billroper | Reading

Lisa surprised me this afternoon. She went to the No Kings Protest herself. She dislikes crowds, but she drove to Carson City in her small orange pickup and drove up and down Carson Street (the protest was on that street in front of the state legislative complex), taking lots of pictures, but not mingling in the throng of people who flocked to the state capitol today. I didn't see her, nor she me, but there were something like 5,000 people at the protest. She did her part, giving the thumbs up and getting as many pictures of clever signs (of which there were many) on her pass through downtown. She handed me the photos and I got them posted. I have a large Flickr album that includes both her photos and the ones that Kayla took. I'd say more, but I've been up since 4:30 AM and need to get some sleep.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada

mcgathblog_feed

Posted by Gary McGath

https://garymcgath.com/wp/june-14/

https://garymcgath.com/wp/?p=5545

Things have gotten steadily worse just in the past week. Trump’s goons have assaulted a US Senator. He has illegally deployed the military against American civilians. Today is a day of protest, and it’s quite possible the administration will respond with violence.

Stay calm and stay focused. Things may yet come to an armed uprising, but this isn’t the time.

Picture of crowned Trump with "NO" in red superimposed Reach out to people rather than denouncing them. Save the insults for the people in top positions and those who commit violent acts or spread lies.

The stunt the Boston organizers pulled, renaming their event “No Kings but Yaaas Queens,” is just dumb. Bringing in unrelated issues just narrows the base of support for an action intended to draw in all who value freedom. You don’t have to be anything-“phobic” to be annoyed at the tone and wonder if it’s where you want to be. There are lots of other events in Massachusetts that don’t dilute the message, and I’ll be attending one of them today.

Stay safe and strong.

https://garymcgath.com/wp/june-14/

https://garymcgath.com/wp/?p=5545

kevin_standlee

There is a fish and chips food truck that visits Fernley around once a month. For some reason, I typically get notifications of them coming here after they've already moved on to a different city. This time, I knew they would be here today, stopping at Big R Ranch & Home. As it happens, I needed to go there anyway. The water pump on the swamp cooler has stopped pumping. I think there's just been too much hard water build-up in it. Also, the pads into which the water is pumped have too much build-up in them. It's easier to just replace the pump and pads than to try and clean them. So I went over to Big R, bought the swamp cooler parts, and went outside to get some fish.

( On The Hook )

It was pretty good fish.

Current Mood: full
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada

jennlk

at the twp board meeting on Tuesday, the board decided that I needed to start the ball rolling (again) on the basement re-org. (note that I wasn't even at the meeting, because I'm only a twp employee, and I had somewhere else to be.) To be fair, the reason the ball had stopped is because TE had emergency abdominal surgery and was understandably out of action for six weeks. But he's back on his feet now, and can at least manage things. So I amended the write-up I did last time, and sent it out. Hopefully something will happen now.

FCB rehearsal was on stage this week (a last minute change because the bandroom was full of sorting music/instruments/uniforms, and their band director didn't want it rearranged). I put a big sign in red and black marker on a music stand in front of the door, and yet.... Every time I (or somebody else on set up) went back into the bandroom for percussion, there was a band member looking around, perplexed. One person had even taken it upon themselves to set up a chair and stand in the area where they usually sit.

The birds are getting to the strawberries before I do. There's only a dozen bearing plants this year, and this historical variety (my grandfather bought the first plants in 1933) is not one that has lots of fruit. We had lots of berries when I was a kid, but that's because we had 200 sq feet of strawberry patch, not 10. Well, and the soil at King Rd was better than the soil here, and I just don't have the spoons to do the required amendment here.

The pale pink peonies bloomed yesterday, and the dark pink ones have that lovely sun-faded look to them. And there is a carpet of white peony petals, and a thicket of lupine seed heads. I guess I know what I'll be doing this afternoon. :)

ETA: It's Friday the 13th. A black cat has already crossed my path. (OK, so he does that every day. I don't think it'll change anything.)

Current Music: birdies and a chipmunk

mcgathblog_feed

Posted by Gary McGath

https://garymcgath.com/wp/no-truce-with-kings/

https://garymcgath.com/wp/?p=5538

My new Bandcamp album, No Truce with Kings, is available as a payment-optional download. The songs are:

Album cover for "No Truce with Kings" by Gary McGath; Paul Revere equestrian statue with Old North Church in background

The Old Issue (introductory verses)

The Tree

No Trump Contract

Lock ’em Away

Sanity Shanty

Free America

Marching Through Greenland

A Is A

Breaking the ICE

In the End

https://garymcgath.com/wp/no-truce-with-kings/

https://garymcgath.com/wp/?p=5538

mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

Thomann and Sweetwater. Minor grumps at Thomann for having a US site that looks tempting until you find out that shipping and tariffs are added at checkout. Major grumps at my old standby, Musician's Friend, whose site is totally broken when seen from Europe. Major grumps at ME for not having installed a VPN yet.
Online filk circles. NO thanks to the weird audio problems I was having tonight during Eurofilk. But I got one song (The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of) out. (I wrote it for my father, who died 26 years ago. And Father's Day is this Sunday.)

Not feeling terribly thankful today. Sorry.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: working on it

kevin_standlee

As Kayla headed out for breakfast this morning, she snapped a photo of the "Strawberry Moon," which if I'm reading right is about the largest the Moon will appear in our sky for a long time.

( Moon Over Fernley )

The camera phone is of course not very good for taking this sort of picture.

LiveJournal continues to show a 403 Forbidden error.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada

kevin_standlee

Another 3 AM start today. Things went okay, but by the time we got to Noon PT, I was done. I laid down and slept for several hours before being awakened by yet another phone spammer. Because of the nonprofit corporations on whose boards I sit, I'm targeted by sales calls that assume that all corporations have millions and millions of dollars to spend, and have a difficult time contemplating all-volunteer organizations with no employees and no reason to spend vast sums of money on their services. After all, isn't it illegal to not make a profit?

Anyway, I hope to get caught up on sleep tonight and put in an ordinary work day tomorrow.

I'd cross-post this to my LiveJournal, but I'm getting 403 errors trying to open LJ.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada

mcgathblog_feed

Posted by Gary McGath

https://garymcgath.com/wp/king-george-iii-is-on-bluesky/

https://garymcgath.com/wp/?p=5536

Follow King George III on Bluesky as he pledges to Make Britain Great Again. Reposts and likes will help this new account to get noticed.

https://garymcgath.com/wp/king-george-iii-is-on-bluesky/

https://garymcgath.com/wp/?p=5536

kevin_standlee

As I mentioned, I get another 3 AM wake-up call tomorrow due to needing to be at work on the Day Jobbe due to the person in India for whom I'm the backup being on PTO. Oh, well, I hope I can knock off work no later than Noon tomorrow. And on the bright side, it should be cooler at 3 AM and I can open the front door (we do have a screen door) and get more cross-ventilation through the house.

Not helping my rest was having to work late today, and also I was expecting a call that never came. I wish the people who were holding me in place had at least dropped me a note telling me that they didn't need me this afternoon after all.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada

jennlk

sigh. I just spent half a dozen emails explaining to someone exactly which music he should pull for Tuesday's concert. Condensed version follows:

"list from DM says Stars & Stripes 1843. Wha??"
a: It's the first piece in the performance list and we've *never* opened a concert with S+S, nor have we ever played it twice in a concert and it's also at the end of the list. My assumption is that he meant the non-Moffitt Star Spangled Banner that's in the folders. (and let's not even mention that Stars + Stripes hadn't even been written in 1843.)

"But I don't have SSB 1843!"
a: You have SSB 1853, yes?

Assume an autocorrupt issue and a typo and move on, especially when there is a plausible alternative present.

"I don't have Victory for MSU"
a; yes, you do. you have Fight Song MSU, and it's been mentioned at every summer rehearsal for the last two years that Fight Song MSU is now called Victory for MSU. You could open the file called Victory for MSU and look at the pdfs to be sure.

And then there was the other individual who texted me four times last Tuesday, the last two times while I was driving home from work:
"I can't find the music link"
"do you have the set list?"
"when do we start?"
"do I need a chair?"
(the last two questions were answered in the email with the set list which I had forwarded just before I left for work.)

Note that neither one of these people is new to the band or to the summer sessions -- while newer than me, this is at least their 3d full season with the band -- and summer concerts have always started at the same time and we are to provide our own chairs and music stands.

This is, I think, one of the reasons I'm not thrilled with the summer band. This is, theoretically, the band I play in for fun....

Current Music: rill, birdies, somebody mowing their lawn

mcgathblog_feed

Posted by Gary McGath

https://garymcgath.com/wp/protests-june-14/

https://garymcgath.com/wp/?p=5524

Todd Lyons is “demanding” that we stop saying bad things about his Gestapo. Hegseth has threatened to deploy the Marines against the American people. Let’s give them the answer they deserve.

On June 14, Donald Trump is celebrating his birthday with a Soviet-style military parade at our expense. It’s also a day when there will be many protests against the brutal turn our government has taken. You can look for one in your area at 50501. Read the description of any event you’re considering, and check other sources if necessary. Some event organizers merely want a socialist all-controlling state instead of a populist one, and they’re trying to hitch a ride on justified public outrage. In my limited experience, though, most are focused on the administration’s gross abuses of power.

The Haverhill, Massachusetts event looks like one of the good ones. June 14 is also Flag Day, and the event’s page says, “The flag doesn’t belong to Donald Trump. It belongs to us. We’re not watching history happen. We’re making it. On June 14th, we’re showing up everywhere he isn’t — to say no thrones, no crowns, no kings.”

I still have serious doubts about the effectiveness of protests. They happen, they get a mention in the news, and the government keeps doing whatever it was doing. Their most important effect is to remind ourselves we haven’t given up or given in. In times like these, keeping quiet isn’t an acceptable alternative. With luck, you may get some people to think. At least remember that your goal isn’t to insult them. You don’t win people over with mockery.

Most of these events welcome signs, but many discourage signs on sticks; they can be grabbed and used as weapons.

If you bring your mobile phone to a protest, you may want to turn off Wi-Fi, location tracking, unlocking by face recognition, and Bluetooth. Make sure someone knows where you’re going and arrange to check in afterward so they know you’re safe. ICE doesn’t play fair.

If you’d like to get people together to sing my song, “Breaking the ICE”, feel free.

Update: I wrote this a day or so before posting, because early morning is a good time to have a post appear and it gives me time to reconsider and edit. Since then, the situation in Los Angeles has deteriorated into rioting, with threatening or destructive actions aimed at local law enforcement and infrastructure. As with the actions against police violence a few years ago, it’s easy for legitimate protest to turn into rioting. It can be Antifa types, government provocateurs, or just people looking for a chance to wreck stuff. An unidentified arsonist destroyed Uncle Hugo’s, an iconic science fiction bookstore in Minneapolis, during riots in 2020.

Don’t let that happen on Saturday. Hurting bystanders and legitimate law enforcement just trying to keep the peace won’t help the cause of freedom. Don’t join in if some moron decides blocking traffic will win the drivers over. Trump is the enemy. ICE is the enemy. You want the people in your city, your community, to be your friends.

https://garymcgath.com/wp/protests-june-14/

https://garymcgath.com/wp/?p=5524

johnridley

Wow it's been a while since I posted an update.
The motorcycle that I had just acquired in the last post is running, but not well. It needs some work. Either a valve or a ring job. I'll be getting to that in a few weeks probably. I did a TON of stuff to it; there are photos and writeups on dragonflydiy.com though I doubt anyone cares.
This is concert week for Out Loud Chorus which I sing in. Monday is band rehearsal, plus load out of the risers from our rehearsal space and a bass sectional, so quite busy (and a late night) for me.
Those risers need to get out of my trailer sometime that week because I need the trailer for something else Saturday/Sunday (the church's rummage sale will finish Saturday and the leftovers need to be dispersed to Goodwill or whatever). That's not scheduled but will probably have to happen during the day at some point. Saturday morning may very well be the only chance since most people will be unable to do it during the day and evenings are full.
Tuesday evening is a going-away party for a former coworker-then-boss who is taking a new job.
Wednesday is tech rehearsal with the choir, which is usually a long slog.
Thursday is dress rehearsal, then Friday and Saturday are concert evenings.
Sunday is a lawn mowing day (I HOPE it doesn't rain) because on Monday I drive, picking up some friends, to Albany where we will overnight then start the 380 miles of the Erie Canal bike path. We're expecting to spend 8 days on that.
I have been doing SOME training on the bike, though probably not enough. I'm not concerned though, we're only shooting for 50 mile days and I'm confident I can hammer those out for 8 days. If not, this time we will have my truck tagging along in case someone has a bad day or an injury.
Things around the house are ticking along. Of course there's always a bunch of stuff to do, a bunch that doesn't get done, etc. I have some deck projects that I need to get to. We have been doing some plant moving, since the removal of the giant cottonwood trees a couple of years ago really rearranged what parts of the yard get sun, so some plants do worse, but also some plants that had not been doing all that well can now be moved to sunnier areas.

kevin_standlee

It's just as well that I have to start work Monday morning at just after 3 AM PT due to some technical issues that I need to supervise for the Day Jobbe, because it's apt to be tolerably cool then and I should then be able to bail out by Noon or so.

Kayla went out to breakfast this morning at 6:30 AM and did some errands, getting back home by about 9 AM before the full heat of the day hit. Then we spent the next few hours working on Westercon site selection issues. I am in overall charge of the two Westercon Business functions for BayCon 2025/Westercon 77, while Martin Pyne is chair of the Business Meeting and Kayla Allen is head of Site Selection. I expect that Kayla will have something more to write about this on Monday.

I think it peaked at 36°C, which, being just below body temperature, is where things are getting dangerous. The swamp cooler can help, but it's still not much fun.

Now to see if I can get to sleep in this afternoon heat, as my bedroom is on the west side of the house so gets the afternoon sun. I keep a piece of insulation in the window to try and keep it dark and to reduce the amount of heat. I also fill the tank on the swamp cooler and point it into the bedroom when I go to bed under these conditions. Then, after sundown (I hate daylight savings time) and when things have cooled somewhat, if I wake up (likely), I can open the windows and get some cross-ventilation going.

Current Mood: hot
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada

$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

mdlbear

... so I still haven't done a full con report -- it's been almost a week -- so in the interim I'll just refer you to last week's "Done Since 2025-05-25" (posted on Monday) and "Thankful Thursday" posts. The only parts of the trip it doesn't cover very well are the songs we sang ( "Millennium's Dawn" deserves full S4S treatment), the hotel (the breakfast and dinner buffets, included in the room price), were noteworthy), and the travel.

Right. The travel. Tips:

Don't leave anything in (travel guitar)Plink's case -- it could delay inspection (and did, at Hamburg).
On arrival, stay in the plane until somebody tells you that your wheelchair is ready. Hamburg again.
If you don't look disabled (like m, for example), take a cane and hobble out of the plane with it. This is especially true for Schiphol -- the Dutch tend to be ablist.

Yesterday N, m, and I had a good band practice/conference, including more tweaking on "Millennium's Dawn", scripting for several songs that still had only two-person arrangements, and harmony arrangements because we finally have someone in the band who can reliably sing harmony. We're also going to want a keyboard. Or two, since m is leaving tomorrow for Seattle.

Health-wise, I don't think I'm doing all that well, so it's a good thing I have an appointment with a cardiologist soon, as well as with an oncologist.

If you're interested in word origins, check out the Online Etymology Dictionary, which includes some fascinating articles as well as the dictionary entries.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Mood: mostly worried
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: some band practice

kevin_standlee

Lisa and I went to Reno to find her a quality camera bag for her to use on her trip to Europe this summer, after which we went to WinCo Foods for groceries. It was relatively late in my day when we turned for home, so I decided to get a mocha frappuccino from Starbucks. Those of you who follow Kayla's journal will recognize the irony of this. Fortunately, there was no issue with me going in to pick up the drink that Kayla ordered for me.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada

ericcoleman

A wonderful school is in danger of closing. Everything is explained here. Help them out if you can! Spread the word if you can't!
https://www.gofundme.com/f/saving-dreamflight

jennlk

but still some same ol' things.

LCCB is still far more freeform than I like. Every summer, I wonder why I play the summer schedule. DM is concerned about our stage comportment, but doesn't do a damn thing about the sprawling layouts with random people way far away from other people who mostly play the same part. But people seem to enjoy the concerts, so I guess that's why I keep playing....

Sup is doing the "why is this not done yet" queries, and my response is "because TW and HandymanDan haven't gotten back to me (or you) to schedule. *You* poke them...." BC is finally up to a trek into the basement to see the status down there, and OMG there's a lot of work to be done. No more than there was (less, actually, as I've taken the recycling in). Somebody else needs to take the rubbish. Other somebodies need to schedule TE and HD for a day of moving big stuff. OTOH, the AC is now working -- something in the compressor needed to be replaced, so it was and now it works. Just as well, as we are now in an "if you don't need to breathe outside, don't" portion of the summer. (Canadian prairies are on fire, and we get the smoke. yay?)

Early last week, I moved the main plants from the deckside garden to their new home. Then it got hot for a couple of days, and then it rained for about 18 hours, so they're well watered in. The East garden is very appreciative of the weather - everything is blooming! Peonies, Lupine, three shades of pink daisies, three very different irises (white, dark purple, yellow & bronze), and bright yellow paintbrush. And some scattered magenta & white & purple carnations.... It's been a few years since everything in that garden has flowered this profusely. There are some spring bulbs in there that I need to move, because they don't bloom before the shasta daisies around them get tall, so they're hard to see. If I move them to the new garden, we'll be able to see them!

Current Music: Wanna Rock & Roll -- Cross Canadian Ragweed

kevin_standlee

This morning when Kayla was on her way to breakfast, she spotted not one, but two rabbits in our field.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada

mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

The folks we met at DFDF, and particularly the concom, for a wonderful convention. Additional thanks to whoever came up with the con's memorable URL.
My nibling and bandmate m.
The two wheelchair pushers at Hamburg, without whom we wouldn't have made our flight home. NO thanks to the security people at Hamburg, nor to the wheelchair pusher at Schiphol, who tried to claim that m didn't have wheelchair assistance.
Myself, for remembering to check under-seat bag size restrictions on KLM, and Red, my little REI backpack that is squishable enough to just barely fit. NO thanks to companies that claim their bags fit under an airplane seat, when they actually don't. No thanks, also, to airlines that keep reducing the available space year after year.
Ticia and, especially, Bronx, for letting me sleep and giving me all the lap-cuddles.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: last weekend at DFDF

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billroper

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Bill Roper's Journal

Reading

No Kings Day: Lisa's Surprise

June 14

Something Fishy

the more things change....

New album: No Truce with Kings

Thankful Thursday

Mooned

Some Sleep is Good

King George III is on Bluesky

Yet Another Early Day

some people.....

Protests on June 14

So much stuff

Too Darn Hot

Done Since 2025-06-02

Grocery Shopping and Starbucks Irony

Help Cat Greenburg & Matthew Morrese

and now it's different things....

Morning Bunnies

Thankful Thursday

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June 2025

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