Don’t mind me. I’m just going through a mid-life crisis. Started when I turned 40.
I’ll be 70 in a few months.
Should get over it shortly after that.
I think.
Squirrel!
My wife and I were driving around, dropping off books at Little Libraries. So far, we’d dropped off twenty-five books at five Little Libraries. Only one stop remained.
I turned off East Main. It was sunny but rain was falling on the windshield.
“Squirrel!” my wife shouted.
I’d seen the squirrel bolting into the street and was braking before my wife said anything.
The squirrel and I both stopped. They turned and ran back to the sidewalk but stayed there.
I edged the car forward.
The squirrel edged forward.
I increased my speed.
So did the squirrel.
“Damn, dude, what are you doing?” I asked the squirrel through the window.
It turned right.
I accelerated away.
The Writing on the Page
I keep spying on the woman to my right.
Sounds quasi pervi, doesn’t it?
I just want to see her book, a small paperback. She flips through it, pen in hand, underlining passages.
I’m horrified and fascinated. Writing in books? I know others do this and it’s permitted under certain circumstances, but it’s something against my personal coda. Unless…is it a puzzle book?
What is this book she’s defiling? If only she’d put it down so that I can see it.
She left while I was busy writing. I never saw the book.
It’s another unsolved mystery.
What A Story!
Jill’s post, “Da ‘Toons Tell Da Story” sharply illustrate the foolhardiness of the Trump administration and his followers. I pulled a few favorites to share right here and now, but way more are on her page. Get thee over there to check ’em out!
My Five Favorites:
Sunday’s Theme Music – Going Down
Ashland, southern Oregon — Sunday, May 3, 2026.
It’s a springy 63 F in Ashland this morning. Clouds feather the sunshine effect. We’re expecting a high of 77 F and thunderstorms.
All is quiet on the Mom front. I’m privately mourning the changes and losses to her life. Don’t know what my sisters are thinking but their relationship with Mom was rockier than mine. Part of that is that I moved out early and was away for years at a time, inuring me to her chaos.
Unfortunately, we’re not inured to Trump’s chaos. Let’s call it Traos. No matter what I drink or how much, he’s still there, and the reality of what he’s doing to us gets worse with every viewing.
Now several months into Trump’s second year of his second term, certain trends have become cemented as part of his legacy.
- Trump is a corrupt person, enriching himself at the expense of the country
- Trump’s cabinet is inept and chaotic
- Dizzy Donnie’s health is worsening and he’s hiding something
- Whatever is in the Epstein files, Trump doesn’t want it found
- Trump has no plan forward except to cut everything except Homeland Security and Defense, impose more tariffs, and isolate the nation
- Between his lies, broken promises, failed policies, and delusions, Trump can’t be trusted
Some will say that I’m being harsh. I am. But I’m using standard benchmarks for my judgements.
- Trump keeps playing ‘hide the Epstein file’
- His personal wealth has grown while social services and education are being cut
- The national debt is growing at a record rate and has overtaken the GNP
- Prices are rising and he can only offer band aids like the $6000 tax credit for seniors that results in $720
- Awakening to his grift, his approval ratings are falling, and his disapproval ratings are rising
- He promised no new wars and started one
- Declaring himself the unity president, he’s done more to polarize voters than any other in modern history
And as final proof of how delusional he is, he keeps ordering things renamed for himself, and planning monuments for himself, because he thinks everything is going great. The rest of the world knows, if he was worthy of monuments, we’d be proposing and building them on our own. Instead, brown nosers who like to kiss his ass are trying to find new ways of doing it.
Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! still goes. No doubt trying to regain some of his mojo, Trump announced some major gun safety changes. Makes the NRA happy. That’s what’s important. *snark*
We have months to go before it’s all over.
BTW, have you seen Iran’s humorous take on Trump?
The confluence of news, dreams, and mood inspired The Neurons to pull the trigger on “Sugar, We’re Goin Down”.
The Fall Out Boy chorus fills the morning mental music stream:
“We’re going down, down in an earlier round, and sugar we’re going down swinging. I’ll be your number one with a bullet.”
My hope for you today is that you weather it all and come out stronger, healthier, and happier.
Got my coffee. Time to rock on. Cheers
Friday’s Theme Music — Surrender
Ashland, southern Oregon — Friday, May 1, 2026.
It’s 57 F outside and a high of 77 is predicted, despite clouds and haze obscuring the sun.
Good-bye April, hello May. As it’s May 1st, I’m staying home and not buying anything today.
The fifth month of 2026 begins with little change politically.
- Trump remains in office
- Prices are still rising, with gas in the US setting records for how fast they’re rising
- Kash Patel is still running the FBI but that’s not expected to last
- The Epstein files haven’t been released
- Trump’s approval ratings are falling and his disapproval is climbing
May begins as the third month with the US Schrödinger’s War with Iran where we’re at war and not at war. Common sense says we attacked them, bombed them, killed people, all in pursuit of Trump’s fragile objectives — ego, approval, masculinity. Iran has fought back and we have warships stationed over there. Ergo, it’s war.
Legal semantics are being employed to argue the US is not at war because, law. “Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL” began on February 28, 2026. Trump formally notified Congress on March 2. Today is then the legal deadline to either stop the war or get a formal Authorization for Use of Military Force. All eyes still wearily blink at Congress to see who among them have grown a spine.
Republicans argue that sudden withdrawal would embolden Iran. I think Trump’s failed bombing campaign is already doing that.
Newsweek offered some classic clickbait:
Donald Trump’s odds of winning 2026 Nobel Peace Prize surge
The article says they gave him a 55% chance of winning last year, and now give him a 25% chance. Sounds like Trump math. He’s still in sixth place or lower as a potential winner. In my mind, if they gave the prize to Trump after all his bombing and threats, the prize would lose all credibility.
Trump has seemed very low key, low energy recently. It’s like he checked out. Never one to be on top of things, he’s always been bombastically out there, pretending like he is. I wonder, though, if it’s not a culmination of his war against the press merging with the press’s weariness over his lies and attacks resulting in less reporting of him. Could be, too, that he’s simply retreating into trusted safe places.
Whatever the cause, the optics of his absence as ‘commander in chief’ promote the impression that he’s overwhelmed and flailing. Stacked on top of ‘the bulge’ in his pants, his weary appearance, and fewer, more muted appearances, I’m getting a lame duck vibe.
I’m looking forward to his May 17th Rededicate 250 speech. At this point, anything he says and claims about Making America Great Again is going to remind us about how much worse the nation is now compared to two years ago.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
I have “Sweet Surrender” by Sarah McLachlan in my morning mental music stream. This actually came about when my ginger fur friend, Papi, did a roll at my feet on the patio as we tested the weather together. I chortled and gave him some skritches and rewarded him with extra treats. His move seemed like he was doing a sweet surrender, but so did my response.
I hope this day goes well for you, with good friends, good food and drink, and good news.
Cheers
This Old Thing
My wife carries a small Casio calculator in her purse.
Solar-powered, made of black and gold plastic and black vinyl, the calculator folds. When it’s folded, it’s about the size of a credit card and is as thick as two stacked cards. We bought it for a few hundred yen when we lived in Japan on Okinawa between 1981 and 1985.
We used it last night to balance the checkbook. As we finished, we talked to each other about how amazing it was that the little inexpensive still worked. Back then, the yen to dollar ratio was about 234 to 1.
Over forty years later, it’s a little worn but works perfectly. As I reflected on that, I wondered how many other things I’d ever owned that I could say the same about.
Monday’s Theme Music – Waiting
Ashland, Oregon — Monday, April 27, 2026.
Spring continues in Ashland where hefty cumulonimbus clouds are invading the blue sky. 43 F, we’re rich in sunshine at the moment. Rain is expected in the afternoon with a high of 65 F.
It’s a busy morning of waiting. Water showed up on one bathroom floor last week. I did some amateur diagnostics and concluded, 1) blocked sewer line; 2) blew out the toilet wax seal. After researching the DIY, my wife and I reached out to friends for a plumber recommendation.
In parallel, the toilet shutoff valve in the other bathroom began leaking. I turned it off but it kept leaking. I modified an extra kitty litter box to catch the water and empty it. Then water showed up on that floor.
It’s a single story place with stacked drains, etc. So called the plumber last week. He can’t get to us until today, 11:30. That’s my day.
My texts blew up at 2:50 AM. Mom pulled a 180 on us. Had been campaigning to leave assisted living. My sister approached her about staying there, selling the house, etc. Wrote to us, “Mom seems agreeable to selling her house and staying there.”
On the other hand, the staff wanted to take Mom to the hospital because Mom was leaning to the left and her eyes looked bad. Mom said no.
Sis said she would go over and check out the situation today. She is also finally focused on getting a power of attorney and taking Mom to the post office to change her address.
Waiting for updates to see how this all went. I’m not sure why my sister felt a need to send it so early in the AM. It was 5:30 in Pittsburgh…
Trump had three more people killed in the eastern Pacific and Carribbean. Some news articles give Trump cover by saying the deceased were accused of being drug runners or narco-terrorists.
Sorry, but they accused. They weren’t seen in court. There was no jury, just the U.S. military again killing civilians.
That brings the number killed to at least 186 for the Bible-thumping regime.
We’re still waiting on the full Epstein files, and we’re waiting to see what will happen next in Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! We’re also waiting to see what will happen next in Trump’s Iran War, now beginning its ninth week.
I’m also waiting to see how much gas prices will increase in the U.S. this week.
Your Trump quote of the day:
Today’s song is “Waiting” by Green Day. The tune is all about the frustration of waiting for changes and differences — “Wake up!” Billy Joe sings. No wonder The Neurons pulled it into my morning mental music stream.
Hope your day has less waiting than mine and that you end up looking back on it and say, “That was a pretty good day.”
Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 