I woke up on the cranky side of the bed this morning because the first thing I heard, upon slowly rising from the fog of sleep at 5 a.m., was Mrs. Russia running her vacuum cleaner! AT FIVE IN THE MORNING! I went out and rang her doorbell to ask her to stop, but she wouldn't answer the door. I'm sure she knew I was annoyed. I'm hearing a lot of thumping around up there -- she must be in a snit about something herself. (Probably me ringing her doorbell.)
Or maybe they're packing up to travel somewhere. Or maybe they're MOVING! Wouldn't that be fab?!
Yesterday was pretty slow in the library. My supervisor was in managerial training all day, so I was left to my own devices, which I love. It was a bright sunny day and I walked both ways to work so I got lots of outdoor time, too.
In the evening, Dave and I watched a documentary on Netflix about the tornado that leveled Joplin, Mo., a couple of years ago. It was very good and used a lot of first-hand videos and recordings, so you could see the storm as it happened. I've never been in or even near a tornado so it's hard for me to imagine storm forces like that. Florida has tornadoes but they are not of the magnitude of those gigantic Midwestern twisters.
Meanwhile I'm reading about Donald Trump's aides texting top-secret war plans to each other on a commercial messaging app. Why didn't they just post them on Facebook? To once again quote my former co-worker Tabatha: "You got to laugh to keep from cryin'."
I know the clocks are going forward..but not yet....and even then!
ReplyDeleteLove the pavement shadows
Yeah, and not THAT much!
DeleteHo-ho! Your supervisor is in "managerial training" - no doubt garnering yet more techniques to keep you under control with your shoulder to the wheel. Is the training venue in El Salvador?
ReplyDeleteAfghanistan, I think.
DeleteThat’s the kind of thing I think about doing but usually chicken out of. Hopefully, all that thumping upstairs is the sound of her packing up for a long trip
ReplyDeleteIt looks like that may be the case, actually!
DeleteStriking shadow shots! I woke up on the cranky side this morning. No Mrs. Russia (THANK GOD) but thinking about this at risk world.
ReplyDeleteIt's enough to stress anyone out, that's for sure.
DeleteOh, your supervisor is being trained to better supervise you. Be afraid.
ReplyDeleteIndeed! Or maybe it will make things better?!
DeleteThe texting out war plans to a journalist by accident is just....mind boggling. Our country is not safe. What a disaster this administration has been already, and it's only March. :(
ReplyDeleteOn a better subject: did you see the final episode of Severance? How about that marching band?! I've fallen in love with Tramell Tillman!
Yes, the marching band was TERRIFIC. What did they call it -- frolic and merriment, or something like that? There were lots of bright spots but overall I was a bit disappointed in this season. It seemed to lack clarity and coherence.
DeleteWhy didn't they just go on Fox with the meeting??
ReplyDeleteI used to have a neighbor who'd run his motor mower at 6am on Saturdays, claiming that everyone ought to be up by then..
Exactly! Talk about live TV!
DeleteI can't wait to watch Washington Week on Friday! Goldberg hosts but I wonder if he'll take the night off, knowing that the journalist isn't supposed to become the story. But this time he really is. I knew they had no brains but this one just boggles mine. Yes, definitely time to have words with Mrs. R!
ReplyDeleteOh, I hope he stays on. He'll have a lot to say about this, and about the reactions from all quarters to his article.
Delete"He hires only the best people." Don't ever forget that.
ReplyDeleteHe needs to start saying "You're fired." Then again, he'd probably find even WORSE people next.
DeleteI do hope Mrs Russia is returning to her roots and is replaced by some reasonable tenants.
ReplyDeleteI can hardly believe the latest lunacy from the orange one's cabinet - shouldn't be surprised, really.
I say that all the time about Trump's various activities -- this SHOULDN'T surprise me, and yet it always does!
DeleteGreat photos. The tree shadows would make nice pen and ink drawings.
ReplyDeleteSome people feel entitled and show no concern for others. (I have a neighbor similar to Mrs. R.) We have a noise ordinance bylaw, and the police will uphold it. Even dogs barking more than 10 minutes is a violation.
The "war plans" for public consumption takes the prize. Accidents happen...but accidents like this are above and beyond ridiculous. Let's see how this is explained.
I actually did turn that top one into a watercolor "painting" using my Waterlogue app. It turned out pretty well!
DeleteWe probably have a noise ordinance too, but I couldn't imagine calling the police -- not for something this minor, even if it was annoying. I did once call the police on a neighbor's loud party and it turned out to be some girl's Bat Mitzvah. LOL! I felt bad, but I don't think the cops ever showed up so they never knew.
I've woken up on the cranky side of the bed in every apartment I ever lived in. I was not met to share walls, ceilings or floors with neighbors!
ReplyDelete"A couple years ago"! Try 14 years ago. I think about that sucker whenever I drive by Joplin on the way down to the cabin. I have seen a few tornados over the years but never close until two years ago. That one was circling overhead when I went out on the porch to watch for tornadoes and touched ground about a mile to the north of my house. It was actually featured in a documentary series that aired late last year that focused on showing disasters unfolding in real time through all the various camera sources available these days. The storm chaser and buildings it destroyed were along the road that runs behind my house.
I guess I wasn't surprised that Trump's cabinet are apparently uneducated amateurs when it comes to discussing sensitive topics. That is what we deserve when we nominate and confirm people who have no experience doing the important jobs tasked of them. It makes me long for the days when we were arguing over whether or not the president at the time should be allowed to have his own personal Blackberry. Now a phone, social media platform and meme coin apparently have become mandatory.
For some reason I was thinking the tornado was much more recent than that! But you're right -- it was 2011.
DeleteTrump on Twitter was dangerous enough. Having his whole cabinet on social media is even worse.
By the way, I am an hour into the Joplin documentary with about 20 minutes left to watch sometime today. It is very intense!
DeleteP.S.S. I also watched Adolescence. It wasn't as gripping for me, especially some of the long dialog interactions in the last too episodes, but it was worth watching overall.
DeleteI am catching up on my blog reading and I just read your last posts. When I last lived in an apartment, I could hear the guy blow his nose every morning. It was always like clockwork. And the neighbors on the other side of me loved sports, especially whenever Virginia Tech played. I could always tell from the noise emanating from their apartment whether they won or lost.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed looking at your video on your walk through London. I have been to London a couple of times, and I have crossed that bridge. I envy you living in London, away from the nuttiness over here.
At least I don't hear THAT much from my neighbors! Not anymore, anyway. They put in sound-proof flooring -- but before that we used to hear them fighting and arguing all the time.
DeleteMaking a lot of noise at 5 am when you share walls, or floor/ceiling in the case, is just rude.
ReplyDeleteEveryone's going on about the 'accident' of texting classified info. It was not an accident. The only mistake was adding the reporter but what do you expect from a bunch of unqualified and inappropriate people. They are purposely using Signal instead of the secure government networks because they want to hide what they're doing and are too dumb to realize or don't care how dangerous it is to the security of this country. God only knows what else they are chatting about on Signal. A bunch of clowns cosplaying as leaders.
Well, now the Chinese are going to make darn sure they can hack Signal -- if they haven't already!
DeleteMrs. Russia is obviously not right. And that is a very kind way of putting it.
ReplyDeleteDo we not think that it is rather ironic that while Musk's hench-techs burrow into all of our systems, grabbing our personal data as they go, there is obviously no tech on duty when it comes to simple things like NOT USING COMMERCIAL APPS TO INFORM ONE ANOTHER ABOUT UPCOMING BOMBINGS? And then inadvertently including the editor of The Atlantic? I almost feel like someone there at the top was responsible for this. That would be a very weird random mistake.
It is VERY weird. Even Jeffrey Goldberg acknowledges how weird it is. Apparently Waltz says he put together the group and "takes responsibility" but won't explain how it happened or who he meant to include rather than Goldberg. (That's what I want to know!)
DeleteWhat a shit show in the White House! Reality that is stranger than fiction!
ReplyDeleteHave you watched the series The Residence on Netflix? I just finished it and found it very entertaining.
We have not watched that! I'll look for it!
DeleteI'm waiting to hear the spin come from DC. They must be working on a way to spin this in their favor.
ReplyDeleteI've heard three main threads of spin:
Delete1. The journalist is lying.
2. The journalist is telling the truth about being in the group but should have opted out when he realized the mistake.
3. The journalist was deliberately included by a deep state operative.
When we lived in a third floor apartment I'm sure the downstairs neighbors thought there were elephants up there - but we were NOT morning people, so we weren't doing chores or thumping around at 5 a.m.!
ReplyDeleteThe timing was absolutely the problem here. If she'd been vacuuming at 10 a.m. I wouldn't have cared at all.
DeleteThe level of incompetence in this administration is terrifying and upsetting! :( Vacuuming at 5 am? That's nuts!!
ReplyDeleteTerrifying and upsetting are the words, for sure.
DeleteYou can't fix stupid and there is a lot of stupid hanging around trump right now, and always.
ReplyDeleteGod forbid these people actually get tested by any kind of international crisis. Who knows what will happen.
DeleteI wouldn't want to watch that documentary. I spend too much of the year under tornado watches. I can't believe she was vacuuming that early in the morning! (or maybe I can, considering who we're talking about)
ReplyDeleteYeah, tornadoes for me are a rather abstract threat, like earthquakes or nuclear war. I can only imagine what it would be like to watch that movie living in an area where they are omnipresent.
DeleteWe watched that documentary on Sunday. It was fascinating. The poor guy that got sucked right out of his car's broken windshield. I never would have given a thought to all the fungus and bacteria swallowed up with the debris from the storm. That poor man! All of the stories, all of the different perspectives.
ReplyDeleteIt also interests me that your house and mine seem to be on the same wavelength in our viewing. I am pretty sure we watched Adolescence the same night you guys did. We watched the tornado show on Sunday afternoon. So...what are we watching next?
Mrs. Russia reminds me of a joke: "My neighbor was pounding on my wall at 2 AM. The nerve! Luckily I was still awake and practicing my bagpipes at the time."
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin! A must see.
DeleteYeah, the guy with the fungal illness was such a bizarre case. I never would have thought of that either. Love the joke! I'm not sure what our next show will be. Maybe "The White Lotus."
DeleteTabatha has it right!
ReplyDeleteI use that phrase all the time and always think of her.
DeleteVacuuming at 5 a.m. is very inconsiderate. Even if she is going away, she could have done that the day before. How dirty could the floor get between then and the next morning? Ah well. Maybe she knocked over a plant or spilled her cream of wheat from the package or . . . I'm thinking really hard here but I can't come up with anything else :)
ReplyDeleteThe Signal emails/messages were wrong in so many ways, and those who took part are just diminishing and denying it (in Hegseth's case, angrily denying, in a very threatening way, to the reporter who asked the question). Nothing will happen. No one has any power at the moment except the cabal at the top. It's enraging and depressing in equal amounts.
Even if she spilled her cream of wheat, doesn't she have a broom?!
DeleteHegseth is so funny saying no war secrets were divulged, when the Atlantic reporter clearly knew everything ahead of time!
Mrs Russia really knows how to get under people's skin.
ReplyDeleteFor her, it's an art.
DeleteInvesting in some ear plugs might not be a bad idea...
ReplyDeleteWhy should I have to wear earplugs in my own house? It's incumbent on her not to harass her neighbors.
DeleteI vote for the Russians moving, very far away. As for texting war plans, it's all about Hillary Clinton's emails.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
"But her e-mails!"
DeleteIt never stops.
Tall shadows, finally! It could be that better weather is coming your way.
ReplyDeleteGlad I do not live near people, I was up at three - doing stuff and making noise!
Surely you weren't vacuuming! Wouldn't Dennis object?
DeleteOy vey on the clusterfuck that is our country. Sigh. Could you take in some American refugees?
ReplyDeleteHa! Dave and I keep saying we need to apply for citizenship before the Home Office gets flooded by applications from wayward Americans seeking asylum.
DeleteYou manage to always get great shadow photos. My upstairs neighbour runs her mop around the floor late at night, either while I am watching TV so I hear it right above my head, or she does it after I am in bed and trying to sleep. That's also the time she likes to put away her dried washing, opening and closing sliding doors and drawers and walking back and forth with her heavy tread, thank goodness she takes her shoes off! Other neighbours across the lobby like to have a karaoke night now and again, sometimes with the music machine, sometime just drunken singing, very loud and always beginning at close to midnight. Ain't apartment life grand?
ReplyDeleteOh, Lord, that karaoke night sounds like hell! I'm surprised you hear the mop, but maybe she knocks it against the baseboards?
Delete