mallorys_camera

I normally sleep in on my "weekends" like today. Now that I have shifts for safety patrol at a local school, though, I find myself still waking up on "work schedule" even on my days off. So it wasn't unexpected that I should wake up at 5:30am today and find myself with little to do but roam Reddit on my smartphone while snugly in my electric blanket-warmed bed on a cold snowy morning.

This resistance song was posted to the Minneapolis subreddit by a child of the singer, a family member woken by a text message informing them of the song's posting to YouTube. Welcome to today's theme song:

Watch on YouTube

...I'm an ordinary American. I grew up blue in the promised land.
Two tours in Vietnam. 40 years Republican.
But I drive my old Ram pickup truck. I sold my house because my pension sucks.
I buy scratch tickets when I'm out of luck. Then I watched the news and said, "What the fuck".

I'm an ordinary American, no longer Republican.
I can't sit down when I need to stand, when government men kill an innocent man
and a mother in a car trying to drive away from a masked man on a frozen day,
pumping bullets in her face just to make her pay for living her life the American way.

We are ordinary Americans on a Minnesota street in a messed up land,
Thousands marching hand in hand to bring us back to a promised land.
Wake up America, heed the call. High saints, you know musket balls.
Stand up strong and stand up tall. Stand together for one and all.

I'm an ordinary American. I grew up blue in the promised land.
Two tours in Vietnam. 40 years Republican.
Hey, now we're fighting in another war.
But now I know what we're fighting for.

Welcome to the Resistance, old man.

For the moment, the story of the "Concord Hymn" poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson (pictured on the statue in the video, about the Battle of Concord in 1775) is still available on this Park webpage. I'm sure that it will soon be removed, lest people get the wrong ideas about this Republican government's fascist authoritarianism. It's safely recorded at Archive.org too.

Now, excuse me. I need to get dressed for my shift at the nearby school, watching so I both 1) warn children and teachers about the federal government coming to abduct any of them and 2) record illegal conduct to assist the defendants and prosecute the abhorrent offenders.

I am anti-fascist, and you should be too.

poliphilo

Picture Diary 119

1. Hi there, kiddo

2. Tightrope walker

3. Disks

4. Bad apple

5. Poppies

6. Orion

smokingboot

In her normal days Mum was a thorough hypochondriac on behalf of the entire family. As a child she contacted diptheria,and was only saved by the serum produced from injecting horses with diphtheria toxins to stimulate the production of antibodies in their blood. This was in 1930s/40s Spain, after the Civil War. Even in all that carnage folk knew how to drive away the terrible 'strangling angel of chidren'*. Mum learned her lesson well into adulthood. We were basically NHS pincushions.

Now of course she has forgotten all that. As have others, apparently, cue a sudden burst of measles in London. Measles! That old nursery bogey! Measles was sorted many years ago, yet somehow here we are again. People don't trust institutional authorities any more, some fear what they perceive as the medical/pharmaceutical industry's pursuit of profit, some never got told and some just plain forgot about getting their kids vaccinated around/after Covid. So much, too much. Still, it isn't an epidemic and hopefully won't become one. Fingers crossed for the old town.

And in that same old town, Bro is discovered to have elevated PSA levels. Docs found nothing to worry about but suggest a biopsy. He ain't doing it, despite my powers of persuasion (aka eye-rolling and saying 'for Christ's sake, just get on with it.') He's so avoidant! But he has promised me solemnly that he will monitor the situation, and I try not to bark and harry, given my own history of telling doctors to sod off. I didn't exactly race towards my own biopsy.

Meanwhile. Valentine's Day was fun. We went to Howling Wolf in Glasgow, listened to a great live band of old geezers playing amazing blues. There is something else planned for tomorrow night, but R won't tell me what it is, only that it requires frockage. So I bought a few separates. One thing about Scotland, at least for me, is that pretty clothes go by the by. I'm a bit of a jeaniac anyway, wearing t shirts in Summer, jumpers in Winter. He's been begging me to buy new clothes as stuff gets threadbare, but I don't enjoy shopping. I like clothes that keep me warm and don't make me itch, a taller order than it sounds.

And I have stuff to do today but just can't get down to it yet. Wake up Boot!

*They actually called it that.

poliphilo

Insidious, that's what it is- insidious....

I've been staying away from the newspapers for a year or so but recently I've been wanting to know the latest scoop on the Epstein Files and told myself it would do no harm just to take a look at the headlines.

So I did

And then I found myself scrolling down from the headlines and taking an interest in stories further down the page and....and.... that's the way you get drawn back into the grim old conversation about politicians and celebrities- and all of it calculated to keep you fretting about things of no importance-

Like I said, insidious.

But I saw what was happening.

So I picked up the links to the newspaper sites and dropped them in the bin......

asakiyume

It's extremely excellent to come across a short story completely at random, from someone I don't know at all, and then fall in love with it. (I love reading stories from people I know, too, of course! But in those cases, I already know I'm likely to love the story, whereas when it's by someone I don't know, it's an unexpected surprise.)

"Do You Love the Color of the Sky?" by Rachel Rosen was just such a story. In it, the curator of a museum that collects art and artifacts from the multiverse's doomed timelines (and who has a pet dodo from a timeline where dodos weren't hunted to extinction) is confronted by a thief from one of those doomed timelines who wants to take back what's either a plundered item or a rescued item, depending on what side of museum discourse you fall on. The multiverse is a great place for museum discourse, it turns out!

But beyond that, the story's just got a great narrative voice and some killer lines, such as...

Hadn't this always been the pattern of civilization? Tea and bullets were undeniably intertwined.

and

"But your world is dying."
I hadn't expected her smile. The bullet had been gentler.
"Every world dies," the thief said. "Even yours."

Here's how the thief is described on first appearance:

You can sometimes tell where [a multiverse traveler is] from at a glance. A gleaming bull’s horn on a chain around the throat, or a shangrak tattoo. A Hapsburg jaw or a colony of melanomas, if it’s one of the worse timelines. Not this woman. She had burst from the fire fully formed and innocent of all history.

And the various artifacts themselves, and the possibilities (or tragedies) of the various timelines are great.

Free to read here: "Do You Love the Color of the Sky?"

Rachel Rosen has also apparently written a short story titled, "What if we kissed while sinking a billionaire's yacht?" which short story lends its title to Issue One of Antifa Journal, with this great cover. To read the story requires purchasing the journal, but as an ebook it's only $4.99, so I'm sore tempted.

flemmings

It was heavy sleet when I got up and then it was heavy snow but thankfully not really freezing rain. However heavy snow-- weight heavy, not just thick and fast-- is a pain to deal with. I scraped about four inches off the steps and shovelled the path in tiny increments because shovel was too heavy to lift. Salted same, came in and stretched, two hours later did it again, though it was only an inch or so by then. Have been hearing sirens all day, doubtless the aged like me not taking their shovelling easy. Meanwhile either a bobcat or a really public-minded and extremely strong snowblower had come along and flattened the sidewalk into walkability. Money is on bobcat because didn't see any blown snow. And if only my back wasn't such a diva I could have taken the snowpack up and cleared down to the concrete, because it lifts really nicely with the ice scraper now. Did a metre-long stretch to show it could be done, but my back really hates me.

Finished the Riddlemaster trilogy last week and went over vol.3 with the handy ebook 'search in book' function to shed some light on who and when. Am still slightly confused. Then in a bout of 'get it off the shelf' I started on James Branch Cabell's Jurgen. Cabell was probably my first experience of fandom: somehow in my 20s I stumbled on a group devoted to his works and subscribed to their newsletters and such. I haven't read him in 50 years and retained only an impression of extreme clever clogs-ishness. Which he is, and sniggering with it, though I was surprised to find that the beginning of Jurgen is actually sweetly melancholic about the compromises of maturity. Which was not something I'd register in my early 20s. Did go online to see what, if anything, people have to say about Cabell now, and was pleased to come across a reddit thread of the young'uns can't be having with him.

To take the taste of that out of my mouth I had recourse to a couple of Dr. Priestleys, only one of which was glaringly obvious. Then took a disintegrating Penguin Classic off the shelf, Poems of Heaven and Hell From Ancient Mesopotamia. Have been through the Babylonian Creation twice, with the introduction and the cast of characters, and am still confused as to who is who. It doesn't help that the pages are literally crumbling so that leafing back and forth is unadvised and difficult. Should probably move on to the next section.

Currently also reading a collaboration between John Dickson Carr and John Rhode, which reads very oddly indeed. Should also read that library book, which is in Japanese and I believe rather in demand. Since I'm certainly not going anywhere tomorrow, I may spend the day doing that.

summersgate

A picture of Skye last evening. From this angle you can't see how grotesquely she is swollen in the middle because of the mass on her liver. She looks like herself here - pretty kitty - not the skeleton she's become. The closet bed where she spends most her time is to the left. She's doing pretty well with the new way of feeding I'm doing now. I had been mixing water into her pate food thinking that more fluids would be good. But now I'm thinking that having all that fluid sloshing around in her stomach made her throw up more. She has basically quit throwing up now (I hope I didn't jinx it). Throwing up was one of the things that the vet tech warned me was an end-stage sign of suffering and that made me very concerned. Now I'm feeding her teaspoonfuls of pate at multiple feedings during the day and that seems to work. She still is constipated but she was constipated when I was giving her water in her food so I'm guessing that wasn't the reason she was constipated - it's because of the mass pressing on her intestines. I would say that the thing she is "suffering" from the most is constipation. She cries out when she's trying to go. But as long as she's loving eating, and she's peeing everyday then I'm thinking she's still doing okay.

A little blue lobster for Sebastian.

This is the piece of fancy paper that is next up in my everything book. I plan to use it as a substrate for today's art a day. But it seems wonderful just as it is. I feel like I'd hate to ruin it by redirecting attention/drawing over the wonderful texture that's there already. I'm having serious blank canvas syndrome. Could I possibly put today's date and nothing else on it?

A small section photo-processed for contrast.

bill_schubert

I never did receive two of my 1099s but one of them I know the amount and the other is only $35 or so and I can just fake it.

Ended up I paid the last of the quarterly payments a month or so late and an extra $8 and we're all even. No penalty, no interest, everyone is happy. My tax rate is 5.79%. All adjusted for being old and such. ChatGPT says the IRS treated us 'gently' this year.

Another reason to not make any changes. I'm not sure I can improve on our tax rate or property tax rate or anything else. Being a senior does have some benefits.

Played PB today and my wrist was OK. Which is good since I'm scheduled to play again tomorrow. Mixed doubles group. After which I elected to do taxes. I really need to take a shower and get ice on the wrist and do nothing else for the rest of the day.

Headed there now.

And in the time it took me to write this entry, the IRS has accepted our return. How things have changed.

rebeccmeister

Have you heard about this February Big Tech Boycott in protest of Big Tech's support of ICE's activities in the United States?

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/07/nx-s1-5704402/boycott-tech-ice-scott-galloway

I've personally already had a slew of other reasons to boycott a number of these companies, but I'm still interested in continuing to cut any financial ties to them, wherever and whenever I can. I've blogged before about how challenging it can get to track down certain kinds of things in my area, which is part of the challenge of not handing money to companies that engage in unscrupulous and/or unethical business practices.

So I just wanted to bring this boycott to your attention, in case you hadn't already heard about it, and note that I am personally aiming to continue my efforts to disengage from these companies as much as possible.

poliphilo

Damian has gravel at the front of his house. We were standing talking to him when a particular chip caught my eye. It's about an inch across. A fossil? Yes, what else could it be?

Not an important fossil, not a spectacular one- but still the trace of something that was alive and growing millions and millions of years ago.....

summersgate

rebeccmeister

It's Tuesday, which means Lab Day. And a real rollercoaster this time. I have to vaguebook, but the net outcome is that a lot of learning happened and I am tired and in that sort of state where I like to imagine downing a solid shot of rum (in practice I don't often drink much, particularly when it's just me and the cats - just imagining is sufficient!).

One of those days where I have to somehow summon energy to go home.

Onward.

flemmings

The forecast for tomorrow contains the heart-stopping words 'freezing rain' and my joints are registering the approach of the oncoming storm. Wasn't so bad in the morning when temperatures soared to 6C/ 40-something F and great chunks of snow berms melted. Got out to the laundromat finally. The great lake at the end of my block that I waded through going had shrunk to a small puddle coming back 90 minutes later. I can't think this was all evaporation and certainly wasn't run-off, having nowhere to run to. I suspect a public-minded citizen with a broom, but who knows.

I rescheduled my physio from tomorrow afternoon to Friday and I hope that will guarantee nothing but ordinary rain and maybe sleet. Certainly they're now saying the freezing rain will mostly be west of the city. But Fiesta, at least, has road salt back in stock should I run out. And a good thing I never followed up on the impulse to take advantage of the springlike temps by suggesting dinner to bro and s-i-l. Even today I couldn't manage it and the rest of the week is various forms of precipitation.

Anyway, happy lunar new year to those who celebrate, as also ramadan mubarak tomorrow.

bill_schubert

Just another afternoon.

bill_schubert

I worked at the shelter today. We took this guy in. Gentle six month old kind of wiry haired something or other. Once again I'm so happy that we don't have room for half a dozen more dogs. I've drawn the line and intend to hold it. But look at him!

PXL_20260217_164258389

Dana has a friend (recently acquired) helping her clean up "the room" where my grandaughters will be staying in April. This is a pretty huge thing. The room is so bad that I considered for a while about whether or not we could even host the two girls. There was not even a way to enter the room. Now there is, at least, a path. There's lots of time before the girls are coming (20 Apr) but I put a 1 April hard time on the room being ready. We still have to get a bed and get it in there. So I've been stressing about it a bit and Dana has been stressing a lot. Anyway, she's found someone to help and that someone is in there now making some headway.

Meanwhile Dana called and asked me to get some cash so we could offer her some money. I was at the shelter and thought about it and I realized I had no way to get cash. In an absolute emergency I could walk into the credit union we use with my ID and work through not having a card with me and get cash. But short of that I had no way. I've got a few hundred bucks tucked away in a shoe and that stash is $60 less now. I'll fix that but it was an interesting exercise. Dana still thinks in cash.

Apparently Walmart is not far behind. After I got off the phone with Dana I stopped by Walmart to get a couple of things and tried to check out using my phone. Walmart does not do that. No GPay, no Applepay. I said thank you, but no thank you and left. I did have a card with me but it was in the car parked, of course, far away in the lot. And I was feeling annoyed so I decided to leave the stuff behind.

On my way back home I was hungry and did something I never do. I went to a fast food place. Even before I started semaglutide I talked my way out of getting fast food most of the time. I want the taste but am invariably disappointed so I just talk myself out of it and come home to make what I really want. Works every time. But I was feeling wild so I went to Shake Shak. Of course I've heard of it and thought it had to have something going for it. Turns out it has nothing going for it at all. Crinkle cut extruded French fries you can get in the freezer in Walmart (if you have an actual card or cash) and a quarter inch thick burger on a bun with mayo, tomato and lettuce. Redefining mediocre. And a small Dr Pepper. They did not screw that up.

For $16.23!!! There must be a tarrif on crappy hamburgers and fries.

The absolutely best thing about is I'll never have to go back. I can't wait.

wayfaringwordhack

...and we are supposed to paint two pictures from our own photographs. I have been doing this for a while, of course, but it feels more weighty now because someone called it "our graduation" painting. 🤪. I have done two, but I think I will do another to replace the olive trees that perhaps highlights more of the things this course was specifically about. I'll see if I have more time before the weekend.

summersgate

Happy Birthday John. I made that linocut print of The Love Chapter especially for you and gave it to you on a birthday long ago. That scarf was in a drawer of your dresser. I have no idea what it meant to you, you never wore it but I took it when cleaning out your room. That cross was something you made in shop class back in high school. I dreamed about you last night. I was washing your face as I have done a thousand times. Using super hot water, the way you liked it. The soap I was using was one of the handmade soaps I made for christmas presents a couple years ago. I left the suds on your face for a long time. I told you to be patient - the aloe was good for your skin.

Anyway.
Another warmish day today. The snow is slowly melting. I take Rainy for her grooming today. I think I'll kill time shopping at Walmart while I wait for her to be done.

smokingboot

Here's to the Year of the Fire Horse! Run, baby, run!

https://open.substack.com/pub/smokingboot/p/the-year-of-the-fire-horse?r=1r9jj7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

poliphilo

The Royal family only ditched Prince Andrew when his position became completely untenable- and a threat to all the rest of them. It's what families do; they close ranks- which doesn't preclude them hating and even murdering one another in private. It shouldn't be forgotten that Andrew's sainted mother gave him £12 million to pay off Virginia Giuffre.....

Every family is potentially a criminal enterprise. This hold good of families at every level of society, from the Hapsburgs in their palaces to the Krays in their East End "manor" to the Browns at number 17.

summersgate

Fortune cookie: Visualize the life you desire. It shapes your future.

Dusk at the creek.

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Every Day Above Ground

February 2026

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Page generated Feb. 19th, 2026 12:58 pm

Mallory's Camera

Reading

theme song: Fourty Years Republican

Picture Diary 119

Measles and More

Insidious

"Do You Love the Color of the Sky?"

(no subject)

wednesday

All done

The February Big Tech Boycott

Fossil

tuesday later

Somedays windshield, somedays bug, somedays both? [status, work]

(no subject)

Couch potatoes.

Much fail today

Final Week of Class

tuesday

Happy Lunar New Year!

Family Comes First

monday later

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February 2026

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