Monday, April 1
Apr. 2nd, 2024 12:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
A very gorgeous day. Warm and sunny.
That River's eye is okay. I got a text from another rider saying he was bleeding again, so (sigh) I went to check on him, thus giving up my day at pottery.
By the time I got there (I had to do chores first), R had already washed all the blood off of him and checked it and put him back out.
It looked okay, he probably just got rubbing it and knocked the scab off.
I spent some time there just hanging out with him, and watching to see if he was going to rub at it again. It really doesn't seem to be irritating him, he wasn't rubbing it, so who knows why he got it bleeding again.
Well, anyhow, that ate up enough of my day that it was too late to bother going to pottery, and of course that throws off my grocery schedule too.
My Sweetie offered to pick up some groceries on his way home from the airport, and that should help.
I was supposed to meet D at pottery so we could catch up on each other's lives, I haven't seen her in person for several weeks though we did text a bit.
I decided to call her, and that was nice. We chatted for a while about her new puppy and such, and it sounds like she is doing okay with her Dad living with her.
I'm very relieved that things are okay with her Dad living with her. This is the woman I mentioned a while ago, when she and her siblings basically emptied his apartment and got rid of his stuff while he was in the hospital, presumably dying. I'm still not sure what to think about all of that, as it seemed like a really inhumane way to do things, and I was genuinely worried about this poor man (that I have never met) in terms of how welcome he would be in this woman's house and life.
I can also understand from her perspective how sudden and inconvenient it would be to have an elderly parent who needed care come live with them out of the blue, and no way of knowing how long he would be there for. I get that. At the same time, it didn't sound like he had any other option but to live with her. He can't be alone now because of his aneurysm, which could leak again at any time, and that means a true loss of autonomy for this woman.
YET, when she was first talking about the situation, the response of her family seemed SAVAGE, and her own reaction to having her Dad come live with her (for what might only be a short while) was...strongly negative.
It seems at odds with the impression that I get of her, of being a warm, compassionate person.
It's going to have an impression on me for some time.
Anyhow, we did have a good phone call, and might try to meet up at pottery soon.
My Sweetie came home and there was still enough daylight to go to the park down the road and walk, which was really nice. We did have a big moose walk across the trail and he didn't seem to care about us at all, which is the way you want it. It only moved about 30 feet off of the trail to eat, and didn't even look at us as we walked by it.
We caught up on all the family news from his visit. It sounds like a lot of his aunts and uncles are having health challenges, which is sad. They're not really that old yet. It sounds like if nothing else, it reaffirms his commitment to caring about his own health in terms of maintaining a healthy weight and exercise. It goes a long way in preventative care.
Then he had to get to bed, as he goes right back to work tomorrow.
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (A Grand Duchy is a country/territory with a monarchy where the monarch bears the title of Grand Duke or Grand Duchess) is a tiny, wealthy powerhouse.
It's not much more than the lands that surround the city of Luxembourg, which was historically a fortress city. It was kind of a buffer between France and the Habsburg Empire, and it didn't hurt that it was a great big fort. It is the seventh smallest country in Europe with a population of roughly 660,000 people that somehow makes it one of the least populated countries in Europe. This just seems weird to me, because you could fit Luxembourg into Saskatchewan over 250 times, and Saskatchewan has just over one million people. Is THAT REALLY one of the least densely populated countries in Europe? It sounds like Europe sucks.
https://www.comparea.org/LUX+CA_SK
Luxembourg is a representative democracy, meaning they have a monarch and voted in representatives.
In ancient times, it was inhabited by the Celts, and was part of the Roman Empire for about 450 years in reasonable peace under the Pax Romana. The people more or less adopted Roman culture.
"The history of Luxembourg is considered to begin in the year 963, when Count Siegfried acquired a rocky promontory and its Roman-era fortifications, known as Lucilinburhuc, "little castle", and the surrounding area from the Imperial Abbey of St. Maximin in nearby Trier."
It went on to be ruled by "Counts of Luxembourg" for a very long time, continuing to be useful as a great big fortress.
It became part of the Burgundian Circle, then part of Habsburg Netherlands, then belonged to the France of Louis XIV and the Austria of Maria Theresa. Then Luxembourg became part of the First French Republic and Empire under Napoleon.
After the defeat of Napoleon:
"The present-day state of Luxembourg first emerged at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The Grand Duchy, with its powerful fortress, became an independent state under the personal possession of William I of the Netherlands with a Prussian garrison to guard the city against another invasion from France.[34][30] In 1839, following the turmoil of the Belgian Revolution, the purely French-speaking part of Luxembourg was ceded to Belgium and the Luxembourgish-speaking part (except the Arelerland, the area around Arlon) became what is the present state of Luxembourg.[34]"
During WWI, Germany occupied Luxembourg so they could get to France, and Luxembourg somehow were able to sort of...carry on as Luxembourg while the Germans did their thing. They were "neutral", other than allowing Germany access (?).
After the war, France naturally gave them royal shit for what they did, and tried to annex the country to either France or Belgium, but did not succeed, and it went on being it's own country.
In WWII, Germany predictably steamrolled right back in there again, but this time didn't pretend to let them be their own country. Germany formally annexed Luxembourg. So, Luxembourg wasn't neutral this time, and it's government in exile in London supported the Allies as best they could.
Germany, who seems to have been the worst house guest in recent history, trashed Luxembourg and killed most of the Jewish people, as it seems to have done everywhere it went.
The more I hear about that Hitler guy, the more it seems like he was just a jerk (RIP Norm MacDonald).
It was reinstated after the war, and joined NATO and the European Community.
It is mountainous and has forests, and for all it's small size is doing well in terms of conservation.
It has industry and manufacturing (steel, chemicals and rubber), but attracts a lot of wealth because of it's secretive banking and tax havens.
https://youtu.be/Bw8g_1VEEL8?si=zGJlNGKkk88BCad7
A short video about the Old Fort: https://youtu.be/_U9633nUFqU?si=kyZbltpEHmsuQE3v
A very gorgeous day. Warm and sunny.
That River's eye is okay. I got a text from another rider saying he was bleeding again, so (sigh) I went to check on him, thus giving up my day at pottery.
By the time I got there (I had to do chores first), R had already washed all the blood off of him and checked it and put him back out.
It looked okay, he probably just got rubbing it and knocked the scab off.
I spent some time there just hanging out with him, and watching to see if he was going to rub at it again. It really doesn't seem to be irritating him, he wasn't rubbing it, so who knows why he got it bleeding again.
Well, anyhow, that ate up enough of my day that it was too late to bother going to pottery, and of course that throws off my grocery schedule too.
My Sweetie offered to pick up some groceries on his way home from the airport, and that should help.
I was supposed to meet D at pottery so we could catch up on each other's lives, I haven't seen her in person for several weeks though we did text a bit.
I decided to call her, and that was nice. We chatted for a while about her new puppy and such, and it sounds like she is doing okay with her Dad living with her.
I'm very relieved that things are okay with her Dad living with her. This is the woman I mentioned a while ago, when she and her siblings basically emptied his apartment and got rid of his stuff while he was in the hospital, presumably dying. I'm still not sure what to think about all of that, as it seemed like a really inhumane way to do things, and I was genuinely worried about this poor man (that I have never met) in terms of how welcome he would be in this woman's house and life.
I can also understand from her perspective how sudden and inconvenient it would be to have an elderly parent who needed care come live with them out of the blue, and no way of knowing how long he would be there for. I get that. At the same time, it didn't sound like he had any other option but to live with her. He can't be alone now because of his aneurysm, which could leak again at any time, and that means a true loss of autonomy for this woman.
YET, when she was first talking about the situation, the response of her family seemed SAVAGE, and her own reaction to having her Dad come live with her (for what might only be a short while) was...strongly negative.
It seems at odds with the impression that I get of her, of being a warm, compassionate person.
It's going to have an impression on me for some time.
Anyhow, we did have a good phone call, and might try to meet up at pottery soon.
My Sweetie came home and there was still enough daylight to go to the park down the road and walk, which was really nice. We did have a big moose walk across the trail and he didn't seem to care about us at all, which is the way you want it. It only moved about 30 feet off of the trail to eat, and didn't even look at us as we walked by it.
We caught up on all the family news from his visit. It sounds like a lot of his aunts and uncles are having health challenges, which is sad. They're not really that old yet. It sounds like if nothing else, it reaffirms his commitment to caring about his own health in terms of maintaining a healthy weight and exercise. It goes a long way in preventative care.
Then he had to get to bed, as he goes right back to work tomorrow.
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (A Grand Duchy is a country/territory with a monarchy where the monarch bears the title of Grand Duke or Grand Duchess) is a tiny, wealthy powerhouse.
It's not much more than the lands that surround the city of Luxembourg, which was historically a fortress city. It was kind of a buffer between France and the Habsburg Empire, and it didn't hurt that it was a great big fort. It is the seventh smallest country in Europe with a population of roughly 660,000 people that somehow makes it one of the least populated countries in Europe. This just seems weird to me, because you could fit Luxembourg into Saskatchewan over 250 times, and Saskatchewan has just over one million people. Is THAT REALLY one of the least densely populated countries in Europe? It sounds like Europe sucks.
https://www.comparea.org/LUX+CA_SK
Luxembourg is a representative democracy, meaning they have a monarch and voted in representatives.
In ancient times, it was inhabited by the Celts, and was part of the Roman Empire for about 450 years in reasonable peace under the Pax Romana. The people more or less adopted Roman culture.
"The history of Luxembourg is considered to begin in the year 963, when Count Siegfried acquired a rocky promontory and its Roman-era fortifications, known as Lucilinburhuc, "little castle", and the surrounding area from the Imperial Abbey of St. Maximin in nearby Trier."
It went on to be ruled by "Counts of Luxembourg" for a very long time, continuing to be useful as a great big fortress.
It became part of the Burgundian Circle, then part of Habsburg Netherlands, then belonged to the France of Louis XIV and the Austria of Maria Theresa. Then Luxembourg became part of the First French Republic and Empire under Napoleon.
After the defeat of Napoleon:
"The present-day state of Luxembourg first emerged at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The Grand Duchy, with its powerful fortress, became an independent state under the personal possession of William I of the Netherlands with a Prussian garrison to guard the city against another invasion from France.[34][30] In 1839, following the turmoil of the Belgian Revolution, the purely French-speaking part of Luxembourg was ceded to Belgium and the Luxembourgish-speaking part (except the Arelerland, the area around Arlon) became what is the present state of Luxembourg.[34]"
During WWI, Germany occupied Luxembourg so they could get to France, and Luxembourg somehow were able to sort of...carry on as Luxembourg while the Germans did their thing. They were "neutral", other than allowing Germany access (?).
After the war, France naturally gave them royal shit for what they did, and tried to annex the country to either France or Belgium, but did not succeed, and it went on being it's own country.
In WWII, Germany predictably steamrolled right back in there again, but this time didn't pretend to let them be their own country. Germany formally annexed Luxembourg. So, Luxembourg wasn't neutral this time, and it's government in exile in London supported the Allies as best they could.
Germany, who seems to have been the worst house guest in recent history, trashed Luxembourg and killed most of the Jewish people, as it seems to have done everywhere it went.
The more I hear about that Hitler guy, the more it seems like he was just a jerk (RIP Norm MacDonald).
It was reinstated after the war, and joined NATO and the European Community.
It is mountainous and has forests, and for all it's small size is doing well in terms of conservation.
It has industry and manufacturing (steel, chemicals and rubber), but attracts a lot of wealth because of it's secretive banking and tax havens.
https://youtu.be/Bw8g_1VEEL8?si=zGJlNGKkk88BCad7
A short video about the Old Fort: https://youtu.be/_U9633nUFqU?si=kyZbltpEHmsuQE3v
