A Beautiful Day
18:01 Sunday, 2 July 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 75.22°F Pressure: 1010hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 1051
Yesterday was a day unlike any other day, for me, if only as a witness to pain and sorrow, joy and hope.
I have a friend that I've known for many years here. A friend who I've cared about very much. Her life was touched by tragedy long before I met her, her husband being killed in a plane crash.
Since I've known her, she's gone on to endure new injuries. In her marriage, and in her health. She's always been resilient. She struggled, of course, but she carried on as much the same person as I've come to know. Those struggles are ongoing, unresolved.
Most recently though, she's been visited by another tragedy at an occasion that was meant to be a happy event, a family reunion after the death of her mother during the time of COVID, when family gatherings were not always possible.
I've known about this for some time, but I haven't related this before because it's not my story to tell. I do so now, because this most recent event has really affected my friend, as I've come to witness.
About six months ago, her youngest brother, a 52 year old man, was killed at the hands of the police in a jail in Texas, where he'd gone for a family reunion. Arrested for nothing more than sitting on the porch of the home they'd rented, in the morning, drinking a beer by himself. This apparently aroused the suspicions of a passing neighbor who called the police, which set in motion the course of events that were to take his life, violently, in custody at the jail.
My friend and her sister were there, tried to intervene, tried to get their brother out of jail. Because of changes in visitation due to COVID protocols, they were unable to visit their brother in jail. Apparently they had to schedule a video visitation, and one wouldn't be available for a couple of days, by which time he was dead.
The jail didn't notify my friend and her sister of his death, they learned of it from an attorney they were working with to try and get him out of jail. He was able to look at the population and had the unfortunate duty to tell them their brother was dead, with no explanation why. She'd learned of the death of her husband from a reporter, decades before. There is no good way to deliver bad news, but this just seems unfair.
Since then, his death has been ruled a homicide. The family is being represented by a nationally known civil rights attorney. Help found her from unexpected quarters, to include a nationally known public figure you might never think of; but learning of it, you think, "Of course." A figure who has indicated that they don't wish their name to be known, and who is doing this work for many families in similar circumstances. So I'm not being coy to be clever. I would love for their name to be known, but I think I understand why they might not.
Despite this high-powered help, this particular loss has brought my resilient friend low. She's carrying on, of course, but she's confused, lost, angry, hurting and grieving. Familiar feelings by now, but this time it seems to have broken her.
And reaching out by asking for help with printing labels.
I didn't learn of her brother's death right away. We were very close once upon a time, and then we weren't so close for a long time after. We'd speak once or twice a year, more frequently since her diagnosis.
She'd called me on another subject a couple of months ago; but the real reason was to tell me about her brother. It was a long conversation and it hit me like a blow. Of course, we read about these things all the time. Among the privileged, we likely never think it's the kind of thing that could touch us. Until it does.
And to be clear, it didn't touch me. It touched my friend. I'm just relating how that has affected me.
I called her a couple of weeks later to check in and see how she was doing, let her know she could reach out anytime. I hadn't heard from her again before yesterday, but I'd been meaning to call her anyway.
I can't relate to you the depth of what she's experiencing. I can try to tell you how helpless and inadequate and frightened it makes me feel. And how sad I feel for my friend, who has never done anything to deserve this much pain in her life. Though I must say, I know I've read about women, families, with similar amounts of injustice and tragedy visited on their lives. I'd just never been so close to see what it does. And I hope you don't ever have to do so either.
We have power over nothing. Surrender. "Let go, and let God." Also, inadequate. So just breathe.
And love one another, as best we can. And we can definitely do better.
Which brings me to the joy and hope.
I got home from the label trouble, and we watched a couple of movies. I picked the latest Luther movie, because I needed to see a good guy beat a bad buy. Mitzi wanted to watch The Philadelphia Story, which is one of my very favorite movies. If you want to know what my friend is like, she's very much like Tracy, very much. Not a redhead though.
Before we went to bed, I recalled another friend (I don't think she'd object to me calling her that) was sworn in as mayor of Jacksonville about the same time as I was navigating Avery's product offerings.
I went looking for local news coverage on my phone, and found her inaugural speech. You can find it here. It's worth a listen. I think it truly is, no matter where you live.
I can't be certain, but I think I hear the winds of change beginning to stir. I think the power of love may be beginning to make itself felt, in a way that it seems like it hasn't in a long time.
The pendulum swings both ways.
It's a beautiful day. Let's make it so.
✍️ Reply by emailThe Falls
Current Wx: Temp: 76.21°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 0mphWords: 319
With regard to the "Seal Team Six scenario"...
“If the secretary of defense does it, and whether it’s successful or not, everyone involved in that crime could be prosecuted save for one person — the person who ordered it,” Becker said.
That is his opinion. It won't be resolved until a court weighs the facts of the case. The President of the United States is the Commander in Chief of the United States military. The armed forces of the United States are a part of the executive branch of government. The members of the military are sworn to obey the "lawful orders" of the president and the officers appointed over them.
The Supreme Court has said that the law does not apply to the president in the conduct of his official duties, and that is supposedly somehow enshrined in the Constitution, which the members of the military swear an oath to uphold.
The president himself cannot perform the missions and tasks of the military, that's why he has a military. He orders them to carry out those missions and tasks. Posse Commitatus Act? Literally no longer applies to the only person with the power to violate it.
Add to this that this president, or any future president, can fire defense secretaries and combatant commanders until he finds one who will obey his orders. And he won't have to go far to do so
Add to this the legal jeopardy officers and enlisted members of the military place themselves in when refusing to obey an order, the "lawfulness" of which is now utterly in question.
This is a disastrous decision in every dimension. Utterly incomprehensible. A power manufactured out of whole cloth to facilitate creating an autocracy in the United States of America, by unelected, unaccountable demagogues.
This should keep everyone up at night.
It did me.
✍️ Reply by emailFurther to the Foregoing
07:12 Tuesday, 2 July 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 76.15°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 0mph
Words: 54
"Everyone involved in that crime could be prosecuted."
Could be prosecuted.
Who does the Justice Department work for? Whose "official" acts are unreviewable by the Justice Department? Any prosecution could be delayed, forestalled, ended, just not brought, by a "loyal" Attorney General.
And if he was insufficiently loyal?
"You're fired."
We've lost the republic.
✍️ Reply by emailHeather Cox Richardson
07:21 Tuesday, 2 July 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 77.25°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 0mph
Words: 186
She's not talking me off the ledge this morning.
Ironic that we've lost the Republic during the same week that we declared our independence from kings.
Like climate change, the fire that has engulfed spaceship earth and now threatens the life support system, I fail to understand why we are just taking this lying down.
Ron DeSantis routinely fired democratically elected state attorneys when he's unhappy with them. Florida's Supreme Court has said he has the authority to do so.
The only way I see out of this is for Trump to be defeated in November, and a Democratic majority elected to both houses of congress.
The Supreme Court must be reformed. Term limits. Add two or more additional seats. Rules for how vacancies are filled.
Of course, that would be litigated before the Supreme Court, so who knows what they'd do. Probably find it unconstitutional.
America has fundamentally, and possibly irrevocably, changed.
Not just because of Donald J. Trump, he was the ideal instrument, but because of a sustained effort by a fascistic element of America that loathes democracy.
They've succeeded in overturning the Constitution.
✍️ Reply by emailMental Health Break
08:58 Tuesday, 2 July 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 81.81°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 88% Wind: 1.01mph
Words: 271
We've seen a bit of wildlife here at the VRBO. Two fawns wandered into the yard yesterday evening. One seemed a little concerned or curious about the hammock I put up between two trees. (Always look up before hanging a hammock.) This morning, a skunk wandered into the yard, and may be under the deck outside the kitchen door. I hope not though.
Hiked Taughannock yesterday. Easy two-mile hike to the falls and back. Spent a little time at the overlook before heading down. Weather was beautiful yesterday.
I mentioned I'd lost my St Johns Riverkeeper hat, so we stopped into the Cornell shop at the Ithaca Commons. I mentioned to the woman checking me out that my mother's brother, Henry, was enrolled at Cornell, but left school early during WW II to join the Army Air Corps and died in a training accident. (Part of his plane fell off.) She gave me a 20% discount, which was unexpected and very kind.
I really don't understand what's going on in our country. I think I get the dynamics, but it still feels unreal to me. It's bad enough with the climate crisis and all the other environmental and resource challenges we're facing, but this just seems like the worst. But, just gotta keep breathing. "Tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide will bring?"
Anyway, nice marmot...
✍️ Reply by emailFireflies
Current Wx: Temp: 62.83°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 4.14mphWords: 231
Saw the fireflies in the grass behind the house last night and figured I'd try a little experiment.
Stuck the Olympus Tough TG-6 against the sliding glass door and tried a Live Composite shot. This is a little 1/2.3" sensor compact camera with an f2 lens, so I wasn't expecting a lot. Its great virtue was its light weight, which made the suction cup tripod mount less of a risk. I have an adapter so you can screw a filter in front of the lens, but I couldn't find an adapter so I could make one of my circular polarizer filters fit, so there's some reflection in the glass.
This is probably 11 or 12 minutes of 13s exposures, composited into one image. That may be a meteor near center frame, or a flash from a satellite. The time in the exif data is an hour off, despite the fact that this camera has built-in gps. I probably have a setting wrong somewhere. But the shot was a little more than an hour past sunset, so there's still a lot of sky-glow.
I checked later in the night when I was up anyway and firefly activity was much diminished, so they seem to be more active just after sunset.
This is tweaked in Photos, but largely what came out of the camera. Larger version up in Flickr.
✍️ Reply by emailLast Night's Moon 7-1-25
Current Wx: Temp: 71.96°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 74% Wind: 7.45mphWords: 172
I tried shooting a handheld high-resolution shot of the moon last night with the mZuiko 100-400mm zoom and it wouldn't work. Not enough image data in the frame to align all the images. But if I put the MC20 2x teleconverter on it, it fills enough of the frame to align the images.
Went into Watkins and picked up the proximity card for the gym. When I got home, there was an alert on my phone that Apple Maps had corrected the issue I reported.
At first, I thought they had. I entered our address and that's what showed up on Maps. Well, I'd forgotten that I'd entered a Pin for our address, and that's where Maps goes when I enter the address. If I remove the Pin, it still points to our neighbor's house.
So I reported the issue again. Added six photos and typed in ALL CAPS, because I'm old and cranky.
It's a beautiful day here. I can't let Apple and its dysfunctional customer service ruin it.
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