We've both basically lived in a pool since Friday (minus dates and school). Michael gets a little bored with it but he knows I'm trying to learn to actually swim swim now instead of just float and doggy paddle lol. We're at lunch now and he poked me in the ribs on the bored comment. He knows I post stuff here since I now post here when I'm with him as well as when I'm alone. It doesn't bother him, he likes that I have some kind of online community to talk to.  Anyway time to eat then sit though science class. Ugh science 🤮. Fourtinately he likes it so I have help

I haven't watched the episode yet, but he and his team always do a great job with their research.  I'm looking forward to seeing the episode.   Carolyn Marie

@neo3000 great to hear from you. Congratulations, not just on this momentous step forward, but on your positive and uplifting attitude - it takes a lot of courage and effort to achieve both! Stay well.

Or Leonard Cohen's version: "There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." And I find I have to look very closely to see it, to allow it in. Amongst my angst about a housing interview tomorrow, a friend asked to come and visit me. My impulse said no, it's a bad time. My better angel, however, kicked my butt, said —"Shut up, you love her!" I do. I sent the reply, said Yes!        Now I can worry about two things. Or maybe my better angel is sending me the love I need. We fight and we hug too much. Where's the crack for a light? I'll look closely. I promise.  

planting up ready for some summertime cheer

I have been able to do pretty much what I want, heat with wood etc. as long as I can afford it up till now.  Lately there seems to be a noose tightening though.  And the assault on trans people kinda sux. I'm not in a position where I can be completely free from the society around me.  I do have family that I can fall back on if it comes to that - like when that tree fell on my house.  But a lot of people don't even have that. We're all a part of the society and culture around us, whether we like it or not.  I've never conformed very well, and that's unlikely to change.  I just try to keep my head down, but that seems to be getting harder to do these days.

"The women's ball field was often flooded while BOTH men's fields were always playable".   A much bigger issue in women's sports that I have personally witnessed as well as what was mentioned here.  That goes back 60+ years in my memory and true at my High School that long ago.  The boys' volley ball teams and basketball teams practiced in the gym, the girls practiced on courts outside that had kids wading pool puddles on them even after the lawn sprinklers for the other fields had been run too long.    The swimming competition only had single trophies for each place. Thus a more typically attractive Trophy Wife candidate got the next one down but it was identical to the trophy for the spot above. For which she gets to snuggle up to a 78 year old known sex offender.  OK.   Mother with SUPPORTS TRANS KIDS T-shirt  admits their Trans Kid could not hit a Home Run to save their life but loves to play anyway.  -- There is a Little League ball field at the end of my block with inadequate parking, so the parents of the players park in front of my house and I have actually heard parents bullying their kids by telling "son" looking material that <his> sister hits better than <he> does, or plays some position better.  The girls teams have Saturday afternoon to use the field the males have ALL the evenings (7) during both fall and winter seasons.    The notion that a Trans Girl strips multiple Cis girls of medals by earning one low level medal.  Give me a break!!   I can keep going, but will applaud John Oliver and his team for pointing out key absurdities of the whole situation.

It depends on what you want out of life, what you want to do, etc.  Depends on how you define freedom.   For me, the part of the USA where I live is much better than the UK.  You can say what you want to whomever you want in whatever way you want it.  You can own whatever car or house you want without huge taxes and fees and climate BS.  You can build without permits, have a fireplace in your house, and do whatever you want on your own property.  You can defend yourself if attacked.  You can have whatever healthcare you want without asking permission, if you can pay for it.    It is a quality of life I really can't find elsewhere. It is worth the drawbacks.   

Yay! Congrats to you my friend!!!

Really good. Thanks for posting.

Yeah, I noticed that too.  It pretty much leaves me out.   It's something people have been told all their lives.  It's un-American to doubt it - especially publicly.  Kinda ironic these days. It's a little like that "wealthiest country" stuff.  Yeah, there are a few obscenely rich folks, but a lot more homeless people as well. People just need to look around themselves, and believe their own eyes.  But that's expecting a lot.

Right now, the Grateful Dead: "Hell in a bucket" and AC/DC: "Shot down in Flames"     Songs that bring me up, REO Speedwagon: "Roll with the changes", Van Halen: "Dreams", and Bob Segar: "Roll me away"

ITS A TruMP to the left.....  

Friend  to having major surgery today.

For today, a healing quote to ponder: "The wound is the place where the light enters you." - Rumi.    This quote, by the renowned Persian poet Rumi, suggests that the scars and challenges we face can actually be pathways to growth and self-discovery, allowing us to find strength and resilience. 

For today, a healing quote to ponder: "The wound is the place where the light enters you." - Rumi.    This quote, by the renowned Persian poet Rumi, suggests that the scars and challenges we face can actually be pathways to growth and self-discovery, allowing us to find strength and resilience. 

For today, a healing quote to ponder: "The wound is the place where the light enters you." - Rumi.    This quote, by the renowned Persian poet Rumi, suggests that the scars and challenges we face can actually be pathways to growth and self-discovery, allowing us to find strength and resilience. 

For today, a healing quote to ponder: "The wound is the place where the light enters you." - Rumi.    This quote, by the renowned Persian poet Rumi, suggests that the scars and challenges we face can actually be pathways to growth and self-discovery, allowing us to find strength and resilience. 

For today, a healing quote to ponder: "The wound is the place where the light enters you." - Rumi.    This quote, by the renowned Persian poet Rumi, suggests that the scars and challenges we face can actually be pathways to growth and self-discovery, allowing us to find strength and resilience.