Michael Brown - a moment of silence

Links to inspired writing on this subject:

http://butterfly-confessions.com/2013/07/03/americas-not-here-for-us/

http://bellejar.ca/2014/11/25/on-ferguson-the-system-isnt-broken-it-was-built-this-way/

http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2014/08/ferguson-white-allies-speak-up.html

http://www.estheremery.com/2014/06/03/when-white-women-talk-about-race-a-case-for-thoughtful-self-censorship/

http://theangryblackwoman.com/2009/10/01/the-dos-and-donts-of-being-a-good-ally/

http://www.nclrights.org/these-are-our-sons/

It's time to listen carefully to those who live these experiences day after day. To speak clearly and succinctly when necessary.

We are all Michael Brown.

Early Birthday...

Soon to have a fleet of his own !~!

Men at Work

Build a climbing structure from PVC pipe while teaching Young Lad to use tools: measuring tape, screwdriver, joining pieces in straight lines and in angles, tapping hammer.

Later he climbs all over it and learns to reach while steadying himself, getting up and down and in and out safely, how big his actual parts are as he squeezes through a space barely bigger than he.

Watching remote control trucks, trailers, fire engines, bulldozers and the men who build and operate them fascinates both these guys. They discuss how each piece of machinery works, what it's named and why, where it can be found... The chat goes on and on all the while sinking the seeds for an education that will last a lifetime.

Next week he turns two. Hard to believe it's been two years since this bobble head came into being.

Birthday Wheels for Baby Boy

Turning Two is Monumental

For such an auspicious occasion, I thought only new wheels would do. May I present...

Happy Birthday, young Lad. Lynda loves you.

Nurses are the Chosen

Head Nurse: We need our own goddamned poster. Please read this and think about you and your family and what you need when the odds are stacked against thru no fault of your own: accident, illness, sudden change in challenges...

Reading it as I sipped my morning juice made me so sad and so mad. Our Kaiser nurses and PAs here in NorCal are striking for better ratios and ebola training and KP is shipping replacements in from all across the country I heard on last night's news.

Nurses keep us alive and safe 24-hours a day.

Some of my very best friends and sisters of other mothers are nurses or retired nurses. The pay for which you work sux and your responsibilities get more oppressive by the week. No wonder errors happen when the systems are rigged against YOU and certainly not helping us, the patients.

Qui bono ?~! Stockholders... not the people for whom the facilities are built nor those who serve so valiantly every day and night.

My favorite nurse of all time-Phyllis Looby in her intense-look pose. 

November is Birthday Month

Five important birthdays happen this month: Ormond, Karen, Heather, Mark and the Baby Boy we love to call Burp. Anyone else out there want a Happy B-day shout out ?~!

For the youngest lad's second birthday he's getting a quilt. His mama told me this morning that he always takes the one I gave her last year and says, "Lyn-nah made it." He wraps up in it and leaves her sitting with a longing look. It's time he had one of his own !~!

So I took a pile of MY favorite fabrics, beings how he's too young to express a preference of his own he gets to love what I do, and began slicing and dicing !~! I sewed them together in varying ways and plan to sew the flimsy envelope style to a fleece blanket and make it a double sided piece. Hope to have it ready to be quilted by tomorrow. I will likely tie it.

What do you think of the variety of fabrics? I love them all !~! Hopefully he will too.

Cat-urday: November Arrives on Rain Clouds

The kitty decided that she would stay in last night for the first time in ages. Her usual MO is to come in for a midnight snack and then she's right back outside to patrol her perimeters. Last night it rained. Not a downpour but a gentle, soothing, ground-soaking moisture that has all the lawns in the neighborhood standing at attention and hoping for a bit of sunshine to encourage photosynthesis.

Sleepy kitty snoozes inside this Halloween night.