Taste Like Chicken Wednesday 8/7

Karen, Trump is in town today and the craziness is abounding. Trump is at the hospital where most of the victims are recovering and will head to the site of the shooting. There are protests at both sites. There are supporters and protestors shouting at each other. The shooter seems to have had a fascination with mass shootings. I have not heard that he was bullied. The allergies have lessened but ears are still clogged. I am glad to hear that Dale heard you and did he ever come through yesterday. It will be great if the part time job would pay for Dale’s insurance. How is the back today? How was the sushi?

Linda, I hope Micki is being pampered today before his surgery and teeth cleaning tomorrow. What a relief that the bump is a fatty tumor. Pet Vet costs are high. I hope the museum work is a little more interesting today. The bird paintings are gorgeous.

Kathy, is it grocery day for you and DM? How is BIL doing? It is a little warmer today than yesterday. It poured for 30 minutes downtown yesterday but we did not receive anything here.

Becky, we warmed up and it is a little more humid but, fortunately, not as bad as your area. I see Trump is supposed to go to El Paso after Dayton. I hope it is calmer there than here, because it sounds like it is getting ugly as I watch the TV coverage.

I made a quick trip to Kroger and watered the flowers. I don’t have much planned just some stretches and exercises to keep the back and hip happy.

Thanks for the start, Chele. What kind of flowers did you pick? I know this is a trying day in Dayton. I did listen to the mayor and Sen. Brown's post-visit press conference and I was impressed with both of them. I hope the president heard their comments. There were people on both sides in your city, but I don't expect he'll find many supporters in El Paso, given how he has demonized the city and Latinos in general. I think the saddest thing I saw all day was an NBC reporter who was interviewing 3 teenage Latinas who expressed how sad they were that they were being made afraid due to their race. Right after, they spoke with a female Latina law professor from UT Austin who said she is afraid to talk with her daughters in Spanish in public. Austin has always been a very inclusive and diverse city, so that one was very shocking for me. I don't blame Trump for the white supremacists being here but his words seem to empower them and he doesn't get it. I haven't heard much about the gunman there, other than an interview they had with an ex-GF of his who characterized him as a loner with, as you said, a significant interest in mass shootings. Good to hear that your allergies are improving. We got a little rain this morning (more on that later), but I don't think it knocked anything down here. Dale is having more trouble processing out of his employment than any job he's ever had, and we still don't have a letter regarding when his health insurance will end so I can't get that taken care of. He said maybe it would have been easier if he had been fired. A little $$ coming in will be nice and it would keep his mind sharp on the high level stuff. My back has improved today but still isn't normal. I hope that will continue. I think I lifted a box on Sunday that I probably shouldn't have. The sushi was good and I finished it off for lunch. Sometimes I think it's better the 2nd day.

Linda, sorry about Micki's impending surgery, but happy to hear it's just a fatty tumor. It sounds like a place he shouldn't be able to get to like Liz's Zoe and her tail. I hope he'll do well and the surgery and teeth cleaning will go quickly. It's a worry any time a pet goes under anesthesia. Love the paintings! They look great together.

Was today a Publix day, Kathy? The upcoming ad has a lot of Greenwise products on sale, including the organic frozen veggies. I wonder if somebody put the backpack idea out and local stations picked up on it. The school resource officer interviewed in our local story was from one of the area high schools. I think that backpack insert would be a waste of money and it seems like a gimmick to appease anxious parents who can't afford to spend $200. I think it's pathetic that kids and parents even need to worry about protecting themselves from gunfire at school. The only extreme eating item that was even remotely appealing to me was the Sonic shake and I'll bet I couldn't drink more than a few sips before the sugar and fat overwhelmed my tastebuds. Congrats on getting out of the service appointment somewhat unscathed. My car is going on 4 years old (realized that yesterday when the battery had to be replaced), so 5 sounds right for yours. Dale told the new company he didn't want to work more than 20 hours a week in winter months and less in summer months. They are expanding, so the work may be more frequent than it would have been if he had retired a few months ago.

How's the week going, Liz? I hope you weren't anywhere near Times Square yesterday when the motorcycle backfired and people scrambled, thinking it was a gunshot. How did things go with the vascular doc yesterday?

Becky, when do your schools start back? This is the week that most of them seem to be starting in our area. Sorry the pain is constant and you don't have a good solution to resolve it. Do you have any plans for when it becomes more difficult to ignore?

The morning's swim was memorable for a couple of reasons. As I was heading down to the lake, I heard thunder, so I came back to the house and checked the radar and everything seemed to be north of us. So I headed back down to the lake. I had just gotten into the water and something didn't feel right. So much for all the rain being north of us. I saw rain drops on the water and a very pretty rainbow. I decided it wasn't bad enough to turn around, at least until the visibility got sketchy. Then I headed back toward the shore and did a lap around our very safe cove. By the time I got back to the shore, it had stopped raining, so I headed out again. I got to my designated turnaround point and was heading back when the rain came again. I did a total of 1407 yds., which was more than I had done since 2011 when I was competing. Fortunately, the t-storms did go north of us because I doubt I would have heard the thunder while I was in the water. When I got back to the shore, my towel and clothes were wet, so that posed a challenge. But while I was getting dressed, I saw a little green heron land on a log in the lake about 5 yds from me. I see about one a year, so today was my day. They will start migrating south next month, so I'm glad he stopped by.

Kathy, Dale hopes the paperwork on COBRA will come by Friday. He technically has only been retired for a week (seems longer though), so they still have a while and still be legal. I hope they get things together so I can do what I have to. He did get the box and shipping label to mail his computer back. Glad your storm ended. Hail can do so much damage. Hope you didn't have any.

Good luck to Micki (and you and Bob) tomorrow, Linda. I never go into a building without determining an exit route. I was too heavily involved in active shooter training during my years in public safety training. When I was a dean, I was part of the campus task force that wrote the procedures for dealing with such an attack. And, if I go into a restaurant, I sit facing the door (unless I'm with a cop or former cop). So I totally understand about your thoughts today. It sounds like you have a good security system at the museum, but there are a lot of nut jobs out there.  Don't blame you for spending extra time on such a tedious task so you don't have to finish it up later.We had to keep Phoebe from jumping on and off furniture during a copule of her surgeries and used doggy stairs that helped but trying to train her to use them was a real challenge. I wish we had had insurance for Phoebe, given all the surgeries, chemo, etc., we had to pay out of pocket.

Becky, I hope after the new insurance kicks in, you can get some things under way that will help you to heal, even if the pain level stays manageable. I know you want to be active, but I found out after my foot surgeries (that were supposed to be healed after 3 weeks each) that we can't always get what we want. Take care of yourself so you don't overdo it. I think the "manifesto" from the EP shooter was posted on a radical website called 8Chan which has lost their hosting service. I think the New Zealand mosque shooter posted on the same site. I am anxious to hear what else they will release on their conversations with the EP shooter. If he stopped at the Walmart because he was tired and hungry and it wasn't his initial target, just where was he heading? Was he going to cross the border and try to single-handedly shoot anyone with brown skin trying to come across? I can't believe Trump said what he did about "no political appettite" for banning assault weapons. I think there are a lot of citizens that would disagree with him. Any of us could be part of the next target. No civilian needs that much fire power. I do think it was good that there weren't any media folks on AF One today. Most of them had a presence in Dayton or El Paso already.

I got an email from Liz and she sends her regards. She does have some pain options now and pending surgery, which I think we all suspected. Hopefully she'll check in and can explain the rest. Zoe got her stitches out today and has been released by the vet, so there's some good news.