Today's chuckles

The Top Ten Most Beautiful Libraries

CK, I thought of you when I saw this.

2017 Rochester, New York Lilac Festival

On Sunday we went to Rochester, NY for their annual Lilac Festival.  I had last been there when I was 2 years old.  The fact that it had been 52 years since I'd last been there, was shocking to me.  I don't feel that old!

The festival combines live music events, running races, carnival foods, crafts, and of course, Lilacs of every variety you can imagine!  I went for the flowers.  Lilacs are my favorite and I was in scent heaven!



The festival takes place across the street from Highland Park, so you can get your eats, drinks and entertainment, then cross over to the park to enjoy the flowers.



I left the paved path and just wandered all over and in between all the bushes/trees.  Not all Lilacs smell the same.  Some varieties were sweet, some faint, and some stinky to my nose. 









I made sure to keep track of which varieties I liked the scent of, so that I could purchase some plants for our yard.  I came away with a purple and a white.  The photos above were taken from the Internet.  The following photos below, I took. 

The Republican Party - a scourge on humanity

 So without even reading the changes to a bill that didn't pass last time because it was so horrible, the Republican party pushed their Trump healthcare plan through the House of Representatives yesterday. 

It won't become law unless the Senate takes it up next and then it is signed by "NotMyPresident." 

The Senate has said it's dead on arrival because it's such a mess it would take too many amendments to get it to a place that they would be satisfied with it.  The Senate plans to develop their own healthcare bill, that will then get sent back to the House. 

All this said, the majority of Americans in the Democratic and Republican parties and Independents all agree we want either a single-payer healthcare system or universal healthcare.  The fact that our representatives in Congress aren't even pretending to listen to their constituents demonstrates just how truly bought and paid for they are by special interests. 

Will this be enough for people who voted for the Republicans to vote them out of office in 2018?  Considering how thoroughly gerrymandered nearly every district in most states is, probably not.  For a number of elections now, Democrats have received far more votes than Republicans, yet the Republicans remain in power. 

It's going to take lawsuits and wins in court to unseat these illegal squatters.  Some cases have already made it through the courts and the people have won, but we'll have to do that another 40 times, or so, to get our government back at the local, state, and federal levels. 

It seems these guys have limitless amounts of money to fight these court cases or delay them, allowing them to remain in power longer.  While they're in power, they keep passing more laws to limit who can vote, when you can vote, etc.  These are among the vilest people I've ever seen.

Curious Dream

I had a dream last night.  The thing I remembered most was while I was in it, and for a little bit after I woke up, was that I felt so much love.  It wasn’t a passionate love, or a comforting love, it was just a soul penetrating love, to the point that I didn’t worry, I didn’t feel lonely, or have that lost feeling that always crouches at the back of my mind.  I just felt dunked in, absorbed by, wrapped in, and thoroughly filled with love. 

There were all sorts of old buildings around, about three to four stories high, made of big block stone, there was an open quad area where I could see people milling around and others heading off to class.  I don’t know why I thought they were heading off to class, but that’s what I understood was happening. 

I saw an old classmate of mine from college, Jon Kennedy.  He was sitting in a chair, tipped back against the wall of one of these buildings and I went to sit down next to him.  We greet each other and began chatting. 

I said to him, “I’m so glad you’re here.  At least I know one person.  I’d heard Tunde and some others from our class were supposed to be here, but…” I finished.  He said, “where is Tunde?”  “Oh, she’s still back in Texas.” I replied.  He nodded as if in deep thought. 

He then began telling me his mom was wanting to foster or adopt.  I said, “would they let her at her age?”  He hunched his shoulders, like he didn’t know.  He looked at me then and asked, “you were 46?”  I said, “yeah,” then stumbled over my correction, “uh, no, I was 54.”  

We sat there absorbing this information, when a woman, the caretaker for this building, came down the stairs next to us and ran around to the side of the building to check on an old man we knew.

I got up to follow her.  Somehow I knew this guy had died young in WWI.  He was here before I left the last time, and was here now that I’d returned.  We all just knew him as a very old man.  I went up to the woman, who was knocking on his door and peering in his windows.  I said, “is he gone?”  She said, “yeah, I think he left.”  And somehow I knew, he had gone back to Earth for his next life.  I looked back at Jon, and understood he was just patiently waiting for Jenny to come back.  Then I woke up.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

I wonder at the curious nature of some dreams.  Most are random thoughts of the day that come out in odd jumbles, and then there are dreams like this, that feel so real, and make me wonder why I dreamed it.