If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Honestly, I just want to live in a world where Donald J. Trump no longer exists (and never did). In the meantime, Massachusetts is as close as you’re gonna get to that ideal in the United States.
Did you know that the Orange Cretin never won a single Massachusetts congressional district over the Democratic nominee in 2016, 2020, or 2024? That’s right, not one district ever fell for his bullshit.
I care about public schools and public health.
And, finally, some exciting news…
There’s a very special new citizen coming to Massachusetts very late this year or in early 2027.
I’m not sure chaos is good for us but it is unavoidable. Everyone, no matter how privileged, will experience some chaos.
My grandmother, who came from a very poor immigrant family and lost her husband suddenly in her late thirties with four children to feed, used to say “be grateful for boring days.”
Rare photo of my grandmother (at the sink) at some point after her husband died of complications from what should have been a routine surgery. The family thinks he was simply neglected by hospital staff who treated him as a second-class person because he was an immigrant. My grandmother was born on Christmas Day 1902 and was a widow for over 50 years.
What’s the best way to deal with negative thoughts?
This is a hard one for me to answer. I’ve been dealing with a lot of negative thoughts since the beginning of this year, due to a situation that has forever changed my feelings about my family of origin.
I’ll be interested to read others’ responses.
I guess distraction is one way!
So, here’s a mommy and baby osprey in their very dramatic nest near the beach on the South Coast of Massachusetts:
And some video of the two interacting:
This nearby beach is just over border, so it’s actually in Rhode Island, not Massachusetts.
New England has many beautiful areas, but this one is my favorite. The ocean is noticeably warmer here than in Northern New England and there are never shark sightings like on Cape Cod (knock wood) so you can get in and swim to your heart’s content.
Actually, that’s my answer: swimming is the best way to deal with negative thoughts.
If I had an unlimited budget for 24 hours, I would use it to help support young parents.
We’re making things very hard on all young people these days, but especially on those who are brave, selfless and optimistic enough to bring forth the next generation. They deserve all the love and support we can muster. As a grandmother, I feel this is my #1 job in life.
If I could, I would pay off my daughter’s mortgage, buy her family a new car, and fully fund a college account for my granddaughter. And if I could figure out how to do it, I would help out all the other hardworking and responsible young parents out there who could really use a boost.
All photos by Melissa Briggs Photography.
My granddaughter and me
Bubbles are a favorite activity for one-year olds.
Imagine when everything in the world was new to you.
Even though I was very cold and took no pictures, evidence of my attendance at NoKings3 has emerged. The best part is that my poster received very prominent placement when I accidentally left it right in front of the speakers’ podium.
My state representative, a moderate Democrat, finally decided to show up at an anti-Trump protest. My district has a good amount of Republicans, so Jim’s been searching for his balls for quite awhile, but he gave a good and rousing speech in front of my very ANTI-Trump poster on Saturday. I consider this a win.
My poster was there during all the speeches, so it’s in a lot of pictures on Facebook.
“Sing as loud as you can” was the instruction from the music organizer.
This is my minister sitting in the chair with a brace on her leg. She is GenX and she is awesome. The world would be a better place if everyone had a minister like her.
It actually is a pretty good poster—one of my best. I just wish I didn’t have to keep making them.
Yesterday our furnace died. Maybe the blizzard was just too much to keep up with, but it was only 14 years old. It should’ve had a few more years left. Note to everyone: never buy a Maytag furnace. We had several other problems with it before its untimely death.
Fortunately, my husband got right on it and we’re having a new one installed this morning. (K’Ching$$$) In the meantime, it’s cold in here! I’m thinking it’s about 45 degrees Fahrenheit, but I have my coffee and my Comfy, I’ll be fine.
Last night we lit a fire in our fireplace and I made s’mores and then put them on top of ice cream for mixing in. It took some effort to crush the s’more and fully mix it with the ice cream, but I did it. It was good. Not as good as the best mix-in I ever invented, but yummy.
The chocolate didn’t melt as much as I would’ve like, but I managed.
Here are some of my post-blizzard pics from Tuesday.
This is the snowbank at the TOP of my driveway—right next to the house. I’m 5’ 8.5” so that’s a lot of snow. The plow guy has no other place else to pile it all up. There’s a flower garden under there, which I’m worried about. Note: I had to balance my phone on a trashcan with my mitten and use “timer” to take this photo. That’s real skill.My aptly named street Neighborhood snowbankI can’t tell if this mailbox is still attached to its post. Sometimes the plows knock off mailboxes and people just shove them into the snowbanks until they can be repaired. People then try to make the town do the repairs, but I know from experience, it’s easier to do it yourself.
In all, we got about 12-14 inches of new snow, but Rhode Island really got slammed. They beat their Blizzard of ‘78 record, with 35” inches in Providence (38” at the airport).
Blizzard is over! And the power stayed on!! Two things to be grateful for.
However, there’s still the matter of the driveway. We have a long, skinny, mini-hill of a driveway that is not passable until plowed or snowblowed. And shoveling anything more than a couple of inches off of it requires a level of fitness that I do not possess.
The plow guy came once yesterday but I’ve just learned that his plow broke, so I am trapped up here. My husband managed to get his car out this morning, but will never be able to get back up the driveway unless it gets plowed again.
This is an ongoing situation with this house that I had all but forgotten about, because we haven’t had this much snow in years.
So, I’m up here alone in my snowbound fortress, waiting for some man to save me. Either the plow guy (young and cute) or my husband (strong but bad knees) will have to rescue me. This situation always reminds me of Rapunzel.
If my hair was long enough, I could braid it into a rope and throw it down the driveway to my potential rescuer.
This round tower in Ireland also reminded me of Rapunzel
I know, I know. A real feminist would’ve learned to use a snowblower years ago and get herself out. Blame that one on my father. “Girls don’t blow snow.”
In case you haven’t heard, a major winter storm is coming—the likes of which we haven’t seen around here since 2022.
It’s currently 1 degree Fahrenheit and the grocery stores will be packed today with everyone trying to stock up before the snow starts tomorrow around noon. (At this point, I’m still planning to go to church tomorrow morning.) People in non-snow climates: the idea of being stuck inside with your loved ones for 24-48 hours tends to make people buy eggs, milk, bread and firewood like they’re going out of style.
A shared memory for GenXers from Massachusetts is the Bizzard of ‘78, when they cancelled school for like a whole week. It was awesome. People remember jumping off their roofs into huge snowbanks, bumper skiing (when you hold onto your friend’s bumper and they pull you down the snow covered street), and building giant holes and igloos which could’ve collapsed and suffocated their occupants at any moment. There were surprisingly few snow accidents, although one friend’s brother was very seriously injured by a plow that didn’t see him playing in a snow bank. Stay OUT OF THE WAY of the plows, people!
My doll and me tasting the snow in February 1969
The famous Blizzard of 1978 brought us like 4 feet of snow and no school for days on end.
In 1978, 7th graders were far too cool for snow pants, so we just wore jeans to play in the snow.
My son on a huge snowbank in APRIL 2005 – the “April Fools Day” storm
My kids shoveling out a car after Winter Storm Nemo (aka the Blizzard of 2013)
And the stairs
My son “swimming” in the snow in January 2015. He was determined to make it out to his basketball hoop after Hurricane Juno.
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