I couldn't be prouder

Last week was a good Pride week.  A few things that are important to the LGBTQ+ community happened and some things here at home.  

Rob hung our Pride flag.  Of course, there's a story.  On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-gender marriage.  Many people moaned and cried that it would be the downfall of civilization, but so far, civilization has survived, and straight people continue to get married, so it must still mean something.  I was at work when the news broke.  Rob was home with Syd for some reason.  They decided to buy a Pride flag and he called the local flag distributor and bought it over the phone.  When he got there, he found out that the city of Austin was looking for a flag to fly over city hall and we had the last one.  They offered to buy it, but Rob refused.  He let the city have it and asked the city official if we could have it after they were done and several months later, after we had forgotten about it, the flag came in the mail with a letter and photos of it hanging over city hall. 

After the flag store, Rob and Syd met me for lunch and we decided to go to the registrars office to see what was going on.  We didn't know anything about getting married and had no idea what it would take.  Turns out, you can just show up and get married and we joined several hundred LGBTQ+ couples doing exactly that, overwhelming the straight couples who had actually made plans to show up and get married.  They took it in good stride and we all sat in a large room filled with chairs and waited.  And, waited and waited and waited and every couple that came out married stood at the front of the room for pictures and the crowd cheered them.  It was a magical day!  Say what you will about tuxedos and flowers and big church ceremonies.  None of that holds a candle to doing it with many other couples, in a crowded office building, with a cheerful city clerk as witness, wearing short pants and plaid shirts.  The excitement of it all was contagious.  

That day, we received what the state called an informal marriage, like common-law.  A few days later, we were formally married, in a group ceremony, and again in short pants and plaid shirts.  Sometimes I wish we'd done it different.  The big cake and the party and all our friends gathered around us.  But that's a common story.  Our story is unique, like us, and I wouldn't trade it for all the beautiful cakes in the world.  

Now I want cake.

Today, there's just one flower picture.  Another gladiolus.  This is from a small clump that's in too much shade.  I'm going to be moving them this year and exchanging them with some Siberian Iris that are in too much sun.  Funny how that happens.  

Rob got half the roof replaced on the greenhouse.  He dang near worked himself to death trying to get it done in a single morning.  I was allowed to help in a limited capacity.  Much like he'd be allowed to help me quilt...hold this, don't breath, don't push or pull or move.  Here it is with the roof removed.

And here, with the new roof panels in place.  It doesn't really look like it, but it blocks a lot of sun and as we hung panels, the greenhouse started to cool...cool being a relative term because it was hot as the devil's armpit here yesterday.  

Here it is from the outside.  It's going to look so good with the gray greenhouse and the gray house.  It's almost like someone planned it that way...and he did. 

Lots of things happened last week.  Pat Robertson died.  Good.  Here's a reminder of the evil this man spewed.  Wil Wheaton wrote a short piece on Pat getting to heaven and trying to cut the line at the pearly gates, only to be left waiting tens of thousands of years before being admitted to hell.  It was fun speculation, although I'm pretty sure the destination for Pat is hell, no matter how you slice it up.  Very few people will ever deserve it more.

And trump was indicted.  He's such a slippery, slimy worm of a person that he'll probably delay this until the resurrection.  But, the first step is the indictment.  His indictment and Ken Paxton's impeachment give me hope that the repubes and starting to see that they can't make a right by voting for the wrong person.  I saw this and thought it was appropriate to the situation.  

I noticed last week that when I was bad mouthing repubes, I kept saying you, as in you can't be my friend and vote for people that would hurt me and my family.  I'm going to stop using you in that context because I don't mean you.  I can't imagine that any self-respecting repube is still reading my thoughts (and if there is, why???), so I'm switching from using you to using "them".   Because in this story of us and them, we are us and we are fabulous!  And, they are not.  

Everybody have a great week!  Celebrate the victories.  Celebrate diversity.  Celebrate being who you are and enjoy what YOU decide to do.

Lane