Beyond a shadow of doubt

When you click on that link

that promises to help you find car insurance, this is what starts showing up in your inbox . . .

Bye bye COLA

It’s usually January before somebody makes a grab for my Social Security COLA, but the grab came early and bumped the landlord out of first place. This time it’s the car insurance; I’m suddenly paying over $80/month on a car I drive far less than 50 miles a month (in 13 years I’ve put less than 20k miles on it). The agent acknowledges that I have an excellent driving record, but the premium went up anyway because of inflation and besides, every company is raising rates. And after the first of the year the landlord will still get their increase. Once more I’m left with less than I was getting before the COLA.

I have been gently reminded that my benefit is not the purpose of insurance, that the only purpose of insurance is to enrich the company's shareholders. Still feels scammy.

Gritch off

Sam and Clarence and Moses, oh my!

Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas traveled back in time to visit with Moses. It didn’t go the way they wanted, otherwise we’d have the Ten Suggestions instead of the Ten Commandments.

Sweet memory . . .

We were just chatting about where we were on this night 15 years ago. THAT was a night, still brings the smiles.

Do you remember where you were on that night?

(Hint: There was dancing in the streets...)

What the whatever

Two apartments ago some weird stuff started happening. Mostly, it was pictures sliding off the wall, one at a time on different days, leaving the picture hangers in place. The landlord shrugged it off, saying that sometimes rodents in the walls could nudge things; made no sense to me. Then, one night I came home in time to see the hallway light cover (the kind that looks like a bowl) drop from the ceiling, slowly descending in a graceful ark to the carpet. Hmmm.

Next apartment, I woke up one night to hear a conversation coming from the living room. I turned on the lights and went into a living room devoid of people, but there was definitely talking going on. Turns out the voices were coming from the TV, big old box style, which wasn’t on. When I clicked the remote it came on to a show I’d been watching earlier, and it was definitely not the source of the conversation. Whatever. I turned it off, silence; so I went back to bed. Some days later I came home to find the TV on, or so I thought. The picture was like a still photo, two little kids on a swingset. Again, I clicked the remote and the TV came on to no children on a swing. Turned the TV off and on, the photo never came back. As the holidays approached, I affixed a couple of wicker star-shaped trays to the wall. One night shortly thereafter one of those trays slid straight down the wall, and the other one shot straight out about a foot before dropping to the floor. No damage other than that done to my peace of mind.

In my present apartment, the only weirdness has been two or three incidents of flying flatware; nothing dangerous, just the spoon I keep on top of my coffee maker flipping noisily to the floor. Startling, but not terribly upsetting. That was a couple of years ago, it stopped and nothing else happened. Until today, that is. I was coming down the hall toward the living room when I was surprised to see my clock travelling at eye level toward the dining area to land on the floor just inches from the table. The wall where the clock hangs holds many pictures, gallery style, and none of those pictures had budged. So, I picked up the clock (still ticking, mind you) and put it back on the hanger which was still firmly affixed to the wall.

At the moment I’m kicked back watching zoo programs. The clock is a flick of the eye to the side of the television, just like always. No point in wondering about my suddenly mobile clock, fleeting thoughts of time flying notwithstanding. But I readily admit that if such things were to stop happening, I wouldn’t mind at all.

Just sayin' . . .

Keeping up with keeping up

Paying attention is something I try to do, but dang it's getting trickier. So many important things happening simultaneously, it's hard to keep track. The Israel/Gaza war coverage is prime at the moment (as it should be). Trump's various legal issues have heavy bearing on our future as a republic, same for the ongoing GOP machinations on the hill and across the country. The latest massacre compels our attention to the gun issue again/always/aggravating, women's health is under constant assault, immigrants are suffering...

Back before local newspapers were effectively erased by the internet, reading the front page was immediately followed by flipping to the last page to find those stories with real importance but buried in diminished coverage, depending on the publisher's interests. Nowadays, it seems to be an unrelenting case of NADD (News Attention Deficit Disorder), with attention to one story taking time away from at least three others. It's all rather headache inducing.

Years ago I was advised to "be where your hands are" -- do what I can where I am. I'm working on that. But OMG it ain't easy.

sigh......

.

Whatsa matter Donnie?

God hears a who