Say What?

My blog has always been a place for me to come and sort through my thoughts and make note of some of the goings-on in my world and in our world. Perhaps it's because I don't trust my memory to recall little parts of my life that I may take pleasure in reminiscing about at some later date. Other times it's just me writing about things that seem too important to not talk about, such as what follows. Not long into Trump's term as president, I found myself wondering if we were witnessing the fall of our democracy — a thought that seemed over-the-top in some regards. It wasn't just me thinking along these lines, either. It was pretty much anyone who was paying attention to the erosion of our democratic norms on so many levels and who wasn't in the grip of conservative media. We were right to be concerned. The party of Regan is now the party of Trump. The party of the patriotic (or so they claimed) is now the party of insurrectionists, conspiracists,  and corruption  

Tammy and I are fully vaccinated and beginning to make our way back into restaurants and other establishments that we either avoided or were closed for the past year due to the pandemic. We took so much for granted. We kicked around Mall of America twice this past week. The first night we went we didn't realize they were closing at 7:00 and that only gave us an hour so we went back on Friday night when they were open until 9:00 and we had more time. The mall looked about normal to me with only a smattering of closed stores. Facemasks are still a requirement here in Minnesota and there are now directional stickers on the floor of the mall that encourage people to walk in a more orderly way to help with social distancing.  I was out walking Charlie a couple of weeks ago on a chilly afternoon when I saw a butterfly in the grass. It seemed odd to see a butterfly so early in the season so when I got home I looked it up using Google Lens . I learned it's a Mourning Cloak and that it