Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Puppycat (floofinition) – Example of a anthifloofria to demonstrate that an animal shares disposition or traits associated with different species. Origins: Ancient Fleek, first noted in writings dated in 12 BC.
In Use: “Introducing Max, Carly said, “This is my puppycat. He’s a dog but he thinks and acts like a cat.” As I bent to greet Max, the puppycat sat and stared at me in an uncanny imitation of a cat’s critical, judging gaze.”
“Look,” my wife said. “An ant.”
She was pointing at the kitchen counter between the toaster and coffee maker. Yes, there was an ant. I widened my field of vision. “There’s another. And another.” I pointed them out.
We have ants. My wife and I, I mean. Not as pets; ants are invading.
We noticed them yesterday evening. Black, they’re about a quarter inch long. We don’t kill ants. Our philosophy about insects, spiders, and other critters is live and let live, but it must be our rules.
Ants in the house at this time of year is a surprise. In the past, they’ve invaded during the hot summers, when the ground was parched, and the ants sought water and relief from the blazing heat. Having them as guests in March is a real surprise. That makes us wonder, why now? What are they escaping outside? What do the ants know is happening that we don’t know.
Our process for dealing with things like this is to find their path and cut it off by cleaning without killing. That generally works. But having the visiting ants changes our behavior. I walk around, staring at surfaces, looking for more ants. So far, they seem to be limited to the southern wall, mostly around the fireplace and the dining room bay window. Not many; the most I’ve counted at one time is thirteen.
No trail is visible yet. We can’t figure out how they’re getting in, or where. But we’re on the case. Cuz, you know, we have ants.
And their presence causes a disturbance in the house.
A remarkable shell game has taken over U.S. politics.
Here we have Donald J. Trump, a convicted felon, basking in the glow of the ‘law and order’ party. They support the blue, you know. That’s despite his attempted Jan. 6 coup, where his supporters attacked the police defending Congress.
Here we also have exhibit B, Donald J. Trump, known liar, having his praises sung by people who say ‘he speaks for us.’ They are, then, by the transitive property, liars, too, aren’t they?
As exhibit C, Donald J. Trump, failed business man (the proof is in the bankruptcies) is going to ‘run the government like a business’. Never mind that a business pursuing profit and a government serving its people have two wholly intentions, philsophies, and guiding principles.
To top that off, we have Elon Reeve Musk, unelected to any office, not even a U.S. citizen, accessing and cutting American programs. This is supported by the party that kept screaming about election fraud and stolen elections. Now they’re mostly silent on stolen government. Where citizens are voicing their displeasure to their elected Federal officials in the GOTP, those officials are running away. They don’t want to hear what ‘we the people’ have to say.
Finally, we have the Family Values party, the GOTP, formerly known as the GOP. They want to restore marriage because that will Make America Great Again. *snicker* Despite Donald Trump’s affairs and multiple marriages. To top that, as exhibit D, Elon Reeve Musk, Donald J. Trump’s top advisor and henchman, has had added another child to his growing family. His fourteenth child? With how many women?
The news comes as Musk’s custody issues with another mother of children, St. Clair, play out in the media. St. Clair, who is suing Musk for sole custody, has characterized him as an absent father who has only met their child three times and was not present for the birth last year.
What else can I say and expect? They voted for Trump to ‘Make America Great Again’. He’s responded by turning it into an imperial presidency, the ‘unitary executive’. They voted for Trump to lower prices and improve the economy, and everything he’s done has had the opposite effect. They voted to restore the nation’s standing in the world. He’s instead turned on allies, reducing U.S. influence, isolating us as we grow closer to countries like Russia and North Korea.
Question: if Russia is so trustworthy, will PINO Trusk let Putin put missiles in Cuba?
Follow up: With PINO Trusk bending over and presenting to Putin in Russia, does Russia need missiles in Cuba?
I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. Donald J. Trump a con man, idiot, and bully. He’s a user and sociopath. He doesn’t care about people except how they can be used to further his own wealth and power.
Yes, I’ve said it before, but as it’s been proven again and again, the GOTP is a spineless party. Project 2025 is interested in advancing the nation as a white Christian theocracy. And the MAGAts are racist, sexist sheeple. The list of what Trump has said compared to what he’s done in opposition to what he — and the GOTP — promised goes on with many more examples. There is a simple bottom line.
They’ve been conned, but they were willing victims, and we’re being taken for a ride.
Munda, Munda. March 3, 2025, brings Ashlandia clouds, cloudy skies, rain, and sunshine. Temperatures have sunk from the warming late February interlude. We’re now 41 F and expect to see 51 F between bouts of showers.
Here’s a trick for you. If you write the date as 03/03/25, it can be reduced to a magic number. Like, subtract two from five and drop the leading zeroes. Now we have 3/3/3. If you divide 3 by three you have one. Divide 1 by 3 and 1/3 is the result. Or, multiply: 3*3 = 9. 9*3 = 27. 2 + 7 = 9. Oh, the things that occupy me while I’m doing the mornin’ kitchen shuffle. Kaprekar’s constant, it’s not.
PINO Trusk is set to address Congress. Now, the overall arc of the Trusk Regime’s early days is lawlessness. The U.S. Constitution’s systems of checks and balances have been ignored. Trusk has trampled the law and traditions and is subverting the free press’s abilities to report on what’s going on. Claiming to save money and reduce fraud, waste, and abuse, the regime has destabilized the Federal government and disrupted the soft power of foreign aid, forcing the U.S. into isolation.
The question from that setup: should elected Democratic officials even attend that speech? Doing so legitimizes the Trusk Regime. They are holding to traditions even as PINO Trusk mocks and destroys them.
The Democrats planning a rebuttal speech. Given the parameters of the nation’s polarization, which PINO Trusk has abetted by using it as a wedge issue, we can project how the coverage will go. Even if it’s a great speech, chances are three fold: one, the holy MAGAts won’t care. May not even see it. Two, words in the Democrat’s rebuttal speech will be twisted out of context. Three, the great uninformed will not pay it much attention. That would interfere with other things in their lives.
I believe the time for observing and honoring traditions and being respectful is gone. PINO Trusk should not be applauded. I believe that as soon as PINO Trusk tells a lie — and you know he will — Democrats should stand in unison and shout, “You lie.” Do this every time he tells a lie. Break that fucking speech. Don’t give PINO Trusk a stage. Do just as the GOTP has been doing since they stood up and interrupted Democratic Presidents’ speeches by false accusations of lying.
Yes, this will further the gap between the ‘two parties’. But one party, the GOTP, has already abrogated almost all of its power in support of the Trusk Regime. The other party must stand strong against it.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Today, The Neurons have filled the morning mental music stream with Shaboozey. This isn’t an accident. The Nigerian-American performer’s song, “A Bar Song: Tipsy” Is Now the Longest Hot Country Songs No. 1 by a Single Artist. Congrats to Shaboozey; it’s an impressive achievement.
And why not? The song is about the weariness which work sows, the grind of going to a place where tedium is often the rule, making up the numbers to earn enough money to stay alive while enriching others. Part of the American dream has always been work hard, get educated, and with a little luck, you can move up. That dream seems to have gone past its ‘Best By’ date. So people turn to games…partying…or things like getting tipsy at a bar with other people in the same boat. The water isn’t rising for many in that boat; instead, the boat is slowly going under. Yet, it’s a happy song that encourages many to sing along and dance.
Coffee and I have signed on to work together today to get my ass into gear and out into the world. Hope your day delivers for you in good ways. Let’s rock it.
Cheers
This is about me. As my posts often are.
I’ve been undergoing treatment for lymphedema. It’s been going well. As part of that process, after the swelling in my lower legs, ankles, and feet were reduced, tailored-made compression socks to help me maintain my lymph fluid flow were ordered. Because the left side was ordered first, it was received first. I’ve been wearing it, and I’ve been happy with it.
My right side has taken longer. Part of that is because I was recovering from surgery on that side for a ruptured tendon. The surgery area ballooned up and fought against going down. Hence the therapy prescried for me to deal with the lymphedemia.
The right side has responded to it all and is much better after a month of special bandages, strict dieting, and a bevy of special exercises. The surgery is healed. I’m awaiting my special compression sock for it. It was supposed to arrived last week. We thought it’d be here by last Friday at the latest. It still hasn’t arrived.
It occured to me last night that my sock might be trapped somwhere as part of the Great Undoing. See, Medicare A&B cover me, backed up by the insurance from my twenty-year military career, Tricare For Life (TFL). But the socks ordered by my therapist through my hospital go through Medicare and paid for by Medicare and TFL. That’s done through an organization in Portland, Oregon, which outsources the sock production from a Germany company. The German company ships it directly to moi.
It leaves me in limbo at this point. I wonder, why hasn’t the second sock arrived yet?
Has it been affected by the Great Undoing and the PINO Trusk cuts, chaos, freezes, and tariffs?
Is it just standard logistical issues caused by weather and life?
Was or is it just a bureaucratic snafu?
Time will reveal all in the long run. In the meantime, like many Americans, I’m trapped in a loop of ‘wait and see’.
It’s a frustrating place to be.
As I wrote and edited my novel-in-progress, or NIP, this week, a realization struck. I like to practice a ‘stream-of-consciousness’ style of plotting. And I like incorporating details about people and their lives, settings, and events.
My novel ends up with an unusual personality as I cater to those preferences. Starts as science fiction on a starship with a dragon in another dimension. Shifts to ‘literature’ and relationships between family members. Swings to sword and magic low fantasy. Then back to science fiction. All with threads of mystery, genetic engineering, time shifts, and sometimes thrillers.
I enjoy such mash-ups. Fun to read, great fun to write.
I watched a woman enter the coffee shop. She’s familiar to me as a semi-regular. Like me, in her late sixties, I think, she walks with direct, no-nonsense style. Her hair is short but neat, and her clothing matches that no-nonsense, low maintenance image. I wonder if that’s how she is — no nonsense, direct, practical. Or is this a facade? Does she walk like that because that’s how she wants to be, and not how she is?
Fun to imagine such a character like that. Reminds me of friends I’ve had. Intelligent and capable in one arena, they were disasters in other areas of their life. Yet others were methodical, practical, and organized in all facets of life.
Memory of a co-worker’s comment to me once springs up: “Your level of organization must drive your wife nuts.” They said that while I was organizing software packages.
No, my wife has never commented on it. But when I put something away, I can tell you exactly where it is. Which, as I think about it, is exactly like both Mom and Dad.
The numbers for Ashlandia on this Sunda morning of March 2, 2025, are 43 F and 50 F, and the word is showers. Were this a jigsaw puzzle, there Twouldn’t be any blue sky pieces. Everything shimmers with a sheen planted by showers that began yesterday just before midights and stayed constant until an hour ago.
Today’s music, brought to me by The Neurons, is “The Long Run” by the Eagles. This easy-going rocker was let loose on the public in 1979 and quickly ascended to a rock classic staple. First, it was by a very successful country-rock-pop group. Second, the era was heavy with disco and punk influence, making rock of this nature more infrequent. Third, it has mellow hooks. Its straightforward lyrics makes it easy to sing along with. Then, its lyrics about relationships reflect what a lot of us wonder: who’s going to make it? What’s going to happen? We’ll find out in the long run.
Which brings us to the Great Undoing of 2025. What’s going to happen? Will the U.S. survive as a democratic republic? Will the ship be righted? We’ll find out in the long run.
“Saturday Night Live” captured the essence of the PINO Trusk White House, especially in regards to Elon Reeve Musk’s behavior, the meeting with President Zelensky, and the announcement about a new PINO Trusk program, DOUCHE. It’s funny but also stirs anger because SNL captures and conveys the vast impression left by this set of idiots.
Butter Butt, aka Papi the ginger blade, is here for a visit and my coffee is chillin’, so movin’ on. Hope your day works out to your advantage. Time to rock. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 