“Left” From the Daily Kos: “Somebody has to pay for Society”!

Left, Leftier, and Leftiest Daily Kos’  writer, Dante Atkins claims “Somebody has to pay for Society!”   He begins his Veterans’ Day article empathizing with those vets who have not returned into society well, a most worthy cause, but that was introductory to his main issue……paying for the STATE.  He writes;

“….”Golden State Democrats have a strong chance at sweeping all Statewide races, with one race still pending as absentee and provisional ballots continue to be counted. Democrats appear to have held every Congressional seat, as late returns have allowed Jim Costa to claim victory and have given Jerry McNerney much more breathing room. Despite taking thorough beating in state legislative races across the country, the Democratic caucus in the California State Assembly is now two seats stronger.

But despite these victories, some are claiming that Democrats are out of touch with the policies favored by the voters: out of eight statewide ballot measures on which the California Democratic Party issued an endorsement, the voters supported that position only twice. Of other six, three were measures related to taxes and fees: one would have imposed a small annual surcharge on vehicle license fees to fund state parks—and granted free admission to those parks for all payers. It was defeated. Another would have rescinded tax loopholes that allow big corporations to minimize their tax liability. It was defeated. And the third imposes a new two-thirds passage requirement for most fees, including those that would be imposed on industries to clean up their messes. It was passed.
If one chooses to look only at that data, it seems to send a clear message: voters don’t trust the government to spend money wisely. Fair enough. And yet, despite a string of austerity-based budgets that have significantly eroded the social safety net and made deep cuts to other services such as mental health programs, California still faces a projected budget deficit of around $25 billion. Not even Meg Whitman would believe that a deficit of that magnitude could be solved by the big axe she hoped to swing at the number of public employees, as well as their salaries and benefits.

It’s a deficit with consequences—and because corporations are no longer paying their fair share, and because both Republicans in the Capitol and the voters have decided that taxes and fee increases should become even harder to impose, part of the shortfall will be balanced on the backs of those who can least afford it: our students. The President of the University of California has just floated yet another tuition increase on California’s students—this one to the tune of eight percent. Further increasing the cost of tuition at our public university system will, of course, further reduce the system’s accessibility to the less fortunate, which will in turn decrease the economic opportunities that are afforded by a quality education, which will lead in turn to a feedback cycle of enhanced stratification between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” Progressives and student organizations will mobilize to try to fight this new imposition on those who can afford it the least. But if past history is any indication, the likelihood of success is low, as tuition increases are one of the few revenue-raising options that have not been put practically off-limits.

So here’s an interesting question: what do you suppose would happen if that eight percent increase were put on the ballot before the voters? Yes, you’re right: it would fail miserably. But then…who is going to pay for it all?

Just like the voters in California, the voters across the country are going to have to realize that either someone will need to pay for government—for society—or they will get less of it. When you go shopping, you get what you pay for, and government is no exception. Now, this may sound like a dream come true for conservatives: we hear the limited-government litany from them every day. But contrary to conservative spin, “less government” doesn’t just mean less bureaucracy; it means less public education. It means higher tuition and fees for students and public universities. It means crumbling public infrastructure. It means outdated and unclean energy technology. It means unsafe food and polluted water and air. It means fewer breathtaking scientific breakthroughs. And eventually, it will also mean weakened armed forces, even though that will likely be the last area of our government to suffer the indignities borne by the rest of our public sector. All in all, It means a worse life for everyone Pretending that we can keep cutting taxes while still maintaining the same quality of services in our education, military and other public institutions is like pretending that we can buy a new Mercedes off the lot for the price of a Kia. It’s not going to happen. We cannot get something for nothing, and somebody, sometime, is going to have to pay for the institutions we have—or we will lose them.

In this regard, the sad excuse for a Deficit Reduction Commission has at least had some value, because it has presented one vision of how this will be accomplished. In the plutonomic vision of the Commission Chairs, of course, marginal tax rates for the wealthy are slashed by over a third, and made up for by cuts to social security benefits for seniors, the elimination of the mortgage interest deduction, and the assessment of admission fees (does that count as a tax on children?) for admission into the Smithsonian Institutions.

If any progressive has a different vision of who should pay for our society, now would probably be a good time to speak up.”

This is the youthful left which equates government with society.  It is a Marxist construct, no doubt taught to Dante Atkins in college.  He possesses a listing  of the usual Marxist cliches against the religion’s opponents.  Nothing here is original or thoughtful.  

I suppose the Left would charge the same with the Ten Commandments.   But, they cannot, for they would be recognizing the religion aspect of their beliefs…….and, too, they ban the Ten Commendments whereever their judicial tentacles can reach, and that may present a publicity problem.

Tom Friedman: “I Believe I Can Fly” ….Writing about “Climate Denial” and “Climate Change”

Of the many buffoons in today’s media, Tom Friedman is, indeed, a leader.  The following is from his article, “I Believe I Can Fly” found in the New York Times:

“…. America’s climate-deniers mounted an effective disinformation campaign that made “climate change” a four-letter word in the Republican Party. This undermined efforts to get a clean energy bill — the sort that might break our addiction to oil and take money away from the people our soldiers are fighting in the Middle East. And all of this happened in 2010, which is on track to be the Earth’s hottest year on record. So here’s the math: 98 climate scientists out of 100 will tell you that man’s continued carbon emissions pose the risk of disruptive climate change this century. Two out of 100 will tell you it doesn’t. And “conservatives” today tell you to bet on the two. If the climate-deniers are right — but we combat climate change anyway — we’ll have slightly higher energy prices but cleaner air, more renewable energy, a stronger dollar, more innovative industries and enemies with less money. If the deniers are wrong and we do nothing, your kids will meet the sudden stop at the end. 

Comment:  In his first sentence in the above paragraph he uses the Leftwing cliche, “climate deniers” as name calling sliding down his nose and out of his pen to ridicule the Republican to be  antediluvian primitives unaware of  “climate change”.

Dear reader, let’s review his words “climate deniers”  and “climate change” and why Republicans, yes, have treated both with disdain, if not a four letter word.  

I do agree with this St. Louis Park, Minnesota lefty, with his inference that Republicans, unlike Friedman’s bedfellows of the Democrat Party left, still are primitive enough to feel restrained from using “four letter words” regarding matters that don’t make sense, especially, but who is a climate denier?

What does this MN graduate mean by the lefty cliche, “climate deniers?”   I have never heard of conservatives denying climate.  Maybe some RINOs have  while passing on gossip from their Democrat colleagues, or quoting Mr. Friedman from one of his columns.    Climate happens.  Most Americans understand that.

Dear Thomas from St. Louis Park, Minnesota, Climate change also happens.   Are you confused thinking that it has just started since Republicans have been around?   I live near St. Louis Park, Minnesota.  If you had been a bit more domestic, honest and forthright, and had been outdoors from time to time in St. Louis Park, you would also have noticed climate change in your home town since the days  you were in diapers.  A traveling man going hither and thither to spread the Word of the Left wing Gods, might not have noticed. 

Surely, in Friedman’s  Leftwing devotions he’s become  aware that the  use of  ”Climate change”  cliche has been posed by the Left to replace “Global Warming”, the cliche favored by former Vice President, Democrat Al Gore.  

Do you inform your readers why?   No…….

Statistics since Goretime , collected especially by those more concerned with global cooling than American leftwing propagandists who write for the New York Times and other American media, and from countries  whose futures depend on knowing Climate Truths, forecast the cyclic arrival of another 60 or so year period  of cooling, which should alarm your former St. Louis Park neighbors.  Lefties believed such statistics enough to change this grievous threat to American democracy from Gore’s  ”Global warming” to Friedman’s “Climate change”.    And you are right within the propaganda of your article that no one in their right mind can deny that climate changes.   You clever old Marxist, you.

Now clean energy is another topic, the St. Louis Park, Minnesota grads turns to……….oh, no…..wait, he has connected that with his cliches, but  is sliding on  to suggest  the tremendous ‘successes’  the president, Mr. Obama has had in coaxing the Russians to help  any western coalitions to force Iran to stop its nuclear weapons program.   Do read the following Friedman paragraph:

“Many of the same people working against clean energy are working to scuttle Senate ratification of the New Start nuclear arms reduction treaty that Mr. Obama signed with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. This treaty is right in line with the previous three U.S.-Russia arms reduction deals, all negotiated by G.O.P. administrations. It leaves America secure, a world and a Russia with fewer nukes and it promotes better ties with the Kremlin. Scuttling the treaty, just to deny Mr. Obama a success, which is what some Republican senators are up to, will not only ensure that U.S.-Russian relations sour, it will also make it much less likely that the Russians — whose pressure on Iran and willingness to deny it surface-to-air missiles have been critical in slowing Iran’s nuclear program — will continue to cooperate with us on that front. But, hey, who cares about weakening Iran or U.S.-Russian ties if you can weaken your own president? We can fly.”

Comment:  It is so good to know that another nuclear deal with the Russians will “leave America secure, a world and a Russia with fewer nukes and it promotes better ties with the Kremlin”.

I wonder how Mr. Friedman ever graduate from high school to be so naive and uneducated on these so important of matters.   But, writing ‘stuff’ for the New York Times along side  the Paul Krugmans and the Frank Riches, who needs a diploma?     Yes, there may be some Republican Senators who  might simply want to scuttle the ‘treaty’ with the Russians.  

Please read Tom Friedman’s writings.  They may be embarrassing, but read them anyway and remember, he was educated in the Twin Cities, that for extra pain.

Decisions for America’s Future: To Obama, It’s “All About ‘I’” that matters.

Great article here, “American Narcissus”, at PowerLine by Scott W. Johnson:

“One of President Obama’s most prominent and least attractive qualities is his vanity. It almost disposes of the speculation that Obama is a Muslim. The man can’t be a Muslim; he worships himself.

In the title of the new Weekly Standard cover story, Jonathan Last calls Obama “The American Narcissus” and, as Last demonstrates, Obama has earned the title. The evidence compiled by Last is voluminous, if not overwhelming.

Obama’s characteristic rhetorical trope is the presentation of history in a messianic mode featuring himself. Last quotes Obama’s June 2008 speech in St. Paul celebrating his securing the Democratic presidential nomination. In that speech Obama concluded:

I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth. This was the moment–this was the time–when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals.

“[T]his was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal[.]” As a false messiah, Sabbatai Zevi has nothing on Obama. Sabbatai converted to Islam under coercion, but Obama’s not for turning. He steadfastly worships at his own shrine.

Obama was at it again in his speech earlier this week to the Indian Parliament. The first person singular figures prominently in it: “I am not the first American president to visit India. Nor will I be the last. But I am proud to visit India so early in my presidency. It is no coincidence that India is my first stop on a visit to Asia, or that this has been my longest visit to another country since becoming President.” Obama seems already to have projected a second term for himself.

But that’s the least of it. One senses that the presidency of the United States is beneath him. Obama gives us history in the form of an arc bending inevitably toward himself:

For me and Michelle, this visit has therefore held special meaning. Throughout my life, including my work as a young man on behalf of the urban poor, I have always found inspiration in the life of Gandhiji and in his simple and profound lesson to be the change we seek in the world. And just as he summoned Indians to seek their destiny, he influenced champions of equality in my own country, including a young Martin Luther King. After making his pilgrimage to India a half century ago, Dr. King called Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violent resistance “the only logical and moral approach” in the struggle for justice and progress.

So we were honored to visit the residence where Gandhi and King both stayed–Mani Bhavan. We were humbled to pay our respects at Raj Ghat. And I am mindful that I might not be standing before you today, as President of the United States, had it not been for Gandhi and the message he shared with America and the world.

“We were humbled…” is a particularly nice touch. In the gospel according to Barack, the man is both herald and messiah. It may be worth noting that in the classic version of the myth that to which the title of Last’s article refers, Nemesis is the key to the story.”

Comment:  Deep in the Obama “I” is another profound detraction:  He is a foreigner to the country itself.   Speaks nothing sincere about its being, its influence on Him, the Announted One, and the stories that make a president seem human and one of us.

But, he is NOT one of us.  He was educated other than one of us and was a 22 year member of Jeremiah “Goddamn America” Wright’s ‘church’ in Chicago.   Fondness to our nation is foreign to him……he demonstrates that nearly everytime he speaks and shuffles.

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Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell: Obama Should Refuse Second Term

 Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell are in the group within the Democrat Party everyone but the Marxists would call “moderate”.   The Daily Kos people would use a number of their favorite modern words some call ‘colorful’ added to ‘reactionaries’ to describe these Americans.   Here they combine their wishes within an article published at the Washington Post:

“In recent days, he has offered differing visions of how he might approach the country’s problems. At one point, he spoke of the need for “mid-course corrections.” At another, he expressed a desire to take ideas from both sides of the aisle. And before this month’s midterm elections, he said he believed that the next two years would involve “hand-to-hand combat” with Republicans, whom he also referred to as “enemies.”

It is clear that the president is still trying to reach a resolution in his own mind as to what he should do and how he should do it.

This is a critical moment for the country. From the faltering economy to the burdensome deficit to our foreign policy struggles, America is suffering a widespread sense of crisis and anxiety about the future. Under these circumstances, Obama has the opportunity to seize the high ground and the imagination of the nation once again, and to galvanize the public for the hard decisions that must be made. The only way he can do so, though, is by putting national interests ahead of personal or political ones.

To that end, we believe Obama should announce immediately that he will not be a candidate for reelection in 2012.

If the president goes down the reelection road, we are guaranteed two years of political gridlock at a time when we can ill afford it. But by explicitly saying he will be a one-term president, Obama can deliver on his central campaign promise of 2008, draining the poison from our culture of polarization and ending the resentment and division that have eroded our national identity and common purpose.

We do not come to this conclusion lightly. But it is clear, we believe, that the president has largely lost the consent of the governed. The midterm elections were effectively a referendum on the Obama presidency. And even if it was not an endorsement of a Republican vision for America, the drubbing the Democrats took was certainly a vote of no confidence in Obama and his party. The president has almost no credibility left with Republicans and little with independents.

The best way for him to address both our national challenges and the serious threats to his credibility and stature is to make clear that, for the next two years, he will focus exclusively on the problems we face as Americans, rather than the politics of the moment – or of the 2012 campaign.

Quite simply, given our political divisions and economic problems, governing and campaigning have become incompatible. Obama can and should dispense with the pollsters, the advisers, the consultants and the strategists who dissect all decisions and judgments in terms of their impact on the president’s political prospects.

Obama himself once said to Diane Sawyer: “I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.” He now has the chance to deliver on that idea.

In the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama spoke repeatedly of his desire to end the red-state-blue-state divisions in America and to change the way Washington works. This was a central reason he was elected; such aspirations struck a deep chord with the polarized electorate.

Obama can restore the promise of the election by forging a government of national unity, welcoming business leaders, Republicans and independents into the fold. But if he is to bring Democrats and Republicans together, the president cannot be seen as an advocate of a particular party, but as somebody who stands above politics, seeking to forge consensus. And yes, the United States will need nothing short of consensus if we are to reduce the deficit and get spending under control, to name but one issue.

Forgoing another term would not render Obama a lame duck. Paradoxically, it would grant him much greater leverage with Republicans and would make it harder for opponents such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) – who has flatly asserted that his highest priority is to make Obama a one-term president – to be uncooperative.

And for Democrats such as current Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) – who has said that entitlement reform is dead on arrival – the president’s new posture would make it much harder to be inflexible. Given the influence of special interests on the Democratic Party, Obama would be much more effective as a figure who could remain above the political fray. Challenges such as boosting economic growth and reducing the deficit are easier to tackle if you’re not constantly worrying about the reactions of senior citizens, lobbyists and unions.

Moreover, if the president were to demonstrate a clear degree of bipartisanship, it would force the Republicans to meet him halfway. If they didn’t, they would look intransigent, as the GOP did in 1995 and 1996, when Bill Clinton first advocated a balanced budget. Obama could then go to the Democrats for tough cuts to entitlements and look to the Republicans for difficult cuts on defense.

On foreign policy, Obama could better make hard decisions about Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan based on what is reasonable and responsible for the United States, without the political constraints of a looming election. He would be able to deal with a Democratic constituency that wants to get out of Afghanistan immediately and a Republican constituency that is committed to the war, forging a course that responds not to the electoral calendar but to the facts on the ground.

If the president adopts our suggestion, both sides will be forced to compromise. The alternative, we fear, will put the nation at greater risk. While we believe that Obama can be reelected, to do so he will have to embark on a scorched-earth campaign of the type that President George W. Bush ran in the 2002 midterms and the 2004 presidential election, which divided Americans in ways that still plague us.

Obama owes his election in large measure to the fact that he rejected this approach during his historic campaign. Indeed, we were among those millions of Democrats, Republicans and independents who were genuinely moved by his rhetoric and purpose. Now, the only way he can make real progress is to return to those values and to say that for the good of the country, he will not be a candidate in 2012.”

Prager: The Trouble with America Is Not Barack Obama!

Prager insists the trouble lies elsewhere in the modern condition of the country.   The decay in the country hasn’t begun with Barack Obama.

The future of any nation arises from the quality of the  children formed for the future.   What is to be taught?  What is to be valued in life?  Who will be  the heroes to  give examples of the ideal  values?  Who is to teach them?   How will we know if our children are learning and what they are learning?  

We can measure what they do not know, both in examination and in behavior.

We have learned that somehow, we have created a nation of young slobs, mental as well as in appearance and behavior.

Please click below to listen to Dennis as he explains  what he believes  is  causing the erosion of civility and knowledge in our coutry today:

http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2010/09/greatest-threat-to-america-is-not-obama.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+NewZeal+(New+Zeal+Blog)

Save and Protect Minnesota Warming!

Nov. 13

I am hurting.  I ache everywhere. I have been working outdoors in my garden.  We are having a weather problem

My Twin Cities have been struck with their usual winter entry with the advent of global warming starting about  1950 or so…..noticably in this Glenn Ray world.  There have been some changes in the weather and some changes in me.

Today’s Twin City winter doesn’t enter our neighborhoods as it used to….in my lifetime, starting in 1934, with memory and experience of winter entering my mind about seven years  later.  I was often an in-the-way kind of child and wound up outside when most in-the-way.   At age eleven I began delivering newspapers after school, and at twelve had a morning and afternoon route.

I learned to like the outdoors, even in winter.  Yet, I do remember how threatening  winters were while delivering the St. Paul Pioneer Press at 5:00 in the morning and the Dispatch at 3:30 in the afternoon.  Perhaps it is then I fell in love with evergreen conifers, or maybe it was when my folks took the family to the “lake” up north where I met the most beautiful tree of all, the Eastern White Pine.  

One winter day, I have never forgotten.  I suppose I was twelve or thirteen and it was winter,  the old fashioned kind with biting snow bits and horrible cold with  wind.  One of my paperboy buddies had become ill and his mom asked me if I would add his route to mine the next day for she would deliver his morning route.  I agreed, unthinking and unknowing of the weather.  There weren’t many forcasts in those days anyway, and the few to be broadcast were generally guess work to which few paid attention.

It started snowing to go with the bitter cold.   And the wind blew hard so that by 3:15 when I picked up my papers I could barely see anything.   But I knew my route, up and down Pinehurst Avenue from Cleveland to the Mississippi River along with some apartments and house along Mount Curve Boulevard.   The apartments were heated, of course, and I raced through my route to get to them so I could warm up.   Then, moving up, eastward down the block I finished by4:15, tired, but liked the idea of exploring Pinehurst east of Cleveland delivering my buddies’ papers.

But it was dark from the storm and now more so from the coming evening.   And the wind picked up even more meanness.  Pinehurst is all uphill going eastward.   It wasn’t a huge route, 50 or so customers.  About half way done, I began to feel  I was in trouble….a certain feeling I had never had before.    

The snow already was knee high and my route bag had as much snow in it as papers.   It was unthinkable to not finish the route.   I could barely see the house numbers, and even didn’t know where the next house was, even though the street was as straight as an arrow.   I was losing it.  Not for one moment did I think to knock  on someones door.  They weren’t my customers.  I didn’t know them.  If it had been my route there wouldn’t have been a thought…..I knew every customer by name.  And they would have given me cookies.

I suppose I was on the edge of panic.  Perhaps the animal in me directed me toward some spruce.  I even knew they were spruce……. four in a grouping….all about twenty feet tall, with foliage down into the snow.   I worked my way to the ‘safe’ middle……where surprising me, there was very little snow and nothing but quiet.  I sat down on my route bag, looking out from the branches as the wind was sweeping snow past the trees,  a mile a second.  

What a sight!  What a different world!  I got my breath, my bearings.  I even was able to get my little flashlight out of my snowfilled pocket to help me read the addresses I had left to do. 

I recovered, finished the job, and enjoyed going down hill on Pinehurst on the way home.

Sixty plus years ago, this middle  part of America was in garden zone 4 or even in  3.5 if you lived in the western or northern belt of communities of our metropolitan area.  For the past almost twenty years, our garden zone has slowly and wonderfully cozied up to 5 if you live within the first tier of Twin City suburbs and 4.5, if you live in the outer tier, where I live. 

Anyone and everyone who has gardened here for the past three decades, is fully aware of this terrific positive development in the climate.    May God Bless Global Warming  in the Twin Cities to zone 5….but no warmer, please.

In our colder past we almost never got a first snowfall as now occurs regularly.   Late October was colder and drier.  Snow would arrive in early November, mean, dry and prickly as if sand  in a sandstorm if the winds were strong.

Well, when I got up this morning at 7 AM six  plus inches had already covered everything in sight.  For those of you who have never seen a neighborhood totalled under snowfall, you have missed one of the greatest sights in the human experience.   Certainly, there is beauty in countless of  Earth’s pictures, but none surpasses a spectacular snowfall.

But this  snow is wet, very wet and heavy.   It is too heavy for wind……because the temperature isn’t cold…..it’s around  30-35 degrees Fahrenheit, when sixty years ago the temperature causing the  windy sandblizzards  was under 20 degrees.  Then the wind would really blow the weightless snow particles onto the ground piling up into drifts and freezing my face.   There are no drifts outside as I write.    The tonnage of the wet snow remain on the trees and shrubs. 

There is going to be deep trouble in RIVER CITIES. today and tonight!

For you handful of California-MN-Prager-blogsite readers, out doors is where I have been  since 8 AM until 30 minutes ago when I collapsed from exhaustion and my arthritis joints  reminding me of my age, absolutely soaked to my skin by snow.   I have been doing the best I can to remove as much snow as possible from my ‘sacred’ White Pines, the 7 which have survived my 1976 plantings of ten in celebration of our nation’s bicentennial.    And then there are my fifty or more arborvitaes and another twenty tree junipers.

My white pines  were all a foot-tall then, second year seedlings when I planted them in 1976.    Five of them are over 60 feet tall now.   Their vertical trunks  aren’t threatened by the snow, but the lateral branches are at the mercy of anything  resembling a wet snowfall.   (I can’t continue my articleI have to return to my duty.)

Nov. 14

 It is 1:00 PM or so today, the day after yesterday when I wrote the above.   I had planned my day as garden clean up despite the two-foot snowfall.  My soaked clothes and boots were thrown into the clothes drier, and while there I could wear my second set of wet snow gear and an hour later return inside for another quick change of clothes.    So much for good planning…..for shortly after my blog recordings, power in the neighborhood went out.  There would be no more drying of my clothes for awhile.

Day turns dark here in Twin City-land about 4:30 pm and dawn arrives about 7:00 am  in mid November.  No power no lights, no heat, no warm food, no internet, and so on.   

The snow continued.  Our landscape company has a number of smow removal routes in winter.  Yesterday was good for business, but there were some troubles here as well.   One of the trucks broke down while on the job…either a battery or alternator.   I got the emergency call from my son who manages most of the routes, and had to pick up both at an Auto Parts.  Business comes first.

My advice in life to all.  Guys need tasks to meet and solve.  That is what we have been pegged to do, whether we like it or not.  I cannot imagine being retired and not having to solve problems, or help others who can solve them better.

My beautful home grounds is a mess, A tornado might have been kinder.  Last evening was drab, very drab, remindful of Viking life in a cold, dark,  dungeon, lit only by two candles and a fire in my livingroom fireplace.  .   I couldn’t even do more than two crossword puzzles by cnadlelight, so  I went to bed early, fully clothed, and slept very well.

I woke up ant 7 and began tending to the carnage outdoors.   At 12:15 power was restored.   Somewhere, someone returned my living space to the twenty-first century.   I am grateful.

Cold and the 1940′s winter wind is expect to return to Minnesota.  Despite yesterday’s devastation, I am still rooting for a Zone 5 garden climate….not retrograde 3.5 hiding among the spruce.