Brewing Up a Good Time

Saturday morning was just as leisurely as Friday morning had been, and I felt much better after a good night's sleep.  

We had another breakfast of bacon, eggs, and coffee before Molly arranged an Uber to take us to Union Station.  Our tickets were for the aquarium at 10:30, and we got there in time to join the line before it got too long.  

The first tanks had fish species indigenous to the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.  I saw one that I was excited to recognize, but when I told Molly it was a gar, she pointed out to me that it was a Mississippi paddle fish.  Oki doki, I learned something new!  But really, don't you think they look the same?!

Paddlefish

Gar fish

The otter tank in St. Louis was much bigger than the one at Oxbow, and we enjoyed watching their antics for quite a while.  Of course, we had to send a text to Captain that we were watching the otters because they are his favorite at the zoo.  We're mean. 

Then it was on to more exotic things like sharks, stingrays, clownfish, whatever kind of fish Dory was in Nemo and also that weird fish from Nemo that had the light hanging down from his forehead.  

The octopus and jellyfish were extremely cool to watch, but the best was the sea turtle.  

After leaving the aquarium, we meandered around the court yard of Union Station.  We didn't feel like doing the Mirror Maze, the ropes course, or mini golf.  If Captain had been along, someone would have had to ride the ferris wheel with him.  

I don't do ferris wheels.  The last time I was on one was on my first date with Captain at the Winona County Fair on July 12, 1985.  Y'all, we got stuck at the top, and I'm terrified of heights.  No, of course I didn't tell him that.  You don't blurt out all your quirks and flaws on the first date!!!  So there we are sitting at the top of the ferris wheel.  I'm trying to quietly and politely hyperventilate while I compose my last will and testament in my head.  

And then Captain started rocking the car.  Yep, I lost my mind right then and there.  I don't think it got so bad as my crying like a baby, but I'm fairly certain there was screaming happening.  I don't remember.  I was traumatized and have blocked it out of my mind.  

Anyway, I digress.  

No one wanted to ride the ferris wheel in St. Louis, and the restaurant we wanted to try for lunch wasn't open yet, so we got some water and just sat in the very pretty courtyard to people watch, which is one of my all time favorite ways to pass the time in new places.  

By the time the Italian place opened up, we weren't the only ones in line but we managed to get a table right away.  We'll call that our splurge meal; the prices were kind of hefty, but the food was excellent!

Our tour of the Budweiser Brewery wasn't until mid afternoon so we took the opportunity to explore the downtown area on foot while the traffic wasn't so crazy.  We went to some shops near the stadium and found some souvenirs for Captain and Cubby.  

We also observed a highly intoxicated person have a loud and vehement argument.  With a statue.  And I think he was losing.  It was scary and amusing all at the same time.  

One of the store clerks recommended walking up to a green area near the government buildings.  It was quite lovely and covered a couple of city blocks.  A lot of mature trees with pathways, water features (not running due to low water levels) and metal or wood artistic sculptures that kids could climb on and explore.  Since it was a Saturday, it was fairly quite, but I would assume that during the week it would be much busier with foot traffic.  

We meandered back toward the stadium area to get a libation and cool off before getting an Uber to the Budweiser Brewery.  Let me just say, they mix their cocktails pretty stoutly down there by the stadium!  

It was finally time to head to the brewery, so we Ubered over there.  We were early enough that we wandered around the gift shop for quite awhile before lining up for the tour.  We all spotted things we wanted to pick up after the tour was over.

I really wanted to see Clydesdales, but there was only one in the stable.  The rest are stabled and trained at the Grant Farm.  Wish we'd known that, but I didn't do enough research I guess.  But the tour was very interesting anyway.   

For instance, did you know that Budweiser is still brewed with the same "family" of yeast that they started with?  Seriously, the yeast is DNA tested every morning to make certain it is the right stuff and hasn't been tampered with.  Only ten people in the entire world know where this yeast is kept.  Why haven't they made a Marvel movie about some crazy bad dude trying to steal the Budweiser yeast?!  The hero could be those goofy frogs that were in the Superbowl commercials years ago.  I need to pitch this to Hollywood!  

We got to see the bottling room and the first thing I thought of was Laverne and Shirley in Milwaukee working in a bottling plant.  Molly didn't have a clue what I was talking about when I said that; made me feel old.  

At the end of the tour, everybody got a free bottle of JUST bottled (i.e. warm) Bud Light.  Gammy and I promptly gave ours to Molly.  Beer is gross.  

Everybody also got free beer at the Biergarten but only Molly partook in that while Gammy and I had water.  We headed back into the gift shop to pick up our gifts and then headed back to the apartment.  

Since it was much cooler and not nearly as humid, we opted to sit in the back yard under the patio umbrella for some good conversation.  When it started getting dark, we moved indoors and had leftover pizza for supper and the last of the wine and seltzers in the fridge.  

I will close it out here because Sunday was just a quiet travel day with nothing exciting happening.  

Thank you for coming along on our trip to St. Louis!  I would recommend it to anyone.  It's a lovely town full of rich history and loads of entertainment.  

Until the next trip, blessings my friends!

An Over-Arching Theme of Fun

See what I did there??  Yeah, I'm cute in my smarty pants!

Since we didn't have to be anywhere until noon on Friday, we were able to enjoy a leisurely start to our day with coffee, conversation, and breakfast at the apartment.  We'd picked up bacon and eggs at Aldi's, so I did the bacon in the oven and made scrambled eggs which set us right up for the rest of the day.  

Funny enough, when we'd ordered pizza the night before, we looked high and low for a pizza cutter because what dwelling in this country wouldn't have a pizza cutter, right?  Nope, never found one and had to go old school with a chef's knife.  Then, when I was looking for a whisk to do the scrambled eggs, I found it underneath the egg whipper.  Story of my life, a day late and a dollar short every time.  

After breakfast and doing the dishes and getting ready, Molly got us an Uber to the riverfront near the arch.  It was a scorcher of a day, so we hit the refreshment stand first.  The waitress was very friendly and I asked--as I always do on my travels--where she would go to eat a casual supper with friends.  She recommended two sandwich places, one more downtown and one in a neighboring district.  We decided to ponder our choices over the day and see how we felt.  

We rode a replica of a Mississippi steam boat named, of course, the Tom Sawyer.  During the one-hour cruise, we learned a lot about the history of St. Louis and it's riverfront enterprises.  I got to take pictures of a barge full of fertilizer being unloaded that I could show Captain when I got home.  He gets a large charge about that stuff.  

It was seriously roasty toasty on the top deck of the boat, and then we decided to hoof it to where we would board the trolley for a tour of downtown.  Yeah, we didn't think that one all the way through.  It was less than a mile but mostly on an uphill slant, in the heat.  Gammy was smart and bought an Italian ice to enjoy on the walk!  What I love about walking through older parts of any city is to see the great architecture that was used in those old buildings.  

We made it to the trolley stop and got in where it was--thank you--air conditioned.  We were joined by another group of four women on a girls' weekend plus a lovely older couple.  Our driver was a hoot as she meandered past the many sights of Saint Louis.

One place we saw but didn't tour (which just means we'll have to go back someday) was the old courthouse where the Dredd Scott case was heard.  I am ashamed to admit that I had to Google that when I got back to the VRBO that night.  I mean, I recognized the name and knew that it had something to do with slavery and the civil war, but nothing more than that.  If you are like me and aren't up on that history, I encourage you to just refresh your memories about it.  There's a reason history repeats itself; it's because we forgot as times goes by.  

Wow, that really wasn't where I meant to go with this.  Let me get back on track.  Hey...that's a great segue into the trolley thing.  Man, I am on fire today!

Okay, so the trolley took us past Union Station which was exciting because that was on our list for Saturday.  There is a huge ferris wheel there I would say comparable to the one at Navy Pier in Chicago.  I didn't ride the one in Chicago and I had no intention of riding the one in St. Louis, either, but it was cool to see. 

The driver pointed out the Anheusher-Busch brewery, also on our list for Saturday.   She also said that if you wanted more of the Clydesdale part of the tour to go to Grant's Farm outside of St. Louis where the horses are kept plus the Busch Mansion is there, and it's a doozy!

We drove down Millionaire's Row which is where all the rich folks built houses back in the day.  Every single building in St. Louis was brick, but these were over-the-top gorgeous structures set back from the street.  They had balconies and porticoes and stone walls.  Whew!

When we drove through the grounds of the St. Louis Museum of History, a wedding party was setting up to take photos.  I wouldn't personally get married on Friday the 13th...but that's just me.  

The trolley drive made an unscheduled stop at the old cathedral and let us explore for about 10 minutes.  

Y'all....oh my word, the sheer stunning artistry of the building and the interior was breathtaking.  The photos of the inside do not do it justice because there isn't a drop of paint on the interior; it is all mosaic tile work.  Are you kidding me right now?!

After that we made a little detour over to a local favorite coffee shop that makes gooey butter cake.  Literally, that's the name.  Gooey Butter Cake.  How good does that sound?!  We didn't get any of that, but the iced coffee was good.  

The other group of ladies on the trolley asked if the driver could take us directly to the Arch after the tour because they had passes for the 4:00 tram ride.  Well, what do you know, so did we?  Well, Gammy and Molly did.  I don't do heights.  The driver was more than happy to take us where we needed to go.  

While my peeps were up in the arch, I stayed in the lobby and played on my phone.  The next thing I know I'm getting a Snapchat from Molly that says "We're stuck!"  Oh geez louise!  Yeah, while I was trying to swallow my heart back down out of my throat she called and said, "Just kidding.  We're really just down in the museum, come down here."  She's so mean!

I met them in the lower level museum which was insanely cool.  There were all kinds of maps about the westward expansion of the United States which--again--I was not fluent in.  I mean, I know what the Louisiana Purchase was all about but as far as what territory came in when...yeah, I don't remember.  The period displays of homes from those early eras were jaw-dropping.  Especially since we'd been watching HGTV where every couple has a stroke if they can't have granite counter tops and a massive master en suite.  Those pioneers were just glad to have a roof over there head, even if it was made out of sod!

Once we'd filled ourselves with all the history that we could, we decided it was time for supper.  We settled on the Gramophone, which was one of the recommendations of our friendly waitress at the riverboat.  We got an Uber ride over there, got inside and found a table.

And I couldn't find my phone.  It wasn't in my purse, it wasn't in my pocket.  I went outside to see if it had fallen on the sidewalk when we got out of the Uber.  Nope.  

Whereas I would have just gone to Verizon and reported my phone as lost/stolen and gotten a new one, Molly said to wait and let her message the Uber driver to see if it was in his car.  Why yes, yes it was, and he would turn around and bring it back to us.  

Don't tell me there aren't good people in this world!

With that thorny little problem solved, we ordered sandwiches which were fabulous!  I love that a lot of places now give you the option of ordering a half sandwich or just not ordering the side of fries.  I can do one or the other (entrée or side) but not both.  I didn't take any picture of the inside of the restaurant, but it was super cool with hammered copper ceilings and that fantastic industrial look with the exposed ducts and stuff.  I just love that.  Oh well.  

Molly got us an Uber back to the VRBO and it was jammies and HGTV time.  We decided to do a load of laundry since we had sweated through everything we'd worn that day.  By the time I took that down to the basement washer/dryer and got back upstairs, I was getting chills and a fever.  Great.  Luckily I had bought some Zycam gummy things, so I broke them out.  It was a rough night, though, and I went to bed early while Molly and Gammy stayed up.  I think they had a nice conversation because I vaguely remember hearing them murmuring as I was going to sleep.  

Day 2:  also a success!

Meet Me In St. Louis

Whooo-eee, did we whoop it up in Saint Louis, y'all (they say that down there)!  

Not that the trip wasn't without its pitfalls, mostly due to my...shall we say...stupidity.  Yes, I said stupid.  I know that's not a nice word, but I can say it about myself.  

So I had this trip planned down to the minute and the penny.  I had airline tickets purchased ahead of time, I had VRBO reservations confirmed, I had tickets purchased and confirmed for the Arch, a riverboat cruise, a trolley tour, and a tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewery.  Folks, I was on fire!

The night before we were flying out, though, I went down in a blaze of (not) glory.  I went to do the e-check in thing for our Delta tickets.  As I'm talking out loud to myself and saying whose name was on what ticket, it hit me like  a ton of brick (which was appropriate, as we shall discuss later in this chapter) that the name on my ticket was Jude, not Judith.  

Many bad words.  Call Delta immediately and wait on hold.  And wait.  And wait.  And wait.  

Ninety minutes later I said more bad words and hung up.  I had been scoping the website at Delta and there were a multitude of links that said "cancel your ticket here."  

Well, all right then, that seems easy enough.  Nope, wouldn't let me do that.  Apparently it was too close to the departure time, which is stupid (yep, said it again) because you can't even check in until 24 hours ahead of time!!  

However, in their defense, they did email me a confirmation MONTHS ago with the wrong name on it, and I just didn't clue in, so it was on me all the way, not them.  

Okay, I bit the bullet and decided I would just book another ticket or I'd get left behind.  That went through fine, but now I had two tickets in my name(s).  Too bad, so sad.  Didn't care as long as I could plunk my ignorant butt into a seat and fly to Saint Louis.  

Which I could and did.  We landed in Saint Louis just before lunch.  We are not big city people used to cabs, light rail, Uber, and all that good stuff, but we flagged down a taxi for a ride to our VRBO.  

Can we say "ouch"?!  That ain't cheap, people!!  But we got there, and that's what counts.  

We had the sweetest, cutest, most comfortable little garden apartment in the history of garden apartments!  Don't you just love the brick?  Every single house that we saw in all of our meanderings was made of brick.  I don't believe we saw one clapboard house at all.  Apartment buildings, homes, businesses...all brick.  It was pretty awesome.

Thursday afternoon and evening was seriously just chilling at our VRBO.  We called and had pizza delivered, and then got the bright idea to have booze delivered.  I didn't even know they did that, but I guess Door Dash is for more than just food!  

Now we were cooking with Crisco.  Does anyone even use Crisco anymore?  Sorry, I digress...

There was a very nice flat panel TV in a very comfortable living room, so we tuned in HGTV and started binging.  

Anyone who has heard about our girls' trip to Chicago when Molly was in high school knows that this is our M.O.  We are locked up right and tight by 8 p.m., in our jammies, drinking our alcohol of choice, and watching HGTV. 

We really got into the show Home Town with Erin and Ben Napier out of Laurel, Mississippi.  By the time the weekend was over and we'd seen three out of five season, we all considered ourselves experts.  Wink, wink.  

Not only that, but I came away with some seriously cool ideas for my remodel-the-kitchen-someday file.  

Anyway, after we'd relaxed around the apartment for the better part of the afternoon, we decided we needed to stock some snacky stuff in the fridge.  There was an Aldi about half a mile away, so we decided we could walk.  

Y'all, don't try to walk anywhere in Saint Louis, Missouri, in the middle of August at 4:30 in the afternoon.  You might as well be swimming, the humidity is so heavy!  After we got back with our two bags of stuff that we made Molly carry because she is young and fit, we decided that Uber was going to be our friend the remainder of the weekend.  

With that in mind, we picked a place in our neighborhood for supper, and Molly did the Uber app thing.  I'm so glad we had her along because she is one of the smart girls who can figure stuff like that out.  I'd have ended up walking because I wouldn't be able to figure the app out.  

As we were riding toward the little bar/grill place, I mentioned that the sky was looking rather ominous with dark gray clouds and rather stiff winds.  

Sure enough, it wasn't long after we got seated in the restaurant that she let loose and it was wild.  Wind, rain, lightning, thunder...we go the whole show.  But it seemed to cut the humidity a little bit after it settled down.  

We Ubered back to the apartment and returned to our regularly scheduled programming of jammies and HGTV for a couple of hours before heading to bed.  

Day One in Saint Louis:  success!

Lying Like A Rug

 

Have you ever watched a movie or TV show where they talk about tells that people have?  Little mannerisms that indicate untruths?  Yeah, mine are so glaring that I gave up trying to lie years ago.

I just can't do it.  If there is something in my head or in my heart, it is going to show up on my face and there will be no doubts at all as to what I'm thinking or feeling.  

Bigger inherited this inability to lie well from me.  The trouble is, he thinks he can lie very well.  What's his tell, you might ask?  He'll repeat the question.

For instance, should I be meandering through the family room in the basement on my way to the laundry room, I see a cereal bowl on the floor with a spoon in it, remnants of some sort of sugary breakfast food, and dried up milk that is now drawing flies like a corpse.  No one eats down there but Bigger, so I know he is the one who left it there.  The deal is he can eat down there as long as he picks up after himself.  

So I ask him the next time I see him:

Me:  Reg, why is there any empty cereal bowl in the basement?
Bigger:  Why is there an empty cereal bowl in the basement?

Me:  Yes, why is there an empty cereal bowl in the basement?

Bigger:  I dunno.

And this would be when the fangs come out and we have a come to Jesus talk about cleanliness and respect.  

Turns out this must be an inherited trait because on Saturday when I was in my office doing homework and Cubby was in the kitchen supposedly doing a small science experiment, all of a sudden I heard the step stool drag across the floor and cupboard doors start opening.  I knew this couldn't be good because she knows she isn't supposed to be up in those cupboards.  

Me:  Cubby, what are you doing?

Cubby:  What am I doing?

Me:  Yes, what are you doing?

Cubby:  Nothing.

See the pattern here??

Now Captain, he is only slightly better at the dishonesty thing.  Either one of two things happens.  He either starts smirking/giggling/grinning or he wrinkles his nose.  

The first is when I catch him in a prank.  Like telling me that something that my gullible self believes for 2.5 seconds and then I clue in.  When I do and ask him if he's fibbing, I get the smirk/giggle/grin thing.  

If it's more serious than that, such as...let's say he left the cooking tongs on the grill for the 987th time this summer.  Then I get the nose wrinkle thing.  

Me:  Dude, you left the tongs on the grill AGAIN!

Captain (wrinkling nose):  I didn't use the tongs.

Me:  Buddy, I haven't cooked in 5-1/2 months; it had to be you!

At this point, I repeat the Serenity Prayer to myself because obviously he is not going to start picking up the tongs at this late stage of life so I either need to pick up after him myself and be quiet about it or leave them lay out there because catching him in the fib and calling him on the carpet isn't getting me anywhere.  

At least I know he's telling the truth when he says I'm his favorite spouse!

Old Dogs, New Tricks

So I am one week into the back-to-school thing, and I feel old.  Even antiquated.  Past my prime.  

I've been in a clerical position for my entire adult career life as a surgical recorder, a medical transcriptionist, and now as an administrative assistant.  Throughout all of those roles, I fulfilled my job expectations above and beyond requirements.  All my performance evaluations say so.  

In keeping with the old, antiquated theme here, I have been using Microsoft Word since it's inception because I am just that darn old.  Folks, I learned to type on a Royal manual typewriter at our kitchen table.  

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.  All good men come to the aid of their country.

When I was able to use an IBM Selectric in high school, that was DA BOMB!  

On a side note, Captain tells me that in the Selectrics that had the ball with the typeface on it, if you flipped up the little latch thing on top and then hit the Enter/Return key, the typeface ball would shoot up to the ceiling.  

I didn't know that because not all of us are teenage boys with juvenile humor.  Heh!

PCs were just coming onto the scene when I graduated in 1985.  When I started at Mayo Clinic in 1991, I was trained on a CPT, which I don't know what that stands for, but it was a behemoth of a machine with a 10-inch floppy disk for external storage.  Yeesh o'Pete!

Then along came the Microsoft Office products, and we all got a crash course in Word and Outlook.  Just the basics; nothing fancy.  But...I was able to do my job, and do it well, with just the basics.  

Now I am relearning the Microsoft Office suite as part of my AAS degree in Health Information Technology.  

In all the 30+ years I have used Microsoft Word, I never--let me repeat that, NEVER--realized there was a whole formatting ribbon for References (citations, footnotes, end notes, bibliographies, work cited page).  

I was so excited on Saturday when I learned this that I dashed right out into the kitchen to tell Bigger about my exciting "new" discovery.  He looks at me with sincere and utter pity and said "Well, duh!  Everybody knows that, Ma!"

No, no they don't.  Those of us who had Microsoft thrown at them as part of their job expectations and only learned enough to do their job did not learn all of these little things.  I realize that all millennials have taken word processing or keyboarding or whatever the blazes they call it now, but us Generation X folks did not.

I will take this time to say that I am having trouble adjusting to eTextbooks and all of the notetaking tools that go with that.  What the heck was wrong with a book, a notebook, and a darn pen to take notes?!?!

But I digress.

When I took the class with the IBM Selectrics in school, it was called typing, and we learned how to manually center something on a paper by counting the total number of characters you wanted to center--including spaces--divide that by 2, go to the horizontal center and then backspace whatever that number was you got by dividing by 2.  We had to work for our pretty documents.  

Oh, oh!  And doing a vertical centering task, that one will drive you to drink the way we had to do it, but that's another thing I don't know how to do in Word.  I just keep hitting the Enter key and checking the document to see if it's in the center.  If not, I hit the Enter key some more.  There has to be a more efficient way to do it; maybe that's part of my module next week.  😆

But I'll admit that I like having Microsoft do the crappy formatting details like footnotes and bibliographies for me.  

On a related note, I accidentally stumbled onto how to alphabetize my list of calendars in Outlook (I have dozens to work with every day) with one stupid right click of the mouse instead of the labor-intensive click and drag process I'd been doing.  

Sometimes I'm so dumb I amaze myself.  

Who knows what other gems of knowledge I will mine from this computer class!

All The Modern Conveniences

 

Image courtesy of MemeMonkey.com

Recently we updated our robot vacuum.  I'm ashamed to say we killed the first one, and he--Bob was his name--died a violent and untimely death.  RIP, Bob.  

We muddled along the old fashioned way for several years until Copper's shedding finally got the better of us, and we realized we needed mechanical housecleaning help.  

Off I went on a shopping spree and came home with a new vacu-bot made by Shark.  During the course of setting up the wireless app (thank you, Bigger), we were asked what we wanted to name said vacu-bot.  Cubby promptly said "Charlie" based on her favorite vintage Scooby-Doo episode of Charlie The World's Greatest Robot.  I'll let you Google that episode rather than bore you with the details.  

Once Charlie was all hooked up to our computer network, we turned him on and set him loose.  I must say, I was duly impressed!  He didn't get stuck in the toe kick under the kitchen cupboards, and he fit under the loveseat in the living room.  Go Charlie!  Plus, he did a pretty amazing job at sucking up Copper's fluff.  

I will add here that an added bonus that isn't mentioned anywhere is that because we have to clear the pathway for Charlie, we do a lot more picking up than has been true in the past.  Don't judge.  

I will also say that in the Charlie-versus-yarn combat, yarn will eventually win because it chokes Charlie and he passes out in the middle of the floor until someone pulls the yarn out.  

The whole connect-the-robot-to-the-network thing triggered a conversation about other household conveniences.  

This is going to take an odd turn now, so if you're squeamish or easily offended by bodily functions...please stop reading right now.  

Captain has always had a fascination with bidets.  He thinks they are an amazing invention and should be installed in everyone's bathroom.  

I looked at him and said, "I have one word for you:  enema."  'Nuff said. 

He debated with me that they were ecologically friendly because no one would have to kill trees to make toilet paper anymore, they would result in reduced water usage nation wide, and they were sanitary because no matter what the Charmin Bears say, using toilet paper can be messy.

I love our planet as much as the next person.  I've watched every single one of Sir David Attenborough's documentaries.  

However.

I'm not sure I'm ready to give up my dependence upon toilet paper yet.  

Besides, it just seems to me that using a stingy stream of water for this purpose is like trying to clean your car by spraying the hose on it.  Sometime you just gotta use some elbow grease and a cloth!  

And let me tell you, every mama out there knows that there is a fricking good reason that baby wipes are moisture-based.  

If there is someone out there reading this who agrees with Captain, more power to you!  Just please don't ask me to ride that ride.  

Something I Thought I'd Never See

While driving home after a thoroughly enjoyable escape to Duluth this past weekend, Captain and I were listening to a WCCO radio newscast.  They touched on the unrest in Washington D.C. and how state capitols were also beefing up security.  They mentioned Minnesota specifically, so we thought we'd detour to St. Paul and see what was what.

First off, I have to admit I have never been to or even near our state capitol.  We didn't have a field trip there in elementary school, and I didn't chaperone the field trips there that our kids went on.  I was sort of excited to explore the grounds at least; obviously we wouldn't get into the building on a Sunday and just unannounced.  

We didn't struggle as hard to find the capitol as we have when trying to find various other spots over the years.  We really do not do well in congested traffic.  However, once we found it, all the joy of our weekend leaked away.

At every street entrance leading onto capitol grounds there were (a) barricades, (b) two state patrol vehicles stationed with lights flashing, and (c)--this is the one that was a punch in the gut--armed National Guard members ready to defend.  Additionally, there were armed law enforcement personnel patrolling the grounds.

I wanted to cry; and in fact did a little bit.  How did we get here?  How in the name of all that is holy did America come to a point where disagreement requires violence?  How?!

My high school civics class was a long time ago, and my memory isn't as good as it used to be, but I'm certain that the First Amendment was written to protect citizens who voiced criticism of their government in a peaceful, dignified, and decorous manner.  Peaceful protests are absolutely a good and honorable thing.  Even if I don't agree with the demonstrators, I respect their right to voice their opinion.  Peacefully.  Please read on before reacting to that statement.  

I am just as certain that the First Amendment in no way, shape, or form outright protects or even implies protection for violence, whether against the government or fellow citizens.  My memory ain't that bad.  

Having said all of that, let me state unequivocally that the violence on January 6 at our nation's Capitol Building was wrong.  I don't care if it was Trump supporters, Biden supporters, Black Lives Matter supporters, Police Lives Matters supporters, a field trip of kindergarteners, baboons escaped from the zoo, or aliens invading from outer space.  

I.  Don't.  Care.

It.  Was.  Wrong.  

Before anyone tears me apart for my opinion, please go back and read that paragraph again, because I covered both sides there.  It was wrong.  Period.  Full stop.  

How did we get here?  When did it become untenable to agree to disagree?  When did the idea of "only we can be right" become so widespread?  

I don't know.  I wish I had the answer.  

Even though the question is too complex to be answered in a blog or on Facebook, it needs to be pondered, because I want to someday go to our state capitol, wander the grounds, and marvel at our great democratic values without having to see armed military personnel protecting it.