Added Reflections

I came across this today.  Does this belong to Jen or did I, despite not recalling 😲, purchase this as a post Halloween clearance item?  Im not sure. 🤷‍♀️ I am a sucker for food coloring, and any brightly colored baked goods. 😊 I even like the way bagels look when they are dyed and colorful.  They look like they would be even better to eat. 🌈 🥯 Mystery solved.  It’s Jen’s cookie mix, so I didn’t buy it after Halloween and then completely forget about it.  I’ve had early onset senior moments for a while now, but this was not one of them. 😅

 I just had this thought about plastic straws.  I should actually look up and do a little research about plastic straws to find out if the disposal of plastic straws poses any threat or causes any harm to any wildlife.  And if this is the case, I should discontinue using them unless they are reusable straws that I do not throw away.  I do have these also.  But then if I really committed myself to not using plastic straws, that would also have to include plastic straws from elsewhere besides my own home.  Yikes, I would have to keep reusable straws in my car. 🧐 My conclusion:  I should at the very least not have or use any plastic jaws in my own home where I have reusable alternatives.  I don’t ever improperly dispose of plastic straws myself but regardless, I understand that less use of plastic is also required to reduce its presence in the environment and safeguard wildlife from the risks and harm it causes.

 I just thought of Temple Grandin.  I admire and appreciate her insight, understanding, and concern for the welfare of animals.

Mary Mary quite contrary… That Mother Goose nursery rhyme just entered my mind.   “Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?  With silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row?” This was part of the culture of children of my generation.  Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

 Trump supporters.  I wonder what all of Trump’s supporters are thinking about him at this point in time.  Has there been enough evidence yet for them to be seeing the light that he isn’t truly who and what they believed him to be?

Whatchu talkin bout Donnie?! I guess you were quite serious about this map.

 My mind is a blank slate.  I find nothing interesting there to think about.  Maybe this is because I have been cleaning cleaning cleaning or rather cleaning out with a little bit of cleaning here and there.  And also playing a word solitaire app game that I’ve been rather obsessed with.  Now I have no magical or thought-provoking ideas.  Who knew that decluttering one’s environment and engaging in brain exercise could decrease one’s ability for thought.  No actually I don’t think that’s really possible. 🤪

The Wiz.  I never saw this movie, but I just thought of it. 

 Our country needs national health care. This is my next brilliant thought bestowed to my thinking, Now, if Mr. Trump wanted to leave something of a positive legacy for himself, establishing national health care would be a most amazing thing that he could do for our country and the American people.  This would elevate and improve the lives of the American people a million or billion times better than a grand ballroom that virtually none of the American people will ever set foot in.  Now, if only Mr. Trump could be convinced that a gift of healthcare for all Americans would mean the world to them and not a White House ballroom.  Now, if only he could grasp the sentiments of kindness and empathy and be able to actually connect with the American people and seek to be of service to them, that would be a true miracle. To me, this is not a republican or democrat thing.  And it is not even a political thing.  It is just the knowledge that in a truly successful and...

 How forgetful you are, my dear.  I guess I will just call this a phrase of the evening. 

 I love this story!  Mary is one of the eldest members of the DAR Rio Grande Chapter.  Mary’s father was a military veteran.  In 1935 when Mary was 5 years old, her father was working at a job building locks on the Mississippi River.  Tragically, that same year he was killed on the job when a large boulder fell on him and crushed him.  Fast forward 90 years to December 2025.  Mary who that month had turned 96 was at her daughter’s home just days before Christmas.  She was seated at the kitchen table while waiting for the families dinner to begin.  To pass the time, she turned on her iPad which brought her to her open Facebook page.  She was stunned and couldn’t quite believe her eyes when she found herself looking at an image of her father’s gravestone.  She couldn’t comprehend why or how she was seeing her father’s gravestone.  She then looked at the source and saw that the image was being shown on a page for the “Wreaths Acro...

 My file notebooks now contain things that are torn up.  This is because I tore them up to throw them away, but then changed my mind and just filed the torn pieces.  It’s tough to be such a piece of work. 🤪

 

 The USA is here to stay.  That was my chill out the USA shall prevail thought.  If Germany could get beyond a terrible political time and return itself to normalcy, so can the USA. 🇺🇸 ⭐️🙌

 My car has a seriously loud ass horn.  I was in my garage, putting some stuff away when all of a sudden the alarm started going off for no reason.  I didn’t have my keys with me and I didn’t accidentally set off the alarm.  I will just say that the horn was rather obnoxiously loud!  I was thinking maybe it was the Tesla and I could blame the Tesla but no, it was my car.   My car alarm interrupted my brilliant thinking! Brilliant thinking?? 🤨  It was about next December and the fact that that time would be past the midterm elections and how that time would soon be here, and then I thought that that was quite a cheery and optimistic thought.  But then I realized that I don’t have a crystal ball and I don’t know what will have happened at that time.  And I was being a normal person today and just busying myself with what I was doing and not thinking about these things prior to that.  Alas, I don’t always want to think like a normal person...

"trump being prayed for in white house"  https://share.google/xzyRoj3y5wwN76Yqk Just my thoughts this morning after seeing this event that took place at the White House.  Mr. Trump seeks and needs love, attention and praise.  He soaks it up.  He just believes that if he has control over the world, he can make everything right and if doesn’t have control, nothing will be right. I think some children are especially vulnerable because they are already born with a predisposition to personality disorders like malignant narcissism and the wrong experiences and lack of help can trigger these predispositions in a disastrous way.  The image from the White House made me envision the image beneath it. (Chat AI image)

 Donald Trump has led our country off the deep end. (Not our country as a whole but definitely its leadership.)  I pray for his political time to come to an end and for normalcy to be restored as soon as possible.  The last thing our troubled world needs is for the United States to be a source of escalating world conflict and a force against human progress.  America is supposed to be a force of stability and progress and not the opposite.  I heard today that the morale of the US troops stationed near Iran is very low.  I can’t say that I blame them one bit.  What a terrible time for them to have to serve our country. 😔  I pray for the midterm elections to arrive, and for this to be the beginning of the end of Donald Trump’s political authority and power if his own physical and mental health don’t put a stop to it all sooner.   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/4/why-are-the-us-and-israel-framing-the-ongoing-conflict-as-a-religious-war

Whatchu Talkin’ Bout Willis.  That is the classic line of Gary Coleman‘s character Arnold in the television sitcom, “Different Strokes”.  I love this line.  It is one that I still find entering my mind all these years later.    I am actually surprised to see that the show “Different Strokes” aired all the way up until 1986.  I loved watching television as a child, but once I reached my teenage years, I pretty much lost interest in television.  I don’t feel that way now about television although I still don’t watch a great deal of television.  Back in the day, I also loved the show “Webster” and  later on, I really liked the character of Steve Urkel on “Family Matters”.  All three were great characters played by young African-American boys. 😄 Note:  I evidently did watch Webster as a teenager because it didn’t begin airing until 1983.  This is surprising, considering that I watched very little TV at that time in my life.  ...

 And in the latest news, Donald Trump is mentally faltering. https://youtu.be/-t_ahrYC6_0?si=3gbYzoNLJBE2v7A4

 I need to clear my head so I think should pay some attention to the latest news about Mr. President Donald Trump.  Wow that sounds demented. 😲

 My home is currently without any aluminum foil.  I declined to purchase anymore when its price inflation was out of control.  I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend eight dollars for a normal sized roll of store brand foil.  I shall take no foil.

 We are shaped by our environments.  This is my sage pearl of wisdom that is bestowed to me for reflection.  I can imagine just about anyone reading my glorious thought perception and thinking, “That really doesn’t say much.  That really doesn’t say anything.” 

 The Y chromosome filters.  These are actually information and idea filters.  They are used to filter out spoken language that they deem to not be relevant to anything of significance.  They have a time limit.  All thoughts and ideas must be communicated in a rapid and concise manner before the brief window of time closes and the filters enter “no further thought or information on this topic from the XX chromosome is required” mode.  This is the complete opposite of the Y chromosome’s own method  and manner of speaking.  I wished to think about something other than Donald Trump and the sorry state of America under his presidential leadership (or rather dictatorship) and authority and this is what I came up with.  It was meant to have a tone of humor so I guess it is at least an improvement.

I found this old school paper of my sons while going through stuff I had saved.  “Today was like every other day, long, boring and nothing unusual happens.  My dad laying on the couch, mom doing dishes and Kate reading.  Suddenly, someone knocks on the door.  It was aunt Rose.  She said, “Happy Birthday!” even though my birthday was 4 weeks ago.  She gave me a bag.  Inside was a clump of dirt from 1985.  Being nice I said, “Thanks”.  She brought a cake that said “Happy 8th Birthday” even though now I was 9.  I took a piece.  Eww, butterscotch.  She soon left.  Mom and me and Dad and Kate talked about how weird it was.  I’ll never forget that.  I still look back on that day.  I will never forget it.  That was the day.”

 I hadn’t read this before, but I just did now and oh my God this is totally insane!

 Dear Mr. Trump,  I don’t think you should hang out with Mr. Netanyahu.  I don’t think you should join or assist him in fighting his wars.  He does not lead you on a path toward success in creating a peaceful world without war.  He leads you in the opposite direction.  Please recognize that the things that he desires and does in the world are the opposite of the meaning of peace.  Please remember your mission and desire to stop wars and create peace.  Please recognize that your friend seeks the opposite.  

 Tiptoe through the tulips.  I just remembered this little phrase.  from the 1970s, but I don’t remember from where the phrase came.  I remember singing this as a little song phrase as a young kid.  Oh wow, I’m not sure if I got this from something external of the 1970s or if it was just a me thing that I came up with myself? 😲 I guess I need to go Google it to find out.  Thank goodness for the Internet. And the results are in.  As a kid, I latched on to this little song phrase as one I liked repeating, but it was in fact from something of the 1970s. 😁 I did not coin the phrase.  I guess I just fancied the notion of quietly tiptoeing through tulips. 🫢🤨 Hmm, perhaps I liked the repetition of T words,  

 When Trump is out of office.  How will I feel when Trump is out of office?  I can’t wait to ask myself that question when the time comes.  

 The day Donald Trump is out of office.  That will be a spectacular day, indeed! Adios Mr. Trump.  I wish you well in your political retirement.  A spectacular day, indeed.  

Mr. Trump has shared a video of himself as a team USA hockey player.  It would be funny were it not for the violence part.   I don’t know why I don’t feel alarmed enough that Mr. Trump shared this video considering that Mr. Trump is the president and he holds the decision making power about things like whether or not our country goes to war with Iran.   https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/116119517642924564

I don’t comprehend why Mr. Trump shared this video of Kaitlin Collins.  He didn’t explain.  Her remarks are critical and not praising of him.  Is his mental state at a point where he cannot discern whether commentary on his behavior and actions are praise or criticism??   https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/116111079846945770

So now Mr. Trump is openly admitting that his leadership as the president of the United States of America involves making and implementing economic decisions that will affect our nation and world that are influenced and motivated by personal feelings of vendetta against justices of the Supreme Court for carrying out their right and duty to exercise their own authority as the judicial branch of government.  

 I believe I just had another lightbulb thought for tonight.  Drumroll please.  If we want there to be goodness in others, we should help them see the goodness inside of themselves. 

 The world has a lot of scammers and people with really shitty or seemingly no morals, but the flipside to this is that the world is also full of many many genuinely good people.  Not perfect people because to be human is to make mistakes, but people who do genuinely seek and desire to be the best version of themselves.  I find this to be a comforting thought.  In the duality of the existence of good and evil, good is alive and well.  

  Dear younger me, When you are at video stores and you are happily looking for interesting movies to purchase that the video stores are selling to get rid of them, the future has a surprise for you.  You will one day be boxing them up to donate to Goodwill, most of which you have never watched. Ha ha surprise! 🥳 Times change, and indeed technology altered itself quite rapidly.  You don’t know it, but you won’t be inclined to watch VHS tapes when there are already also DVDs and soon to follow Blu-ray discs and finally digital streaming.  You will one day concede that you can find a plethora of programs and movies to watch anytime you want to.  You really don’t have a need to still store a bunch of old VHS tapes as much as they may have interested you at the time of their purchase.  And you still have lots of DVDs and Blu-rays. 😲 But for now you have a big box of VHS tapes in the back of your car to drop off at Goodwill.  Amazingly thrift stores do st...

 Why did our country have to find itself in such a time of political madness?   Good vs. Evil   It seems that this is where our country is at and it is all being played out on a national and international stage.  Can the forces of darkness that have a political grip and control over our country right now just meet their downfall already so the United States of America can get back to moving in a more positive direction toward the future of our country?! https://youtu.be/JQtqA5kfhBI?si=KTIFrEesl24vS-GZ The information and ideas and realities of the 21st century are certainly enough to make anyone’s head spin from trying to think about and process it all. https://youtu.be/MoLN7-v5Jsw?si=7myhLfg-NbM6cSQK I do like that a political influencer and internet news media host on the side of history that I am on got an interview with former President Barack Obama. 👍 https://youtu.be/uI-hgSE5QIw?si=G-1GqSkE-4IHDKIB

 My mind likes to treat me to thoughts about things I would like to say to Mr. Trump.  Usually I’m happy just to write them here.  I only previously left replies on his Truth Social postings 5 times.  Well today something got the better of me and I left a reply to his Happy Presidents’ Day Post.  I was honestly quite impressed and surprised because nothing mean or bad was said about anyone.  Usually his Happy “insert occasion” Messages are about wishing a pleasant day even to x,y&z persons that he finds to be totally corrupt and loathsome and complete losers in contrast to his own glory and greatness.  I thought a happy special occasion message without this was quite surprising and remarkable.  So I said so. Well, somehow, my message has been seen.  Not by Mr. Trump, but by others.  How did this happen??  I felt quite certain they would never be seen by anyone.  I never see any normal replies to Mr. Trump from normal everyd...

 The African-American newspaper.  I don’t know the story behind this newspaper but this was its title.  I don’t know when exactly it came into being.  I really only know that it was around after the Civil War and it covered news in New York City.  I don’t know if it was a New York City only paper or where else it might have been printed.  It is interesting though to know that there was an African-American newspaper in the period after the Civil War.  I can add the story of this newspaper to a very long list of things that I might potentially like to investigate and learn about.  I learned about this newspaper when I read a story about an ancestor of mine in it. Ok, from what little I can see right now without paid access to my Ancestry.com account, the newspaper existed from 1829-1947.

  Earlier today, I was like in awe admiring this rug while waiting for Kate at an appointment of hers.  The location we were at was formerly a pediatric clinic.  What an awesome rug they still have there.  I could imagine the possibilities for play and learning that could be had using this rug with young children.  Without the table in the center, of course.  The space would be a good place for sitting.  I can, though, appreciate the potential value of a raised piece in the center that children could climb onto, slide or walk across and jump off of again.  This table, though is way too tall and hard.  A shorter ottoman style vinyl covered padded climbing piece, in the center, with a color to match the rug, that could be added or removed, could be a lovely addition.  I think round would be a good idea.   Vienna at age 2 would surely have told me that indigo was missing.  She did this once with markers or paint or crayons or some...

A verdict on my sanity.   That was the thought that just befell my thinking.  But damn, if there is any kind of authority that can help me answer my own question, I know not of this authority.  I think I may perhaps have lots of voices available to my thinking, but this does not mean that I hear voices. 🤪  The voices of thought are like lovely friends that I wish I could hear all the time.  #realfriends

I asked for an image of these three presidents.  Trump having a big head was a surprise.  It is fitting though because he is indeed a man with a big head!

 Dear Mr. Trump, you should just love the bunny.  I mean, Bad Bunny, of course.  The thought just occurred to me again that to feel love is the greatest blessing of all.  “The only thing stronger than hate is love.”  I do believe those are wise words that he speaks.  FTR I don’t really dislike or harbor any negative feelings about Starbase, Texas.  I was just being silly because silly is more fun than being all serious in life.  

 Dear Elon Musk, I just wanted to tell you that I don’t care about your stinky town in the Rio Grande Valley if I can’t drive through it and see your town as I could with any other town in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.  #starbasetx  #stinkytown

Heat exhaustion in Texas.  This is a lovely thought that my mind just landed on.  Texas once gave me a gift of heated exhaustion.  I learned that day that even if we are not yet into the hottest part of the summer, the hot sun in Texas along with a high heat index can still put me into a state of heat exhaustion when attempting to walk outside in the sun for any prolonged period.  This I will never attempt again.  The hiking trails of Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge are very nice but not friendly to climate challenged non natives of South Texas. 🥵 #atexasreflection

 Mr. Trump did not have very nice things to say about Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show. I can imagine an adult cartoon story where Mr. Trump is ready to square off with Bad Bunny.  Oh wait a minute, that’s not Bad Bunny in this image, that’s Bugs Bunny.   Mr. Trump fighting Bugs Bunny.  Well I guess in a cartoon story or series, Mr. Trump finding himself with a reason to be pissed off at Bugs Bunny could be a good story also.  I see Mr. Trump appears to have lost a few of his bottom teeth.

 Thank you, Bad Bunny for bringing a message of love and unity and inclusiveness to America.  🐇🤎🤍🩶🖤 “Together We Are America.”  I love this.  Imagine a nation truly founded on the belief that all men (human beings male and female) are created equal and are of equal worth and value.

 I just had this thought of my brother playing his coward and Dracula game. He would walk around, huddled with a blanket wrapped around his head and say, “I’m a coward”.  He would then dramatically flip the blanket behind his head to transform it into a cap and say, “Not anymore, I’m Dracula!!” 🧛  

 I was thinking of my childhood “ardent pacifist” story.  There was one time when I was in a state of waking up, and I heard a voice say to me, “You are an ardent pacifist”.  I had no idea what that meant.  Well damn, I have had a touch of crazy for a very long time.  I must be an undiagnosed something, but I don’t know what that something is. 🫢🤪  And now I am hearing the name, Nelly Bly.  So of course, I looked her up to find out who she is.  Nellie Bly (born Elizabeth Jane Cochran) was a pioneering American investigative journalist and adventurer famous for her undercover exposés, like her 1887 stint in a mental asylum, and for her record-breaking 72-day trip around the world in 1889-1890, inspired by Jules Verne's novel. She broke barriers for women in media, using undercover tactics to expose social injustices, advocate for the poor, and champion women's rights, becoming a major figure in “ stunt journalism".  I don’t know why my though...

  Silly Donald.  Just say you are sorry that the video about voting machine fraud, that you shared, ended with an image of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.  It’s not a terrible thing.  You should try it out.  People the world over would be stunned and amazed!!

Well hello there baby and toddler Donald.  Aren’t you cunning!  That’s an older word that my maternal grandmother used to describe sweet and adorable babies and toddlers.  I don’t know if you were meant to be MAGA President Trump from the day you were born or if you could have been another version of yourself.