We didn’t really celebrate the holiday. I didn’t even decorate for it. Not feeling great about this country at all.
Roe v Wade was overturned and now dead women have more rights than alive ones. It’s sad and disgusting. No one should be able to tell another person what to do with their own body. Women are going to die, babies & children are going to suffer, and crime is going to increase (in 18-20 years when all the unwanted children grow up). It doesn’t just end there, either. This is just the first step toward controlling the population. This country is seriously regressing.
Last night there was a mass shooting at a parade in one of the suburbs north of us. Six people died and many more were injured. The shooter was at large for hours so other towns cancelled their celebrations and stupid idiots online were making ignorant comments like “so I guess we just crawl into a hole forever then?” I guess watching some firesticks go boom is more important than other people possibly dying. Give me a break.
And don’t get me started on how fed up I am with fireworks in general. They are illegal here, but that hasn’t stopped neighbors from setting them off every night for the past two weeks. My favorite is when they wait until 2 am when everyone is trying to sleep. Between that and the storms last night Wookie was an anxious mess. I really wish we’d do away with the whole fireworks tradition. They do more harm than good considering how many pets and people with PTSD are negatively impacted by them, and they’re terrible for the environment. We need to do better.
I don’t know what else to say without going on a long(er) tirade, so instead I’ll just focus on the superficial day to day happenings since it’s the only thing keeping me sane right now.
Saturday (07/02) I got my hair cut. I usually go to Great Clips and see Zoe but when I called a few weeks ago I found out she no longer works there. What a bummer; I really liked her! In addition, they aren’t requiring/wearing masks anymore and I really don’t want someone right in my face mask-less. Luckily my friend’s cousin does hair in her basement and only lives twenty minutes away, so I got my hair cut by her. Now my hair is right at shoulder length and feels so much better. The cut was $35 plus tip since I didn’t do the shampoo or blow dry. I checked my tracking app and it had been exactly a year and 2 days since my last cut. I should probably get it cut more often because even though there’s not a lot split ends or damage, I get soooo annoyed with it once it’s more than three inches past my shoulders. I hate the feeling of it grazing my arms in the summer too.
On the way home from my haircut, we spotted a park we’ve never noticed before, so we stopped to check it out. It has two bogs, a pond, and tons of wildflowers.
It was too hot to do more than a cursory walk around, but we decided we’d be back soon with my camera in tow.
Saturday evening we were walking Wookie when I tripped over something and felt a pain on the lower half of my right leg. Apparently I got a nasty scratch from a rusty piece of wire. I grabbed the offending item and immediately went home to call our 24 hour nurse line to see what I should do. She walked me through cleaning it (I didn’t realize you’re supposed to run cool water over it for five minutes). After many questions, she determined it would be best if I went to Immediate/Urgent Care to have it checked out since even though the skin hadn’t been broken, the scratch was longer than the length of my palm.
Luckily this happened around 6:15 and UC is open until 7:30 daily. When we got there around 7 pm I was told there was an hour and a half wait. It ended up being closer to an hour ultimately, but I did need to get a tetanus shot just in case (since we weren’t absolutely sure how long it had been since my last one) and my arm has been pretty sore since Sunday (and it was swollen yesterday but that has since gone away). The funny part was after I was given the shot the tech/nurse guy told me I was so brave, lol! I don’t think he was being condescending either.
So that was a fun ending to our Saturday. Luckily we got back before sunset so we could sit out on the patio like we originally planned.
Sunday (07/03) we went back to the newly discovered park and had fun walking around for an hour taking photos. There were a lot of birds, butterflies, insects, and rabbits. We also saw a couple of American bullfrogs.
Did you know there’s snails in Illinois? I didn’t, but we spotted a few. This is an amebersnail.
I really enjoyed our visit and since it’s less than ten minutes from home I am sure we’ll end up there often, particularly because our favorite park is really busy lately with softball games. It will serve as a backup when the other parks are too crowded, although I love it so much I’d happily visit it daily.
The aforementioned park was not busy on Monday (07/04) at 7 am when we paid a visit. What a great one it was, too! We saw so much wildlife, including animals we’ve never seen there before like a raccoon. We also spotted this creature.
At first I thought it might be a river otter or small beaver, but once I zoomed in and saw its claws, I was able to determine it was a muskrat. The photo quality is horrible because it was small and far away. My zoom lens was no match.
We also saw a deceased American mink which was sad. I hope to see a live one someday.
I got a really good photo of a Great Egret.
These birds are plentiful in the area but are usually beyond the reach of my camera lens.
We spent the rest of the day indoors since it was so hot & humid outside. We had hot dogs for lunch and cheeseburgers for dinner but I still maintain it was not in celebration of this country – we just like to eat.
