The tempest of my eyes

[pameladean]

I am on Google+ as Pamela Dean. If I know you but have not added you yet, it means only that I'm a little bewildered and somewhat beset with daily life.

I went to the eye doctor today, for the first time since I had a peripheral vitreal detachment in 2004 or thereabouts. To my great pleasure, the eye doctor told me that my eyes looked "very healthy," with no sign of the various bad possibilities lurking in my family history. I certainly do need new glasses, though, and have a prescription for same. I had been a little uncertain about whether I simply never got the hang of bifocals, or whether I seriously needed a new prescription; it's clearly the latter.

At the moment, what with the dilating eye-drops, I have the overwhelming sensation that the lower, near-vision half of my glasses is smudged and must be cleaned, but of course I could clean it till Doomsday to no avail.

Since the Minnesota legislature contains too many Republicans with no sense, no empathy, and no apparent wish to use whatever intelligence they possess, who willfully let the state government shut down on July 1, and are still faffing around refusing to negotiate with the governor unless he criminalizes stem-cell research and does other evil things he is not going to do, Raphael and I went to Willow River State Park in Wisconsin yesterday. The vegetation at the edge of the lake near the boat landing was packed with damselflies: if you looked at a square foot of sedge or daylily, dozens of bluets sewed the air. Elsewhere were huge numbers of dragonflies, primarily twelve-spotted skimmers and widow skimmers. I have never seen so many widow skimmers. Every few feet, one was perched on a stick or blade of grass, or swooping back and forth over the short grass of the path. There were a few Halloween pennants, too; also a spotted sandpiper running along a fallen log near the foot of the dam, a red-bellied woodpecker, and bluebirds. At sunset at the edge of the lake near the swimming beach, Raphael found a single vesper bluet, with a bright yellow body and a tiny blue tail-light. We didn't even get to the waterfall, but we plan to come back, even if the Minnesota parks reopen.

I don't want to live in Wisconsin. I love Minnesota. And at least we aren't afflicted with the equivalent of Scott Walker. But sailing down the steep hill on I94 West, zipping over the lovely St. Croix River, seeing the Welcome to Minnesota sign, and then seeing the first big rest stop blocked off with orange barrels, yellow tape, and huge orange CLOSED signs, was infuriating and lowering.

Pamela

Comments

[clindau.livejournal.com]

I blame the ancient basalt bedrock under Wisconsin; it absorbs radiation and doles it out to the unsuspecting populace. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. ;-)

[pameladean]

More of it must have been exposed in recent years, I guess. I mean, Russ Feingold didn't get reelected, so you know something really crazy is happening.

Minnesota has granite, so perhaps that explains Michele Bachmann?

P.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Dragonflies (and damselflies) are so cool. I'm just starting to understand how many different kinds there are.

In Utah, we saw what looked like a dragonfly with orange wings and an enormous, heavy black body. It turned out to be a tarantula hawk wasp, which parasitizes tarantulas. How cool is that? Although when we saw it, it was skimming over a pond, presumably hunting for smaller insects and looking like a mutant dragonfly. (The picture linked to is not ours. The ones we were seeing weren't holding still at all.)

Tarantula hawk wasp

ETA: It occurred to me belatedly that I should have linked to the picture rather than embedding it, in case some of your readers don't want to be confronted suddenly with a picture of a large insect. Edited to change.

[eub.livejournal.com]

Oh the enormous insect's dear little spiraled antennae!

[pameladean]

Wow, that is one glorious insect! With the spiral antennae that a lot of artists put on dragonfly jewellery and drawings. I'm not surprised you thought it was a dragonfly -- those WINGS.

I do feel for the tarantulas, though. Oh, well.

Thanks for thinking of my insectophobe readers. They do have to be braced for my yattering on about insects, but I don't usually post photos.

P.

[raphaela.livejournal.com]

Every time I see a dragonfly, I think of you. Thomas and I found a huge, bright green one yesterday. It landed near his foot, and he was delighted at the compliment.

[pameladean]

He has good sensibilities, your kid.

Minnesota has 138 distinct species of Odonata, but Texas has 238. You probably got one I've never seen.

P.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Texas has more species of butterflies than any other state, too. We have HUGE biodiversity.

[pameladean]

Looking at a map, I think I can see why. It looks as if at least three different biomes, if that's the right word, converge in Texas.

Elizabeth Moon has a blog called 80 Acres about doing prairie restoration somewhere in Texas, and I am in continual envy of her birds, insects, and plants, though not of the weather.

P.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was listening to an NPR piece on drought in Africa, and sympathizing. This has been a tough summer. Nanook has given up, and is spending most of his time inside.

[clio21000.livejournal.com]

As a Wisconsonite, I'm glad you could enjoy our parks! So very sorry that your park system is shut down, but as you said, at least you don't have to deal with Scott Walker. >:( Believe me when I say I understand frustration with a Republican-dominated government...

[pameladean]

Your parks are really beautiful, as is your whole state. And everybody was very nice to us. We are in quite similar political situations. Dayton won by a couple hundred votes; there was a recount. We could be in a situation much more like yours, where, ironically, the parks would be open, but their funding would be eviscerated. I don't actually know that Walker cut park funding, but I suspect him. And Dayton's opponent would have.

P.

[clio21000.livejournal.com]

No, Walker didn't start the problem with our parks' funding - that was his predecessor, Jim Doyle, who, though not a Republican, was also a not-awesome guy. The parks have been running on a non-existent budget and skeleton staff for several years now, a real shame considering how amazing they are. Walker would like to make things worse, though, by further cutting their budgets. DNR employees are almost working themselves to death for non-existant pay as it is, but hey, let's squeeze more money out of their budget! There's some pretty strong indications that Walker would also happily sell off at least some of our parks and let them be developed - to put it simply, he doesn't give a sh*t about them.

[pameladean]

Ah, your tale of Jim Doyle's depredations explains a few things -- the higher day charge and yearly sticker charge for people from out of state, and the somewhat decayed state of signage and trail maintenence in some, though not all, of the parks. Eric and I went to a couple of stunning parks more or less across the Mississippi from Winona -- Merrick and Perrot, I think -- with bluffs and goat prairies, and some of the bluff trails were pretty notional. They must be hard to maintain at the best of times. The idea that Walker would want to sell off any park for development makes me sick. I am saving a bit to contribute towards the effort to recall him, though I have mixed feelings about interfering in other states' business.

P.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

The way the government is just being slowly stripped away is actually pretty frightening. - I am glad you guys had such a nice time, tho!

[pameladean]

I'm really terrfied, actually. The Minnesota situation, which used to be a little bit orthogonal to national politics -- our Republicans were different, honest, and I even voted for one or two -- just seems like a miniature version of what's going on in Washington. The one difference is that Dayton is an actual progressive, he's actually to the left of center, thank goodness.

P.

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

So glad your eyes are healthy. I hate those dilating eyedrops too - I always try to focus anyway and end up with a headache.

I never knew there were that many varieties of damselflies. Now I must google them.

Glad you had a good time at the park!

[pameladean]

They told me to just take a nap until the drops wore off, and after staring blearily at the computer for a while, I did.

Damselflies are amazing, though I have a soft spot for the larger and showier dragonflies myself. But some bluets are very fancy too. There are rainbow bluets with lots of colors!

P.

[thinkum]

I hate this maddening political climate that's overrun our country. I hate how it's undermined civility and common sense and statesmanship. I hate that it's driven me to the point of hatred. :-(

I have a fruitless vision of hundreds of people converging on statehouses across the land, and encircling capitol buildings to stand silently, holding huge signs that say "EAT YOUR PEAS"...

Meanwhile, hearing about your nature walks is always a tonic for the soul -- thank you! Glad to hear that all is well in the eye department, too. :-)

[pameladean]

I hate it too. I hate that I'm actually enjoying my hatred because I think its objects are really worthy of it. Then I remember that not only do they have my fate and that of many, many others in their hands, a lot of them are my fellow Minnesotans and they used to be sensible.

EAT YOUR PEAS. *snicker*

I'll try to write more about the hiking. Raphael and I went up north week before last, and that was amazing in many ways.

P.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I know a young Minnesotan who has autism, is bisexual, and is living with a friend's family after being kicked out by her mother. She's on foodstamps.(She's also on her way to college this fall. I don't even have words for how impressed I am.) Anyway, I know about this because she posted a notice she received on Ravelry. Choice segments include:


"IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR HEALTH CARE BENEFITS. Without a state budget, we man not be able to pay for your health care services. You may have trouble getting health care services. If you are in a health plan, please continue to use your regular medical providers. If you need urgent care and your provider will not see you call your health plan. Call your health plan if you have any questions. If you are not in a health plan, we expect most providers to continue to serve you during a shut down. Some providers may not be paid. If a provider will not see you, go to an emergency room.

IF YOU ARE GETTING MINNESOTACARE, YOU MUST CONTINUE TO PAY YOUR PREMIUMS. IF YOU DO NOT PAY YOUR PREMIUM, YOU WILL NO LONGER HAVE COVERAGE UNDER MINNESOTACARE."

and

"If you receive Food Support, Minnesota Food Assistance Program, Minnesota Family Investment Program, General Assistance, Minnesota Suplemental Aid, Refugee Cash Assistance, Group Residential Housing, Divisionary Work Program or Work Benefits benefits (sic)"

No empathy, indeed.

[pameladean]

I know, it's horrifying. That's really more important than the state parks, though they are very important too. And those self-important, ignorant newbies in the legislature, strutting their blinkered, hateful opinions as if they were worth a nickel.

P.

[(Anonymous)]

There was an article in one of my local papers about how one side effect is that Minnesota is slowly running out of legal booze; the agency that renews/manages the tickets bars and restaurants use to buy liquor with is closed like everything else.

I would tend to expect that no beer for the Labor Day Weekend might cause a certain amount of political recalculation.

(tangentially, the whole point is to get rid of the government; pretty much the entire modern post-Goldwater American conservative movement is an angry response to being told they have to treat any women and black men as equals. The result of that is a decision that any government that would do that is illegitimate and must be destroyed. Since they're more than 10% of the US population, it's very likely they'll succeed, at least in as much as forcing a re-creation of governmental legitimacy. But maybe in their general objective of making government unable to coerce the rich.)

-- Graydon

[pameladean]

Eastern Minnesota will just go to Wisconsin. A lot of it already does, because Wisconsin will sell you alcohol on Sundays, and Minnesota won't. But I don't know what Iowa or the Dakotas do, and there are parts of the state not at all a convenient distance from any other state; so there may indeed be some resentment.

I hope to God that they get this resolved before Labor Day.

I agree that the ultimate goal is to destroy the credibility of government, but they are not completely consistent. They want to make draconian laws about people's private lives -- when they couldn't pass a budget in Minnesota, they could still put a consititutional amendmend up to forbid same-sex marriage. We have to vote on it next year. I hope it will blow up in their disgusting faces.

P.

[biblio-tech.livejournal.com]

I heard bets on when the shutdown will end, the consensus seemed to be that they'll be done before the State Fair--because even the Republicans won't want to face the public. I'm wondering though, if there'll even be a fair--how much does it depend on state funding?

[(Anonymous) (from livejournal.com)]

Not at all. They may be missing a lot of food vendors who couldn't get licenses, though.

[(Anonymous)]

I would argue that this is consistent; they want to destroy government to, in effect, restore the unquestioned preeminence of the patriarchal norms of authority, and the patriarchy depends on/derives from control of access to sex. (rather than control of access to sex being a side-effect of patriarchal social norms; it's pretty clear from the archaeological/historical record that the control of sex is a necessary pre-condition, rather than a consequence.)

So a big part of what's going on appear to me to be panicked recognition that the most effective forms of social organization in an industrial/post-industrial context aren't patriarchal, this is driving social change economically, never mind the folks concerned about what is just and good, and if they don't do something about it, the social system they utterly depend on to get laid is going to vanish. The response isn't what one would describe as particularly rational or thoughtful, even given that premise, but I think that's what's happening.

-- Graydon

[pameladean]

Thhis was too depressing to answer, but then I realized it was screened, though I don't recall setting anonymous comments to be screened, must look into that.

Your hypothesis completely explains the extreme viciousness and irrationality of their conduct, I must say. And reminds me of the really insane reactions to Rebecca Watson's mild request that men at atheist conventions be less creepy -- the same kind of "oh my God I'll never get laid again must smash this whole line of argument".

P.

[clio21000.livejournal.com]

Eastern Minnesota will just go to Wisconsin. A lot of it already does, because Wisconsin will sell you alcohol on Sundays, and Minnesota won't.

Ah, the other thing we're good for, besides our (underfunded) state parks. ;)

[pameladean]

You make me wonder what use Minnesota is to Wisconsinites.

P.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals - and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship.
— Grover Norquist

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

They're already almost agreed.

[pameladean]

Took 'em long enough to actually get it done, though. The Republicans kept trying to re-introduce issues like abortion and stem cell reseearch. If I were Dayton I'd want to kill them all.

P.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I see that on the news and in The Post. We're kind of the political center of the country, so we get all that kind of news.