Monday, June 10
Jun. 11th, 2024 12:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Very nice weather. Not overly hot.
I had a very sluggish start to the day. I feel like I could have just done the absolute necessary tasks to care for the animals and then just laid there for the day.
I "girded my loins" and got things done anyhow.
I went to town today, and took the big bag of recycling with me. I went to the depot first and got that sorted, and found a couple of nice books in their book area (hard to imagine people just dropping off perfectly nice books that might get recycled if no one takes them).
Then I popped my head into a little art supply store, and found a few things. Sigh. It is nice that it isn't a chain store, and especially considering that this is not a huge town, a pretty comprehensive store for painting and drawing.
Then I went to pottery, and I was the only one there tonight. I got down to business and did some throwing, and did well, I think. I threw a nice vase shape, and then the main body and the lid and spout for a teapot (parts like spouts and handles have to be attached once things are leather hard, or they slump or fall off).
The clean up wasn't too arduous today.
Then I went to get groceries, and they also had bedding plants in the parking lot. I was able to buy most of my perennials very inexpensively, as they had their "loss leader" plants available, and lots of other plants on half price. I also got some tomatoes.
Then I got groceries, and felt at every turn that the prices on everything now is just nuts. I can remember more or less what things cost just a few years ago...my sunscreen was about four dollars less, everything else about 20 percent less mostly. Just greed.
I am grateful to be able to buy groceries, to have a nice little car to go get them, and to have the physical ability. I don't take these things for granted.
I got home to see my Sweetie bringing the animals back in from being in their pastures. I had asked him to let them out for a while when he got home, as I might have gotten home too late to do so.
We watched another episode of "Justified", and it was okay, not much more than that. Not bad.
I have to wonder if this is sponsored by the NRA or something. Very "gun oriented".
Gabon is an African country on the Atlantic coast, about the size of the United Kingdom, and it is mostly forested with jungle.
At one time, it would have been inhabited by Pygmy people, but was occupied by Bantu people.
It become a French colony in the late 1800's, and "In 1910, Gabon became a territory of French Equatorial Africa,[15] a federation that survived until 1958. In World War II, the Allies invaded Gabon in order to overthrow the pro-Vichy France colonial administration. On 28 November 1958, Gabon became an autonomous republic within the French Community, and on 17 August 1960, it became fully independent.[16]"
It was working towards democracy, recently making changes that would lead to greater transparency in their electoral system and other reforms, but then there was a coup in 2023.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66652015
So for now, it is under military control.
Gabon is quite wealthy in terms of "per capita income", but many people are very poor because of wealth inequity. It has a very low human development index (education, living conditions, health care, etc).
It is a wild life hot spot, with many protected species, and has rainforests, savannahs, mountains, and coastal plains, as well as extensive cave systems.
The economy relies heavily on oil extraction, then after that logging and manganese mining are important sources of income.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabon#External_links
https://youtu.be/KCdwJAeJ69s?si=2PmgBKUo90uFOTs9
Very nice weather. Not overly hot.
I had a very sluggish start to the day. I feel like I could have just done the absolute necessary tasks to care for the animals and then just laid there for the day.
I "girded my loins" and got things done anyhow.
I went to town today, and took the big bag of recycling with me. I went to the depot first and got that sorted, and found a couple of nice books in their book area (hard to imagine people just dropping off perfectly nice books that might get recycled if no one takes them).
Then I popped my head into a little art supply store, and found a few things. Sigh. It is nice that it isn't a chain store, and especially considering that this is not a huge town, a pretty comprehensive store for painting and drawing.
Then I went to pottery, and I was the only one there tonight. I got down to business and did some throwing, and did well, I think. I threw a nice vase shape, and then the main body and the lid and spout for a teapot (parts like spouts and handles have to be attached once things are leather hard, or they slump or fall off).
The clean up wasn't too arduous today.
Then I went to get groceries, and they also had bedding plants in the parking lot. I was able to buy most of my perennials very inexpensively, as they had their "loss leader" plants available, and lots of other plants on half price. I also got some tomatoes.
Then I got groceries, and felt at every turn that the prices on everything now is just nuts. I can remember more or less what things cost just a few years ago...my sunscreen was about four dollars less, everything else about 20 percent less mostly. Just greed.
I am grateful to be able to buy groceries, to have a nice little car to go get them, and to have the physical ability. I don't take these things for granted.
I got home to see my Sweetie bringing the animals back in from being in their pastures. I had asked him to let them out for a while when he got home, as I might have gotten home too late to do so.
We watched another episode of "Justified", and it was okay, not much more than that. Not bad.
I have to wonder if this is sponsored by the NRA or something. Very "gun oriented".
Gabon is an African country on the Atlantic coast, about the size of the United Kingdom, and it is mostly forested with jungle.
At one time, it would have been inhabited by Pygmy people, but was occupied by Bantu people.
It become a French colony in the late 1800's, and "In 1910, Gabon became a territory of French Equatorial Africa,[15] a federation that survived until 1958. In World War II, the Allies invaded Gabon in order to overthrow the pro-Vichy France colonial administration. On 28 November 1958, Gabon became an autonomous republic within the French Community, and on 17 August 1960, it became fully independent.[16]"
It was working towards democracy, recently making changes that would lead to greater transparency in their electoral system and other reforms, but then there was a coup in 2023.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66652015
So for now, it is under military control.
Gabon is quite wealthy in terms of "per capita income", but many people are very poor because of wealth inequity. It has a very low human development index (education, living conditions, health care, etc).
It is a wild life hot spot, with many protected species, and has rainforests, savannahs, mountains, and coastal plains, as well as extensive cave systems.
The economy relies heavily on oil extraction, then after that logging and manganese mining are important sources of income.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabon#External_links
https://youtu.be/KCdwJAeJ69s?si=2PmgBKUo90uFOTs9
