Dusk is descending on the creek; I am watching the light fade from my dining room table while classical music plays.
And I am thinking over the day, one of seemingly endless frustrations with an email problem Apple could not seem to fix and a group of errands squeezed into a short period because of all the time Apple had consumed.
When they couldn’t fix the issue, I turned to the local computer guru, Jonathan Simon, who does not work on Macs but who solved my problem in about twenty minutes. My Apple Faith is shaken.
There was a meeting this afternoon in which one of the participants became so upset they walked out; unnerving for all. The rest of us retreated to a local restaurant, had drinks and food and attempted to continue.
In other words, a day that did not run smoothly.
Last time I wrote, the predicted snow had not fallen. The next morning it was all there and more; instead of three inches we had close to seven. Only five intrepid students made it to class. We called it early and went home.
Last night, I fell asleep reading a mystery and woke lazily into a sunny but chill day. Predictions are that tonight and tomorrow are to be two of the coldest of the season. What climate change?
“The Panama Papers” have exploded onto the world stage and the President of Iceland is no longer President, having resigned today after he was named in them. As were several of Putin’s closest friends including one who was once close but had a rift with Putin and is now dead after blunt force trauma in a DC hotel.
It seems the President of Ukraine, a chocolatier billionaire did not, as he said he would, divest himself of his holdings but transferred them to offshore companies. Prime Minister Sharif of Pakistan is distraught that relatives are named with having accounts. China has tightened censorship; one can only wonder what will happen there?
These leaks create messy, messy situations while one cannot help occasionally having a moment of schadenfreude, relishing the misfortunes of others; thinking these others deserve their misfortune.
While I am typing exit polls are being held in Wisconsin. Cruz and Sanders are both hoping to take a little wind out of the frontrunners’ sails there. Hillary has not had a good history in Wisconsin, having lost it in 2008 and Trump is facing a coalition of conservative talk show hosts who are determined to bring him down, exploiting all his wonderful gaffes to the fullest.
Governor Phil Bryant of Mississippi signed into law a bill that allowed for anti-gay discrimination. As in North Carolina, he is facing a barrage of blowback. Long lamenting the lack of a Fortune 500 company in his state, he is less likely to get one now. Mississippi’s largest employers are not happy, including Toyota and Nissan and MGM Resorts.
Is the Civil War being fought again over gay rights?
As a gay man, I am astounded at the progress made in my lifetime. Gay marriage was something I thought would never happen and yet, here I am, not yet dead and it has happened. That states like Mississippi and North Carolina would attempt to turn back the clock is disheartening, if not surprising. They are setbacks, not defeats and they are not on the right side of history.
What is amazing is that the Governors of those two states are ignoring the businesses in their states; pandering instead to bigoted voters. Well, they do have to re-elected!
The soft classical music is mellow, comforting and encasing the living and dining rooms with a gentle feel. I’ve turned on the floodlights over the creek and am thinking it is close to time to curl up with my mystery and slip out of the night into the land of Nod.
Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From New York 04 12 2016 Too hard to think about children suicide bombers…
April 13, 2016It has been a long day; I was up early because I am getting new appliances and the Columbia County Habitat for Humanity was coming early for my old stove. They came and went and I waited for the new appliances to arrive.
It all started with my dishwasher finally starting to give up the ghost which proceeded to all new appliances — a new stove, refrigerator, over the stove microwave and, of course, a new dishwasher.
When they arrived, the dishwasher, which started all of this, was the wrong one and so it had to go and the right one finally arrived. In the meantime, I spent the day preparing for tomorrow’s lecture on magazines for “Media & Society,” the class I teach at Columbia Greene Community College.
Term papers were due last week and I graded them over the weekend, sending three back for revisions as I was working to help them achieve their goals for “good” grades. One of the students got very upset with me for trying to help her get a better grade. She had too many other things to do.
Such is the life of a teacher. It was this way when I taught high school and it is now when I am teaching at a community college.
The good news story of the day is that a 72 year old woman, who was lost in the Arizona wilderness for nine days, was found alive after drinking pond water and eating plants. She spelled help in twigs, stones and bones and was seen. Suffering from exposure, she’s in the hospital in fair condition which is pretty good for an elderly lady who had been lost in the wilderness.
Paul Ryan has told the world to count him out. He is not, repeat NOT, going to be the Republican candidate for President if it comes to a brokered convention.
That is what Kasich is counting on; a brokered convention that will take him to heart as the only sane person in the party who could conceivably win.
The Governor of North Carolina is back pedaling on the anti-gay law he signed into law as he is, rightfully so, rocked by the backlash he has received. Hell hath no fury like corporate CEO’s who don’t agree with what you have done.
And that includes the very important banking community that has moved into North Carolina in recent years. Deutsche Bank, who was going to build a presence there, has said: no, not now, not because of this.
It was a year ago that Freddie Gray died in police custody in Baltimore and there is a feeling there that the mindset has changed. I hope so. It was one of those shocking moments in American life that leave you gasping.
What I have also learned in the last year is the passionate way people who live in that city have love for that city. My friends, Lionel and Pierre, moved there the week before the riots and are now huge boosters of the city, passionately engaged there and loving it.
David Gest died in London today. A successful producer, he married Liza Minnelli and that may be the thing for which he will be forever remembered. It was a huge affair with Elizabeth Taylor as a Maid of Honor and Michael Jackson as Best Man and in a year they were divorced with all kinds of ugly rumors abounding. He had been living in York in England for the last few years, far from the madding crowd, regretful for the cosmetic surgery he had, which did not turn out well.
Tonight, I am focussing on lighter things. It’s the mood I’m in — who wants to process that Boko Haram is manipulating children into being suicide bombers?
Yuri Milner, a Russian businessman, has joined forces with Stephen Hawking, wanting to send probes about the size of iPhones to Alpha Centauri, the star system closest to us. They need to raise ten billion dollars but it sounds interesting.
I have always been a great proponent of space exploration. “Ah, but man’s reach should exceed his grasp. Or what’s a heaven for?” Robert Browning…
Tags:Baltimore, Boko Haram, Claverack, Columbia Greene Community College, Donald Trump, Freddie Gray, IS, Kasich, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media & Society, Paul Ryan, Robert Browning, Stephen Hawking
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