Sometimes I like to walk the dogs pretty late (or early)

[conuly]

with the added bonus of avoiding people.

Somehow, there are always waaaaaaay more people out and about at 4:30 AM than you'd think is reasonable.

(Also, I bumped into my sister on the stairs, and if there is one thing I appreciate in life, it's getting a good accidental scare in at another person's expense. So long as nobody is injured, that is.)

*****************

Squirrels Sort Their Nuts Like You Sort Your Fridge

More Than Half the World's Population Lives Inside This Circle

This Video of How Medieval People Walked Is Oddly Compelling

Why We Miss Objects That Are Right in Front of Us

House passes budget, paving way for tax reform

The haunted bones of the Fighting Fairy Woman

Diversity Adversity (*snrk*)

New Bill Would Limit Abortion To Cases Where Procedure Necessary To Save Promising Political Career

The Flagrant Sexual Hypocrisy of Conservative Men

Black Farmers Grapple With A Changing Economy

A Wayward Weedkiller Divides Farm Communities, Harms Wildlife

Here's How Breitbart And Milo Smuggled Nazi and White Nationalist Ideas Into The Mainstream

How the NRA Rewrote the Second Amendment

ISIS Fighters, Having Pledged to Fight or Die, Surrender en Masse

They Helped Prosecutors After Escaping Death in a Smuggler’s Truck. Now They’re Being Deported. (Don't read the comments.)

The Ocean’s Low-Oxygen Dead Zones Are Getting Worse, Just Like Wildfires

How the Elderly Lose Their Rights

Las Vegas Is Only the Deadliest Shooting in US History Because They Don’t Count Black Lives

The Trump-Russia dossier: why its findings grow more significant by the day

Comments

[wpadmirer]

That story about the elderly is terrifying! Especially for someone like me in her 60s with no children!

[conuly]

I KNOW D:

[archangelbeth]

I couldn't finish reading that. I was physically ill.
...Appoint someone you trust to be your "if determined mentally incompetent, THIS PERSON gets to make decisions for me, NOT SOME THIEF" power of attorney, I guess?

[conuly]

Appoint several, as backup. God forbid they all die at the family reunion or something.

[conuly]

The original couple mentioned escaped, btw. So there's that.

[archangelbeth]

I went back and scrolled to the end, yeah. Could not read the middle. Physical nausea. *shudder*

But yeah, appoint more than one person with power of attorney and make sure that they know to talk to you or watch you post on your journal or twitter or something, so if you stop, they can come to the rescue before everything gets sold.

(Also, presumably do not be afraid to raise high holy hell: "I know who has power of attorney for me and it is NOT THAT PERSON. GET MY LAWYER.")

[conuly]

Listen, this is your fair warning: If I stop posting for more than a few days, something is seriously wrong.

[archangelbeth]

Got it! (...same here, really...)

[wpadmirer]

I don't know. But I do know I'm glad I don't live in fucking Nevada. I've never heard of this happening in Florida. But I'll be sure to have someone I've set up so this shit can't happen.

[archangelbeth]

I'd worry about Florida some, too, in that it's where Old People Go To Retire (well, that's what New England says), and a nasty grifter would presumably want to go looking for victims...

But with luck, having a lawyer to go, "No, you can't be the court-appointed guardian; they HAVE an appointed guardian for this situation" is good. Hm. Revokable Trusts might actually fit the bill nicely -- like, you put all your possessions into the Trust, so whoever tried to mess with things couldn't get possession without talking to THAT lawyer.

(Ugh, having to even think about that kind of crap...)

[conuly]

Florida was mentioned in the article too : (

[archangelbeth]

I believe the emoticon for this is:
DDDDDDDDD:

[chanter1944]

... Oh, good lord re: just about all those links. :(

How is Sweetheart the random lovebug pretty* tortie? Well, getting fed, and soaking up snugglies, I hope?

*All torties, torbies and calicos are beautiful, IMO. The blind lady has spoken, on the strength of prior descriptions of tricolor kitties. Somebody said they look like autumn leaves, and that was it, I was charmed. <3

ETA: I just saw your earlier post, and got part of my answer. That'll teach my reading page to start with the most recent posts, heh. :P Still, how is a lovebug random kitty?

[conuly]

She's being fed, slowly gaining a little weight. I'm reluctant to provide all her food since I know other neighbors do feed cats, but I give her a handful of dry whenever I see her.

And yes, most of them do look like autumn leaves. Dilute torties look more like creamy coffee and fog, which is also lovely.

[chanter1944]

AWWWW! Creamy coffee and fog is a beautiful description for dilute tricolor kitties. I love it. :D And yay Sweetheart! *cuddles her* By your descriptions of her, it would not at all surprise me if she's one of those cats who spots a human she recognizes, zips their way, and almost immediately engages the purr motor. :)

[conuly]

She definitely zips my way, but I've yet to hear her purr. I'm sure she will when she remembers how.

[chanter1944]

Awwwww, baby kitty cat. Gah, I wish I lived near you. I'd be sorely tempted to adopt her.

[conuly]

Yeah, you're too far for me to make a special trip, too.

[conuly]

BTW, the girls wanted me to tell you that in her case, she looks like a bag of Reese's Pieces, hence the name.

The orange and black are randomly mixed on her, rather than being in big splotches, and she only has a little bit of white on her toes and nose. So Reeses is an apt name for her, but I saw her first and I want her to keep the name I already gave her.

[chanter1944]

*gigglefits* Awwww! Sweet pretty confetti tortie! She sounds adorable. :) Sweetheart Reeses the lovebug random tortiegirl! Thanks to your girls for giving me a much-needed smile or four this morning.

[thewayne]

We took all three dogs out last night at about 9pm, my wife had the blue tick hound and I had the two poodles. The tick hound, Rupert, no surprise spotted an elk, which was a cause for much excitement.

It's pretty rare that we encounter people out here while on walks, but we're talking a population density of 450 people per square mile: I don't want to think of what the density of NYC is! :-)

[conuly]

Well, on the plus side, we rarely encounter elk. I'm sure Moonpie would try to take one on singlepawed. I'm sure she'd lose that fight.

[thewayne]

Unless Moonpie is exceptionally fast, odds are the elk would run away and probably knows the area better and would escape.  Would also handle inclines and obstacles better due to sure-footedness and higher sightline. Our worst elk issue was the night Obama was re-elected.  Russet was coming back from the observatory and pulled to the side of the road where there was radio reception to check the results.  Dante, our white standard, activated.  She rolled down the window to see if she could hear what he heard.  Unfortunately it wasn't her window, it was his, and he was out like a shot.  He would not come when called, she could hear the underbrush crashing as antlers tore through them, and all she could think about was if one decided to turn around and lower its head was that we'd have a thoroughly perforated poodle.  He'd occasionally come back to the car to see if she was still there, but never close enough to catch, then he'd run off again.  Eventually he deigned to re-enter the car, after over an hour, and my wife wasn't dressed for cold weather in the mountains: even though she had been to the observatory, she wasn't dressed for being up in the dome, she had been working in the control room which is nicely temperature-controlled.

A few days ago we had five deer in the front yard cropping the growth, fortunately I was able to keep them out of the kitchen and away from my 'computer room' window.  This morning the dogs were going nuts over one deer, turns out there were at least four more in the pasture next door.  And a cat violating our territorial integrity?  Not good at all.  For the most part they don't mind birds and squirrels, chipmunks are pretty rare and we don't see skunks and porcupines during the day.When we drive back from the observatory at night, about a 16 mile drive, we have to turn off the air recirc as the dogs will smell the elk on the sides of the road even if they can't see them and they'll go ballistic.

Re: Diversity Adversity (*snrk*)

[nodrog]

I could say something to that, about how many decades back the illustrator had to go (Charlie Chaplin?) to cherrypick the data, but you might not appreciate unsolicited opinions contrary to yours.

Re: Diversity Adversity (*snrk*)

[conuly]

What I really don't appreciate is unsolicited praeteritio. Or solicited praeteritio, actually.

However, if you want to stick to the modern day, it's worth noting that on television, showrunners are nearly all white men, actors are disproportionately white, 75% of actors in films are white, and of course, nearly all children's books are written by and about whites.

The numbers don't lie.

Re: Praeteritio

[nodrog]

Thank you for introducing me to a new word!  No, seriously, that's interesting - I'd never known that.

[In C M Kornbluth's 1951 story “The Marching Morons,” this is considered the height of rhetorical cleverness.

        “Mr. President and gentlemen! There are in this world nations, envious
        nations — I do not name Mexico — who by fair means or foul may seek to
        wrest from Columbia's grasp the torch of freedom of space…”]

[archangelbeth]

That walking thing was definitely cool. I wonder if my knees are so screwed up from fencing because I didn't have the pre-existing toe-walkin' muscles there...

Maybe I'll practice it on the treadmill.

[sallymn]

Thank for the one about medieval walking!

[orcofnewyork]

Great round-up as usual! Thanks for all the shares. I especially enjoyed the medieval walking video (not that I didn't read the political links, but one doesn't 'enjoy' them so much as appreciate being informed).

[conuly]

I wish we had some political links we could all enjoy....