almost over, bloomers, and the Fourth

the buddha is reminding me to keep it serene

I’m bored. All this waiting for this procedure and that procedure and then recovering from this or that or preparing for this or that, trying to stay as healthy and hydrated as possible before and after, not getting over tired or heat stressed or dehydrated. I want my veins and arteries as plump as possible for all this. I don’t ordinarily mind getting hot and sweaty, getting out in the yard and weeding and watering and pulling out gone by stuff and pruning back and fertilizing with rolled up bandana for a headband, hat and another bandana for wiping off the sweat on the rest of my face. I’ll come in hair drenched, headband soaked and sit under the fan while drinking cold water til I cool off enough to take a shower. But basically the last six weeks all I allow myself is 45 minutes to an hour first thing in the morning and then the rest of the day just sitting around reading or playing games on my phone or streaming some show or other. All well and good but I’m used to being more active and the yard has gone almost completely feral. And the shop yard and Pam’s plantings, totally. If it weren’t for for Joe and Mary who come mow and trim over there twice a month it would be up to my chin. And even so the wild grape vines, virginia creeper, poison ivy, and briar are making great headway. 

Finally, I’m approaching the end. Tomorrow is the pre-op, some bloodwork and I don’t know what else, for the cerebral angiogram scheduled for next Tuesday, four days from now, as well as the pre-op for the Watchman procedure the following Monday which entails another transesophageal ultrasound to measure that little pocket or bulge off the left atria of my heart that the procedure will close off, preventing blood from pooling and clotting in there, so that they have the proper size screen, not too small, not too big. So another dip into twilight sleep for that.

The heat lovers are blooming…the rangoon creeper is coming into full bloom, the mexican bird of paradise which had a rough start with some sort of deformity has recovered and is blooming, the pink plumerias, and the night blooming cereus is putting on buds.

Tuesday night the evening air had a pink or orange quality to it, couldn’t decide which, so pinky orange. 

Of course, it’s the Fourth of July today. I've put out the flag. It may be the last true Fourth of July if Trump gets elected again considering the Supreme Court’s disastrous ruling about presidential immunity from prosecution of criminal conduct regarding ‘official acts’, which they did not define, all to protect one man. Trump is already calling for military tribunals and jailing of his perceived enemies; Liz Cheney, President Biden and VP Harris, Schumer, and Pence specifically. He’s made no bones about using the DoJ to retaliate against his detractors and still talks about rounding up millions of residents and putting them in detention camps, giving Ukraine to Putin and promising to prevent nations bordering Russia from being admitted to NATO. And so many things so much worse. Essentially, what the Supreme Court has done is remove all the guardrails that the Founders put up to prevent a president from becoming a de facto king. And those bastards on the Court deciding this issue, during their confirmation hearings, claimed that this nation was based on the rule of law and no one, not even presidents, is above the law.

I’ll leave you with the last paragraph of Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter from July 2, 2024:

“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America,” Massachusetts delegate John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, on July 3. While we celebrate the signing of the final form of the declaration two days later, the adoption of the Lee Resolution marked the delegates’ ultimate conviction that a nation should rest not on the arbitrary rule of a single man and his hand-picked advisors, but on the rule of law.