Morning Update: 07/23/24

Yesterday was too much fun. I ate a PBJ (sugar-free bread and jelly) around 8:00 so I could take my meds. Then, a little before 11:00, our friend Jennifer picked me up to go “look for snakes.” Looking for snakes is code for walking around in nature and hoping we see something interesting. I keep hoping for bears but that hasn’t happened yet. We went to Brown County State Park and walked the circumference of Ogle Lake. No bears. We did get a lot of pictures, though, and I’ll post those separately later this morning. There is one image we’ll need your help with trying to identify what the hell I caught inside a dead log. It’s legs glow.

We got back around 6:00 PM. The dogs were extremely happy to see me as no one had let them out while I was gone. Amazingly, there were no accidents. Tipper had slept most of the afternoon and G was busy gaming. I was exhausted, not having had any naps, but I knew if I went to bed that early I’d be up at 3:00 or some horrible time. Kat came home, made omelets for dinner (which were delicious), and I finished processing yesterday’s photos. By the time I did go to bed, I was able to sleep all night without interruption. That’s winning in my book.

A couple of interesting developments. First, G is on a fitness streak, thanks to Kat, and has started running on his own. He got up with his alarm this morning at 5:30 and went running through the neighborhood. At the gym, he’s steadily increasing the weight he’s lifting. If this continues once school starts, and there’s no reason to think it won’t, the kid’s going to be jacked by Xmas. This could be fun to watch.

I bent down to pick up the dogs’ bowls this morning, though, and immediately became lightheaded. That is not a fun development. While there might be extenuating factors in that 1) I’ve not eaten yet, and 2) I’ve not had meds yet, it’s still one of those things that hasn’t happened before and if it continues happening will warrant a conversation with the doctor. I’m not especially looking forward to the visit with the GP on Friday as it is. I don’t need any new problems cropping up.

Yesterday was a bit surprising in how well I was able to handle the trail around the lake. While we weren’t setting any speed records since we were stopping and taking pictures every few feet, there were sufficient challenges that, on a more difficult day, might have caused a problem or two. We made it through the day without me falling in, over, or down, which I think is an improvement. I didn’t even bother taking a cane along and, for the most part, did just fine. I really would like for the whole mobility issue to continue getting better.

What’s going on in the rest of the world? Well, let’s start with the fact that VP Kamala Harris now has all the votes she needs to clinch the Democratic nomination for President at the August convention. Along with that came a massive fundraising effort (to the point of being annoying yesterday) that raised a whopping $81 million yesterday. That was exactly the type of response needed to get her campaign off to a strong start and yes, it has the GOP shaking in their boots a bit. Expect them to fall back on racist and sexist statements, not to mention insinuations about her connection to the Biden administration. Last night, at a rally in Virginia, GOP VP candidate JD Vance said, “But my friends, Kamala Harris is a million times worse and everybody knows it. She signed up for every single one of Joe Biden’s failures, and she lied about his mental capacity to serve as president.” Anyone who falls for that line misunderstands the role of Vice President.

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle may be looking for a new job soon as her testimony before Congress yesterday drew calls from both sides of the aisle for her resignation. Yes, she had answers for every question, but at the end of the day, regardless of what one’s politics are, her team allowed a shooter to come close to assassinating a presidential candidate. The more analysts look at the situation, the worse it looks for the Secret Service. The event was something for which someone has to be held responsible, and Cheatle is where the buck stops.

If you’re looking for a sort of heartwarming story in the midst of all this chaos, there’s the AP account of a Rapper in Puerto Rico who’s also a doctor and is making house calls. I didn’t realize that the island has had such a dramatic loss in the number of physicians, over 8,600 doctors out of nearly 18,800 in just over a decade. That the rapper is putting music on hold while he helps the poorest of people in his country is the kind of good news we all need.

Unfortunately, a war criminal is visiting the US this week. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, arranged for the Israeli Prime Minister to speak to a joint session of Congress. However, as the Gaza war has raged on and an increasing number of allegations against Netanyahu have come from the International Criminal Court, the Prime Minister may find himself less than welcome. In fact, the worry over protests is so great that the Speaker has threatened to arrest anyone who makes a scene on the House floor (which is against Congressional rules of decorum, anyway). The Prime Minister is lagging in popularity at home and as Palestinian factions agree to form a unity government, he likely will find that even US Jews are less than enthused with how Netanyahu is handling the war.

Almost everyone is back up and running after Friday’s tech outage, except for Delta Airlines. The company CEO, Ed Bastian, is on the hot seat with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, telling him that he expects the airline to provide hotels and meals for travelers who are delayed and to issue quick refunds to customers who don’t want to be rebooked on a later flight. “No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent.” That’s not news the airline is going to enjoy hearing, but that’s the law and at this point, travelers are crazy to not take advantage of the cash refunds.

I’m arguing with myself over exactly what needs to happen today. I want to get those pictures from yesterday posted for you, but I really need to take TIpper on a bus ride today as well. With rain in the forecast for tomorrow, this is the best day to familiarize her with the route she’ll take to school. The yard could use some attention as well, but I’m pretty sure that after skipping naps yesterday my body is going to insist on taking them today.

So, off we go. Frankie would tell you hi, but he’s snoring. Loudly. So is Hamilton, for that matter. Do you think they’re trying to tell me something?