What a blessing from sadness

Nazis stole this Holocaust victim’s books. How his grandson unexpectedly got them back: Project in Germany aims to return books to their rightful owners

Quote for the Day

In our new age of terrifying, lethal gadgets, which supplanted so swiftly the old one, the first great aggressive war, if it should come, will be launched by suicidal little madmen pressing an electronic button. Such a war will not last long and none will ever follow it. There will be no conquerors and no conquests, but only the charred bones of the dead on and uninhabited planet.

William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

Eighty years, and what have we learned?

This haunting memorial is found in Budapest, Hungary. It is called 'Shoes on the Danube Bank'. Conceived of by film director Can Togay and created in conjunction with sculptor Gyula Pauer, it commemorates and honour the memories of the Jews and others who were massacred by fascist Hungarian militia during the Second World War. Men, women, and children were told to take off their shoes, which were valuable and could be resold by the militia afterwards, whereupon the people were shot at the edge of the water so their bodies fell into the water and were carried away.  These represent the shoes that were all that were left of the lives lost. 60 pairs of period shoes made of iron are attached to the ground. Sometimes you will see pebbles or stones stacked atop the shoes. This is not part of the sculpture. It is an act of grief often found in Jewish cemeteries.

Most of the shootings took place in a period of only a month, between December 1944 and January 1945.  During that time the Arrow Cross Party police also took as many as a further 20,000 Jews from the Budapest ghetto and executed them along the river bank.

These acts were not carried out by hard-core German Nazis. They were radicalised Hungarians in a society already inured to the ideas of anti-Semitism. Pogroms were popular in Eastern Europe. And Hungary had been part of an empire cut up like a steak after WWI by the victors. There was the same resentment and feeling of powerlessness there for the taking as in Germany, and Jews were a historically convenient scapegoat because they were different

So, as long as we're talking about the 14th Amendment

-- 

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

--United States Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment, Section III

This made me smile

A co-worker who has worked for our company several years longer than I have (and I'm coming up on 28 years!) brought me a photo she'd uncovered from back in the day at the old building at work. It's from Halloween 2006, so nearly 20 years ago, can you believe that? I honestly do not remember dressing up as the Tin Man, but looking at it from the distance of time, I did a pretty darn good job. 🙂

More snow

 

Look at the snow between the pickets. We got about three more inches on top of 6 and ice.

#3: Re-reading a book I adored as a child

 And it didn't disappoint.

3. The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key. Scholastic Books, 1965, 140 pp. ISBN: 978-0590085342.

I can usually deal with snow, but I hate ice storms

Monday we had a major storm which brought us about 6 inches of snow and about half an inch of ice. I couldn't go into work, because I was afraid of falling on the ice. The next day they were using sheriff's deputies to get healthcare workers to and from work, so I used my hiking poles to get down to the street to him (and back, once I was taken home). I used the snow tips and punched throught the ice so I could get to the snow underneath and get traction with my snow boots. I then went back outside and spent one and a half hours clearing the car, as they were ending the programme at midnight, so I'd need to go into work. I was soaked to the skin before I came back, but I had success. I was able to drive in Wednesday morning and used the poles just in case, slipping just once because the shutttle stop was clear but the sidewalk was icy.

Yesterday, waking up to absolutely frigid temperatures in the teens, I went to leave the driveway to drive to work and promptly got stuck in the street, unable to go forward, but only reverse. The slush had completely frozen. I managed to make it to the curb, but had a light pole behind me, so that hampered the effort of getting it out, waited for a tow, and they had to cancel the AAA call because my street was so impassable that the tow driver got to my street and couldn't get down, and he was afraid he'd crash or get stuck, too. A Kentucky Eagle beer truck also got stuck right next to my car and had to have a pickup truck come and help get it out, which took almost an hour. Everything was glazed with about two inches of ice in the area of our house. About noon, hoping the temperatures and sun had at least done something, even though our high was 24 degrees and it hadn't hit that yet, I went back out to try again, nearly fell three times trying to get across the road (I'd brought my cane rather than hiking poles because I was going to try to go to the store, and I'd be needing to put it in the cart), and there was absolutely no snow to walk in, just ice. Someone came down the street right as I was about 10 feet from my car and scared me to death because they couldn't really stop and I was afraid I would fall in front of them. But I finally got to the car, grocery list in hand just in case. It took awhile, and some direction from my roommate, who realised my tyres were just spinning and gave some advice on getting out since he could see from the window, I finally got out, and once I was there, I skidded a little down the 30 or so yards to the ploughed road, went down to the next connector road to the snow route (I hoped it had been ploughed--it's on the bus route), went to the bank, the grocery, another bank to pay my rent the pharmacy, another grocery (the first didn't have half-and-half), and finally home again. The main roads were fine. There was a car stuck on Rosemont Garden, which was clear itself, but they got stuck turning onto a smaller road and blocked across our lane. I am so glad that when I got stuck, I'd at least managed to reverse to the curb. Eventually, I came in and tried to mindlessly scroll on Facebook, but I was so tired I went to bed and slept another two hours.

So my sleep, like my days of the week, is terribly messed up and I'm up a full hour than usual on my day off. I have to wake up my roommate in three hours so he can have coffee and wake up before class. The only thing I might be doing today is taking him to get a haircut, but that may not happen because we're supposed to get another three or more inches of snow today. At least we have food in the house and any medicine we need for the next few days.

With everything that happened, plus the frustration of it all and the concern of getting an occurrence at work, I was just exhausted. Once I got up, I fed the animals, had cereal for dinner, watched an episode of 'Midsomer Murders', and went to bed.

Here's to a better day today.

Getting to work tomorrow, hopefully

The Fayette County Sheriff's Winter Care programme will still be in effect tomorrow, January 7th. I called a little while ago and they're going to pick me up at 7:30 AM from my house and take me to work since I work in healthcare. I thought about taking the bus but I think the stop, which is relatively close, is still too far to safely go there. If you need help as well, call 859-252-1771 and ask about Winter Care. So I just need to get to the street. I've got my hiking poles with the snow tips ready and snow boots with good treads. There's some snow on top of the ice now, which can be good or bad. Wish me luck!

January 2025 ice/snowstorm

Thankfully the branch did not come down on my car. I can't walk with all this ice. I called into work. They were urging people to stay off the roads anyway. There's a few more inches of snow coming today, then a polar vortex hitting us tonight and tomorrow. Oh, and another system at the end of the week. Lovely. It does look pretty, though. Yesterday I let the dogs out and they frolicked, even the one who hates the wet yard and the cold yard. Apparently both together are fun. This morning it was almost painful watching them slowly crunch through the ice and snow so they could go do their business. They were certainly not happy then.

Before

2 hours in

Going over into ice

Going towards evening

Last night

This morning

A different view

Icicles on the shed

Glazed kitchen window

Out front with a branch blocking my car

Another view