So, the rally downtown went off well: cheerful crowd, lots of appreciative honks. Not too many furs: a Dalmatian, a Handmaiden on a unicorn, and of course a couple of obligatory frogs. Here's the sign I made:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/62682210/

Hope everyfur had a good #NoKingsDay ! 7@=e

If anyfur happens to be in the New London, CT area the next couple of weeks, yours truly will be appearing in a production of Ionesco's Rhinoceros, at CT College Arboretum. It's got a particularly relevant message for these times, absurdist comedy, onstage TF, and some magnificent rhino heads. See flocktheatre.org for info... 7@=e

In other news, I managed to buy a new scanner, but am having trouble setting it up; otherwise I would be posting new stuff by now. Hope I can get the darn thing working soon...

Happy Trails! 7@=e

Huzzah! After over a month of being incommunicado, I have my internet back...

In brief: my phone & Internet went dead, & tech said it was the wires (wch. go through the neighbors' basement), and a series of techs couldn't get access.

Finally, my neighbor confessed he had accidentally disconnected them during some renovations, & reconnected them. Phone fine - but no Internet. My wifi had disappeared.

Now, with a little tech help, I'm back.

The one bright point in all this was that, to cope with the boredom, I started drawing again. Now I've got a couple of folders of stuff (some damn good stuff, too), & all I need now is a new scanner for this old laptop, so I can post it. Cross your fingers, claws, hooves, or whatever, and watch this space!

Happy Trails! 7@=e

FOX

The fox is very clever.
In England people dress up
Like a movie star's servants
And chase the fox on horses.
Rather, they let dogs chase him,
And they come along behind.
When the dogs have torn the fox
To pieces they rub his blood
On the faces of young girls.
If you are clever do not
Let anybody know it,
But especially Englishmen.

HORSE

It is fun to ride the horse.
If you give him some sugar
He will love you. But even
The best horses kick sometimes.
A rag blowing in the wind
Can cause him to kill you. These
Characteristics he shares
With the body politic.

RACCOON

The raccoon wears a black mask,
And he washes everything
Before he eats it. If you
Give him a cube of sugar,
He'll wash it away and weep.
Some of life's sweetest pleasures
Can be enjoyed only if
You don't mind a little dirt.
Here a false face won't help you.

VULTURE

St. Thomas Aquinas thought
That vultures were lesbians
And fertilized by the wind.
If you seek the facts of life,
Papist intellectuals
Can be very misleading.

WOLF

Never believe all you hear.
Wolves are not as bad as lambs.
I've been a wolf all my life,
And have two lovely daughters
To show for it, while I could
Tell you sickening tales of
Lambs who got their just deserts.

- Collected Shorter Poems,
©1949, 1963, Kenneth Rexroth
©1956, New Directions Pub. Corp.

This last day, I found something in my mail, purporting to be a 'Questionnaire', concerning 'Proposed Policy Revisions re U.S. Immigration Levels' .
It proved to be a propaganda leaflet , issued by the RW 'Heritage Foundation', to excite anti-immigrant hysteria.
This is how far we have fallen: the regime is trying to drum up support for mass deportations.
This is how it begins... 7X=Q
If you do get one of these, I suggest the following strategy:
. Tear up the 'Questionnaire' (that's important, since it includes your address)
. Replace the 'Questionnaire' with a simple message:
'Dear Sirs:
F*** YOU.
Sincerely,
WE, THE PEOPLE

Well: just a little over a year since I left my dilapidated condo, I'm back in Version 2.0. A lot of work to do, moving furniture about, putting pictures up again, etc.; but at least it's home. 7@=e

Let nothing you dismay...

Had the celebration & brunch at my stepsister's (Sun.). Got some Lackadaisy merch for the Doodlebugs (my nephew & his partner & friend).

I may get my place refurnished and ready to move back in in the next month.

I haven't done much art recently; I've developed an 'essential tremor', and I'll be seeing a neurologist about it in March.

So, wishing you Happy Holidays, and a New Year that doesn't suck (too much),
- LA/wts 7@=e

And, of course: https://furaffinity.net/view/1712948/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq3brUMm3gA

A weird little video on invasive species in Germany, with Third Reich implications...

I'm pretty sure these critters don't have any political views; but it's weird how they got there... 7X=Q

Nuf sed... 7X=Q
Stay safe, folks.

So: last Wednesday, May 1, I went back to Yale/New Haven for another procedure, to get a couple more arteries 'roto-rooted' out; I definitely feel much better now, and hope I'll get back up to speed.

On the negative side: there was some problem with insurance, as they claimed my previous overnight hospital stay was 'not medically necessary'. We corralled the doctors in on this, and they'll yell at the insurers... we'll see how that goes.

Also, I got hit with a whopping tax bill, which is going to take some time to settle. Sometimes troubles don't just come in threes... 7X=Q

Well: got back from Yale New Haven this afternoon, with couple of stents in my arteries. I hope I'll be up to speed again soon.

(Troubles, the saying goes, come in threes. While I was recuperating from my previous hospital stay, I began to notice something untoward happening with my old Corolla, that culminated in my getting stranded with a burnt-out clutch. After much trouble and expense, that was fixed. The third was my own fault: through neglect, I had let my condo get into a ruinous state, and finally had to hire a team to basically rebuild the place. It may be some months before it's habitable again; in the meantime, I'm staying at my stepsister's, with my brother [visiting from Malaysia], my nephew & his partners, and a small, old, vocally industrious dog.)

As I said, I hope things will be looking up soon. 7@=e

Back online after a couple of weeks - and not very good weeks.

I found myself feeling rather seedy around New Year's Day: tired, somewhat short of breath. I struggled on for some time, until symptoms became worse, and I asked a relation for advice. The advice: get medical help RIGHT NOW.

I did so, and was sent from clinic to hospital, with a diagnosis of congestive heart failure. I spent a little over a week there, getting poked, prodded, and scanned. I'm out now, feeling better, recuperating at my stepsister's, taking lots of pills, and expecting more doctors' appointments in the foreseeable future.

At least I'm alive, and hope to get back to somewhat normal activity in time. Love. <3

NASA apparently got up to some bizarre shenanigans in the '60s: this video by Thoughty2 on YT chronicles the weird, and eventually tragic, experiments in Human/Dolphin communication. Not graphic, but suggestive...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz15mgIBN7g 7X=G

Just watched this great summary by Artemis Wishfoot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2xPuQtsodI
I think the doggo puts it right out there. Opinions? 7@=e

... not to mention an over 12 hour power outage on the coldest night of the year.

Friday was pretty windy; sometime around 7 pm or so, everything went dark. Had to grab a flashlight, bundle up, head upstairs, cocoon myself, and hope I didn't freeze to death.

Surprise: I didn't. Still bloody cold, though: not the sort of day to drive 2 1/2 hours to deliver presents. So I stayed home for Xmas Eve, and probably Xmas Day, too... oh, well...

Happy Holidays, folx! 7X=Q

Now somebody changed my email password on AOL, and I'm going through hell trying to get it fixed. Can't verify it with another account, and my cellphone won't open. Any suggestions? 7X=Q

Now it looks as if someone's hacked my Twitter account: can't sign in, & they don't accept my password. Tried to create a new account, with a different email, but I never get the verification code...

Also, had to change my password on my old email due to it being hacked.

Any suggestions for a remedy to the Twitter problem? 7x=Q

Well, I had to get another email account, just so I could get back on FB.
Now comes the work of trying to get my contacts back... 7@=Q

Went to check my FB page yesterday, and got a "Login Approval Needed" message. Tried clicking the "Continue" button, but nothing happened. Tried changing my password - same results. Tried making a new account - no dice.

Anybody know how to fix this? I've fired off an email to FB Support, but I'm not optimistic... 7X=Q

Just watched a restored version of Fritz Lang's classic here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx-vMdGqL3A

My thoughts:

A society where a technocratic elite rules over suppressed labor; where bots are created, disguised as social influencers, to incite violence against the civilization upon which they all depend, just so the elite can enact vengeance against the workers?

Nah... never gonna happen [sarcasm].

(Oh: and am I alone in seeing in the visage of the villain Rotwang, a slightly cleaner and less bottle-nosed version of a certain personage who wanted to 'deconstruct' the government?)

In contrast to this vision, I think of E.M. Forster's classic parable (pretty much contemporary with the film), The Machine Stops. Here, instead of a technocratic elite, the civilization is in thrall to technology itself: a self-involved humanity has abandoned its agency to a mechanical system, which they no longer understand or control. When the system starts to fail, nobody knows what to do.

Both scenarios may be applicable to our situation today, I fear.

I must admit that I write this in my cups; but as the ancients have said, 'in vino veritas'... 7x=e

So, there were all these dire warnings about this hurricane...

I'm sitting in a guest room at my stepsister's house. She's off in VA at the moment; but luckily my nephew is staying there, and offered me shelter.

There was some rain and gusts of wind this morning, but nothing too threatening. The lights flickered a bit, but no outages. A little after noon, the rain slackened, the wind abated, and we had some peeps of sunshine. From what I read, that was probably the eye of the storm; so I waited for the worst...

It's now 9 PM: the wind did pick up earlier, but again, nothing horrible. I hear crickets, etc., outside my window. The Weather Channel has downgraded it to either a 'tropical storm', or a 'tropical depression': I hope this damn thing has passed, and that my home, nearer to the shore, has not sustained any damage. For those who had it worse, I extend my deepest sympathies. Deo gratias. 7@=e

Is the Apostrophe'...

Lately, I've had a mild obsession over the What About Bunny channel on YouTube (sorry, I can't seem to put in a link that works: look it up yourself) 7X=Q

Bunny, in case you haven't heard of her, is a dog who uses an array of buttons to 'talk' with her human: not merely simple, one-word demands, but actual sentences. Sometimes she strays into existential territory: is she a dog, or a human? Is 'Mom' a human, or a dog? Why is a dog? Who is that in the mirror?

Is this anthropomorphic bias - or is it a new development in inter-species communication? You be the judge.

The new phase of COVID vaccinations in CT has opened, and I am now eligible; so I just registered to apply for an appointment. I hope I'll hear back from them soon. Wish me luck! 7@=e

EDIT: Got an appointment for Sunday the 14th!

UPDATE 4/5/21: Got my second shot!

As a temporary respite from the present unpleasantness, I notice that sea shanties have been trending recently. I thought I might offer a couple of examples, from a beloved album of my misspent youth: 7X=e
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdx8ts6y5hI

Or, if you want something less explicit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO3U8ITdNws

Enjoy, mateys!

Responding to recent developments on this social media platform: 7@=e
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkq7WZTzkLQ