The war has been going on for 2 months now....

 

I find it hard to believe that after 2 months, the Orange Monster is claiming that the war (oops, police action, according to government doublespeak) is over.  Doesn't the GOP understand that the war isn't over until Iran agrees that it's over?

Lately, I'm finding the Iranian propaganda videos to contain more truth than what is coming out of the regime in power in Washington.  No one of sound mind believes what the monster is saying.  Yet, the GOP is enabling his irrational actions.  Americans have been both wounded and killed in a war that is resulting in hobbling the world's economy for the sake of Israel and its war criminal prime minister.  But then, war criminals have an interest in sticking together, lest they are held accountable by their citizenry.

What have we gained from this war?  Higher gas prices, and likely disruptions in the food supply caused by a lack of fertilizer impacting this year's crops in the field.  Without our normal supply of grains, we will also see shortages of meat, as farmers will not be able to support the herds of cattle, pigs and chickens we depend on for animal protein.  It's only a matter of time.  

So, what can we look forward to this year?  I see rats leaving the ship - the same people who enabled the monster to gain power are cutting off their support as his ratings tank.  They see the need to keep the attention of their audience, and the only way to do so is to reflect something more resembling the reality their audience is experiencing.  

If the GOP wants even a small chance of staying in power, it must find an acceptable off ramp for the Orange Monster to "gracefully" leave office and keep his illicit gains.  But will they do so?  Right now, no one is able to get the monster to see anything that resembles an objective reality.  The monster lives in a bubble of his own creation, and more weaknesses in that bubble are showing up every day.  His mental and physical health is failing, and it's only a matter of time that someone has to act.

But back to the war....

We will likely see a real deal cut behind the scenes, where the monster gets to claim victory, but no one will believe him.  Iran will get control of the Strait of Hormuz, as the US will not be able to block Iran with America's obsolete technology. Israel will be a riskier place to be, as the war they started couldn't bring down the Iranian regime.  The whole mess saddens me, as what would be my children's generation will be paying for this war long after I'm gone.

It's May, and it feels like March

 

This weekend would be the first time RQS would be up at my apartment for the first time since before our Bermuda Triangle cruise.  Even though it was the beginning of May, RQS had to prepare for weather that could get close to freezing at night.  As for me, I couldn't break out the new summery dresses I wanted to wear. Cool weather would define the start of the weekend.

On Friday, RQS arrived wearing her heavy winter coat.  Yes, it was a little bit too much for the daytime.  But it served her well in the evening.  When she arrived, we drove to White Plains to pick up fresh sea scallops for dinner.  And then it was back to the apartment for the evening.  Dinnertime came quickly, and we had a good dinner.  (We also learned something about cooking scallops, but that's another story for another day.)  It was easy to fall asleep afterwards, so I don't have much to say about the day,

- - - - - -

Saturday came, and we had a few things on the docket.  So, I got dressed in something comfortable, but warm enough for the cool weather - a tunic length dress over leggings.  And then we went to Walmart to pick up a few items: (1) a narrow rolling cart for the bathroom, (2) a shower mat for the bathtub, and (3) a set of pillowcases to match the sheets I have on the bed.  (Right now, I'm using pillowcases that are too large, and wanted to get something that fits my pillows correctly.)  Once we were done at Walmart, we had time to kill before dinner.

We had scheduled a 7 pm dinner with Vicki.  It's been a while since the 3 of us were together.  Yes, RQS and I are together every weekend, and I see Vicki (on the average) or every month.  Today, we'd be sitting at the same table for a change.  RQS and I arrived first, and Vicki a few minutes later.  Vicki almost made the mistake of going to a restaurant with a similar name in the same village.  But I made sure she knew which one of the two restaurants where I planned for us to meet.

For the next 2 hours, we chatted non-stop.  It was a long overdue get together.  Vicki understands what RQS and I see in each other, and RQS understands what I share with Vicki.  These are all special relationships, and something I cherish.  Vicki thought that my past 2 cruises had me traveling as Marian until I told her about my caution in regards to interacting with Federal authorities given the Orange Monster's attitudes involving TGs.  RQS and Vicki talked about how they deal with their ailments.  We all had things we would talk about for hours.

All too soon, dinner had to end, and we had to part.  So, we drove home, and I got around to taking care of putting together the rolling cart from Walmart.  It is not as good as the cart I bought from IKEA several weeks before.  But it will do for now.  Now, things that were casually dumped into baskets are organized in areas of the cart.  Although cluttered, things look a bit less messy than before - a small victory for me.

The ordeal of owning a rental house will soon be over.

My brother and I have owned our family homestead for years, but have only controlled it since my dad went into a nursing home.  My dad is dead now, and the house has become much more costly for us to own.  So we decided to sell it, rather than take the risk of having a bad tenant move in.

The house holds a lot of memories for us.  Both of us spent our formative years in that house.  And it'll be a sad day when we sign the house over to its new owners.  For a house built in 1941, it still has good bones, and the new owners will only be the third family to own the house.

My parents bought the house because it was walking distance to a bus that would take us to the subway station, and still be outside NYC limits.  Their children could get a good suburban in a suburban school, instead of a mediocre (or worse) education one would get in NYC schools.  (And they were right, given how NYC debased the quality of its education in order to allow certain groups to "earn" a diploma without having to meet all the former requirements for that diploma.)  

I grew up in good times, in a prosperous post-war America that was at the top of its game.  Anyone who wanted a job that paid well enough to support a family could have one.  Anyone with a decent education could make it to the top of business - if they knew how to "play the game" and were members of the right group.  America was far from perfect.  But it was a good time for people like me to be alive - unless we were among the persecuted minorities.

My dad had some college (from what I remember), but he never had use of it.  Instead, he became a salesman of machine tools.  When manufacturing died in NYC (this was before Amazon), he couldn't retool to sell another type of product.  There were too many different customers with whom he'd have to build new relationships.  So, he retired early.  When I took my first computer job, I earned more than he did.  I could have afforded a house like his with a few years of saving.  But I took a different path.  I bought only the living space I needed - a one bedroom apartment.  And, that would be the only space I would ever need, as children were not in my future.

When my brother and I inherited the house outright, we rented it out for a while.  And when our tenant left, we tried to fix it up and rent it out.  But it made more sense to sell.  Soon, the day will come, and we will leave that house forever with only our memories to show for it.
 

Odds and ends - all the news that wasn't fit to print.

 

Odds and Ends of Recent Events 

• About a week ago, we got off our Bermuda Triangle cruise, and I noticed an erroneous charge of $25 on my account   I sent an email to Virgin's Sailor Services area, and got an automated response that I'd be hearing from them within 72 hours.  I take this to mean 3 business days.  So, if the clock starts running on Monday morning, I should have an answer from Virgin by Thursday morning.  As of Thursday morning, crickets!
  
  I followed up with another email, this time being sent to both to Sailor Services and to the head of Customer Relations, mentioning the lack of communication on disembarkation day, and tacking on a mention of the $25 dispute at the end of the email.  I figure that I should expect a response by sometime on Tuesday if I'm lucky.
  
  
•  The other day, I went to fill my car up with gas and noted that the price of a gallon of "regular" has gone up by 50% since the Orange Monster started the war with Iran.  It's so sad to see GOP politicians trying to assert that the economy is doing better with the snowflake, and not asserting Congress's sole power to declare war against another country.
  
  
• Recently, King Charles of the UK came to the US and gave a speech to both houses of our legislative branch.  He reminded congress of American values in a way that showed the GOP how much they have capitulated to evil without openly saying as much.  It's a shame that after the speech, that they keep supporting the Orange Monster in the way they do.
  
  
• Yesterday, I went downstairs to do laundry.  I found out that I forgot where I placed the VTM card I use to pay for washing and drying my clothes.  So, I ended getting ready to use backup card I had.  But, by the time I went downstairs to do the last runs of the evening, someone else had claimed the machines for their laundry.  There was no way that I was going to bring my dresses, etc. upstairs, just to bring them downstairs again.  So, I waited until today to do this.
  
  Realizing that I had to find the missing VTM card, I positioned myself that I could inspect shirt/trouser pockets for the VTM card, and toss everything into 2 washing machines while sitting down.  By the time I was halfway through, I found the card, and was able to speed up my work to load up two washers.  When the loads are done, I plan to take the dresses and shirts upstairs and hang them up to dry wrinkle-free.
  
  And guess what happened after I found the card.  I added $20 to it, then lost it again.  This time, I retraced my steps and hope it's at the bottom of a wet laundry basket.  Otherwise, it's $38 gone down the tubes.  AARGH!
  
  
• Once all my summer clothes are out of storage, I'll have to start another donation bag for charity. I need space in my closet to store everything.  That will be a task for the next few weeks. 
  
  Given how many dresses and other things that I own, I figure that I only have enough stuff for a single donation bag.  But, I should also loot at getting rid of stuff that looks drab on me.  A T-Gal should always look her best in public when presenting as female.

A mess to clean, a lunch to enjoy, and some laundry to wash

 

My apartment has always been in one degree of mess or another.  One can say that I've drowned in clutter over the years, and have come out of it with varying degrees of clutter removed from the mess.  Today, I have to clean up some of the mess, meet CCS for lunch, and do some laundry.

- - - - - -

This morning, I was supposed to have a zoom with my niece in London.  I really wasn't in the mood to rush a conversation, nor was I in the mood to be talking too much, when I had a lunch engagement 30 minutes later with CCS.  So, I asked my niece to postpone for a week, and that worked for both of us.

Next, it was getting ready to pick CCS up.  She had some work done on her arm, and she is not able to drive while the arm heals.  So I had to put her address into my phone's GPS so that I could find her place. Once I picked her up, it was off to the restaurant for lunch.  We caught up on a lot of things, the disposition of family autos, her upcoming cruise, the sale of my family homestead and more.  it was a good conversation that had to end too soon.  So, I dropped her off at her place, and rushed back home for an urgently nee bio-break.

When I had the chance, I opened up a package from Kohl's - a new dress had arrived.  I wasn't sure if a 3x would fit me, but it did - the waist wasn't as tight as it could have been on me.  And it will be a very comfortable addition to my wardrobe for this summer.

I ended up taking a nap and woke up as the sun was setting.  Knowing that I was in for the night, I stripped off my makeup and finally prepared to do some laundry.  It was nice to get out as Marian again, and I hope to be able to finally get my nails done soon....

 

 

The day started off with a phone call from my brother

As I may have mentioned, my brother and I are selling the family homestead.  It made us some good money over the years, but it became a non-performing asset last year.  It served us well, and we have good memories of living here.  However, it is time to let go, and we will soon have a signed contract for the sale.

- - - - - -

My brother almost woke me up this morning, and we discussed the financial situation of the house.  We'll be putting in some repairs, so that the sale can go through.  We talked about being sad to let go of the place, and then shifted to money concerns.  Both of us could use the money from the sale, but for very different reasons.  And then we got to talking about my brother's situation with his wife and what will happen if he has to move to get a new position.  That call took me to the point where I had to let go, and get showered for lunch with MSJ.

Around 12:45 pm, I dropped off a lot of paper to be shredded at Westchester County's mobile shredder truck.  And then, I was off to the bagel shop for lunch with MSJ.  This was a rare time that I'd be early for lunch.  But it was just as well.  MSJ came in, ordered something light, and we got down to talking.  This was a rare 2+ hour lunch for us, and we covered a few topics: My recent cruise, Her sons' progress in school, and Her exhaustion from juggling too many things at one time (typical for most women).  

All too soon, lunch had to end, but not before we set up our next meeting.  And then it was off to Lane Bryant in Poughkeepsie to look at their dresses.  None of them looked appealing to me.  The cheap $30 dress I bought from Amazon looked better than the dresses on the rack at Lane Bryant.  I'm glad that I wasn't really in the mood to buy anything anyway.

Then, it was on my way home, so that I could cook dinner - Ravioli in a cheesy cream sauce.  Yum!  Just don't tell my doctor about it..... 

City Island Dinner with Vicki

     

City Island is nautical hamlet off the coast of New York City's mainland borough, The Bronx. It still has a small town feel, even though it is in America's biggest city.  The reason why most visitors come to this out of the way part of NYC is its collection of Seafood Restaurants.  And this is where Vicki and I planned to head today.

It was nice to get dressed as Marian again.  Unfortunately, it was a little bit too cool to go out in one of my summer frocks.  Instead, I took out a dress and a pair of leggings that I wear during the winter, threw on a light denim jacket, and drove to Vicki's place to pick her up.

Normally, Vicki does much of the driving.  But her car was in the shop for warranty repair.  Given how much the repair would cost if not under warranty, I'm glad that she is still  covered by her manufacturer's warranty.  Otherwise, she'd be spending 40% of the car's original cost to fix it.

I picked Vicki up a few minutes after 6, and we started catching up on things.  It was nice to be able to tell Vicki about our cruise, and the disembarkation day problems.  And she mentioned things I won't cover here.  Arriving at the restaurant around 7, we sat down to order our food - a lobster plate for each of us, with a calamari dish we could share.  Yum!

We had to rush back to Vicki's after dinner, as she has a couple of dogs to care for.  But we'll be having dinner again soon, as RQS, Vicki and I will be feasting somewhere nearby.