We Love Lucy

Lucy continues to be more active and seems to feel much better on the new medication.  It's an anti-inflammatory, similar (or perhaps identical) to one used for human arthritis and is worth every penny of its high cost.  She is clearly a more comfortable and happier dog.

We live in the woods and are used to wildlife of all sorts.  But we recently got a real surprise.  A black bear inside our garage!  We bring all our bird feeders into the garage every evening at dusk and put them in a closed container.  Some spilled birdseed had not been swept up and this bear walked between our two vehicles to get to the seeds.  Imagine my husband's surprise when he opened the door to the garage and saw the bear.  My husband made a loud noise, slapping the wall and the bear took off as fast as he could.  In an extremely frightening second, Lucy took out after the bear.  Fortunately the bear had a head start and Lucy quickly ran out of steam.  I shudder to think what might have happened had the bear turned around to face Lucy.  It all happened so fast my husband simply shouted at Lucy to come back.

Thank goodness it was a rather small bear, likely one whose mother had "kicked" him out in order to care for her younger cubs and prepare for the winter's new ones.  It seems this was its first encounter with humans so we are ever so glad it was very frightened.  Our new habit is to close the garage door at 4:30, and it will be earlier as the dusk comes earlier.  Obviously we are more careful to pick up any stray seeds that may have fallen.

Lucy looks pretty gentle to be a bear dog.

In our continued plan to make our home safer as we age, we are having decorative (but functional) fencing placed by the stone steps and walk you see in the photograph.  We already have a metal railing that lines the stones steps going from the back of the house down into the woods.

Early voting has begun here in North Carolina.  So it is appropriate that today's quote should be about voting.  It is a quote from Franklin Delano Roosevelt and was accurate for its time.  Sadly, it is no long correct.  And for that we can blame the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) and gerrymandering.  And it is a shame.

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.

Today we are seeing other ways to deprive Americans the right to vote.  If you haven't been keeping up, read about the voter suppression in Georgia, and in the Dakotas.  The SCOTUS opened the door for such massive last-minute changes to the voting process.  (And that was even before Kavanaugh was seated.)  Polling places have abruptly been changed, and many have been closed.  Registration requirements for absolutely identical information have been invoked.  (If you used a middle initial, your information must also include that initial.  Even an extra space between names could invalidate the information.)  In some areas university students were told how to register as residents of the town where they go to school.  Now those requirements have changed and those students who followed the instructions will no longer be registered.  They will have to reapply consistent with the new regulations.

All of these maneuvers are designed to make it harder for people to vote.  And every singe one of them are in GOP-held areas and are much more likely to affect the Democrat voters.  Surely you can see the unfairness of this even if you are a Republican yourself.

So it's up to us.  We cannot afford to miss this opportunity to exercise our rights to vote.  Vote early if you can.  Offer to drive a neighbor who might not otherwise be able to get to the polls.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK, EVERYONE

VOTE AS SOON AS YOU CAN