Morning Update: 08/24/24
Friday was a better day, healthwise, than was Thursday, but my stomach was still a bit tentative so we were careful and stayed close to the bed to be safe. The animals certainly don’t seem to mind and I suppose it does a good job of keeping me out of trouble. I’m having more trouble maintaining a sense of time and place, though. Most frequently, I forget what day it is and have to consult my watch or my phone to keep me somewhat grounded. Even this morning, I first woke thinking it was Friday, not Saturday. I don’t think I was the only one, though, as both of the kids were up shortly after me.
Perhaps it’s just a sign of age, but I’m concerned about how rapidly friends are being diagnosed with cancer. Another friend revealed yesterday that he has stage-3 colorectal cancer. He’ll start five weeks of radiation soon. The husband of another friend was recently diagnosed as well. He’s looking at five-and-a-half weeks of radiation. Perhaps we’re paying for all the red meat we’ve eaten, the lifestyles we’ve lived, or other not-so-wise choices we’ve made. Maybe the natural course of being human has us caught in the cancer web. As I prepare for another colonoscopy this week, I find that I’m hoping all the chemo I’ve been taking has kept anything from growing anywhere else. I’m not sure chemo works that way, but until someone tells me differently, I’ll hope.
There’s a lot on the docket today. First up is the lawn. No one gets out of helping. Everything has to look neat and clean by Monday. That work will necessitate an overdue shower, which I’m rather eagerly anticipating. Depending on how schedules work out, I’m going to enjoy the first Saturday of college football and watch at least part of the Akron-Ohio State game. Finally, I hope to spend some time with a dear friend who’s facing a double mastectomy on Monday. That sounds like a lot when I list it, but trust me, I’ll be sure to get my naps in.
One of the things I look for when going over the morning news is what events are most likely to affect me or those I care about. Lately, every time I see the word Oklahoma in a headline, my heart sinks. I grew up in Oklahoma. I still have many friends there. This morning, it popped up in the AP feed twice. The first story is how Oklahoma classrooms seem to be ignoring the State Superintendent’s order to teach the Bible in all classes. School districts have been offered guidance from law firms that represent them, the state’s Attorney General, and the state’s largest teachers union, the Oklahoma Education Association, that the superintendent doesn’t have the unilateral authority to issue such a requirement and that the edict is unenforceable.
At the same time, though, an Oklahoma teacher lost her license to teach after giving her students the QR code to the Brooklyn library as a source for reading banned books. The firing was more performance on the part of the state board of education. The teacher involved now works for that same Brooklyn library in New York, so revoking her license to teach is mere pettiness, which the state’s superintendent is good at. What’s sad in all this is that students are the ones losing. Oklahoma education is near the bottom of the country now. It didn’t use to be that way. When we graduated 45 years ago, being from Oklahoma was a source of pride. Now, it’s a liability.
I did get a little excited when Nestle, one of the biggest food companies in the world, unceremoniously dumped Mark Schneider as its CEO yesterday. Schneider has been vicious in raising the cost of food since the COVID-19 pandemic, but that hasn’t been enough to satisfy greedy board members. Mind you, don’t look for any prices to drop voluntarily. Nestle is bound and determined to squeeze every cent out of every resource they can find. They are one of the primary reasons Kamala Harris is targeting price gouging in her campaign. Anything bad that happens at Nestle makes me happy.
Space is in the news a couple of times this morning. NASA will announce today whether the Boeing capsule is safe enough to bring its astronauts back home, or if they’re stuck up there until next year. I can only imagine how nerve-wracking this ordeal has been for the two astronauts and their families. The first private spacewalk is on the schedule for next week as SpaceX is sending up a new crew with new technology. There’s definitely reason to be concerned for their safety. In addition to new “slim” spacesuits, there’s no freaking airlock on this spaceship. The fact that one of the “astronauts” is a billionaire probably doesn’t bode well for the crew, either, as the universe seems to have a habit of slapping their egos back into place when they do something stupid. Let’s hope this doesn’t end in tragedy.
The sadistic side of me is laughing at a story in this morning’s New York Times. It seems that as women continue to make great strides, now earning more college degrees and being the breadwinners for their families, Many Gen Z men feel left behind. Actually, it’s pretty much those young men without college degrees who are complaining. They feel that the economic odds are stacked against them. As a result, they’re turning to the excuse-maker-in-chief, the Orange Felon, as their hope for the future. They want a more “traditional” patriarchy, with all the misogyny and sexism that their grandfathers exploited. Perhaps you can understand why I’d just as soon give the bunch of them a middle-finger salute.
Okay, there’s too much to do today for me to continue sitting here. There’s still plenty to read this weekend, so enjoy the time where you can!
Morning Update: 09/23/24
Oversleeping is anxiety-inducing and I have it by the truckloads this morning. After a rough day yesterday that had me dizzy and puking, I slept right through the kids getting up and ready for school. Fortunately, Kat was awake and saw them off without any issue. Still, not only do I feel horrible for having missed them, but I feel as though I have to rush to catch up with the things that need to be done today. That’s silly since there’s nothing overly pressing on my calendar, but that’s the way my brain works.
The kids did have a good weekend. G was a sewing fiend; if you see Kat, she’ll show you his handiwork. Tipper had a movie date to see the new Transformers movie. I was asleep when she got in, though, so I can only assume that it went well. She’s back in school this morning, so we’re hoping that goes well.
Apparently, there were a couple of tornadoes across the state yesterday, but none of them were close to here. I’m not sure we got a quarter of an inch of rain here; it was spotty. There’s more moisture in the atmosphere, though, so we could see some scattered showers this afternoon and more heavy rain tomorrow. Welcome to Autumn.
Since I’m already running late, I won’t linger much over the news this morning. Lebanon says Israeli airstrikes killed at least 100 people and let’s just go ahead and say the war is now regional. Stop pretending that this is merely a defensive maneuver on Israel’s part. We need a cease-fire and we need it now.
This is Banned Books Week and if you’re not putting banned books in the hands of your kids, especially your teens, are you really parenting? New U.S. State Laws Are Fueling a Surge in Book Bans, Reports by Activists Say. If other parents want their kids to grow up to be closed-minded idiots, there’s not much we can do about that. Our kids don’t have to be ignorant, though. Buy the books. Discuss the books. Let them learn.
Congress managed to avoid a shutdown of the government late last night, but there’s no reason to celebrate. This is only a three-month stop-gap bill. Come December, we’ll be having the same conversations again. This is a stupid way to govern. Remember this nonsense when you vote.
The Colts managed to win! Honestly, this was one of the most boring games I’ve seen in quite a while. The fact that the Horse won has less to do with their superior ability and more to do with who made the fewest mistakes. The whole game was sloppy and at this point, I’m pretty sure either team could be beaten by any of the top five college teams. Yeah, it was that bad.
KC pulled out a win over Atlanta, but they’re still not close to playing championship football. The Chiefs simply are not playing up to par. Dare I say that Mahomes is starting to look old? They’re going to have a rough season if they can’t play better than they did yesterday.
Who did play well? The Rams. When I checked in at half-time, I didn’t figure there was any way they’d beat the 49rs. Boy, was I wrong. The second-half highlight reel is nothing short of spectacular. Rams come back and win it, 27-24, in an exhibition that proves they need to be taken seriously.
Have I typed enough for you this morning? I hope so. I’m already starting to feel tired again. The skies are going to be mostly cloudy, so that will make sleeping easier. Maybe I’ll actually wake up on time in the morning.
Let’s see if I can keep breakfast down, though.
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