Dear Capitol Hill neighbors, many thanks, muchas gracias, muchísimas gracias. [That's an extra large dose of thanks.]
individually.
Living now in W Va. I still do miss each and every one of you, so again a special thanks to all those who have written to me now. I am slowly adjusting to a more solitary life in W Va. but still have quite a long way to go.
Some DC neighbors have been begging me to please come back, which would be so lovely, but it's too late for that now and not financially feasible. Here's a message I sent to one such neighbor.
Pierre, good to hear from you. I am really sorry to leave my home of 56 years in DC, which is now for sale. I cannot afford to keep it. I do miss you and all of my wonderful DC neighbors. I'm living in a rural part of W Va. now with my son who is often away at work. No one lives nearby, so there is only the dog to talk to.
I do hope to live to see the end of the Trump presidency so I can die in peace. My son here in W Va. is a Trump supporter, so we don't talk politics. If I could possibly have afforded to stay in my DC house and remain living there among you, I would have gladly done so. The house has not yet been sold, but I hope it goes before the next round of property taxes come due in Sept. It's a really wonderful house, 4 fireplaces, 3 floors, where I raised 4 kids and a Cuban foster son, but certainly larger than what I need right now.
I told my daughter Melanie living in Florida, where she said the current temperature there is 88 F, a bit on the warm side, that the weather here has also warmed up--it was 68 F outside last time we passed a temp gauge. Inside the house at 1 pm.with Jon away at work now, it's 65 F, certainly better than yesterday. I like it at about 75, but since I'm paying most of the bills, I won't turn up the heat quite yet. I'm wearing a fuzzy orange bathrobe over my clothes. It will get warmer soon enough.
Here is another message I just sent out to Patrick, a friend living in W Va.
Patrick, or Patricio as we used to call him in Honduras, was a Peace Corps volunteer there with me. He is a retired Spanish teacher who also substitutes when other teachers are absent, usually staying around until school is out, this year on June 5. He then often travels to Mexico in the summer.
Sure, Patrick, let's plan to see you after June 5. It might be fun for you to live in Mexico. I really like most Mexicans. Also, as you say, Trump would not be president there. I've sometimes thought of retiring near friends living in either Mexico or Honduras, as the cost of living would be much lower than here and ever since the pandemic, I am no longer working, Until then, I was an on-call Spanish interpreter, requiring me to travel to assignments via public transportation, but now I am not so steady on my feet. Besides, I'm trying to sell my DC house to pay for the house that my son and I are living in now, a small 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom house with a spare room serving as an office with a computer, where I am here writing to you.
As I've said, my son Jon, born in Colombia whom I adopted as a baby, is a Trump supporter, so we don't talk politics.
But at age 87 and with some risks in living in either Mexico or Honduras, I'm probably better off now with my son in W Va. Most afternoons and evenings, he is away at work at his hotel job at CoolFont, which actually burned down and is now being rebuilt. The sister hotel downtown, The Country Inn, is still operating. But at his current location, Jon just registers folks using the adjacent pool and rents out cabins until the other hotel there can be rebuilt. All the cabins are rented now for Memorial Day weekend.
It's rather cool here today for this time of year. This morning, we went to the nearby state park where Jon took his dog Willow. At the park entrance is an old-style stone cabin, then some log houses. Many folks were out there with their pets on this long weekend. Willow would bark excitedly whenever she saw another dog. These dogs were of several different breeds, large and small, but she identified with them all as fellow canines.
I am definitely not used to being alone out at the house here with no neighbors living close by, such as I had in DC on Capitol Hill, where I'd lived for 56 years and raised 4 kids and a Cuban foster son. Neighbors around there say they really miss me now and I really miss them! But I could no longer afford the taxes, repairs, and upkeep on my DC house, 3 stories and built in 1895 with 4 working fireplaces and many bathrooms and bedrooms. So it's now for sale. Of course, it hasn't sold yet, so now I'm supporting 2 houses! (Jon has obligations elsewhere for 2 sons by 2 different marriages.)
Most afternoons, I am just home all alone with the dog. There is one house down the hill, near us here in W Va., that I could walk to, but 2 fierce dogs are always barking outside.
Espero verte pronto, Barbara
Brrr! It's really been rather cold this spring in this part of W Va.
In the house where I stay alone now with the dog on most days, I often wear an orange fuzzy bathrobe over my clothes.
Here we were out with the dog earlier in the day.
Despite rather chilly temperatures for this time of year, the grass is green, the leaves are out, and flowers are in bloom.
On Memorial Day, American flags (and a few Confederate flags) were flying around here then.
Donald Trump and his administration continue to operate freely in our country and all around the world without any apparent constraints.
Many unauthorized immigrants have begun self-deporting back to their countries of origin, rather than risk deportation to places where they don't know the language or anyone living there.
It is unfortunate that Donald Trump insists on deporting working-age folks who are really needed here in this country. Nor has he let any immigrants come in legally, except for Musk's white South Africans.
So far, the current Trump administration has simply ignored court orders, even from the Supreme Court. Trump's lower-level staff could be arrested, but no one is going to actually arrest the president.
Mr. Trump recently gave a speech at West Point while wearing his red MAGA hat. Graduates had no choice but to listen.
Russia now appears to be trying to wipe Ukraine off the map. Our country has been doing very little so far to try to stop it.
Just lately, Trump seems to have begun souring on Putin. “I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,” he remarked. The Donald still doesn't support Ukraine, but now says Putin has started going a little too far. Is this because of such negative reactions to Putin's assault on Ukraine, evident both here in the US and in Western Europe? This represents an abrupt change of tone by Mr. Trump.
US President Trump 'very angry' with
Russia’s Putin over Ukraine ceasefire negotiations| BBC News
Years ago, on one dark andmoonless evening, I once stood with a friend (now deceased) right at the rim of Kilauea as hot, bright lava flowed like a river down to the ocean below,
erupting in huge clouds of steam.
Yahoo Sports, Nearly 50 fans injured after man drives car into crowd at Liverpool Premier League parade 27 people were transported to the hospital, with 2 described as having 'serious' injuries; police have detained the suspect, described as "a white British man."
Pope Leo XIV declares 'I am Roman!' as he completes formalities to become bishop of Rome
Leo XIV: First U.S.-Born Pope Criticized Trump/Vance on Lack of Compassion forImmigrants
The first U.S.-born pope has taken the name Pope Leo XIV. Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost is also a naturalized citizen of Peru, where he served the church for two decades. He greeted 1.4 billion Roman Catholics and the world Thursday with a message of peace and has posted statements online in support of migrant rights and criticized the Trump administration.
Adriana Smith, a 30 year-old nurse and mother, was about nine weeks pregnant in February when she was declared brain dead after suffering a medical emergency. According to Smith's mother, doctors have since been keeping her daughter's organs functioning until the fetus can be safely delivered. Georgia law bans most abortions after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, or at about six weeks into a pregnancy. Smith is now at 22 weeks and has been on life support for more than 90 days. We shall soon see if the emerging baby is welcomed as the son of his late mother, also whether he will actually need some special care after the unusual pregnancy. Those 2 outcomes are not mutually exclusive.
Regardless of what may happen in this case, I still support Georgia's effort to save the unborn baby. Though I mostly endorse positions expoused by Democrats, I do disagree with my party on the abortion issue. So I am not a supporter of "abortion rights," as I think the rights of 2 human beings are involved. We all have only one shot at life.
So I remain a staunch opponent of abortion and an advocate for the right to life, even of those considered disabled. Every unborn human--a stage we all necessarily go through--should have an opportunity to simply continue to exist. My late former husband of 24 years was blind and other cherished family members with apparent disabilities have lived meaningful and even long lives. Disability is a cultural construct. We all have culturally defined disabilities, especially as we grow older, but each of us can still lead a useful and fulfilling existence. I am speaking now as a woman age 87 myself with arthritis and other chronic health complaints, but still expecting to spend a few more years residing on this planet.
Even Donald Trump probably has a quite satisfying and meaningful life, meaningful to the man himself, however much many of us might wish he would simply retire to the golf course and let someone else run the country. He appears completely self-centered and narcissitic, lacking any empathy for others nor does he seem to care what others might think of him, including us, his own citizens. How did he get that way, especially so unconcerned about inflicting pain or distress on others? Was it nature or nurture or perhaps both? He seems to thoroughly enjoy being president, often issuing rather shocking orders, then abruptly changing course, just to keep everyone on edge. Yet many Americans voted for him, some perhaps identifying with his ability to trick and hoodwink peopleor to inflict even serious harm without suffering any adverse consequences whatsoever. To the coutrary, he has again become our president! And now for 4 more long years!
Here's an observation posted on Google: Biological differences help to explain women's higher longevity. Scientists believe that estrogen in women combats conditions such as heart disease by helping reduce the circulatory levels of harmful cholesterol. Women are also thought to have stronger immune systems than men.
On this day
May 27
Look back at your memories from this day.
I may have already described how my oldest grandson, now a college student, came to be named Andrew, but since I can't remember doing so, probably my readers don't remember either. So here goes. Soon after the beginning of the last century, my grandfather Andrew made the long journey from Scotland to Canada, where he married my grandmother Florence, the yougest of 12 children of a farming couple in Alberta. They had 2 boys, Robert and Leonard. Before long, Andrew was making his own small airplanes and giving flying lessons down near the California coast, where conditions for flying were better than in Canada because of no winter. Once when Andrew was up in the air with a student, the young man froze at the wheel, causing the little aircraft to hit an overhead wire and tumble to the ground, killing my grandfather but not the student, who lived to tell the tale. So then my grandmother, an accomplished seamstress, went to work making alterations at a Los Angeles department store while her boys fended for themselves after school. My father Leonard, though born in Stavely, Alberta, later became an American citizen when he joined the US army as an officer during World War II. He later became an architect and worked at Harvard with reknowned exiled architect Walter Gropius whom I also met as a child. But that's another story.
So, what's on your summer reading list these days? I'm selecting a few new titles now for myself, mainly non-fiction. After writing 2 non-fiction booksabout aspects of my own life, mostly regarding my experiences in Honduras and Cuba, I also have a book of fiction still whirling around in my mind. It's calledCyber Song, but am not sure I will ever actually write it.
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