I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: Slice of Life

  • 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.

     

     

     

     

  • BREAKING NEWS: BABY GIRL OTW!


    Pretty Two and Number One Son – Pretty Three?

    Pretty hears the Big News – and is thrilled!

    Pretty was with our good friend Brenda this week when she found out we are having a granddaughter in October – and Brenda captured her immediate reaction…I love this picture, and I am beyond Thunder Dome excited about the baby girl who will be the center of attention and affection from so many family members.

    Pretty and I celebrated at dinner with the parents-in-waiting last night and made name suggestions which were politely received but no cigar. (Oops – did someone just say cigar?)

    We are also trying out names we want to be called by our granddaughter – that turns out to be more difficult than suggesting names for her. Never fear, we are on it. Any suggestions from our friends in cyberspace?

    Be happy with our family tonight – life is good.

    Stay tuned.

     

     

     

     

  • another one bites the dust


    Alas, yet another member of the president’s cabinet bids us all a fond farewell – maybe not fond, but definitely farewell.

    Kirstjen Nielsen, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, evidently felt it was the right time for her to step aside according to an article in the Business Insider today. Nielsen became the pretty face for the president’s ugly “zero tolerance” immigration policy of 2018 and she continued to defend the detainment of refugee children taken from their families – assuring Congress (and I heard this with my own ears) none of the refugee children were living in cages. Alrighty then. Clearly none of us have seen those conditions with our own two television eyes.

    Ms. Nielsen attended Georgetown University’s school of foreign service and studied abroad in Japan. She worked for Senator Connie Mack of Florida before going to law school at the University of Virginia. During Dubya Bush’s first term who’s surprised  she worked for the White House Homeland Security Council during Hurricane Katrina and had a hand in the less than stellar response by the Bush team in that tragedy. And still she moved on up.

    In one of her Congressional appearances I heard her answer she had no idea how many asylum seekers had died during their internment in our camps. I could have helped her with that one. Two children died within one month of each other in December of 2018. Seven-year-old Jakelin Caal of Guatemala died on December 8th. Eight-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo died on Christmas Eve. We can start the death count with those two.

    Now the courts have determined we may have to wait another two years to identify thousands of children still separated from their families at the border because of a policy Secretary Nielsen administered for a man with no concern for the welfare of anyone other than himself. Shame on him, shame on her and shame on all of us for a lack of moral outrage as a nation.

    In Vision of Reality – a Study of Abnormal Perception and Behavior, author Alberto Rivas quotes Heinrich Himmler,  another Minister of the Interior in a country across the pond during the Nazi regime:

    “The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But we don’t ask for their love; only for their fear.”

    So farewell to you, Secretary Nielsen. Don’t let your twisted lack of conscience hit you on the way out the door.

    Stay tuned.