Susan and I took our walk in heavy, wind-driven rain. Wore my long raincoat, but my slacks were soaked at the bottom; had to change them and my socks before WW. Stopped at Acme after, then spent the rest of the day snug at home.
We got not one, but two, incredibly beautiful Easter gifts from Mike, Paula, and the little girls: A tall blue and white ceramic vase filled with lilies and delphiniums, and a "bulb garden," with hyacinths and crocuses just poking through the moss. Lovely spring flowers that fill me with pleasure. They are, of course, from Calyx Flowers, which seem to me, about the best-run company there is. Their flowers always arrive perfectly packed and they last a long time, plus their customer service is superb.
Had just barely enough mayo to make the potato salad, but I think it's okay. Put a bottle of white zinfandel in the refrig and otherwise prepared for today's dinner. With only the four of us, it will be low-key, but nice.
Got a call from the owner of Unshredded Nostalgia, a shop in Barnegat for buying and selling paper "collectibles" (one of those idiotic, commercially coined words that helps debase our language). I had e-mailed him and will show him my postcards, of which I have several thousand. Somewhat regretfully, I've decided to end this hobby. There are no postcard clubs near here that I know of, and mine have been stored in the crawlspace since we moved here. Will keep my Dionne quintuplet ones, though.
Wider: From that constant source of beautifully articulated truth, Chris Floyd, at "Empire Burlesque":
"Of the 60 cross-border predator strikes carried out by the Afghanistan-based American drones in Pakistan between January 14, 2006 and April 8, 2009, only 10 were able to hit their actual targets, killing 14 wanted al-Qaeda leaders, besides perishing 687 innocent Pakistani civilians. The success percentage of the US predator strikes thus comes to not more than six per cent...."
So, as Chris goes on:
"Now there's change you can believe in (to coin a phrase)! In just a few months in office, Obama has managed to raise the average kill rate achieved by Bush from 32 to 38 per month. And who can doubt that this young, capable, charismatic president will not increase that civilian slaughter rate even further as he ratchets up the drone war in the months -- and years and years -- to come?"
What in the WORLD can we be thinking? How in the name of justice can we continue to pretend this is an "anti-war president?" Well, I've been called cynical, so maybe it's me.