Good morning:-)

I am struggling today, friends, b/c of grief, and PTSD, and my fibro not knowing why it feels like April in February. (Seriously, there's tulips starting to pop up. Hello?)... But I wanted to thank you for your understanding, and for this community we keep, and the caring in it. Big group hug!
(((((((((((((((Fibro))))))))))))))))))))

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Meanwhile, iTunes updated and lost me my playlists but not my songs, so I have to reorganize 600 songs. Apple "support" blamed Windows. Windows blamed Apple. I just wanna strangle whatever twit decided to eliminate the "recover" option. Id on't even have it on *auto* update, but I hadn't updated in over a year.... That'll teach me!

Today is computer stuff for Hubby (AKA typing a lot of crap for him) and re-creating playlists I designed 5 years ago. Dull drudgery, hard on the wrists and hands but otherwise... Hopefully "meh".

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Happy Presidents Day to the US! Google has a link to tour the White House and our presidents, but honestly, what's to say? We're on the forty-fifth president, there've been fifty-eight inaugurations (repeat offenders, as the joke goes), and it's a bank holiday. It started as, and is still sometimes called by the US gov't, "Washington's Birthday", b/c he's the one president pretty much everyone can agree they like. After that, not so much. In fairness, the same is true of any national leader. I've heard defenses of Stalin, even. (Not great ones, mind you...)

Today in 1673 was the first recorded wine auction, in London UK. (I specify, btw, for the curious, b/c there's also London, Ontario, Canada, and so forth...)  As such were private transactions, in general, no details, but the auction of wine only became legal in 1994 in the state of New York, US, so I did dig up that much. There are stories of wine auctions, that is, auctions of wine cellars, prioer to 1673, but there's no *record*. Just stories. (One infamous such story goes back to ancient Rome, wherein a famed conossieur was bribed with the contents of a wine cellar to do a political favor. No idea of the truth, but my state's last governor was bribed with a Rolex, sooo....)

In 1839, the District of Columbia, AKA DC, outlawed dueling. Note that Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804, over the usual "how dare you say that about me!" in politics. Burr's career never recovered, much like Hamilton. The one theory goes that Burr chose Hamilton among his "foes" b/c he considered Hamilton a peer, a "fellow gentleman". However, Hamilton wasn't considered such due to having African ancestry (or rumored to have such, which was, in those days "as bad"). Historians agree Hamilton probably fired first, but "threw away his shot" as was often done, since showing up and firing into the ground was a time-honored face-saving maneuver. I tell you all that to tell you Hamilton shot a tree, and Burr hit him in the abdomen. Lead balls being rather less aerodynamically designed for such matters than modern bullets, the ball bounced around inside Hamilton and he died after lingering painfully until the next day. However, a "true gentleman" would have know by code duello that the way to throw away the shot was to shoot the ground, and so signal to your opponent that you had no intention to harm or kill. Since Hamilton didn't do that, Burr's defenders argued he was justified in shooting to maim/kill. However, Hamilton wrote before the duel of his intent to not do harm. Unfortunately, Burr didn't know that, and considered the pledge to be, and I quote, "contemptible". Why? It painted Hamilton a coward by Burr's standards. And, since it violated code duello, no gentleman. Which argues against his choosing Hamilton for his gentility. In any case, Burr was the Vice President of the United States when he fired that shot (and you thought Dick Cheney's shotgun accident was odd), and while charges were contemplated, none went to trial. Burr lived out his life as a lawyer in New York City, which was, btw, where the duel took place.... I only threw all that in there, b/c someone asked me if I knew about the musical "Hamilton" and I don't, but I know about the duel.

Oh, the duel that prompted the DC ban? A Kentucky Congressman killed one from Maine, and the ban didn't stop a damn thing. *shrug* Gee, Congress ignoring its own law. Color me *yawn* unsurprised.

Side note: Before becoming US Preisdent, by a good ten-twenty years, Andrew Jackson was shot in the chest in a duel. He killed his opponent with his second shot, with a bullet lodged an inch or so from his *heart*. (The other guy insulted Jackson's wife.) Jackson went on to, duh, survive the injury and deal with a bad reputation. Why? Technically, his first shot was a misfire,a nd he simply re-cocked and re-fired, and by code duello, that was a "second" shot. This probably wouldn't ahve tarnished Jackson's rep much if he hadn't fought over 100 duels in his lifetime. Two words: Anger. Management. *eyeroll* 

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I'm sure something else fun happened, but that's what I got today. I am off to pray for a sick friend and her life partner, and to... Crap, I dunno. Get a passport and pretend I really will have the chance to go on the big vacay Hubby and I have talked about for 25 years....? I feel silly looking into a passport (last one is long gone), b/c I'm not sure. Will it give me hope or depress me? Only time can tell...

Soft puma purrs and hugs to all:-)