What a morning in the deer woods is like

About 40 seconds long

Morning in the deer woods. Time lapse video from Belladonna's phone earlier this season.

Looking north from the Taj Mahal.

A Thank-you to the fine folks at Sparrow Hospital

Thank-you to the fine folks at Sparrow for taking care of Belladonna:

Especially

• Pam in Pre-op
• Doctors Hennessey and Gorelik
• The guy at the canteen who told me one of the types of pastry were dry that day and I would be happier with a different choice
• The nurses in 7-South, especially Mike and Malinda

You folks are rock-stars.

Belladonna update

Bella had her surgery yesterday.

No drama on anybody's part.

Large hospitals have their own time zone. The surgery was scheduled for noon and started at 2:30 but that was OK.

The actual surgery took thirty minutes. Bella was in recovery until five.

Nurses have been outstanding. We met with the surgeon twice, once before and once after.

Bella looked perky when I left yesterday at 8:00 PM.

One of my brother's called me up and offered me a ride to where I was parked, courtesy of my mom. She did not want me walking around in The Big City after dark.  I did not argue.

The powers that be expect to discharge her this morning...which means it could be mid-afternoon. Its that time zone thing, again.

Did Germany win World War 2.1

Britain wants out of the EU.

Significant numbers of French citizens feel strangled by the EU.

The economies of Southern Europe are nearly catatonic and cannot debase their currency to inflate their way out of debt because they are welded to the EU and Euro.

Who is the winner?

The thousands and thousands of anonymous bureaucrats in Brussels and German industry and German investors/savers.  They are the winners.

So far.

Notes from eldercare

Yesterday was and eldercare day.

We took them to the dentists for their six-month teeth cleaning.

It is a major expedition to exit the house, get loaded into the car, drive across town, blah, blah, blah.

I read some main-stream media magazines while waiting. It was a brand that used to be considered hard-core news. Lots of hand-wringing about the state of journalism in the magazine. Not the quality of the writing and editing, rather the hand-wringing was about the state of advertising revenues. Later in that issue I learned President Trump has a new first name, "race-baiter". Those "journalists" need to look in the mirror. That is considered editorializing and would not even be allowed in a high school newspaper back-in-the-day.

Everybody was gassed afterward.

We need to figure out how mom can brush her teeth without having to stand at the bathroom sink. It is a small thing but it caught up with mom.

The other thing is that Dad has been putting on weight with is a good thing. One of the things that has been a great help in that regard is to have Reese Cups in a bowl beside his recliner. That caught up with him as well.

So mom and dad have another appointment with the dentists.

Bella goes under the knife today

Bella, Mrs ERJ and I start the trek to the cut-o-toreum a little after ten this morning. Mrs ERJ is pleased that the surgery is scheduled for mid-day.

We will take two vehicles and tag-team afterward.

I briefly contemplated taking some brass to prep. Nothing like reaming primer pockets for busy work to make the time go fast.

After all, its not like Belladonna has anything else to do.

Adults make decisions and accept consequences

One of the criticisms that is leveled at President Trump is that he reduces everything to simple, binary decisions.

His stark Black/White world-view causes his critics angst. They are more comfortable in a world populated with a thousand shades of gray.

Those of us who want Trump to have a chance are sometimes sucked into the arguments of the "thousand shades of gray" crowd.

I want to offer a counterpoint.

One of the hallmarks of being an adults is that we know that we have to make choices and that we "own" the consequences. Decisions in real life are not like an artist mixing paints on his palette. Most decisions are separated with the word "or".

We choose in good faith but sometimes there are consequences, often unintended, that follow. That is why we study important decisions before making them. Any decision will have unintended consequences. Our jobs, as adults, is to suss out the net benefit of A vs. B.

That is what it means to be an adult.

The "thousand shades of gray" people want to remain in their childhood where they can make a decision, sort of. "I will spend the afternoon with Julie but text Susie on the side." kind of thinking. They want to have their cake and eat it too.

The POTUS makes macro-decisions and the folks on the ground decide how to implement it. It is not his job to render ambiguous non-decisions.

There are systems of checks-and-balances to ameliorate the inevitable negatives. That is not Trump's job.

If forcing asylum seekers to follow procedures results in excessive waits at the border then more resources can be dedicated to processing them or the process can be streamlined.