Stumbling Through Adulthood

1. We were a bit late because of a major accident on I5 that delayed us by about 45 minutes, but we did get to the Hands Off event in Bellingham. Lots of cool signs, lots of people... mainly very young and very old, with older millenials and younger GenX very much absent. The sign that made me cry: one with the iconic red-white-and-blue drawing of Kamala Harris and the caption "It didn't have to be this way."

2. Apparently Trump has said that we're on track to eliminate the capital gains tax in 2025. LOLSOB, that's because there aren't going to be any gains. And let's not even talk about the stock markets. Holy hell. It was nice thinking we might be able to retire someday.

3. So many things to do this week. I'm flying down to Bend next weekend and seem to have accumulated quite a few Things That Must Be Done before then. Ugh. And on top of that, I'm trying to plan summer stuff (hikes and the like) and I need to talk to my boss about my schedule starting in May. I'm very concerned, from what he's said last week, that he going to want me to "be flexible" but that's not going to fly for me. It seems, however, that all the power is his, that this is not something I really have any negotiating power on. So anyhow, I need to talk to him and I'm dreading it.

I don't know why Trump and the Muskrats are so intent on destroying US science. I don't understand, period. It makes no sense, not financially, not in the context of US dominance over science, not in any way. Yeah, scientists proved Trump was an idiot re Covid. And yes, vaccines work, and we have an anti-vaxxer or two at the top of the hierarchy and all that, but what really is the point of setting science in the US back at least a decade or two? I get that they want to destroy American universities, but the targeted cuts to science and scientists seem to be part of that plan but also seem to be much too high a price in collateral damage to pay to attain that goal. None of this makes sense.

But also.

They desperately want to go back to the 50s, that much is clear. To a time when men -white men- were the only game in town, where women stayed at home and "colored" were only visible in subservient positions. No birth control easily available and sex a risky choice for women. A time, obviously, of segregation and racism, and paternalism and patriarchy.

But also.

It was also a time of educational expansion, the GI Bill (for white men) allowed so many to get college degrees and move to comfortable lives. Of good solid public schools for (white) kids. A time of scientific and technological progress that was often funded by the government and allowed the US to dominate in science and tech for the last 80 years.

Are they forgetting or ignoring that part of the 50s?

We're more diverse now, and that's a good thing. I get that they hate it, but our success at a scientific and technical nation from back when until came despite our lack of diversity not because of it.

It never works to destroy the intellectuals. I know they think AI can replace all those scientists, that the private sector will pick up the baton, but neither of those things are going to happen. The scientific private sector is fueled by the discoveries enabled by NIH, they don't have the will or the money to do the basic research. So this makes no sense.

Do they really want to emulate the Soviets and Lysenkoism, Mao and the Greap Leap Forward, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge? Or recreate the brain drain that happened in Germany as Hitler rose to power and after with our help via Operation Paperclip? I know they're idiots but it still seems to make no sense.

Note: some of their decisions do make sense, disgusting as they are: they despise poor and darker people and much of the cutting of programs is based on their core principle, the only one they truly follow, of "the cruelty is the point". They're cruel for the pure joy of it.

1. Poor sweet BamBam had another seizure today, 5 months or so after the last one. By chance, he had a vet appointment scheduled. No obvious causes, he seems to be recovering nicely (he just jumped up to the counter with no issues). They still do not recommend meds. Sigh. Poor boy. And my poor boyo who was there with him when it happened, though I guess he called for dh right away and they sat with the poor kitty. Aside from that, a truly unremarkable vet visit. We declined the blood work since last time it showed nothing but also that his kidney function was still normal, so.

2. I applied online for a passport renewal last Sunday afternoon. I received my new passport today. That's.... pretty incredibly fast. I mean, kudos to the passport folks in Tuscon and it's nice to see that right now that's still something Melon Husk and Little Marco haven't managed to fuck up. I'll add that I am a cis woman who has never changed her name, so no issues there.

3. In typical PNW fashion. Last night was partly clear. I was outside several times during the first phase of the lunar eclipse and while misty, the skies were still clearish. Then about 35 seconds after the start of "totality" the clouds rolled in. I could still see some through the binocs but barely naked eye. Dh got some terrible photos. We have a zoom lens and a wide-angle lens that is good for astrophotography... he insists on using the latter for moon photos even though all the things I've seen online say to use the zoom lens, zoomed in. So yeah. Blah.

I have Juneteenth off, and it falls on a Thursday this year.

I'd planned on taking Friday off and going to Fairbanks for four days. Long weekend and midnight sun, right before my birthday.

But then...

After this past week, I am not inclined to toss any money at all into red state economies. I'm going to seriously limit my spending, buy local or thrift as it is, and going to Alaska seemed like a bad start to this plan. Side note: if Linnea goes to Nationals this year, I'm happy that it's in NJ. Won't have to support Ohio's economy.

So.

We booked a trip to Iceland instead. Evening flight on Wednesday, getting into KEF at 7am or so Thursday, "night" flight out on Sunday.

No internal plans yet. We might camp. We might not. We will probably rent a car. I need to renew my passport asap. No real darkness for four days. OMG.

Whee!

It's been less than two weeks and we've already descended into chaos. They are busy taking over the Federal government with the goal of dismantling "the administrative state".

Courtney Milan wrote the following: We are at the stage of oligarchy in this country where we’ve been bought by private equity and they’re currently transferring all the assets to their own pockets and leaving us with the debts.

Yeah.

I have so much to write about. The new admin. My job. And most importantly, the visit to my aunt and so much stuff around her planned death.

So much stuff and I don't seem to be able to start.

Ah well. Maybe tonight.

This might be more than three things! It's been a while since I've written, and it's been hectic. Mostly good, but hectic. Or maybe I'll keep my work rants for another thread.

1. Christmas. My sister and BIL came up from Bend, bravely bringing my mom. Tuesday, I cooked Christmas Eve dinner, it was delicious and oh, hey, hectic and exhausting, since I was also cooking things for brunch in Vancouver the following day. It came together more or less ok. It's much easier to make these big holiday meals now that dh has taken over all the meat cooking on the smoker, lol. Prime rib this time. We also made two briskets and two double-smoked hams to be frozen for Anne-Chloe and Linnea. Christmas Day, we drove up to Vancouver and had a good visit with my aunt. It was good to see her, she honestly is looking a lot better this fall than she did last summer. Surprisingly, she kept on talking about how she needed to start a walking program again and seemed to be talking much longer term than March, which is when she has her Date set for. Sigh. The people who see her on regular basis tell us she's very excited about MAID and so very positive about it, but I still get worried when she makes long-term plans that are not compatible with two more months of living. The only desperately sad part of the visit is when we had to leave -my mom was done- JoAnn seemed to think she was coming with us. We helped her through it, and made sure the front desk knew she was restless, but it made both me and my sister cry. Also, a shout-out to Linnea, who came with us. She is SO freaking good with my mom and JoAnn. Also positive, talking to them like they are her homies, and they absolutely love it and both light up at any conversation with her. That kid is a gem. Anyhow, got home at about 6, and did our presents. Everyone got stuff they liked and wanted! Linnea got me a 1950s bead necklace that I'd been coveting and Perry and AC got me a Le Creuset bread baking bell or whatever it's called. Not in the color I'd wanted, but I'm SO excited! Since Christmas Eve was hectic and my SIL, MIL, and nephew were there, we didn't do presents then, so we still have to see Anne-Chloe to give her hers.

2. My dumb-ass bitch of a SIL managed to throw a wrench into Christmas Eve preparations, making everything more stressful than it should have been. She decided that her son needed to make a "box" for his girlfriend, and asked dh if he could help. Dh, being an idiot at times, said sure, thinking we'd been talking a small box, and he carefully told her sister about where to get a kit that would help. At 1pm on Christmas Eve my MIL and nephew show up with.... three 12inx1inx8ft pieces of lumber. So dh has to spend the after when he was supposed to be helping prep things essentially making a 4x4 box for his nephew's girlfriend. No, I don't get it either. And that also meant that my MIL, who is negative and annoying, was here all afternoon, getting in the way in the kitchen and wanting to bitch about her neighbors to anyone who would listen. This added a lot of stress, and I'm still angry. I should have known there were going to be problems when dh told his sister that sure, Robert could come a bit early, and he'd help. Tbc, I'm not angry with dh, but with my stupid bitch of a SIL who routinely disposes of other people's time.

3. This is perhaps the truest two sentences on climate action ever written:

Avoiding climate breakdown will require cathedral thinking. We must lay the foundation while we may not know exactly how to build the ceiling. Greta Thunberg

House. Senate. Presidency. And a Supreme Court that has given him immunity.

I can't begin to comprehend how bad that is.

1. I think we win the House tomorrow.

2. I think we lose the Senate big time and will probably never regain it.

3. I'm still scared about the presidency. I think she blows out the popular vote, but I'm afraid to hope that all those votes will be in the right place.

4. In Washington state, I think the R, a scumbag of the first order, is going to win the governorship. He's a well-known quantity who is hiding his Trumpism well.

I vary between optimism and deep dank existential fear. I don't want to live in a world where white conservative men are triumphant and I'm terrified that that might be the outcomes. Misogyny ascendent.

Fingers crossed, people!

I like that alliteration.

1. Mice. Call me the Grim Reaper. I've going to have to euthanize 12 -at least, possibly as many as 15- cages of mice (three singletons, 12 pairs). All of them -except one cage- are past their breeding age, and we need pups. 😭 And let me tell you. In the era of JD Vance making it clear that post-menopausal women have no societal use beyond taking care of grandkids, euthanizing a bunch of too-old-to-breed mice is kinda adding to the horror of this. I need to find a new job. One without mice or anything else than bacteria, plants, or nematodes. I need to keep this one for a while longer so. The upside is that I have a small bit of research project to do. But mice.

2. The glory and the no-so-glory, LOL. Start with the latter. I bought a pair of leggings from amazon. Size XL, which should have been on the edge of big according to numbers. Too small. I returned and ordered... a pair of XXL, which just fit, they'll work, though after wearing them for an hour, they're weird and I wish I hadn't taken off the tags. I've been consistently wearing Ls in bottoms for a while now, so the XXL both vexed me and made me laugh at myself. In other weight loss news... My weight in kg finally starts with a 6. This is a major major fucking milestone for me, and a number I never ever EVER thought I'd see again. These medications are fucking miraculous.

3. Christmas is turning into a CF. My aunt -who will be availing herself of MAID in March, so this is her last Christmas- was going to come but then decided no, she'd come down to Bend so she can see my mom over November 11th. My brother, who wants to see my aunt and my mom, decided that he didn't want to fly over the holidays either and is planning on coming down early December. Christmas falls on a Wed which means to go to Bend, I'd need to take at least 2 days, and with only having 10 days a year of vacay, using two on a pre-planned trip last April etc, I'm pretty tight on vacation if I want to be able to take off more than a few days next summer. All this is complicated by the fact that my sister has said that if we don't come down for Christmas, she's leaving my mom and taking off for a beach somewhere with her spouse. I just don't know what to do. I drew my line which is my mom spending Christmas alone, so I might just have to have her up here while my sister travels, which is of course complicated by getting her here etc. Ideally everyone would such it up and actually spend the holidays here with me. We could do a Christmas Eve dinner, have brunch and drive up to Canada to spend a few hours with my aunt. But nobody is budging. I don't know what to do. My siblings are usually more flexible than this. Also, corollary about the vacation to the beach blackmail thing. I spent the last year I had free taking care of my mom. I took no vacations for a year (my sister took three or four that year). I had wanted my mom to go to memory care right away because this was clearly not a good solution, but sister insisted that she could come live with her as soon as the remodel was done. Fast forward the remodel is done, my mom is in memory care, which was now and would have been then, the right decision for her, she's doing great. Sister is still taking vacations to far off places and I'm stuck, again having spent the year I had planned on spending doing a lot of travel unable to go anywhere. So grr. Usually I'm on the same page as my siblings but two are retired and two have a lot more vacay than I do.