When we went out early this norning (Sunday, Feb. 1), the downtown temperature gauge showed 13 *F. That;s rather nippy.
Forecast (Feb 1): ~24°F/11°F.Very cold, sunny, and windy. So we actually did a tad better than that.
Certainly the outdoor temperature affects computer function, as each evening, my whole system veers off in crazy directions, especially after dark. I simply cannot conrol it. But the phone always seems to be working properly incase of emergency.
Groundhog Day 2026: [Feb. 2] Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, predicting 6 more weeks of winter
For a second year in row under this administration,noBlack History Month celebrations at all, none whatsoever, are being held at the Kennedy Center. [What is there to celebrate right now anyway?]
In fact, the Kennedy Center will be shut down for at least 2 years for "renovations." That will prevent any boycotts or possible disruptions by anti-Trump performers announcing their unwillingnes to perfrom at the "Trump-Kennedy Center." .
ICE confirms measles inside Texas detention center holding growing number of
immigrant families
What a nightmare! The Trump administration's anti-vax and anti-immigrant policies, are combining now to wreak maxium damage on human life and health.
Trump's governing style might now be characterized as "erratic". We never know quite what is coming next.
NY Times, [Opinion]The Case for More Immigrants
I've already made the case myself on these pages for accepting more immigrants here in the US. We just aren't producing enough babies, though we cannot accept as many immigrants as would want to come. Once more newcomers start arriving again, it might actually be hard to stop the flow.
In any case, certainly the US should not bedeporting folks any more, espccially childen actually born on US soil. But under President Donald Trump, that actually has been happening. Birthright citizenship has not really been abolished, only in Mr. Trump's imagination.
LA Times, Ramos and father, upon judge's order, freed by ICE and back in Minnesota
The first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” That includes you and me, also my son Jon born in Colombia, but who become a naturalized US citizen at an early age.
Instead, let's just deport Donaald Trump now to whatever country would be willing to take him.
Behind his back, Trunp's cabinet is now being called the "Cabinet of Morons." Some observers have also reportedly called Trump himself a "moron." Trump's behavior looks like a classic case of what used to be known as "senile dementia." How can we all get through 3 more years?
how could any Republican presidential candidate possibly refuse him?
So, are we may be stuck with Donald Trump until he finally goes on to meet his maker.
I am almost age 88 myself and hope to die knowing that Mr. Trump has definitely retired completely from public life.
BBC,Israeli air strikes kill at least 32 Palestinians in Gaza, rescue officials say
Wash. Post,32 people were killed in Israeli strike on Gaza
The US is supporting and financing Israel's campaign of civilian deaths in Gaza.
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Reading back issues of the New Yorker sent by my younger daughter, I feel somewhat alienated from the magazine now ever since moving to small-town West Vriginia. It's very subtle, but there seems to be a note of condensenation on some of its pages toward many people living right round here.
Our social environment does influence us since we are all social creatures. I never felt that way reading the New Yorkerwhen I lived back in Washington, DC.
Brrrr! In Spanish, I am called friolenta, that is, someone especially sensitive to cold. I should just live fulltime in the tropics or maybe in Florida or Hawaii, where I have daughters and also good friends. But now I've bought a house here in West Virginia where I live with my son and his dog Willow The is dog sleeping right next to me noe as I tap the computer keys.
Here's the local forecast from Google:
Based on current forecasts, Berkeley Springs, WV will experience very cold temperatures through early February 2026, with daily highs in the low 20s to mid-30s°F and nightly lows dropping into the single digits to teens. Conditions will range from sunny to partly cloudy, with a chance of precipitation increasing toward mid-week.
I'm so glad to be back on the computer again after a serious glitch that apparently my
daughter in Hawaii was able to fix remotely. But cold weather does seem to be affecting computer access.
I also had experienced a bout of vertigo earlier in the day, just like
I had in Honduras for 2 days running during my visit there in June 2024.
Fortunately, this recent episode lasted only a few hours. It's a very disorienting experience
to feeleverything spinning all around you, keeping you off-balance, though without any pain
or discomfort.
When we drove past the Potomac River, we saw ice and snow out on top with water stilll
flowing underneath.
From a lifelong friend in Vermont, I jsut reeived a long message:
Thank you for your sweet memories of my mom, Wanda. The last weeks of her life were so hard for me and my husband in taking care of her, even with all the help we had, ao that it has been hard to remember the better times. Your words have helped me remember the better times. During her life, she was quite pessimistic and negative, without a sense of humor, but in her last years, she began to see the humor in life. My husband was very good about pointing out silly things she would say or do in a way that allowed her to see how foolish they were, and she could then laugh at them. It was shocking, and refreshing to see her laugh at herself. It was grand.
Here is the photo of myself holding onto Jackie, the ram. My mother took that photo of me when I was age 9 and surely she sent a copy to her family in Egypt. I’m sure it must have shocked them to see such a thing. My mother's life in Egypt was so drastically different from our lives out here on the farm in southern Vermont.
Yet my friend's mother Wanda was lucid until the very end, although she always spoke English with an accent. She had been quite brave to go from her privileged status in Egypt to an unknwon life in rural Vermont with her new husband. He had married her after a very brief courthship in Egypt where they had met during his worldwide travels. It was a classic case of "love at first sight," They had 3 children. Mother Wanda lived long after the death of her husband to almost age 106. In her last days, she had 2 Spanish-speaking caregivers who had somehow made it to the family's remote rural Vermont farm. I spoke with them both by phone.
So we still need immigrants like the 2 caregivers helping out my friends in Vermont because native-born Americans are simply not producing enough children to do the jobs that need to be done. Our US birthrate now only averages 1.6 children per woman, when 2.1 is needed just to keep our population at current levels. Immigrants have always helped fill in the gaps in this country and there is still room for more. Accepting more immigrants would be quite helpful, though not as many as would want to come.We certainly should not be actually deporting those who are already here. No workable system for screening and admitting immigrants has ever been developed anywhere. We could actually use a few moree right now in West Virginia, where the population is in decline and "help wanted" signs are posted everywhere. .
DOJ Removes New Epstein Files That Mention Wild Trump Sex Allegations, Including Rape
What will happen to those files now is uncertain. Donald Trump would probably like to have them all immediately destroyed.
Donald Trump as the pressident is in charge of the government, so is he now suing himself since he is responisible for how the government actually operates? As president, he should have undertaken neausres to protect tax records.
Woman Told FBI Trump Abused Her at 13, Epstein Files Reveal She also claimed to haev bitten him in a very sensitive place.
Epstein Victim Gave Bombshell Testimony on Trump and Ghislaine
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WML, a little girl actually born here in the US, was recently deported to Honduras. What did she do? Now the deportation of a 5-year-old boy, also born here, has been stayed. Donald Trump may want to abolish birthright citizenship, but it has not yet been abolished. Of course, members of his own family are completely exempt from any and all rules. Probably wife Melania is actually here illegally, as she came on a visitor's visa that then expired. But after that, she got pregnant by Donald Trump and had a son, so that was even better than a visa. Now let's just deport that whole Trump clan, including the Donald himself, and send them all back to Scotland, his own mother's birthplace. He himself should not have birthright citizenship according to the rules he wants to impose on everyone else.
Judge orders US to release 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his dad from custody
OK RFK Jr. and Donald J. Trump, you know that many children will die and some will be affected for life. What about promoting routine vaccinations again for childhood diseases? Vaccination doesn;t always prevent illness, but nearly always reduces the severity if it should still occur, something which actually happens only in a tiny fraction of cases.
Israel is apparently still attacking Gaza and still killing civilians. With DonaldTrump going crazy now all over the world, making abrupt decisions willy nilly, then now deciding to focus on his triumphal arch, we took our eyes off the ball on Israel/Gaza, giving Israel and Netanyahu free reign to commit war crimes. (Trump has a very short attention span,. Greenland now seems to be all but forgotten.) )
A friend and former neighbor back in DC likes to experiment in the kitchen. After all, everybody has to eat. She recently made an unconventional pizza which I am sorry not to
be there to actually try.Photos below show the pizza before and after baking
it’s a pizza but w/ a lighter, airier crust, unlike the flat dense ones for standard pizza. i used whatever i had lying around the house to make this. my aim was to ‘master’ the dough for the crust, a combination of three diff flours (Italian bread flour, rice flour, and spelt).
And what is this? I'm not quite sure, but it has suddenly popped up, so
