Morning Update
Taking the dogs out early this morning, I’m reminded of the opening words to a 1978 song by Crystal Gale: “Three O’clock in the morning, and it looks like it’s gonna be another sleepless night.” So, it was 4:00, not 3, and I slept earlier in the night, just not now. It’s my own damn fault. I went to bed around 7:30 without taking the dogs out one last time. As a result, Belvedere was standing on my chest and licking my face at 3:45, letting me know that some outside time was absolutely critical. The only upside of this situation is that the cats aren’t yowling for breakfast yet.
Oh, but be sure, Kronk, aka Pinball, and Solaris are right here doing their best to help me type. That’s why I’m going ahead and taking care of the update now. They’re not going to let me go back to sleep just yet. I have coffee that’s helping keep my eyes open. There will, without apology, be an early nap this morning.
My visit to the oncologist yesterday was probably the best I’ve had in a couple of years. All the numbers were where they needed to be. Even my glucose was lower than its been in a year. As long as this trend continues, I’ll be able to go off the chemo in March and won’t need to take any continuing medication for the Leukemia. We’ll still have to check in every once in a while and make sure those white blood cell numbers aren’t going back up, but at this point, we’re rather hopeful that our days of chemo are short-lived. We just have to survive the next few months.
The kids are in full fall break mode. Tipper spent the night, and possibly the weekend, with her friend. G is making final plans to leave for Florida with his friend on Monday. I’d say that I miss them, but the animals are doing a good job of making sure that they keep my attention. Hamilton has been especially needy of late. At least the animals don’t fuss about what we’re having for dinner.
We’re a week out from Helene making landfall. The storm’s death toll has climbed past 225, but many people remain unaccounted for. Despite the fact that the storm dumped 40 trillion gallons of water over the Southeast, clean drinking water is nowhere to be found. The lack of electric power isn’t helping. Of course, one bad turn generates another. Yellow jackets, who normally live in the ground, are swarming since they don’t have any place to rebuild their nests. North Carolina is distributing Benadryl and EpiPens to help deal with the allergic reactions. Helene’s powerful storm surge killed 12 near Tampa. Now, some are asking whether their deaths were preventable. I question the efficacy of second-guessing a storm that was quite determined to do its own thing. The number of deaths is tragic, but we have to realize that storms like Helene are so deadly because they do the unexpected. The next big storm to come along will almost certainly behave differently. Guessing what a storm is going to do is ultimately a fool’s game. The official Atlantic hurricane season ends in November, but with two more storms churning at sea, experts warned it might last into December. Make no bets as to what might happen.
Grumpy weather is a problem elsewhere in the world as well. Death toll in worst Bosnian floods in years rises to 16. The Brazil drought sinks the Amazon rainforest port river level to a 122-year low. Meanwhile, it’s elephants that are at risk from floods in Thailand. This is the new reality. Get used to it.
A reality I’ll never accept quietly, though, is how stupid people are allowed to disrupt life for the rest of us. There are a couple of stories that stick out to me this morning. In the first, the Heritage Foundation, the same people that brought you the insane Project 2025, are harassing NASA with Freedom of Information requests asking for internal emails. A foundation executive told Reuters that this “is part of that organization’s ongoing push to help Trump weed out uncooperative civil servants if he is reelected to the White House in November.” It’s unfathomable to me that these actions are even remotely legal. All the more reason to vote for Democrats up and down the ticket.
In a move that violates the First Amendment clause against religious establishment, Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Schools wants to put Trump Bibles in the classroom. Where this push runs afoul of the law is the intent to use public funds to pay for the books. If it were done with private funds, the move might be legal. Using tax dollars, however, makes it a government establishment of religion, in violation of the First Amendment. Folks out in Oklahoma need to take Ryan Waters to the woodshed.
Oh, but before we forget, you probably should clean the filter in your dishwasher. Today. You’re killing yourself.
When does child abuse end? Apparently never. A 75-year-old mother has been charged with letting her 40-year-old paralyzed daughter lie on the floor for a week after falling out of bed. Reading stories like this makes my head hurt. The fact that this happened here in Indy is downright frightening, partly because I know there are too many people who would respond exactly the same way this mother did. Indy has some mean old people.
Not that the kids are any better. IMPD took three juveniles into custody yesterday after leading police on a high-speed chase following a string of robberies. As shocking as it may be that teenagers are pulling stunts like this, we’re at a point where it seems logical to assume that they’re learning this behavior from the adults, including grandparents, who are around them.
At least there’s football. Although, given the fact that I’m awake so damn early raises questions as to whether I’ll be conscious when this afternoon’s games kick-off. Purdue is at Wisconsin. IU attempts to keep its winning streak alive at Northwestern. Georgia clashes with Auburn. Oklahoma State hosts West Virginia. Tennessee goes on the road to Arkansas. Oklahoma and Texas both have the week off. We’ll see how many of them I spend time watching.
Ugh. One more act of sheer stupidity just popped up. An Idaho state representative told an indigenous candidate to ‘go back where you came from.’ Witnesses at the bipartisan forum describe the Republican representative’s outburst as “a complete meltdown” that scared their children. Seriously, are there no sane people left in the world that we are forced to put up with this level of incivility? Really?
You know, most Saturdays I struggle to find anything newsworthy that isn’t a rehash of what we covered during the week. Why the fuck is there so much nonsense this morning?
We’re looking at a beautiful weekend here in the Midwest. Get out and do something enjoyable if you can. Love your family. Pet your dogs. Feed your cats. Take naps.
Most importantly, don’t forget the coffee.
Morning Update: 10/27/24
Our world seems turned on edge and twisted sideways. Kat’s beyond sick. She’s thoroughly exhausted, and one condition aggravates the other. I think she’d be better off staying in Fishers and resting. The kids and I have moderate control of things here at home. No one’s going to die—probably. Whether she’ll take that offer remains to be seen. G mopped the living room floor yesterday and judging by all the dirty dishes in the sink this morning, Tipper must have cleaned her room after I went to bed. There’s still plenty more to do today, but the kids understand the assignment better than one might think.
Meanwhile, I’m struggling to stay upright. The only game I was able to watch yesterday was Oklahoma State losing to Baylor, 28-38, and boy was that disappointing. OSU beat themselves with the most penalties they’ve had all season. They stayed with Baylor through the first half, but never really got things moving in the second.
In the middle of the game, I stepped outside with the dogs and realized how unaware we had been of what was going on practically in our front yard.
What you can’t see in the picture is that there are two people in handcuffs. Apparently, they led police on a bit of a chase and made the mistake of turning into our neighborhood. When police boxed them in, which is easy to do here, they took off running in our direction. That didn’t work out well for them, either. Hamilton was excited and barked at everyone. Belvedere watched for a minute and then wandered off to poop on the other side of the yard. It would take over an hour for jail transport to arrive and a tow truck to retrieve their vehicle. The bad news for them was good news for the neighborhood, though. There were so many cops at the intersection that no one was able to run the stop sign!
It’s official: Indiana is at risk of becoming a literal hell hole. I’ve never liked Mike Braun in the first place. He’s an asshat. But it’s his running mate, a Christian nationalist from the affluent conclave of Noblesville, who is the real danger. This is one of the reasons we have a McCormick for Governor sign in our yard. Ms. McCormick is the only chance we have to prevent losing our state government to religious fundamentalists who are every bit as restrictive and horrible as the Taliban. No exaggeration. This race is that serious.
But hey, at least Indiana football is making waves! With a national audience watching, the Hoosiers took care of Washington, 31-17. I had expected this game to be a bit closer, but IU hit the field ready to keep Washington’s offense off the field and gave fans a great game. Who would have ever thought that the one thing Indiana is getting right is football?
Upstate, Notre Dame handed Navy their first loss, 51-14. The Irish are trying to prove that they’re worthy of playing for the national title, despite the early season loss to Northern Illinois. I’m not sure their efforts will be rewarded, though, given the tougher schedules other teams are playing.
Officiating was once again the issue as Ohio State narrowly escaped Nebraska, 21-17. And Texas almost fell to Vanderbilt, squeaking out a win 27-24. OU was just an embarrassment, losing to Ole Miss, 14-26.
Frankie, the smashed-face wheezer kitty, has knocked my monitor off the desk twice and keeps turning off the desk lamp while I’m trying to type. I’ve removed him from the desk more times than I care to count and he keeps coming back. He’s quite insistent that I need to be done typing and paying attention to him. Frankie doesn’t give a shit about football or much of anything else as long as he gets fed on time and has a comfortable place (my chair) to sleep.
I think I’m going to refill my coffee cup and maybe make some biscuits for breakfast. I don’t really feel up to making gravy, but the kids don’t like gravy anyway so that won’t be much of a problem. The high today in Indy is a mild 63, so warm food is going to feel good.
Be safe, my friends.
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