mattAtomic: May 2017

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Protestin' (Healthcare For All)

South Bend's Representative in Congress has been delinquent in her responsibilities to her constituents. She has been 100% supportive of the current administration and its efforts to repeal and replace the ACA despite all indications that it is not in the best interests of middle class, lower class, seniors, and people with existing health issues. She refuses to acknowledge or entertain that the ACA has any good qualities and actually is beneficial to people covered under the program. There are regularly scheduled protests outside of her local office and today Beth, Shane, and I participated in the Die-In, to let her know that citizens in her district are not happy with her actions and blatant disregard for her constituents. The crowd was energized, friendly, and ready to have our voices be heard. Everyone filled out postcards with our concerns that were dropped off in her office after the Die-In. Traffic on the street was busy with plenty of supporters honking, waving, and shouting encouragement. There were minimal detractors. One in particular, who was stopped in traffic right in front of where we were standing on the sidewalk. He started yelling the name of the current resident of the White House. Beth started chanting "Healthcare For All" in response. The man tried to get louder, but the crowd started to pick up the chant. He got agitated, honked his horn to try to drown out our words, which didn't work as our cries got even louder. His frustration started to show as he gripped his steering wheel and stared straight ahead, impatiently waiting for the light to change as the group continued to chant. Of course once the light changed and traffic started to move, he flipped us the bird while driving away. We laughed. As someone with a chronic illness, I cannot understand how anyone could be against everyone having affordable healthcare. The people at Die-In give me hope. There's more protestin' in the days, weeks, and months ahead, and I'm up to the challenge.

Friday, May 12, 2017

Frog Relocation Program

Shane and I are starting to prepare for the opening of the pool. Running the pump to remove all the water off of the winter cover so we can remove it to start adding chemicals, weeding and clearing all the green spaces around the pool deck too. Every year there are many frogs that inhabit the pool before swimming season. This year is no exception. Three were caught, placed into a container, and taken over to Nutwood Junction (Beth and Ken's home) and released into the pond. I, of course name all of the frogs that have been relocated. There is Legs Mahoney, Legs Mulrooney, Legs McCaffrey, to name a few. This years group included Legs Grimes, Legs Dixon, and Legs Monroe. Ribbit!