Morning Update: 07/01/24
Congratulations, we’ve made it through the first six months of the year. I don’t know about you, but it certainly feels as though it’s been more than six months. Eight or nine is more like it. Isn’t Christmas around the corner or something? Happy Canada Day to those of you who celebrate. Happy “Oh Crap It’s Monday” to the rest of you. The Supreme Court is ready to hand down at least three more disastrous decisions today. Your boss likely wants you to get five days’ worth of work done in three. The kids have less than a month left to summer vacation.
Fireworks in the neighborhood got the best of Hamilton last night. He cuddled up close and I softly reassured him that everything was okay as neighbors callously fired one noisy munition after another until well past 10:30. He’s been okay with the noises during the day so far. During the day he can see that there’s no imminent danger. When it’s dark, though, he doesn’t know that. At night, he’s 65 pounds of tense muscle ready to spring at anything that might be an attack. At the moment, it’s looking as though Wednesday night into Thursday could be cloudy with chances of rain and thunderstorms. Something tells me it would take a helluva thunderstorm to keep down the noise either night, but the dogs deal better with thunder than fireworks, so bring it on.
My insurance changed as of midnight this morning. The instant I opened Facebook this morning, right at the top of my newsfeed, was an ad reminding me that my insurance changed. For the most part, I think this is a positive thing. Transportation to doctor visits and the pharmacy is back. I shouldn’t have to worry about which meds are covered. But there’s still work to do today to inform all the doctors of the change and make sure that the chemo meds are continued going forward. We still have a little over eight months of that stuff to endure. Let’s not botch it up now.
I’ll also need to see if the new program will cover assisted living facilities. I’ll have to be careful talking about this one because if I say the wrong thing it could cause trouble. I don’t want them to think that I’m in any immediate danger, just that I need help I can’t get at home. We’ll see how that conversation goes.
At least we’re not in France. Macron was an idiot for calling snap elections right as the country is set to host the summer Olympics. You couldn’t pay me enough to be in Paris right now. Not that the situation is much better elsewhere. Bulgaria’s elections tilted toward the right as well, and Pakistan sentenced a Christian to death for saying hateful things about Muslims. 2 Algerian journalists were arrested for publishing a video showing businesswomen protesting at a government-sponsored event. The world is a nightmare.
You know I’m not a big sports nut, but when the hell did a guy named Sinner rise to the top of the tennis ranks? Headline writers are enjoying this too much. “Sinner can become No. 1.” “No. 1 Sinner wins his first grass-court final.” “Sinner looks smooth on clay.” Apparently, the dude is a favorite to win Wimbledon as well. Does that mean more tennis players should be Sinners? 🤣
If you’re somewhere in the corridor of coolness this morning between Chicago, Indy, and Detroit, enjoy the below-70 temps this AM. It’s 55 here this morning, enough that I tossed on a jacket before taking the dogs out. No, this doesn’t disprove climate change, you idiot. Warm temps will be back tomorrow, fueling the storms Wednesday night into Thursday. How do you not know how weather works? Personally, I think we’ll take a nice walk later this morning, then probably grill out for dinner since it’s so unseasonably nice.
That’s all I’ve got for the moment. If anything huge arises, I’ll let you know, but let’s hope the day stays calm.
Morning Update: 08/19/24
Cats are flinging themselves at each other as I try to read this morning’s news updates. The noise from the laundry room sounds as if one of them may have fallen into the washing machine for a while. Don’t worry, they’ve done it before and they can get themselves out. This is the kind of chaos we can expect for today, though. Brace yourself because there are enough on-the-edge events that it feels as though anything could happen at any time. In fact, if I had a fraidy hole, I might just go ahead and jump in it to be safe.
With all the pop-up showers and brief downpours yesterday, we once again lost out on being able to do any yard work. That doesn’t mean the kids were satisfied with the downtime. Tipper decided that the dogs needed a bath. Outside. Oh, this was entertaining. She was especially concerned about Hamilton. Hamilton doesn’t like water on his skin. He refuses to stay in the tub if we try to bathe him inside, but the kids figured if they put a leash on him they might be able to get the job done with the hose. I stood under the tree and watched, knowing exactly what was about to happen. The instant water hit his back, Ham slipped out of the leash and shook hard, sending water everywhere. This went on, back and forth between the two dogs, for almost twenty minutes. By the time they gave up, I’m not sure who was wetter, the dogs or the kids. Of course, the dogs immediately went and rolled in the dirt.
We’re starting the fourth week of school and I need to make some adjustments to accommodate the kids’ changing schedules. What it boils down to is that most days neither of them will get home before 6:00 PM, and some days could be even later. This means they’ll be coming in exhausted, frequently in less-than-positive moods, and prioritizing sleep over eating. They will eat, eventually, but sometimes that may not be until after I’ve gone to bed. We’ve tried different things, but both inevitably go for what’s easiest. For G, that means Ramen, with zero nutritional value. Tipper usually chooses a fruit smoothie, which is better, but still not giving her all the nutrition they need. Neither of them will touch leftovers. I’m grasping at straws for the moment trying to find a reasonably healthy solution.
This was a rough weekend for Indianapolis. Take a look at these headlines:
Those last three hurt my soul because this isn’t the first weekend we’ve seen headlines like that. We’re not watching our little ones. We’re not protecting them and keeping them safely out of harm’s way. We’re being careless and there’s no way to police carelessness. Child Protective Services is already overwhelmed with the number of cases they have, to the point that they cannot be the solution for every kid who lives in danger. The solution is for adults to wake up to the problem, and help out overwhelmed and overstressed parents who are working two and three jobs to barely pay rent. No, it’s not convenient, but children’s lives are on the line.
There was some positive local news. Caitlin Clark broke the WNBA rookie assists record as the Fever beat the Storm 92-75 last night. The well-hyped rookie is living up to her reputation, but she’s facing a one-game suspension if she doesn’t get her temper under control. She was charged with her fifth technical of the season after punching the pads at the bottom of the goal post. Two more, and she gets to sit out a game. I’m wondering if the WNBA and NBA are possibly being a little over-reactive, though. Look at tennis. Portuguese tennis star Christiano Rinaldo has thrown so many tantrums on the court that the New York Times has ranked them by severity. Why is it okay to display such childish behavior in one sport but not another? Make it make sense.
Of course, all eyes are on the Democratic Convention opening today in Chicago. They’ll try to keep it light and lively so that they come out of it with a nice surge in the polls. History paints a different picture, though. Democratic conventions can be rough. Already, anti-war protesters have gathered and are making noise that won’t go unnoticed. Moderates be warned, 3 Women With Harrowing Pregnancy Stories Will Speak at the Convention. While the goal is unity, I think we can expect a lively exchange, though probably not to the extent of the 1968 riots.
Secretary of State Blinken is warning both Hamas and Israel that they may be looking at their last chance for peace. What bothers me, and likely bothers the Secretary, is the fact that there are too many people on both sides who are more than willing to keep on fighting. I don’t see how the people of Gaza can handle much more. They’ve already lost their homes, their families, access to food and clean water, and the constant bombardment of medical facilities. If a cease-fire isn’t reached, Iran is almost certainly going to enter the war, making a bad situation worse. I’m not sure the innocent people even stand a chance.
Like I said at the beginning, the day is made of chaos. There are so many potential eruption points around the world that it’s impossible to list them all or guess which one is going to explode next. What can we do?
Eat well. Stay safe.
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