aren’t bosom buddies, but they aren’t scared of each other, either.

 

What else?

 

One of my clients (and a fellow Democrat) asked if I’d be willing to write a sympathetic-but-serious letter about why President Biden should step down because of his age

 

Even though I could certainly use the money, I immediately responded, “Nope!” and gave her the reasons why.

 

• He has been the most progressive POTUS since FDR.
• He has done more for the average Joe and Josephine than anyone else in decades.
• He has assembled an administration that is making big things happen.
• POTUS serves as a figurehead, and as the overseer of his administration. 
• He’s universally loved, respected, relied on, and believed — across the globe — by our allies.
• He is universally feared by the enemies of democracy because he’s Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces
• He’s the only candidate in any existing party with a good chance of beating Trump and his sycophants.
• He has a terrific, progressive VP who can ably succeed him if he does become addlepated in the next several years.
• The recent “observation” by Hur — a Trump appointee, ideologue, and sycophant — was an unconscionable, veiled hit piece.
• I watch Biden’s speeches and find him coherent, well-versed on the issues, measured, gracious (usually!), and (especially given his lifelong stammer and hesitation while he searches mentally for words that his stammer won’t betray)  entirely respect-worthy.
• I adore him personally, as a human being. I have followed him and his wife Dr. Jill Biden for decades, and I have met him (briefly) and taken the measure of the man.
• He is a good guy. And we need all the good guys we can get in the federal government, especially  right now. I wish he and Bernie Sanders would live forever and I will support both until they elect, on their own, to step down.

Me, shaking Biden’s hand in 2012 or 2014 

(That’s my hand and my jaw.)

 

‘Nuf said on that topic? 

I’m ridin’with Biden until he drives off into the sunset of his own volition.