well behaved women rarely make history....

 love that quote. not sure where it came from. i first saw it on a card sent to me by my niece i believe. not sure what it is about goslings...those tiny, useless wings, the downy fluff of them.  adorable.  there were some at the dog park i was watching today for a bit.  these are from cuddy.

 the fireweed is working it's way to the top.  it's how we measure how much summer we have left.

 took these two shots from the little free library. i had looked up and the smoke was making it's way across the city towards the mountains i think.  this is the dark mountain side.  i got much of the last bit of fence painted this afternoon.  it's the section that had to be replaced after a wind storm blew it down.

 here is the other direction view.  mostly today it was smoke filled but there was a breeze that cut the heat so it was bearable.  we stayed in town.  i cleared up some of those house piles that weigh in on you.  time to de-clutter.  we just hit the dog park and did tennis ball throwing in the yard.  always more tennis ball chasing to be done.

 looked kind of spooky really...passing over.

 always a favorite flower.  tiny but beautiful forget me nots.

 there was one of those era shows on as i was cleaning up.  70's.  they were doing a section about the women's rights movement.  i recall the opposition side of that argument.  housewives...changed to homemakers during this time were feeling put down and left out over the movement.  the white boys of DC no doubt helped create this divide and then they added the whole abortion issue on top. it was all just a way to prevent women from gaining more equal rights.   they lost the big battle but the division has remained to some extent.  keep people fighting against each other and they will not notice that you are still in control.

 amazing how it really wasn't that long ago that women had much less than we do now.  our biggest ambition was marrying well.  education was not always about getting a career it was more about finding a mate. 

 equal pay is still being fought for.  the thought back then was that since it was the males job to support his family he should be giving a higher salary.  it wasn't that long ago either that women would have a difficult time obtaining credit or buying a home without a male to co-sign. 

 i remember the arguments well.  how the whole equal rights battle was actually bad for women.  i was a kid when the law came about forcing equal sports programs for girls.  i couldn't play because of our church schedule.  not that i was any good at sports.  I'm not competitive in the usual ways.  i am competitive if you put me down and tell be what i can't do. 

 my age group was probably the borderline group that was last in that pattern.  we were still being groomed to be good wives and mothers and not to plan for an actual career.  i suspect my mother felt a failure because i hadn't married.  who would take care of me.  we needed to be taken care of, us women.  that was the thought anyway. 

 weak and fragile as we were. 

 so homemakers often felt marginalized in the battle for equality.  really it was about choice though. freedom.

 i always figure it's better to do something because you want to do it rather than because you have no other option.  having no other option means you do not have the power over your own life.  if your husband turned out to be a beater or drunk or addict or gambler...well you were trapped there.  divorce was not common.  it became more common as i went from Jr High to High School.

 women became more empowered to leave bad situations.  they began to see options because they were given that freedom. 

 i remember my dating years.  i was independent and outspoken.  bad qualities for a women of my era.  probably would have been beaten out of me in some situations back in the day.  i always thought it would be better to have someone be with you because they wanted to not because they were afraid to leave.  in my 30's and 40's suddenly i was being sought out more...but oddly by men who were married.  i remember seeing a few take off their wedding bands before approaching me.  i was not easily fooled. 

 i surmised that many had married the girl who looked to them as the head of household and over time that grew tiresome and dull for these guys. 

 women still do the brunt of the work in the home even if they work outside the home or at least it seems that way to me.  commercials are directed at women mostly when it's household cleaning products and at men mostly for outdoor garden work.  many haven't really moved past those no matter what the inequity is.  from my view it seems that marriage has tipped in favor of the male of the species. 

 some of that inequity comes from women.  i see it more on that side than the other...though there are men who create a pattern in their lives that is unrealistic to maintain as well.  since we were trained to pull those household roles, people do them and then when lives change, kids come, people don't necessarily adapt to those changes...it just piles on.  I'm hoping these inequities are improving for each generation down. 

 as close as i got to a photo of the porpoises the day we were on the water.

 things are still male dominated for the most part.  there are many reasons why there are men who do not like these changes and want to prevent women from assuming a more powerful role in our society.  they've held that position for literally thousands of years.  they ain't gonna let it go easily.  it's been the same with each sub set of folks, women, anyone non-white, gays...the subset who has dominated is not keen on relinquishing that power and control.  males more than race though as there are many nations where the male dominance is the most powerful one, race not playing a role as much.  though one must consider all the colonization...

 we have it really good over all compared to many women across the globe. 

 things are improving in other places for women as well.  slowly.  it's a fight.  seeing women make gains in nations like ours can be helpful to women in other nations.  seeing us slide down this route away from progression will also have a negative impact on women across the globe. we will persist. it may take some time and added effort but this path our nation is being pulled towards, in my mind, is a last hurrah of sorts.

 the changes have happened too quickly for some and change terrifies some folks.  they will resist.  slavery is a good example.  clearly a terrible practice from our nations past but still we can't seem to find a way to move through it.  admit what happened, take responsibility as a nation.  we will have to do the same with these border situations.  taking kids from parents, the deaths of children, the mistreatment of children.  we will have to deal with the reminder of this for generations. how we treated the Japanese/Americans, the Native Americans and the Muslim/Americans after 9-11. 

 our nation has a history of sweeping these things under a rug and trying to move forward without dealing with the fall out of it all. the Catholics have been trying to do the same with abuses by their clergy.

 women were no doubt abused for years....it really wasn't until it was discovered that young boys were being molested that outrage and action began to happen. 

 as women we are expected to be good little victims.  to let it go. to play nice.  if you don't you will be victimized all over.  hoping that changes in the next generations. not too likely in this current atmosphere where we have a potus who has been accused of molestation and outright rape many times over.  this last accuser he denied knowing until photos popped up of them together.  then he said, "she'd not my type".  like he has no issue with the rape accusation, just that the women who are accusing him are not worthy of him raping them because they aren't pretty enough. 

 he admits on tape he gropes women every chance he gets because he's a star and they let you do it when you are a star and people gave him a pass and voted for him anyway.  made excuses for him and looked the other way.

 unless we start to hold people in high places to account...give them the same as someone who doesn't have money and power, nothing will change.

 watched the RBG.  many of her dissenting arguments will come back to bite the court one day. she fights for those who can't fight for themselves.  the gop has come by their court selections shadily. not allowing Obama to have his pick in their quest to take over the courts for their partisan goals.  they have made it more difficult to have faith in even the courts under their rule.

 it's all about power, money, control.  they give no option in their abortion battle except follow our morals, our values.  they make it tougher for women to get birth control, they make it more difficult for women to get basic sex education.  when they do have children they are ill equipped to care for, they make it more difficult for them to house them, feed them.  they cut public funding for healthcare and education.  they don't show much interest in doing much for those in foster care...many are medical fosters because their parents are unable to care for these special kids. 

 i could be more supportive of their desire to stop abortions (which won't happen anyway, the wealthy will always have the option) if i saw them doing anything to help the lives that we already have here.  clearly the churches and non-profits are not capable of taking care of all the lives that come in....how do they intend to care for even more when they put more and more restrictions on abortions and birth control. fix those problems and then we can re-visit the abortion issue.  i have seen the kids who never leave the hospitals, who die at the hands of ill equipped parents or are severely damaged.  we are failing.

 liked these pics of my friends out there in the lupine. 

 i stopped by Cheney Lake after running a few errands.  there are lots of grebes with babies there.  watched one feeding it's wee ones.  my pictures didn't come out very well.  bummer.  there was also a loon out there.  not great pictures either.  too far off for my camera i think was the issue with most of them.  lighting a bit with the grebes. oh well, still enjoyed watching all those cute baby birds.

 these are at tern lake.  around here there was another small plane crash.  not a good year for small planes. 

 one last lupine shot as we waited for construction on the way home that day.

 the rest are cute goslings at Cuddy Park. 

 it's 3 am. i head back to work for the next three.  i was drifting off to sleep but kept thinking of women's issues and how we have all lived through some dramatic changes in our lives...

 the geese and the grebes seem to share parenting duties.  it's so nice to see that happening more with humans. 

 also the planes are flying out more over my house of late as they do construction on the runways.  my brain keeps expecting one to crash in the neighborhood. i know it's not going to happen but still they sound pretty close.  i think of 9-11 and people just looking out their office windows and seeing a large jet headed right at them...how horrific that would be.

 i will sleep in tomorrow. 

 always good to have a clear head before heading to bed

 this little gosling is looking skyward...in a few months it will have real wings and will make a long journey south...

 keep practicing, you will get there.

thankful for: A.  clearing those piles, it always feels good B. a break from the heat C. dog/human snuggle time.