I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

For any who want more, complete list of all posts by month since 2011

  • Nick Kyrios is to Tennis as Donald Trump is to the American people — bad to the bone


    Nick Kyrios is  an Australian professional tennis player ranked #25 in the world in men’s singles. Daniil Medvedev is a Russian tennis player currently ranked #14 by the ATP in men’s singles. Today they met in the first round of the Italian Open being played in Rome this week. I have had lots of time to watch the entire clay season unfolding this spring on the road to Roland Garros at the French Open which begins on the morning of the 26th.

    Monaco, Barcelona, Madrid and now Rome this final week before the next major at the French Open. Today I watched Nick Kyrios “play” against Daniil Medvedev and perform the same outrageous antics I’ve watched him do for years against opponents. Trick shots, serving underhanded, bullying  referees and opponents in general, using whatever disrespectful tactic he can generate to fluster his opponents and entertain his fans who, I admit, are many.

    I have never been a Kyrios fan, and today I made a personal promise to refuse to watch any of his matches being shown at any event. It’s just me and my little protest, but maybe I could hashtag my protest into a movement if I knew how to hashtag anything.

    Meanwhile across the Pond from Rome as we refer to the Colonies who have become our own states due to little wars and things like that in the 18th. century we have another Bad Boy who refuses to respect our constitution which contains the map of how each branch of the government is to perform.

    For those of you who have forgotten the one civics class taught to you by a coach in junior high school I’m choosing to refresh you with the big Three lynchpins of government: the judicial system with its highest authority in interpreting the constitution, the executive branch which has it function to implement the laws of the land, and the congressional branch which is supposed to make the laws and supervise the executive branch through its oversight of the executive.

    Ok. Right now, this very minute…we have a president who has gone off the reservation by refusing to comply with the subpoena process issued by the Congressional committees for oversight.Think evil. Think wicked. Think Machiavellian. If he were a tennis player, he would throw his racket on the ground, stomp it, and then yell that the other guy was a loser anyway. The referee would issue him a racket violation which he would scoff at.

    The president is being as disrespectful to the law as Nick Kyrios is to the game of tennis for which he equally shows no respect.

    I am consciously choosing to never watch Nick Kyrios play tennis again. Small protest, but it makes me feel better. I always mute the president when he speaks.

    I of course will never vote for Donald Trump for president for reasons too numerous to list here, but let’s just say I can’t stand a bully who thinks he is above the law. Think Bill Clinton. Think Richard Nixon. Add to that knowledge in the basic history lessons.

    I pledge to stop laughing at things which I know aren’t funny. I plan to follow the debates to see where my future belongs.

    Bad Boys, take your brand of disrespect and shove it…anywhere…I don’t have to see.

    Stay tuned.

     

  • Cowgirl Up!


    Big wheels keep on rolling, but small wheels sometimes get stuck in the mud that is life in the slow lane.

    After nearly two weeks of birthday fun and festivities (seriously TWO weeks), my small wheels have come to a screeching halt with the annoying side effects turning seventy-three sometimes brings. Yes, drum roll, please.

    Knee replacement is in my immediate future…like this week. Pretty and I have been to our class where I received my TJR (total joint replacement) bright green folder with the cheery symbols of I don’t know what on the cover and tons of information about my life for the foreseeable future if I survive surgery which has a 93% success rate with a 1% chance of infection, 5% chance of stiffness that requires one additional surgery, 2% chance of kneecap pain correctable with additional surgery, and oh yes, less than 1% chance of blood clots that cause death if not treated.

    Too much information. Throw away this brochure.

    Three days ago I had a total meltdown in front of Pretty and told her I had decided to opt out of TJR – not going to do it – no way, no how. I suggested she take the keys to the car with her if she left the house because I was planning a getaway with the dogs to an undisclosed location until the surgery deadline had passed.

    But the next day I decided to get a grip and get on with it. Pretty deserves better than my shelf life, and so do I; besides, we have a granddaughter on the way this October – she deserves better, too.

    Cowgirl up!

    Stay tuned.

     

  • easter birthdays, shanghai, champagne and family


    My birthday this year is on Easter Sunday, April the 21st. I was born on an Easter Sunday in 1946 and my birthday has been on Easter Sunday one other time in 1957 when I was eleven years old. Get this, the next time April 21 is on an Easter Sunday is 2030. Eleven years from now, right? I find that weird, but apparently some kind of sun cycles occur at 11-year intervals every 62 years. Whatever. The End.

    Earlier this week three special friends came over to play Shanghai to kick off my birthday week, and a fun time of laughter and  luck made the time pass too quickly. Congratulations to our winner War Eagle Nan who consistently has good luck, Donna and Robin’s luck was so-so and they were able to pay Nan on the spot, but Pretty had bad luck. Poor Pretty had to venmo her losses to Nan. I was a close second to Nan who graciously forgave my 99 cents since I was the birthday girl after all.

    My gifts included two bottles of champagne which are now down to one – we popped the cork and three of us drank one bottle that afternoon. I cannot lie. I was one of the three. I also received a delicious butter pound cake with the two sauces pictured above. Unfortunately, the pound cake was not available for the picture. Again, I cannot lie. Pretty has not had one bite of the pound cake.

    Last, but not least, I also was given this lovely bogonia which has the most beautiful blossom colors – I love them. They remind me of the hope that springs eternal in this season.

    This Easter and 73rd. birthday I will be with Pretty and other family members in the home that will soon have new sights and sounds with the arrival of a baby daughter in October. Our family will have much to celebrate as we eat the delicious food while we talk books, politics, sports and our new favorite topic: babies.

    The hope of the resurrection of Jesus in the New Testament is, I believe, the experience of redemption we all are offered every day when we forgive each other our trespasses, speak truth to power and practice kindness as our highest calling.

    Stay tuned.

     

     

     

     

  • junior class secretary in 1963? seriously?


    I would like to say this was photo shopped by my friend James Ray Couser from West Columbia, Texas  when I saw it on his Facebook page today, but I pulled out my 1963 Gusher yearbook and there it was…

    Okay – whoever thought up this pose for the Junior Class officers must have been smoking something other than cigarettes, and why I was holding a farm tool that was as tall as I was…well, all I can say is that I’m glad Charlotte and Claire thought it was funny – even then.

    Thank you, James Ray, for resurrecting this picture. I have had a good laugh and enjoyed a flood of memories surrounding that time, place and the people in my life when I was seventeen. As you will probably remember, I will be 73 this year – actually two weeks from today – so this is a timely reminder of earlier days.

    Stay tuned.

     

  • SISTERS ARE DOIN’ IT FOR THEMSELVES!


    BREAKING NEWS – WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH MOVES ON TO APRIL!

    If pictures are worth a thousand words, then you tube videos with the likes of Aretha Franklin and Eurythmics must be worth more than any amount of words available in the English language for me to describe my elation with the election results for mayor last night in our 3rd largest city, Chicago, when Pretty gave me the breaking news. Pretty is my personal Twitter crier.

    By a vote of 74% of all votes cast in the run-off election Tuesday, Chicago elected its first African-American mayor, a mayor who identifies herself as “an out and proud black lesbian.”Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot had this to say in her acceptance speech Tuesday night according to Bill Ruthhart of the Chicago Tribune:

    “A lot of little girls and boys are out there watching us tonight, and they’re seeing the beginning of something, well, a little bit different,” Lightfoot said with a smile. “They’re seeing a city reborn, a city where it doesn’t matter what color you are, where it surely doesn’t matter how tall you are and where it doesn’t matter who you love, just as long as you love with all your heart.”

    While Chicago captured the biggest news, other election results around the country were also, well, a little bit different. For example, the city of Madison, Wisconsin elected 47-year-old Satya Rhodes-Conway, its second female mayor in history, with 62% of the vote. Mayor-elect Rhodes-Conway became the first openly gay mayor of Madison. The results of the Madison School Board election were to add three more women to the four women currently serving which means all members of the School Board for the city of Madison will be female.

    Sounds like countless sisters are getting the gavel, and I don’t believe any of them will be afraid to use it.

    Lawdy, lawdy. I have lived long enough to see the revolution of the sisterhood.

    Sisters are doin’ it for themselves. Girls do rock after all.

    Onward.

    Stay tuned.