Okay, I’m done with this year.

Let’s get this 2022 party started!

As we count down to the New Year, I often try to think of things I’m thankful for from the previous year.

The list this year is pitifully small. In 2020 it’s a, “What List?” situation, so I guess 2021 has been marginally better. I’m kind of worried that 2022 is going to be a sucky year too.

I’m thinking that we’re going to have to put up with a full year of really crappy politics running up to the 2022 election. No matter which party comes out on top, we’re no doubt going to have endless recounts.

The way it looks now, (although it could change,) people are dissatisfied enough with the Democrats in Congress that they’re likely to be voted out. This would effectively kneecap the Biden Administration and lead no doubt, to endless squabbling and nothing getting done for another two years. AGAIN!

While everyone is gearing up for the circus of various elections, the Jan 6th Committee will continue on without actually doing anything, except issuing subpoenas. Those subpoena’s will be fought in court wasting millions in taxpayer dollars and bankrupting supposed members of Trump’s inner circle. That in itself is unfair punishment and very probably the point of issuing the subpoenas in the first place. Especially if the person happens to be innocent, this way they’re punished anyway and their families. Reminds me of a certain biblical king who killed the firstborn male child of every Jewish Family.

Honestly at this point I think the Jan 6th committee should just open with, “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Republican Party?” They can follow that up with, “Have you ever stayed at a Trump hotel, attended a Trump rally, agreed in any way with Trump, worked for Trump, spoken his name, have you ever been in Washington DC or communicated with anyone in Washington DC, or believed at any time that The Constitution of The United States was valid?”

Their next statement should just be, “We find you guilty… of whatever!”

I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if they pulled up all the ballots for Trump and just imprisoned everyone that voted for him instead of Biden. It would be simpler and save everyone a lot of time, money, and aggravation. That seems to be where they’re heading anyway.

Yes, I’m annoyed by the whole thing.

I’d be a lot happier if they’d stop “fishing” and focus on the primary suspects, then branch out to other suspects as the evidence led them. In my opinion what we’re seeing right now looks a lot less like a search for truth, and a lot more like the old Soviet Style destruction of political enemies.

If they’ve got a valid point they should make it, if not, then shut up and get back to the work they were elected to do. I’m totally sick and tired of Trump witch hunts. What have we had, 5, 6 years of this mind numbing bullshit?

Trump was impeached TWICE, both times big nothing burgers. Now he’s supposedly at the heart of a plot to overthrow the United States? If he’s SOOOOO dangerous why the fuck isn’t he sitting in a prison cell? Why are there a bunch of other people sitting in prison cells denied due process?

I’m not looking forward to the continuing follies of the Jan 6th committee in any way. The bunch of them should be slapped like the three stooges, then disbanded. Although I’d tune in to C-SPAN to watch someone slap ’em all. Yeah, I often have C-SPAN open on my computer.

It’s a great way to see and hear what’s happening real time in a variety of hearings. It’s also a great way to understand why so little gets done in Congress. These people spend more time bloviating and self aggrandizing than they do asking germane questions.

One of these days there’s going to be someone like me testifying who’ll interrupt some congressman thanking them for their appearance for the 20th time and that person will say, “Yeah congressman, I’m here because you demanded my presence, threatened my livelihood, and my family, so stop with the bullshit thanking me and get to your fucking point!”

The other scenario that would have me rolling on the floor laughing would be where the congressman spouts on, and on, monologging without asking a question. I’d love to see the witness interrupt and ask, “Uh do you need me for this? I’ve got other places to be and you aren’t asking a question.”

I’d pay to see either one!

I’ve loved watching Rand Paul tearing Fauci a new asshole every single time he’s appeared. I miss Trey Gowdy in hearings. I’m happy that he’s doing something he likes doing, but I loved him being a bad ass lawyer when he was asking questions in Congressional hearings. I didn’t always agree with him, but damn, he earned my respect. I’d hire him as my attorney anytime! Rand Paul and Trey Gowdy tearing at Fauci and Collins would be an epic pay per view event.


In the new year I’m going to try to ignore the “news,” more so than I have this year.

I am going to be listening to the actual hearings more. I’m hoping that the Jan 6th committee starts broadcasting everything on C-SPAN, I doubt very much that they will.

I’ll be watching what they do broadcast with interest. I can hardly wait to see their evidence of a plot. If there was a plot, I’d like to understand what that was, how it came to be, and who were its architects. If there wasn’t actually a plot, I’m sure that Adam Schiff will present some really interesting faked slides with out of context quotes that can be debunked. Again.

(Adam, FYI, your most recent “text message” fake was poorly done. Everyone knows what a real text message looks like. If you’d like assistance faking text messages, graphics, or evidence, I’m available, and I work fairly cheap. BTW I am a pure capitalist who’s been forcibly unemployed for a long while, I could use the money. I don’t have to agree with you or even like you…)

(I’m also available for hire to the defendants in the Jan 6th probe. If I can make fakes, I’m gonna be good at spotting and debunking them.)

Hey, a man’s gotta eat! I’ll work for the highest bidder! Go Capitalism!!!

Welcome to Christmas Eve 2021!

For those of you who will be actually with your families during the holiday. I sincerely hope that you have a wonderful time.

For those of you that will be FaceTimeing or Zooming, I hope you also have a wonderful time, may your internet connections be speedy and your video be unfrozen.

Apparently, we will be spending our holiday on the mountain in rain. This is not so bad, because if it had been snowing for the past 24 hours instead of raining… We’d be stuck doing nothing but digging out. So I’m grateful for the rain, and I hope that it doesn’t turn into some kind of blizzard that even Rudolf couldn’t fly in.

I’m not holding my breath on this matter, because well, God has a wicked sense of humor.

Thanks to Clipart.co

Imagine all the lovely new skis, sleds, and snowboards being delivered on Christmas Day and then imagine the broken hearts of all those folks seeing snow on the local mountains, but not being able to get to it because the roads and ski resorts are all closed.

Should that happen, and you’re one of the folks who can’t get to the ski resorts, take heart. Those of us living in these mountain towns will be very busy using our brand new snow shovels and wondering if we’ll be able to dig ourselves out before April.

Truthfully, I’m hoping that we do get a little snow on Christmas. It always adds to the season and somehow makes Hot Chocolate taste better.

As a slight PSA. Remember no talking about politics, gun control, religion, trans-rights, the news, or COVID at the holiday dinner table.

You should also leave all your RED or BLUE pills locked safely away.

It’s occurred to me that RED pilling an unsuspecting relative isn’t being kind. Destroying someone’s beliefs even with the best of intentions is only going to destroy the magic of the season.

The fact that Johnnie’s new computer may have a VPN installed which allows you to provide proof of censorship happening in the United States, is likely to leave your blue relatives depressed and despondent and Johnnie won’t be able to use his computer because the adults will be trying to verify or disprove all sorts of outlandish conspiracy theories.

For the duration of the holiday, set all that stuff aside and just enjoy each other’s company.

I know this will be difficult.

In my family for example, it just isn’t Christmas until some of the relatives have thrown a few punches or one branch of the family or other has been thrown out of someone’s house. Or possibly the Police have made at least one visit!

I’d strongly suggest turning off Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TicToc, and all the rest of the noise. Better yet, turn off the technology altogether and watch a movie or tune into an NFL. game after the obligatory social justice message.

If you tune into a game too early, you’re likely to have some family member or another make a comment about the social justice messaging and then bang! You’re going to miss the whole game arguing politics.

If you’re zooming, or FaceTiming, and someone starts talking about any of the forbidden subjects remember to just mute them. Don’t throw your shiny new phone or pad across the room. Wait until they’ve talked themselves blue in the face and then resume the audio. If you’re really serious, mute them and freeze your image.

You can call it an internet glitch. “Oh uncle James, I’m sorry I didn’t hear any of the last two hours about QAnon. What did you say?”

Meanwhile at your house, you’re going about your business assembling the new bicycles.

That last trick, I’m going to use liberally.

Hopefully, my suggestions will help you have a quiet and peaceful Christmas.

Sincerely,

May you each have a Very Merry Christmas.

Christmas Letter from Hell!

Okay, not to bum anyone out.

I’m hoping that when you read about my year, you’ll feel immensely better about yours! If your year has been the same, or worse… At least you’ll know you’re not alone.

This has been an unbelievably bad year for me. (No, It’s not solely Biden’s Fault! To be honest though, he sure hasn’t done me any favors. Then again, when has the government done any of us any favors? Just Sayin!)

The year started okay. I was happy to finally have all the election bullshit behind us and was looking forward to actually finding a job.

I’ve found over time that the 6 months around Presidential election years suck for job searches. I’ve concluded that corporate America just holds its collective breath, (and the purse strings,) until they know which way the wind is going to blow for the next four years.

Late 2020 was no different. I’d assert that 2020 was more like a year where a two term president is being replaced after terming out. Since that usually results in a change of Presidential party, and corporate America is a lot slower to start hiring again afterward.

Just about the time corporate America was starting to settle down and ready to open their purse strings. Well then there was Delta. Ooopps! Yet another stutter.

At the end of March, one of my brothers took his own life.

Suddenly, the job search wasn’t all that important. I drove across country to attend the funeral, and spend time with the family. It was a difficult time, however, amidst the emotional trauma, there were good things. I got to spend time with my sister, and my other brothers. I spent time with my Mom, Stepdad and Aunt.

I was also able to confirm what I had suspected about my Mom. She’s fading. Her memory is developing faults. On her side of the family, I don’t know the processes leading to end of life.

On my Father’s side I know the process because there were many examples. Typically, Dads side it’s just someone doesn’t wake up. On my Mother’s side there are only two examples. One is my Grandmother who died quite young from a stroke, the other was my Grandfather. He died in his 80s one Sunday morning getting ready for church.

My Mother is in that later age range now. Since I was living across the country, I missed seeing the process with my Grandfather. Did he start slowing down? Did his mind start going? Was he napping more during the day?

My Mother and Aunt, have both beaten the 50% odds that they’d die young. There is some evidence that my Grandfather experienced the same kind of decline I’m observing in my Mother.

Thankfully, I’m not alone in my observations. My Sister detected some of the fade. My Aunt was more keenly aware but was keeping her own council, until I mentioned it.

Then once the subject was open, she and I synchronized our observations and found that each of us had noticed different things. Our sharing of information gave us both a more complete picture, and the beginnings of a plan to address the situation. Our hope is to make this time as easy as possible for my Mother.

Fortunately, my Aunt is as pragmatic as I am. We both know it will take all our strength and love to move through this with grace. We also know that we will have to share our combined strengths to carry each other through grief.

Our talking together, made what is to come less fearful. If for no other reason than we’re not alone.

I came home mid to late April without incident. I took a different route and saw some sights that I’d never seen. We live in a beautiful country. Seeing it slowly mile after mile is a lot of fun if you’ve got the time.

I’d been home about a month.

On a bright sunny day, while walking the dog, he took off after something in the bushes. That would have been fine except that I had my thumb hooked in the pocket of my jeans, and the four fingers of the same hand were holding the leash.

He is very strong and very fast. In this case he had enough leash to reach full speed before it locked. 60+ Pounds of dog moving at top speed then suddenly restrained by the leash. Physics tells us that approximately half that momentum will travel back along the leash to the point of restraint even as the heavy object at the end of the leash is yanked backward toward the point of restraint. With my thumb hooked in the pocket of my jeans all that force concentrated in the area of skin and tendons that attach the thumb to the palm of the hand.

There’s probably some elegant calculation that could determine the exact amount of force. Let’s just ditch the physics lesson and say it was a lot. The resulting gash where the skin tore was bloody all the way home, and painful for about 5 minutes.

I’m one of those people that feels the initial damage and then the damaged area goes numb. It’s still functional even though it’s a bloody mess. I’ve always attributed this peculiarity to my Nordic ancestry.

This is perhaps a specious attribution, but the logic behind it is that if you’re descended from a warrior people, swinging swords around and slashing at your enemies, you’d better be able to take some hits and keep on fighting.

So The dog and I walked back the 2 miles to the house. Along the way I decided that I needed to start carrying a first aid kit for each of us. I got home, cleaned and assessed the wound. Then I put the pieces of skin back into their rightful positions and bandaged it.

Later in the evening I re-cleaned and re-bandaged the wound with some better supplies. That was when the trouble started. In reworking the bandages and applying some antibiotic ointment a small bit of skin got turned under another piece of skin and began to really hurt in a strange way.

Off to the urgent care I go. I just wanted more skilled eyes looking at this mess. My concern was I didn’t want to lose functionality on the thumb joint when it healed.

Unfortunately, the urgent care was closed, but the emergency room (located in the same hospital) was open. 3 hours and $6000.00 later the Physician’s Assistant had corrected the problem and glued my hand back together. (At the time I didn’t know it was 6K.) Had I known, I would have said, “Thanks but no thanks!” Although I did get my tetanus booster so I guess that’s a plus.

Getting home at 3am didn’t help my disposition but at least now I could sleep.

The next day I slept off & on and the dog was very sweet keeping me company. He smelled and saw a lot of blood the day before and is smart enough to recognize one of the pack had been injured. He couldn’t lick the wound due to the bandages so he contented himself with licking the fingers of that hand.

Two days after the ripped hand. A very loud bang reverberated through the house. I was in the bedroom at the time and initially thought something had hit the house. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of water.

One of the pipes in the fire suppression system running through the ceiling had ruptured. There’s a lot of pressure behind these systems and in less than a minute the living room was flooded. Since it was obvious something broke, and there was no fire, I ran through the standing water to the basement so that I could shut the fire suppression system off.

In hindsight I should have let it run…

It was only after the valve was shut off and I was standing barefooted in the water that I remembered there were several power strips lying on the floor, now also in standing water.

When I’d purchased those power strips, I had planned well. I’d bought top of the line heavily shielded and sealed units. (there should be a saying like, “Buy the right thing the first time and you’ll never regret the purchase”) That is possibly why I didn’t have to make another trip to the emergency room.

This led to several months of living in 2/3 of the house. (Had I let the water keep running feigning ignorance of the operation of the valves, I could have spent those months in a nice hotel.)

Ahh Hindsight!

Instead, I did the right thing. There’s a lesson there. Nice guys and guys who do the right thing get screwed!

Anyhow the next few months were spent with strangers tromping in and out of the house. The remediation folks were a pain in the ass. The reconstruction folks were amazing! I’d already cleaned everything I could clean because I was worried about the dog licking up the antifreeze that had been in the pipes. I did this literally with one hand tied behind my back.

As it turned out, I heal faster than the house does. My hand was actually fully repaired about 6 weeks before the house was.

Due to the supply crunch we had to wait for materials. Some of the necessary materials were on ships and others were on trucks. Neither of which could navigate their way to distribution points. (Thanks Joe!)

During all the moving things around, walking the dog twice a day, and I think falling once on a hike I screwed up my knee.

This was near the end of the reconstruction and meant that I was laying on the bed with my knee on a pillow. There were days when I’d seriously choose to hold off going to the bathroom as long as possible simply because it hurt so bad to try to walk.

The other half took over the dog walking duties. Much to the disappointment of the dog since by that time he was used to walking 5 miles a day.

At one point, I couldn’t get my knee into my jeans because of the swelling. So I was in shorts and a knee brace for all of the summer and part of fall. Driving a clutch vehicle was iffy at best so I was also stuck here in the house.

I did get mad enough in September / October that I sanded and painted the trim of the house. That’s called boredom. Oh sure I paid for those days outside in the sun with my knee being pissed off, but being outside was so worth it. The house looks much better too.

Throughout all this time I was still sending out resumes and cover letters. I was applying to anything remotely in my field and getting no replies. Pretty much like I’d been getting no replies for the previous year of COVID.

Recently, I did a count of resumes / applications I’ve sent looking for a job. Over 2000 to date. Of that 2000+, about 10 companies were kind enough to reply, “Thanks but no thanks.”

The rest of them… Simply disappeared into the void.

November was quiet. Except for the endless bullshit in Washington DC. I was able to ignore some of it, but not all. We had a nice Thanksgiving. The dog really likes turkey!

Here we are in December, The insurance company and the remediation people are still having a tug of war with us in the middle. There are a couple of pieces of furniture that should be replaced but until they decide what, when, and how, I’m not going to take any action.

Winter arrived this week, snow and ice are on the ground and street. At this point I doubt any deliveries of new furniture pieces could be made. Ultimately it may work out for the best since it could mean less to move…

Due to this extended period of unemployment, my savings is dwindling to dangerously low levels.

I’m beyond ready to sell this house and move someplace warm.

So if I’ve seemed a bit edgier or distant than usual… Now, you know why.