I made excuses and skipped the gym for an entire week. Yeah, busy yadda yadda … but coulda shoulda. Happy to report I’m back at it as of this morning, and have now added treadmill time to my workout. It’s a far better way to start the day than sitting down at the computer first thing and reading the same old shit on Facebook.
Hurricane Newton is working its way up Baja California and the Sea of Cortez, and the skies in southern Arizona are clouding over. It will no longer be a hurricane by the time it gets here, but we can hope for cooler temperatures and some rain.
When I came home from a visit to the air museum Friday afternoon, the cat carrier was on the kitchen island and Donna was holding our old girl Chewie in her lap. It was time. Chewie, who had her 21st birthday last month, was ready. She didn’t make a peep on the way to the vet’s, and she went peacefully and quickly. We buried her in the back yard that night, marking her grave with a stone.
The dogs are upset, more so because a week ago our daughter Polly, who had been living in our guest bedroom, moved out and took her two cats with her. We always insisted Polly keep those cats out of our sight, but Chewie and the two dogs knew they were behind the closed door of that bedroom. Now there’s no Chewie, no strange cats behind the door … I pray the dogs aren’t thinking “Maybe we’re next,” but they’re definitely on edge.
Polly moved in with her new boyfriend. Some of her stuff is still here, and she still has furniture at her former boyfriend’s house in Ajo. Her life probably isn’t any less chaotic than it has been, but she’s working, she has a car (our old Lincoln), and she has a place to live that isn’t under her parents’ noses, so that’s good, right? I hope it lasts (by which I mean I hope this guy marries her and that saying so out loud won’t jinx it) … we love our daughter, but we don’t want her moving back in.
It feels strange to have the place to ourselves after sharing it with an adult child for a year and two months. I was going to say this suddenly roomy and peaceful home will take getting used to, but who am I kidding? We’re already used to it, and might even change the locks to make sure we stay that way! All kidding aside, cross your fingers for Polly, okay?
Many are asking why the media, instead of exclusively picking at Hillary Clinton’s emails or minor issues with her and her husband’s charitable foundation, isn’t giving air time to Trump’s many for-real scandals. I was scratching my head about that, because I see a lot about Trump’s scandals on social media and the political and news websites I read daily … and then it dawned on me that I’ve almost totally switched over to alternative media: Facebook, Twitter, blogs, political websites.
I’ve given up on network and cable news. I turn on NPR in the morning, but mentally tune out their political reporting. I only read the New York Times when friends pass on links to articles and op-eds that sound interesting (and aren’t NYT’s trademark Hillary-bashing). I turned my back on mainstream corporate media precisely because they do indeed focus on imaginary Hillary Clinton “scandals” while giving Donald Trump a free pass. But that’s not what’s happening on social media and the web, where lots of people are asking hard questions about Mr. Trump.
Am I worried the mainstream media will do to Hillary Clinton what they did to Al Gore in 2000? Yes, a little. They’re certainly trying. The skepticism about the mainstream media’s message I see on social media and the web does give me hope, however. After all, not everyone was fooled in 2000, and Al Gore did win the popular vote. I still think Hillary Clinton will win both the popular and electoral college vote, and by a comfortable margin.
And that, my friends, is all the political blogging I can stomach this morning.