Welcome to life in purgatory, and I’m not just talking about the election. Sure, that’s a heavy concern, but at this juncture, we can only speculate about what might happen and when. This is America, and life, on hold. I’m waiting to hear back from Insurance. Kat’s waiting to hear back from her PCP. G is waiting for his birthday. Tipper’s waiting on life. No one is happy. The holidays look bleak. Hope is hanging by a thread in the few places it exists.
Today is a day where I will walk as little as possible. I don’t know what happened during the night, but my right kneecap suddenly decided that it doesn’t want my leg to bend. I’m sitting here with my leg extended, trying to keep the pain down. I’ll have to use a cane when taking the dogs out.
I did get some clarification as to why I’ve not been hearing back from Assisted Living facilities. When the state of Indiana switched its Medicaid/Medicare arrangement back in July, it shifted responsibility for Medicare housing wavers to the three insurance companies managing the new plan. The insurance companies weren’t set up to address the wavers and that has resulted in a severe delay in approving them. I have to have the waver first before talking to any of the Assisted Living facilities. I’ve contacted my insurance company and have been told a case manager will call me today or tomorrow. We’ll see if that actually happens.
Kat is just stuck. You know how you’re supposed to have a follow-up visit with your PCP after a major hospital stay? No one in her PCP’s office has responded to her request for an appointment. Complete radio silence. She’s talked to the hospital and they’ve shown concern, but as of this morning, nothing definitive has happened. This is concerning. She wakes in the morning with severe pain in her chest. She doesn’t know what, if any, OTC meds she can take. She’s out of the meds prescribed when she left the hospital. I’m concerned that if someone doesn’t start paying attention to her soon, she could end up back in the hospital.
G is disappointed in some changes at school. He chose the lab because of its emphasis on individual learning, working at your own pace. However, recent changes have seen all the students gathered in one room, moving from table to table, with strict parameters on what they do during the day. He complains that it feels too much like “regular” school and that he’s not having the opportunity to collaborate with other students. The Lab is still a new concept. I understand trying to work out bugs and address the needs of all the students. G is increasingly frustrated, though, and I worry that may slow his progress.
Tipper says she’s trying to get her grades back up but I’m not seeing that reflected in her daily reports. Instead, it seems as though she’s just existing, exerting a minimal amount of effort and energy into what she does. Her engineering teacher has been out all week and that has been disappointing for her. She’s really enjoying the engineering class, which is potentially exciting, but she’s not carrying through with the fundamentals such as math and world history. How does one motivate a 14-year-old girl who is more interested in Furry matters than keeping her GPA at a reasonable level? I’m open to ideas.
I suggest keeping an eye on Hurricane Rafael as it enters the Gulf. It swept across Cuba yesterday as a category 3 storm, taking out the country’s power grid yet again. Two days ago, most forecasters were going with a model that showed the storm not growing larger than category 1. Now, as it warms and grows in the gulf, it appears as if it will make landfall somewhere between Houston and New Orleans potentially as strong as a category 4. And get this: Rafael may not be the last storm of the season. Waters in the Caribbean are still warm and there’s every reason to be concerned that we could see storms forming into December.
Okay, I’m struggling to remain coherent here. Let me give you a few headlines that are worth chasing and then I’m going to have to stop. Protests continue in Jerusalem after Netanyahu fires Israeli defense minister. Federal Reserve is set to cut interest rates again as post-election uncertainty grows. Abortion rights advocates prevailed in ballot measures in seven states, but that doesn’t resolve the issue. Scientists said 2024 will be the first year in which the planet is more than 1.5C hotter than in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period. Germany’s Coalition Collapses, Leaving the Government Teetering. Nissan plans 9,000 job cuts, slashes annual profit outlook.
All of those stories are concerning. I’d comment on each one but… I’m struggling to form complete sentences here. This probably isn’t the best day for me to be alone, but what choice do I have? The entire nation is in limbo.
Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I always am. I’ll just put everything on hold for another day. I’m sorry.
Tuesday Morning Update: 11/12/24
This Tuesday morning starts with a pretty decent frost outside. When I took the dogs out at 5:45, the air temperature was 36 degrees (Fahrenheit), cold enough to don gloves and remind myself that a hat is never a bad idea. Some of the neighbors’ trees are completely bare while ours still stubbornly holds on, waiting for a sub-freezing frost. This is the type of November I remember, the kind that makes me comfortable as the heater kicks on, reminding me of how privileged I am to not be out chopping wood. I’m not good at chopping wood. We would surely freeze to death if we relied on such.
Neither child said anything about school yesterday beyond, “It was okay.” We all remember those days when it seemed as though we weren’t learning anything, don’t we? Yet, at least for some of us, more information leaked into our brains than we realized. I’m assuming the same still happens on even the most boring of days.
Being a Girl Dad is still baffling me, though. Tipper came in, barely spoke, and then disappeared for the rest of the day. I didn’t see her again until this morning. She was dressed and on her way out the door, fifteen minutes earlier than necessary, when I stopped her and reminded her that we love her. The result was an eye roll and a half-hearted, “Love you, too,” as she headed for the door. I worry that there’s an eating disorder at play, but I have no way yet of proving it. The fridge is full of leftovers so the kids were free to choose whatever they wanted for dinner. I’m not sure Tipper ever came out of her room. Everything I read tells me this is a difficult and tumultuous time for teenage girls, but I’m not getting any usable advice. I love this child more than she can imagine. And I worry.
Kat did go to the salon for a little while. She took clients that weren’t especially difficult, and even that proved taxing. By the time she got back home, everything about her demeanor showed complete exhaustion. She’ll take today off, thankfully. I worry about Kat more than I do Tipper. She pushes herself too hard. She’s done that since she was 16. I don’t think she knows how to exist without pushing herself hard. I’m trusting that she’s listening more carefully to her body right now,
Fuck. An alert from my bank just informed me that an annual renewal I’d forgotten just came out. $104, gone, just like that, leaving a deficit of -$28. I can probably move things around and cover this one, but there are still $96 and $45 bills that can’t be avoided coming up before my check hits. Fortunately, the fridge and freezer are full of food. We’re doing okay there. The utilities are caught up. G’s birthday is this month, though, and the holidays are looking quite lean. Something else to worry about.
There’s a guest opinion piece in this morning’s New York Times with the title, “If You’re Sure How the Next Four Years Will Play Out, I Promise: You’re Wrong.” The author’s primary thesis is that we cannot predict the future with all its twists and turns. We all have to admit that he’s correct in such a statement. However, the issue I would take is that there are markers that indicate what is most likely to happen next. Those markers are what fuel our worries about the future. We’re not just guessing in the dark.
What are some of those markers? Let’s start with California Gov. Gavin Newsom will spend part of the week in DC as he tries to Trump-proof state policies. Gov. Newsom remembers the issues California faced the last time this felon was president. He’s rushing to see if there is any protection to be found in federal law. The problem is that any “help” the state receives now is most likely to be rolled back quickly by the new administration. They did this last time and there’s no reason to believe that it won’t happen again.
Round 2 in the Trump-vs-Mexico matchup looks ominous for Mexico. Relationships with our Southern neighbor didn’t go well under the first administration. This time around, however, Mexico has a new leftist president, The felon doesn’t have a good record when it comes to dealing with people who are too progressive for his taste. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has proven to be a tough, stand-your-ground stalwart, especially as she moved to completely upset that country’s court system. With the felon’s promise of mass deportations, the two leaders are likely to bump heads early and the outcome is not likely to be pretty.
Next up: Economics. A headline in this morning’s Times reads Europe Braces for Trump: ‘Worst Economic Nightmare Has Come True’. Think this is just fear-mongering? Already this morning, Global shares mostly declined, shrugging off Wall Street’s rally. Don’t trust what you see happening on Wall Street at the moment. The increases there are fueled by promises of tax breaks for the rich. The rest of the world, however, is not so enthused. The felon’s promises of severe tariffs, for which US citizens ultimately pay, thus setting off another round of inflation, have the rest of the world concerned about a global financial meltdown, similar to what we saw in 2008, thanks to Bush’s failed economic policies. Again, this could happen quite quickly once numbnuts is in office. Economies are global.
Then, there’s the immigration issue. Again, referencing this morning’s Times, which seems to have a better handle on domestic issues than other sources at the moment, Michelle Goldberg warns “If You Thought Trump Wasn’t Serious, Look at His First Appointments.” She points toward the same issues brought up in another article, “Trump Hires Show His Intent To Carry Out Immigration Crackdown.” What it all comes down to is Tom Holman and Stephen Miller, both of whom have a deep-seated hatred for immigrants. Holman has already said that “No one’s off the table in the next administration,” and yesterday confirmed that workplace raids would resume. Miller has said that Trump would cancel the temporary protected status of thousands of Afghans who fled here after the Taliban’s takeover. This is also the jackass who is in favor of using the National Guard to arrest migrants en masse. Want to see our national economy crumble? Take away all immigrants. The effect will be immediate.
With markers like that, how can we not worry? And to make matters worse, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is warning that the presidential transition team “is already breaking the law.” Sen. Warren would know because she wrote the applicable law! If there were any sign of the incoming corruption, this is it, written in neon and flashing brightly against a dark sky.
So, while we may not be able to accurately predict the exact events of the coming administration, we can predict the effects of those events and it is not going to be good. Even the people who voted for him, many thinking that his campaign rhetoric was hyperbole, are going to suffer. There’s no escaping the negative results of his plans. Our only hope is that the idiot suffers a heart attack or stroke that renders him ‘unable to fulfill the duties of his office.’ Perhaps a President Vance would gut current appointments and replace them with a more moderate selection. Or not. Again, we can’t see the future.
Not everything in the world is negative. I’m thrilled to report that 13 monkeys are still on the loose in South Carolina. Researchers have only been able to capture the majority because they were still in groups. The remaining escapees are more likely to be venturing out on their own. I wish them (the monkeys) the best.
Beyoncé and her legacy will be the subject of a new course at Yale. Of course, to take the class you have to actually be admitted as a student to Yale. Good luck with that. Still, the fact that the class exists is enough to rile right-wing nut jobs and that makes me happy.
Oh, this is fun: The UK has a deer problem. The current estimated deer population now tops two million. That’s a problem for a relatively small island nation. Complicating matters is that gun ownership in the country is extremely rare and difficult to obtain. While the government’s “solution” is to try and convince the people who eat the most bland food in the world that venison is good, no one has said who’s going to actually hunt down all those deer. Trust me, once a few are killed, the rest will go into hiding.
Oh, the big news locally is the conviction of Richard Allen on all counts related to the murders of two teenage girls. This conviction has taken forever as both the prosecution and defense have fucked around with evidence and judges for too many years before ever going to trial. Will there be an appeal? Oh yeah. Allen’s wife was heard saying on her way out of the courthouse, “This is far from over.” With all the pre-trial stupidity that went on, there’s plenty of likely ground for it to be overturned, and if that happens the prosecution is almost certain to appeal the appeal. I’ll probably be dead before a final verdict is ever reached.
Saks Fifth Avenue’s holiday light display in Manhattan is changing up this season. One of the seasonal thrills of living in New York this time of year, besides the big tree at Rockefeller Center, is “window shopping” the holidays at Manhattan’s biggest stores. Saks is celebrating its 100th anniversary by lighting the whole building, not just the windows. Unfortunately, my broke ass can’t be there to take pictures. Perhaps someone (looking at you, Joe Lombardo), can slip over and take some photos for us. I’m sure it is a marvelous sight to behold.
Is that enough to distract us from the horrors that are about to unfold? Momentarily, perhaps, but reality still lingers in the back of our minds no matter how much colorful joy we try to put upfront. For now, I’ll eat breakfast and take my meds like a good boy, then probably take a nap because that’s what I do best now. I slept from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM yesterday. I even missed my 2:00 alarm. I don’t enjoy this cancerous existence at all.
But hey, the coffee’s hot.
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