With the elections going on in the US we are all bombarded with all sorts of rhetoric, promises and just stuff. I am so tired of it and will be glad when the election is over.
I recently watched a documentary on cults and found this quote. “To create fear you must create an enemy.” I had never thought about that but I think it is true. We have to have someone to be against and they can so easily become the enemy. The people running for office enjoy telling us bad things about their opponents. They waste little time talking about things that matter. It seems that maligning others is the method of today.
I am old enough to remember when this was only a marginal problem. The two parties did not seem to consider each other enemies. Compromises were made to get important bills passed. Now everyone follows party lines and nothing gets done.
Will we ever get past the anger and vituperation and do what is best for the country? Also, what happened to the moderates? I am one and feel very alone. If only dogs could vote.
The last few days have been interesting. I ordered a cabinet to put in my bathroom. One of those that you have to put tohether. I have done plenty of these but someone was supposed to help me with it. After waiting over 3 weeks for that help I couldn’t stand it anymore and got it out of the box. Checked that all parts and screws etc were there and sat it in a corner.
A few days ago another week have passed and I just couldn’t stand it anymore and decided to tackle it myself. My 83 year old body was not so happy but I thought it would hbe good exercise.
I gathered all my tools and picked up the directions. Interesting.. not text and pictures just pictures. Lots of arrows that there was no ecplanation of why they were there. But I was ready. Time to get going.
Starting out I laid all the pieces out by numbers and picked the ones I needed to start with. No problem I understood what to do and began to build. After completing two halves of of the cabinet I was ready to stack one on top of the other. This was when I discovered what the arrows were about. Some pieces were facing forward and some were the back.
Taking the pieces apart (which took several hours) I now began to put them together correctly. Now that I had everything the right way around I was ready to put the two pieces together.
The top piece was too heavy for me to lift on top of the other piece I laid them both on the floor. This was going to do it. This is when I found out that since the pieces were particle board some places did not want to close tight or stay where they were supposed to. They were too loose.
Time to save the day with you know what. I put it generously over the parts and finally got it together well. Standing it up it looked great but I discovered that some glue on the bottom part had adhered to the bottom and part of it was stuck to the carpet. Carefully I got it free and hooray it worked.
The only problem now was the glue on my hands. I had never looked up how to get it off so decided to check my phone for instructions. Thats when I discovered that I couldn’t open my phone because it has a fingerprint lock on it and couldn’t recognize my print. I filed most of it off my thumb with a nail file.
The cabinet is now mostly done and when finished completely I will post a picture. After at least an hour I managed to get the glue off my finger get into my phone and find out that nail polish remover does a decent job of getting the glue off
Now I can take a deep breath and always wait for help.
Well, here I am again trying to get back into a routine. I need it. I have not been giving my voice a chance to be heard nor have I destressed by sharing frustrations and thoughts. For my own well being I need to get back to writing. I haven’t even written anything else. I have sunk into a low and it is time to move on.
There are so manhy things going on in this country for the first time in my life I am frightened for us. Our leaders and the press spread fire and dissent. We grow further apart. My grandson who is 21 does not expect to live past thirty. He reflects the views of many of our young adults. They have lost their hope and sense of safety. The suicide rate is rising exponentially. Japan has seen a decline in births. We may begin to see the same thing since there is no concept of permanence among those in their twneties and thirties.
I have no objection to those who want to just live together except that it has less sense of committment and it is the children who suffer when someone decides to just step away.
Arnold Toynbee, a history phiilosipher, says that when a nation’s morality, culttural norms, and governement dissolves into chaos that nation is on the way out. I consider us there.
My greatest wish is that we can recover from this but the signs are not favorable. I want my grandchildren and great grandchildren to have hope for the future.
It is easy to go insane with anything due to a medical issue today. My Dr ordered a med for me over a week ago. I am blessed to have have the benefit of being covered under a long-term military insurance and so have to use express scripts. For routine medications this is not a problems but when it is a new rx or something expensive then weird things happen. My med was ordered last week. The ES countered with a request for the doctor to approve mailing it. My DR called this in. Then they wanted something more which wasn’t listed. She called again and sent a partial fill to a local pharmacy. The pharmacy, while getting approval, was told that it couldn’t be filled until March 25th. I spoke with the pharmacy and they were going to call again for approval. I called Express Scripts and they told me the drug was shipped out today.
With my experiences in nursing I am at least able to attack the issues with some knowledge and find solutions. It is impossible for the general public to manage such complex systems.
It has also reached the point where if a person is in the hospital they need to have an advocate with them or things go wrong.
This is the first time that I have written for a long time. It’s as if I can’t get myself together. Day to day I am fine except for the usual that we all are going through with covid. And yet, here I am with weeks since I had the energy to write anything. Every time I thought about it it’s as if I shied away from it. I wanted so much to help others with my writing and have so many other ways I want to be of use but none of that has been possible. Sometimes is seems too much.
I am so blessed to be in a wonderful place but it doesn’t seem that way now. Austin remains at level 5 and ti seems that it will never drop. Patients are in the hospital who have been vaccinated but all but a very few only received two shots and did not go back for the booster. It is so frustrating.
That is my rant for the day. I am really ok but just impatient for something to change.
This is the view from my apartment. It is wonderful to look out and see the rolling hills. I have lots of sun and being a SAD person it is important to me. I have morning sun and nice shade in the afternoon to sit out on the balcony. This is really wonderful. I will be spending time outside once I get the balcony organized.
Austin is now at Level V for the new covid and so we are having to be especially cautious. There have been people getting the variant. Most of them are not seriously ill but who wants that. I am not sure we will ever be free of this virus or some other one that shows up.
Mother nature is not happy with us. We have raped the earth and now it is fighting back as it has done several times in the past. If only all those naysayers would begin to realize that this is a crisis that could do away with the human race.
At my age I am sure that I will not be around to see the end result (which I hope good) but I am concerned for the grandchildren and now great grandchildren. They deserve a better world environment.
Recently I have talked to a number of people who are feeling what I am feeling. It’s been too long. Someone mentioned yesterday that we have been under restriction for eight months. No wonder it seems so long. We are all just ready for this to end but it won’t yet.
In my area the numbers are decreasing and I hope in other areas as well. The riots and anger are not helping. I think the stress of the pandemic is fueling some of it. People are just frustrated.
Does anyone recognize our life now? There is violence and killing in cities that have never had that before. Those of us at risk for the virus are trapped avoiding exposure. Schools can’t decide what is best to do. Businesses are going under and people are out of work. This doesn’t sound like my world.
There were riots during the Viet Nam era. There were “demonstrations” during the civil rights era (God bless MLK) but nothing like this. Understanding what has caused all this unrest is complex. The feud between the police and BLM is almost like the Hatfields and the McCoys (if anyone remembers what that was). Logic has been left behind and only anger and hatred remain.
I wonder if anyone thinks any good will come of all of this? Does violence change things more than non-violent demonstrations? I’m not sure it does. I think that the crusades of MLK and Gandhi are remembered more. Will that be the case in the future? Will this nation withstand this or will it fall?
Have they disappeared?
From my history background I remember a historian named Arnold Toynbee who said that when the moral fiber of a nation declines the nation falls. We are certainly there. What is to come?
Have you ever had a day where you spent most of it looking for something that you misplaced? For me that is one of the most frustrating things. It is something important…you know you had it recently….you know it should be where you think you left it….bit it isn’t.
Where did I leave it?
I have a notebook all nicely organized… so organized that it has different tabs that designate what kind of project is in each section. It has many of the patterns I use to knit or crochet. Sounds like it shouldn’t be too important. Wrong! I wanted to start on a new project and needed that notebook.
Now this is a three hole binder notebook. It is not tiny. There are only so many places that it could be without being visible. I remember having it about 3 weeks ago so it should be near.
Nothing doing. I looked high and low, in cabinets, drawers, everywhere I could think of but no luck. Finally I had to attend an on-line meeting and then take my husband to a doctor visit so I had to stop looking.
Banging my head against the wall
Getting back to the search later I decided to look where a few almost identical notebooks are. I went through them recently and get rid of some of them. Hello! There among the others with a title on the side that had nothing to do with it was the book.
One of the reasons that I try to put things back where they belong is I hate to waste time and frustration looking for something that I put down without thinking. I try so hard not to do that. It puts a kink in your plans for the day and time just flies away. The older I get the more I work to keep things where they belong. Not only does it save time but it is really so easy to do.
You would never think that water would be a problem but here we go again. We now have a huge water bill because apparently something happened in April that we were not aware of. At that time I was tending to my recently hospital discharged husband. (still not well) I was barely holding my own. Somewhere, unaware of us, water was left running and caused an enormous water usage. Now there is the problem of scraping up the money to pay all of this to include having plumbers come out to tell us there is no leak now.
HELP!
Just another one of life’s glitches. Just when you think the money is holding up well something hits. There are so many people hurting so much more than us. Many are out of work and have not yet received any unemployment compensation. Many businesses are having to close. Covid has brought us to our knees. I pray that things begin to improve…even if just a little and that those who need help can get what they need.
Last night I had a dream about trying to cook at meal, at the last minute, for a large group of family members. It seemed to be partly my fault that it was last minute but I couldn’t find the right things to cook. It was in the kitchen I grew up in and everything was wrong. The meat was huge and had to be cut up to cook but looked like nothing I have ever seen before.
I have always had lots of odd dreams and this one was not unusual but I wondered where my mind was headed and if I could connect it with anything going on in my life. Maybe it does in some ways. I do keep trying to get things done and it seems that everything is so difficult. Nothing goes easy. That may not be that unusual but is being amplified by covid.
The frustration of the whole situation, my husband’s illness, covid and all that goes with it are getting old. I am not the only one who is feeling this way and waiting for some good news. It will come….please let me hold on until it does.
I don’t know that any of us have ever been through this kind of situation. We were not alive for the last pandemic and waiting for it to end had to be much worse. Now we will always remember this year and those who come behind us will hear us talk about what happened.
worry-less-journey 