Frightened

The balance of political power is too lopsided right now.  We seem not to be able to stop anything that isn't outright unconstitutional, no matter how appalling it is.  It's a nightmare and I can't wake up.

Well, Shit

The bad guys won again. I feel just like I did when Trump won the election. His surrogate/supporters won tonight too. Bad run we're on as a country. 

Dumb Luck

Love my contractor.  His name is Tony.  Older Italian guy.  Salt of the earth.  Former star high school football player with two bad knees to go along with the trophies.  After five surgeries on one knee couldn't fix the damage, he finally gave up and scheduled a knee replacement.  Orthopedic surgeon is doing a pre-op exam of the knee, sees a rash, says "I think this is eczema, but go get it checked before I operate."

Tony goes to the dermatologist.  My wonderful dermatologist, as it turns out.  The rash is eczema, but the doc says, "As long as you're here, let's check out your skin."

Long story short, doc finds what turns out to be a melanoma on his back.  A small one, thank God.  Doc took it off on Monday. Even a small one leaves a hell of a hole after you clear the margins...eight internal stitches, eighteen external ones.  I checked in with Tony today to see how he was doing.  He'd just heard from the doc that the surgery was successful and that they got it all.

That, my friends, is one fortunate man.

Can't Take The Crazy

I'm going to have to quit Facebook, I think.  Or at least cut drastically back on my social media time, as an alternative to unfriending half my so-called 'friend' list.  Damn this homogeneous, white, affluent area.

I've posted in the past about sometimes being able to tell just from the bumper stickers on somebody's car that I won't like the driver.  Getting that feeling a lot these days online.  I just can't take the enthusiastic pro-Trump postings.  They tell me all I need to know about these women that I would have said I liked well enough at an acquaintance level before this election hit the fan.  I don't post much political stuff online...the odd 'like,' but that's about it.  Enough to make it fairly clear where I stand though, I guess.  Wonder if that will tank me for the school board in this year's election.  Fuck 'em all if it does.  No kool-aid for me, thanks.

Went to lunch with some ninja girlfriends this past week to celebrate the fact that one of them is still above ground...she survived a random and massive cerebral aneurysm this past fall.  Ten ladies, all in street clothes and looking like the middle-aged matrons we are.  Would have been interesting if the restaurant had come under attack, though...nine of the ten are either black belts or only one step away from it.  Lesson in not judging books by covers, I guess!  Anyway, one lovely lady (and Facebook friend), who happened to be sitting next to me, quietly told me that there was a group I need to join, another of those secret ones.  I got the invitation later that day.

A valid use, I guess.  Maybe I just set the filters to ignore everyone who makes me crazy.  That's going to be a lot of ignoring though.  I'm finding myself retreating into my shell, talking mostly to the few people I know aren't crazy.  Good thing a lot of my pursuits are solitary, or at least small-group.  Still waiting to wake up from this terrible dream.

Things That Confuse Fourth Graders

Petunia is 9. At this stage of her life, her primary sport is soccer.  Since both boys play soccer as well and Thing One in particular lives and breathes it, she has absorbed somewhat of a soccer-centric worldview.  However, during the break between the fall and spring soccer seasons (when the teams are on a more limited winter training schedule) all three kids play Rec basketball as well.  Since they play for a soccer club in a town that is about half an hour away, they don't go to school with any of those kids, so this is their chance to play a sport with their friends, plus it also lets them use different muscles for a season.  Anyway, it sometimes gets interesting when young kids whose primary sport is soccer are suddenly trying to figure out how another sport works.  (Remember a few years ago when Thing Two assumed that shinguards are part of a standard baseball uniform until we explained that he was only wearing his because he never had time to take them off between soccer practice and baseball practice??)

So, yesterday Petunia was talking about her basketball coach and where he plays her during games.  She said: "I wish he would stop playing me at back.  I'm much better as a guard," mixing the two sports in the process.  I reminded her that there is no such position as "back" in basketball.  Ironically, the term she was looking for was "forward."  Both backs and forwards play right in front of the net in their respective sports; can't blame the kid!!

Sick

I wanted to throw a bowling ball at the television as it showed the smirking, smarmy, orange face of our new President (god how that phrase sticks in my craw) taking the oath of office today.  People who voted for him: you created this mess.  You.  I hope every bloody one of you eventually regrets that vote.  When you lose your health insurance.  When you lose your job, because big business keeps exporting them.  When it becomes clear that every campaign promise was a lie aimed at a gullible population and that you bought them hook, line and sinker to your own detriment.  When you finally wake up and realize that your candidate is a racist, xenophobic bigot and terrifyingly ignorant to boot.  Fuck you all.

Yes, I'm bitter. I'm still bitter. Can you tell??

New Arrivals

A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking that it might not be a bad idea to buy an extra set of nunchuks to keep in my geocaching backpack, so I started looking through the catalogs they keep on the desk in the dojo.  I've had two sets for years already: one made of foam around a central core (so hitting your elbow, head etc with them while practicing doesn't hurt quite so badly) and one plain black wooden set, unadorned except for ridges engraved into the handles for better grip.  Both of those live permanently in my taekwondo bag now, since a nunchuk form is one of the requirements for my black belt test.

I've been using chuks for about five years now, off and on.  They are comfortable in my hands as a weapon, and one-on-one they beat just about everything other than a gun.  I don't make a habit of spending time in dangerous places alone (I actively avoid it, in fact), but it's always good to be prepared.  My keychain has a kubotan on it and my pack always contains both a pocketknife and a small canister of Mace; still, I can envision a scenario in which I want to keep somebody a good arm's length and then some away from me, and chuks would take care of that very nicely.

I was going to order another plain black set identical to my current wooden chuks, but the other girls convinced me to branch out a bit for the hell of it.  The new ones arrived today and are now tucked away in an accessible pocket of my pack.  Meet the new set, affectionately christened the "badass chuks" by my classmates since they look like something a biker would carry!  May they never see action.