Merry Christmas

Ew.

 We got about half an inch of snow, overnight.  Nothing on the roads, but the driveway has a decent covering.  Between the snow in my tire treads and the patch of ice in the middle of the road, right where I go turning left out of the driveway, I am wide awake.  

First sideways skid.  Ever.  Thank God for the Subaru's AWD.  

Nobody was hit, nobody was hurt, nobody shat themselves (though, given the imp's reaction, that might have been a near thing), and I kept it out of the ditch.  

But I really need more coffee, now.  I have the shakes like nobody's business, and a nasty reaction headache. 

Progress

I finished the first draft of Liquid Diet Chronicles: Having a Pint on Tuesday.  Yeah, a day later than I'd aimed at, but only a day.  I wrote the climax all the way through the end (nearly 5000 words) that day.  The first draft ended up at right around 52,000 words.  I've set it aside for the time being--I wouldn't be able to read, revise, and expand (and/or cut) where needed, right at the moment.  I need time away from it, first.  

After I did that, I went hunting for my files on The Schrodinger Paradox.  It...took some hunting to find the right files.  I last worked on it in November of 2017, and I've replaced my laptop at least once, since then.  I think only once, but I'm not entirely sure.  

I was too fried to start in working on it on Tuesday.  I tried, but I could not focus my attention on anything more complex than housework and dinner.  I did start working on it yesterday, as soon as I got the kids off to school.  Started up Starset's Transmissions, and pulled up the file that a friend had gone through and pointed out the flubs I'd made about which agency did what, and started in by editing, revising, and expanding some parts.  There's one or two new scenes, too.  All in all, I probably cut five hundred words in fixing things I messed up, then added that back in plus 2000 more words.  Right now, I'm almost through editing part one.  Part 2 is going to take a lot more work, and will probably end up 5000-10,000 words longer.  

When I started in on editing, the two parts together came in at around 55,000 words.  It's currently around 57,000, and may end up closer to 60K words before I even get to part 2.  

I'm aiming at being finished with a read-through and edit by the end of the weekend.  My goal is to finish the first draft by the start of the kids' Christmas Break.  If I can accomplish that, I can spend Christmas Break working on the first edit of Pint, so that I can get that to my beta readers in January.  

So.  That's what's going on here.  

Back to work...

First Sunday of Advent

 When I moved from low church to high church, I was introduced to the concept of Advent.  It is a beautiful tradition, but one that didn't fully make sense to me.  At the time.  

And then...then I became a mother.  And though I didn't carry either of my babies to their due date, I find I understand it a bit better.  It's...anticipation, breathless anticipation (partially because there's no room to breathe with a baby taking up most of the room), joy, and welcome.  

Also worry.  She knew her Son had a Destiny.  

As a mother, I understand much of how she must have felt...only, unlike her last month of pregnancy, mine was secure, sheltered, and protected.  Hers...was either spent walking, or riding on the back of a donkey, likely not knowing where or when her next meal or next sheltered place to sleep would be found.  I spent my last month of pregnancy in the care of midwives.  She didn't, and likely had no one but her husband to help her deliver her Son.  

It's...humbling. Something that makes me think, meditate on both motherhood, and His mother. 

Gratitude.

It's the time of year that Americans tend to reflect upon their gratitude--Thanksgiving.  I thought I'd share a few things for which I feel grateful.  

I'm grateful--very, very grateful--for my home, the six acres that came with it, and the fact that I can boot the kids out and they vanish into that six acres for a couple of hours at a time, in good weather.  I'm thankful that they love our property as much as I do, and have been doing their best to keep it nice.  I'm thankful, as well, for the garage that offers extra storage space, and a place for the kids to do messy crafts...when we finish getting it cleared out.  Yes, we are still working on that.  Yes, we have been working on that, on and off, for three years.  No, we're not finished yet.  

I'm thankful that we've been able to afford the maintenance that the house has needed.  And that we've been able to afford the kids' tuition, considering the school district we're in is utter shit.  

Honestly, I'm glad the district is utter shit, too--it helped keep the home price low enough we could afford it.  

I'm incredibly thankful that I have everything I do. 

I'm thankful that I still have my mother--so many don't--and my mother-in-law.  I'm thankful I have my aunts, my sisters, and my brothers (even the one I haven't met) still walking the world.  I'm thankful for my cousins, and my friends.

I'm thankful that I am, finally, starting to have days where I'm doing well enough to start deliberately exercising again.  I'd gotten up to being able to do eight minutes of flowing poses yoga before I got sick in February, and have had a flare-up every time I'd attempted to get back into the yoga after I recovered.  I have been able to do a little bit two or three days a week for the past week.  And I am thankful for that much, even though it's so much less than what I was capable of before I got sick in February. 

What I'm most grateful for, though, is that my immediate, nuclear family--my spouse, and both my children--are healthy, and that with God's help, I've been able to keep them that way, and well-nourished.  

What are you grateful for, this year?

Random stuff 2.0

The kids have all week off this next week.  Usually, they have school on Monday and half of Tuesday during Thanksgiving week; however, with this stupidity surrounding a cold, the school's decided to give the teachers (and the kids) the extra couple of days to rest and relax.  

I don't really object--I'm sort of exhausted, too.  This school year has rather inspired exhaustion: I've been doing a load of laundry every day, trying to keep the kids' buff/gaiters clean.  They've got two, so they wear one while the other's in the wash.  Friday and Saturday are the only days I don't do laundry, and I sometimes have to do an extra day when I get a load of towels and cleaning rags built up.  

Monday...I need to call the kids' doctor's office, tomorrow morning.  He'd had an appointment, but a call on a Sunday afternoon doesn't fill me with confidence that his appointment is still going to be tomorrow.  

The pixie's going to spend tomorrow night with Grandma, because of said appointment...which I'd had set up for a month.  Grandma will be picking her up something like half an hour before I need to leave for the imp's 10:00 appointment, for an overnight stay, to come home with Odysseus after work on Tuesday.  

Now.  Whether or not the doctor's office is going to let me keep that appointment...I have no idea, especially given the timing of the call from the doctor's office asking me to call them back about it.  But I won't be changing plans on the pixie. 

Christmas shopping's going to be...yeah.  Not good for Joplin, this year.  They posted another mask ordinance, effective immediately (as of Thursday or Friday, I don't recall), and running through the end of February.  Their last one--the one that lasted from July to August--fucked them over pretty badly with their sales tax revenue, to the tune of almost a quarter of the expected sales tax...not making an appearance.  I've already started ordering presents I can't find in Webb City for people, including at least one delivery from Sam's Club.  Yeah, sales tax on that was half what sales tax usually is...so ordering online for delivery bypassed Joplin's city tax quite nicely.   

And also postpones when I'm going to need to switch from my flip-phone to a smart phone, for Sam's Club's curbside delivery.  

Update: The kids' usual doctor is sick, this week.  The imp's appointment has been postponed until a week from today.  I've arranged so that he misses as little as possible at school.  

Why the school doesn't simply ask for this...

My imp has been having trouble at school: trouble keeping up with papers, and trouble keeping up with writing utensils.  His teacher told me, when we went in to pick something up yesterday, that he has trouble keeping up with stuff because he just crams stuff in his binder, then drops it, sending stuff flying.  Losing all of his pencils, erasers, and papers.  

I pulled out my old, college zipper binder, a hunter green Five Star binder with pencil/pen pockets in the inside front, floppy drive pockets that close with a velcro flap (yes, it's that old) that he's using for things like big pink erasers and the white art erasers, a glue stick...things like that, and another floppy drive pocket that he's using for sticky notes.  We moved stuff from his open binder and I helped him arrange stuff, and explained why it was arranged like that.  I swear I saw the light come on, but we're going to have to keep re-doing it and clearing out his locker on a weekly basis.  

Also in the binder is a to-do list for his school day to help him with the executive function "oh crap, what am I supposed to be doing now/I feel like I've forgotten something" thing; a three-hole punch; a red folder for stuff he's finished and needs to put in his binder, and stuff he still has to do; dividers for his subjects; paper (wide ruled), a blue folder for stuff he's supposed to do at school; and more paper (5 squares to the inch grid). 

He also has trouble differentiating in his planner which work he's supposed to do at school, and what he's supposed to write down as homework; I've ordered him another planner that looks different and will live in his binder with his stuff.  

After we'd gotten his binder set up, the pixie looked at me with humongous brown eyes and said, "Momma, I'd like a zipper binder, too, please."  

So, when I ordered the planner for the imp, I also ordered a pink zipper binder for the pixie.  And I'll have her get her school binder from the classroom before Thanksgiving Break starts, and we'll switch over if she wants.  I'll help her set up, but she's better at general executive function and organization than the imp is...or really, better than even I have become through hard work and practice. 

Random stuff

We now have adequate insulation in the attic.  There were places we had very little, and one place the guy looking at what we needed said he could see the hall light from in the attic.  

He said that they were swamped, and we were looking at the end of November, unless they got help.  Well, they got the help from a sister store in Arkansas, and the insulation was blown in in about 40 minutes on Friday, two and a half weeks ahead of where I was thinking we'd be.

Now, we have the rafters buried plus about 6" and that same 6"  over the decking they'd put down for storage.  There's none over the garage, but that wasn't really a concern.  I'm just hoping it helps cut both the electric bill and propane usage.  

We also have a new modem, as of last Thursday.*  We've got the wi-fi  password changed on about half the things that it needs changed on--I still need to take care of the printer, my Kindle, and those of both of the kids (both of which need to be charged, first).  So far, things have been working better.  Smoother.  I'd have just gotten a new router and plugged it into the hard line part of the modem, but that was the first thing to go, six years ago.  

Other than that...I've decided I kinda sorta need to break down and acquire a smartphone.  It's going to be kept battery-dead and/or left home most of the time, but I have to have one if I'm going to use Sam's Club's curb-side pickup.  I wish they'd have posted a phone number like Walmart did, but they didn't.  

I wouldn't bother with it, but my personal energy budget sort of requires it.  I've been having issues with my energy, to the point that shopping, if it's not curbside pickup, is all I can do on the days I do  it.  And I can't afford that: I have a house, pets, kids, and a husband to take care of.  

I'm trying to finish Having a Pint this month.  I've got it around half finished in first-draft form, something like nearly 34K words.  I'm still plugging away.  I'd have a lot more done, but I spent half of last week in severe pain because of mild diverticulitis (runs in my family, and I know what to do when it hits), and the other half recovering and managing the modem replacement and the insulation installation. So, it is moving along, but slow going because I was only barely functional last week.  I should do much better this week.  I'm planning to also do better the next week, considering I don't have to shuttle the kids around twice per day, and I have headphones.  

Once I'm done with the first draft of Having a Pint, I have another piece I'm going to be working on--The Schrodinger Paradox. That one is about 2/3 finished in first-draft form, and I know where it's going and how it's going to get there.  It's just going to take a while of actually writing to finish it. 

*We had the old modem from...I think 2007 or 2008, so, it was nearing the end of its functional life anyway.

Done, and working.

The cable/internet company is still using the same type of modem.  Mine was just 12 years old, and the electric company changing out the meter fried it a bit.  

Everything is going to have to be changed, though--the password will have to be put into everything.  Off the top of my head, there's at least half a dozen things, if not a few more, that will need the new password.  But we won't have time for that until much later.

One of the other projects we'd been working on was getting more insulation into the attic.  When the couple who owned this place before us died, their daughter (estranged, at least a bit) didn't get everything out.  She left her mother's cast iron,* and a ton of stuff in the attic.  

That...needs to come out.  All of it.  Before tomorrow.  

We've gotten a lot out, already.  Including a couple of very old boxes of very old National Geographic magazines, and very old Readers' Digest magazines (all of which will be read and enjoyed by my family).  A pretty good stack of records (vinyl, not paper, some from the '30s), and a screen, slides, and a slide projector.  And a framed photo of the earth from lunar orbit, taken in 1969 (with a broken frame, but intact glass), and a letter regarding the readings from Genesis that were done in that particular mission.  We...are going to find a new frame for that.  It's history.  And priceless. 

There's also a lot of...well, trash.  

And we have a fairly small dumpster, and I saw that the city dump is still closed to the public.  

There's a lot of trash.  A lot.  

*One of the pieces was a corn stick pan, the other?  A perfectly seasoned, 9" skillet.  Probably at least as old as Odysseus's grandma's 10" skillet we use all the time.  And yes, we've been using that skillet. I'm sure the lady who lived here and died here would prefer that it be used. 

Ffffuuuuuuu.....

Our modem is starting to die. 

Honestly, it's about time--we've had it since...gawd, a long fucking time.  

And in that time, it's run our internet, phone, and (since five or seven years ago) our TV.  Yeah, it's seen some seriously heavy use for a residential modem.  

But it is starting to die.  Wireless, especially.  I'm not sure but what it wouldn't have lasted a few more years had the electric company not decided to put in wireless broadcasting meters so that they can tell from their main offices what our usage is.*  

What I mean by dying is that it's been, well, cutting in and out.  Specifically with the internet and the TV streaming device.  The phone's not been as bad, but then again, the phone's kinda...wired into the modem itself, not picking up a wireless signal. 

It's a massive pain in the ass.  If a new modem doesn't fix at least the internet, I'm going to be spending A LOT of time on the electric company's FB page bitching, as well as complaining to every state agency I can think of.  

If one service is blocking other services that I pay for, I'm going to be...well.  Yeah.  Unhappy.  More than just about the windmill bullshit.  

But for the moment, I'm going to assume it's just the modem reaching the end of its lifespan.  And contact the company that provides internet and phone to get them to replace it, since it's their equipment.

 

*We've had issues with radio stations abruptly going to static, on the ones with the digital tuners, too.  

I really don't think they've thought this out...

The local electrical utility has...misunderstood their customers.  Badly.  Really badly.  We are not California.  

What I mean is this: they have sent out letters articulating a "commitment to providing clean, green energy," and have announced that they'll be shutting down one of their plants that provides electricity for the area...because they've put up a wind farm in an area where the wind doesn't blow every day.  But  it's the best they've got.  

This part of Missouri is made up of farmers.  Farmers who rely on their utilities.  They need their electricity, and their internet.  And farmers are, by nature, problem solvers with little tolerance for leftist stupidity.  

This is not going to work out well for the electric company.  They already get lynching threats from the locals every time a storm knocks out power for longer than the locals think it should be out.  When the locals are facing rolling brown- and black-outs from power usage higher than the virtue-signalling can generate, there's going to be some serious repercussions.

And I am looking into how to minimize my house's dependence on electricity.  And will be doing my best to switch as many to propane as humanly possible, and will be looking into alternates to that particular electric provider.  

Now.  That said.  I'm doing this not because I think looking into alternates to pollution-generating plants is a bad idea.  I'm doing this because not a single renewable source electric provider is reliable enough nor cost effective enough.  I'm doing this because they're looking at renewables instead of a truly clean, green source of electricity: nuclear.   

Please don't do this.

President Trump has won re-election.  Fair and square.  By a fucking landslide.  

 Except...except for mail-in votes, technology "glitches" preventing precincts from counting their votes, and other such.  Except for blatant and obvious fraud.  

I really don't want to see what happens next, when the stolen election is contested by extra-legal means.  I really don't.  I don't want to see the legal system applied as a weapon against people who aren't fucking criminal communists.  I don't want to see it applied as a weapon at all.  

Nor do I want to see what happens when most of America wakes up.  

 It's going to be beyond fucking ugly.

I don't want this.  I really, really, really don't want this.  

Almost over...

Tuesday is voting day.  I honestly can't wait.  I am so sick of petty political partisanship that I could vomit.  I don't want to hear anymore about any of the parties, politicians, or any of the other inanities that surround election year for at least two years (but you know we will--this has become religion to most of the left).  

I am...concerned, let's say...that there's going to be unrest (for lack of desire to use a more accurate term) during and after Tuesday.  Tomorrow, I have plans to do some shopping--a few top-ups on groceries, some things Walmart doesn't do in curb-side delivery, and a new package of ear plugs.*  

We've already gassed up both vehicles and gotten extra pet food.  

I do not plan to leave the house more than absolutely necessary until things calm back down a bit.  

*I use ear plugs for sleeping.  They help a lot when I'm in the worst side of a chronic illness attack. 

FFS, life, give me a damn break!

 So.  Last week: not too bad, early in the week.  However.  Thursday...Thursday was awful, and bled through the weekend.  

Thursday morning, I had a 6 month follow-up with an endocrinologist.  I dropped the kids off, came home, bolted breakfast and a 2nd cup of coffee, then headed over for my appointment.  When that was done, I did the Sam's Club shopping.* Then, about 11:45, I got a call from the imp's doctor, telling me to come pick up his paper prescriptions to take to our pharmacy.  They closed for lunch from 12 to 1:00.  So, I had my lunch, then pulled my cell phone off the charger, only to find out that the plug had come unplugged from the wall.  And my phone was flat dead.  And, due to covidiocy, I have to have that to call the receptionist to bring me the papers out front.  Because I wasn't to be allowed in the building.  

So.  I found another outlet (one that wasn't loose as a dock-side whore), and plugged my phone in.  Didn't get out of the house (with the phone only half-charged) before 1:30.  Got to the doctor's office by 2:00, and back to Joplin by...2:35.  The kids get turned loose at 2:45-2:55.  The pharmacy is 15 minutes away, on the opposite end of town from where I came in, and that doesn't count actually dropping off the 'scrips.

I waited on the kids, brought them home to drop off their stuff and put dinner in the oven, then got to the pharmacy, dropped off the 'scrips, and made it home.  Staggering with exhaustion by this point.**  Got the kids' buffs*** put in the wash with the imp's weekly laundry, and started it going.  

Sometime during the wash/rinse cycle...the water cut off.  To the house.  No, we don't have city water.  Had Odysseus flip the well pump breaker a few times, to see if that would fix the problem (it has a couple of times).  No joy.  No water.  No water means the laundry didn't actually run all the way, the kids didn't get showers, and a whole host of other inconveniences.  

And we couldn't get ahold of a well pump specialist Thursday evening.  

Thank God I'd thought to store water in empty kitty litter buckets for flushing toilets.  Because we had to use that water for flushing toilets.  

I need to re-stock on emergency drinking water.  Because we were out, and Odysseus had to get a flat, and that's half-gone, now.  

Friday morning started with me doing the Walmart curbside pickup.  Then, I got home, and found that Odysseus had managed to get in touch with the well pump experts that have the longest-running local business, and that they'd be out to check on things.  They'd call before they arrived.  

The call, by the way, was made not just after they'd arrived, but after they'd ruled out one potential issue and while they were back at the well head, pulling the pump up to check it.  

We now have a new pump, and new pipe.  Both of the old ones had rusted shut.  In PVC pipe.  

This week, we've got a quote lined up to get more insulation put into the attic, and then on Thursday, we've got Parent/Teacher conferences.  

I need some time off.  I know this isn't as hectic as it could be, but it's about the maximum that I can handle, and then some. 

*I still don't have everything put away.  

**I don't get my energy levels brought back up by eating and resting, like normal people do.  It sometimes takes days--and has taken longer than usual because I couldn't just...recover.

***Buffs are school-specific gaiters that the kids are required to wear in the halls between class and lunch, or class and specials (art, P.E., Spanish, music, etc). 

How the fuck did that happen?

My son will be turning twelve on Tuesday.  He's in fifth grade, now (really?  really!), and is learning to play trumpet in band.  

I don't know how this happened.   I mean, last week, he was just a very little boy.  The week before that, a baby.  

So, since his birthday is during the school week, he'll be helping me make cookies for him to take for his class.  Over the summer, I got him to try chocolate peanut butter chip cookies--the recipe's on the back of the Reece's peanut butter chips--and he loved them.  We'll be making those, but with white chocolate chips and gluten free flour (one of his classmates throws up when she eats something with gluten).  Tuesday for supper, he's requested lasagna.  

He's growing fast, and starting to change from small boy into adolescent.  His face is maturing, and his shoulders are starting to fill out.  He's still scrawny as hell--the kid is closing in on 5' tall, but only barely tops 70 lbs...if he's just eaten and is soaking wet.  And it's all arms and legs.  

I dread the day he's too big to fit in my lap.  I really do.  But it's coming. 

Taking a health day.

Not just mental health.  Health.  

I woke up this morning feeling like I'd had an hour or so of sleep.  Even though it was more like seven or so.  And what's more, I felt like I'd laid down right after a hard workout with no warmup or cool down, and just slept for that hour.  In the most awkward position you can imagine.  

I can probably manage a couple things but those have to be chosen carefully.  Thankfully, supper is going to be grab it from the freezer and put it in the oven, so that's not going to be horribly draining.  

I think I know exactly what's going on.  But there's not really anything I can do except take a day off: I've spent the last two weeks worried out of my mind for my sister and brother-in-law, and the last week cooking meals that extend to feeding my sister and our older brother who's been traveling from the southeast corner of the state several times a week to help her out.  

My sister will recover.  She only* had a cracked pelvis and a few broken ribs.  My brother-in-law's recovery will be much longer, and nobody knows yet how complete it will be; however, the doctors are now optimistic that he'll regain the ability to walk.  They weren't sure at first whether he'd be able to move anything below his neck, but he's able to move his arms a little, and the feeling's come back in his legs.  

My sister's staying at a local hotel in the chain she works for.  They've moved her from front desk/housekeeping to public relations/advertising, and are working with her to take care of her (and keep her, because they like her). 

The SUV that was totaled in the accident was their only car.  My sister's without much transportation for the moment, other than our older brother.  She's spending most of her time with her husband in his hospital room because they keep forgetting to take care of him.  Yeah, that's exactly what I said: he's had one sponge bath in two weeks, right after his second surgery.  And they put the tray of food under his face, but forget that he can't use his hands to feed himself.  

So, yeah.  I've been worrying.  And doing what I am capable of to support them (i.e., making food that they can fix in the microwave, since they've got a microwave, fridge, and cook-top in the hotel room).  And that has taken a physical toll on me to the point that I am being forced to take the day off.  

Which utterly sucks, because I need to finish getting caught up with house cleaning tasks I'd dropped while I was trying to keep up with the dishes without the aid of a dishwasher. 

*Hah.  "Only" a cracked pelvis...that required surgery and pinning to make sure it didn't get worse.  And probably a concussion.  And broken ribs that make pneumonia a greater danger.  And she's over 50.  Not easy injuries for a much younger person to bounce back from.  But still better than my brother-in-law who's got three fractures in his neck, and one further down his spine...but thankfully little damage to the spinal cord, as they're discovering as the swelling decreases. 

FFOT: Miscellaneous

 Migraines.  Migraines can fuck right the fuckety fuck off. I don't get them often, but when I do, they're at the worst possible fucking time, and last a subjective eternity (almost a full three days).  

People who dump kittens can fuck right off.  With a conical cheese grater.  Hell, people who dump any kind of animal.  And they can use Drano as lube.  

Allergies.  Allergies can fuck right off.  My daughter has them.  She's got the same damn symptoms she gets this time every fucking year, and is miserable.  Compounding the misery is that if she goes to school, people will panic.  

Which leads me to...the media.  And politicians.  They can all fuck off either alone or with each other for politicizing a fucking cold.  Yeah, it's a cold on steroids for some, but it's a fucking cold.  

And last, but not least, the fucking shit-for-brains that T-boned my sister's vehicle last weekend can fuck off with the remains of his full-sized pickup jammed up his ass with the bottles of alcohol he'd downed before he got behind the wheel.  May he be visited with all of the injuries he inflicted on my sister and brother-in-law. 

Musings

Ruth Bader Ginsburg 

So.  The notorious RBG is dead.  I've seen celebrations, and I've seen grief.  I've even seen respect, among the social media groups I'm a member in.  As for me...yeah, I'm glad she's dead, but not for the reasons I've seen a lot of people cheering. 

I'm glad she's dead because that woman has been through absolute hell for the past several years.  She's been fighting pancreatic cancer: one of the most painful and least treatable cancers out there.  Because it pretends to be other things until it's far too late to treat.  And she's fought, and fought hard.  And she's done her dead-level best to continue working and being productive during that fight.  I did not like her politics.  I did not like her as a person.  I did not like her judicial choices.  But I have to admire her grit and determination in the face of such suffering. 

It's over, now.  And I'm glad--I rarely wish suffering on others.  And just because she was wrong on most counts doesn't mean she's not human. 

More of us--all of us, on both sides of the aisle,* not just the people cheering her death--need to remember that. 

Federal Funding

 The President is considering cutting federal funding to rioting cities that aren't attempting to control the riots.  Well, aren't successfully controlling the riots.  I can see that they're attempting; however, their attempts are the same as parents giving in to a tantrum to silence the toddler. 

That...doesn't work.  It doesn't ever work.  Not even in the short term.  What it actually does is embolden the little shit and teaches that the tantrums work to get them what they want.  It doesn't get them to stop.  It doesn't buy peace, not even in the short term. 

I don't mean that you have to beat the toddler black and blue to get your point across.  I don't think that's what it would take in these cases, either.

However.  That said.  You do have to say no, make it stick, and set (and enforce) consequences for this behavior.  It wouldn't even be very hard to do: most of the actions taken by the overgrown toddlers throwing tantrums are felonies.  I've seen assault, arson, felony theft, felony property damage (good God have I seen felony property damage!)...there's a list longer than a football field. 

Arrest the bad actors.  Not the peaceful protesters--let them whine and bleat all they like.  However.  The second they throw a rock at someone (or a brick at a window), come down on them like the wrath of God: arrest them, charge them, and send them to jail.  Hit them while they're still committing misdemeanors.  Don't let it accelerate to felonies.  Arrest the little dummies sitting in the middle of streets holding up traffic.  Do it before they start beating on cars, dragging people out of cars and attacking them, or robbing delivery trucks.  Prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law before they get worse. 

Anyway.  Any parent who's successfully raised toddlers past this stage knows this.  And Trump has raised several.  He's setting consequences on the people who should have been stopping this butt-cold, and haven't.  I really hope he sticks to it. 

Defunding Police

This...this is a fucking dumb idea.  I am in favor of disbanding city-level SWAT teams.  I am in favor of revoking qualified immunity.  I am in favor of prosecuting "wrong address" mistakes on no-knock warrants as first degree murder.  I am in favor of ending the war on (some) drugs. 

I am not in favor of defunding the police.  And if the left would fucking think about it, they'd be less in favor of such, as well. 

What do I mean?  I mean if you defund police departments...you're going to have a massive rise in violent crime (several places are already seeing this).  And then, people like me are going to stop calling for help that won't come, and will take care of the problems themselves. There are a lot of crimes that will suddenly come with a death sentence during the commission.  No trial, no pleading, just dead. 

I am in a peaceful area of the country.  So far.  However, my city is seeing an uptick in crime...not because our law enforcement has been defunded like in the larger, Democrat-owned cities.  Because our department doesn't have enough funding in the first place for the size of town we actually are.  Our police department is about half the size it should be. 

Yeah, I will call the cops if shit goes down in my house; however, I will have a gun in the hand that isn't holding the phone, because I know they won't get to me in anything resembling a timeframe that would prevent severe bodily harm.  Chances are that there would be a live creep spread out on the floor waiting for the cops to arrest them. 

In Democrat-owned cities, people are going to simply shoot the son-of-a-bitch, roll him out to the alley, and clean up.  Because they won't have the option of calling the police, and will refuse to lie down and die. 

Most of those would likely be Democrat voters.  And the people defending their own lives would start to grow up into non-Democrats.  Non-statists.  Because they'd have learned the important lesson that they actually are responsible for themselves and their own safety. 

Which is the opposite of what the left truly wants. 

Netflix and California

So.  Netflix. 

We didn't cancel Netflix when they gave political opponents time and space to expound their views.  We talked about it, but decided not to.  Because neither my other half nor I want to live in such an isolated, insulated bubble that we can't tolerate dissent. 

That's a trick of the left, and we aren't leftists.  We are leave-me-the-hell-alone libertarians (note the lack of a capital L). 

However.  We have children.  We have an almost-twelve-year-old son, and a daughter that will be ten in December. 

And Netflix has come out on the side of normalizing pedophilia and grooming children to be receptive victims thereof. 

That. 

We've cancelled Netflix over that. 

I am a survivor of long-term sexual abuse.  It lasted most of my childhood.  What there was of it.  Looking back, I can see the grooming that accompanied it.  Grooming to compete for the abuser's attention and affection, grooming to not tell.  (That failed.  Hard.)

I am...damaged.  I bear scars.  I am not in favor of permitting adults that look at children and think "mmm, sexy" to walk the world.  I am not in favor of things that normalize children as sexual objects to be considered "art."

So.  Neflix is gone.  And we're debating Disney+ because their tween series?  Same thing, but more subtle. 

And California has come out and, instead of raising all criminal definitions of pedophilia to the most strict, have lowered their standards to decriminalize adults fucking children so long as there's no more than ten years' age difference, and the child "consents." 

Because kids, of course, know better than anyone what's best for them.  Kids are capable of informed consent.  Kids are starting to think about sex earlier than ever.  Right? 

Actually, no.  No, they aren't.  Not without external grooming, like you see on Netflix.  And the Disney tween series. 

Unfortunately, grooming is on the rise, and has been for decades.  Like boiling a frog. 

I am about ready to simply buy a whole bunch of safe TV series on DVD and dump the Roku. 

Because I have kids, and I do not want them to have the same mental, spiritual, and emotional scars that I have.

*I've seen hard-line leftists damning her for not having retired during the last years of the Obama administration.  I understand how they feel, and why they feel that way...however, it doesn't mean they're right. 

FFOT: GADDAMN 2020

 Month or two ago, my youngest sister and her mother died in a fire.  Her mother...no big loss, but I wouldn't wish that on anyone.  My youngest brother...is really hurting.* 

Yesterday, my oldest sister and her husband got into a nasty car wreck.  T-bone.  The full-size pickup that hit their smallish SUV was very clearly, from video of the aftermath, going faster than they should have been.  Both survived, but my brother-in-law is likely to be a paraplegic (thankfully--it could have been far worse, looking at the SUV), and my sister-in-law is going to require surgery on Monday for broken ribs and pelvis.  

This fucking year.  This awful, horrendous fucking year.  It can fuck off with the pour-spout of a can of gasoline shoved up its ass and a lighter. 

*I met my youngest sister once when she was less than a year old.  I have never met my youngest brother. 

Conveniences

Back in July, my dishwasher started peeing on the floor.  I cleaned around the gaskets and seals, and tried again.  It peed even more.  Come to find out, the seals at the bottom of the door on the left side were pretty much worn out.  Bit of a last straw: it's been acting up since we moved into this house.  I could likely get a repair guy out to deal with it (my attempts were not successful), but it's got a lot of quirks that I don't like, most of which are either caused by or exacerbated by its age. 

Or it could just be the brand--it's not the first GE I've had, and honestly, I haven't ever had a good one from them. 

In any case, I started shopping.  I was planning an Amana...but it seems like those are made of unobtanium.  Nobody anywhere nearby has one for sale until October.  I settled for a Samsung we found on sale.  It should be delivered and installed on Friday.*

The pixie was very helpful...for the first week.  Once we had to do the dishes by hand, it wasn't fun anymore.  She's still pretty helpful, though--just not with the dishes.  She's keeping the family room straightened up a bit, which is actually a huge help.

One thing I never realized is just how much of my energy budget that stupid, barely-functional piece of crap GE dishwasher was saving.  As in: between a third and half of my daily energy budget is currently spent on keeping up with the dishes.  No, going to disposables wouldn't help that much--I cook.  From scratch, a lot of the time.  And that...takes a lot of dishes, whether we're eating on paper plates/bowls with plastic knives/forks/spoons or not. 

Like it or not, I'm not handicapped anymore.  I'm disabled.  Not differently abled.  Full-on disabled.  There are things I simply cannot do.  ME/CFS puts hard limits on me that change from day to day.  As an example, yesterday was a particularly bad day--it took three cups of coffee and a couple more of decaf to have enough energy to breathe and to fix dinner (pasta bake is stupid-easy).  I was not capable of reading new material, writing, or any of the housework (including dishes).  Today, I'll manage the dishes, the cats' litter box, and clearing a good path to get the dishwasher into place.  Probably not more than that, but those are important, and it's the pixie's laundry night, so I don't have to worry about that. 

I've learned over the past month and a half that a dishwasher is, for me, a necessity, not a nicety.  I can keep up with the dishes and the added laundry (kids' school masks need washed daily), but I can't do anything else. 

*It was supposed to have been delivered and installed yesterday, but the installer called Monday night with a "family emergency" and asked to reschedule.  Once is fine.  Twice...will not be.