On October 5th of 2018, a friend of 43 years passed away. He died of a heart attack. He was 81 years old and as I like to say, he had a good “at bat”. Harland “Lanny” Ross was in his retirement years an artist. He referred to himself as a swab and glob abstract painter. His work, quite extraordinary.
As a former executive with Norwest Orient Airlines, he travelled millions of miles around the world. However, most of his travel was in Asia and the South Pacific. During the Vietnam War, he managed the military contract flights moving troops in to  and out of Ton Sun Hut air force base in Saigon, (now Ho Chi Minh City). At the end of the war he established a tour wholesale company offering tours to Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.
The theme for his abstract art was portraying  pictures of Asia on canvas. These images in his mind’s eyes covered the gambit from Fijian beaches, Tahitian moonsets to the Malaysian jungle, Indonesian volcanoes, Rainy days in Tokyo, vineyards in Australia and his passion, China.
Lanny was a talented person. You can see some of his work here at his former website. He billed himself as The Man of Colours http://www.themanofcolours.com

In spite of his talent as an artist he bemoaned his lack of financial success, eking out a living on his somewhat meagre Social Security income and occasional sale of a painting. Which brings me to the real point of this post.
This is my first post in almost a month and a departure from my usual stuff: Haikus, stories in rhyme and Don the Con satire. Lanny was an ardent anti-Trumpian. He realized what a con job Trump had pulled on the American people. He was so anti-Trump that he wrote daily to a large list of email followers with updates on the latest lie, dirty deed, illegal, abuse of power, insult, manifestation of misogynistic narcissistic behavior that Trump had displayed. When all was said and done, I think the stress Lanny endured because of Trump is what led to his heart attack.
I have refrained from writing for a while because I too have been stressed by the disgraceful excuse for a president of the United States that we have.
Yesterday marked the beginning of his end. Madam Speaker of the House of Representatives stood up and showed us and the world how to dispose of a tyrannical toddler prone to temper tantrums in order to get his way.. Thank you Nancy Pelosi.