Happy Birthday, Darryl

 

July 28, 2022

Darryl and I began our relationship 32 years ago. We bought the townhouse we are living in 30 years ago. We celebrated our relationship 22 years ago with a civil union in Vermont, and marriage on Cape Cod in 2004. Georgia recognized our marriage 7 years ago in 2015 with a constitutional ruling by the Supreme Court. We wait to see if the Senate will codify and make that marriage secure, as the House of Representatives did. 

Here are a few glimpses of our time together, at home and overseas, as well as an article Darryl published that is worth our reading. 

Our Civil Union in Vermont. 

Married on Cape Cod. 

Flight over Hawaii, Hawaii volcano. 

Party preparation with Katrina. Copenhagen. 

Ketchikan, Alaska

Darryl and I protest the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

NYNY (our first trip together) 

Santorini

Above the Rio Grande, New Mexico

Maui.

Darryl in Patagonia, Argentina. 

By the Waterfall, Blue Ridge Parkway

Yelapa, Mexico 

Asheville

Seville, The Alcazar. 

Butchart Garden, Victoria, Canada. With Dar and Geri.

Bryce Canyon

Home Sweet Home

Chicago ?

Alaska

Moreno Glacier, Patagonia.

Angel Island from Sausalito

Tennis at Indian Wells. 

Stonehenge

Starr and Dar, Paradise Garden. 

Sebastian, Wolfgang, and Dar-- Kauai.

Asheville
Devil's Courthouse.  Blue Ridge Parkway.

Top of the Devil's Courthouse. 

Dillard House.

Fall Creek Falls, Winter.

Pisgah Inn.

Dar and Starr, Blue Ridge Parkway

Bicycling through Henlopen SP, Delaware.

Darryl in Highlands, NC

With Oscar Wilde in Dublin.

San Francisco

Darryl in Tuscany

We Won the 21-year-old Glenlivet.

Puerto Rico

Egypt

Our balcony and the Parthenon

Alaskan Cruise.

Darryl in Amsterdam

Prague.

Sitges with Amy

With the Killians in Charlotte

In Paris with Amy and Lucy

Cloudland Canyon

 

New Hampshire Tennis

Savannah 

Key West

Fighting for Marriage Equality,  Atlanta.

Darryl, Oahu

    Joe and Darryl, Margaritas.

Darryl and the Sphinx, Egypt

Savannah

Darryl in New York

Guanajuato, Mexico

Darryl and I in Provincetown.

Last but not least is an award-winning article Darryl published a few decades ago which is dear to my brain:

http://www.whsc.emory.edu/_pubs/em/1995spring/alz.html

Thanks, Darryl. Happy Birthday.

 

State of the Country and the Planet

 

First, I have to praise the skill and intelligence that have gone into the Eight Congressional Hearings about January 6, 2021, the planning and the aftermath, all of which I watched. If there is nobility and good conscience left in the USA, it was on display in the clear, rational presentations and statements of the Committee. The witnesses detailed the lawlessness and the motives of a corrupt and evil former President. 

One cannot listen to these hearings without realizing how Trump's corruption has spread throughout his party and how it has damaged the Supreme Court. Civil rights of women, minorities, and gays are all now under threat. The Roe overturn is but one of countless rulings to come that aim to set the clock back a century or two. Trump began a growing cancer of racism and intolerance we may never eradicate.

He also set the country back regarding the exponentially worsening Climate Crisis. As the American people ignore the horrors of floods, fires, drought, and devastating storms, all predicted, the entire world pays the price with melting glaciers, extinction of species, human suffering, unbearable heat. The heat wave in Europe has already killed thousands. In social media, Americans post pictures of their food, drinks, and pets. Can Democracy survive such indifference and ignorance? 

New York Times summary of last night's hearing:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/21/us/jan-6-hearing-takeaways-trump.html

Jack

Riding the Blue Ridge Parkway, again.

      

We were all exhilarated by our stay on Mt. Pisgah this July. Dar and I also enjoyed a few days in Rabun Gap at the Dillard House.  Here are photos of Trails we hiked, the waterfall river, and dinner at the Inn with Starr, Lee and Karen, Steve, and Darryl & me. I've included the delightful pool at the Dillard house which I had to myself 3 of the 4 days I swam there.

We've lived a good portion of our lives in these mountains. Check it out:

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipN_wmPs0J8S1oQJi-uxKPj_mFfiFg--1QgmR6rH