March along.... p.s. in These titles mean nothing.

/172. Leaving me nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, eight hundred and twenty nine item left on my quixotic quest for a million and one. Sunny morning, up early, went for WALK and met Joana. I took a sunrise photo that may or may not show up here.

/173. Thank you for your responses about abortion. It is a rough, maybe inappropriate subject. It’s intimate, life or death, and very personal. A woman has a chance at getting pregnant - maybe 500 times. There are that many month in her reproductive life. Of course she isn’t having sex all those months. But still that is a lot of opportunity for a pregnancy. I had an abortion. I got pregnant stupidly. I honestly saw the abortion as a way of correcting a mistake. I have never regretted it. Maybe that makes me evil and insensitive but I bet I have a lot of company.

/174. I went to a political event yesterday. Rob Sand from our neighboring town is running for state auditor. He is a remarkable man. He is an attorney in the state attorney general’s office. [He was featured in last week’s New York Times article about catching the man who managed to illegally win lotteries. ] (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/03/magazine/money-issue-iowa-lottery-fraud-mystery.html) He had as a guest Eric Shalwell a congressman from California who was born in Sac City, IA. It was held at Pulpit Rock brewery and I had a glass of really nice hard cider. The Dems are looking good - I sincerely hope things work out for us this year.

/175. My writing group met yesterday too. It was pleasant and fun. Another Mary, Duaine with an I and I were the group. We did some writing exercises and read some of our stuff. I brought the first chapter to my NaNoWriMo novel of same age called ‘Paper Cuts to the Heart’. I like the title best. They encouraged me to try a second chapter. I’m up for it, even if it’s only temporary. I told son John I was in a writing group. He is always so touchingly encouraging. The son who went out in the world and became an achiever would like me to be a writer.

/176. btw think kind thoughts about his building. It’s the one his company was doing interior walls and another company was doing exterior walls and the other company failed to do their part. John’s company has taken over the exterior walls now but it’s not easy. Lots of meetings with architects, lots of concern about weather. Lots of dollars in temporary walls. John’s company does walls. Sounds silly in a way - but after you have a foundation and a roof, walls are pretty important.

/177. Spring is here in its glory. I don’t see blooming trees yet - though the poor sprayed one at the end of my driveway is making an attempt. I’d say by the end of this week the wild apples in the neighbor’s pasture will be in wild bloom and the fancy town blossoming trees will be in their glory as well. My daffodils are doing their best. I should have a few on my table right now. The little wild garden by my burn pile is full of Dutchmen’s britches and those little white flowers I cannot identify.

/178. Two accidents over the weekend. Someone was killed felling a tree and someone fell off a bridge. No names released. Spring is dangerous as well as beautiful. We do things, we take risks. We lose and well as win. But the line at the Whippy Dip was long both times we went by.

/179. Something else to thank the current president for in his attempt to Make America Great Again. There is a 17% decline in the number of foreign students at US colleges and universities due to cuts in visas. 28% fewer from India, 24% fewer from China. US higher education is dependent on foreign student tuition dollars.

/180. I saw him praising the effects of his tariffs on incoming aluminum and steel. I wanted to raise my little hand and ask - what about ag exports? If the US is dependent on educating people from across the seas, it’s also dependent on selling commodities to those same people across the seas.

/181. I guess this is it for today. Leaves us 999, 820 left. I think I’ll switch to numbers from names for numbers. Remember it was the Arabs who gave us our lovely numbers. I for one would hate to be using the Roman system.

ps. If you have time please read the NYT story I linked to in /174. It’s really quite good. Readable and funny. And it’s got Bigfoot too. And fixed buy lottery tickets. Plus a fair bit of Texas. Besides I got a hug from Rob Sand yesterday.

Last updated May 15, 2018