Tuesday, February 22, 2005
We got "snowed in" up at Fritz's over the holiday weekend. It was absolutely gorgeous. Pick any cliche you like, but for the most part it looked like an ideal setting for the NUTCRACKER ballet. The snow was as light and sparkling as it gets and everything was blanketed.
I took up a lot of work to do and got most of it done, including a huge bite out of this year's income taxes, and groundplans for the production of Tennessee Williams's THE DEMOLITION DOWNTOWN. The previous weekend, Fritz had pulled out a bag of some needlepoint pillow covers he had made years ago, absolutely beautiful work, mostly in bargello geometric patterns, and I began the process of turning them into pillows for the newly covered sofa. We repaired a rotor shaft on the snowblower, had the boys in on Sunday night for the Sweat Lodge, but opted for a long soak in the hot tub under the moon and emerging stars and the usual fun dinner afterwards. And all throughout the weekend we got some quality time in the sack together.
Fritz had to do a lot of snow clearing on Monday. He's got a riding snow blower and loves it. A couple of storms ago there was a class for teachers in for the weekend. Two of the women noticed how much fun he was having and ran out to take pictures of him in the little rig that looks for all the world like a little Amish buggy. It's not as good as the ancient pick-up truck he used to have with the plow on the front. He loved to rev it up at one end of the parking lot, then throw it into gear and gun it, roaring down toward the line of huge maples pushing a wall of show ahead of him. It was wild to ride with him. I asked him yesterday if he had ever yelled Yiii-HA! as he raced it down to the trees and he said that he probably had. Men and their toys! (of which I'm proud to be one). Fritz and our good friend B. the Chef are heading down to New York City tonight to see the big installation The Gates by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in Central Park tomorrow.
Montana just defeated a move to extend its hate crimes bill to include crimes against gays in the future. OK, OK, are we surprised? Their reason: it would prevent ministers from preaching against homosexuals in the pulpit. And by now probably everybody knows about the George Bush tapes and his comment that he wouldn't "kick the gays" like his rabid Christian following wants him to do. He said he's a sinner and couldn't differentiate between sins. Now I take exception to classifying gays as "sinners" simply for being born gay but we won't go there now. What Bush's statement really means is that we're all equal morally, and it is significant that her feels this way (for those who don't know, the tapes were made without Bush's knowledge in private chat with a friend before he became President). This would explain his use of gay marriage as a campaign weapon but his abandonment of the anti-gay Constitutional amendment after the last year's election.
Well our Governor Romney is now obviously placing himself to run for the White House in 2008 and would have absolutely no hesitation to "kick the gays." He's a Mormon, highly ambitious, and a liar as he revealed yesterday on his rather blatant campaign trip to South Carolina. He said he will oppose both gay marriage and civil unions for same-sex couples. The local media were quick to pick up on this remark because in Massachusetts, Romney's stated position is anti-gay marriage but fully supportive of civil unions. He stated this position on a couple of high-visibility situations during the gay marriage debates last winter. Be aware, and prepare to oppose him whatever it takes.
I took up a lot of work to do and got most of it done, including a huge bite out of this year's income taxes, and groundplans for the production of Tennessee Williams's THE DEMOLITION DOWNTOWN. The previous weekend, Fritz had pulled out a bag of some needlepoint pillow covers he had made years ago, absolutely beautiful work, mostly in bargello geometric patterns, and I began the process of turning them into pillows for the newly covered sofa. We repaired a rotor shaft on the snowblower, had the boys in on Sunday night for the Sweat Lodge, but opted for a long soak in the hot tub under the moon and emerging stars and the usual fun dinner afterwards. And all throughout the weekend we got some quality time in the sack together.
Fritz had to do a lot of snow clearing on Monday. He's got a riding snow blower and loves it. A couple of storms ago there was a class for teachers in for the weekend. Two of the women noticed how much fun he was having and ran out to take pictures of him in the little rig that looks for all the world like a little Amish buggy. It's not as good as the ancient pick-up truck he used to have with the plow on the front. He loved to rev it up at one end of the parking lot, then throw it into gear and gun it, roaring down toward the line of huge maples pushing a wall of show ahead of him. It was wild to ride with him. I asked him yesterday if he had ever yelled Yiii-HA! as he raced it down to the trees and he said that he probably had. Men and their toys! (of which I'm proud to be one). Fritz and our good friend B. the Chef are heading down to New York City tonight to see the big installation The Gates by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in Central Park tomorrow.
Montana just defeated a move to extend its hate crimes bill to include crimes against gays in the future. OK, OK, are we surprised? Their reason: it would prevent ministers from preaching against homosexuals in the pulpit. And by now probably everybody knows about the George Bush tapes and his comment that he wouldn't "kick the gays" like his rabid Christian following wants him to do. He said he's a sinner and couldn't differentiate between sins. Now I take exception to classifying gays as "sinners" simply for being born gay but we won't go there now. What Bush's statement really means is that we're all equal morally, and it is significant that her feels this way (for those who don't know, the tapes were made without Bush's knowledge in private chat with a friend before he became President). This would explain his use of gay marriage as a campaign weapon but his abandonment of the anti-gay Constitutional amendment after the last year's election.
Well our Governor Romney is now obviously placing himself to run for the White House in 2008 and would have absolutely no hesitation to "kick the gays." He's a Mormon, highly ambitious, and a liar as he revealed yesterday on his rather blatant campaign trip to South Carolina. He said he will oppose both gay marriage and civil unions for same-sex couples. The local media were quick to pick up on this remark because in Massachusetts, Romney's stated position is anti-gay marriage but fully supportive of civil unions. He stated this position on a couple of high-visibility situations during the gay marriage debates last winter. Be aware, and prepare to oppose him whatever it takes.
