Fighting Hatred

At the Texas State Capitol

My husband Don and I spent Memorial Day morning at the SB4 Protest Rally yesterday.  Why?  It's part of the hate-filled racist bs that is becoming more and more overt ever since El Cheeto took over.

SB4 is why I've started carrying my passport with me whenever I leave the house.  Don thought that wasn't necessary until yesterday, when one of the racist SOB Republicans called ICE so the protestors could all be detained.  Nothing happened (except that State Representatives almost came to blows over it), but it could have. And the last thing I, an American citizen, want is to be deported to Mexico or South America because some racist cop decides since I'm Hispanic I must be here illegally.  (Of course, carrying the passport only helps if they bother to look at it, but still.)

But Texas SB4 isn't just a free license to racially profile and harass people.  It's also a HUGE burden on already overworked, underpaid, and short handed police officers and police departments.  Instead of doing their jobs, Republicans want them to do ICE's job.  Or perhaps they simply want them to do it in addition to their own jobs.  I'm not sure, but either way it's a BAD idea.

In the end, it makes ALL of us less safe.

Updates, on Kai and on Life

Now that everything but the waiting is over on our Canadian citizenship test, I can get back to my regularly scheduled life, including blogging.  Mind you, it took a call to our MP to get it done, but I don't really want to go into the horribly inefficient, if not incompetent, process it was.  Results, of a sort, will take anywhere from one to three months, so it looks like we'll be here at least into January, if not March, just what we've been trying to avoid.

Kai's cyst turned out to be benign, thank the Goddess.  Of course, he is now in the second phase of stitching on it, seeing as the wound opened up the afternoon after we got the stitches out the first time.  This time, they're leaving them in longer.

Samhain was an even quieter-than-usual affair this year, largely due to the aforementioned stitches.  We have to keep him fairly calm until they come out (again), so we couldn't afford repeated knocks at the door, which would have been too exciting for him, crate or no.  So we hid in the back part of the house and did only a quiet little ritual.

On a related note, this is the first year we've celebrated New Year's Day on November 1st.  We decided to do it for a variety of reasons, but it was definitely odd being the only ones around us doing it.  Not to mention that there was no snow on the ground and no fairy lights around.  Unless of course you count the orange ones at the neighbor's house.  :)

I had a surprisingly wonderful time at Hammercon IV last weekend!  I had never gamed in public before, and I was majorly stressed about it, but it turned out to be great, even with a couple of GM problems.  Check out the Hammer Games website for news on Hammercon V in 2013, as well as to find games and fellow gamers in the GTA.

And finally, I CAN NOT BELIEVE OBAMA WON!  I'm VERY happy about it, mind you, but I would have bet money it wouldn't happen.

HUMANe Behavior

A puppy died in Vaughan Ontario a few days ago.  The @#%$^&*&^*%$#@^&^$ owners left it in a closed car on a hot day.  The amount of rage and frustration and helplessness and sorrow I feel cannot even come close to being expressed here.  I thought I’d gotten it all out.  I’ve cried about it.  I’ve journaled about it.  I’ve created art to try and get it out. And still, as I sit here and type this, I find myself crying again.

This happened in a local mall parking lot.  A MALL!!!  What kind of idiotic moron leaves a dog in a closed up car when they go shopping?!  It’s unacceptable when you run into a convenience store.  It’s atrocious in this situation.  The dog was in obvious distress while emergency workers worked to get it out, but it lapsed into unconsciousness and died before they did.

If you did this to a child, you’d be charged with murder.  If you do it to a dog, or presumably any animal, you get charged with Animal Cruelty, which in most places is little more than a slap on the wrist.  A slap on the wrist for torturing an animal to death.  For essentially cooking it alive.   (To make this particular incident even worse, the worthless owners were returning to Sudbury after attending Woofstock in Toronto.  They were arrested when they finally returned to their car--here’s hoping they get the maximum penalty possible.)

People!  Don’t leave your pets in a closed car on even a warm day!  Temperatures rise to deadly levels in minutes.  And a cracked window DOES NOT HELP!  If you don’t believe it, try it yourself—sit in a closed car in the sun for just a few minutes.  But be careful.  Getting too hot can cause permanent brain damage, in you OR your dog.

THIS is why I avoid the news.

The (Bad) News Media

". . . it’s painful to turn on the news. "

So I read in Willamette Star.  This prompted me to comment:

"This is exactly why I stopped watching the news and reading newspapers.  Since I did, I've been a much less stressed, much happier person.  It's not that I don't want to know what's going on, it's that the news media focus SO much on the bad, depressing, anger-inducing issues in life.  I still hear about what's going on, from friends or items floating around the 'net, but without all the lets-get-the-ratings-up/sell-more-copies drama."

I made a conscious decision to stop watching the news about 4 years ago.  I realized that every time I did, I would get physically stressed and emotionally depressed.  I would sometimes feel angry for hours after, and occasionally I'd break down and cry.

When I finally became consciously aware of the problem, I stopped and asked myself why it was so upsetting.  Was there something wrong with me?  Was I just a basket-case?  I found out that no, it wasn't me, it was them.  Good news doesn't get ratings, or sell papers.  At least not like bad news does.  Sure, every once in a while they throw in something uplifting, like a good sports score or a local hero saving a child, but for the most part it's all about people and situations being horrible, scary, evil, and generally unpleasant.

When I stopped watching, I became a better person.  I'm definitely happier, I like people better on a day-to-day basis, and I don't have such a bleak view of humanity in the large sense.  Sure, I occasionally miss out on some big story, but it's definitely worth the price!

What is your news program talking about tonight?

Groundhogs, Blizzards, and Spring

Welcome to the Groundhog Day Storm of 2011! 

February 2 is an interesting day for DH and I, even without a blizzard!  Imbolc is often celebrated on the 2nd, as is Groundhog Day and the stolen Candlemas.  My DH and I celebrate not only the day we met, but also the day, a year later, when we married on the 2nd.  This year, it also happens to be the eve' of Chinese New Year (Year of the Rabbit, or so I've heard).  And, just to add a little interest, today there is, of course, the storm.  Whew!

I'm pretty sure we all know about Groundhog Day.  But how many of you know it has Pagan origins?  I'm not kidding!  See for yourself--Google "groundhog" and "Pagan". 

Imbolc is also a Pagan holiday with roots in fertility, weather divination, and looking forward to Spring.  Those who know much more about etymology than I will tell you that the word itself comes from a Gaelic phrase for "in the womb".  This phrase refers to lambs, which are now or will shortly be waiting to be born, as we are waiting for Spring. The Earth herself lies in wait, preparing to burst forth with new life in a few weeks.

Most of you don't know that DH and I met on the internet, long before it was actually cool to have done so.  We met face-to-face when he drove from Dallas to Austin in an ice storm on February 2nd, and we were married a year to that date later on a rainy one.

I don't know a whole lot about Chinese New Year, so I'll move on to the storm.  A blizzard was forecast for last night and this morning, but I haven't checked if we actually made it.  I've seen snow falling harder since moving here, and I've seen higher winds, but the criteria for a blizzard are the durations of both.  The media is calling it the GroundHog Day Storm, and I admit it's a catchy title.  DH and I have never been in a blizzard before, and with our love of winter and of weather, we loved it!

Whatever you're celebrating today, I hope you've had and are having a great one!

December 21, 2012

End of the world?  Chaos & cataclysm?  Death and destruction?  Meaningless superstition? Something in between?

I've had this on my mind lately, as I try to learn how to save seeds from this year for next.  Am I wasting my time, or is this a vital skill I need to learn?

I, personally, am of the opinion that the world AS WE KNOW IT, will end sometime near the titled  date.  I suppose that could mean that we will all die in a nuclear war, or be wiped out in world-wide natural disasters, or that aliens will come down from the sky and enslave us all, but none of that is really what I believe will happen.

I think the "end" will be much more subtle than any of that.  The pessimistic side of me wonders if the last bee will die, with our crops and ourselves slowly following.  The newer, much more hopeful side of me thinks maybe it will simply be a shift in human consciousness--a new, more positive way of looking at things, perhaps.  In my wildest dreams, I imagine that the number of Pagans will outgrow the numbers of more established religions, which would certainly bring a new worldview to humanity.

I suppose only time will tell.  If nothing happens by the Winter Solstice in 2012, I'll begin to believe the Mayans were wrong.  If nothing happens by 2020, I'll know they were.

In the meantime, I'll follow the old saw and hope for the best while I prepare for the worst.

Lyme Disease in Canada

This is another post I didn't really want to write, but once again I've been stuttering in my posts because of avoiding it, so it's obviously something I need to get out.  And I need to do it whether or not it is very upsetting and very difficult to write.

I've been suffering unusually frequent and unusually serious diseases and conditions for the past two years or so.  I've been diagnosed with Clinical Depression, Anxiety Disorder, and, most recently, Fibromyalgia.  I've been asked if I've had a heart attack due to the damage around my heart.  (I haven't.)  And before my DH heard a life-changing story on the radio, I thought I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

These, and others*, are all diseases that Lyme Disease (LD) can mimic.  The Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation lists 76 symptoms associated with LD, many of them mimicking serious ailments, not all of which everyone gets.  The Foundation claims that if you have 20 or more you are at serious risk of having LD.  I personally have close to 30. 

Open and shut case, right?  Wrong.  LD is controversial worldwide.  Many doctors don't even recognize it as a disease.  Here in Canada, the problem is twofold--doctors are resistant to acknowledge the disease, and when they do agree to look into it, they only perform the first level standard test for LD, the notoriously inaccurate ELISA test.  Most of them won't even consider going on to more in-depth, more accurate tests.

The most common recommendation from patient advocates?  Send your blood to be tested in a private lab in the States.  The one I looked for performed five standard tests, continuing with another three if those were inconclusive.  The price is about $500 US, and we'll have to pay for it ourselves, but it would be worth it. 2nd recommendation?  See the one physician in all Ontario who is supposedly sympathetic to LD.

I was all set to try either of these recommendations when I ran into even more snags.  The LD sympathetic doctor needs a referral from my doctor to see me.  The lab in the States needs a request from a doctor to perform the tests, even if I'm the one paying for them.  Neither of these things was particularly a problem--my family physician is, for the most part, really cool, and I figured that even if she herself doesn't believe I have LD, she wouldn't stop me from pursuing it on my own.  So I call.  Or, rather, my DH calls, since one of my LD symptoms involves hearing problems.  At any rate, he finds out that I need to actually come in and see my doctor for either the referral or the request, it can't be done over the phone.  Okay.  No problem.  BUT, my doctor is leaving for vacation tomorrow, and I can't get an appointment to see her until SEPTEMBER 10!  Problem.  You see, I think I'm in Stage 2 of the LD, and I don't know how long I've got until I move to Stage 3, which has some potentially serious side effects such as permanent arthritis and heart problems. 

So, I took the Sept. 10th appointment, but in the meantime I will try and get an appointment with Dr. Maureen McShane, a New York physician who has had LD, and who doesn't require referrals.  She is actually the woman my DH heard on the radio, which led him to put it all together and propose to me that I might have it.


In closing, Dear Readers, beware--You can contract LD anywhere in North America.  The deer ticks that transmit it are also carried by birds, so you can be bitten even in the most urban areas furthest from known tick infestations  Less than 50% of people notice the tick that gave them LD, and only about 30% get the recognized "bull's eye" rash.  Stage 1 is relatively easy to treat, Stage 2 is debilitating and hard to diagnose, and Stage 3 is potentially life threatening.




*Juvenile Arthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Reactive Arthritis, Infectious Arthritis, Osteoarthritis, Fibromyalgia, Raynaud's Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Interstitial Cystis, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, Fifth Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, scleroderma, lupus, early ALS, early Alzheimers Disease, crohn's disease, ménières syndrome, reynaud's syndrome, sjogren's syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, prostatitis, psychiatric disorders (bipolar, depression, etc.), encephalitis, sleep disorders, thyroid disease

Once More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends

I know it's old news, but 2 days ago Prop 8 was once more declared unconstitutional.  (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/08/prop8-gay-marriage.html)  Who hasn't heard about this?

I bring it up now because my feeling about it had been, "Yeah, yeah.  So what.  The RB's (as DH and I call the extreme right, for religious bigots) will just ignore the blatant fact that the issue is unconstitutional and put it on the next ballot again, just as they've done so many times in the past." 

I was actually pretty down, thinking about it.  But a friend of mine maintained that changes like these take decades, and she, for one, was going to be optimistic about it.  I decided she was right, and I would once more apply myself to positive thinking.  (Thanks, Turtle.)

This is a huge victory, and THIS time, law, rationality, and sanity WILL prevail.  They will.

iPhone 4

*&^%@#& Apple! Just when I thought I'd be able to stay with one phone long enough to finish my contract's required years, they come up with folders! FOLDERS! (So now maybe I can actually have all my 723 apps on the darn thing!)

Sundries

Where to start, where to start?

Bad news first: Obama is disappointing me and pissing me off--where does he get off towing the Republican line about gay marriage? It makes every one of the good things he's done suspect. What's his ultimate agenda? What is just about getting a black man in the White House? If so, screw him. If it was about changing things for the better, why doesn't he support EVERYONE who voted for him? I thought he just hadn't had time to deal with it, what with everything, but apparantly not. Apparantly he thought long and hard and decided that he wasn't really a Democrat after all.

Better stuff: Yesterday, Don and I applied for a Shiloh Shephard puppy. (Shiloh Shephards are long-haired German Shepherds, basically.) We'll know in the next few weeks if we've been accepted or not.

Also, D&D Tiny Adventures on Facebook is proving to be fun. Thanks, Marie!