JOHN GRAY - EXCERPTS FROM AN IMPASSIONED ARTICLE

DAILY MAIL : JOHN GRAY : IT IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION  Full Text

Here are some highlights of this impassioned article by John Gray entitled  IT IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION TO COMPARE THE METHODS USED BY THE NEW WOKE MOVEMENT TO THOSE OF MAO'S RED GUARDS.

"It is not far fetched to compare the methods of this 'woke movement' to those of Chairman Mao'es Red Guards, who terrorised the Chinese people half a century ago.

The so called 'cancel culture' - publicly shaming and trying to undermine the professional standing of anyone who deviates from ever more extreme standards of political correctness -simply the latest expression of this intolerant, baying movement.

***

Why are our police officers virtue-signalling their wokery? The task of the police is to enforce the law and maintain public peace, not show sympathy for any political movement.

One reason why British institutions have been captured by the forces of illiberalism is contagion from the US, where the movement has been most extreme.

WHITE PRIVILEGE IS NOT A THING by SYDNEY WATSON and other CENSORED SYDNEY WATSON OPINION YOUTUBE VIDEOS

Refound video April 2021

Well thought out, well said, I honor Sydney's right to have an opinion I might not agree with.  Though, surprisingly to me, I did agree with her on several issues.  If you want to be a well rounded person, you should seek out a wide variety of opinions and see where you sit with them.

Last night on my cell phone I bookmarked two of her videos.  One called I'm a Conservative and I've Had Enough and the other called White Privilege Is Not A Thing.  This morning, neither video was coming up on my computer when I searched YouTube for them to post on this blog.  I will try again and post them if I can.

Listening to Sydney I learned I'm a "Classical Liberal" as opposed to a Radical Leftist.  (What a relief!)

Free Speech is of supreme importance to me as it is to all writers - all creatives.

I've written in the past about Writer's Block. 

Fear is now creating Writer's Block in many who are afraid to accidently (or perhaps purposely) upset someone else in the world. It begins when you are afraid to admit who you are and what you think because the indoctrinaters are everywhere and people - including writers - out there are loosing their jobs, or quitting, even being bodily injured and maimed or killed. 

There is no longer a sense of humor or any love, kindness, understanding, or patience.  I feel that the anxiety and depression common due to Coronavirus-19 is part of that.

I dealt with this years ago when I went to a college that was so thick with political correctness (of that era) that I seriously questioned what a creative writing program was doing there.  Overall, in society, it has only gotten worse.

NO MATTER WHAT YOU THINK OR SAY, these days there is someone who is going to POWER OVER YOU and be insulted.

So let me affirm that you can be against prejudice and bigotry and still want to distance yourself from the tactics of Black Lives Matter.

You are not a Radical Right Winger just because you want police to be retrained but not defunded.  (And know that riots in the streets and nightly gunfire as there is in parts of Chicago and Baltimore is not what you want in your neighborhood.)

That you were not a racist asshole when you bought Aunt Jemima pancake mix or Trader Ming's frozen dinners.

That Agreeing to Disagree as Gentlepeople is still an option.

C 2020 Christine Trzyna

WERE GOVERNMENT STIMULUS CHECKS USED TO BUY CHINESE and MEXICAN FIREWORKS? OPINION BY CHRISTINE TRZYNA

WERE GOVERNMENT STIMULUS CHECKS USED TO BUY 

CHINESE and MEXICAN FIREWORKS?  

By Christine Trzyna

My dog is hiding under the bed today, after a month of fireworks in the neighborhood, every night, sometimes in the middle of the night. I have held her, shaking, pawing at me to communicate that she wants to get even closer, night after night. She has been so agitated she can barely eat. But people who buy illegal fireworks and illegally shoot them off, and get off on that, could give a fuck about the animals among us.  They don't give a fuck about other humans either.

There was obviously no police presence what-so-ever. The street is littered with refuse from fireworks that were set off in it, despite cars being parked on either side of it; who cares if someone's car, their transportation lifeline, might be damaged?

I've experienced waking up from booms but also from seeing frightening brightly illuminated flares being shot between houses. The vacant building on the street was aimed at repeatedly; apparently there was desire to burn it down, never mind that the whole block could end up burned down. 

On Friday night some asshole in the neighborhood shot off what could be a cannon every half hour from 9:30 PM till about 2:30 in the morning.  I resorted to foul language.

I haven't gotten decent sleep in weeks, am falling asleep in the afternoon, something I hate to do but apparently need. I wonder when I will have a normal sleep pattern again. I felt alone in this unpopular attitude of mine, until Sunday night when two friends complained to me, feeling the same.

Our mayor, Eric Garcetti, announced the cancellation of any fireworks displays so as to avoid the assembly of large Coronavirus -19 spreading, and it seems there is no end in sight to this plague. I understand that people are ready to pop. The novelty of down time at home to do repairs and home improvements, to catch up on projects, art, painting, cooking new recipes, reading, all of it, is no longer feeling like an unexpected vacation. 

It feels like a prison sentence. 

Friends asked me if I could come to their home and be there for the numerous dogs and cats that live with them, so that they could go to their grandchildren's home and have a peaceable celebration there, all masked up. They had not seen their family in a couple weeks. I agreed.  At about 9:30 mayhem began. Fireworks were shot on just about every street in the neighborhood. They were shot in the streets. They were shot at houses. The dogs cowered and shook.  They followed me around when I got up. The cats came indoors and stayed put.  I put on a Led Zeppelin concert film and put the sound up to 90, when I usually can hear at 18, but could still not drown out the noise outside, and so close too. The eruptions were rapid fire.  Large and small, pops, whizzes, explosions - it sounded like a battlefield.

And I thought, "Don't tell me that these people have spent their government stimulus checks on fireworks."  

I wasn't the only one who was thinking this. My friends got back with reports that they had been up the hillside where, looking down, the entire town had erupted. Fireworks, be they illegal from China or illegal from Mexico, be they illegally imported here or brought back from a road trip, are expensive.  Those little poppers and sizzle sticks that are sold legally some places are not expensive, but when you see a bloom of multicolored explosions, that is. They heard one local had spent $1000 on fireworks. It may have cost the asshole down the street who set off what could be a cannon every half hour from 9:30 PM till about 2:30 in the morning, about $500 to screw his neighbors of their sleep. So the questions of where so many people had gotten the money to buy all this, while some people are facing evictions, was in the air.

"Shit," one of my friends said, "I see some of these people in line for free food at the Los Angeles Food Bank, too." 

OK, so let's say that firing off all those fireworks helped people let out their frustration.  But was any of it about PATRIOTISM?  About the love of this country?  The country that is distributing free food and actually has some so called government benefits?

Another friend, a citizen after legally immigrating from Guatemala, shook his head and said, "In my country, all these people would be on the street, begging."

We, the people, as PROTO-Americans, used to throw barrels of tea into the Boston Harbor protesting paying tax to the English, on tea imports.  Now, poor old Christopher Columbus, who did not plan to become famous, apparently has some blame - his statue is thrown in.  

In some cities all those fireworks were used as a cover - to hide the sounds of bullets shot and people murdered.  Baltimore, New York City - I want to think we in Los Angeles are better than that - but I just haven't read any horror news stories about Los Angeles this morning. There are definitely neighborhoods where no one I know wants to live.

I don't care if I ever hear or see another fireworks in my life though I bet I will. The thrill of being a child and being taken to a fairgrounds to watch a thundering display - long gone.  I will not go to Disneyland or Monaco - where people in range are treated to this noise every night.

C 2020 Christine Trzyna

Christine Trzyna BlogSpot - All Rights Reserved

QUIT VOLUNTEERING - I MEAN IT! - Real Reasons Volunteers Quit

QUIT VOLUNTEERING - I MEAN IT! - Real Reasons Volunteers Quit

by Christine Trzyna

I recently treated myself to reading articles on the Internet about how to QUIT volunteering.  Links to some of the most interesting - or infuriating - are below.  You may want to read them to see if something strikes you as truthful about the way you've been thinking and feeling.

Here's the "real reasons" volunteers quit.

1) Some people have the nerve to procure and expect free labor - your talent, skills, education, energy - because they are opportunists and users.  Some even suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder.  How dare they put you on a "team" to earn their dream for them? They can manipulate you into doing and giving more than you want to. Stop feeling guilty.  It's their dream.

Some nonprofits are started up by a small group of people and you get it, you'll never be one of them.  Sure they came up with the idea, plotted for months, raised funds, and put their own money into it. Still, what you have given does not matter.  Someone else will come through the door and give as much or more.  Maybe you're aren't able to give money too or kiss the right ass.  Or maybe the plan is that their daughter and son in law inherit the non-profit and make a living from it.

2) "Non-Profits" are rarely all volunteer driven. They do so pay administration, staff, leaders. Some in fact pay their employees quite well and are well aware of what the competing non profits pay. There is such a thing as ground floor opportunities and ways to make your way up into paid employment starting as a volunteer, but rare for one to be completely volunteer driven from day one. Paid staff may suffer the anxiety of wondering if their paid position will be eliminated and be filled by someone who "doesn't need to work." 

Non Profit is sort of a "do gooder" tax exempt status, which is not to say that paid employees don't pay taxes on their salaries.  As a volunteer there may be some things you pay for that are tax deductible, such as special clothing and transportation. Is it enough?  Do you really not need (or desire) to earn money?

If you're doing this to prove you're a dependable employee, give it six months, at most a year, and be seeking paid employment elsewhere the whole time. 

It may become clear to you that their "business plan" has always been unworkable without free labor.

Volunteers who resign cannot count on anyone giving a reference.

3) What attracted you to becoming a free labor - some imagined benefit such as making friends or contacts or plumping up your resume - goes poof!  You are surrounded by others in the very same situation.  Noone is mentoring anyone.  Your peers also have unrealized hopes and cannot help you, so there's no networking.

As for friendships forming, do you have friendships where you work for money, really?  Some volunteer work places run a "tight ship" and what this means is that you get there and work hard.  You may not get breaks or lunch or be able to say no or leave early, and you will not likely actually get to talk to other people and get to know them.  It's a good experience at times to work like a greased machine to accomplish a goal, but taking breaks and having lunch is as necessary where you work for free as where you get paid.  Would they be in trouble for labor violations if they were paying you?

4) The issue, cause, or reason you thought giving of yourself was a good idea proves to be uncomfortable or even ridiculous.  These are not "your people" after all.  You find them extreme, ridgid, or unreasonable.  Maybe you have changed or you learned this about yourself being around them

Example: At a church were one friend donated thousands of dollars, volunteered to mind children at services, headed up the yearly White Elephant Sale, and attended a Bible study, she found herself in a group of women who were so not feminists that they pretty much said that rape, sexual harassment, and so on is a woman's lot in life and that they were studying the Bible to become better Christian (i.e. tolerant of this crap) women.

Example: A friend got involved in a liberal church and found that the ministers were using the pulpit to foster a politically correct world view on multiple issues.  Pretty soon she felt guilty eating meat or using plastic.  She felt alienated. She didn't want anyone telling her how to vote. But what made her quit was when the church, not a cult, but with a clique, decided members should participate in demonstrations and marches.

5) Your goodness, your good will, is being exploited or it requires resistance to avoid being taken advantage of by staff or other volunteers.

Example

A staff member at one non-profit where I volunteered offered my writing and research skills to a stranger who walked in looking for help from them.  Suddenly I had this stranger firing questions at me and expecting me to write her letters, advocate for her, and become her new best friend.  When I told the staff member, who had not even asked me if this would be OK, this was inappropriate, she did not apologize.  I was not writing or researching for his non-profit nor had I taken on any such work for them.  She knew I did this in my personal life, as a living.  Now she intended to exploit my way of earning a living.

At another location, a volunteer, rather than quit herself, brought along her nasty, spoiled, demanding, and infighting grandchildren rather than leave them with her selfish, career driven daughter, and stuck me with them to keep them "entertained." In other words free babysitting because they are just so damn cute!  These brats got in my way physically, rearranged my desk, and the older one treated the younger one like shit in my presence but could I, not being mom or grandma, tell them off?  No.  So I fired these kids.  This did not make me popular.

At another location, a volunteer asked me to do unpaid favors "hey everyone's broke" such as traveling an hour each way to "just feed and walk" his two hounds for several weeks while they were in Europe.  Oh I could also pick up the mail.  Don't you just love people who can afford to travel in Europe for several weeks but can't afford to hire pet care or put their dogs in a kennel?  I said no, offering the business card of a professional.

6) You've started feeling like a human DOING instead of a human BEING.

You didn't want a "punchclock" paid job, which you did back in the day, so you know.  You didn't want the need to attend to personal business, such as going to funerals, having doctors appointments, or taking off because your car needs repaired or you just don't feel well, to be a problem  But it is.  Maybe you never entered into any agreement or understating of the volunteer job in the first place and you need to clarify that.  But occasionally when you don't show up you get an e-mail from some volunteer coordinator admonishing you for it, or you come back and get attitude, or find someone else was assigned to your project because you had to take care of personal business.

7) You started out open minded, enthusiastic, and energetic, but lately you feel drained.  It can be physical, emotional, or psychological. It is not healthy.  Maybe the desk work has turned into a more physical labor that you are just not up to - your back or feet hurt when you get home.  Maybe you explained at the start that you were not up to physical work but that has been forgotten.  Maybe it's that you find it all depressing.  You really wanted to save the world or at least your little part of it, but you see how little impact you've made.  Never mind about throwing pebbles and watching ripples.  Just go.

8) You are expected to but up with boorish, harassing, or illegal behavior from staff, other volunteers, or people they serve.  Sure some people are mentally ill and require understanding, but that hand in your crutch or the theft of your wallet from the locker is not OK.  They fail to put importance on these things and they have no grievance procedure or don't take it seriously.

Example:  I once went by to pick up a friend who was volunteering at a food bank.  One of the other volunteers was giving a lecture to a homeless man about his lack of "appreciation," really berating him.  I looked and there was a box full of half rotten apricots and not even any plastic bags to put your hand in to go through the fruit.  Whomever donated those apricots for a tax deduction should've been ashamed.  Worse, the whole reason for this food bank for the homeless was to provide empathy.  

9) The higher ups don't think lowly volunteers need to be in the information loop.  Decisions effect you and your desire to be there.  You're putting your face and your reputation on their organization.  You have the right to know what direction it's going in, and so much more.  Are they really for the community good or their own egos?  Reassess often.

10) They don't say thank you.  I stayed at one volunteer job long after I should have because there was not a day that I wasn't personally thanked by someone on staff as I was heading out the door. It does matter.

I want to make you aware that there are often Non Profit Porthole type websites run by states or other governmental offices, that will tell you who owns a non-profit, how long they have been around, what they intend to do, and what money they have.  You may be amazed by the great number of nonprofits that have near no money to operate.  Many of your neighbors may have founded non-profits. Check their web sites.  

Here are some articles to read: 

While you read, realize the assumption that you should be volunteering, that it is

your duty to "give back."  

SAFE HARBOR: TOP 12 REASONS WHY VOLUNTEERS QUIT by Marquetta Smith

WETV: HOW TO LEAVE A VOLUNTEER POSITION GRACEFULLY by ?

VOLPRO - 5 REASONS WHY VOLUNTEERS QUIT

REALIZED WORTH : ENOUGH IS ENOUGH : WHEN VOLUNTEERS SHOULD SAY NO

VOLUNTEER POWER : PEOPLE DON'T QUIT VOLUNTEERING BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO BUSY

C 2020 Christine Trzyna - Christine Trzyna BlogSpot

STAYING INSIDE : CORONAVIRUS PARODY of BEE GEES STAYING ALIVE

BEST SELLING LITERARY AUTHOR STEPHEN KING QUITS FACEBOOK

BBC NEWS TECHNOLOGY : STEPHEN KING QUITS FACEBOOK by Jane Wakefield

Excerpt: Novelist Stephen King has quit Facebook, saying he was uncomfortable with the "flood of false information allowed in its political advertising."  He also said he was not confident the social network was protecting "user's privacy."  He made the announcement on Twitter, where he as 6.5 million followers.

NETFLIX's POLITICALLY CORRECT SERIES "HOLLYWOOD" A FANTASY

I indulged myself in this series, which is supposed to be set in Hollywood after World War II.  I love historically correct exteriors, interiors, clothing (costuming), hairstyles, and so on, so I stuck with it.  It seemed to be an excuse for displaying suggestions of homosexual sex.

I kept thinking about how Netflix often nears pornography and how offended some of our American population is by this; Netflix doesn't care about loosing or offending some viewers. 

Let me save you the time spent watching it.

It was so politically correct it was ridiculously inaccurate.  It was the result of idealistic but ignorant script writing - a clear agenda - not based in historical accuracy.

Let's start with the language.  The young female Black actress talks about herself as a "person of color."  Black people in the 1940's were not called persons of color (to mean anyone not considered to be "white") nor were they called African-American or Black.  They were called Negroes and called themselves Negroes.  Into the 1960's some of the older people still referred to themselves that way.

Then there is a part of dialogue in which the actor refers to "the conversation" using it in the 2020 way.  Nobody in the 1940's thought conversation was anything other than talking to one or more people.

In the fantasy that this series is, feminism and gay liberation as well as racist issues are all part of the plot.  The characters are considered to be heroes and heroines as they move these ideologies forward.  Actually in real life such aspirations started happening twenty or more years in the future.  For instance, female studio executives and studio heads are a result of the thrust of feminism and women's liberation of the 1970's.  But they got it right when they suggested Hollywood was a Jewish-made town and most all of the first stage of female studio executives were Jewish women.

Multiple characters were based on people who are dead and research apparently included tabloids. These characters include Rock Hudson and agent Henry Willson and as characters they are used to give us more sex.

I note that Scotty Bowers, the man who a couple years back wrote the memoir Full Service, about a gas station in Hollywood that was a front for a prostitution service, is named as a character.  I read Scotty's book and he said he never took money for hooking people up, that he did so for pleasure and friendship, but he's portrayed as a failed actor who took a 50% cut.

I guess this is one of the reasons that I'm so focused on documentaries and memoirs. I'm up for some speculation and if a series is clearly labeled fantasy at least I know what I'm in for.  Know those popular posters that have James Dean riding Marilyn Monroe on the back of his motorcycle?  It never happened.  Hollywood - the Netflix series - is like that.


C 2020 Christine Trzyna

BLACK LIVES MATTER BUT LOOTING BURNING and VIOLENCE MAKE PROTESTS A MOOT POINT

I was busy helping a friend garden.  We didn't know that riots had begun, that looting, burning, and destruction had replaced the expectation of a peaceable BLACK LIVES MATTER demonstration around the country.  We didn't know that Los Angeles had an 8 o'clock curfew until well after our meal together, when we turned on the news. Watching the coverage, I was disgusted.  Where was the Black Lives Matter leadership?  Why were individual city mayors speaking up but no-one from Black Lives Matter?

A couple hours later, I got my dog and went to bed. I shut out the lights and was laying back when a boom and bright flash of light zipped past the curtains - a blast aimed between houses that illuminated the room. 

My neighbor is Black.  He has a White wife.  He has a Black son.  They are nice people.  His work van is out at the curb.  Shit!  Was someone in the neighborhood attacking them?

I put the lights back on. Got out of bed. Worried, I opened the front door and looked out for the possible source of the blast.  Across the way a family was having a birthday party. They are Hispanic. There were lots of adults and children over there.  Why wait until past 10:30 at night on a Sunday to set off fireworks?  I watched as a large white blast went up over the street between us flowering into a stadium-worthy sparkler.  Needless to say, this is illegal behavior and insensitive to both Coronavirus-19 and the fact that people were pillaging all over town.  Taking advantage that no police would come. Setting nerves already raw on edge.  What a horrible example for all those children!  Their back yard is small.  What if they had been injured or set my neighbors house on fire?

I was tired from yard work so I slept.

This morning I woke to watch videos of destruction all over the country.  Countless businesses - many small one family businesses - looted or destructed.

I learned that a church in Washington D.C. built in 1815 in which just about every U.S. President has worshipped once, was burned down. I think as a child I toured that church on a trip to Washington D.C.  The Lincoln Monument graffitied?! 
I mean, the LINCOLN Monument!?!  Lincoln, credited for freeing the slaves.

HOW DOES THIS HELPS BLACK LIVES MATTER?

I know the answer. So do you.
It doesn't help whatsoever.  Actually, it's made things worse.

It HURTS the cause.

HOW DOES THIS HELPS THE UNITED STATES ECONOMY?
Did anyone who looted ever intend to BUY what they took?

Well, good luck getting hired.

I saw expensive vehicles pulling up and looters throwing things into trunks and getting in and driving away.

TELL ME HOW SOMEONE WHO CAN AFFORD TO KEEP A CAR can't afford to buy their tennis shoes, their cell phones, their computers?  Because I've been too poor to own a car or buy new shoes and have gone without a personal computer or a phone and I know it's not easy - or cool - but it can be done without resorting to criminality.

SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME on YOU! 

For doing it, for helping it, for putting up with it.


C 2020 Christine Trzyna

STAYING HOME VOGUE : CHRIS MANN

FLYDINI is GREAT : STEVE MARTIN

SLEEPWALK : LINDSEY STIRLING

SHE'S ALMOST VEGETARIAN and AS THE CUPBOARD GETS BARE, SHE'S PANICKING : TALKING TO STRANGERS

I wish I could remember the name of the book.  It was about taking chances.  It had a long questionnaire that was based on food preferences.  Since there are certain spices I avoid and a certain food group that I avoid,  which means certain restaurant's I avoid, I took the questionnaire figuring that it would prove what I know about myself, that I'm adverse to risk.  I'm cowardly, I thought.  I was shocked to learn that I actually was as risk-taking as an astronaut.  Never mind motion sickness.

Basically, I got points for actually eating a wide range of foods or being willing to try some of them once.  Over time I've accepted that this is true about me.  Living in a huge city with many ethnic restaurants, I probably have given a lot of different dishes a try, even if I default to Pad Thai.  I've also adapted recipes and learned to cook with ingredients I don't remember from my childhood.  I'm not vegan or vegetarian, but I eat far less meat, and a far smaller range of meat, than my parents.  It is rare for me to have a hot dog or lunch meat or ham.  But if hungry and offered these by a friend, I will eat them.

I believe that bouts of limitation have also resulted in my possibly more expansive food choices.

I had this conversation with one of the most vital senior citizens I've ever met, someone I admire and find myself quite compatible with.

SHE SAID :  "I'm starting to panic.  My cupboards are going bare."

I SAID : I once knew a man who convinced me that I needed to stock up on canned goods.  He said there was only a three day supply of food on the grocery store shelves and that if it got real bad in this city, well, I'd better own a gun to defend my water heater!  After that, every time I went to the store, I bought a couple extra cans of beans or something.  Then one day I wondered what I was going to do with all those cans.

SHE SAID : Me too!  But look!

I opened her big wood cupboard, and what I saw was lots and lots of sauces and dips and condiments along with cans of chili from Trader Joe's.  Some of this stuff is exotic.  And expensive.

I SAID : Well, you know you cook something different every day.  You can utilize whatever it is you have in the cupboard.  No one knows how to use spices like you.

She nodded but pointed to her huge spice rack.  It was half full.

SHE SAID : And my friends leave me fruit picked from their trees on the porch.

She has loquats, grapefruit, oranges, lots of lemons.  Also avocado.

I SAID : Imagine the people who never have anything in their fridge or their cabinets, people who go out to eat most days, meet their friends - they must be going hungry and crazy.  What are they going to do with a sack of dried split peas?

She cut an invention of hers, an upside down pear cake.

SHE SAID : I'm out of whole wheat flour.

I SAID : Well, there's going to be a meat shortage.  Good thing you don't eat much meat.  You won't miss it.

SHE SAID : My son in law just goes to the store for me every two weeks.

I SAID :  No one on this earth better knows what you're willing to eat when he goes to the store.

She will not leave the house to go to a grocery store, even wearing a mask and gloves. When he brings the groceries in paper bags, she lets them sit 3 hours, then takes each item and washes it.  I've been picking up these bags and folding them for her.  Sometimes we leave them out in the sun.

SHE SAID : I'm not used to this.  I'm starting to get worried.

The truth is that this lady does not have a financial problem in her retirement.  She isn't rich, but she has enough, a good roof over her head paid for, many friends who call to check in, a daughter and son in law and grandchildren who love her.  She will not starve.  What she's reacting to is not hunger or malnutrition.  It's that the products she likes are not as available on the shelves at the grocer.

I've long admired this women, also, because unlike some elderly, she is not stuck on eating the same food frequently.  She's not the Duchess of Windsor with her boiled chicken diet.

This really is the time to try new ingredients, new recipes, with whatever you have in your cupboards.  Those who are vegan or vegetarian usually know how to get enough protein in their diets, though I still believe that some people, including me, cannot bodily get enough from a plant-based diet.  Nor do I wish to travel with suitcases of supplements.  Those split peas really are good for soups and to add to mashed potato to make fritters.  From all reports we American will not run out of apples or potatoes too soon.

C 2020 Christine Trzyna

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM : ARE YOU HAVING NIGHTMARES? I AM

I read that I'm not unusual for the times.  People are sleeping badly and having unusual dreams, some of them nightmares.  We are also, probably, remembering dreams more because we don't have to set an alarm clock.

I've tried to keep to a normal schedule and get out at least five days a week for a walk of about a mile in the sunlight and air.  It's actually been a very beautiful spring.  The air is good.  The sky is exceptionally blue.  There are clouds.  These things are special in Southern California.

I have my dog who is now a slower, aging dog, as well.  The soothing and stroking I give her should be therapeutic and she's an excellent excuse for being outside.  I love her.

I've gone into my sewing supplies and hand stitched a few masks.  I hate wearing them because I feel that the air I'm breathing in is probably more of my own exhaled air than usual.  Maybe that's a factor in feeling that I'm actually fighting depression and tears.  Out the door I go with my face swathed in one of my obviously hand-made masks.  Taking suburban streets means that I'm not encountering many other humans and can lift the mask to actually breath the good air.

Yesterday I shampooed and conditioned my dog.  She slept soundly after that.  She ate her dinner while I had mine. 

Last night I had a wonderful and nutritious dinner.  Kale salad.  An omelet with some good cheese melted inside.  Nuts. I slipped her a teaspoon of the omelet.

When I went to bed, I heard a helicopter circling around the neighborhood to one side of me.  Someone with an app that tells you what's going on with the circling helicopter told me it was about a car theft.  Let's just say that the neighborhood the helicopter was over has a couple banks but few cars worth stealing.  Unless you've gone Coronavirus-19 Crazy.  These helicopters are extremely expensive to operate and are usually taken out for murderer on foot.  I figured that the news of a car theft on this app of hers was either wrong or there's so little crime right now that they thought they'd take up a helicopter to stay in practice.  This helicopter also circled for at least two hours, maybe three.  Tell me how long it takes for a car thief to park and get out of a car.

I lay there trying to sleep. I got up and went out the front door and looked into the sky to see the copter.  Yea, it was black and white - police.

Around 4:30 in the morning I awakened to my dog heaving all over the sheets.  I could tell without putting on the lights that this was no small heave.  I took her into my arms and put her outside a while.  She went out but seemed, well, hangdog.  When she came back in she drank a lot of water.  Then she threw up on the floor.  Another expansive puddle.

I didn't think I would get back to sleep and I did not.  My dog was sick.  She threw up like a human does with food poisoning.  Repeatedly.

As the dawn made it's way into the bedroom window, I got up to look for rags, and begin what turned into a half a day clean up, locating puddles of throw up on various floor surfaces, mopping with rags, trying to at least soap the areas for sanitation.  I removed sheets and padding and blankets from the bed.  I had to hand scrub the puke before putting into the washing machine. I noticed that the 4:30 heave must have been explosive.  Some was on the wall and more on the floor.  It contained a lot of undigested chunks of kibble as well as some digested.  Oh, Lord.

I got depressed.

Last week I'd called the vet to see about a possible flea shot and was told that they were closed until further notice.  This is no time to try to locate an open vet, who is also a more expensive and unfamiliar vet.

I got on line to look for a home remedy.  Luckily I had a small container of goat milk in the fridge and I gave her a small amount, followed by a tiny bit of kibble.
I held her in my arms and moved her bed, freshly made, near where I sat, looking for a good documentary for later.  She finally settled in.

The whole time thought I was thinking about the horrible dream I was having and woke from at 4:30.  I was on line looking for dream interpretations.

In my dream appeared an old friend I haven't seen in years, a person who I know a lot about that I would probably never tell anyone, but who turned his life around from the time I knew him.  He is, I hear, probably the most successful person, at least financially, in his graduating class.  When he appeared, seeming to visit me, I felt emotional, rather honored.  There was a lot of chaos in the form of people I didn't know moving around in the setting, but I was conscious that I was carrying some items close to my chest, a couple notebooks or ledgers of some sort which I knew were important, my cell phone (which is turned off), and a pair of shoes I own which are extremely comfortable but dilapidated sandals (that need to be replaced as soon as I can go shoe shopping) as well as a pair of strappy sandals with chunky two inch heels, obviously new, and bright gold.  My old friend hands me a crisp new $100 bill which I don't want to take. 

I somehow know this is a dream but there are mental processes involved such as awareness of my emotions, which become less enthusiastic about this meet up when I realize that it will be no more than this interaction, that he cannot hang out. He just lost $2000 this day at his business.  Take the money.  Don't want to.  But it's not much money to him.  But he just lost $2000.  He has no time.  I tell him, "but I just sent you a gift and now you are giving it back!"  Am I shamed into taking the hundred? Are we even? He has to go?

He leaves me disappointed. In this chaos I first realize I lost the cell phone.
I then realize I lost the important papers.  Finally, I see that the floor is flooding and that one of the gold shoes is floating away.  I have one gold shoe and the dilapidated sandals still close to my chest. 

Have at it as you will.

According to various internet resources about dreams, this dream is all bad news, especially about financial loses, and loosing direction.  A symbol of great financial success only wants to pay me a brief visit.

How did I create this dream?

It is, not unusual for the times though.

Now I'm going on my walk.


C 2020  Christine Trzyna
All Rights Reserved

MEN GIVE UP READING 50 PAGES BEFORE WOMEN

DAILY MAIL SCIENCE : MEN GIVE UP ON PAGE 50

This is bad news for those of us who write books that are so many pages more.
I wonder about the books they used.  Maybe they were boring books.  Maybe they were books that are generally more appealing to women.  What happens if you give a man a manuel on how to repair his car? The difference between paper book and audio book and e-book?

EXCERPT: The report was created by the Audience Agency, a British charity that gathers data to help creative industries reach people who will enjoy their work.

DOCUMENTARY :THE LONGEST WAY : CHINA TRAVEL