MORNING ROLL CALL MARCH-APRIL 2020 CLOSED

Evening everyone here on the Front Porch on this first Saturday of April, 2020.

Well so far it has it has been quiet weekend here in the "Made City As We Are Often Called"!

I was able to get outside today while it was sunny to catch a couple of pictures of some flowers starting to stick their noses out of the ground. I am also including a picture of the tulips in bloom a couple of years ago.  

Hoping everyone has a restful evening and a great mug of coffee tomorrow morning!

Morning to everyone on the Front Porch on this cloudy day with a chance of rain this afternoon and thunderstorms in tonight's outlook. Our weekend was uneventful other than a family chat on Google Hangouts. It works well once we get everyone online. There were just 5 of us out of the possible 8 that could join in as our youngest was a little under the weather with a touch of the flu. This was our 3rd such Sunday afternoon chat. All three of our girls are working from home. Two are teachers and the oldest one is a social worker with the county. Two of the 3 son-in-laws are working and are getting paid. 

A  couple of weeks ago I started a diary and have decided to share it here in with all of you this morning.

My Self-Isolation Quarantine Diary:

Day 1 – I Can Do This!!  Got enough food and wine to last a month!

Day 2 – Opening my 8th bottle of Wine.  I fear wine supplies might not last

Day 3 – Strawberries:  Some have 210 seeds, some have 235 seeds.  Who Knew??

Day 4 – 8:00pm.  Removed my Day Pajamas and put on my Night Pajamas.

Day 5 – Today, I tried to make Hand Sanitizer.  It came out as Jello Shots!!

Day 6 – I get to take the Garbage out.  I’m So excited, I can’t decide what to wear.

Day 7 – Laughing way too much at my own jokes!!

Day 8 – Went to a new restaurant called “The Kitchen”.  You have to gather all the ingredients and make your own meal.  I have No clue how this place is still in business.

Day 9 – I put liquor bottles in every room.  Tonight, I’m getting all dressed up and going Bar hopping.

Day 10 – Struck up a conversation with a Spider today.  Seems nice.  He’s a Web Designer.

Day 11 – Isolation is hard.  I swear my fridge just said, “What the hell do you want now?”

Day 12 – I realized why dogs get so excited about something moving outside, going for walks or car rides.  I think I just barked at a squirrel.

Day 13 – If you keep a glass of wine in each hand, you can’t accidently touch your face.

Day 14 – Watched the birds fight over a worm.  The Cardinals led  the Blue Jays 3–1.

Day 15 – Anybody else feel like they’ve cooked dinner about 395 times this month?

 The tulip garden continues to show signs of life

Good morning to everyone on the Front Porch on this Sunny Saturday morning in mld April 2020. We are looking at cooler temperatures Sunday with rain forecasted for this afternoon and a high temp over 60*. Then cold Monday with some snow. So much for Spring taking ahold here. We had a chat yesterday afternoon with our friends and trivia team on Zoom to keep up to date.

Mary and I continue to hibernate and watching volumes of TV ranging from reruns of Brewers Baseball games to Hallmark movies. I play even more with my tablet and going out for walks. More and more tulip plants are making their way out of the ground. Some of the neighbors get more sun than our yard does so they have had daffodils blooming in their yards. Our neighbor to the West has rhubarb coming up.  

We aleo had some popcorn snow yesterday and I was able to check it out but it melted quickly when I tried to pick it up. 

It is interesting to see the the variety of comments showing up about the virus showing up on the internet.

Please stay home as much as you can and be safe.

Good Easter Morning to everyone on the Front Porch on this 12th Day of April, 2020!

From Easter egg hunts for the kids and baskets overflowing with chocolates to a festive family meal and your finest attire for the Sunday service, spread the joy of this fun-filled holiday by sharing some inspirational or funny Easter quotes with your favorite some bunnies.

What are you waiting for? Hop to it!

This was the old normal for Easter! For now this is what many of us will remember. We need to celebrate Spring and the annual Rebirth that our garden flowers bring us for now!

1. “It is spring again. The Earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

2. “Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.” – Pope John Paul I

3. Easter is the only time when it’s perfectly safe to put all your eggs in one basket.”- Evan Esar

4. “Easter is very important to me. It’s a second chance.”- Reba McEntire

5. “Spring adds new life and new joy to all that is.”- Jessica Harrelson

6. “It’s when you crack open a chocolate Easter egg, that smiles emerge.” – Anthony T. Hicks

7. “April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.”- William Shakespeare

8. “That is one good thing about this world, there are always sure to be more springs.”- L.M Montgomery

9. “I must have flowers, always and always.”- Claude Monet

10. “The Easter egg symbolizes our ability to break out of the hardened, protective shell we’ve surrounded ourselves with.”- Siobhan Shaw

. “Easter is very important to me. It’s a second chance.”- Reba McEntire

5. “Spring adds new life and new joy to all that is.”- Jessica Harrelson

6. “It’s when you crack open a chocolate Easter egg, that smiles emerge.” – Anthony T. Hicks

7. “April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.”- William Shakespeare

8. “That is one good thing about this world, there are always sure to be more springs.”- L.M Montgomery

9. “I must have flowers, always and always.”- Claude Monet

10. “The Easter egg symbolizes our ability to break out of the hardened, protective shell we’ve surrounded ourselves with.”- Siobhan Shaw

11. “The Earth laughs in flowers.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson

12. . “The great gift of Easter is hope.”- Basil Hume

13.  “Faith makes all things possible. Love makes all things easy.”- Dwight L. Moody

14. “A true friend is someone who thinks you’re a good egg, even if you’re cracked.” — Unknown

15. “Let your light shine before others.”- Matthew 5:16

16. “Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”- Lady Bird Johnson

17. “The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.” – Mulan

18. “Spring makes everything young again.” – Unknown

19. “I am going to try and pay attention to the spring.I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees. I am going to close my eyes, and listen.” – Anne Lamott

20. “The beautiful spring came, and when nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.”- Harriet Ann Jacobs

21.“Bunnies are cuddly, the large and the small, but I like the chocolate ones best of all.”- Unknown

Good afternoon to everyone on the Front Porch! It is 42* snd sunny here. How about some cookies and coffee this afternoon? I would like to talk about my favorite days of the year afternoon I bring out the cookies and coffee. 

Wednesday April 22, 2020 is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day which was destined to be a worldwide celebration.

It still will be – just virtually. 

Under social distancing restrictions in place around the world to fight the spread of coronavirus, the millions of people who were expected to fill parks, stadiums, universities and plazas around the world Wednesday to mark the annual day devoted to environmental protection will instead rally online.

"Amid the recent outbreak, we encourage people to rise up but to do so safely and responsibly – in many cases, that means using our voices to drive action online rather than in person,” Kathleen Rogers, president of Earth Day Network, said in a news release.

There are many ways people can participate: protesting virtually; creating a poster and sharing it on social media with hashtags like #EarthDayNetwork; attending a virtual presentation organized by students, universities and other leaders; watching a performance; playing trivia games; and more.

Meet Wisconsin favorite Son, Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day

Senator Gaylord Nelson overlooking the St. Croix River between Minnesota and Wisconsin, a waterway he worked to protect as the first 'Wild and Scenic River' in the United States.

After his election in to the Senate in 1962, Nelson discovered that Washington had no environmental political agenda despite the many urgent national issues. Nelson immediately began the struggle to get the environment front and center in Washington politics by drawing on his experience as the "Conservation Governor" of Wisconsin. In 1969, his idea of a "national day for the environment" — the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 — brought significant public pressure on Washington DC to create a national environmental agenda. Nelson's successful efforts marked the beginning of an era of bold federal legislation and the growth of the modern environmental movement.

Gaylord Nelson was a leading figure in the fight against environmental degradation and social injustice in the twentieth century.

Growing up steeped in Wisconsin’s progressive heritage and New Deal liberalism, Nelson began his political career as one confident in both the political power of ordinary citizens and the government’s ability to promote the public good. Though the 1950s brought prosperity to some Americans, Nelson's attention was with those in the city and the countryside who were disadvantaged. He never overlooked the social and ecological costs of technological innovation and industrial expansion.

As a senator, Nelson contributed to important liberal reforms but struggled for years to interest his colleagues in environmental protections. So he turned instead to the people, proposing April 22, 1970 as a day for Americans to speak out about the environmental crises they faced. Earth Day's massive public support forced politicians to see the severity of the problems and the extent of public concern. The first Earth Day galvanized Congress into creating some of the most important U.S. environmental legislation. Gaylord Nelson earned environmentalism a lasting place in national politics.

From the land, for the people

Born in the North Woods of Wisconsin in 1916, Nelson grew up admiring both the beauty of the Wisconsin land and the progressive politics of the state's famous Senator "Fighting Bob" La Follette. He earned his law degree at the University of Wisconsin and, after fighting in World War II, he returned to Madison where he helped revive the long-moribund Democratic Party.

As progressives fled a Republican Party under the sway of Joe McCarthy, Nelson and others invited them into a coalition that envisioned a liberal state government that used its regulatory power and tax revenue to address pressing social and economic problems.

The first "conservation governor"

Nelson's innovative vision resonated with Wisconsin residents. Through the 1950s, residents had grown increasingly concerned with their crowded and dilapidated state parks, the exploitation of public resources by private industry, and the pollution of the state's waterways. Nelson promised comprehensive reforms and was elected to two terms as governor. In office, he established unprecedented high levels of public funding for education, health care, unemployment, highways, and urban and rural development.

But it was Nelson's overhaul of the state's natural resource program that earned him a national reputation as the "conservation governor." He condensed a sprawling bureaucracy into a single Department of Resource Development, and established a Youth Conservation Corps to create green jobs for over 1,000 unemployed young people. Most striking, Nelson fought to earmark $50 million for the Outdoor Recreation Action Program (ORAP) to acquire land to be converted into public parks and wilderness areas. The extreme popularity of these conservation measures catapulted Nelson into the U.S. Senate in 1962

Good morning to everyone at the Front Porch on this Friday in April 2020!

Today I think all of us should salute our military helping to fight an enemy that has invaded our homeland. 

Coronavirus takes toll on US military as it tries to aid civilians

CNN | 10:10 AM, Fri Apr 24 2020

   

 WASHINGTON (AP) — The coronavirus is taking a growing toll on the U.S. military, and   commanders and senior officials are bracing for worse. From nuclear missile fields at home  to war zones abroad, from flight lines to ships at sea, the Pentagon is striving to   shield vital missions even as it faces urgent calls for help on the civilian front.

 More than 10,000 Air and Army National Guard troops are helping with the coronavirus   response. (Source: Department of Defense/CNN)

 Training exercises big and small, including one of the largest in Europe since the end of the   Cold War, have been curtailed. Army recruiting stations have closed. Troops around the   globe are hunkering down to confront an enemy unlike anything the world's most lethal   armed forces have encountered before.

“It's unprecedented in my lifetime,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said, adding that he believes that “in a period of months” the worst will be over and the force will once again be “fully mission capable.”

 Until then, the ramifications of COVID-19 for the military are likely to expand. 

 

 On behalf of the ARRP Front Porch members.

 

 Thank You to all of those that are serving our nation and bringing us closer to the days of   the New Normal!

 

Good morning to everyone on the Front Porch on this last Monday in April, 2020.

We are expecting a high of 61* with rain over the next 3 days. We had our lawn service come yesterday to mow the lawn for the first time this year.

So far the big excitement ot the day is Mary cleaned the bathroom and I brought up a sixpack of TP from our secret horde in the basement. LOL