Seems to me that the only music following on the Democratic National Conference celebration that we’ve witnessed for the past four days is Beyoncé’s “Freedom”. And this Homecoming version is an appropriate shoutout to the Coach.
Crank up the volume.
©2024 Bas Bleu
Day two of the Democratic National Convention was
full of stemwinders—I don’t know when I’ve seen a stronger slate of speakers or
more energy and joy in a political convention (or any other venue, TBH).
Doug Emhoff had me checking my eyes for liquid
leaks with his describing his and Kamala Harris’ blended family, Stephanie
Grisham gave us insight into another, less happy family; and of course Barack
Obama delivered a barn burner. His mimicking the Kleptocrat’s accordion hands when
commenting on his “weird obsession with crowd sizes” was in itself worth the
price of admission.
But it was Michelle Obama who, in my opinion, put everything into perspective. In particular, this clip (which I hope I’ve done right from the C-SPAN site) distilled the difference between Democratic and Republican candidates, all up and down the ticket, honestly.
©2024 Bas Bleu
Last month I shared with you an extreme example of parking like an asshole. (In the UK, it’s known as “parking like a twat”.) Well, yesterday on my morning walk, I found another.
It’s in a very small parking lot for people who
use the W&OD biking trail. There are 12 marked parking spaces, all on one
side of the lot. You can’t have spaces on the other side of the area because
then there wouldn’t be room to swing into or out of a slot.
But that didn’t stop this crackbrain:
Parking this way rendered the last three spaces
inaccessible to vehicles. And, as you will notice, there were plenty of legit, marked slots available.
But, hey, no one’s going to nick his side
panels by opening their doors.
©2024 Bas Bleu
When I posted about the lifecycle of a neighbor’s lawn chairs last week, a friend asked a pertinent question: “Did they move?”
I didn’t know, but I thought I perhaps could
tell from their front garden when we get closer to the holidays. They always
have something out for Halloween, and then shift for Thanksgiving and
Christmas.
But on Saturday I was taking a walk along the
street when I glanced over and saw this:
So, no—they’re still there and clearly getting
comfy.
All’s well.
©2024 Bas Bleu
Giving the ongoing problems with my hip, I rolled the dice last week and scheduled a yoga lesson for Friday. I haven’t been able to do yoga for more than a month, and the couple of sessions I’ve had since late May have resulted in real pain and restricted range of motion, so it really was a gamble.
I really love yoga and going so long without it
diminishes me. Perhaps even more than not being able to take 7000-step walks
every day. But when you can’t bend down to rummage in the crisper drawer of the
refrigerator without doing an arabesque because the muscles across your hip are
just not having it, yoga is truly a non-starter.
Well, Friday morning I had my PT session, which
left me in a little pain. About half-way between that and my afternoon yoga
lesson, I took a hit of diclofenac, which mitigated it.
Yoga was half upper-body twisties, which I
love, and half restorative. Because my instructor and I hadn’t had a
conversation in weeks, we pretty much chatted our way through the lesson.
I felt somewhat “pulled” afterwards, and took a
second tab of the NSAID to get me through the night.
But here’s the thing: Saturday and yesterday, I
had some discomfort, but no pain. And I was able to walk and do my PT exercises
without ill effects. I was reminded of what it’s like to be fit and healthy,
which I haven’t felt for months.
And that’s my gratitude for today. I don’t know
how long this will last—Lord knows, this situation has ebbed and flared on its
own timetable. But I’m grabbing this while I can.
©2024 Bas Bleu
Mark Knopfler turned 75 on Monday. Knopfler is a musical polymath—guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer. He led Dire Straits for 18 years, and has had a successful solo career since the band broke up in 1995.
There are about a squillion of his songs I could have chosen for today’s earworm, from either his Dire Straits or solo years. But I’m giving you him singing Bob Dylan’s “Lily of the West”, from his collaboration with The Chieftains on their Long Black Veil CD. (They changed a fair few of the lyrics to move the setting to Ireland. But I rather like that.)
Happy birthday, Mark!
©2024 Bas Bleu
I saw these on Saturday. Wonder if you could identify them out of context?
Yeah—they’re pasta, at the farmers market.
©2024 Bas Bleu
Over the years, I’ve been documenting lawn chairs in the neighborhood. I don’t know why I started, but I’ve kept it up on my walks.
There’s one family of them in particular that
has interested me.
We started in 2020, with these chairs facing a
grassy vista.
In 2021, this was the configuration.
A few months later, there was this arrangement.
By the time we got to 2023, we had this.
And this is what it looked like yesterday.
Well—life moves on.
©2024 Bas Bleu
Time for another installment of vanity plates.
I did not see the driver:
Football, I assume:
©2024 Bas Bleu
Friday I had a conversation with my physical therapist. My question to him was: is this problem with my hip something I’m just going to have to live with?
His answer was: possibly. It may just be a
question of how to handle flareups to minimize my down time, and that’s what we’re
working on.
Well, poop.
Saturday was an iffy day—at the farmers market,
a woman dropped an onion and I couldn’t bend down to pick it up for her.
Also, poop.
Yesterday I woke up with the constriction in my
hip, but I decided to take a walk around the ‘hood. Not a long walk, just out
to the street, up to the other entrance to the cluster and back. But I did it;
first “walk” in about six weeks.
And that’s my gratitude today.
©2024 Bas Bleu
