Letter from the Vineyard

It is Wednesday, March 15^th, 2017 [just so we are settled in time] and I am here at my dining room table with swing jazz playing in the background.  A little while ago I attempted to turn on the floodlights on the creek and I think they work but are too buried in snow to show.

This is as much snow as I have ever experienced in my years at the cottage, equal to a nor’easter probably ten years ago.  I have not attempted to leave the cottage and am INFI

It is Wednesday, March 15^th, 2017 [just so we are settled in time] and I am here at my dining room table with swing jazz playing in the background.  A little while ago I attempted to turn on the floodlights on the creek and I think they work but are too buried in snow to show.

This is as much snow as I have ever experienced in my years at the cottage, equal to a nor’easter probably ten years ago.  I have not attempted to leave the cottage and am INFINITELY grateful we haven’t had a power outage.

While I was in Miami and Saba, all around me 200,000 people were without power for three or four or more days.

Yesterday, the snow plow man came and did my driveway.  I am hoping he comes back as there was another seven inches after he was here.

It was pleasant, in a way, to be stranded.  Choices are very limited when you can’t go anywhere.  Today, some wonderful young men came and dug out me out and I’m now able to leave.  There is a meeting in New York I’ve asked to reschedule as it feels like really big work to get to the city tomorrow.

Today, I worked on some things for my client the Miller Center and have more things to work on tomorrow and all of it was done while listening to swing jazz and drinking really good coffee.

Beatrice, my banana plant, which has grown from an infant to a really big plant, is suffering water distress and I can’t figure out whether I’m giving her not enough water or too much.

Yesterday, I avoided the news of the day. Watching the snow fall was amusement enough.

But, as I was going through my emails, I saw the Trumponmics Daily email from Fortune magazine, not, I think, a profoundly liberal magazine.  It eviscerated the Ryancare replacement for Obamacare.

Today, I called Representative Faso’s office and let them know if he voted for this bill as it is currently written, I will absolutely not vote for him in 2018.

It will particularly hit hard seniors, of which I am one [ouch, how did this happen?].  It will be good for, according to Fortune, insurance executives and the wealthy.  Do the wealthy really need this?  No, I don’t think so.

It will save money but at what cost?  It seems to be bad for those who can least afford it and good for those who can most afford it.

And then, it seems we are living in a world of alternative facts.  Mostly, I am bemused about this.  And I am also very disturbed by this.  It is too much; I need to not be consumed by what is happening.  So I do my best to take it in bits and pieces.

Alan Murray, who is CEO of Fortune and Chief Content Officer of Time, Inc. has a daily blog he writes which is worth reading.  Google it and you will find it.  A very good read.

And today, like most days since the inauguration, is another day of news delights.

A judge in Hawaii has ruled against the newest version of Trump’s travel ban.

And the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Representative David Nunes of California, has come out saying there’s no evidence of wiretapping of Trump Tower.

Ouch.

GOP Senators are offering changes to the American Health Care Act, which is to replace “Obamacare.”  The pushback on “Ryancare” is getting stronger.

These are extraordinary times.

May we all figure them out.

NTELY grateful we haven’t had a power outage.

While I was in Miami and Saba, all around me 200,000 people were without power for three or four or more days.

Yesterday, the snow plow man came and did my driveway.  I am hoping he comes back as there was another seven inches after he was here.

It was pleasant, in a way, to be stranded.  Choices are very limited when you can’t go anywhere.  Today, some wonderful young men came and dug out me out and I’m now able to leave.  There is a meeting in New York I’ve asked to reschedule as it feels like really big work to get to the city tomorrow.

Today, I worked on some things for my client the Miller Center and have more things to work on tomorrow and all of it was done while listening to swing jazz and drinking really good coffee.

Beatrice, my banana plant, which has grown from an infant to a really big plant, is suffering water distress and I can’t figure out whether I’m not giving her not enough water or too much.

Yesterday, I avoided the news of the day. Watching the snow fall was amusement enough.

But, as I was going through my emails, I saw the Trumponmics Daily email from Fortune magazine, not, I think, a profoundly liberal magazine.  It eviscerated the Ryancare replacement for Obamacare.

Today, I called Representative Faso’s office and let them know if he voted for this bill as it is currently written, I will absolutely not vote for him in 2018.

It will particularly hit hard seniors, of which I am one [ouch, how did this happen?].  It will be good for, according to Fortune, insurance executives and the wealthy.  Do the wealthy really need this?  No, I don’t think so.

It will save money but at what cost?  It seems to be bad for those who can least afford it and good for those who can most afford it.

And then, it seems we are living in a world of alternative facts.  Mostly, I am bemused about this.  And I am also very disturbed by this.  It is too much; I need to not be consumed by what is happening.  So I do my best to take it in bits and pieces.

Alan Murray, who is CEO of Fortune and Chief Content Officer of Time, Inc. has a daily blog he writes which is worth reading.  Google it and you will find it.  A very good read.

And today, like most days since the inauguration, is another day of news delights.

A judge in Hawaii has ruled against the newest version of Trump’s travel ban.

And the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Representative David Nunes of California, has come out saying there’s no evidence of wiretapping of Trump Tower.

Ouch.

GOP Senators are offering changes to the American Health Care Act, which is to replace “Obamacare.”  The pushback on “Ryancare” is getting stronger.

These are extraordinary times.

May we all figure them out.

In the background, jazz plays.  The floodlights illuminate the creek and I am beginning the process of hunkering down for what could be this winter’s big storm.  A nor’easter of grand proportions seems to be headed toward us.

Though there is a chance it might still swing enough to the east to leave us relatively unscathed.  I’m not taking chances.  Today I brought in the big buckets to hold water, I went to the store, buying bottled water and a few food supplies plus some extra candles, in case the power goes out.

It is a little exciting, with a frisson of danger.  We’ve been lucky.  During a wind storm last week something like 200,000 homes lost power.  The last ones to get it back may have gotten it back just in time to lose it again.

It will be what it will be.  We have come far enough to be able to predict a little of what Mother Nature might be doing and not far enough to control it.  So, I am prepared.  I’ve been here when we’ve been without power for two or three days.  It’s sobering as it reminds me that I am protected by fallible technologies from the strength of nature.

Sunday was a pleasant day; I was lector at church, helped with coffee hour and met with someone who will probably take over cleaning my house and then went down to the Dot for Eggs Benedict on potato latkes, consumed while working with a group on the New York Times crossword puzzle.  Usually, I’m not good at it but added a few things.

Reading the New York Times yesterday before church, I avoided the real news and focused, as I do very often these days, on the Food Section, saving recipes right and left to my recipe box.  It’s comfort reading.  We all need it.  Especially now.

Then I read the section devoted to weddings.

And, when I could no longer avoid it, read the news.

Today, the Congressional Budget Office weighed in on what might happen if Obamacare is repealed and replaced by the current bill in front of Congress. Not very pretty.

And I think there’s a phone call to my representative, John Faso, in the future.  He seems to support the bill as it is currently structured.  If so, I won’t be supporting him when the mid-term elections come along.

Senator McCain is calling on Trump to give some proof to support his claims that Obama ordered wiretaps on Trump Tower.  Yes, please, some supporting evidence would be really helpful.  Thank you, John McCain.  He’s saying prove it or retract. President Trump, offer some proof or retract.

Today, the Justice Department is asking for more time.

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a really close friend who voted for Trump.  He said to me:  can’t they just take his phone away?  This is embarrassing.

No, I don’t think The Donald is going to let his phone out his hand though he’s been pretty quiet since the accusation that Obama tapped his phones.

The National Review, a conservative publication, has declared that Trump is destroying his presidency one tweet at a time.  Wow!  William Buckley’s publication is holding the President accountable for his behavior.  Color me surprised…

Jeff Sessions asked all Obama appointed attorneys to resign, immediately.  Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, who had been asked by Trump to stay on, did not resign.  He was fired.

Now, lest we think Preet is just a liberal Democrat…

He was actively pursuing cases against folks close to New York’s Democratic Governor Cuomo.  He has always seemed centered not in ideology but in the search for justice.

Trump seems backtracking on the Obama accusations and Kellyanne Conway said something about microwaves being cameras????? Couldn’t parse that one.  Seriously, I thought I was a living an alternative reality.

And all of this is an alternative reality…  Really!

If you stand at my dining room window and look up, a bright, full moon beams down upon you.  It is delicious; its light glitters on the creek.  In the background, I am listening to the “Swing Jazz” station from Amazon Music via my AI companion, Alexa, aka Echo.

We’re spending lots of time together these days.  As I am brushing my teeth in the morning, I ask Alexa for my daily “Flash Briefing” and she provides me with a summation of news from my selected sources.

Yesterday, I drove into the city as I needed to bring things back from the apartment there to the house here.  And, I must say, I am a bit punch drunk.  Arriving in the city around 5:00 yesterday, I immediately went to a dinner, had three meetings today, loaded the car and returned.

Morpheus and I will soon become acquainted.  And I am looking forward to him wrapping his arms around me.

Being in the car, I listened to a lot of NPR, which is my wont when driving.  Though yesterday, I played a fair amount of jazz on the CD player.

Today, returning from the city, there was a poignant interview with a Trump supporter who is distraught at the chaos the new administration seems to be living in – it is defying his hopes.  I felt for him.

The chaos is defying all our hopes, regardless of who we supported.  This administration seems to relish chaos above all else.

If there is evidence that Obama ordered wiretaps of Trump Tower, I would like to know what that evidence is.  Really, I have a right to know.  If he did, that’s not good and if this is just some delusional moment on our President’s part, I need to know that too.

The world is confused.  No one seems to know who we are or what we stand for,

Scott Pruitt, in charge of the EPA, denied climate change.  Okay, sorry, that seemed resolved but I guess not.

And let’s clear up all this Russian stuff.  What exactly happened? Please, please, please tell us.

Michael Flynn has just retroactively registered himself as having been a lobbyist for the Turkish government, having received over $500,000 from them through a Dutch company that is now denying it was paying him for lobbying and wants its money back.

Huh?

And, that is a lot of what is going on.  I’m saying “huh?” as, it appears are at least some of Trump’s supporters.  Huh?  What is going on?

Please, Mr. President, tell us what is really going on!

And, in the meantime, I am going to look at the full moon, have a martini, relish in my cottage and hygge in the moment.