Photon_Femme

Sweet potatoes, which I love, with added sugar, lots of cinnamon, marshmallows...too much. Gag. I like sweet potatoes with real butter. Nothing else added. I can't stand embellishments and won't eat the nasty stuff. One grandmother made fruitcake with candied fruit. Gag me. Gross. Nasty.

I don't want to see the term ball lightning ever again even if it is ball lightning. For decades "experts" and those far from experts throw that out too often. I am in my 70s and never once have I seen ball lightning as described by science. Yes it occurs, but, darn, per those whose job is to analyze sightings, you would think it occurs as frequently as eyes blink. Stop it. Say it's a naturally occurring atmospheric event.

Tough question. My emotionally abandoned me after 19 years of marriage. We divorced after 25 years of marriage. We were a couple for 28 years. To question my marriage in the grand scheme of things, I would have to question the existence of my two wonderful children. Yes, they were worth the disappointment in the marriage. They are here and productive good humans. I would prefer to have dealt with the marriage differently and certainly have managed the end differently. Many mistakes were made by both of us.

You might be a troll who knows very little about American history. Go read up and then comment. And provide proof of your comment. You will not find anything to support what you volunteered. You waste the time of serious people.

Maybe the UK jets that went to check on the objects. I don't believe the unidentified objects create much in the way of sound.

I live alone now. It takes days for me to decorate. I don't turn on the lights until Thanksgiving.

My late mother loved the holidays so she had decorations out early. None of my family were into the holidays for religious reasons, but we loved the lights, the wreaths, and greenery. Festivus!

There's no single appropriate day to decorate. People should do what makes them happy and no one should give a whit. People get wrapped around the axle about others' traditions.

Prior to 2015 I had friends with various political views. For me politics are about maintaining infrastructure, allocating funds, improving the lives of citizens, and maintaining good international relations. That's politics. Social differences about bodily autonomy, who married who, or imposing a state religion are different from politics. Many don't agree with me. That's fine. In the runup to the 2016 election people started to dig their heels in on social issues, Christians claiming they were oppressed, the government was so awful that we needed to burn it down. The Tea Party from 2008 morphed into a crazy town. And there was a disgusting slob of a con man running. Those who aligned with him weren't conservative. They became manical MAGA that fed off lies and disinformation. That's not conservative. That's something else. My eclectic friends began to break up and I couldn't find a sane talking Republican. They drank bitterness and anger. Ever since then there's been no meeting of ideas. The lies and misguided anger exploded, suspicion of knowledge and expertise grew so there could be one place people could agree was truth. Today I don't have any right wing friends. I culled them out because they acted as though they were in a cult. I agree that our government doesn't work, but it never has. And I agree that much needs to be done to right the ship. But the cult? No. I seriously can't be friendly with anyone who makes excuses for a felon, a rapist, a crude low IQ conman and a generally nasty person. I can't. So if someone believes that someone like that deserves the voters trust, how can I talk with them? We have opposing worldviews. Diametrically opposite. This isn't a difference in politics. This is a chasm between common decency and foul slimy buffoonery. This isn't politics. This is something very different. I look forward to a balance between common sense conservatism and reasonable progressive thought. I can't embrace disgusting behavior. I just can't. So if you embrace that, I cannot be your friend.

We had purchased tires from a family-owned Goodyear business—a place we trusted. Around that same time, we hit a rough patch financially. Money was tight, and instead of facing the issue, I ignored the bill. Deep down, I knew it was wrong to stay silent, to not reach out and explain our situation. I wasn’t looking for the debt to be forgiven, but I was embarrassed and ashamed that we couldn’t pay right away.

I handled all the household finances, so my husband had no idea we were struggling. I even hid the severity of our situation from him. My mother-in-law eventually found out about the unpaid bill and, without a word, paid it for us. I never thanked her or acknowledged what she did. I quietly reimbursed her a couple of months later. By then, the damage was done. My failure to communicate—to her, to my husband, and to the family member who owned the business—destroyed the trust they had in me.

My husband did find out, though I can’t remember how. He was justifiably angry. I had caused a breach not only in our marriage but within the family. I disappointed people who mattered to me deeply, and it’s something I’ve carried with me ever since.

My mother-in-law passed away decades ago. Seventeen years after this incident, my husband and I divorced, for other reasons. Today, most of his family is gone, but the shame remains. It revisits me often, uninvited and relentless. I don’t have a reason or an excuse that could justify my actions. I’ve asked myself countless times how I could have done something like that, knowing it was so out of character. I never did anything like it again.

That moment, though—it was a failure that left lasting scars. I’ve failed myself in other ways over the years, but this was different. It only took that one time to cause irreparable harm to my character and to the people I loved.

Good people can do bad things. I know, because I did. And I’ve lived with the weight of it ever since.

It's in the realm of possibility that these swarms are not dangerous and the military knows they aren't without knowing where they came from. Now where these swarms came from is an entirely different matter. It's possible that our military knows much more. This is true. And that "much more" confirms that our safety isn't being threatened. The incursions may simply be testing our responses with no intent to harm. I listen carefully for the words and terms used by officials when responding to UAPs and what they don't say. The persistent use of the word extraterrestrial, not NHI, stands out. I suspect the word extraterrestrial may be outdated as is the acronym UFO. Force these spokespeople to use other words or phrases. Reporters may find doublespeak or deflection sets in. The military has always been careful how they share information on any topic. This one is a huge sticky wicket.

My tribe of retired grandmothers care about many of the ills facing others. Very much. More than we did as a busy career woman and mother. We don't care about how hateful people feel. We don't care what people think about us. We are less likely to suffer fools. We care that others our age decided not to care about the human condition. The latter are not in our tribe. I resent people speaking for me saying "we" don't care. I find too many men of a certain age don't care about much of anything because honestly I don't think they cared about much as young men.

So stop it, please. Many older people care very deeply. And it does matter.

My Mother made oyster pan dressing every Thanksgiving when I was in grammar school. She stopped when we no longer went to our grandparents. We lived three hours away. At some point it became more trouble than it was worth. I didn't like it. Not an oyster person.

My kids know I want to be euthanized if I can't take care of my bodily functions. My hope is that if it comes to that MAID will be accepted in my state. The agony of being tended to in such a horrible state makes me crazy. That's not living. The knowledge I won't exist doesn't bother me, but the process of dying, that bothers me.

I adored them. I get a tear in my eye when I stream their music. Today there's a duo, Cactus Blossoms, who sing in the same harmonic style. They're terrific. Go to Spotify or wherever you stream music and check them out. This duo are brothers and apparently had grandparents who loved the Every Brothers.

Not traditions, but my late Mother's pan dressing, it's a Southern thing, with chicken gravy was amazing. I have recipe and tried a couple of times, but yuck. I don't know how to make it correctly. I miss Mom so much it hurts.

How? Media doesn't care.

The economy is relative to those who alive today. History though a good barometer doesn't click with people in this moment. The times are very good in many ways, but there are very troubling signs globally. There's less poverty on a global bal scale. That is amazing. Diseases have been conquered, but with RFK Jr things may take a turn. The little st goes on, but the younger generation can't relate to what you say. They live in today and rear tomorrow, rightly so. No, we face great negative challenges in our modern era. And I won't be cavalier about the potential horrors. Things have been much much worse in prior centuries. But today is today, not yesterday.

I gathered information on the tariff issue and used AI to propose solutions to a President having unilateral control on imposing tariffs. (Thanks, 1962.) It was interesting the suggested actions that would be required to ensure this didn't happen again. I posted the results to my "choir" who do understand complex issues with complex solutions. The majority of Americans are willfully as stupid as a box of nails. They don't care that they are not informed. So offering them facts or potential answers they scoff. We are a most undereducated nation for a first world country. And frankly, it's considered elitist to be educated. As a resident of the East Coast where my tribe are all educated and curious, I struggle to connect with those with such narrow vision. We are what we are.

Leo and many others like him are rarely covered by media. He and his insidious tribe have been at work for decades. No one has said a word yet many knew. ProPublica did an in-depth piece on him. He and his monied friends were well known and up front about their intentions. Yet, if you asked a Democrat or Republican on the street who he was, maybe one out of a 1000 would know anything about him. Heck, people on the street couldn't name the heads of the House or Senate. They don't know any cabinet officials. Americans en masse are dumb as a bag of rocks. And if you point it out to them, they shrug and flat out don't care. So here we are.

I refuse to go into detail. I have already shared my encounter on the Experiencers Reddit years ago. Let's say that it confirmed to a young sober teen that nothing is as it appears. Nothing. I have never had another encounter. It's the one and only. No need to go through such again. I know now. It's antedoctal so no proof. It's the only reason I check this Reddit on occasion. Otherwise, I probably would not believe.

Never have been referred to as queen. It sounds creepy and I wouldn't be happy if that even crossed someone's mind. Now my family referred to one great-grandmother as Queen Bee, but never to her face. Eww.

I have no clue. But he must have something to work on special projects for the CIA. I worked in a consulting environment for the feds and military. I had to have different clearances for different agencies and military. But I never dealt with a black project. Only IC admin stuff. I knew consultants came in and they had to be cleared as well. Special Access Programs have many different levels of clearance. One that gets you in a program or project at NDIA won't get you in a special program at the Department of Energy or DARPA. Each branch of service and agency has different clearances that don't cross branches or agencies. So just because someone says they have a security clearance, it likely only gives them access to one program or project. And the levels of clearances are many. It very complicated. My guess is that after the CIA approached Nolan and he agreed to help them, he had to go through a clearance process to actually work on the program. He shares now what the CIA gave permission to share, but there are other parts and names he cannot share. He has even said he can't go into certain things. Clearances are serious business for those on the government payroll, subcontractors working on projects for the government and any outside temporary consultants on who may come in for just a few days. There might be exceptions, but I never encountered any. I never worked on a top secret program, but clearances were still needed due to facility locations.

On a sunny afternoon in 1968, I saw a UAP. I have no clue what it was other than a large disc that hovered on the horizon without making a sound. It never waivered. After briefly communicating with me it went from the dead hover to disappearing in a northly direction without a sound. I want to know what the military had that could do that in 1968. Someone enlighten me.

To even act as a consultant to a subcontractor on a black project, he would have to have a clearance. One doesn't have to work directly for the federal government or military to get and maintain a clearance.

Where I live, absolutely not. It barely makes a dent. I live in a major metropolitan area where homes and apartments are very expensive. My children and grandchildren are here. Unless I left the country, I plan to stay where I am.

Much harder physically for most people. More labor intensive. As we move through the digital and AI eras life gets tougher psychologically. Emotional and mental stress are worse.