We took Cygnus X-1 in for scheduled maintenance this morning at 0-skunk-30. It fell to me to follow her and the GG in Mooon Yooonit. I haven’t driven Mooon Yooonit in a while and I couldn’t really remember how to work her radio. So, all right, I will listen to right wing crazy crapola for the 5-10 minutes it takes to get to the Subie dealer. I might learn something?

Immigration was on the agenda this morning and people were ranting and raving about “open borders”. Folks, we don’t HAVE open borders. I don’t really understand that term. We do have rules and regs for immigration. Ask me about the times *I*, a WASPy type person who grew up on the Canadian border have been GRILLED about why I’m crossing the damn border. Because I own property on the American side and wanted to go shopping on the Canadian side? Jeebus.

They aren’t really talking about the Canadian border though. They are talking about the “southern” border. On that border, we have physical walls to keep people out. I’m sorry but Mexico did NOT pay for them. They pre-existed the Orange Baboon and I don’t THINK he did much to enhance them. But yes, people who are trying to escape desperate situations are going to try to cross borders. Which are not really open but people will try to cross them anyway and sometimes they are successful.

I dunno if I can write coherently about this tonight. I regard immigration as an EXTREMELY complex issue and I doubt that many of our elected officials have the answers or even understand the issues. I sure don’t. My ancestors were immigrants, WASPy folks from the British Isles mainly. The branch of the fam I know the most about (dad’s paternal line) were barrel makers from northern Scotland and moved to Canananada in the mid/late 1800s. They didn’t have to scale a wall to get here, just traverse the Atlantic Ocean in whatever boat they were on. Luckily they made it here safely. If they hadn’t I guess I wouldn’t be a tax paying citizen of the United States of America.

A lot of the folks who are trying to enter our country are trying to escape very difficult situations, violence or extreme poverty or whatever. I don’t think my WASPy ancestors were escaping any of those things. They were just trying to make a better life for themselves. Which they did! Why can’t those of us who have benefited so much from our own immigrant ancestors help those who are trying to do the same kind of thing? Is it just a skin color issue? For some people I think it is. Such a superficial trait to use to divide people. Ugh.

In bird feeder news, I had a few birds today. I also had a squoil try to get to my bird feeder from the roof. The GG missed all of that excitement because he was yapping with various brothers on his phone. He did see a downy woodpecker go after the backyard suet feeder. I’ve seen downy woodpeckers before out my front window. Maybe I also need a suet feeder. Apparently some of our birds are also feeding off the xmas duck carcass, which is still haaaaanging around.

Oh yeah, the pic. Those are peanut butter jars I cleaned up for the GG to put North Country Trail blue paint into for blazing trees.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2024 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.