It's been more than a month since my last update, but what have I got to add since I last wrote a journal. Very little of note. Some pre-fab shelves fell down in my bedroom that had to be replaced. Not every newsworthy. I have still not resolved my problems with Revenue Canada and papers I need to complete for my subsidized rent review, but the problem is entirely at the government end, so Ontario Community Housing is not pressing me, and the likelihood of a satisfactory outcome remains high. The weather is improving, week by week, and daylight hours lengthening. None of this makes for exciting journal writing.

Not that there isn't plenty at issue in the "real" world -- Forest Trump makes more and more of a fool of himself every day, as well as the Supreme Court demonstrating without doubt to be nothing but a tool of the fascistic leanings of the far right. The war in Ukraine was looking dire in the extreme, but when the Republican house leader finally caved and allowed a vote to be taken to continue aid for the beleaguered nation; things took a needed turn for the better. While MAGA red-necks whine about too many brown migrants in their Idaho potato fields, we are in the midst of a slow motion WWIII. We always thought it would be fought with nukes, but that seems to be off the menu, thankfully. But make no mistake about it. I was evident to me at least ten years ago that Vladimir Rasputin's Russian had declared war on the west that long ago, waging a quiet war of misinformation, hacking and destroying the last vestiges of democracy in Russia itself, in preparation for the reconstitution of a restored Soviet empire of conquered neighbors. It occurred to me that Russia never actually finished WWII, and has likely been at war with the west since 1945. You might argue that isn't so, but one thing that is so is that WWII was not started by the Nazis. The Nazis and the Soviets both started WWII together, as a conspiracy to divide up Poland between them. After Hitler double-crossed Stalin, it became convenient for the allies to pretend that the war was begun by Germany alone, but Russia was every bit as guilty. We should make a point in future of never forgetting this. Russia and Germany were both guilty and always were. Unless Russia is drive back from the borders of Ukraine, and thoroughly whipped, it will only try again … because that's what empires do. They expand or die. If Russian doesn't? I won't bother to complete that statement...

On happier note, I've begun another long Fraggle Rock story, one that is the culmination of the saga of Darl and Kiki. There may be one or two short bits of filler to come, but "A Still Small Voice" is the grand finale.