Light Reading

Not really. I’ve been reading about the Deep State, particularly the ‘Intelligence Community’. It has been some depressing and dark material.

Whoever wants to bring in some sunshine has a near-impossible task ahead of them. I like the idea from the linked article to employ Extreme Federalism. Federalism is a concept that is almost completely unknown among regular voters. The name always makes it seem like the complete opposite of what is meant by it.

At this point, although the balance on the Supreme Court is unsteady, the majority seem to be leaning towards neutrality or even a slight willingness to support the Federalism Model. That may snowball into a increase of the power of the states, at the expense of the overreaching hand of the Federal Government.

One can hope.

Realistically, improving the economy through growth of American companies, as well as drastically reducing the size of government, may be our best shot at digging out the dandelion-like entrenched Deep State. Dandelions are heavily on my mind at present; our part of northern Ohio has been a soggy mess for weeks, making it impossible to get the lawns trimmed. Until this week, most of the yards around me looked like jungles in the making.

As a result, the pernicious weeds had full run of the yard. I’ve spent a good portion of the last few weeks tending to long-overdue medical and dental appointments, running back and forth with my husband to see his ailing brother, and trying to manage some time to sort out paperwork that had been piling up.

But, the yard is mowed, and I have hopes of using my handy-dandy weed puller (see picture below, it’s a great little tool, and the long handle eliminates stooping or kneeling).

Sink it into the middle of the weed, depress the plunger, and twist viciously to bring the blasted weeds out!

I love using it – can’t do it for a super long time, but I keep it handy on the porch for 15 minutes sessions – you can accomplish a lot in a short time.

I’ve been in a really good mood for the last several days. I managed to figure out what was wrong with my radio (wouldn’t turn on), bought the part, and it started right up. Just in time, too – I’ve started a CW class (Morse Code to the average person), and the radio has to be connected to the key in trainer mode to do my homework and classwork. I’m making nice progress, too. With some hard work, I could be contacting on CW by summer.

Other than that, I’ve been sorting, filing and throwing away paper. I’m setting aside some time each week to scan documents that are important. That’s because when life was chaotic this winter, I mislaid some tax stuff. My plan is to set aside important stuff to be scanned, then filed. Should the hard copy get mislaid, there will be an electronic backup.

My brother-in-law’s illness and hospitalization led us to a realization that we won’t likely live forever; therefore, we are going to – finally – get the paperwork done for power of attorney for health and finances, update our wills, make sure we write down instructions for ourselves and our kids, and commit to organizing access to our online accounts, including electronic and hard copy updates of our passwords. Also, get a safe deposit box and – for home – a fireproof safe for really essential stuff.

It’s a lot. I’ve gotten a tentative commitment from my husband to help with it, but, realistically, it’s probably going to be mostly my job. I’ll remind him about that the next time he complains about my lax approach to housework.