… to keep up a blog like this one, which has, at various times in the past, been chock-a-block with details and observations from our lives. Living two years back in California, with the attendant extreme stresses, drained the blogging impulse from both of us. Plus, there was the whole medical drama on my part.

It would be great to have all kinds of observations about Nashville here, just as we did in Ann Arbor, but … well, we’re older and tired-er than we were in Ann Arbor. But still, we’ll try to do better.

Two things: Voters of Maine, except the quarter million who voted to stand up for marriage equality last Tuesday, … well, they suck. Marriage equality is coming to the United States and you will be embarrassed by this travesty of justice, this orgy of discrimination and hate, when the day arrives. I’m holding fast to Dr. Martin Luther King’s statement, “The arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice.” As the LA Times reported:

“It is “one of King’s most riveting lines, spoken in Montgomery, Alabama after the long and dangerous march from Selma in March, 1965. King said he knew people were asking how long it would take to achieve justice. “How long?” he asked, over and over, making listeners desperate for an answer — and then he supplied the answer. “How long? Not long. Because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” It was a refrain King came to use often, sometimes referring to the “arc of history,” sometimes to the “arc of the moral universe.”"

The arc is bending toward marriage equality. It will come, probably before my I leave the planet. And that, I will hold to fastly.

Secondly, I finally summoned the will and physical ability to return to the classroom and do a half-day substitute teaching, first time in six months. I have another assignment lined up for next Tuesday. It was exhausting and it was my limit (I’m not ready for full days yet), but it was also fun and reminded me why I like teaching kids. I’ll get more and more into the daily grind until the end of school in May, then have some rest time and will start a second master’s degree program, to become certified in the early childhood autism special education and applied behavior therapy. That program at Vanderbilt starts in August, and I’m looking forward to it.

In the meantime, the beagles are fat and happy and having fun in the leaves. I found a largish tick on Fergus yesterday, that had to be removed before going to work; it was probably a souvenir of our tramps through the woods on the battlefield of Chickamauga last weekend. Otherwise, the boys are doing great.

And Nashville … an awesome place to live. We’re coming up on the first anniversary of the flight out of California to safety and haven of Tennessee. And don’t regret for a minute the decision. Plus, our landladies and neighbor and neighborhood and schools are far superior to what we left behind in Brentwood.

So, it’s all good.

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I once got death threats for taking a stand like this … but … «the Duncan Banner reports that DPS has reached a contract agreement with Air Evac» (the reporter doesn’t mention the cost) to cover student athletes if they get injured in any situation.
Why just the athletes?? Where’s the coverage for ALL Duncan [...]

It feels as if the last bit of actual journalism in America is now dead.
In «What We Lose With Cronkite’s Death», Bruce Maiman sums it up pretty well:
“… it’s a reminder, too, that the broadcasting style and journalistic credibility that Cronkite represents also seems to be fading into history. Cronkite’s death was inevitable rather than [...]

• «We lost Walter Cronkite this week» (along with the last vestiges of American journalism).
• In Salt Lake City, the ‘Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’, which had no problem blitzkrieging California and spending millions getting Prop H8 passed, is «extremely unhappy now that us queers are shoving back right in their own front [...]

This evening’s mail brought, finally, an official copy of our California marriage certificate, which is 1 of only 18,000 gender-neutral, Constitutionally equally protected, legally recognized marriages. (The copy pictured here has some personal details blanked out, such as birth dates, addresses, witnesses, and parents.) I post it here as a big ol’ kiss off to [...]

• In Minneapolis, the New York Times turns up «a fascinating, heartbreaking, and ultimately, important story» of povery, terrorism, Somalia, teenagers, Facebook, and oddly enough, the building used to depict Mary Richard’s later apartment on the Mary Tyler Moore Show back in the 1970s, all of which may add up to the “most significant domestic [...]

This summer has been one of just waiting. Waiting on doctors, hospitals, school districts, principals, universities, admissions directors.
The gory, boring details of my medical situation were recounted in «this previous post from a year-and-a-half ago». Here’s an update:
I have a saline suppression test (the third one I will have done) scheduled for 3-Aug; the posture [...]

And now two right-wing terrorists have committed two political murders in two weeks. First Dr. Tiller in Wichita, a murder which was, from the point of view of the terrorists, successful in its aims. Now, an obscene attack on the United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum begs the question, are we in for a Summer [...]

With a (mostly meaningless) addition, Gov. John Lynch is set to make New Hampshire the sixth of the 50 states to acknowledge equal protection under the law and Constitution this week:
‘Gov. John Lynch will sign a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, he announced yesterday – but only if the Legislature passes extra protections for religious groups [...]

One of my favorite blog categories is nostalgia, and within that category, one of my favorite blogs is «The Daily Mirror». It’s basically a blog which looks back over the years at what was in the LA Times at the time.
Occasionally, there are priceless nuggets of mainly Hollywood history which are dug up. «This bit [...]

It’s tentative and fragile, but «Maine added itself» to the list of states willing to uphold equal protection under the rule of law and the United States Constitution:
‘In a banner day in New England for advocates of gay marriage, Maine legalized the practice Wednesday, and the New Hampshire Legislature voted to do the same. Maine [...]

The story of the United States of America joining the long and black list of nations who abuse and torture prisoners and then invent all sorts of justifications for it is dribbling out slowly. «A new article in Newsweek» is one of the best I’ve seen so far at laying out both the nitty-gritty and [...]

Sad news today: «Bea Arthur passed away at 86 from cancer»:
‘Beatrice Arthur, the tall, deep-voiced actress whose razor-sharp delivery of comedy lines made her a TV star in the hit shows “Maude” and “The Golden Girls” and who won a Tony Award for the musical “Mame,” died Saturday. She was 86. Arthur died peacefully at [...]

Said President Obama at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual ‘Days of Remembrance’ ceremony in commemoration of the victims of Fascism:
“To this day, there are those who insist the Holocaust never happened – who perpetrate every form of intolerance — racism, antisemitism, homophobia, xenophobia, sexism, and more — hatred that degrades its victim and diminishes [...]

The governor of Connecticut signed «marriage equality into law today». Equal protection under the law as provided in the U.S. Constitution was thereby affirmed by all three branches of the government.
‘Four years ago this week, Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed a bill allowing civil unions. Today, with the stroke of a pen, she abolished them. [...]

It’s a great title for a great «column». Frank Rich of the New York Times sums up very thoroughly and very presciently the status of one of America’s favorite Culture War battlegrounds/sports grounds in which people like us are kicked around like political footballs (cartoon at left is from 2004, Steve Kelley of the New [...]

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced that Germany will join the U.S., Israel and other countries in a «boycott» of the upcoming United Nations World Conference Against Racism after “a draft declaration circulated earlier this year made Israel responsible for the entire Middle East conflict, while human rights violations in Muslim countries were largely ignored.”
Preparations [...]

I’m a little nervous about stormy weather here in Middle Tennessee, because this is, of course, tornado country. But nonetheless, the past 24 hours of weather have been kind of beautiful, spring rain without depressingly torrential downpours, followed by periods of clouds interspersed with clear sky. Tonight was particularly wonderful, with a little rain followed [...]

I’m reading, and enjoying, a new book: «Dog On It». I usually confine my mystery reading to James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux books, but I made an exception for this one, because the twist is that it’s told from the private eye’s dog’s perspective. Chet is a police dog helping his buddy find a missing girl. It appears to be the start of a series.

Finally posted some «new pics on Flickr» of the boys. Whatta buncha beagles!

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News in this neck of the woods is pretty mundane:
More beagle escapes (fifth, I think), necessitating the expenditure and labor of putting up a new chain link fence to isolate half of the backyard.
Application almost complete for Vanderbilt’s special ed master’s program.
Storm front moved through today; several thousand people just south of us without power, [...]

One week from tonight, we will have begun our journey out of California … for the third, and hopefully last, time.
We’ll be on our way to Nashville, Tennessee, to take up a new, and hopefully less stressful way of life. Frank starts a new job with Vanderbilt University on 15 Dec. I will start the [...]

Pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the weather this week. It actually got hotter after I took this picture; it was 114 degrees later in the afternoon.

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Gavin Newsom, the man who presided over our first civil union ceremony when he was still a San Francisco supervisor, wants to get a jump on gay marriages «the evening of 16 June», instead of waiting for the next morning:

‘San Francisco officials have asked the state for permission to begin marrying same-sex couples a little [...]

«Daryl Cagle, MSNBC»
Every once in awhile, every great once in awhile, I … sort of like the «state of California»:

‘The California Supreme Court struck a historic but possibly short-lived blow for gay rights Thursday, overturning a state law that allowed only opposite-sex couples to marry. In a 4-3 ruling that elicited passionate responses on both [...]