It’s the very end of September here in New England, so it’s the middle of our best season, Autumn.
Except it isn’t Autumn.
The stone mill
The trees are entirely green without even a hint of red. A few yellow leaves on a few trees, but none of the colors we are supposed to have. We went and we sought for fall, but we could not find it. I was not by the river, which is the first place you usually find it … nor by the dam. Nor in the woods.
The dam at Manchaug was full this year. Lots of rain this spring and summer.
Lily pads. Not Monet,. Just me.
And we went down to another part of the valley, too. It wasn’t just Manchaug!
Photo: Garry Armstrong
And me, too – Photo: Garry Armstrong
The pond at Manchaug …. right before the dam. Photo: Garry Armstrong
Softly falling water – Photo Garry Armstrong
Graphic stone and falls – Marilyn Armstrong
Roses for our anniversary
So, not a red tree to be seen. Not even a bright yellow or slightly orange tree. Nothing at all. This was how it was last year, too. We finally got ONE week of Autumn. Then, all the leaves just fell off the tree. Kerplunk. End of Autumn.
I’m sure glad the seasons aren’t changing! I’d hate to lost whole seasons — like Autumn.
About The Changing Seasons
The Changing Seasons is a monthly challenge where bloggers around the world share what’s been happening in their month.
If you would like to join in, here are the guidelines:
The Changing Seasons Version One (photographic):
Each month, post 5-20 photos in a gallery that you feel represent your month
Don’t use photos from your archive. Only new shots.
Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so that others can find them
The Changing Seasons Version Two (you choose the format):
Each month, post a photo, recipe, painting, drawing, video, whatever that you feel says something about your month
Don’t use archive stuff. Only new material!
Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so others can find them.
If you do a ping-back to this post, Su-Leslie can update her post with links to all of your posts.
As I’m writing this I’m watching the circus that is the Senate hearing on Bret Kavanagh. Lindsey Graham and the Republicans on the committee are making complete asses of themselves. Graham is literally screaming at the top of his lungs.
What he’s saying is basically “This is all made up and how dare anybody say anything bad about a guy who’s had FOUR DIFFERENT WOMEN COME FORWARD TO CLAIM HE SEXUALLY HARASSED THEM!!”
Earlier, Dr. Ford made calm and compelling testimony where she backed up her allegations with scientific facts that she is professionally qualified to state.
She’s a doctor of psychology.
Her credibility was stunning. The Republican Senators were so cowardly they had a woman ask all their questions.
I’m the only Republican with any balls in this room.
But while Kavanagh is testifying they are all screaming bloody murder and asking all sorts of questions. Now I’m watching Republicans stamping their feet and screaming like a toddler having a temper tantrum.
Whaaaaa!
So this is all about rage. On both sides.
The thing is, our side has a shit load of rage. For women around the world, the rage has gone up to 11. This isn’t unusual. We’ve all been pissed has hell since The Cheeto Mussolini was elected.
And since that day pundits have claimed that after a while we’d all get tired of being pissed off. I wrote a blog at the time pointing out that that isn’t going to happen. Why? Because every week a new thing pops up that makes us even angrier.
Remember ripping toddlers from their parents at the border and putting them in baby jails?
Oh yeah. WTF! So, again, I have to repost a blog I made over a year ago. It should not be current. It should not be relevant. Yet it is. So, here it is. Again.
HOLY SHIT WE ARE ALL STILL BRUCE BANNER NOW – BY TOM CURLEY
Usually when I write one of these blogs I try to be funny. OK, maybe just humorous.
OK, maybe just humorous.
Bruce Banner Tee Front
Fine. Mildly amusing.
Problem is, I can’t be funny right now. Because I’m angry.
Really pissed off.
I’m not alone. Pretty much the whole country is really pissed off right now — but for different reasons. The media “narrative” or “explanation” or “excuse” for how SCROTUS got elected was that middle-class white folks were pissed off. They wanted to give a big F-You to Washington.
orrazz.com
And they succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. But here’s the thing. They are only about 20 to 25 percent of the population.
The day after the election, a really odd thing happened. The remaining 75 percent of the population woke up REALLY PISSED! And not the grumpy old man “Hey you kids get off my lawn!” kind of pissed.
chicagotribune.com
It included not only the people who didn’t vote for Trumpy McTrumpface. But everybody else.
Us. The other 75percent. For us, this is a different level of pissed off. It’s “Incredible Hulk” level pissed off.
youtube.com
For those of you not in the Nerdverse like me, The Hulk is Bruce Banner. A nice, quiet, nerdy kind of guy. A scientist. He gets caught in a Gamma bomb blast (think Hydrogen bomb on steroids) and turns into The Incredible Hulk.
tvtropes.org
Whenever somebody pisses him off, and for some reason, people are always pissing him off, he turns green and grows to be about 15-feet tall. And starts throwing tanks and other large military objects at the people shooting at him. Usually the Army. The whole Army. Or at least a few platoons.
moddb.com
When you think about it, we’re all a lot like the Hulk. We were, for the most part, going about our daily lives. Minding our own business. Many of us quiet and nerdy. Many of us are scientists, or at least we believe that science exists. Then a huge Gamma bomb went off. Around midnight on November 9th, 2016. After which, we got really, seriously, pissed off.
freemalaysiatoday.com
Lately, you hear lots of people saying variations on the same theme:
“This is exhausting!”
“How much more of this can we take?”
“I can’t keep up. Something new and worse happens every day.”
“I can’t believe it’s not butter!”
beforeitsnews.com
Pundits warn that we will get used to the endless barrage of crap coming out of the White House swamp. That we can’t maintain this level of anger. That we’re getting worn out.
blogs.mpnews.com “This is getting old”
Well, here’s the thing. The reason the Hulk always wins is that his real power is not his strength. It’s his anger.
The madder he gets, the stronger he gets.
There is no upward limit on his strength because there’s no upward limit on his rage.
theunrealtimes.com “You did not just gut the EPA”
And that’s the thing that the people shooting at the Hulk never understand. If you just stop shooting at him, he calms down. He turns back into Bruce Banner.
SCROTUS could do the same thing– more or less. You know, he could stop shooting all sorts of crap at us.
observer.com
He won’t, though. It’s going to go on for a while. Years. Will we get tired? Will we stop being pissed off? Will we give up and go home?
Nope.
Because we may have drubbed him on the health bill, but while we were dealing with that, he’s destroying the water, the air, and every living creature on our continent.
Stay mad!
Why?
BECAUSE THE MADDER WE GET, THE STRONGER WE GET.
WE ARE ALL BRUCE BANNER NOW.
weknowmemes.com
NOW, YOU CAN GET YOUR OWN SHIRT!
It’s on Custom Ink. The complexities of ordering the shirts then sending them out to each person are a bit much. But you can order directly from Custom Ink … so here’s the CustomInk link for the Bruce Banner tee.
These are pretty cool tees and if you think it sort of fits how you feel about the world and the way things are going? This is the tee that will tell your tale.
The profits from these shirts are not going to charity. To be precise, they are not going to us either. All profits go directly to CustomInk who print and deliver the shirts. You can use this design as a money raiser. If you would like to use it and change the back of the tee logo to something personal, you have our full permission to do so. If you do that, please let know what you are doing. We will do your own little feature here.
We just wanted everyone to recognize that this is not raising money for anyone other than CustomInk who produces the shirts. It was simply too complicated for we simple word-laden souls.
Yesterday was some kind of turning point for me. My heart broke. Because the same shit that I went through as a young woman is still happening and now we are going to sit one of these shitbags on the Supreme Court.
Shame on us, shame on our political system and its keepers.
I’ll vote. I’ll write. But I think I’m losing hope, heart and any kind of faith that we are capable of running a nation.
I don’t have anything useful to say about this except that whatever we think justice is, I’m not seeing any evidence of it these days and not for a long time.
After yesterday — which I presumed and assumed was going to be horrendous — and which was indeed horrendous even beyond my own expectations, I have little hope left that we will see anything like justice in my lifetime.
Garry is fuming. Pity he finally got his hearing working just in time for hearing this bullshit.
Someone said, “you can’t burn the truth.” But I’m here to say “Yes, you can. We have. We are.”
We aren’t going to stop, either. Unless all of you who hate what’s going on show up and vote during the mid-term elections, it will keep getting worse until you are living in a country you do not recognize.
Personally? This isn’t any version of the U.S.A. I recognize. I don’t know what it is, and worse, I fear what it is becoming, but it’s not my home anymore.
I can’t read “Lord of the Rings” these days without thinking about Stephen Colbert and his obsessive passion for these books. They are great books and eventually became rather amazing movies, but still and all … he knows things about these books I’m sure J.R.R. Tolkien forgot.
Nonetheless, in this time of stress and strife, I’m rereading the series for the umpteenth time. I’ve gotten all the way to the third and final volume of “The Lord of the Rings.”
The book is entirely about good and evil. The great evil that is Sauron. The somewhat lesser evil of his cohorts. The striving evil of Saruman, and the fear of everyone in the battle that they can find the right way and stay woven in the fabric of good.
When evil is everywhere, goodness can get a little complicated.
I bumped into this quote last night. I was tucked in for the night and I hoped I would remember it in the morning. I didn’t exactly recall it, but luckily for me “Lord of the Rings” is such a well-quoted book, I found it quickly on ye olde Internet.
Eomer said, ‘How is a man to judge what to do in such times?’ As he has ever judged,’ said Aragorn. ‘Good and evil have not changed since yesteryear, nor are they one thing among Elves and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.
In the great fabric of life of which we are merely threads, good and evil are also a part of us. We are born with a genetic understanding of both. It is in our DNA. When we see evil and allow ourselves to become part of it — when we live in evil times, excuse and forgive evil — we become part of it.
A bad man and his bad adherents don’t have “a good side.” Lying about it changes nothing except maybe us.
When you read this book, you will sooner or later end up talking like this. You can’t help it. If you are really into it, you might just do it in Elvish or worse, Orcish.
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I’m sure glad the seasons aren’t changing! I’d hate to lost whole seasons — like Autumn.
