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Tedra Osell

@tedos.bsky.social
3.2K followers 2.6K following 6.6K posts

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” James Baldwin, “Notes on the House of Bondage”

PostsRepliesMedia
Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Same, Medusa. Same.
A gray cat with an expression of utter exhaustion. One eye is closed. Her other eye is sleepy looking. The ear above the closed eye is curled back with fur sticking out of it like she has bedhead.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
A woman with curly brown hair is riding a dark bay horse away from the camera at a canter.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Medusa, who has been groomed, fed, medicated, and had her nails clipped, would thank you but she is napping.
A gray cat sleeping on a yellow couch. Her shoulders are up against a very colorfully embroidered pillow. In the background isa blue felt
Mouse, abandoned.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
A screen shot from the 1931 film version of Frankenstein, with Dr Frankenstein (left) in a white lab coat standing over a body wrapped in bandages lying on a wood board with straps over its ribcage, hips, and knees. Behind the body is Igor (right) in black and with a hunched shoulder. In the background are various machine looking things with buttons and knobs.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I am “sunscreen collecting in my neck creases and also I wanna read that Nora Ephron book that I used to think had such a dumb title” years old
Close up shot of someone’s aging neck with white horizontal “choker” lines across the middle where the sunscreen has collected in the wrinkles, sigh
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Omg I got a wow from @janeespenson.bsky.social! Grad school me, who hosted the weekly Buffy-viewing dinner events while my son (who would dress as Drusilla for Halloween a few years later) was a baby, would have been so chuffed to know this would happen ☺️
Screenshot of a Bluesky exchange:

ME: This whole thread has been reminding me of my parallel experience, 40 years ago, reading this same book for the same reason and having the same reactions.
I went on to earn a phd in 18th c brit lit with a focus on novels.

JANE ESPENSON: WOW!
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Of course Warren comes out “looking worst”. Men being misogynists is baked in. (I was super disappointed by Warren endorsing him. Screenshot instead of repost bc why shitstir. And I’m not a Maine voter. But also: come the fuck on)
Screenshot of a Bsky post reading, “Warren comes out looking the worst in this I think. Sanders and the pod save guys having terrible judgement with people is a known quantity”
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
I … am torn on realizing that apparently the NYT has put some kind of cookie (or whatever, I’m not a tech nerd) on my phone so that it is showing me the score of the current game as I do other things. If I click on it it goes to The Athletic. Creepy yes but also kinda cool :-/
Photo of the top of a friends chat labelled “bitches” with an avatar of two leopards, one with its pay over the shoulder of the other and its mouth open, making it look like they are chatting. Above the cute leopards is the black bar at the top of an iPhone screen, in which there is a little Canadian flag on the left with the number 0 and a little Moroccan flag on the right with the number 1
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
if you see this post a female superhero
Fannie Lou Hamer at the National Democratic Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on August 25, 1964. She is wearing a black dress and smiling broadly. Behind her is a wall that reads, “HUMAN RIGHTS No American can rest while any American is denied his rights…”
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
I moved an entire 1br apartment in a Toyota Prius. Over the Rockies.
A light green/blue Prius loaded to the gills with personal goods and small furniture, including a very large bag of stuff lashed to the roof. It is riding verrrrry low, with maybe 4 inches of clearance to the ground.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Sofa king grateful for lifelong friendships.
Screen shot of text messages. 

The first says, “Bitch get a flight to MD and join me for Jill Scott on Tuesday June 23. I’m hoping you can get a cheap last Minute flight. I’ll pay for the tickets to Jill and obv you can stay here. Let’s try to keep it to max 5 days because I’m still juggling work shit but let’s make this happen.” 

The reply says “Call me.”
Followed immediately by a screenshot of a ticket from LA to DC at the end of the week.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Omg Watch Duty now has flood info as well. Best freaking app
Screenshot of the Watch Duty app, showing Eagle Pass Flash flooding in Eagle Pass TX on a map. Below the map are options the app offers to “turn on notifications for this incident,” “share incident”, follow updates, find shelters, and access more information about the event.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
No contest
Black and white photo of John Amos and Esther Rolle as James and Florida Evans in Good Times.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
This poppy from about a month ago is now a shock bigger than my head with half a dozen or more blooms.
An single orange California poppy with a fluff of yellow-green leaves, growing in a crack on the edge of a concrete curb
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Miss 3 AM Feeding has a new robot overlord. May she shift her attentions so that I am able to get a full night’s sleep soon 🙏🏼
In the upper right quadrant of the image is the face of a gray cat with yellow eyes and a white muzzle gazing down and to the left. Behind her is an automatic feeder, with the silver colored bowl in the lower left quadrant of the photo. It contains a small serving of cat kibble.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Nice morning doing outreach at the local mercado, complete with strolling mariachis ❤️ and then there was this visitor to my garden. Feliz Día de las Madres especialmente á las madres immigrantes y las madres que se quedan atrás, qui sacrifican tanto por el bien de sus hijos y sus familias.
Close up photo of a monarch butterfly, wings spread, perched on the wide yellow-green leaves of hummingbird sage.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
This is the smug face of a cat who in her old age has begun waking me up anywhere from 3:30-5:30 am. She is very insistent and it honestly isn’t funny any more, it’s awful. But I love her anyway.
Gray cat with relaxed ears and almost closed eyes leans against a bright pink Mexican blanket.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Everybody has to rest on mama.
Photo from the viewpoint of a person sitting on a couch looking down at their lap. Resting against the person’s black clad legs on the left is a gray cat facing away from the camera. Extending from the left of the photo, on the other side of the cat, are a pair of legs wearing green pants and blue socks. The feet in blue socks are resting on top of the black clad shins. Just beyond the blue socks you can see a bare white foot with painted red toenails, the foot of the person taking the picture.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Omg he is so miserable. Current state of living room, I can’t blame him:
Photo of a living room crowded with furniture including a fridge, a microwave on a sideboard, a shelf containing food, and a small round occasional table covered with a towel that is being used as a dining table. In the background the doors to the kitchen and dining room are covered with plastic sheeting.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
At least the cat appears unbothered.
A gray cat with cream colored belly, cheeks, and inner ears is sleeping on a yellow sofa, resting against a colorful pillow embroidered with birds, nests, and branches.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
No, spikes. And the big back plates that stick up!
Skeleton of a stegosaurus, a dinosaur with a small head and a large body with an arched back and a long tail. The back has big bony plates that stick up along the spine and the tail has long spikes on the end.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Morning Medusa, looking as if cats need coffee.
A gray cat with a white muzzle and long ears is cuddled up against a colorful pink, green, black and white serape-style blanket. Her expression looks sleepy.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
I will never not be thrilled to my core to see women proudly, publicly, and unapologetically celebrating their achievements.
Screen shot of UCLA’s Lauren Betts on a basketball court shouting in victory with Charlisse-Leger Walker, braid flying, smiling with happiness during the final game of the NCAA women’s basketball national championship.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Demo done on 1/10 is now accessible again after multiple rounds of lead and asbestos abatement. Fun discoveries: original back (side) entrance! Drain vent pipe not actually connected! Dead knob and tube just hanging out! Having the space open again, even unusable, really helps with air flow.
Construction scene: Narrow framed space with three steps at the bottom leading out to what is now a solid wall. Above them is empty space with a floor at the top hiding them. In front of them the narrow framed space that the photographer is standing in was once a deep narrow closet. To the left, on the other side of the now opened closet wall, are concrete steps leading towards the viewer. These connect the back of the kitchen to the current back door. The original kitchen door was at the side not the back of the house! A back entrance was added on presumably so that the basement could be accessed from inside the house rather than having to go outside. An open wall with framing showing an old somewhat rusty drain pipe coming up from the bottom, turning to the right, and then it’s supposed to turn left and go up out the top of the roof in order to vent odors. But the left hand turn is not connected. Original knob and tube wiring inside an open lathe and plaster wall. View of a narrow galley kitchen space that has been striped down to the studs.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
“If you’re gonna move my bedside water glass to the floor as if I’m an ANIMAL then yes I’m gonna have to swipe the speaker and your stupid glasses off the nightstand to get your attention at sunrise, sorrynotsorry.”
Close up photo of a gray cat with white muzzle
And chin, looking either smug, relaxed, or sleepy, depending on your interpretation.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Closeup of a pudgy gray cat with a white muzzle and chin, a pink nose, and yellow eyes squinting into the camera as a person with glasses softly noms the cats right ear with their teeth covered by their lips. The cat has a long-suffering expression.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
The face of a cat who failed to wake me for pre-dawn breakfast even by knocking over the water glass—HER water glass—on the bedside table into the drawer of the nightstand.
A very pretty gray cat in 3/4 profile, facing right. She has a white muzzle and whiskers and white/cream chest. She does not look at all sorry for anything, ever.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Memorial by a volunteer at @805undocufund.bsky.social , displayed at Ventura Gov Center No Kings rally today.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
SOMEONE has decided for the last couple days that breakfast must be served at 4:30, when my desire to sleep means I cave to her demands so she’ll leave me alone. This means that she thinks dinner should be served at like 3. BUT I AM AWAKE NOW.
A gray cat with a white muzzle, a pink nose, and yellow eyes, sitting up on a yellow couch and gazing to the right of the viewer, extends a paw, claws unsheathed, into the foreground of the shot. She is pawing at the photographer (me) in order to communicate that she is HUNGRY NOW.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
LET SPRING BREAK COMMENCE
A gray cat with white cheeks and muzzle, and white marks over her eyes, sleeps on a yellow couch. Her head is tipped halfway upside down so only one ear is showing. She also has a paw curled under her cheek.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Not a real photographer, don’t know my way around a proper camera, but I’m thrilled that phone cameras have gotten to the point where I can catch a hawk’s glare from a good 30+ feet below her
Cooper’s hawk (I think) perched in a eucalyptus tree glaring down at the photographer against a cloudless blue sky
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
More outdoor time with Medusa.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Medusa enjoyed a little outdoor time for caturday.
An elderly gray cat walks towards the photographer across a path of mulch. Behind her are poppies and white sage in bloom. She looks grumpy but that’s just her relaxed expression.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Abatement company gave up on kitchen floors bc of 50+ year old goo, now infused with lead dust, that had glued asbestos tiles to the original floor. Said we should rip it up. Husband spent the week in full tyvek suit and respirator in 90° heat steaming goo in an unventilated space. We don’t have ac.
An old wood floor covered in black goo. There is a large industrial machine in the middle and the walls and ceiling are covered with white plastic. A very worn and old wood floor in a room where walls and ceiling are covered in white plastic. The black goo is gone and the floor looks ready for sanding and refinishing.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Photo of a text thread. Person A: “dear god another Monday. How does this keep happening, who should I write to.”
Person B: “this is bullshit! Demand a refund.”
Person A, in quotes as if citing actual dialogue: “I definitely asked for the Saturday multipack”
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Medusa says, if you are going to disturb my cuddling for the selfish purpose of getting a second cup of coffee, I am going to steal your seat. Fair’s fair.
A slightly overexposed photo of a ruffled looking gray cat resting queenlike on a yellow sofa against a colorfully embroidered pillow.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Medusa says every goddam day is caturday and don’t you forget it.
Tight face shot of a gray Abyssinian cat with a white muzzle and whiskers, white around her yellow eyes, a pink nose, and a relaxed expression that communicates that she will not put up with your bullshit.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
With alt text
nna is not alone in this revelation. In the Trump era, many young women - like the giddily foulmouthed MAGA influencers and inauguration attendees depicted in this magazine at the start of Trump's second term (see: "The Cruel Kids Table") - were attracted to the New Right because it felt less constrained, stufly, and dogmatic than the left.
Perhaps it was. A little sexism was a small price to pay for entry to a party without woke scolds policing the playlist. For women especially, contempt for feminist pieties, if deftly channeled, could be one's ticket to stardom. And what had feminism done for them recently, except tell them to work harder and feel bad for wanting to be skinny? Or worse: trick them into waiting too long to have babies? Now, a growing group of right-wing women - both prominent personalities and loyal foot soldiers — are waking up to find their inclusion in the MAGA movement was contingent. Sexism wasn't merely the price of entry; it was the theme of the party.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
The water in the glass was refreshed an hour ago. And it’s easier for her to get to. But no. She needs to drink the water that’s like an inch deep in the glass she’s going to knock over.
A gray cat has its front paws on a glass topped side table in front of a yellow couch. The cat’s  head is on the left side of the photo, deep inside an aluminum tumbler with only its pinned-back ears showing. In her attempt to drink from it she is tipping it towards the sofa. To the right of the photo is a clear glass tumbler with water almost up to its rim, which she is ignoring.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
This kitty is very dear. And also her neediness is hard to take when I am struggling to breathe.
A gray cat with relaxed ears and half closed eyes leans up against someone’s leg that is covered with a fringy blanket.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
Happy caturday. Sound up for this one.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
I finally couldn’t take living in the lead (and maybe asbestos!) situation, without a kitchen (literally stripped to the studs and off limits) any more. We are in a motel with an insane bathtub for a few days while we wait for test results, then 🤷
A big soaking tub with jets surrounded by tile with large feature panels of a kinda Mediterranean “lady wearing toga sitting demurely in front of random pillars meant to indicate ruins, plus a few spindly looking trees that are presumably intended as olive trees”
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
I hate making calls. I always feel incoherent and “stupid”. But truly incoherent stupid *and cruel* people do not hate yelling at elected reps. Embrace your averageness and make the damn calls.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
We are semi DIY-ing a kitchen gut job (which involves lead paint and lathe and plaster bc 100yo house. We are insane). Current state of things:
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Take a breath. Get up and get or refill a glass of water.
Closeup profile shot of a gray cat’s face. She has a yellow eye with darker spots in the iris, lighter gray fur on her nose, cheek and chin, and a pink nose.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
This is true. We lost a cat to coyotes last August (really they can prey year round). At the very least, keep them in from before dusk to after dawn. And make sure they wear bird collars. Also not gonna get into indoor/outdoor argument, I’ll just mute or block if I need to.
A black cat wearing a bird collar—a colorful, rainbow striped cloth tube that slips over a regular breakaway collar and looks like a clown’s ruff—is sleeping on several layers of soft things.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
We keep alive my husband’s family tradition of yes those are real candles on the Xmas tree.
A silver tip fir (the kind with widely spaced branches) decorated for Xmas with burning candles attached to the tips of the branches.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Medusa is having a cozy Xmas morning
Close up photo of a sleeping cat’s face nestled against its belly and feet because it is curled in a ball
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Merry Christmas From a Cat Who Has Been Thwarted In Her Desire to Drink the Preservative-Containing Tree Water Which is Probably Bad for Her Kidneys.
A gray cat with yellow eyes and a long-suffering expression peers out to the right of the viewer, past a present wrapped in tan paper with simple holiday motifs on it: a gingerbread heart, a green branch with a few red berries. The cat is nestled under the branches of a Christmas tree and at her feet is a pile of shiny ribbons.
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