YES, I AM STILL HERE peeking out my window on Main Street, and I was interested in the kind of reaction from passing drivers the ‘No Kings’ rally received here Saturday morning.
Goodness knows that the wind blasting from the east was hostile and frigid, especially after some of the mild days we had before that devastating cold snap that killed the peaches a week ago.
But the 15 or so persons who were out there on the sidewalk at the parking lot of the City-County Building surely had to expect some negative reaction to the audacity of their rally.
After all, we are in a very red county in a very red state as has been shown in recent elections.
These citizens at the rally had to be pretty brave.
According to news reports there were 11 other ‘No Kings’ parades or rallies in Arkansas. I’m guessing they were mostly in larger towns.
Nationwide there were reportedly several thousand. There were even some protests in other nations.
The people were rallying for a variety of things but most of their protests were aimed at our President.
In the November elections we’ll see if any of their anger shows up in the defeat of pro-Trump legislators in other states.
But back to the reaction of local passing drivers.
One of the rally participants told me that a driver yelled “Hail Trump” out his car window. Several vehicles honked — I wouldn’t know if they were ‘fer or agin’ the spirit of the rally.
I DO admire persons who will take the heat for standing up for their principles. It can be unpopular to swim upstream.
What would YOU do? If you had differences with the powers-that-be would you hold up a sign and endure remarks from passing motorists, or would you drive past and flip ‘em off?
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ANIMAL CRACKERS. Drama under my carport. It was still dark Monday morning when I returned to my house after my usual walk. For some reason the sensor lights were on and bright. A medium black-and-white dog came running out while I was still in the driveway. It was probably just exploring and its motion set off the light, I said to myself.
When I reached my buggy I heard a cat hiss. Suddenly a small black cat ran out from under the aforementioned buggy. It was followed by a larger black-and-white dog which bolted from around the aforementioned buggy and was in pursuit. The panther and the dog both headed out into the dark.
I went inside to change my pants. How did they get wet? I hope the cat got away. I didn’t hear sounds of mortal combat.
I’ve had a few encounters with animals during my 35 or so years of morning walks in the neighborhood. Skunks aplenty. Once a deer. Some other dogs, none of which were threatening. And once, an owl glided silently just over my head. I’ve heard coyotes but never seen any.
Of course I’ve had some sightings of Louise Fox (that’s another story and I’m sure you wouldn’t be interested).
That owl, incidently comes and goes in the neighborhood in a cycle of every five or six years, and it’s about time for it to come back. I’ll know it when I hear the whooooooo.
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THE GOOD EARTH. I have no idea where they’ve been but I’m surprised this spring at the glowing re-appearance of azealas in my yard. Maybe they’ve been there the last few years, but I don’t remember. I haven’t been paying attention to the bushes for some time, but the 2026 azealas are brilliant white. I bought and planted them years and years ago — before we even had nurseries here. I still remember the variety: Mrs. G.G. Gerbing. That is a memorable name, and I have no idea who she is, or was.
I have noticed fire ant mounds coming up around the cana plants.
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I GET EMAIL. Lots of it. In fact, Mr. Schirmer has asked me to take a pay cut because I spend so much time with emails.
I didn’t ask for the ermails.
Overnight I get maybe 180 emails from Costco, Omaha Steaks, AAA, Mariott Hotels and BlueCross and some Ukranian wimmen. Maybe our visiting ITech guy can do something to weed out those useless emails. Except for the ones from those Ukrainian wimmen that really, really, really want to meet me.
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MORE THINGS I LEARNED from opening an email: Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.
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WORD GAMES. I love oxymorons: When they asked if I was coming to the No Kings rally, I gave them a Definite Maybe.
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HE SAID: “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” Victor Hugo, French author and poet
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SHE SAID: “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” Flannery O’Connor, American novelist
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SWEET DREAMS, Baby
