What a week

Bursting with emotional response, this past week was one for the history books. From the Afghan airlift of US citizens and SIVs and refugees fearing for their lives to the methodic, slow movement of flag-draped coffins of 13 young US service members – 11 men and 2 women – who gave their lives in line of duty, coming off a plane at Dover with a US President in attendance – something I do not ever remember seeing before in my life. Video here…

We have a hurricane beating the shit out of New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana pretty much, Haitians trying to contend with mudslides from an earthquake the week before while the Siberian wilderness burns in a fire bigger than ALL of the other fires on this planet put together right now.

Americans are doing the milk crate challenge, being inundated with false information on the internet on covid, fighting like hell to stop our politicians from squashing the voting rights of all Americans with their suppression tactics on full, unabashed display.(side note* we really need to get the For the People Act PASSED this is vital to our democracy and equality) And squabbling amongst ourselves about masks and shots, anti-vaxers in abundance with ivermectin as a cross to bear. As the turmoil of racism stirs just below the epidermis of American skin of all colors. Slowly we divide into smaller tribes and even covid bubbles once again.

All the while America remains viciously divided by a smorgasbord of political party, mask mandates, vaccinations and on how the Afghan airlift is being conducted. We are mostly in agreement that the war needs to be ended, but divided on how it’s being executed – most of which falls squarely on party affiliation. Any president overseeing an operation like the withdrawal from Afghanistan which was previously put into motion by the former administration, would be drawing a hella lot of opposing party criticism on this issue..

The eviction moratorium ended per a Supreme Court decision…the cost of everything from cardboard, food, essentials and gas has been on a steady rise with no signs of relenting. Thousands more will be added to the rolls of the homeless and threatened. People are hurting around the world because of this pandemic, yet we STILL have deniers. There’s something every person wants or needs right now that they are being kept from because of Covid-19, be it the ability to just go shopping without pre-thinking about germ exposure or travelling and living in fear of other travelers, we’re all being held back in many ways and it’s not fun.

Biden is handling a LOT and he’s keeping his cool. Can you even imagine what the last guy would be tweeting and squibbling about on Fox News right about now if he were still in the White House? I am pretty proud of how Joe has been handling his myriad of issues from Covid vaccines to the Afghan airlift and pull-out. He has the hardest job in this country in making decisions and taking actions that he understands will affect the lives of 320 million people every day. It’s his job to protect this country and to uphold the honorable standing of America (*ha…this can be disputed to death). At least he’s DOING his job and he’s gotten legislation passed that will positively affect this country from top to bottom (*Infrastructure bill). I have confidence that he will get us out of Afghanistan, perhaps not unscathed, and he’ll get the troops home. His commanding generals are the best, if they do their jobs as instructed we will be free of this war yet. Ending a 20 year, 4 presidency war is no joke and it’s not an easy task – or it would have already been done. Joe is doing the hard stuff. Stuff that needed doing for American interests. He’ll be vilified by the right and it’s the job of us who care to hold him up and support his difficult decisions; trusting is always so fucking hard.

My week wasn’t bad except for a deep, prolonged sadness at the loss of our troops. It’s triggered thoughts of my military days and how lucky I was not to have lost those serving beside me. The Cold War years were different, it was a quiet hostility we faced; an assination attempt on our President at the time (Reagan) and counter terrorism on a very different level. Loud bangs still bother me, my PTSD is more triggered by knowing what those troops are going through over there in a foreign land with the threat of terrorism all around them. It’s triggered by knowing that Afghan women and girls are in mortal danger if they are left behind. Life under Taliban rule, Islamic doctrine to be followed, will be sheer hell on women in particular – especially those who have known nothing other than the relative peace of having Americans there keeping the Taliban at bay for the last 20 years. I fear the tragedies ahead.

As we pull out the next 36 hours will be very tense – we’ve already taken on rocket fire and destroyed a truck headed for the airport laden with explosives…who knows what’s next as troops are being airlifted out now…that last flight will be the most tense with no ground cover…but we HAVE to end American participation in this endless war. It’s the right thing to do.

…now we start another week, let’s hope it’s a recovery week for everyone’s sake.

Peace… MB

And Then Came Covid…

We first started to hear whispers of a virus raising hell in Wuhan China, they were forcing people into isolation and a militarized lockdown in the late fall of 2019, In January we had our first case in America. Short news reports, nothing major…prior to that…then in March the clouds burst, first it was a dozen people in Seatle then thousands followed. Trump didn’t know WTF to do, he had not planned for a pandemic in the midst of an election season thus he was dumbfounded and fumbled the football on the 50 yd. line for hell’s sake. He cost thousands of US lives with his hesitancy to make a plan to battle the virus’s spread and keep people safe So then next came:

**Lockdown 2020, living in isolation, ie. the lockdown #1, long boring days listening to news reports, an idiot president making it worse, Anthony Fauci telling the truth, a fast spreading pandemic costing thousands of US lives, fighting between political parties on how to handle it – or ignore it -, talk of hoaxed, shooting bleach, masks, social distancing, testing, testing, testing, waves 1, 2, 3…now 4. Vaccine deployment by the Biden Administration, nurses and doctors working endlessly, first responders getting burned out, long waits for ambulance service, mass build up of dead bodies, mobile morgues, death. The vaccine roll out starts in January 2021 in fits and starts, Once over 50% are vaccinated people begin to travel again and socialize and wham, wave #4 arrives – the delta variant.

Now it’s August 2021, not only do we have a HUGE problem with Covid we are getting burned out by 18 months of fighting amongst ourselves and watching our country fall apart in so damned many ways. During this 18 mere months we have watched cops kill black men, George Floyd dying in front of our eyes on television, white supremacists kill a white woman (Heather Heyer) in Charlottesville, the march of the white right and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, juxtaposition extremes. Racism is on the rise, hate fills so many, fear fills many more. Mass shooting are abundant and gun violence is on the rise faster than ever before. Now we also have the ending of a 20yr war that’s falling apart in front of the whole world as the world cries out in protest while our country cries and the unvaccinated die.

It;s getting old I said, this virus and lockdown shit. And now 99% of the new infections are among unvaccinated individuals, 33% of them children under 12, 58% white, 10% black over 60% Republicans — and they’re hell bent on not stopping this and opening the country for full on intermingling and business. Imperialism.

Boosters available starting on September 20th, doled out once again in order of risk for the virus. I am eligible on Dec 21st. I am frustrated with the deniers, anti-vaxxers and misinformation maniacs. We must become more ACTION oriented with covid – as a whole, united people – to conquer it once and for all.

So, you ask, how was my 2020? Fucked up!!! And now I am really NOT wishing to remain on this path thru the end of 2021, but it looks like that’s the way it will be. There were some good things, like more quiet time to write or read, study and research. I have become enamoured with documentaries and historical content films. I love bonfires on quiet nights, kungering through the woods for firewood beforehand. I’ve enjoyed my hobbies more and time with my dogs. I dream of much better days though, the freedom to travel once again and move around at will without having to stop and go back to the car for a damned facemask.

Make good choices people. Make good choices.

Peace ~~ MB

**Throw our Afghanistan problem in for good measure…yeah we can walk and chew gum, sure….not.

Calamities

It’s going to get worse once again, before it get’s better. Covid-19 the Delta variant is racing around the world chewing up those who are without vaccinations and so virulent that it’s caused some breakthrough infections in .01% of the vaccinated – specifically those with other immune compromising conditions. In other words, here we go AGAIN with this vicious pandemic.

Here in Maine they have even found the coronavirus19 in the white tailed DEER population. So, we are NOT alone, this virus will infect anything that breathes. It’s going to be a problem for years to come at this rate. I only wish the “doubters” and “deniers” and anti-vaxxers would come around and see – and UNDERSTAND – the science and get real about prevention and vaccinations.

If they keep up their current posture on this it will keep the pandemic in a vicious cycle of replication to deadlier and deadlier variants. And, even with an improved view on vaccinations and proper protective protocol we will continue to fight the variants of this virus into the future. So, prepare for yearly boosters, better to be safe than sorry.

I’ve had a helluva week, you know, one of those weeks where the shit hits the fan…over and over again?

First my dog came up with an abscessed tooth that had to be treated, plus needed antibiotics and pain meds…cha-ching$$…she didn’t eat for a couple of feedings but now she’s back to normal and chewing on her bones.

My glasses are DONE. I’ve broken the newest pair so many times and super glued them back together…plus they are an older prescription and not working as well for me anymore. So I got my eyes tested and got a new script. Went and ordered new glasses on Tuesday in Portland. Because I wear no-line bifocals and like the digitized lenses I have to wait for them to be made and shipped to me. That was another huge expense, glasses plus prescription sun glasses too.

I am in the midst of having to replace my car. I finally settled on a 2011 Equinox and agreed to purchase it, only to arrive home afterwards to find that my house refrigerator had ended it’s life while I was out dealing with having to get new eyeglasses and securing the newer car. I lost most of the food inside of it as everything had basically thawed and come to room temperature. So there’s another big expense…

Then the refridgerator delivery guys arrive, come into the house and WHAM! Nola BITES one of them! The guy was wearing shorts, so he had bare legs and she did break the skin on the back of his right calf. It wasn’t bad, no blood or anything like that but hard enough so he winced and it did leave a mark. I was mortified to say the least. Luckily the young man brushed it off, after we cleaned it up with peroxide and made him feel safer. She HAS had all her shots and I do have copies of all the records on hand.

So, as you can see it WAS a long string of minorly unfortunate events. I kept my cool though and just dealt with whatever was happening in front of me at the moment. Made things MUCH easier to separate from and go into the solution mode of operation without stressing over the calamity of events.

The pollen count here is currently skyrocketing because the goldenrod, a weed that blooms a golden yellow, is going crazy blooming early due to the rains and cooler weather, it thinks it’s time, so POOF! let’s blow pollen all over everyone and make them all miserable. Now, I don’t have allergies BUT goldenrod in high concentration does mess with my sinuses and gives me headaches, like this evening’s headache.

Field of Goldenrod in Southern Maine

My new wheels

So, it’s been a mixed bag of misfortune turned opportunity this week for me. I’m hoping the crisises are over for a little while.

How has your week been? What’s the covid situation where you are? Do you wear your protective mask in public spaces?

Catch ya’ll later. Peace! – MB