Friday, October 10, 2025

Friday Mutterings

 





No rain today.  

I expected a morning of toweling off dogs and sloshing through mud puddles.  Instead, we have mostly blue skies highlighted with some amazing pink cloud patterns. 

I was actually hoping for rain today for an excuse for a little couch potato time and the opportunity to do some indoor projects. 

One thing I know that I am NOT doing on this unexpected nice day is leaf pickup.  Yesterday's version had to be an all-time candidate for "Dirtiest Job Ever."  

After an hour or so of picking up what I could while a brisk wind blew, I went inside, shed all my clothes and took a bath.  Twas about the dirtiest I've ever been while mowing lawn. 

Though I'm not a big fan of too many rainy days, I wish we could have a few, and I hope next year our wet days are more evenly distributed throughout the seasons.  

Lawn mowing is not fun when it's dirty every day, and yesterday's misery with dust and dirt was one for the books. 

I made a decision yesterday to avoid picking up any more leaves until we get some rain.

Looks like we'll get it over the weekend. 








After reading this morning's news, I'm happy to see that a brave, deserving proponent of democracy has won the Nobel Peace Prize. 



Venezuela's opposition leader María Corina Machado wins 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

by Kate Bartlett

Machado, who has been barred from running for president and lives in hiding, "keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness" in President Nicolás Maduro's "brutal, authoritarian" Venezuela, the committee said. . . . . . 

In a video of Machado receiving the news  posted to the Nobel Prize website she expresses shock at winning.



"Oh my God, I have no words." she says.

"I am just one person. I certainly do not deserve this," she continues, adding it is the "achievement of a whole society."

The 58-year-old has been one of the staunchest critics of Maduro's ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which first came to power in the late 1990s under founder Hugo Chávez. Maduro succeeded Chávez in 2013.

An industrial engineer by profession and a former legislator in the Venezuelan National Assembly, Machado has been shot at and targeted by federal prosecutors. Last year she was meant to be the opposition's presidential candidate in July elections but was banned from contesting the vote.

Instead she threw her backing behind a different party, led by Edmundo González Urrutia. The pro-Maduro National Electoral Council  claimed that President Maduro had won a third term with 51% of the vote, but the opposition said the vote had been rigged and evidence showed Urrutia had won by a landslide.

Election observers noted numerous irregularities in the polls, which were widely dismissed by the international community as neither free nor fair.

Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in protest, but they were quashed by the government, and Machado went into hiding in August 2024 after threats to her life. However, she did not flee the country and remains in Venezuela where she's vowed to fight on.




Elijah and Dakota delivered our new dryer yesterday. 

They were very efficient and friendly. 

They deliver appliances for Home Depot all around the area, as far north as Canada and down into Oregon, so they put in the miles. 

They went off with a few mint Oreos, so I think they were happy delivering to the Lovestead. 

Twasn't more than a couple of minutes before the dryer started its first spin. 

We are happy to be back in business with our laundry. 





I listened to Zoe and Cloyd and their impressive bluegrass band last night on PBS. 



It was a pleasant hour of music, especially the song below, which has a beautiful and timely message.

A reminder and a good way to end a week. 

I know that I have always appreciated the "sons" and "daughters" who live in my neighborhood. 

"We may be different, but I am your neighbor." 

Enjoy and cherish your neighbors. 

Happy Friday.  














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