You can break my bones

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd last year, the company for which I work gave US employees Juneteenth off. Starting this year, it’s an annual holiday, and we’re off today. I’m glad, because—like Memorial Day, Labor Day, MLK Day and Veterans Day—it’s an opportunity for us to reflect on our history, to honor the sacrifices made by generations of Americans to make our lives better and to consider how we can further that continuum.

If you’re unclear about Juneteenth, it commemorates the day in 1865 when news arrived in Galveston with Union troops that the end of the War Between the States meant emancipation for slaves across the country. The Emancipation Proclamation, which the victory at Antietam in September of 1862 made possible, outlawed slavery in all territories then in rebellion against the United States. However, as you might imagine, the Confederates basically said, “Yeah, and?” and got on with their slaving business for another two years. Two months after the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, the “and” question was answered in Texas.

We all know that we have yet to fulfill the promise of emancipation; for that matter, we have yet to fulfill the ideals of a more perfect union, equal justice, domestic tranquility, general welfare and the blessings of liberty. But Juneteenth reminds us that, even when we can’t see the full arc of the moral universe, we feel it in our consciences and we are obligated to do our part to ensure that it bends toward justice.

For these reasons, today we’re having Aretha Franklin singing “Never Gonna Break My Faith.” This version was compiled and released for Juneteenth last year. Crank up the volume and really look at the videos.

 

 

What's in my wallet?

Yesterday afternoon I opened the account I list whenever I have to provide an email address for a vendor—financial institutions, subscriptions, retailers, etc. And found three emails from CapitalOne, about this and that. I could have sworn that I unsubscribed from all this crap last week, but here they are again, spamming the living daylights out of me.

I unsubscribed again. If I have to do it again, I’m calling them and threatening to switch to a Chase card. It’s a lousy way to treat customers and they need to cut it out.

This is precisely why I never give any of these mokes my mobile number.

 

 

Looking down to see up

We had quite the gullywasher on Monday night, so on my walk yesterday morning I noticed a lot of puddles. And the reflections in the water fascinated me. Viz:

 

 

Nature's mysteries 2

Well, thanks to my readers, I found out that last week’s mystery plant is a wild azalea, probably rhododendron canescens or rhododendron periclymenoides. So I know what I want to add to my garden.

Let’s try again. These guys actually live in my garden already, and they’re almost ground cover.

They popped up while Nature was still deciding on how many winters we were going to go through, so they're hardy.

They start out strong with blooms, then lapse into green. 

Now they’ve all disappeared, so not reliable cover.

#IDme

 

 

Gratitude Monday: the adult in the room

Watching the G7 meeting in Cornwall, I am so grateful that the United States is once again represented by a grown-ass man who is not looking for attention and for how he can profit from the conference. We went through the entire summit without a tantrum or stunt (except for teddy-tossing BoJo, who is a poor representative of the public school system in Britain), and I have to say that it was a massive relief.

(We have yet to see how the wealthiest nations in the world will follow up, but that's a different discussion.)

It seems odd that you have to say that out loud, but it’s 2021 and this is where we are.

 

 

A true survivor

Well, alrighty, then—for the second Friday in Pride month, we should have something from Elton John. I’ve pulled out “I’m Still Standing”, because it seems emblematic of everyone who’s made it through the pandemic, but also because this video reminds me so much of a sales conference my company had at Cannes back on the cusp of the New Millennium.

Here are some of the highlights I recall:

The EMEA GM (within a year, company CEO) got into a tussle with the VP of sales out on the hotel patio at the welcome reception, and they both ended up in the pool. I have pix.

(The VP was wearing expensive loafers. He was not best pleased.)

The company made attendees share rooms with colleagues. I ended up with someone I’d never met before. That policy absolutely creeps me out. (One of my colleagues came out to her assigned roommate before the trip. The roomie was evidently the only person in the office who didn’t know, and it turns out she didn’t care.)

The big “team building” exercise was to be divided into teams, given movie props and a video camera, and told to “make a film”. (We were there the week before the big Cannes Film Festival. It was actually the week of the Cannes Adult Film Festival, if you’re asking.) Our props were Darth Vader’s helmet and cape, and a light sword. Having a certified maniac assigned to the team resulted in a video that absolutely horrified the global head of HR, who had come over from Ottawa; I assure you with all my heart that had such a thing been shown at any corporate event in the US, the company would still be embroiled in lawsuits 20 years on.

However—my team won, and I still have the director’s chair that each of us got as a prize. Also, it was a really funny video.

I think this was the event where the GM/future CEO put on a kilt, came out with the sword Gibson used in Braveheart and mooned the audience. But that might have been a different time/place.

Possibly because of the shared room accommodation, a sales director and one of the account managers on his team had a right good shag one night on the beach outside the hotel. Many people saw it and had a right good laugh about it. Some time later the (female) account manager was let go; the director kept his job.

One of the account managers—who won a trip to the US for exceeding quota or some such—got up on the table and danced to Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”. I can never hear that song without thinking of her.

A cohort of employees stayed in the hotel bar until it closed that night. Then the VP who’d picked up the tab (on the company, of course) sent everyone there back to their rooms to clean out their minibars and return. They remained drinking until about 0400. I was not part of the jolly group, but they were definitely the worse for wear the next day.

Ah, good times.

Anyway—Elton John. This is so early 80s. 

 

Good deed

Given the typical June weather here in the District They Call Columbia, I’ve had to push my daily walks earlier in the morning. Even so, before 0700 it’s 76F and at least 75% humidity, so it’s not an entirely pleasant experience.

However, you see things in the morning that you don’t later on. Viz: this little guy, who’d trudged up a slope about 10 yards and looked to be on his way to the W&OD Trail. Or possibly headed home after a night on the tiles.

I might should have let him carry on, but that direction was definitely away from the pond, so I relocated him to the wet area.

Back in grad school, I earned the epithet “[Bas Bleu], Redeemer of Reptiles”, because tortoises around the Burg had a tendency to try to cross busy highways teeming with tourons whose minds are not on driving. I would pull over, pick them up and carry them to the other side. I learned to pick them up by the edges of their shell, away from their heads, because they’d try to bite and they did pee. I applied those lessons to the turtle yesterday.

He didn’t look best pleased, but I did it for his own good.

 

 

Nature's mysteries 1

Over the past few months, I’ve been collecting a lot of pix of plants, shrubs and trees I find interesting, but have no clue as to what they are. I need you to help me with this.

First up is a shrub over to the corporate HQ that started out as interesting buds, moved through flowers with a delicate fragrance and ended up as kind of flower bones. I don’t think I’ve seen it anywhere else; not even elsewhere in the corporate HQ campus.

#IDme: 

 

 

Among us

Moving on, like bees, today’s post is full of fungi. They certainly come in many varieties, don’t they?

These beauties were growing for a (wet) day on a Japanese maple. After the rain stopped, they dried up.

These popped up in a shady area:

These over at the corporate HQ:

And these on a tree stump:

Dang—now I’m hungry.

 

 

 

Gratitude Monday: watching them work

I don’t know whether today’s gratitude is micro- or macrocosmic. Maybe both.

Because today I’m grateful for bees—out there doing their job, slathering themselves in pollen and tracking it all over the place. They literally make the world work, or at least the nature part off the world, and I really appreciate their service.

Also, I love watching them on the job. Viz:

(These may be a little wobbly; I literally had to shoot across a garden to get them.)

Yeah—both. It’s definitely both.