BEING 2 DIGITS (MAY 2)

 Celebrated the boy on reaching two digits in age. I said he would have to wait 90 years to reach the third digit.  He pondered that and then speculated I would be 170 when he was 100 (I corrected him, merely 160).  Apparently, he believes I have the genes of Methuselah who was still siring offspring in his 200's or whatever-another Bible version.

It was a birthday of wheels. Bowling ball and bag from us, bike from the folks and another one from other Grandma and a wheel in the middle hover board from his uncle-who loves giving toys the two of them can commit mayhem in or on. Waiting to be measured, etc. he struck up a conversation with another gentleman in the Pro Shop-you know Joe.  The man complimented him on how well-spoken he was at his age. To our surprise he told the man he was used to talking to bartenders. I hastily explained his recent invites to a wedding and party-Joe just smiled.

 After much thought and three choices later (his awesome 1st choice wasn't available) he picked a pretty shade of teal... well he will be needing a new ball in a year or two, so perhaps something more rugged next time. 

I've been shaking the proverbial bushes to find folks to interview when I got a surprise request. While busily recruiting from conference attendees, division chairs, one lady at a soccer game and a union business agent, the surprise suggestion from the Podcast Committee chair was he wanted to interview me! Have to reread my posts, being sufficiently humble of course. This will take some pondering as I ruminate over what I would want to share that would encourage but not scare off potential interviewees or, for that matter, interested parties dipping a toe into the EHS profession.

Can't ignore the elephan-tine in the room-the latest controversy. I will only make three points.  1) Three supremie nominees essentially lied in confirmation hearings, and on record, stating they would not mess with precedent and rule of the land. (Of course, they would not have been confirmed if they hadn't);  2) How do we do away with abortion options when there is no day care, family medical leave and the fathers don't seem to be held accountable; and 3) the opinion claimed abortion was not discussed in the Constitution. But then neither was the institution of slavery, slaves' or women's rights for that matter. No one other than white land-owning males wrote the damn thing and only believed rights applied to them. In fact, some of Alito's opinion borrowed from the justification used during the Salem witch trials. Now I don't hate men. Some of my favorite people are white males. But there are other colors and shades in the crayon box and human rights apply to all citizens or we have just been kidding ourselves. I was worried we are going back to the 1950's but apparently I was off by 200 years. Might as well throw out the rest of the amendments... as oh yes, they were written as things change and advance-funny that. It's all about privacy-liberty-equality. Also interesting that all this frightened backlash, paranoia and white nationalism comes at a time when marginalized folks are finally fighting back. 

Whether its climate change or pandemic cleansing I do not know, but lately we seem to offer ideal nesting options for our numerous robin neighbors. The Lady of the Lake house is so confident she manages 3-4 broods a year. We co-exist for the most part and are only subject to intense chirping when grilling. Also after nothing for 38 years, in the past two years a Grand Ledge robin has taken up residence in our overhead yard light-meaning no light during nesting season. And for the second year in a row, bird suicide. Last year I heard a clump and the nest and its occupants were fatally scattered on the deck. This year in the midst of the parents performing feeding chores, the nest shifted.  Now it's still there, but they just can't see it as it has slipped down further behind the light. Makes me wonder what goes through their heads as they pose with worms hanging out of their beaks looking totally confused. "Look down dummy" does not work and they swallow the proffered treat and disappear to gather more, rinse, repeat.

                                                

Thoughts for Ukraine. There was a reason the Germans in their final stand wanted to be defeated by the other Allied forces. Russian soldiers were barbarians then and they are barbarians today. It's time to call Putin's bluff and destroy them. 💙💙💛💛