Lagniappe - May 23, 2017

I have a migraine hangover from a rip-roaring migraine last night. Read on at your peril.

1. This weekend, some students at Notre Dame university chose to walk out of the ceremony when Vice-President Mike Pence began to give his address. I don't think this is the appropriate way to protest. There were a lot of other people there who were graduating and the protesters hijacked the ceremony for their own purposes. Now their memories will be marred. Protest is legitimate, but to ruin other people's graduations was rude and insensitive. Please note: I'm not a fan of Mike Pence. I'm a fan of being considerate of other people's feelings.

2. Some are suggesting that President Trump may be showing signs of degenerative brain disease such as Alzheimer's disease. Comparison of some of his public discourse from 10-15 years ago with recent speeches show that his vocabulary is less varied, that his speech is more rambling and incoherent, and that he is using more verbal "tics" in his speech. While this is disturbing, what seems more concerning to me is that we elected him just this last November when he was already showing this decline in verbal output. We have lowered our standards.

3. I'm trying to leash train my cats. I tried it with the Rhapsody (the younger one) first, but I went too quickly and took her outside the first day. She lost her ever-loving mind. And the harness is probably too small. Sooooo, back to square one with her. I got a better harness that is larger and uses velcro and started with Rory a few days ago. She did OK in the house. She did much better when I took her out on the deck - it also helped that I kept the harness looser. I had her on the leash so she went and explored the whole deck and seemed pretty happy. And, of course, the both liked the canned food afterward. Rory and I are going to try going into the yard in the next day or two. We'll see how she likes the texture of the grass and dirt!

5. After three weeks in the Atlanta area with SO MANY PEOPLE!!!!, I am happy to be back in rural Wisconsin. I'm not cocooning in the house or anything. I've been knitting with my knitting partner and another friend and I have been out for breakfast, although I was feeling too rotten for church this week. But I like my little town where I can walk to the library and the small grocery store (I still have to drive to the bigger grocery store).

6. Chris is moved back in for the summer. Patrick and I had gotten rather used to it being just the two of us around here so adding another person is going to require a bit of adaptation. But, we always love having our kids around!

7. Several Civil War statues were removed in New Orleans and it has caused a bit of a kerfuffle. (FYI, I love the word "kerfuffle".) Here's the thing, the guys that were memorialized by these statues may have overall been decent guys, but they were heroes for the Confederacy, who were the guys that wanted to secede from the United States over slavery. You can say that it was "states rights" if you want, but it was "states rights" to allow slavery! Yes, we should remember these men, but we should not celebrate them. And, yes, it appears that the removal of the statues did not go as smoothly as it could have. So, let's save the statues, either in a private location or in an educational situation. But, let's not celebrate the men who led a movement to perpetuate the evils of slavery.

8. I'm doing some fun knitting and I hope to post pictures soon!

That's it for tonight!! Feel free to leave comments!

Catherine