Before getting to the heart of the blog, I have an announcement and an ask.
First the announcement: A new, revised version of my humorous memoir, A Dead Tomato Plant and a Paycheck will be released the end of August. It has new content, a new cover, and was professionally formatted. It’s live at Amazon for preorder for only .99. The book celebrates family and motherhood with humor and the love that held it all together.
It’s already gaining some traction in the rankings, and would love for the momentum to continue. Please consider ordering a copy, or two; one for yourself and one to share. Then help me spread the word.
Thanks in advance!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It doesn’t pay to be sick & lose an entire week. All my plans for updating my blog, in addition to finishing other writing assignments, fell to the wayside when I went into the hospital last Saturday night. What I thought would be a quick trip to ER turned into 3 days in the hospital followed by a few days of feeling pretty puny when I got home.
Thankfully, I’m doing better.
That recent hospital stay brought home the reality that it doesn’t pay to be in bed for long hours of the day when you’re old. Each day in a hospital takes away physical strength, and it can take two or more weeks to fully recover. Even a short hospital stay can cause significant muscle loss and weakness in seniors. That makes it much harder to bounce back to something close to where we were before.
It’s been better the past 2 days, so I’m hopeful it will be upward and onward from here.
While in the hospital, I was also reminded of the importance of compassionate care. Medical staff who bring kindness and genuine caring to each interaction, help patients feel better emotionally, and that emotional improvement can assist in bringing physical improvement. When treated with that little extra TLC, patients don’t feel discouraged and are more apt to work harder to follow the medical protocols and do what they can to assist in recovery.
A focus on compassionate care is becoming more common now, and what a relief that is. I commend the staff at the local hospital who brought that extra dose of kindness to every interaction.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’ve become incredibly tired of people in government making decisions based on what’s politically advantageous to their future in government, as evidenced by how many in the GOP bow to Trump’s threats instead of doing the right thing for constituents.
The practice of political maneuvering isn’t limited to the GOP, but the more Trump openly steps in to influence primary elections takes the system to a new level of extreme. Case in point is how Trump tanked the reelection hopes of two GOP senators because they won’t support his agenda one-hundred percent. Most recently, Texas Senator John Cornyn and Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina appear unwilling to vote to confirm Todd Blanche as Attorney General, an approval that would move the nomination out of the Judicial Committee of the Senate.
Since approval is now in limbo as of this writing, it’s reported that Trump is threatening to pull the nomination. A post on Truth Social last Thursday stated that he’s willing to wait until after the midterms to nominate Blanche again. The two pesky GOP senators will be gone, so Trump is gambling on maintaining control of the Senate come November.
Both Cornyn and Tillis want to limit Trump’s audit immunity as part of any agreement to move forward on the nomination. The senators want Blanche to agree to limit the audit immunity deal to existing audits, meaning Trump and family and Trump companies would not be protected from future investigations, but Blanche won’t sign on.
The fact that Trump is willing to delay Blanche’s confirmation rather than agree to drop his settlement with the IRS is a clear indication that something isn’t right in Whoville.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ending the commentary as always with humor from Slim Randles. Never want to leave readers on a downer. Enjoy!
“Now that’s the job I want,” said Steve, putting down the paper. “A guy could really sink his teeth into something like that.”
Doc looked up from his coffee. “Didn’t know you were looking for work, Steve. Cowboying not working out for you?”
“It isn’t that,” said the cowboy/farrier, “it’s just that a guy should always keep his eyes open so as not to miss an opportunity to better himself. That’s why I’m so interested in becoming a chicken ranger.”
“A what?”
“He said a chicken ranger, Doc,” said Bert, “but I never heard of one.”
“Scoff if you must, friends,” said Steve with a flourish, “but right here in the pages of our own glorious newspaper, the Valley Weekly Miracle, comes one of the best ideas for a job I’ve ever heard of. It seems if your chickens run around loose, you get more money for their eggs. No. Seriously. Look at this ad. The store says they are from certified free-ranging chickens. Got it stamped right on every free-ranging egg.”
“Heard about that,” Doc said, nodding. “It’s not that the eggs are better, but it makes you feel better about eating an egg from a happy hen, ‘cause she can run around and peck on other hens and get pecked on rather than be caged.”
“And therein lies my new job, gentlemen,” Steve said. “Someone has to make sure those are happy, unfettered, free-ranging manufacturers of cackleberries, and I’m just the guy to get ‘er done.”
Bert, who takes his charter membership in the Mule Barn truck stop’s philosophy counter and world dilemma think tank very seriously, said, “Doesn’t sound like much work to me.”
“Each egg has to be certified,” Steve explained. “Gotta be a chicken ranger there to certify those hens didn’t bunch up in a corner somewhere, right? So I’ll be sitting there on my horse, keeping an eye on the girls…”
“On your horse?”
“Of course,” Steve said. “If you can’t do a job horseback it ain’t worth doing. Don’t you know a foot are the two saddest words in the English language?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brought to you by Whimsy Castle, Slim’s most recent novel. Available online at Amazon.com.
