Day 1270: Family coming home!

We're getting ready for Colin and April's homecoming on Saturday.  They'll be here a whole week, although they have many obligations with April's family and their friends.  If we just get a few breakfasts together, we'll be happy.  There was a ferocious storm early this morning so today was the perfect day to get the house ready.  It's amazing how dirty the upstairs rooms get even without anyone living up there.  When everything was in order, it was time to jump in the pool.  The water was 80 degrees, actually warmer than the air.  And I tallied another 250 lengths.

 All over the nation, people are calling for change.  Remove the Confederate flag from public life.  Now!  Amazon, e-Bay, Walmart and Sears will stop selling all Confederate paraphernalia.  Why were they selling it to begin with?  MONEY! And now, they're afraid of losing business if they continue selling the stuff.

The South Carolina legislature voted to remove the flag.  Other states are also jumping on the bandwagon to remove Confederate symbols from public view.  Why did it take a church massacre to accomplish this?  When so many African Americans have been murdered and abused for so long, why did these particular murders prompt the change?  Why has it taken 150 years for the south stop fighting the Civil War? Suddenly their heritage is being repudiated.  What will the backlash be?

I'm so glad for this seismic shift, but I am also doubtful about the motivation.  Why can't Americans recognize that each and every life has value? Why was the murderer of nine people in a church taken into custody without incident when twelve year old Tamir Rice was shot dead in two seconds while holding a toy gun?   I am rambling because I am struggling with all that has happened this week.

Brilliant red astilbe is bursting through the hostas