Post Blizzard

We’re done with the blizzard and were fortunate: never lost power and thus, have internet, heat and hot water this morning.

It’s 8 degrees outside.

Ron worked until almost 10 pm last night clearing the driveway with the snow blower. He’d also shoveled off the deck. I did some shoveling around the truck tires. Slow going because of the drifts and a waterlogged bottom layer of snow.

We tried making paths for Lizzie; she wasn’t able to navigate at all in the deep snow.

We got around a foot. Less than many other places, including Boston.

Almost Made It

I knew it would happen: with 7 hours left in our home warranty waiting period, the washing machine broke.

A repairman came today and we hope it’ll be fixed next Tuesday.

I took Lizzie out for a couple of short walks, but she’s off her food. Ron’s going to try another one now.

We had a food festival yesterday. After I ordered a tonneau cover in Hyannis, Ron treated us to lunch at Au Bon Pain and brought home cookies and croissants.

We stopped at Whole Foods for Dave’s bread (half off), store cookies and sushi. Got home to find someone had put ground chicken and fresh basil in one of our bags!

On the way back to Mashpee, we stopped at a local Mom and Pop in Marstons Mills for gigantic burritos and tacos, packed with fresh vegetables.

14th Amendment and the Countdown Begins

I’ve been reading essays by legal scholars on the Cato Institute website about the impact of the Fourteenth Amendment on state laws and practices.

I decided in lieu of a new hot water heater to purchase a 5-year home warranty contract for roughly the same amount. Impressed with the customer service we’ve received so far from this company.

The Countdown to the effective date of the home warranty contract is underway: 6 days to go.

Drove Robert home from his last day at the bank. He has two offers already, one in Tech, which IMO is where he belongs, and more irons in the fire.

Very proud of him and James, and Peter, too.

Ron raved about breakfast this morning, inspired by a YouTube cooking vid: pan-fried tortilla with eggs, tomatoes, black beans, cheese, peppers and onions. He ate his with salsa and yogurt.

Reading for MLK Day

“It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken: the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin, we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” Beyond Vietnam

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil100/17.%20MLK%20Beyond%20Vietnam.pdf

“The crowning achievement in hypocrisy must go to those staunch Republicans and Democrats of the Midwest and West who were given land by our government when they came here as immigrants from Europe. They were given education through the land grant colleges. They were provided with agricultural agents to keep them abreast of forming trends, they were granted low interest loans to aid in the mechanization of their farms and now that they have succeeded in becoming successful, they are paid not to farm and these are the same people that now say to black people, whose ancestors were brought to this country in chains and who were emancipated in 1863 without being given land to cultivate or bread to eat; that they must pull themselves up by their own  bootstraps. What they truly advocate is Socialism for the rich and Capitalism for the poor.

“So let us stand in this convention knowing that on some positions; cowardice asks the questions, is it safe; expediency asks the question, is it politic; vanity asks the question, is it popular, but conscious asks the question, is it right. And on some positions, it is necessary for the moral individual to take a stand that is neither safe, nor politic nor popular; but he must do it because it is right. And we say to our nation tonight, we say to our Government, we even say to our FBI, we will not be harassed, we will not make a butchery of our conscience, we will not be intimidated and we will be heard.”

The Three Evils of Society

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/martin-luther-king-hungry-club-forum/552533/