Hello 82 days of Covid -19

My 82nd day of Safer At Home began by watching a Hummingbird chase a Red Bellied Woodpecker away from the juice feeder.  Tough little dude.

It started out early as a very hot and humid day, high dew point which is not meant for comfort.  My A/C is not working, and the repair guys said they will be here someday soon.  I buttoned up the house early, pulled all the shades, and it stayed quite decent inside.  

I mostly read today so that didn't work up a sweat.

I had to close Omaha's Stray Cat Shelter today, some kind of animal, I'm guessing raccoon, had been messing with things there.  

So, Tux is on his own for snacks until the Raccoons decide to stay in the woods.

😿😿😿

By early afternoon, a storm started building.

I got around the yard a little bit before then.

Today was the first day to see Iris in bloom.  There are many yellow, and a few purple.

I don't think Uncle LeRoy's hybrid Iris is going to bloom this year, it shows up every other year.

 I've always loved Iris.

I remember we had a corner in our yard when I was a kid, it was a jungle of Iris.

I keep adding more and more Iris to my yard, the more the better.

I think some of the Siberian Iris will be next up on the blooming calendar.

Those Yellow Peonies were full open in the hot sun today.

I am not sure if they will last many days more if we get storms,

but they are stunningly beautiful right now.

 Darn tomato cages mess with my photos.

 The stems are tall on these blooms, that is why I put a tomato cage over them to prop them up.

Last year I added a new plant to the Danish Garden by the front door.

It is really taking off this year, so I dug around and found the ID card for it.

If I ever run across this one again, I'll definitely buy it again.

 The flowers remind me of Bee Balm, the Bad Hair Day look.

***

This afternoon I read this posting on Twitter 

"I want to see something: Black people, when was the exact moment you realized that your skin color was the reason you were treated different and your innocence was ripped away? How confused and hurt were you?"

Then I read all the responses by these adults remembering their youth and it was heartbreaking.

Little children being told they were not worthy of an education because of the color of their skin.

Teenage girl being pulled over by a raging policeman.

Little kids not invited to birthday parties, because "no black kids in the house".

Random strangers yelling the N word at them at any age.

Several stories about being arrested for harassed for being black.

and it went on and on and on.

I read it all twice.

Gut wrenching.

I think I knew it, but I had never read first hand experiences like this;

I don't know what I can do about it,

but I am learning more about racism.

Then I watched the Jimmy Fallon interview with NAACP President Derrick Johnson, and that made me decide to visit the NAACP.org website and sign up.

I need to be involved in this work,

at some level,

even if it is just awareness & education to start with.

***

Tonight I have had numerous updates on my phone on the Scanner App, Rhode Island, Peoria, NYC, Davenport, Chicago, Buffalo, Boston, Cicero, Arkansas, Kenosha, Kansas, California, Minneapolis, and the list goes on...

the country is busy protesting and I hope that change is coming soon.

Please be sure you are registered to VOTE in November,

it is so important to VOTE in every election,

not just the Federal elections, but the local ones too.

Locally you must elect the right people to further the cause of equal rights for all.

***

The Wisconsin Covid numbers are down, I'm very pleased, we are about 10 days post Memorial Day weekend, so maybe we got lucky.

Time will tell.

Peace.