"Sunsets prove that no matter what happens, every day can end beautifully."
~Kristen Butler
Here are my photos of a gorgeous sunset. Both taken along Franklin blvd the other night while we were birding and batting. But, is it the past spring sunset photos, or the first summer photos of 2026? Summer hasn't officially started yet, but a couple weeks ago, we celebrated Memorial day, which most folks think of as the unofficial beginning of summer! I guess we are closer to summer than spring. Spring is feeling tired and quiet, while summer is raring to go! Okay, I talked myself into it. These photos represent the first sunset photos in my summer folder!
"We should be profoundly skeptical when one party claims certainty and blames the other for our problems. That's a con. You know life isn't like that. That's why we invented democracies in the first place."
~ Scott Pelley
Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search For Meaning In The Stories Of Our Times
Scott Pelley's Full Statement
"60" has been the number one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.
The waste is heartbreaking.
Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause/. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.
For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I've been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.
At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to "keep up the good fight." Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership o ^0 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.
I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion... a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again... a day when sanity, competence, and courage return."
~Scott Pelley
June 3rd, 2026
Scott Pelley's firing last Tuesday was Earth shaking. The Trump and his administration and donors are nothing short of a bunch of oligarchs and crooks. We are closer than ever to losing the American experience, all to make a few ultra rich, even richer, while we pay $6 a gallon for gas! This summer will be among the most challenging I will have experienced in my lifetime. Not just as I maneuver through my own health challenges, but also the stress of watching Trump destroy the country I was lucky to live in my whole life. This is the country my grandfather immigrated to, because he saw all the possibilities! He loved America, as did my father. My heart breaks daily. Dad would be beside himself to see what's happening. I miss my father, I think if him daily, but I would never want him to know about what we are all facing right now.
This story will more than likely shake out over the summer. I know we haven't heard the last of Scott Pelley. He truly earned my respect the other day, when he did his job and spoke truth to power! I felt good and found my own self respect the other day too. I haven't watched CBS in ages, their programming has gotten too repetitive! How many CSI shows does one network need? So, after Steven Colbert was kicked to the curb, never watching that network was no loss, but let me tell you, cancelling our Paramount+ subscription made me feel really good! All this pain at that network, and beyond, is for a merger that will bring us closer to having to endure state media, rather than a free press! I am not going to pay to support these people. They can kiss my ass. And as for Donald Trump, he hasn't permeated every area of my life yet, so with any luck he will be impeached, and with a little luck, we won't have him to kick around any more!
so each petal that falls will remind you that the earth breathes and the moon rises."
~Carolyn Riker
My Love Has Not Forgotten You
It's been hot the last few days, and there is more of it along the way! The wildflowers are all drying out now, there's still roadside sunflowers, but the more delicate ones are definitely on the decline. Despite all that, I came across a small patch of California poppies, and they were so beautiful, they made me smile! I knew this was an opportunity not to be missed!
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we have to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it."
~Stephen Colbert
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ends his 11 year run in May. I will never forgive Trump for setting this travesty in motion. It's yet another thing, that adds to making life shitty, that we have no control to either stop or at least slow down. I get that late night tv has been losing money for years, but it's also true that Trump had his hands all over it! That's the worst part of life with Trump, being completely out of control to fix the things giving you pain. He wants to hurt us, to have us under his control, even in our very thoughts. Life is difficult enough, without having him as the president. We all needed, Stephen Colbert, and now he's gone. And while he will be back in the awesome form of helping to develop the newest movie in the, Lord of the Rings, film that is not the same in any way as inviting him into our living rooms at night, still I look forward to his future endeavors, and I wish him well!
And now Trump is killing culture.
Comedy is important. Stand up for free speech whenever you can!
Yet another woman came forward yesterday, this time in Beverly Hills, to accuse Eric Swalwell of rape. That brings the total to five. So, criminal investigations have been opened in 3 counties, New York, Alameda County, and Los Angeles. He's done with his political career. He killed it! He's going to have a miserable few years coming up, and of course all of it will play out through the media, so that means we get to share the misery with him. Or not. For the most part, I have moved on, but what remains is the frustration of watching yet another person with all the talent in the world, fall from grace so hard that they can't or probably won't come back from it. It's such a waste. I will let go completely... in time. In the mean time I have hope for the midterms, when if we can just flip the congress and the senate, we can begin to do some cleaning of the dirty laundry that's been piling up! We have a real chance of being able to impeach Donald Trump, and begin making him pay for his years of pedophilia and raping of women. If we are going to expect Eric Swalwell to face his demons, then Trump had better face his too. At least that's what should happen, if it will, well, that's another story! I guess cynical is my current emotion.
"Life is short... buy those shoes, have a sense of humor and take a break when you want."
~Unknow
Yesterday was Easter, and we had a good time. We enjoyed the boys having fun picking toys out of their Peep's Easter basket. Tyler immediately put his catnip toy mouse into his water bowl. He has a bug up his ass about that. He puts all his toys in his water bowl. Strange. It's like he's seen fish in a pond. I know he hasn't, but odd habit remains. Simon chose a little blue bunny to bat around. So sweet. Later they will get some nom noms and big snuggles. I am really in love with my little stress buster cats. I don't know where I would be without them! Mom and dad are made a special dinner of, roast chicken, stuffing and green bean bake! Delicious. Despite the awful things happening right now, history will tell the tale, we are had a good day. The way it should be!
"Easter is the one morning in all of history where dawn came twice;
once in the eastern horizon and again in eternity."
~Charles Lounsbrough
HAPPY EASTER!
I hope your day is filled with peace and love. I will be spending the morning preparing an Easter Basket for the kitties. It's Simon and Tyler's first Easter, so I hope they will have a ball. I am filling the yellow chick basket I have, with all kinds of goodies. Plastic eggs with catnip toys inside, Temptations cat treats. Some Delectable chicken sticks, and Temptation's nom noms. And some tinkle balls. There is a little something for everyone! Hopefully pictures will come tomorrow, we'll see how well the basket goes over with the boys! Sometimes they are really into things like this, other times they are like meh. Everything is TBD.
As of today, we are in day 35. But, as of last Wednesday, when he gave his big fancy speech, he said, again, we could be out of the war in about two to three weeks. That would make the date, somewhere around April, if we give him the full three weeks! So, we'll see.
Sigh.
As of the writing of this post, we have a missing airman, who was shot down near the strait of Hormoz. I am praying for their safety, and that we will find them alive and well! I also pray that it doesn't take two weeks to find them!
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity;
and I am not sure about the universe."
~ Albert Einstein
Well That Was Embarrassing!
He did it again.
He opened his mouth, and the stupid vomited out.
The look on, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's, face, says it all! I think this incident might just be more embarrassing then the time, Volodymry Zelenskyy, was told he wasn't grateful enough, and followed it with a rabid journalist/podcaster/whatever telling Zelenskyy he wasn't dressed appropriately for a visit to the White House!
Sigh.
Welcome to the first day of Spring!
"The earth laughs in flowers."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Here's an article with video, which runs a bit longer.
