Month: December 2012

Ron just called from the airport; his plane landed at Logan a bit early.

I can’t believe where today went. I got a lot done, including meeting a friend for coffee, doing a big shop, cleaning out the frig and making apple crisp, but had planned one more appointment that I had to reschedule. I missed the Highfield party and a sing-along at the Cotuit Art Center: just too much to do and to be honest, not feeling especially like dressing up and going out to be in a big crowd.

Ron caught the bus from Bourne to Logan at 6:50 am last Thursday, almost a full week ago. I worked, put up the tree, paid bills, took care of Fluffles and the usual. The days were full, I guess, because it sure doesn’t seem that long ago that Ron left.

I’m looking forward to seeing Ron and hearing about his trip. I hope he took lots of pix.

Another side of the Sandy Hook shootings: those children will never know suffering or infirmity. They will never know the humiliation of poverty or the pain of hunger. They will never have their hearts broken by a lover or their spirits broken by a sadistic boss or their bodies crushed and maimed in an accident. I hope that their lives were happy and loving up to the time of their untimely deaths. Even if you don’t believe in heaven, they are certainly in a better place than here.

Used to be accounting firms; now it’s media companies:

Viacom
Time Warner
Disney
News Corp
CBS
Comcast

Oh, Obama was the top recipient of 5 of these company’s political largesse, and #3 at Viacom.

Spent a couple of hours today cleaning up the front at Edgewater. I can’t believe how many leaves there were; filled half the truck. Cleaned out the beds and picked up with the lawn mower. Finished as it started to rain a little. Wish we had one of those gigantic vacuum machines. Peter rearranged things in the shed. We rolled up the hammock and put it in the rafters.

Did the transfer station run with recyclables, leaves and trash, including the old grill cover.

Stopped off at the Fairgrounds for the last Farmer’s Market of the year. Got some tomatoes. Went to S&S for a script and to the bank to deposit a check for Ron. Stopped at the hardware store for an outdoor spotlight. Got to Hatchville Pottery for the final day of their winter open house: always delightful and always lots of good things to eat. Bought a Hollis Engley piece right off his outside studio wall; I love it!

The state of Connecticut has some of the toughest gun laws in the United States.

Anything can be a weapon: a screwdriver, a kitchen knife – even water and oxygen.

All of us are exposed to violence in the media, yet most of us don’t act out what we see on television or in video games.

The firearms used in the Newtown murders were legally purchased and registered.

The person who used those firearms had a history of mental disorder.

Why, then, isn’t there an outcry for more effective mental health services rather than the usual pleas for more (ineffective) government control of firearms purchase and more media censorship?

Dropped by my friend Emma’s house today to see her and her sheep!

This morning, did laundry and cleaned up the right-of-way in front of Dixon.

Oh, yeah, and on the way back from Emma’s, I stopped by a package store that was doing a big wine tasting.

The anti-NRA zealots are out in force, screaming for yet more regulation of firearms following the murder of 20 young children at a Connecticut elementary school.

When will the public learn that insanity can’t be regulated against, that there are simply not enough police or private security forces to protect us from the lunatics among us?

Connecticut has “some of the toughest” gun control laws in the country. Saying that it’s a federal problem makes me extremely uncomfortable and more than a little frustrated. Our federal government already has the power to lock up American citizens without trial, indefinitely, via the National Defense Authorization Act. What additional freedoms and autonomy do we need to cede in the imaginary hope that the government can keep us safe?

Some of us on Cape Cod have been looking to state and federal officials to protect us from the very real possibility of nuclear poisoning from the Pilgrim power station just up the coast. These officials have caved to the owner, Entergy Corporation, a $42 Billion Fortune 500 power company. They’ve failed to require that Entergy implement basic safety and security precautions. They’ve even failed to develop an emergency evacuation plan for our region.

If the government can’t control the activities of one organization, how can we trust it to protect the public from dozens, hundred or thousands of crackpots, with or without guns?

The answer is that it can’t, and we shouldn’t expect it to. Rather, we should be able to protect ourselves, our families and friends and our property with our own skills and resources. I just don’t see how any other “solution” can possibly work.

I can’t remember what I did this morning, besides feed Fluffles (and clean his ears and comb his fur) and take a shower. This afternoon, though, I brought 71 bottles and cans to the redemption center, picked up some scratch tickets for the Cohens, cleaned up leaves in the back yard at Edgewater and brought the leaf sweeper home.

Emme and I had dinner at IHOP. Our waitress was a riot. Afterwards, we went to the Osterville Stroll, rode on the trolley-bus and had dessert, including some sensational cream puffs.

And oh yes, I fed Fluffles, again.