I had occasion to send something to my Dixie chick (South Carolina) friend Donna today. I’ve mentioned her before in a few posts. One has a nice picture of her https://wordpress.com/post/theviewfromharbal.com/1101. She was my old chief’s secretary (er, administrative assistant). We always got along and had fun at work, and have become very good friends since we both retired. She’s agreed to help me with a couple illustrations for a manuscript I’m writing. The email was going to be a reminder that I still wanted her help, but didn’t wish to address it on a Sunday. But once I told her that, I had a few thoughts on the upcoming holiday to share, particularly the situation in my little . Here’s how it went:
Good morning, dear
Looks like you’ve got a nice one down in Clinton today. You’re cooling, we’re warming. Might reach 69 today. Was 38 when I got up, justifying a fire, which is still burning.
I haven’t forgotten about your little artist gig for me. I’m so happy you’re going to take a stab at it. But I’m not attaching the figures I’d like you to reproduce, as it’s Sunday and that would be “work”. I’ve been making a point to stay away from anything that looks like work on the sabbath, mainly my manuscripts, and it feels pretty good. I’ll get them to you Tuesday, same time I’ll gladly pay you for that hamburger.
We’re having a nice quiet Memorial Day weekend. We got our graves in Grandville decorated Wednesday, a trip that had us on the back roads out in the sunshine with the top down on our Jeep for about 6 hours. We were looking forward to our usual Memorial Day neighborhood get-together. Most of the occupants of the 13 houses on our little cul-de-sac show up, along with a few folks from Broadway. Everyone brings a dish to pass and something to drink, and a good time is had by all. Just about everyone on the street has gone COVID crazy, so Kathy and I were kinda surprised when the usual organizers of the event, our neighbors down the street announced it was going to happen this year. I don’t think we had it last year. But the kicker came a couple days ago when the organizer sent out an e-mail stating that, out of concern for everyone’s safety, only those who have been fully vaccinated may attend. We’ve been vocal about our disinterest in getting that science fiction crap stuck into our bodies, so she surely knows who she’s excluding. But I don’t know if she recalls that Kathy and I have 7 science degrees between us, including 2 doctorates, 34 years on faculty of a major medical school (44 if you count Kathy’s 10 years as a research scientist in Anatomy and Cell Biology) plus several years experience doing bench research in virology. You can count Kathy there, too, as it was a virology project that brought us together. Might we know what we are doing? As you might imagine, the street is pretty blue, with lots of “Black lives matter”, “shut down line 5”, “love is love etc”, and of course Biden/Harris, which mercifully have been taken down. The organizer’s yard is densest. She had trouble understanding our sign – “Yard Sign – We c
re” – which we still proudly display. Our best friends on the street, our best friends, are the only ones who lean right. He’s not a rabid Trumpista like me, but has a small business and supported him out of self interest. He just told us this one. He and the organizer were having some sort of discussion with political overtones when he paused and said to her “You know, I lean right” to which she responded “Don’t know her”. So I think her yard isn’t the only thing that’s dense. Come Memorial Day, I’m gonna smoke me some ribs and make sure the smoke wafts at least 2 doors down the street so the 5-Fs* can smell what they’re missing. Our friends said they might have something separate.** Since they’re right across the street from the organizers we can throw beer cans at them. I’ll make sure to have a few coughing fits.
So I hope you have as much fun this long weekend as we intend to.
Bob
* short for “Fauci’s Feeble-minded Fear-Filled Followers”, from a blog I posted back in February. Not sure I brought it to your attention then https://wordpress.com/post/theviewfromharbal.com/1134
** Kathy says they’re having us over today. I may still toss a few beer cans over and try to cough a lot. Maybe I’ll wear my MAGA hat. If it gets warm enough, I can wear my “Deplorable Lives Matter” t-shirt.
Bob Ike's blog 
Your neighbors are SO Ann Arbor!! Our sympathies.Mrs.Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
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So true. Julie cried like a millennial when hit by this (she’s 67) then proceeded to forward my “mean” “hostile” e-mail to everyone in the “neighborhood”, a pretty far flung group as one got to Italy, where a guy who lived across the street from our house now lives, having moved away before we got here in ’85. He’s one of 2 “neighbors” to email me back, although a few more have contacted Kathy. The Italian guy said he thought support of Trump was driven solely by stupidity and our next door neighbor, who’s left our Christian Reformed Church because it’s too conservative, quoted scripture. Raining hot coals on my face! Our 80 year old neighbor 3 doors down, who was once a secretary in my division, died last night. Hope it wasn’t my fault. Probably COVID.
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Bob, Bob, Bob…. All that education and still a punk who has to resort to strawman arguments. What the “Italian guy” (that’s me, I live there but I’m American … I don’t know if your readers get to read my reply) said was “While I can sympathize with many right-leaning positions, I tend to attribute the bulk of Trump’s popularity to sheer stupidity. But I must say, a lot of what has happened is really beyond me.” That is a comment about myself with a pretty strong hint that my opinion may be flawed. I was going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you were merely an asshole, but at least one with a bit of integrity. Now I suspect you may be been right in characterizing yourself as a bully. And like most bullies, you also appear to be a coward who shrinks from the truth.
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