cobalt

@paul As caregivers for my son with Alzheimer’s, mixed dementia and other issues, I’m wondering how you both can take care of her if she becomes unstable with falls or stays in bed, incontinent. It’s very challenging. And I think you live in a small place so it could be hard to recruit caregivers. Do you already have plans for this? I ask, because it really is a responsibility and takes a great deal of your time and energy.

How about another #TipOfDay? I share these ideas in particular at times I’d just rather be distracted from “unpleasantness” and downright abject horror at something I read has gone on. Happens too much, sometimes daily in the US. Sigh. But hey! Here’s a good one now—cast iron! #CastIron #Cleaning #Cooking

After so many years of reading that some people use a chain mail-type mesh of stainless steel to clean a cast iron skillet, I finally got one. Works a treat! I heat a pan on the lowest setting with a little added Grapeseed oil for about 5-10 minutes.

Then I go at the burnt crud and crust stuff with circular wipes of this mesh. When it gets full of the crust and oil I wash it quick in really hot water (just the mesh, not the pan). Take a paper towel to wipe the skillet out. And another go at it until the skillet has a good even finish again. The mesh helps by keeping any scratches from the pan.

Sadly this pan in the photo had been left over a week waiting for me to go at it. I just wanted to have the right headspace. But now I’m so encouraged by the cleaning mesh trick I will get on it right after using these pans.

@kateiacy Our neighborhood war zone stopped about midnight. We were surprised there were fewer neighbors letting off the fireworks than usual. We didn’t choke on clouds of ash like it gets sometimes. We live in a largely Hispanic neighborhood where fireworks go off almost every holiday!

I kept noticing our dog Buddy is missing. I had spent 15 years trying to comfort him on the 4th. I even looked down several times looking for him. We miss him so.

I didn’t realize you are living where we moved from 22 years ago. I miss Iowa terribly. But oh I’d never be able to think it possible such MAGA would be in power there. Sounds like today is going to be better— all the way to oatmeal! Ha-ha!

If only…

My Fourth of July is not a celebration but an annual reckoning from someone who is and was a privileged American.

I grew up understanding the Declaration of Independence as the author of today’s Guardian editorial ascribes to the view by Abraham Lincoln. Very perceptive to read this essay headlined today from OUTSIDE the US. As if inside the US today, such an essay would be tamed down, censored and page 3 or 5 in a newspaper/news site.

But then my Dad was a teacher of America history, government and economics. We spent most major holidays and vacations visiting museums, battlefield memorials, homes of American presidents and significant historical memorials. No Disneyland or carnivals for us, nor great American cookouts or county fairs for us. Yep, I guess in today’s view, nerds. And certainly not quite All-American as Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater would describe. And, pointedly, we are white. Non-immigrant. Born American. Educated. Both sides of the family had descendants who fought in the Civil War on the Union side.

Dad was able to get GI benefits for education and a home loan. We joined the many in the first housing developments of single family homes of people who were uniformly white, had 2.3 or 4 children and nuclear families where of course Mom and Dad were raising the family. Turns out, we were privileged.

I found out we were privileged because I read history. And we went there: places where America began and grew. But we did see both the ideal history and aspirations of greatness as well as the “inconvenient” and shocking history of slavery and segregation, and what we now call “income inequality”.

I was in the generation where Peace, Love, Civil Rights and Women’s Rights were radical out front confrontations battled the complacent and frankly old leaders in power. Class war was present along with income inequality. We were Volunteers for America, inspired by “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” And from back in 1942 we valued “Truth, justice and the American way.” (Yay Superman!)

Fair and empowered public education for All was bolstered and funded. Science took us to the moon and it sure looked like education, science, and fairness would lead us onward in progress. Massive People’s Revolutions in the streets came to end the Vietnam War, to enact voting rights and empower Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. But wait, freedom was everywhere as long as the People stood up for justice.

Well. Then there is Now, fifty and more years later, and so many Americans are now bewildered and the phrase WTF comes to mind. Words of inspiration are twisted and convoluted to mean just what Power commands. Our Peace
Movement became unimaginable Defense enforcement expansion spending a majority of federal government in a Police State and Department of War. “America First!” the Powers That Be demand. And once more the World sees the Ugly American.

I continue to try to not be consumed in despair and bitterness. But it’s hard; getting harder. All that “so-called privilege” my family was born into “a fair chance to succeed” far less powerful than money invested and profited. We didn’t get the promised bounty of “work hard” and succeed. “Get a college degree” no longer meant getting a “good job”. “Equal Opportunity” meant strenuous efforts to exclude and marginalize people.

Step out of line! “For What It’s Worth” still brings me to tears as well as hearing “four dead in Ohio”. Till I’m dead, I still celebrate “What It’s Worth” to be our anthem. It’s worth it to fight the good fight, stand up for Justice. Take America back, my American friends, people I know now and those priceless decent people I’ve yet to meet. Justice for All, and We the People are still in my blood, despite my brain shouting “WTF”. On this Fourth of July, I here sign again,
Peace out,
cobalt
#July4th #FourthOfJuly #WeThePeople #ForWhatItsWorth

https://youtu.be/80_39eAx3z8

(Editorial in the Guardian here:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jul/04/250-years-declaration-of-independence