It's HGF.  In honor of the Full Pink Moon I decided to go in search of Hot Pink Guys. This led to some things better left to the imagination. I will say the moon is named for the wild pink phlox that appears around this time of year.

They're a delicate little flower. I have many in the yard. They're about the size of a fingernail.
However, I digress.
This is HGF.
As I was saying I went looking and found things I won't mention. Things I will barely mention [like Ryan Lochte in pink speedos] which took me off on another tangent
to

which then morphed into

I know, but he has feathers!
and then I found

~~wiggles eyebrows~~
So that's HGF for this week. :)

Congress: The act of coming together.

The literal meaning of congress is 'coming together'. For the intent of this dispatch I wish it to mean coming together for the common good. That is what is was founded for and what it is still supposed to stand for.

The body itself seems to have forgotten that. That would be the institution of our nat'l Congress of the United States of America.

And it has gone beyond being a shame to being borderline criminal in it's repercussions.

And we the people are paying the price for their willful inability to do their elected jobs.

Because of their inactions we are looking at what will possibly be one of the most violent summers ever in this country. People are fed up with the situations leading us to this point. We have asked...no, we have begged, for Congress to do their jobs, and still we are denied.

The weather has just started to warm as have the tempers of the intemperate.  I truly fear the coming season. Look in the mirror House. Look in the Reflecting Pool, Senate. You are to blame for this. All of it.

Am I the threat? No. I am merely one of thousands of observers.

I am also a voter.

Do I think the system will change? Possibly not. Your siding with your special interest backers is so firmly entrenched it's hard to imagine it changing. So what is the answer?  I can't say at this point. But it may very well may be moot.

Because we may be too busy picking up the pieces of anarchy after this summer comes to an end.

When I first moved to the East Coast of the United States I was struck by the abundance. It didn't really hit home until I settled into Virginia how rich this table is laid, though. Having been born and raised in the Western part of the country where water is scarce and plant life of a different nature it took me some time to realize the bounty outside my very door as I settled into life here in these mountains. Once I began to really study what lay at my feet I was amazed the original [European] settlers ever left to venture farther west. They walked away from a virtual buffet of nature and a relatively mild climate to brave hostile environs only to find themselves living in much less hospitable climes.  Having spent many, many hours out and about on horseback in the desert I know of where I speak.

Which is why I find this article interesting__if not overly obvious.

Anyone who has studied or attempted to live off of the land in any form for even the shortest of time will know you cannot do so off of one crop. It will kill you. Ask the Irish with their potato famine. There is no civilization, whether it be agrarian or nomadic that relies solely on one food source.

The Corn Kachina

Maize

Grass Seed for flour

Squash

Cactus Pods

Beans

The Pueblo at Taos

The Corn Festival

I haven't written one of these in a little bit of a while. I'm in a state of mind that doesn't really need repeating. In fact, I was on the cusp of wondering if I might be losing it [my mind] altogether but then I realized that wasn't the case. What I am losing is my patience. At a rapidly increasing rate.

It may be age related. It may be medication related. It may simply be stimulated by circumstance__or a combination of all of the above. But one thing is certain__I need a new addition to my wardrobe. A sandwich board that reads:

Really cranky and ready to let you know ALL about it.

or:

That ought to keep them away.

Why is it that when something goes wrong everyone automatically assumes you are to blame?  This makes me testy. And if you defend yourself you sound, well, defensive. So now I spend time second guessing whether it is better to just stay quiet and stone-faced for jump into the fray. Lately it's been a bit of both. Frankly it's making me tired and I don't have all that much energy to go around and certainly not to toss behind ridiculous crap like missed appointments propagated by overbooked physicians who are more concerned with their own bottom lines than they are with their own patient's welfare [just to use an example]. This has happened with more than one doctor lately and I'm the one called out for it. I'm ready to stuff the entire lot of them.

Then there's just the day to day stuff in and around. You know, the general stupidity of our race, the human one...not the humane one...the other one. Man, I get soooo tired of us sometimes. I just want to walk up and smack one of these people who are being senselessly abusive to someone they profess to care for.

And then I turn around and holler at the cat for being a bonehead__and she is__being a bonehead, but still

*sigh*