One Million Five Hundred Sixteen Thousand People

No, my blog title isn't a bad take on the hit Broadway song "Seasons of Love".  It came from something tweeted by singer Bette Midler two days ago:  1,516,173 gun related deaths in the United States since 1968.

 It's been years since I've been in the Texas Hill Country. It's been 45 years since I left Texas.  My spouse and I lived in Texas for eight months while he received technical training from the military.

The Christmas we lived in Texas, we were able to go on vacation and we visited San Antonio, Texas.  It was a wonderful visit.  We also drove through some parts of the Texas Hill Country.  I don't think we traveled through Uvalde, though.

We didn't stay in that part of the United States, though.  Fate eventually brought us to the Southern Tier of New York.  But Texas has stayed in my memory.

It's an interesting place, though, this little city of Uvalve, which lies about a one and a half hour drive from San Antonio.  The "Uvalde County Fun Facts" blog describes the area as follows:

"The Texas Hill Country River Region in Uvalde County is a place of simple pleasures – a land where chalk cliffs surround three crystal-clear rivers and a canopy of Cypress trees casts the perfect blanket of shade from the sunny skies overhead."

Maybe so, but Uvalde will forever be linked to a tragedy that grows more tragic by the minute.  If I had been there last week- let's pretend I was- what would I have said to the grieving people?  I can't even begin to thik of any way I could offer support, except for the not-so-fun fact that I am a member of one of the many United States communities that have suffered mass killings.  So maybe I could have said:

"Our gunman bought the semi automatic pistol he used legally.

So did yours.  And, in fact, the New York Times Sunday Review listed, on its front page, 15 mass shootings where the gunman bought his gun legally.

Ours took the lives of 13 innocents plus it orphaned two children. Yours never should have happened because we should have solved this problem of gun violence many years ago.

We the people failed you, the people of Uvalde, Texas, just as we  failed the people of Buffalo, New York.   And we the people of the United States have failed tens of other communities, too many to name.

All I can tell you, people of Uvalde, is this: one day the news media trucks and reporters will be gone, just as it was for us.  You will be left to mourn in silence, the silence of indifference, as Americans move on to the next tragedy, the next horror.

Because, make no mistake, there will be next tragedies, there will be next horrors, and then, what will we say to those families?"

Those words would not have given any comfort.  But they would have been true words, every one.

A 12 year old girl died in Binghamton in April, thirteen years after that adult classroom shooting in Binghamton, New York, struck by a bullet while she was out walking with her family.  No arrests have been made.  The neighborhood (I know someone who lives in that neighborhood) is crying out for justice.

It isn't the terrible mass shootings that make the national news that are the problem.  It's all the shootings.  And if we don't care about adults, at least we can care about the children impacted each year.  When one person is killed or injured by a gun, entire families suffer.  In the case of a mass shooting (four or more people injured or killed in the same shooting incident) it's an entire community.

At least care about the children.

I guess it takes someone from outside the United States to call out this situation.  A blogger I read had something to say about what is happening here.

On this day after Memorial Day, all I can say is "History will judge us. History will remember.  What will the final judgement be?"

Memorial Day Music #MusicMovesMe

It's Monday, it's Memorial Day in the United States, and it's time for Music!

Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers? We are bloggers who blog about music each Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please!)   Our head hostess is Cathy from Curious as a Cathy,  and she is joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and the world famous (not) me.  Our founder, Xmas Dolly, has stepped back from blogging for now, and would appreciate your good thoughts as she works through some health issues.

We'd love more music lovers to join our fun group.  All you have to do is join the linky above with a music post that contains at least one music video (there must be a music video or your post will be subject to removal or labeling "No Music").  Easy peasy!

Each month, except December, we have a guest host. For the month of May, our guest host was John Holton of "The Sound of One Hand Typing".  Thank you for hosting May, John!

For today, John is choosing the theme "build an acrostic where the first letter of a song title spells out 'Memorial Day'.  Memorial Day, for those music lovers outside the United States, started after our Civil War (1861-1865) to honor war dead.  It has expanded to honor American war dead of all wars.  On a lighter note, for many, it is also the start of summer but, overall, it is a time to stop and remember the ultimate sacrifices our men and women in uniform have made to defend our freedoms.

So here's my list except I am going to make this an 80's feast.  All the songs in "Memorial" are from the 80's with one exception, because I felt this song needed to be included.  The "Day" songs are from various decades.  There's a lot of music here, so if you want to skip around, I won't tell on you.  Some are songs appropriate for Memorial Day and some are just good songs.

"More Than A Name on A Wall", The Statler Brothers (1988)

Eat It, by "Weird Al" Yankovic. (1984), a parody of Michael Jackson's Beat It.  This is one of two parodies Weird Al made of Michael Jackson's songs, the second being "Fat". (You'll have to click through on the link that shows in the video to play this directly on You Tube).

Mr. Roboto, from Styx (1983)

Only the Lonely, from The Motels (1982)

Remember the Heroes, from Sammy Hagar (1982).

I Can't Write Left Handed, Bill Withers (1973).  I grew up during the Vietnam War and some members of Music Moves Me are veterans of war.

All You Zombies from The Hooters (1982), a Philadelphia band that has been together some 40 years. I had the (vinyl) album this song came from, one of six albums they have released.

Living in America, James Brown (1985).

Dear Uncle Sam, Loretta Lynn (1966).

All The Things She Said from Simple Minds (1985)

Last but not least.  I never knew that the Dovells hit "You Can't Sit Down" was originally done as an instrumental by the Phillip Upchurch Combo in 1981.  So I will end this Memorial Day set with a memory for some.

You Can't Sit Down (Pts 1 and 2) - the Phillip Upchurch Combo.  Only Part 2 charted but this is a compilation of both. 

And that's a long wrap!

Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.

New Rock and Roll Heaven Inductees

 May couldn't leave us without bringing a couple of new rock and roll heaven inductees with it.

On May 26, we lost Yes and John Lennon drummer Alan White at the age of 72. White was with the band Yes for 50 years.

Here are a couple of musical hits featuring Alan White on the drums.  White also played drums on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass album (along with two other drummers), but, according to Rolling Stone magazine, there are no "proper credits" for who played on which track.

Here is a lot of biographical detail. 

Alan White played with Yes through so many incarnations of their musical styles, and the changing of various band members.  For me, there are songs I like and songs that I don't.  I decided not to do their hit "Owner of a Lonely Heart" which is one of my favorites, but this song "Flying From Here Pt 1:  We Can Fly."

And because I can, here is White playing drums on Lennon/Ono with the Plastic Ono Band's "Instant Karma!(We All Shine On"). 

The other inductee is Depeche Mode keyboardist and founding memberAndy Fletcher, who also died on May 26, at age 60.  

Here are two Depeche Mode hits.   First, "I Just Can't Get Enough".

Finally, one of my favorite songs of this group:  "Enjoy the Silence".

If you enjoy music, why not join me and other music bloggers tomorrow for the "Music Moves Me" meme?  You can even join the linky today, if you want, at Curious as a Cathy's site.

Small Beginnings at the Community Garden

Thanks to some delays (such as the park where our garden is located having to be closed for several days due to a paving project) we are a bit behind in our community garden plantings.

So right now we have small beginnings.

A bonus shot first, from a week or so ago - an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly near our raised bed.

Raised bed (my bed, which spouse has been tending this spring while my infected finger healed) from bottom to top, butternut squash, lettuce, tomato (left) edible podded peas (right) barely visible at top are zinnias.  We lost some of our peas when we couldn't get in to water them.  The butternuts are an experiment - these are supposed to be container suitable.

Raised bed other end, several garlic plants that we planted last fall.

A fellow gardener told us today someone saw a groundhog sunning himself/herself in one of these raised beds.  We haven't fenced our box in (some people have) and we'll have to see.  

We abandoned growing beans in the raised bed this year because we were feeding the deer, not us.  Nothing seemed to help, even spray that is supposed to repel them. 

But we are growing them in ground. Strangely, they seem to be bothered less in the ground, perhaps because the area is less open (it's a large community garden of over 100 plots).

Tomatoes in spouse's in ground plot.  Beans are up but they didn't photograph well.

Finally, onion plants.

I may have been gardening since 1978, but the joy of seeing plants grow never leaves me and I thank my spouse, who does 99% of the veggie gardening work.  I couldn't garden in my New York City apartment growing up except some flowers on a windowsill.  I've been so fortunate all these years since.

Spring is moving so quickly. I have so many flower shots to show you and I'll probably never get to showing them all to you.  

Before we know it, harvest time will be here for these veggies.  But I never forget their humble beginnings.

Do you garden?

Sapsucker Skies #SkywatchFriday

We've gotten through the week.

We've seen the various mood of the sky.

It's time to pull up a bench, and watch the skies with me.

Earlier this week, I was in Dryden, New York, in the Finger Lakes near Cayuga Lake.  The photo above and the next two were taken at Sapsucker Woods, a place owned by Cornell University. Their mission: "To interpret and conserve the earth's biological diversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds."  

There are about four miles of trails, some leading you past water, and others through woods, and you are encouraged to watch for birds and other wildlife.  But nothing says you can't watch for lovely reflections in the water, too.

So let's wait around a bit...and, oh, guess what we see?  In the center of the photo, a family of Canada geese.  If you are wondering about the Sapsucker name, here's the back story.

No, we didn't see any yellow-bellied sapsuckers, but we did add some birds to our life list.

I'm going to sneak a bit more of Nature into my last two sky photos.  First, a shot taken May 19 of a young dogwood tree.

Finally, from yesterday, here's a picture taken from Ross Park, a Binghamton, New York city park.

Want more skies?  Why not click on over to Yogi at #SkywatchFriday and see who else is watching the sky?

Dogwoods #ThursdayTreeLove

 We have many flowering trees in the Southern Tier of New York, where I live, but most all of them seem to be rushing to complete their blooming.  The hotter than normal weather we've had on some days this month isn't helping.

This is a pink dogwood - here's a closeup of the flowers.  This tree didn't even last two weeks from start of bloom to finish.  It finished up over a week ago but it is fondly remembered.

This is a young tree and so I was able to get the entire tree into one photo.

Our native dogwoods normally have white flowers.

Many are planted near churches because they have a lot of religious symbolism for Christians.  Our area also has Chinese dogwoods (Kousa dogwoods), which  bloom after the natives, and are also a little smaller than our natives.  The Kousa dogwoods are also resistant to a disease that has impacted native dogwoods.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food on second and fourth Thursdays for #ThursdayTreeLove.

Unexpected Mushrooms #WordlessWednesday

Last Friday.  Our community garden plot.  We were doing a little raised bed maintenance on what was going to be a hot day.

And then I saw these growing.

No, these aren't potatoes.

These are mushrooms.  An unexpected crop. I'm happy they were outside our raised bed.

And no, I'm not going to harvest these.

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.

How Many People Does it Take to Change A Light Bulb The Conclusion

Last Thursday, I published a blog post about a little bulb that burnt out in the inside of our freezer.  Trying to find a replacement bulb for a "12 V E14" LED sent us on an hours long hunt where I learned more than I want to know about LED light bulbs and technology that goes obsolete between the time you buy something and the time something needs replacement.

This is a too-familiar story for many of us, and I thought that the commenters on that post might want to know what finally happened.  What we encountered was an odyssey of customer service (or lack of it), which seems to be normal for these times.

When I last left you, dear reader...

... I was exhausted from a long, fruitless Internet research. We used to have a couple of appliance parts places in this area, but we knew they were no more.  The manufacturer of the freezer had nothing at all about freezers on their website. They had a customer service number that actually had Saturday hours, but spouse didn't want to try it. Amazon didn't seem to have anything that looked anything like this little light bulb.  Finally, we gave up for the day.

The next day, our son came over for lunch and he tried to help us. He discovered our particular bulb had been discontinued.   Finally, he came up with a possibility, on Amazon (a site I try not to order from, but it was looking like we had no choice).  The bulbs (we had to buy two) came last Tuesday.  They didn't fit.

He thought he found a possibility at a big box store locally, and that's where my post Thursday ended.  So let's join our story, already in progress.

We have two of those stores locally and I'm not going to name the chain.

Store #1: spouse went by himself.  There was no one around the department to help him.  He couldn't find it although the website said it was in stock.

Store #2 (both spouse and I) couldn't find the bulb and, again, there was no employee around.  We asked the customer service desk person and she looked annoyed (OK, maybe my take on her facial expression, but I also know she has a thankless job and may have just been having a bad day, especially if the store was understaffed).  She paged someone to come to that department. No one came.

We then went to the next aisle (a different department) and there was an employee there.  This young woman helped us.  The bulbs son had found (I had a screenshot on my phone, thankfully) were another size: E-12.  E-14s apparently are no longer made. She knew very little about the light bulb department, so our thanks go doubly to her.

This E-12 was the size of the bulbs we got from Amazon.  I got to thinking, was there such a thing as a E-14 to E-12 adapter.  Turns out Amazon sold one, through an Amazon storefront (I think that's the right term) on the West Coast.  I emailed them to see if it would be suitable for use in a freezer lid.

I never got a response after some 24 hours but the adapter was so inexpensive I decided to order it anyway.  It came yesterday.

The adapter worked.

So, how many people does it take to change a light bulb?  The modern answer: Too, too many.

Have you ever had a planned obsolescence experience?

Power Ballads #MusicMovesMe

It's Monday and we all know what that means.  Boys and girls, it's time to turn away from your cares and enjoy some music!

Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers? We are bloggers who blog about music each Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please!)   Our head hostess is Cathy from Curious as a Cathy,  and she is joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and the world famous (not) me.  Our founder, Xmas Dolly, has stepped back from blogging for now, and would appreciate your good thoughts as she works through some health issues.

We'd love more music lovers to join our fun group.  All you have to do is join the linky above with a music post that contains at least one music video (there must be a music video or your post will be subject to removal or labeling "No Music").  Easy peasy!

Each month, except December, we have a guest host. For the month of May, our guest host is John Holton of "The Sound of One Hand Typing".

For today, John is choosing the theme "You Pick".

I'm picking some power ballads today.  So, dim the lights and get your cigarette lighters and/or cell phones ready.  But first, what is a power ballad, anyway?

You know it when you hear it.  It starts out slow, then suddenly, you are soaring in the stratosphere, grabbing onto the lyrics for dear life as you hope the song will never end.

Although the 80's may have been the golden age for power ballads, not all my selections are from the 80's.  In fact, my first selection is going to be quite recent.  Ukraine won Eurovision on Saturday night with this song by the Kalush Orchestra.  It's not a power ballad in the traditional sense but I want to honor Ukraine and its people today.

The song:  Stefania.

This brings up an interesting question.  Normally, the winner of the current Eurovision hosts it the following year, meaning that Ukraine would host in 2023.  But what if Ukraine is unable to?  

Current speculation is, the host country would be either Poland or (the second place entry) United Kingdom.  Let us hope, however, that Ukraine will be in a position to host.

And now, power ballads.

First off, Boston and their "Amanda" from 1986.  Fun personal facts:  this is the last album I ever bought from a Woolworths (remember them?) and the last brand-new vinyl album I ever purchased.

From 1984, Foreigner and "I Want to Know What Love Is".

Let's turn to a 1989 song that is a tribute to Elvis Presley.  Alannah Miles and "Black Velvet". 

The Scorpions and their 1990 hit "Winds of Change".  This song once helped me through a bad time in our history (9/11) so it has a lot of personal meaning for me.  If only we could live like brothers...

Now, two more power ballads from the 90's.

Metallica and their 1991 "Nothing Else Matters".  

Last, but not least, I ask "hush now, don't you cry..."

Queensryche and their 1991 hit "Silent Lucidity" 

And that's an exhausted wrap!

Join me again, same time, same place, next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.

 

RIP Vangelis

I found out Friday that composer Vangelis, of Chariots of Fire fame, died on May 17 in France.  He was 79 and the cause of death was heart failure.  Thank you, John of The Sound of One Hand Typing, for the information.

Vangelis, whose birth name was Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou, was born in Greece and grew up in Athens.  He showed an interest in music at age four and started performing his own music at age six. 

He didn't do well at traditional music lessons as he wanted to experiment with music.

As a young man, the artist we know as Vangelis formed some bands and also scored some Greek movies.  He changed his name to Vangelis, meaning "angel that brings good news" and eventually moved out of Greece. His last album was released last year. 

I discovered that Vangelis did a lot more than Chariots of Fire - in fact he had 23 solo albums released during his lifetime and many other works in collaboration with others.

I want to bring you two songs from the 1981 Chariots of Fire soundtrack, which won an Academy Award for best original score and is beloved by millions.  First, the title song, from the opening scene. This song was originally was called "Titles".

Chariots of Fire.

The second song is  a hymn called Jerusalem.  That song, which closes out the movie,  will be instantly familiar to anyone who has ever lived in England.  The words come from a poem written in 1804 by William Blake, a poet and painter.  The music was written in 1916 by Sir Hubert Parry during World War I.

Here's the story of the song.

Another musical great has left us.  RIP. 

Want more music?  Join me and other music lovers for Music Moves Me (and we welcome new participants, too).  My post will go live just after midnight Monday, Eastern Daylight Time.

Zooming Spring and Visits to the Farmers Market

Spring is zooming by so quickly.  It seems that just yesterday (but it was the end of April) we had a snowstorm, but today, it's 90F (32.2C) as I blog, and is still going up.

Spring is going by so quickly that I had photos from April of our local farmer's market, and hadn't even used them on my blog yet.  These first three photos are from April 22 (first photo) and April 30 (next two).

Parsley root (yes, there's such a thing and it's delicious)
 

Mushrooms.

Ramps.  (I never did try to plant these in my yard).

By May 7, some of the vendors (this is a year round market) had moved outdoors.  We call these plants on the right "scallions" in our part of New York State. Other parts of the country call them spring onions, green onions, or even salad onions.  On the left is spring garlic, which is quite edible before it starts forming bulbs.

Asparagus and rhubarb.  This asparagus is so much better than what is in the stores - so fresh and, sadly, not cheap, either  We splurge on this.

Leaf lettuce (this is so fresh, too.)  We have lettuce planted but it is nowhere near ready.

Most of the May 7 produce is still available, but it won't be long until strawberries are ready.  My hanging basket everbearers (overwintered in the garage) are flowering.

I have so much to show you but it would be overwhelming.  But, as I leaf through photos taken in May, it brings back so many memories of how quickly spring is moving this year.

Is this season (be it spring or fall) moving too quickly for you?

All In A Day's Sky Work #SkywatchFriday

Last Sunday gave us some amazing sky contrasts with stormy weather where I live in the Southern Tier of New York.

Rain was threatening, so we went to a local park for some walking in the afternoon.

This doesn't look too good, does it, although you can see a patch of sunshine on the hill in the extreme right.

You can see rain in the distance right above the indentation in the hill in the bottom center.

Yet, in another direction, the clouds are so puffy.

But back to the ongoing storm.  Maybe we'd better call it quits and head home.

Around sunset, I decided to see what the sky looked like.  You can see why it's called the Blue Hour.

The sky still seems a tad grouchy.  No big post sunset show tonight.

It's all in a day's sky work.

Now, to all, a good night.

Joining Yogi and other skywatchers this Friday for #SkywatchFriday.

How Many People Does It Take to Buy a Light Bulb?

It started with a burnt out little lightbulb.

We bought our chest freezer back in 2012. It has a light in the inside of the lid which turns on when you lift the lid.

Recently, the light started to flicker.  My spouse, who knows a little bit about electronics thanks to military training from years ago, tried various things but nothing seemed to eliminate the flicker.  On Saturday, the light stopped working.

Spouse took the lightbulb out of the lighting compartment.  It was a small thing, an LED bulb that said only "12V E14".  

Now, keep in mind that spouse and I are senior citizens, meaning that most of our lives were spent with the old incandescent light bulbs that have since been replaced by newer, more energy efficient technologies (such as LED bulbs).

My education on LED bulbs, just coincidentally, had begun a couple of days before, when we had to buy light bulbs for my home office fixture.  We hadn't bought light bulbs in a while, and the choices for modern LEDs absolutely overwhelmed me. Warm bulbs. Cool bulbs. Color changing bulbs. Dimmable bulbs.  Non dimmable bulbs.

Now, another project.

So E14, I found,  means a small screw socket. The "E" means an Edison socket, in other words, the socket looking like an old incandescent light bulb, and, indeed, that is what our small freezer bulb looked like.

But this is where the fun (and I use that term loosely) began.  The owners manual for the freezer said that if the bulb burnt out, we were to contact a service technician to replace.

Umm, no.

But, an hour or so later,  I was exhausted from fruitless Internet research. We used to have a couple of appliance parts places in this area, but we knew they were no more.  The manufacturer of the freezer had nothing at all about freezers on their website. They had a customer service number that actually had Saturday hours, but spouse didn't want to try it.  Amazon didn't seem to have anything that looked anything like this little light bulb.  Finally, we gave up for the day.

Sunday, our son came over for lunch and he tried to help us. He discovered our particular bulb had been discontinued, after visiting several more websites.   Finally, he came up with a possibility, on Amazon (a site I try not to order from, but it was looking like we had no choice).  The bulbs (we had to buy two) came Tuesday.  They didn't fit.

So son did a lot more research (after asking us for certain measurements) and he thinks he found a replacement bulb locally. Several hours of research and hair pulling have already been invested in this quest.

So something 11 years old is obsolete.  That's nice to know.

Later today, we will go to that store.

Finally, to answer my blog post title's question:  How many people does it take to buy a light bulb?  

Answer:  at least three.  Maybe more.

Made With Sun Wind and Time #WordlessWednesday

We recently had a water softener installed in our house.  It needs bimontly or so infusions of salt crystals, but that beats living with the hard water (10 on a scale of 1-10) that has rotted out pipes and water heaters in our house over the years.

This is from the bag of salt crystals we buy for the softener.  There's just something about this that makes me feel connected to the Earth.  Sun, wind, and time.  Aaahhhh....doesn't that feel good?

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.

Tragedy in the City

What a sad weekend.  Words stick in my hands, unable to be written.  I wish this was more elegant.

If you want elegance, please enjoy some flowers from my garden in 2019.  Happier times!

The rest of this post is a bit grim, so please feel free to admire the flowers on your way out.  But I hope you'll stay.

As my United States readers know, there was a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, at a supermarket.  13 people shot, 10 dead, the alleged shooter (whose name I will not use) in police custody.  Buffalo is the second largest city in New York State after New York City.  It is also the home town of our current Governor.

The alleged shooter is an 18 year old man from Conklin, New York, which is about 15 miles from where I live near Binghamton, New York. Conklin is a small community of about 5,000 people.

Our community here in the Binghamton area knows about mass shootings.  We have felt the pain that so many communities have felt. 

On April 3, 2009 (as my regular readers know) a mass shooting several blocks from where I used to work in Binghamton took the lives of 13 innocents and the man who killed them.  That shooting convinced me to start this blog.  That shooter lived locally and bought the gun locally (at a sporting goods store now closed).

The school psychologist at Sandy Hook grew up in Vestal, another town in our area.

But these shootings were not like our shooting. Buffalo's pain is not our pain.  Our shooting didn't involve a young man who drove some 200 miles to target members of a Black community.  He picked the only supermarket in the area.  He must have known that, sooner or later, everyone in that community shopped there.

What else are we learning?  This man graduated from high school and was apparently attending our local community college. He also live streamed the shooting (which was taken down  but other sites keep posting it) and published a long manifesto with his beliefs.  He drank from the poison waters of extremist sites.  He came with weapons inscribed with symbols and words of hate.  This was, pure and simple, a crime of hate.

He purchased his Bushmaster semi-automatic weapon locally in the Binghamton area (although it was modified after sale in a way that would not be legal in New York.) The gun shop that sold the gun is now being targeted on social media, and has closed for this week, and I will not name it.

These are some of those he killed.  Reports state he had planned to visit other sites to continue his spree but the Buffalo police came too quickly. It's also reported that he may have also scouted out Rochester another major New York city, for a shooting.

By all accounts, this Buffalo neighborhood is a close knit community, and the residents are coming together in their grief as they now have nowhere to buy food.

Worse yet, this wasn't the only active shooter event in our country this weekend.  It was just the most deadly. There was a church shooting in Laguna Hills, California, also described as a hate crime. That shooting was stopped by a heroic doctor who died. There was a shooting in a flea market in Houston.  There were shootings in several locations in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  There were other shootings that didn't even make the news.

No community is immune from the poison of hatred or the easy availability of weapons, and we ask ourselves again, "why?" If we aren't minorities who are targets of hate crimes (people of color, Americans of Asian-Pacific origin, various religions) we may live in fear, a fear we don't dare show as we go about our everyday lives. (I say "we" because I am a member of one of those groups).  But make no mistake, everyone in this country is at risk.   Hatred is out of control.  It has become mainstream.

Americans have asked that question of "why" too many times now, in this nation.

How many times is too many?

Or will we offer thoughts and prayers yet again, and then move on, leaving the families and friends of Buffalo, of Laguna Hills, of Winston-Salem, of Houston, of previous sites like El Paso, Pittsburgh, Orlando, and Sacramento...so many other towns and places where hate has surfaced, to pick their lives back up?

This time, what will we choose to do?

Driving and Racing #MusicMovesMe

It's Monday, and the month of May is zooming by!  It's time once again for Music Moves Me!

Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers? We are bloggers who blog about music each Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please!)   Our head hostess is Cathy from Curious as a Cathy,  and she is joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and the world famous (not) me.  Our founder, Xmas Dolly, has stepped back from blogging for now, and would appreciate your good thoughts as she works through some health issues.

We'd love more music lovers to join our fun group.  All you have to do is join the linky above with a music post that contains at least one music video (there must be a music video or your post will be subject to removal or labeling "No Music").  Easy peasy!

Each month, except December, we have a guest host. For the month of May, our guest host is John Holton of "The Sound of One Hand Typing" and he's got a good month of themes picked out for us.

For today, John is choosing the theme "Songs about Cars and Racing, because of the Indy 500, etc."

I've never attended a major car race, although I have been to (as a tourist) the Daytona Speedway in Daytona, Florida.  Taking the tour of Daytona in 2006 (the track and the museum after) was pretty awesome, I have to admit.

So anyway, about cars and racing.

This song immediately comes to mind: Hot Rod Lincoln.  The original, from 1955, is by Charlie Ryan.  I discovered it in 1972 when it was covered by Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen.  I chose a cover by Asleep at the Wheel, because he gave it a little different twist.

From 1972, Highway Star, by Deep Purple. 

Also from 1972, Rockin' Down the Highway, from The Doobie Brothers.

 

I'm going to start drifting a bit from the theme, but these are songs I really enjoy. First, Radar Love, 1973, from Golden Earring

Maybe not totally in line with the theme, but it's a favorite of mine:  1991's Life is a Highway. I chose the original from Tom Cochrane.

And finally, I have to include this because I love the Cars, and I love this song:  Drive.

And it's a driven/racing wrap!

Join me again next week, same time, same place, for another episode of Music Moves Me!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day May 2022

It's May, it's the 15th of the month, and it is spring/summer in my zone 5b garden in the Southern Tier of New York State.

Friday we reached 86F (30C) and yesterday we got up to 83F (28.3C) before things clouded over.  It's been warm and very dry, and a lot of my spring bulbs gave up blooming for the year, along with my cherry tree.  Today it is near 80 and we may get strong storms later today.  The rain is welcome.  The "strong storms" part (chance of tornadoes) isn't.

It was a bit disappointed because I had a number of spring flowers to show you, and they are gone.  But, nevertheless, there are a lot of blooms at my house - finally!  Winter is truly over.  As usual, the variety names are lost to me because I don't keep good records.

I only have a couple of these late pink and white tulips.

Ditto for these white tulips. 

 

Only a few late daffodils left.  These grow several flowers on a stem and have a scent.

 

Last of my late yellow - this may not last the day and is so faded you can barely see the yellow.

These are what the blooms on my wild cherry tree looked like on the 11th, alas.

The lilacs have come out.

 

Light purple. (We had another lilac, but it was destroyed in our late April snowstorm).  We planted this one several years ago.

White (we share this with our next door neighbor; part of it is on their side and part on ours).

Darker purple.  This came with the house, so it is over 30 years old.

In our shady back yard, a wood poppy purchased several years ago from Monticello (President Thomas Jefferson's home).

White bleeding heart.

Pink bleeding heart.  I don't think it's happy where it is and we may have to fix that.
 

Barrenwort.

Lungwort.

Variegated Solomon's Seal.

And that's it for today, although I have lots more, because I have to go now.  If this wasn't enough, why not go to the site of the woman who lovingly provides this monthly 15th of the month meme, Carol at May Dreams Gardens, and check out her blog and other blogs linking to GBBD today?

See you next time!