Apocryphal Family Stories

While still working on moving in, my husband and I have also begun to refinish the woodwork in the living/dining room area of our new/old house. I had done the woodwork in our previous house so I understood the materials and the process. But we are significantly older now so everything takes longer. Nevertheless, so far the results are good.

The woodwork is dark but very neglected, dry and in serious need of coating. We didn't want to make a major difference in color but the previous owner had installed central air conditioning, hiding some of the ductwork behind new wood paneling. Why she didn't at the same time give some attention to the existing wood is a mystery, but she also took her color cue from the very dry look rather than the color that shows inside the wall cabinets. So she had her woodwork stained a sort of dark walnut rather than what the inside cabinet reveals as a more mahogany look. The wood itself is oak, was oak from the beginning, with the very large beams on the first floor now looking nearly black so her choice of walnut really stood out as wrong.

Anyway, I chose the same color here as in Utah, dark mahogany and we began the process. The hardest part for me, despite my age and the sciatica, is the aroma--such strong petroleum chemical smell is difficult to deal with. We have done the wainscoting and window and shelving on the east side of the room, including the stairwell and it looks great. We haven't brought the tall ladder in to do the exterior window on the stairwell but that is relatively simply and straightforward. Luckily the woodwork is simple, without curlicues or furbelows. That makes everything easier from the steel wool rubbing to the application. It is humid here so drying time is longer than anticipated, but at the pace we are going we should have the entire room resurfaced by August.  

The family stories part involves the information we were given about the history of the house and its remodeling during the late 19th century. We were told that a specific architect had done the remodel but that would mean he was either extraordinarily gifted (he would have been around 10 when it was done) or another firm did the remodeling at that time, or the first guy did it but decades later than what seems to be the case with the remodel. That's how family history rather than history based on research based on documents goes. Just because my mother gave me a pearl circle pin (remember those ladies?), that she said was the most expensive piece of jewelry my grandfather gave my grandmother (whose usual jewelry store was Tiffany), because the pearls were supposed to be perfectly matched natural pearls, does not mean that is true. At least it is possible to examine the pearls to see if they are natural not cultured, but it is harder to find out what happened to this property without going somewhere to look at documents. 

Make Your Voice Heard

This past week, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, ruled that Trump had violated the United States Constitution when he blocked critical voices from his Twitter feed. This ruling came about expressly because the White House and Trump have expressly argued that even though Twitter may be an unusual official platform for the office, Trump's use of Twitter constituted official government speech. If he hadn't made that abundantly clear, then he would be fine as he has First Amendment rights of his own.

And that's what it's about folks, First Amendment rights, the Constitution, the legal foundation of everything we supposedly believe and support. But guess what? Trump has not unblocked anyone since the ruling even though the judge made it quite clear that was what needed to happen. She even opined that reasonable people would pay attention and no further legal action should be needed as the Constitution is bedrock, not ephemeral. But Trump did not unblock anyone.

So what can we do? This is not simply about the group of people whose words were blocked; this is about the rule of law, the guaranteed rights of Americans, respect for the judicial system, etc. Trump tramples all over those foundational ideas and no one should shrug their shoulders. It doesn't much matter which side one sits on since sooner or later it will be your ox that gets gored. It's the First Amendment this week, next week it might be the Fourth Amendment, or any other notion that we, as a nation, accept and respect.

So if Trump won't listen to the judge, then perhaps Twitter can be made to listen to the judge. Despite Trump's numerous violations of Twitter rules in the past, they have not blocked him but this is so different from simply being rude that it's laughable. It is us, all of us, who have the power to use our voices to tell Twitter to listen to the judge. If Trump can't be made to behave then Twitter must pay attention to the judge's ruling.  Tell them so. Tell your friends to tell them so. Tell your newspaper to tell them so.

Completely Brain Dead

So Trump says all the mean language from North Korea about Pence means he won't hold a summit in Singapore. What is he going to do with all those medals he had struck? Why is he the only one who seems even a little surprised? I mean the man is older than I so he has been around for all the other feints and gestures from NK so did he think it was simply the force of his manly personality that was bringing NK to the negotiating table? Honestly, the man is a moron.

Then commenting on the NFL decision barring anything but standing during the playing of the national anthem at professional football games without incurring fines if one is on the field(which more than one owner has already agreed to pay in toto), Trump says that we should be able to deport players who stay in the locker room or who do anything that the great and powerful Oz thinks is disrespectful. That brings up so many objections that it is hard to know where to start. Civics must definitely have  been for the higher track students at his military prep school since it is clear Trump never took it or never passed it.He didn't learn anything at all from his Twitter smackdown yesterday either. 

Bring Back Civics

Even though Trump is older than I, his preparatory school clearly didn't have a big focus on civics as mine did, a requirement for graduation. That's sort of odd since it was a military academy in New York and any reasonable person would hope that aspiring military officers or the typical miscreants sent to military academies to learn discipline would be well grounded in civil procedure. That's because the United States emphasizes civil procedure. We don't allow serving officers to be in government (or at least that's the idea) and we distance civil decisions from military decisions (at least that's the idea).

But around the time that we decided to fully democratize our public schools we stopped teaching civics as a requirement for high school graduation. Most people would tell you that the decision was simply to free up space in the high school day for all those hard subjects that students need now but anyone with half a brain can tell you that most high school students don't take those hard subjects. That's supposed to be why we need to import people to take over basic programming and computational jobs at big companies but it is clearly nonsensical from the get go. Apparently we feel so sorry for everyone nowadays that we cannot teach them what their civic responsibilities and duties are and what the government's responsibilities and duties are.

So Trump is ordering the DOJ to do stuff that is entirely outside of his task (seriously, read the Constitution for what the office is supposed to do), and in the process deliberately destroying what little faith anyone had in government. There were clear indications early in the election cycle that some folks in Trump's inner circle were at the very least being seriously loose lipped about stuff that should not be bandied about in bars. That's how one of Trump's people, one on his payroll, was reported by an Australian man who overheard a conversation in a bar about Russian information about Hillary Clinton. That Trump person, who took the money from Trump, has already pleaded guilty to federal charges.

So the Australian fellow reported the conversation to the appropriate authorities who reported it to the US intelligence services who decided that these folks needed some sort of observation. Anyone with half a brain would agree with that decision, but Trump is now crowing that Obama inserted a "spy" in his campaign, rather than displaying any sort of remorse or chagrin and admitting that a whole cadre of folks that he paid were more used to the NY property development market than the serious business of protecting the country, preserving government integrity, and defending the country from foreign influence.

If you still think Trump is a great guy, you need to sign up for a civics class. If you still think the country will be better off with him, you need to enlist in the military. Life is not a reality show. I hope someone tells Trump that he is not in a ratings war.

I am working on the final border section of the magnum opus. I hope to be quilting before July rolls in to view. 

Trolling By Tillerson

I have stayed away from any Trump comments for a while; he is beneath contempt and beneath notice if one has more important stuff to watch. But so many various threads are coming together now that some beg to be noticed.

Of course Trump paid the porn star--that's what he does. He and men like him think that women have sex with them because they are "fabulous" when the rest of the world knows it's because they have credit cards and clout. Perhaps when Trump married Ivana there was romance and love involved, but even that seems unlikely since at this point she looks like an aging porn star and she got what she wanted.

Anyway, on a higher plane, Rex Tillerson made a speech today that included the following passage;

If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom."

Sciatica Woes and Other Comments

I have been having problems with impingement of my sciatic nerve that have impeded most of my life for the last ten days. It started with what was more clearly lumbar spine issues but those went away and left me with piriformis nerve issues affecting my right leg and buttock. Although it is never easy to deal with any of this stuff, I at least have already experienced piriformis syndrome decades ago so I have an idea of how to stretch to alleviate the problem.

That put a great deal of the new house working on hold but I am feeling better enough to start thinking about paint colors. The house is painted uniformly white but not the same white throughout. That doesn't work for me at all. Even just white is too institutional for me. What looked like white in my old kitchen was a Benjamin Moore color called White Chocolate and that subtle difference was enough to satisfy. Most of my other rooms were bright primary colors. This included bright yellow to accent the woodwork and the furniture.
 
Most of the historic houses with which I am familiar show very startling bright colors. This house was built by a Quaker so his aesthetic might have been different. Washington may have had very bright blue but a Quaker probably would not.

Some Things Take Patience

I am always amused when people find out that I am a quilter and then decide that must mean I am patient. I am the least patient person I know with little tolerance for standing in a line or waiting for service. But sometimes one needs to be patient and it is wise to know when to wait and when to get antsy. I have been working on the current large project for about 18 months now and don't seem to be making that much progress toward completing it, but with my quilt making I know that every single stitch I take advances my work. So quilting, even slow quilting, satisfies the impatient person in me since I can see progress each day even if no one else can.

The other kind of waiting that I am reasonably good at is the kind over which I have absolutely no control. My husband and I had to go to the local Social Security office to request new cards earlier this week. I don't even remember when the last time I had a physical SS card was but I do remember that it was destroyed by washing. Still, it wasn't a big deal since I never had to show it largely because I am more or less retired. But Pennsylvania requires the physical card to change our driver's licenses from Utah ones so we had to go make that application. Not at all sure what Social Security has to do with a driver's license, especially when the new applicant did not need to take any kind of written exam showing knowledge of traffic rules, but what are you going to do?

Like most SS offices this one had a crowded waiting room with an electronic message board announcing the waiting list numbers. The numbers moved achingly slowly, a fact of life that distressed many people in the room. People were getting angry, people were needing potty breaks, people were yelling at the security officer claiming that their number had been skipped, people were going outside for smoke breaks. None of those actions helped the people committing them but they did tend to help others. If you got up to smoke a cigarette and your number was called, you had to go back to the beginning to get a new number. This helped everyone behind you, moving them forward without the time needed to process the smoker's request. Everyone's nerves were getting frazzled so even a little bit of progress was a positive step. My husband was far more antsy than I, but he also weathered the wait better than many of those in the small room. It took two and a half hours but we did finally get to one of the windows and got several separate items taken care of though we still have to wait for the physical cards to be mailed.

Mowing the Lawn

We haven't owned a lawn mower in over a decade since we completely xeriscaped our previous yard. Now that we have about 3/4 of an acre that is primarily grass or at least primarily low-growing green plants, we had to get something and since we are both senior citizens, I told my husband he needed a riding mower. So tomorrow we will have a new mower that I have no doubt will be my husband's toy. While I don't doubt that there will be times when it will be me on the mower, it still excites that teen-aged boy at the heart of my old man.

We also met with some architects and engineers yesterday. This house is fine in many ways, but missing items in others. Add to that the fact that we are older and the need for some changes become more apparent. What we are thinking of is an enclosed breezeway sort of area to attach the current house to another building that will have a garage on the lowest level and living quarters above that. Because the plot of land slopes down to the road, the upper level will end up being partly at ground level making it easier for older folks. There is no toilet on the first floor of the current structure so going up and down the stairs is a necessary part of living here. This will be the first time we use firms that are owned and operated by women--hip, hip, hooray. I will let you know if that makes them more reliable than the typical male architect contractor arrangement. Their two firms specialize in restoration and rehabilitation of old structures so they seem like a good fit.

I had hoped that we would be able to finish the upper level of the spring house to use but they both cautioned against that both for the artworks we want to display and the quilts since both items are sensitive to humidity and with the spring running through the first floor the humidity is higher than it a simple structure. We can still rehab it to make it an indoor sort of party space, though. It will also be where the new lawn mower will stay when not in use.