When is a fall not really a fall? When you’re already lying down. There’s a feature on my smartwatch, one of the reasons I bought it, that alerts your emergency contact when you fall. I’ve fallen several times over the past two years and not once has it alerted anyone. Until yesterday. The problem? I was sound asleep, napping away, when my watch started a strange ringing. I looked, and the message on the watch was, “Fall detected. Notify emergency contact?” Obviously, I chose to not notify anyone since I was already lying down! This raises the question, however, of exactly what constitutes a fall for the watch. Did I roll over violently? Was I flailing my arms in my sleep? I’ve no idea.
G had his violin lesson yesterday and Tipper seemed to have a good day at school. Kat fixed a fantastic dinner of cheese brats and steamed asparagus. I went to bed a little after 8:00 and fell immediately asleep until 2:30 this morning. That was when my desk lamp decided to spaz out. Normally, if the lamp turns on during the night, it’s because one of the cats walked across it. All the cats were in bed, snoring away. The light would come on, dim, change temperature a couple of times, then go out. I’d close my eyes again, and a few minutes later, it would pop back on. This continued until almost 3:00. I’ve no idea why. The lamp is working fine this morning.
Life is full of mysteries I suppose. For example, Ohio’s GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno says abortion isn’t “an issue” for women “past 50”. Now, why would anyone in their right mind say something that stupid? The backlash is predictably intense and the statement could cause him to lose the election. You’d think that people would open their mouths before saying something stupid. Yet, Republican candidates can’t seem to keep their mouths shut on the issue. The party would prefer they talk about the economy, but candidate after candidate keeps talking about abortion, and when they do, they’re more likely to lose.
But then, that story isn’t nearly as bizarre as the Taliban saying it’s absurd to accuse them of gender discrimination. WTF? Something tells me they don’t understand the meaning of that word. Their defense is that Afghan law is in line with Sharia law. But that’s a non-starter because Sharia law itself is discriminatory toward women. According to AP, “Australia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands are set to start legal proceedings against the Taliban for violating a U.N. convention on women, to which Afghanistan is a party.” Afghan officials say they don’t understand the problem. Once again, this is what happens when right-wing religious nut jobs are allowed to run a country. Absolute absurdity.
Insane in a different way is the forecast that Hurricane Helene threatens ‘unsurvivable’ storm surge and vast inland damage. Dear Florida friends: go somewhere else. But not here. Local meteorologists are anticipating that by Friday evening, we’ll be getting the leftovers of the hurricane with 40-50 mph winds. Friday night football is having a tough time getting their games in. This will make the third week in a row that some games may have to be canceled due to storms. With wind speeds at that level, we can expect downed tree limbs, possible power outages, and an increased chance of roof damage. Depending on how the system hits and where one lives, the metro area could see as much as two inches of rain by Monday.
Tommy Kramer, another former NFL quarterback, said yesterday that he’s been diagnosed with dementia. Sooner or later, we, as a nation, may have to come to grips with the possibility that football is too violent a sport for our kids to be playing. In fact, if we’re totally honest with ourselves, football may be too dangerous for anyone to play at any age. I’ve been to NFL Players Union events. No one retires from that sport without permanent injury of some kind. While I enjoy watching football as much as the next person, if my pleasure is coming at the expense of people’s lives, then it’s morally wrong. What do you think?
After the mess of the 2020 election, News Outlets are Bracing for Chaos on Election Night (and Perhaps Beyond). GOP rhetoric has been especially violent and more than a few counties are threatening to not certify the election. However, Mark Zuckerberg says he Is Done With Politics. Will that translate to less misinformation on Meta-owned platforms? I wouldn’t bet on it. Zuck is seeing that opening his mouth on political matters costs him money. That’s not likely to push any policy changes within the company itself.
There are times when life is just weird. This is being one of those times.
Just don’t mess with my coffee, okay?
Morning Update: 10/01/24
Welcome back! Our power finally came back on at 11:44 EDT yesterday morning. Crews showed up right at 8:00 and started working. They identified the local problem but then had to find the cause of the local problem and fix that first. The problem on the pole across from our house wasn’t that bad: a blown fuse. It took longer to level and raise the bucket truck than it did to replace the fuse. The crews working our neighborhood were from Ft. Wayne and South Bend. This morning, they’re heading for Kentucky and will be helping restore power down there. We greatly appreciate their sacrifice in getting power turned back on.
Having our power back was nice, but then came the problem of checking the refrigerator and freezer to see what we had lost. We had been careful to not open the doors, but when the power is out for over 72 hours, there’s not much hope. I opened the door with the trash can by my side. The smell caused my stomach to turn. About the only thing that survived was the various jellies. It took three large garbage bags to cart everything out.
Fortunately, we have fantastic family and friends who have helped us be able to restore some of what we lost. As has consistently been the case over the past two years, you again came to our rescue. Food has been ordered and we’ll be okay. There are still some cleanup issues, but we’ll be able to handle those. Through all of this, we have to remember that what we got here in Indy was but a smattering compared to the decimation in other places throughout the Southeast. The search for survivors still continues, especially in North Carolina, where numerous roads and bridges are just gone. As of this morning, 140 are known dead, but that number will have increased by the time you read this. Helene is one of the deadliest storms to hit the US and it will take weeks to even start putting things back together. For too many, the devastation is incalculable. All the help in the world won’t bring back lost loved ones.
Sadly, the Orange Felon has been spreading lies about disaster recovery. Is anyone surprised? No. However, his rhetoric could cause some to experience delays in getting the help they need. President Biden will look over the devastation today and has promised all the help legally possible. The topic will almost certainly come up at tonight’s vice presidential debate. Please remember, when the felon was president, he minimized disaster relief. Haiti is still dealing with severe hunger and crime because they didn’t get the disaster relief they needed. We don’t need that kind of response again.
What is scary is that the hurricane season isn’t over. The National Weather Service is tracking multiple storms forming in the Caribbean. What had been an unusually quiet season seems to be heating up on the back side and could still cause continued problems for the Southeast US even as they’re trying to put their lives back together after Helene. There’s just a lot going on and the next few weeks could have everyone reaching for their anxiety medication.
Oh, and just as millions of people are needing their food replaced, dockworkers have gone on strike across the East and Gulf Coasts. This is going to affect everything from food to fashion, especially fresh foods that have to be imported this time of year. I saw someone on Facebook foolishly question why we don’t “just grow the vegetables that we need here in the US?” We do. The problem is that all that food has been harvested and much of it has been consumed. This time of year, through April, almost all fresh fruit and vegetables have to be imported and come through those docks along the coasts. Even if the strike doesn’t last long, the ripple effect will cause higher prices on almost everything and make some items unavailable through the holiday season.
I’m not going to even try to catch up on all the news that we missed. I know the big headline story this morning is Israel’s incursion into Lebanon, seriously expanding the war.
Today is former President Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday, which is nothing short of incredible.
Pete Rose, Dikembe Mutombo, and Kris Kristofferson have all died.
A Judge blocks Georgia law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
The New York Times editorial board has endorsed Kamala Harris for President.
Life sucks for a lot of people right now. Be nice. You never know what someone’s going through.
Thankfully, there’s coffee this morning!
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