300 Words: Thoughts of a pretired French Teacher

Is there a light at the end of this tunnel?

Thoughts on the Supreme Court nominee and situation are quite the thorn in my side for many reasons.

To begin with, two words kind of sum it up: Merrick Garland. He was Obama’s pick and a decidedly hateful Senate killed his nomination very quickly. It was decided to wait until the following year. I felt that it was not appropriate and nothing more than getting back at Democrats and Obama. In short, it pissed me off. Excuse me for using those words but I am not a happy camper.

Follow that up with the Catholic nominee who just took the oath of office. During the hearings, she was incredibly evasive with questions about things as simple as climate change, giving rise to the thought that she had been told what to answer and what not to answer. Catholic, what does that mean? In my estimate, lapsed Catholic that I am, she was never any such thing. She clearly belongs to a cult-side of Catholicism that in no way should be called Catholic. At least not in my estimate, and let’s leave it at that.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a dying wish. I always thought that dying wishes were something we should attempt to adhere to and well, this icon of a human being, who steadfastly attempted to stay alive because she knew of the coming maelstrom of malevolent political intrigue, asked that they wait until after the coming elections. The precedent had already been established with Merrick Garland anyway. No dice. Quelle surprise!

Had Amy Coney Barrett really been worth her salt, she would not have even allowed her nomination to go forth before the elections. Clearly, it didn’t bother her.

Did anyone else notice that the social distancing and masking of Amy Coney Barrett when she took her oath and gave a speech? Clearly, science has little import to the woman.

It is all so sad. Where is our country going as we watch like innocent and as bystanders unable to make a difference.

VOTE!

I am thankful that my Apple watch makes it so easy to find out what the temperature is before I go out with the dog. I am also impressed with the AAA weather service which is always providing me with information about the weather. The other day, in a lull of the incessant rain, I got a message that lightning was on the way in my area. It is a good thing I did not go out as within moments, it had darkened completely and lightning, directly overhead, flashed like crazy.

The temperature, available on my Apple watch, is really helpful in regards to knowing how to dress when I walk the dog, although no matter what I do, I start out cold and end up sweating. I have decided that is just the way it is, if I haven’t figured it out by my late sixth decade, I am not about to soon.

The cold of the day, it is currently at forty-five degrees, is biting because it is a humid forty-five degrees. It is gray and gloomy. I am finding it hard getting my enthusiasm up in order to do anything and am enjoying chilling instead of going crazy doing things.

The son and his family came and picked up their dog, who spent two nights with us. Lincoln was totally spooked by the witch we have who, with a clap or loud noise, will shake her legs, flash from her eyes, and cackle. Lincoln was so spooked that he no longer wanted to sit in his favorite chair by the window. For a bit, he hid under the temporary dining room table (the real one is out being refinished).

Last night, Lincoln nicely slept on a blanket in our room. The previous night, he awakened my wife by knocking on our door. He came in, ran around, tried to get on our bed (he doesn’t sleep on anyone’s bed at home) and then finally settled down. We learned to set something up for him. This is not the first time he has stayed with us, he stayed four and a half months with his family at the beginning of the Pandemic.

Okay, time to finish reading the paper and do some language learning (Hungarian and Spanish).

I cannot help but think that the moderating disaster of the first debate was something that Chris Wallace had no control over. I have to think that the people setting it up had to have some idea as to what was going to ensue and yet decided to allow it. Why, I don’t know, but frankly there is not a whole lot I understand these days about anything going on politically. Suffice it to say that I am not one to follow the lemmings, I guess, and I am not willing and able to fall under the spell of the fascist leader of the régime. Or maybe something just went awry and the strange charisma he apparently exudes to the point that his followers blindly believe anything that comes out of his mouth, just has no effect on me. I would like to think it is my intelligence that steers me away, but that is clearly no guarantee.

Kristen Welker, who moderated the second debate, was much better and delivered cutting-edge questions to each of the candidates. I was still surprised as there was a certain amount of talking over the other candidate, but it was certainly more acceptable.

One has to wonder if the ‘new bar’ for lack of civility is going to remain with us once the current régime is put out to pasture. One has to wonder how this can be acceptable to so many of the American people. It certainly does not paint us in a good way.

On another note, it is past two o’clock (PM) and I have still not walked Stewart. I am depending on AccuWeather to get out with him as supposedly the rain is ending in several minutes.

I was ready to take him out earlier today and received a text message that lightning had been sighted in our area. Sure enough, we had a storm within minutes that included lightning directly over us.

I was looking at the rowing machine and am thinking perhaps that is a better option today.

We shall see.

Meanwhile, please vote!

Yes, it is cold and clammy, at least for now. We had scheduled a social distancing lunch and also a social distancing cocktail moment with friends. The debate is on as to whether or not they will take place; wait is there a Presidential debate on as well tonight? In that case, it is going to be a free for all despite the fact that supposedly they will turn off the microphones to allow the other person to speak without interruption. Meanwhile, socially distanced lunch and cocktails later? We shall see.

Anyway, it was supposed to be warm today. I jumped the gun and yesterday did the work I originally planned for today, doing some house cleaning and then pond maintenance that needed attention before winter. It looks as if that was a magnificent decision. I hate doing stuff like that in seriously cold weather and figured it would be warmer today. Nonetheless, things were nice enough and I found enough time to do them yesterday. I still have one cleaning thing left to do that I deliberately saved for today or tomorrow. I am doing all the floors, ‘swiffering’ them and then swabbing them down with a Pandemic floor mop I purchased. The good news is that I am not under any constraints with that.

When I started writing, at about 7:00 AM or so, there was no noise going on other than the drip of the coffee in the coffeemaker and the pitter patter of the incessant rain that occurred during the night. I had put water in the pond as I saw it seriously low, I am wondering how high it is now that we seem to have had monsoon rains during the night.

I awoke at 6:30 AM and I couldn’t sleep so I got up, did my morning airing routine, and just found my coffee.

All I can think about is VOTING!

I ponded today. I have decided that ponding is my new verb. I pond, you pond, he ponds, etc.

To pond is to work at maintaining a pond. Mind you, mine is man made and has been in our back yard for over twenty years. I was just looking to see if I could find photographic record of it and in 2002, it was there and established. I need to do some more research.

In any case, I pulled out all of the water lettuce and water hyacinths and with them all of the leaves that have already fallen in. I had taken out the pump and the filter weeks ago. Today I installed the pond warmers so that there is a hole in the ice in deep winter to allow the fish to survive, thus allowing evil gases to depart. I have two so that if one fails, the other is there.

My new addition, besides putting in muck treatments by adding a harmless bacteria that eats muck and is safe for fish and animals, is the set of two oxygenators that provide tiny bubbles and supposedly can be used all winter.

I then finished putting the netting over the pond. Luckily, my efforts to have clear water have worked. The water was crystal clear, although a bit cloudy when I was gathering leaves. I am excited to have that done since I really dislike doing it when it is freezing cold.

The fish were all going crazy, reveling in the lack of green cover for the pond, since I had taken it out and composted it.

I also put up the light projector in the front yard so that our Halloween light show can take place. I am feeling that things are under control and going well.

Now if we can just get our country in gear.

Please vote!