Clinging to Sanity with Dark Chocolate

My first brain surgery was in late October of 1982. I was 24 years old. My roommate Cindy and her beau showed up in costume Halloween night. She was kitted out in a handmade skeleton costume (black body suit with white fabric bones pasted over top). Steve, who was a tall, husky guy, was in a costume shop gorilla suit. They brought me a tiara and mask to wear—the nurses were delighted. I'm all about entertaining the nurses.

My parents came up for the surgery and my mother stayed on until I was discharged 10 days later. She still had hearing and great balance then and stayed at a convent way up on Beacon Hill. I don’t know how she finagled that but mother could be quite resourceful and endearing when needs arose.

In any case, she brought me a big bag of dark chocolate covered cherries. Those had been my favorite when I was little and, at this dark scary time, she remembered. Given that I was mother's least favorite child, to say the very least, I was stunned and touched. Maybe she didn’t wholly despise me after all?

Mother died 10 years ago on Halloween. Jen gave me a box of dark chocolate cherries yesterday—Halloween.
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I have a persistent tummy ache and I know what that’s about—the midterm elections. I’ve been avoiding the polls and then I tripped over one that puts the Republi/Fascists WAY ahead at winning the House.

Zut alors! HOW can that be?! The grifters and Former Guy asslicking candidates are so transparently unqualified and vile. Are the vast majority of Americans irretrievably stupid, lazy or too damn wealthy and white for laws and government to matter? Laws and rules? Those are for the the little people.

Being a pessimist would be easier on me, I think. Instead of waking up to the shock and horror of Shrub being re-elected and the nuclear devastation of the Carnelian Con conniving his way into the White House, I would expect nothing else. Yes BUT...then I’d be depressed 24/7.

Mind you, I’m well aware that not all Southerners and MidWesterners are heartless, bigoted, ant-headed, violence craving trolls. Really! I know that much of the problem is that districts have been gerrymandered to hell and beyond. HOW can that be remedied when the Fascists have already put in the fix? Seriously—HOW?

Are the voters of GA-14, CO-3, CA-23, OH-4, TX-01, etc. predominately credulous, fact averse, loony tune, Q-anon tribble brains? Were these voters born without a functional prefrontal cortex?
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Hillel is in Israel now for the fundraising Israel Ride. The cycling kicks off tomorrow. The last few days have been devoted to getting un-jetlagged and taking in some sights like the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

…the oldest extant Islamic monument. The structure is situated on a flat elevated plaza known to Muslims as al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf (“The Noble Sanctuary”) and to Jews as the Temple Mount (the site where the Temple of Jerusalem once stood). (source)

The Dome of the Rock sits on top of the Temple which King Solomon built in 1000 BCE (it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE). Abd al-Malik ibn Marwān, the fifth caliph of the Umayyad Arab dynasty had the mosque built in the 7th century CE.

My god, that’s an old pile! Hillel also tells me that there are a LOT of cats in Jerusalem. AWESOME!

For the ride, there are different routes based on what each rider can realistically do. They range from 150 – 350 miles, to be peddled over five days. Our man Hillel hopes to do the longer route.

All power to him!