Spring! - Limerick

On spring's first day, with sun shining bright,

Sunflowers and tulips take flight. 

Their colors so bold, 

As the world they unfold, 

In nature's magnificent light

Note: Limerick was created with the help of ChatGPT and image was created using Copilot

Book Review - Thank You for Your Servitude

Title - Thank You for Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission
Author: Mark Leibovich
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: I was attracted to this book mostly because I wanted to understand how someone as despicable as Trump has been able to rise to the level of President of the United States. What I found is the Republican party is seriously lacking in the ability to stand up to bullies like Trump who has been described by Psychologists including Dr. Drew Westen as a malignant, narcissistic psycopath. Needless to say, it's freakin frightening to have someone like Trump in any position of power, nevermind President of the United States.

Description (Audible): In the early months of Trump’s candidacy, the Republican Party’s most important figures, people such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham, were united—and loud—in their scorn and contempt. Even more, in their outrage: Trump was a menace and an affront to our democracy. Then, awkwardly, Trump won. Thank You for Your Servitude is Mark Leibovich’s unflinching account of the moral rout of a major American political party, tracking the transformation of Rubio, Cruz, Graham, and their ilk into the administration’s chief enablers, and the swamp’s lesser lights into frantic chasers of the grift. What would these politicos do to preserve their place in the sun, or at least the orbit of the spray tan? What would they do to preserve their “relevance”? Almost anything, it turns out. Trump’s savage bullying of everyone in his circle, along with his singular command of his political base, created a dangerous culture of submission in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, many of the most alpha of the lapdogs happily conceded to Mark Leibovich that they were “in on the joke”. As Lindsey Graham told the author, his supporters in South Carolina generally don’t read The New York Times, and they won’t read this book, either. All that cynicism, shading into nihilism, led to a country truly unhinged from reality and to the events of January 6, 2021. It’s a vista that makes the Washington of This Town seem like a comedy of manners in comparison.

Description (ChatGPT): Thank You for Your Servitude by Mark Leibovich is a biting, no-holds-barred dissection of the sycophantic circus that is Trump’s Washington, where loyalty is the ultimate currency—and common sense is in short supply. Leibovich’s sharp wit and acerbic eye make this book feel like a backstage pass to the most bizarre political show on Earth, where the price of submission is often your dignity, if not your soul. With a mix of dark humor and profound disillusionment, Leibovich chronicles the absurd lengths to which the political elite bent, crawled, and grovelled before the former president, revealing just how far some were willing to go for a taste of power. It’s part political analysis, part black comedy, and all jaw-droppingly entertaining. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to sell your soul in D.C.—this book is your guide. Spoiler alert: it’s not cheap.

Hike - Augsburger Mountain, Washington

Trailhead

According to multiple websites, the Augsburger Mountain trail is a difficult 12.5-mile hike with a 4,400-foot elevation gain. That being said, we opted for a shorter 3.7 mile hike that starts from the Augsburger Mountain trailhead and loops back on the Dog Mountain trail.

 Buddy Boy

The lower section of the trail was moderately steep hiking through Douglas-fir / White Oak forest with hardly any understory. The only wildflowers we saw were a few Nuttall's Toothwort (Cardamine nuttallii).

Nuttall's Toothwort

Not too far up the trail we came to a sign saying, “Old Loggers Trail” that we assumed was the trail that connected to the Dog Mountain trail. We followed the “Old Loggers Trail” to the east hoping it was the correct trail.

Old Loggers Trail

This section of the trail was fairly level and offered a few glimpses of the Columbia River Gorge to the south. Thankfully the trail did connect to the Dog Mountain trail where there was a sign showing two options to reach Dog Mountain, “Difficult” and “More Difficult”. 

Dog Mountain trail

Having hiked to Dog Mountain before, I knew the sign wasn’t kidding. All in all, it was an OK day hike but I don’t think it will make my top 10 list. 

Looking south towards Columbia River from Old Loggers Trail

Book Review - Birding While Indian: A Mixed Blood

Title - Birding While Indian: A Mixed Blood Memoir 

Author: Thomas C. Gannon
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: I loved this book and how the author uses birding as a way to understand and resolve in his mind how Indians have been treated in America. Thomas Gannon gives an honest description of how America has been so cognitively dissonant in its treatment of American Indians and nature. Using military and religion, European immigrants conquered nature and Indians using a "Winchester rifle in one hand and a King James Bible in the other". 

Description (Book Cover): Thomas C. Gannon’s Birding While Indian spans more than fifty years of childhood walks and adult road trips to deliver, via a compendium of birds recorded and revered, the author’s life as a part-Lakota inhabitant of the Great Plains. Great Horned Owl, Sandhill Crane, Dickcissel: such species form a kind of rosary, a corrective to the rosaries that evoke Gannon’s traumatic time in an Indian boarding school in South Dakota, his mother’s devastation at racist bullying from coworkers, and the violent erasure colonialism demanded of the people and other animals indigenous to the United States.

Description (ChatGPT): Birding While Indian: A Mixed Blood is a delightful blend of sharp humor and keen observation, both of the natural world and of the cultural landscapes we navigate as "mixed blood" individuals. In this memoir, the author soars effortlessly between personal reflections and the avian world, offering a rare mix of self-awareness, wit, and birdwatching wisdom. Whether he's tracking a rare species or untangling his own identity, the narrative never misses a beat—it's as layered as the feathers of the birds he chases. With humor that feels like an insider's joke and a perspective that's both fresh and grounded, this book will make you see both the skies and your own mixed heritage in a new light. It's not just a birding book; it's a wild ride through the forests of identity and the freedom of flight.