Seriously, how is everyone doing? I feel so disconnected and disengaged from the blog, and feel as if I have not been a real participant for quite some time. It’s been ages since I was an active participant in the comments.
Maybe some of it is burnout. Twenty years is a super long time for a blog, and it gets hard with my increasingly limited bandwidth to remember who everybody is and who is feuding with whom and what happened in everyone’s lives. I still send private notes to people when I read the comments and see something rough has happened (I get a response about half the time, so I think a number of you have fake email addresses or burner addresses).
A lot of it is I have spent the last year and a half more insular than normal. I think because of the pandemic, in some sense everyone else moved to where I was already, and I withdrew even more as a reaction. Weird? Yes. Probable? Somewhat. I’m a strange ranger.
It’s a beautiful, sunny day out. I am vaccinated. It really feels like spring in a number of ways, and not just seasonally. I am ready for some changes. I want something new this year. Something interesting and exciting. I like my routines, but I also like new things to keep my mind fresh. And I also want to get back to the things I love, like gardening, and cooking, and this blog.
Just me thinking out loud. I was about to go re-organize the counters and pantry and get rid of expired things and take inventory of the things I don’t use enough to warrant having premium space on the counter, and realized I had not sat down and just thought about nothing all day, so that is how this post happened.
Baud
I’m Baud.
ETA: And I’m first.
ETA 2: I think th3 whole first, second thing is a symptom of your absence.
MobiusKlein
I’m near lurker – probably 150 comments over the past 15 years
misterpuff
A Thought About Nothing.
My favorite kinds of thought.
Wapiti
Regarding cupboards and kitchens, we recently got a new range. In preparation, we removed the tetris-like arrangement of cake pans and cookie sheets and loaf pans and cupcake pans from the drawer under the old stove… and rearranged some of the kitchen space so we didn’t have to play tetris every time we wanted one of the pans. So now the only thing under the stove is the oversize cookie sheets, and life is less stressful.
catclub
Knock me over with a feather.
BGinCHI
You sound contented, JC.
Baud
@catclub:
Yeah, I never check that address.
zzyzx
I’m Zzyzx.
I don’t post enough for you to remember me but I’ve been not posting enough for you to remember me long enough that we went back and forth in the wake of Super Bowl XL. I am a Seahawks’ fan after all…
Aimai
I just quit my job—the job that kept me from posting here for the last two and a half years! Covid spring fever, I guess!
La Gata Gris
To be blunt? I am not doing well.
I’m a lurker here, mostly. I’ve had a hell of a year. One year ago, my husband lost his job as lock downs began. Then, 2 weeks ago he had a massive stroke and died on Saturday. My daughter and I are reeling from this, still coming to terms with it all and probalby will be for some time yet. I’m really hoping things start getting better after this because I really do not need more Very Bad Things in my life for awhile.
BGinCHI
@Aimai: Come back!
Baud
@Aimai:
It’s about time.
Baud
@La Gata Gris:
My condolences.
gbbalto
@La Gata Gris: So sorry and my best wishes to you and your family.
Tony Jay
Well, I’m English, I’m not related to or old school friends with a Tory Minister, and I’m not fuelled by the brand of self-pitying racist nationalism that allows some 43% of the voting population to ignore how far down the razor-blade bannister this country has slid over the last decade.
So, not great, but it could be worse. I’ve got a job I can do from home, a great little family and a functioning soul, so I’m way ahead of the game in many respects. Also I’ve got this place to vent when I feel the need. That’s come in damned useful over the last year or two, so thanks for building it, Cole.
Old School
@Aimai: Ummm… congratulations?
Old School
@La Gata Gris: How awful. Here’s hoping things do start getting better.
dmsilev
@Aimai: Welcome back!
From what you’ve posted over in LG&M, sounds like the job situation had been getting steadily more stressful over the last while. Hope that whatever is next for you isn’t nearly as difficult to deal with.
Ksmiami
@Baud: we are all just trying to figure out how to slowly Re-engage with people and the world. It’s going to take time.
Miss Bianca
@Aimai: Howdy! Good to see your nym again!
germy
@Aimai:
I always enjoy your comments over at LGM.
Josie
@La Gata Gris:
I am so sorry for your loss. Although it happened to me a long time ago, I remember so well how it felt to be blindsided like this. I wish I could give you a hug. Feel free to vent to us here whenever you feel the need. I can attest that this is a caring community who will give support, if only from a distance.
schrodingers_cat
@La Gata Gris: So sorry to hear about your husband. That’s a lot of stuff happening all at once. I hope this year is better.
Mike in NC
Wife was in the mood for microwave popcorn last night. The label said “Best before 2018” but she ate it anyway. Hell, it’s popcorn.
brantl
@La Gata Gris: We do hope for your conditions to improve. Be safe, and heal.
John Cole
@zzyzx: you fool I know you
Tony Jay
@La Gata Gris:
Feel free to be as blunt as you like. That’s terrible news.
Elizabelle
@La Gata Gris: My condolences to you and your daughter. What sad news.
John Cole
@La Gata Gris: I am so sorry. Are you near WV?
Elizabelle
It does feel like Spring is here, and it has been a very long time coming. So much in need of renewal, and our country is now under new and far better (actual!) management.
White & Gold Purgatorian
We are doing surprisingly well, and thank you for asking. Our immediate family has come through the pandemic, so far, with only a couple of moderate cases who fully recovered. After all the COVID worries and precautions, my mom fell in her kitchen 8 days before her 93rd birthday and fractured her pelvis in several places. This is a pretty serious injury, especially at her age, but three weeks into it she is doing well and I’m beginning to be hopeful that she will be able to resume her normal independent life in a few more weeks. Bad, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. And on the really bright side, Mr. Purgatorian and I are scheduled to get our first COVID vaccine doses this week. Yay! Thank you, President Biden, for pushing hard to make vaccinations available to so many, so quickly.
Mary G
@La Gata Gris: My condolences for your loss. Please post if you need to vent.
Red Cedar
@La Gata Gris: Oh my, I am so so sorry. What a terrible blow, and after such a stressful year. My condolences to you and your daughter. I hope that this community is a distraction and a solace and someplace to escape to and perhaps even a place whose people give you some hope.
zhena gogolia
I’m glad to hear this. I thought you were going to say you were transferring everything to TikTok or Insta or WhatsApp.
Mary G
@Aimai: Good to see your name again.
neabinorb
John, like you I’ve become more insular during the past year. But it’s had limited impact on my lifestyle. The only thing I’ve missed is my weekly band practice and occasional performances, but I expect that to resume some time this year. They’re the only people besides elderly parents who I see regularly anyway. A year of elderly parents without sibling imput has been “interesting.” I rarely post here but I really enjoy your posts and everyone else’s.
zhena gogolia
@La Gata Gris:
Oh, my God, that is terrible. I am so sorry.
KSinMA
@La Gata Gris: Oh, I’m so sorry.
zzyzx
@John Cole: I better be more careful about my comments then!
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Memories,
Like the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were
Scattered pictures,
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were
Mary G
@zhena gogolia: I know, I was all
PLEASE DON’T SHUT DOWN THE BLOG, JOHN, I’M BEGGING YOU!!!!!!!!!
I HAVE NO LIFE AND I NEED IT.
?????????
(That is the only time I’ve ever used the prayer hands, so you know I’m desperate.)
piratedan
its a mixed bag JC, on one hand, we still have a functioning Democratic Party, but not much else, a good portion of media is apparently only reliant on GOP talking points, where they are taken verbatim, sans research as the starting point for any discussion, despite it being the party that instigated an attempted coup in our country. Thru the efforts of some awesome scientists, it appears that many of us can get vaccinated and at least the nominally in control party at the levers of power would just as soon keep us around to exist on this planet a bit longer; while the other group who has been fucking things up for the last four years wants to know why the hell it isn’t all fixed after two months and not willing to take any ownership of what they caused.
I’d like to see people again, perhaps eat in a restaurant, see a movie, visit with friends and family but still know that we have a couple more months to go before we start to see more than glimmers of normal.
As an aside, thank you (and your staff of support and front-pagers) for keeping this oasis viable, as it allows many of us the type of supportive, challenging interaction that we need in these times.
featheredsprite
@La Gata Gris: Shit. Hard times all around for you.
I’m sorry for your loss.
Please feel free to post complaints, sadness, despair, etc. We talk a lot but we also can listen.
Captain Lee Obvious
Hey. I’ve been reading this blog since back in the 2000’s when I was desperately looking for any right-leaning blogs that weren’t completely insane. You were insane back then but much less than most everyone else. I ended up with you and Tacitus (remember him?). I’ve been reading daily since then but have never commented. Not ever. Till today. I guess I’ve lurked long enough. You have built a really nice and healthy place here. You done good. I guess I’ll introduce myself. I moved to Germany in 2003 in the height of the Bush 1 insanity. I thought it would be temporary but here I remain. I’ve never met you or spoken to you but you’ve been part of my life for a really long time. Through the good times and bad this has been a good place to land every day just to check in with the world and with some familiar typefaces. I’m sure I’m not the only one like me. We’re all a little crazy these days. Probably more than a little. This place has remained decent. That’s good. That’s rare. Be proud of that. I hope I start commenting more. Keep it up.
H.E.Wolf
@La Gata Gris: Deepest sympathies.
p.a.
@Aimai: I remember you. Welcome back!
@La Gata Gris: So sorry. There’s plenty of support here.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
You want something new? Why don’t you have a barbecue this summer for people who read the blog and live near enough to come? I’m dying to try some of your cooking.
Comrade Colette
@La Gata Gris: Oh no, how awful. I’m so sorry to hear that. May his memory be a blessing.
skerry
@La Gata Gris: I’m so sorry.
sheila in nc
@Mary G:
What Mary and Zhena said
I lurk a lot but I love everyone’s posts. Mostly.
Miss Bianca
@La Gata Gris: What terrible news. I am so sorry to hear it. My condolences.
Cermet
Glad you are doing well; very sorry for those that have experienced such a tragic episode as lost of a loved one! That is beyond anything one should have to experience during this time.
I was lucky to have a job that cut us free yet we still got paid.
A bit of karma maybe occured in that I developed a serious illness not long after covid became bad. Due to my fear of covid, and the pain wasn’t all that bad most days, I ignored it till I was in far too much pain to endure. So a month ago I saw a specialist and figured it out. tI’m lucky both the treatment is simple (but for life) and while many effects cannot be reveresed, it didn’t kill me. Now, slowly, recovering and in time, the pain will pass.
So, unless they were wrong, things are certainly looking up now that vaccines are available and more and more people will get them. The economy will recover and by fall, the country will likely be doing very well. A lot to be thankful for.
TJWeston
Still here. Still kickin’ . Got our shots and Trump’s done. I mean really done. I still check in here every day.
Mary G
RIP Elgin Baylor.
Auntie Beak
Been kind of frustrating year for us. We sold our Connecticut home (custom-built post and beam on 20 acres) rather unexpectedly in December of 2019, and moved to Asheville, NC. Then, whoops, PANDEMIC. Home prices have been rocketing upward here ever since, and we’re still in a tiny furnished rental in the heart of the city a year and a few months later.
We’re okay, I mean, roof over our heads, and the husband is a software engineer who’s worked from home for 20 years, so to him, the pandemic was, uh, his normal life. For me, however, it was a different story. I was very active in my local Master Gardener chapter, my local garden club, and with several active hiking groups. I was used to a lot of activity, and ladies lunches, etc. I’ve been feeling isolated and lonely for a long while now.
I also miss my gardens, and my canning, and kind of all my stuff, which has been in storage now since we moved. Again, cry me a river, I know.
I realize that we are basically fine, but my guilt over feeling unhappy is making me feel even worse. It’s just hard to live in the moment sometimes. But I’ve been vaccinated, and actually have trips planned for this spring and summer, so I think I’ll survive. Thanks for asking, John.
Betty Cracker
@La Gata Gris: How horrible — I’m so sorry.
jeffreyw
We’re good. I hate people in groups of more than one so the stay at home regime wasn’t a big change. I am looking forward to eating meals that I haven’t cooked.
James E Powell
@La Gata Gris:
Sorry for your loss.
narya
@La Gata Gris: I will add my condolences to the pile; that is just awful and I’m so sorry you’re going through it.
How am I doing? Okay? I guess? I’m vaxxed but my Friend is not, so I’m still being super careful, and even when he finally gets jabbed, I will still be pretty cautious. this year has reinforced my introversion, in a major way. I hate my job, but am extremely fortunate to have it, and I can do it in my living room, so I try to STFU about the “hate it” part. I’ve been running a lot this past year, and that has REALLY helped dispel brain crud. (According to an article in the FYNYT, it’s cannabinoids, not endorphins.) I was able to renovate my kitchen. Like everyone else, I miss the occasional restaurant meal, I miss being able to meet friends for a beer, I miss hanging out.
I will note that this blog is my “home” in some ways–I read some newspapers and follow some twitter feeds, but mostly I check in here; if anything happens someone will have a link up, and there are pet and flower and travel pics, as well as political slants that mirror my own. I’ve narrowed what I consume, and that means the blog has been really important.
Benw
@La Gata Gris: jeez how awful. So very sorry to you and your daughter
Bruce K in ATH-GR
High stress here in Athens (GR). Last year, things were so much better in Greece than in New York that my elderly parents ran here to escape. Now it’s almost safer for them to return to New York (so my dad can get vaccinated, which isn’t going to happen in Athens), and I just might be traveling with them because that might be the best chance for me to get vaccinated fastest. The last day of testing showed a twelve percent positivity rate, which is something like four times the alarm-bell rate? I’ve been afraid for the past year and now it’s just getting worse and worse. And I’ve noticed that I’m less and less able to handle shocking news, good or bad.
Doesn’t help that I’m hearing about more and more friends back in the US who’ve actually caught COVID and have been suffering through it. And learning about more and more people who’ve gone full COVIDiot and thus disqualified themselves from being my friends.
TomatoQueen
Mixed bag here, on a young man’s 34th birthday. Today we were able to attend a Zoom meeting provided by his day support program without too much fuss & technical bother, so a little more structure to his day. My downstairs neighbor is an asshole, on the other hand (noise), and seeks daily to prove it; assholes are like that.
My deepest condolences @La Gata Gris and join in the virtual hug.
And of course lastly, John, that willow creeps ever closer to the deck, how are darling Lily and her pack and Steve, and ffs how is your family??!! Huh???!!!???
Roger Moore
@La Gata Gris:
That’s the understatement of the thread. My condolences for your loss.
Hildebrand
@La Gata Gris: My deepest condolences. I am so sorry.
@Aimai: I am so glad to see you back.
@John Cole: I’ve been around since 2007(?) – and there simply isn’t a blog/website that I check more frequently than this one. Not simply for the news, or venting, or other sundry items, but because the community that has been built here is like nothing else on the web. This place is the model for how I want the whole internet to be. It is a refuge, a place to get my presuppositions challenged, a hangout, and a great group of wildly different folks from around the world. I can’t imagine the intertubes without it.
A Ghost to Most
Enjoying my freedom from the unicorn riders, aka jackals. Your monster got away from you, John. AMF.
HypersphericalCow
Long time lurker (since 2004 at least), very occasional poster, though I’m more active on LGM, which I think has a significant commenter overlap with this place. Even just reading, and not commenting, here has really helped for the last few years.
MomSense
@La Gata Gris:
I’m so very sorry. Thank you for sharing with us how you are feeling. Sending you big hugs. Please know that we will be keeping you in our thoughts and here anytime you feel you need some support.
White & Gold Purgatorian
@La Gata Gris: So very sorry. Hope you and your daughter have some brighter days in the year ahead.
JoyceH
I’m trying to decide how I’m doing. Some of you here remember that my twin sister died unexpected in December of 2019. I’m a work at home introvert, and she and I texted throughout the day every day, so even though we lived several hours apart, it made a real hole.
At the time, I made some resolutions – I was going to make more local friends and get out and do things more, and also travel and visit with friends and family members across the country. Then came the pandemic, and all resolutions were jettisoned for the one imperative – SURVIVE. Hunkering down comes naturally to me, so I came through it without substantial isolation stress.
Now the pandemic might be tapering off, and I’m fully vaccinated, and I’m trying to decide… Now what?
Complicating things is that I’m a writer. I completed my last book a couple weeks before Jane died, and not much since then. The series I was writing in 2019 has found an audience and I’m selling more books than ever – but the readers want more! I’m trying to turn myself back into a writer – but I’m not sure how.
SiubhanDuinne
@Aimai:
Wow, it’s so great to see you! Hope you’ll be around these parts for a long time — I recall always finding your comments well-reasoned and thought-provoking.
Gretchen
Im so sorry. Such a sudden shock must have made it even harder. I’m so sorry.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@La Gata Gris: You have had a horrible year, even by pandemic standards. I’m so sorry. This is a good place to vent or just know you’re not alone. All love to you and your daughter.
We’re doing ok. I’m fortunate to be working from home, fortunate to have my first shot today, and fortunate that spouse was fully vaccinated (except for the wait) on Friday.
I’m pretty introverted so I haven’t minded home being my whole life as much as I thought I would. But with a vaccinated TFG-less spring before me, I’m starting to think about what’s next too.
SiubhanDuinne
@La Gata Gris:
Oh, Grey Cat, I’m so sorry to learn this. Virtual and comforting hugs to you and your daughter. {{{{{ }}}}}
UncleEbeneezer
I teach tennis lessons at a high school. I don’t coach the HSers, but we use their courts. Anyways, the courts are right by the football field, track etc. with the bleachers right against the back of our courts. Usually it is rocking with activity. Track meets, football practice, just kids being goofy kids etc. Since March of 2020 when we did reopen for lessons the school was still closed so the whole thing just had a real abandoned, depressing quiet since we (and our handful of students) were the only ones there. It was especially dreary on cold (for LA) nights when it was pretty dark out. Now we have more sunshine from daylight savings and the school is starting to use the track/field for practices etc., again. It really feels good after such a depressing year. Things won’t be “normal” any time soon, but it’s a really great step in the right direction. On top of that. By Friday my J&J vaccine will be fully kicked in and my wife will have gotten her first Moderna shot. We are even making camping plans for late August for our Anniversary (and sadly the first anniversary of the loss of our beloved dog Juniper- she’s on one of the March BJ calendars). But it feels good to be moving on.
Brachiator
My family and I have had challenges do to Covid. A lot of our energy was spent on trying to protect our mother, who lives with my sister. It has been particularly tough on one of my siblings, who really feels the pains of isolation. We have exchanged a lot more emails and have had a lot of video chats.
I was already remote working, and settled into post-lockdown isolation fairly well. But it is still a strain. Even after I get my second vaccine dose, I am not sure that I will be going around more. A radio news story said that those most looking forward to going out to restaurants again were also people more likely to resist getting the vaccine. Not a good sign.
Jeffro
I’m trying to picture this blog being moved to Tik Tok and then I realized that, despite everything they tell you when you’re a kid, some things are just NOT possible. =)
UncleEbeneezer
@Aimai: Sorry to hear that. Sounded like you were pretty fed up with your employer (you mentioned over at LG&M)
Haroldo
@La Gata Gris:
That’s such a sad event. I’m sorry.
p.a.
@narya: Any relation to Nenya & Vilya??
HinTN
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): I would drive all the way from here to there for that! Hell, I’d make potato salad, too, if John would let me boil water.
PS: Good to see you surfacing, Cole. It’s been one hell of a year
Edited to change shaving (bad autocorrect, bad) to surfacing
schrodingers_cat
On a personal level not too bad. I like working from home. With the departure of the Orange Clown I can breathe more easily than I did in the last 4 years. I feel estranged from my extended family because of their support for the monster in power (Modi) and after 4 years of xenophobic hysteria feel ununderstood here too. At home everywhere and nowhere.
I love Twitter though especially conversing with people in Marathi has been wonderful. I still got it though I am a bit rusty at the edges.
I am worried about what is happening in India, the near term prospects don’t look good.
mrmoshpotato
@La Gata Gris: So sorry for your loss. I hope you’re in a state that’s at least trying to get people vaccinated, so you can visit friends soon.
HinTN
@La Gata Gris: As said by all others, please know you’re surrounded by virtual support here. Condolences.
Roger Moore
The last year hasn’t been great for me, but it hasn’t been that bad, either. I was classified as an essential worker, so I was able to keep working in person, which helped me to avoid feeling completely isolated. Nobody close to me got COVID, and the people I knew at work who got it found out fast enough to avoid infecting the rest of us. I was able to get vaccinated relatively early through my work. Overall, I feel like I’ve done about as well through COVID as could be expected.
JoyceCB
JoyceCB here. I’ve lurked since Terry Schiavo, but never commented at all until recently. Despite that, I feel like John has built a real home here. I love the pets, I love On the Road, I love the snark, I love the gardens… I even love most of the politics although I am not an American, which has rather inhibited my commenting. The only thing which I skip are the health care threads (Sorry David Anderson) as us Sovietized Canucks don’t have to worry about all that stuff. Thank-you John.
And La Gata Gris, my sympathies, we’ve had a massive stroke in our family too. You are not alone here.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
We just got the first shot in the household. My wife got Moderna #1. Next shot in 5 weeks. I’m in the last eligibility group so trying not to have any expectations till at least May.
But it’s enough for us to really start thinking about a time when we’ll re-enter the world.
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro: Cole keeps his TikTok influencer life separate from the blog.
Jeffro
Also, I see that Sidney Powell is using the Tucker Carlson, “no reasonable person would take me seriously” defense in response to Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against her. L to the OL.
GQP, you’re looking good these days! Putting out lots of important policies that impact the daily lives of hardworking Americans and what not. I’m sure folks will flock to y’all in 2022. ;)
debbie
@Baud:
Can you delete this before raven sees it? ?
JanieM
@JoyceH:
I’m the last one to know how to do that, but here’s a poem I love by Marge Piercy that’s in related territory.
The last stanza, which I used to keep on an index card pinned to the wall above my desk (and don’t at the moment just because I moved my desk…):
Omnes Omnibus
I am fine, thanks for asking.
@La Gata Gris: My condolences.
debbie
@catclub:
Wait, you can use a fake email address?
funlady75
Unlurking….Check site twice a day….love u John, Baud, Rik, Not Max, momsense, SB, Adam, Betty, Anne, Tom, David etc….so many great posts/comments…I’m now 78 & my first reading blog was MWO & Steve Gilliard & I do remember Tacticus(sp)..I also remember My Left Wing for a short time….good times…Now reduced to watching old classic movies & TV mini-series this past year….Hang in there John & chill with your loved ones….
MomSense
Thanks for asking how we are doing. This pandemic has affected us all differently. I’m sort of holding on until we can all get vaccinated. I’m dreaming of getting on the train and taking a trip. My youngest and I want to take the train to Boston, spend a few nights there and then go spend a week with my youngest and his fiancée in CT. Hoping my oldest will join us and that we can spend a day in NYC. The last time we were there was the summer of 2015. I got photos of my kid giving the finger to Trump Tower and FTFNYT. We never thought it would end up the way it did.
Work is exhausting. My mom is changing so rapidly now and I don’t know how I’m going to manage all of it. Also, too my dog is an asshole. Damn, I love her though.
debbie
@La Gata Gris:
I am so sorry for this horribleness.
debbie
@Mary G:
He was my first favorite basketball player. I especially liked his free throws.
jnfr
I’m mostly lurky myself due to limited time to keep up, but I’ve read a bunch of the old blogs since way back in the day, and it’s always good to see a post from you, John.
I am so sorry for your loss, @La Gata Gris. I hope the next year brings you peace.
Me and Mr J are fine, still here in Colorado as we have been for decades. I’m a retired old lady now. Mr J is younger but works as a programmer and was mostly working from home anyway. We didn’t so much need the various rescue moneys either, which is a sign of how privileged we are in this moment. But we did save some, pad our eating-out-with-tips budget, and gave a bunch of it away to friends and useful organizations.
Now partially vaccinated and looking forward to a more easy life for us all.
cain
@Aimai: welcome back, familiar nym!
Felanius Kootea
@La Gata Gris: So sorry to hear this. Hoping that you and your daughter heal.
Brachiator
@La Gata Gris:
So sorry to hear this. My condolences to your family..
NeenerNeener
@La Gata Gris: I’m so sorry for your loss.
cain
@La Gata Gris:
I’m so sorry – what a horrible loss. I hope that the coming months there will be some light in your collective lives to help things.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
Yeah, this seems like a desperation play, given that the statements she’s being sued for were parts of legal pleadings. It leads to unpleasant questions like, “If I’m not supposed to take what you said in that lawsuit literally, why should I believe anything you say in this lawsuit?”
cain
@schrodingers_cat:
I used to speak Kanpur/Lucknow Hindi fluently but then I moved to the U.S. and lost it all – also it isn’t even my mother tongue. But it would have been nice to retain it – but alas.
NorthLeft12
John, this blog [along with LGM and Hullabaloo] are my go to sites for news, discussion, and entertainment. I usually don’t join in, but the posts and comments are an important window for me on what is going on in the US and the world.
To all of you, keep up the great work. It is greatly appreciated.
JeanneT
Oddly, I think I’m getting better. For a over a decade I’ve been moving through my days head down, slogging along, just doing what needed to be done. Felt frozen numb on the outside and full of fury inside for all the shit going down from personal to political.
But a week ago I stood outside in the dark on the first spring warm night, and joyful urge to sing started bubbling up from my chest and out of my mouth. Last night I came across a recording of Bridge Over Troubled Water and listening to it started to cry. This morning I had my first germ of a poem in my morning waking. I think something is breaking free.
James E Powell
Balloon-Juice serves the function that my friendly neighborhood bar once did.
Everything is the same except you guys don’t have to listen to the music I choose on the jukebox.
cain
John commenting twice in a thread – that’s a recent record. :-)
Things are going fine for me. I’m feeling so much better after the Orange Menace is gone – and while there is a ton of work to do – i’m feeling hopeful. Job is stable and I am grateful for that after so many years of floundering around.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Been keeping busy in RL and not commenting much online. Lots of reading though. Tired of battling bots to get a new AMD graphics card (RX 6800XT) and may just settle for a 6700 model. Getting ready to pull the automatic out of the Mustang and drop a 5 speed manual in its place because that’s what you do when you are getting old, have RA and are crazy. My wife is going stir-crazy about wanting to go somewhere and do something but she’s also sane and responsible. That means that she rails along with me against the stupid idiots who are just prolonging this pandemic and making it impossible to return to some sense of normalcy. At least we live on the coast and in a rural area so we do have nice places to go with few to no people around.
I wouldn’t know if you emailed me because the email addy I use here is long dead and I’ve been slacking in updating it. One of these days….
2liberal
I’m 2liberal. When we used to have NFL threads i posted as “the_steelers_are_bradys_bitches”. I lurk a lot here daily and very occasionally post comments.
debbie
@Roger Moore:
I recall it didn’t work for Alex Jones either.
zhena gogolia
@Captain Lee Obvious:
Yes, please start commenting more!
kindness
Well John you have had other priorities for a bit and it’s OK. You put good people in charge of this place.
JPL
@La Gata Gris: That is a lot to handle and I hope that you continue to share. I’m so sorry.
japa21
John, just remember, soon you will become the adoptive parent of birds again. Just make sure the nesting sites are ready.
Jerzy Russian
Just got my first dose of Pfizer. Hanging out for the 15 minutes in a tent outside the facility. Weather is great, sunny and in the upper 60s.
Felanius Kootea
I’ve adjusted to being a hermit over the last year and have been mostly lurking on Balloon Juice.
I taught my graduate class online for the first time ever and what do you know, the world didn’t end. I felt bad for the students but we all took things in stride and the class actually went well. I’ve had both of my COVID-19 vaccine shots (Moderna) and I’m very relieved that my eighty-something year old mother has as well. My husband is getting his first shot tomorrow and after he’s received the second, we plan to visit my mom in NY, since we haven’t seen her in over a year.
I feel like the vaccines have opened up new possibilities and having a competent administration doing their best to distribute vaccines and speed up vaccinations makes a tremendous difference. I feel hopeful in a way that I didn’t five months ago.
Thanks to the Anthony Faucis, Kizzy Corbetts, Ugur Sahins, and Ozlem Turecis of the world.
Kelly
My mood is improving. The months from fleeing the Beachie fire early September until Biden’s inauguration in January were bad. Surrounded by scorched forests, burnt houses and scorched earth politics. On all fronts clean up is progressing. Much left to do but the trend helps my soul.
Fair Economist
@White & Gold Purgatorian: Treatments for broken hips have really improved. My stepfather broke his in 2019 at the age of 93 and it healed up pretty well, although it did exacerbate his now pretty severe fragility, probably because he was very limited in physical activities for about 2 months. But it’s way better than it was 20 years ago, when it was almost a death sentence for the very elderly.
Logan Brown
@La Gata Gris:
I am a lurker too and I extend my deepest condolences to all of you. I have seen so many students struggle with everything this year and wish you nothing but the best going forward.
JPL
@funlady75: I still miss Steve Gilliard.
JeanneT
@La Gata Gris:
My heart goes out to you and your daughter. May you both find comfort and strength together as you move through your days of grief.
randy khan
@La Gata Gris:
I am so terribly sorry. Losing a loved one like that is such a blow.
There are no clever words that will make it better, as I’m sure you already know. I will say that I hope you and your daughter can lean on each other because people usually are stronger together than separately and because each of you understands what the other is going through better than anyone else. Take care.
johnnybuck
Been around these parts since ’09. Don’t say much, but not a lurker. Used to love the College football threads. I think the anxiety of TFG’s reign of error aged me a lot, then throw the pandemic in there for good measure forced me to do some self helping which got me through it all. Plus being from Georgia, it was awesome to defeat TFG, and get a pair of great Senators to boot!
Seanly
@La Gata Gris:
My condolences to you. I hope you have a host of friends & family to help you through this terrible tragedy.
My brother lost his wife of 12 years at the end of February. He’s not sure how he’s going to maintain the house and keep raising their 10-yr old son. I was with him for a couple of weeks to help where I could.
Percysowner
@gbbalto: I’m so sorry.
CaseyL
@La Gata Gris:
How horrible – and during a pandemic, when you can’t have your usual support people come by. I am so sorry.
Hi, John! Terrific to hear from you! Have any of the birds come back yet to their nests in the porch?
The year has been better than I deserve. I have a job I love, that I can do just fine from home; none of my friends or family got sick; and I’ve had both shots.
OTOH, I’ve been as active as moss on a log, which is not-good, but hopefully as the weather improves, so will my inclination to get out and walk, or hike, or something.
SWMBO
@La Gata Gris: Peace and comfort to you and your daughter. When it hits that fast, it’s disorienting. Here’s hoping you find your footing soon.
Fair Economist
@La Gata Gris: I am so sorry you had to deal with a death like that, especially now when we’re still limited in our social support.
For myself, still semi-limited by the pandemic, but feeling quite hopeful for the future. My mom is vaccinated, my husband gets his first shot today, my brother’s latest business venture should start making money next month, I now feel fine after my own COVID bout, and we should be able to go back to a more-or-less normal life within 3 months. With a lot of real economic stimulus already here and more coming, I think the next few years will be very good for the country.
I’m also stoked about the upcoming LA Opera season. Not normally a big opera fan, but I think I’m getting season tickets for this one!
Auntie Beak
@debbie: ?
MomSense
@Seanly:
Im so sorry to hear about your brother.
Emma
All things considered, life is great for me in that I have a roof over my head, food, clean water, etc. But reading about how some bastard punched an Asian woman twice in the face – in front of her daughter, on the way to an anti-hate protest! – at a junction I know well from my college years has sent me on a bit of a mental tailspin again. I wish I knew if the rise in hate crimes since the spa shootings is perceived or real, but I’m so worried for my friends who actually live in that area. And I feel myself getting paranoid when strangers look at me while getting groceries. A guy stared at me a couple days ago as I was walking toward him, because that was where the exit was, and he didn’t look away until I glanced at him again with a “look.” Very unsettling.
Hungry Joe
Just passed Day 14 of Moderna 2, and am feeling more comfortable about things in general. Still trying to scrounge a leftover shot for Ms. Joe, who misses the cutoff age by just under a year.
The ISS (International Space Station) zipped by a couple of evenings back — a bright, (relatively) fast-moving dot in the sky. A couple walking their dog happened to be passing by. “Check it out!” I said, pointing. “The International Space Station!” They glanced up for about three seconds. One of them said, in a perfectly flat tone, “Oh. Cool.” Then they went on their way. Tough crowd. TOUGH crowd.
joel hanes
Cole, it should be almost babby birb season in WV, yes?
Kathleen
@La Gata Gris: I am so sorry. My deepest condolences.
narya
@p.a.: yup. I used to have red hair, so . . .
Ruckus
The last year has been a lot less than fun.
I’ve almost worked long enough that I can retire, I plan to do that before I turn 72, which is this year. Soon.
I lost some work in the last year so my income hasn’t been all that great and I did work on a bunch of stuff which was for something having to do with Covid, so that made it a bit easier to handle.
I’m about 4 1/2 yrs out from finishing cancer treatment, just had an appointment with oncologist and everything is going good.
Conservatives have moved to a planet with even stranger concepts of governing, one of which is listening to an absolute idiot tell them to overthrow a properly elected government. And buying that.
danielx
@John Cole:
I don’t suppose you will remember me, but I used to follow you back in ’63…..
Odie Hugh Manatee
@La Gata Gris:
You and your daughter have my deepest condolences. I am always so at a loss for adequate words at times like this.
Best wishes to you both.
J R in WV
@La Gata Gris:
So sorry for your terrible news. If you need help, just ask us. We will stand up for you.
In the meantime, you have our heartfelt sympathy, and best wishes…
@Aimai:
And you! Great to see you here, after seeing you in passing at LGM for so long. Please continue to show up here. I browse LGM, and comment a little, but this is my home-place. After all, I am in WV.
Ruckus
@La Gata Gris:
With everyone else, so, so sorry about everything.
Shoulders are free here and open for resting your head on.
@Aimai:
Sorry (not Sorry?) about the job. All the best for you as well. And also among the hopeful that you’ll be back here.
HinTN
@JPL: Damn right
randy khan
@Mary G:
Seriously. Do people want me to have to spend all of my time on Facebook?
Betsy
NOT GOOD.
Elie
@La Gata Gris:
I send you wishes of sympathy and courage. You will get through this but it is so so hard. Get as much rest as you can, eat, let people comfort and love you…
SWMBO
@Betsy: What’s up? Are you ok?
Aimai
Thanks to all for remembering me! And all my love and condolences to everyone here who has been suffering With losses and griefs during this nightmarish year. I read balloon juice religiously even though I wasn’t posting and it has really been a haven in a heartless world.
randy khan
I feel like I’m doing about as well as can be expected.
I’m not a fan of working at home, and I love to travel (as anyone who’s seen my OTR posts knows), and 10 of the last 12 months were months with Donald Trump in them, and that terrible disease took away my father-in-law, who I loved and who my wife loved even more, and we’re dealing with the aftermath, which includes taking over running her parents’ house because my wife’s mother can’t do it, and I miss seeing our friends, and Zoom really isn’t a great way to do business or pleasure.
But at least we have Zoom instead of nothing, and my wife and I still have our jobs, and Trump lost the election, and we’ve been free of him for the last 2 months, and Biden hit the ground running, and my wife and her mother are halfway through getting vaccinated, and because we’ve been stuck at home we’ve saved more money than usual, and the yard looks better, and it’s spring (which always makes me happy), and by the summer the country should be in much better shape, and I’ve been getting more exercise, and have learned to cook new things (ask me about my fruit tarts; still working on the focaccia, though) and Air France just sent me an email that made me think of Paris in the fall.
So things are starting to look up, and I’m an optimist by nature, so I think that’s the way it’s going to go for a while.
Elie
John, I love this blog and don’t expect you to be involved in everything or keep up with my life. I love your wit and sense of humor when you do comment.
I am good. I am fully vaccinated and getting more connected with people I haven’t been with for over a year. I am deeply thankful that my sister survived very serious illness last year and I am going to see her in Chicago for the first time in months. I am also starting to sing again — I stopped for months — didn’t want to, ..
Biden and his team are doing a good solid job in re-humanizing us IMHO. I think people are starting to feel it and I am glad for that.
Today is a sunny day and I am enjoying watching the birds at my feeders and hearing their song in the morning.
lowtechcyclist
How the fuck am I? In limbo, really.
I’m over 65, and I’m less than a week from Shot #2. My wife’s in her late 50s, which here in MD means she can’t get her *first* shot until April 13, or rather as soon after that as she can find an open slot for an appointment. Which means that *maybe* we can start edging back towards normal life around Memorial Day weekend.
In the meantime, limbo.
schrodingers_cat
@cain: If you go back it will come to you after a week or so. Have you been following the debate about Audrey Truschke on Twitter?
HumboldtBlue
@Aimai:
We haven’t seen your name in years. Someone asked about mnemosyne last week and I also thought of your name as well.
Elie
@Aimai:
So good to see your nym here again! I take it that quiting was a good thing? If so, wonderful and welcome back —
schrodingers_cat
@Aimai: We missed you. Welcome back!
@HumboldtBlue: I have corresponded with her a few times in the past year. She has been otherwise busy but she is well.
HumboldtBlue
@schrodingers_cat:
It may have been you but I think it was someone else who was in email contact as well.
RSA
@La Gata Gris: I’m sorry. Best wishes to you and your family.
PJ
@La Gata Gris:
My condolences.
glc
Feeling relatively good these days.
Things could be much worse, apparently.
Shot #2 for me on Wednesday, for mrs c Thursday.
And it seems to be spring.
TheflipPsyd
@La Gata Gris: My deepest condolences. Someone shared the following after the death of my mother. I hope it brings you comfort as it did me
Whenever grief tries to steal the beauty of your memories, remember love never dies.
leeleeFL
@La Gata Gris: so sorry to hear of your loss! May only good news come your way for a good long time!
Chris Johnson
I’ve been real Johnlike. Doubling down on isolation and the work I do. I ended up deleting both Facebook and Twitter, and for that matter my only living family (some of whom are covidiots), and I’ve been in my own little ‘space station’ just pursuing the stuff I do.
I got real good at it. Anyone producing music who uses plugins, I’ve got some seriously killer stuff out these days, especially the reverbs. Also having some fun with very sporadic music making, and sort of tending the instrument garden: more fun to tinker with gear than to compose, and I can’t be arsed to ‘accomplish’ these days when ‘surviving’ is actually a significant prize.
Endangered that last week, building aluminum Eurorack frames from raw lengths of rail and angle-aluminum. Turns out it is technically possible to whittle a hole in soft aluminum, larger, with an X-Acto knife. Emphasis on the ‘technically’ because OMFG DON’T, if you’re very careful then everything is fine until the huge forces you’re exerting cause the tip of the blade to snap, and then aforesaid huge forces drive the blade through fingernail and way deep into finger. I was lucky to get it tightly wrapped up before I lost too much blood.
I am also still too poverty-minded to have even considered going to the emergency room: it was an automatic NOPE and I was full-on trying to cope myself, alone. In fairness, though I inherited money, a very small bounce off the world of hospitals and doctors as someone who’s not broke, would leave me very quickly broke again, and the idea’s so horrifying that in some ways I don’t regret my reaction. But it’s sobering. I gotta be more careful.
Nice that it’s healed up enough now, that I can more or less type normally. It’s been a week of not being able to do ANYTHING normally. I might as well have been trying to get mustard :)
Still lurkin’, still capable of typing up a storm. Dirtbag leftism terminated with extreme prejudice. These days the leftys I listen to are Vaush, and Beau of the Fifth Column. They are full-on backing the Dems and feeling pretty positive about how that’s going, and so am I.
leeleeFL
@Captain Lee Obvious: I totally agree with this. Balloon Juice got me thru a Mom with Alzheimer’s, a Son dead too young, a Daughter with some major life issues and then there was COVID!
I come here to stay sane, and I have always felt safe and more than tolerated. That this band of jackals has remained a haven for us all is thanks to many, but mostly thanks to you, Cole! We are blessed
Gemina13
I’m practically a lurker, too. :) I’m doing okay. My sanity’s recovering ever since TFG got punted back to Mar-A-Lago. I had heart surgery in December, and am healing nicely after a setback in February. Work is going well, my SO is healthy, our little cat Penny is healthy and loving, and Biden is killing his first 100 days. Life is good.
leeleeFL
@Chris Johnson: Yes, be more careful! The mustard line was genius, and Beau is one of my favorite jams!
Monala
@La Gata Gris: I’m so sorry. I lost my husband after he had a stroke two years ago, and I’m raising a teenage daughter. Sending hugs as you get through this tough time.
FlyingToaster
It’s been a truly hellish year. HerrDoktor sent home March 10th, WarriorGirl (now WarriorTeen) sent home March 12th, fully remote school and summer camps and work.
The ongoing hell of hybrid education since September — and my kid’s the lucky one; in school M-Th, 8:30-12:30 (and on Zoom from 1-3:30 and Friday 9-12:30). The utterly exhausting daily routine of figuring out where it’s safe to shop and which things have to be shipped in. Deferring repairs until at least the adults are fully jabbed (HerrDoctor’s had #1 already, I’m going in Wednesday). Having staples go abruptly missing from store shelves, only to return 3 or 6 or 12 weeks later with no explanation. For which the obvious explanation is some vital cog caught COVID and stopped everything in its tracks.
Staying at home is no problem for me; I’ve been a freelancer since 1990. But trying to make sure that the equipment and bandwidth are sufficient for all three of us to be online at once was fucking nightmarish last summer. And now new nightmares like braces for the kid and having to replace the FUCKING UPSTAIRS HVAC because it’s 20 years old and will kill us all, if we don’t.
Dead old folks in the extended family and friends, from stress and deferred healthcare.
Things are finally looking up, between DC not being run by a low-level mafioso, most of the adults in the family getting their shots, seeing certain family members finally accept that “oh, so your brother is EXACTLY the asshole you said he was in 1981”.
And Balloon Juice has been a big help, in just keeping the “yes, it still fucking sucks, and tax those assholes already” vibe.
Keep up the good work, blogfather.
Kayla Rudbek
@La Gata Gris: I’m so sorry for your loss.
Matt McIrvin
Aside from the usual COVID stuff, the main thing for me is that last fall, I finally decided to go hard on getting all the medical treatment I’ve been putting off… and it ultimately led to me getting knee replacement surgery a month ago, to fix my bad left knee. So I’ve been learning to walk again over the past few weeks, going from a walker to a cane to walking without the cane. I managed to walk about a mile today on hilly terrain. My knee is still pretty sore and swollen but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve noticed that I can stand up for periods that would have been increasingly agonizing before the surgery, so there’s already some improvement.
Meanwhile I’ve been trying my best to get back to work through all this–the whole office has been remote for the past year so I don’t need to be ambulatory, but the demands of pain management and physical therapy make it harder to be productive.
Nancy
@La Gata Gris:
My heart goes out to you and your daughter. Life sucks sometimes but while grief and loss never go away, they do become less.
J R in WV
@randy khan:
I got one of those. Listen up everyone!
If you intend to fly trans-Atlantic, Air France is the way to go!! Have done it via Delta, not bad. But Air France is really nice, just saying. Just think of the food…
Betsy
@SWMBO: I can’t see my way forward. The road ahead looks unrewarding and sad. Isolation and anxiety have taken their toll. After a year of wishing I could go anywhere and get a change of scenery, now I’m like a long-penned dog that doesn’t want to come out anymore. The outside world just seems too scary and there’s still a lot of irresponsible people out there.
Soon I’ll be all alone in the world. I don’t know what to do next. I really don’t,
Nancy
Nancy update:
Here is western NY, I’m working remote for most of the week with one day in office. Beginning in April I will work in office on two days, continue to be remote the other three. The office is overcrowded so even without enforced absence we might have gone to this plan at some point. COVID gave us the push to discover that a lot of what we do could happen virtually.
I have had one shot and will get the second on April Fool’s day. I’ll try to hold the jokes. Because we are in New York apparently, I almost never see anyone maskless. How bizarre it seems that this is not the case elsewhere. I am eager to be back in the world.
Nancy
@Betsy:
Can anyone help? Do you want/need to talk?
trnc
@La Gata Gris: I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope you have some kind of support group that isn’t completely thwarted by covid.
schrodingers_cat
@Betsy: You are not alone. We care about you. Tell us what you need or if we can help in any way.
Kay
I’m the treasurer for a group that supports music programs in the public school. This is when we fund raise so donations have been coming in. Today I got some very nice checks from local businesses – the directional boring people apparently had a good year, because they gave us a bunch, but I ALSO got a mean letter – unsigned- about how the sender wasn’t donating this year because we didn’t have in person music assemblies.
Can you imagine writing that letter? The time and effort it took, and of course unsigned/no return address because they’re chickenshits in addition to being mean.
So, ya know, some bright spots this pandemic year but also some real jerks. I’m going to send a nice note to the directional boring company. Generous, and not jerks.
trnc
Cole, it’s good to hear you up and about. I can go from being almost a hermit sometimes to being super sociable, so I just never really know from week to week.
The Moar You Know
Burner address. Sorry but that’s how it’s had to be for as long as I’ve been here.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
I’m doing well here in Northern California. Got both Moderna shots and it’s spring – fruit trees flowering, daffodils blooming – TFG is gone. It’s so nice to wake up in the morning and not have to think – Oh God – what has he done now!
Thank for giving us this space John and for all the commenters. Also, I love the idea of a barbecue in the summer!
Felanius Kootea
@Betsy: Sorry to hear this. I had to add a masked half-hour walk to my daily routine to keep from sinking into despair. This may not be relevant or appropriate for you, so please let us know if we can help in any way.
Betsy
@Nancy: Thank you for that kind question. I don’t think so. I’m going to just hang in there. Something might change or I might change something.
I have been consistently feeling quite hopeless so it seems unlikely.
I don’t know what else to do next, but I do appreciate your asking.
Betsy
@schrodingers_cat: Thank you. It’s so nice to know there are caring people like you.
Betsy
@Felanius Kootea: Thanks for the tip. I’ve been walking some as weather permits and it does help.
Betsy
@Kay: I can imagine what a *big* donor that anonymous letter-writer must have been in previous years. Your organization really lost out. /s
ETA: Really, sarcasm and wishing harm to malignant narcissists is what passes for a good mood in me these days.
JoyceH
Last summer before I sold my sister’s house, I did a quick-n-dirty sort of all her possessions and the stuff I didn’t get to I had boxed and trucked by movers so I can sort through it at my leisure. So I’ve been picking away at a room full of boxes since last – ulp! – July. Since we were twins, I keep getting distracted by stuff like our college yearbooks.
Today in a large moving box I found a small box from a pottery. Opened it up and found a small pottery hippo with a loop to hang on a Christmas tree. Awwwww! When we were kids, we loved that song, “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas”.
Then it dawned on me. Jane didn’t do Christmas trees. We’d have Thanksgiving at her house and Christmas at my house because I would put up a tree. Which can only mean — she was going to give this to me.
MomSense
@JoyceH:
Tears.
Ohio Mom
I can’t believe I missed this thread until now, when it is over.
La Gata Gris (if you are still here),
my deepest sympathies. A year of unemployment makes the ground under one’s feet feel shaky, and then to lose your husband so suddenly! Please be very kind to yourself and encourage your daughter to do the same for herself. Cut yourself lots of slack, give yourself treats, make sure you eat and sleep well. It is going to be a slog for a while. Come back and keep us updated.
Betsy,
You also need to be kind to yourself while you wait (as the Quakers say) to proceed as the way opens. Please keep in touch on the threads.
As for Ohio Family, we are also in limbo. Ohio Dad is between jobs, and it is occurring to us that as a 60+ engineer, he may have slipped into retirement. Which is going to be a stretch financially. Oh well. I enjoyed the lifestyle of not pinching pennies but I think it is like riding a bike, easy to pick up again.
We are almost all fully vaccinated, so there’s that.
leeleeFL
@Betsy: You are needing to talk this out with someone who knows how to help you. We are here, of course, but sympathy and solidarity can only do so much. Don’t lose hope, Betsy. Things really can get better. Hugs from Florida
leeleeFL
@JoyceH: And more tears! I love that you know how much she loved you, and knew how that would have made you smile!
Bumper
@Mary G: You shout in red capitals for me too!!!!
Bumper
@La Gata Gris: I’m so sorry. That is a lot of distress in a short period. Please come back here for support when you need it.
Bumper
@Aimai: I remember you from before you even went back to school. I loved your comments and hope you can spend more time here now.
Bumper
@Betsy: You are not alone. You always have this community. Please don’t change that.
I’ve always been not-so-social and as vaccinations are happening, there’s this push-pull between wanting to continue to hunker down and wanting to just get away from the house. I find that it can be hard right now to even go back to doing completely normal things from before, even as I think of how nice it would be to have a vacation somewhere. It’s scary. It’s going to take some time to feel somewhat my old self.
Ohio Mom
Bumper:
Reading this thread, it seems like a lot of us are ambivalent about what to do next — return to some semblance of our old/previous normal or — what, I don’t know, stay hunkered down? Take off in an entirely new direction?
It is something of an existential crisis.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Hey John,
Good to hear from you. Things here are OK. Got vaccinated, hung on to my job, even bought a house. I’m feeling extremely lucky compared to many, and I’m grateful for it.
Personally, I think that we’ve all been through a version of PTSD. The last four years, and 2020 in particular, was, well, shit. I only started sleeping worth a damn after Inauguration Day. We’re all in recovery.
Lyrebird
Yes.
Note: Something good that happened before the Inaugural: hearing you speak live was one of a bunch of highlights of my actually going on a Zoom meetup, was it New Year’s or even back in Thanksgiving? We have lots of verbal artists on this blog, I just wanted to say I appreciate how you turn a phrase.
Brachiator
@JoyceH:
Visited the thread again to look at some of the late notes.
So sweet. Blessings to you and to the memory of your sister.
StringOnAStick
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): I agree, I’ve finally started being able to sleep again without edibles. We’ve all got some level of PTSD for sure.
rikyrah
I am a couple of weeks away from getting my cable restored.
I am a self confessed tv addict who has been without cable since October.
it’s the one thing that I enjoy that I can get back in my life.
it will be months before I can get in a swimming pool.??
And, even longer before I go back into a movie theater, if they survive.?
Brachiator
@Ohio Mom:
I get a bit annoyed at people who want to rush back to “normal” as though vaccination of Americans will simply wipe away the virus and its impact. I don’t even yearn for a “new normal.” I just want to be able to adapt to the new reality, and expect that some things will be better, some things will be different, and some things will be changed forever.
I worry about Covid variants and about the Covid-anti-vaxxers and the idiotic people who think that they can fight the pandemic as a heroic effort of “personal responsibility.” I think these people are fools who may end up harming efforts to get past the worst effects of the pandemic.
And also I have to note that even though my overall mood has been much better since the election and Biden’s inauguration, I realize that the long lockdown and slow recovery, the waiting for my turn to get the vaccine, all of this has worn me down some and very recently has made me angrier and more frustrated than I have been before. This is something that I will have to work on as we move ahead.
rikyrah
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
My sleep started getting better Inauguration Day. It really got better after second shot.
rikyrah
@Ohio Mom:
I will double masked until September.
I will not be in a restaurant before then.
I might begin doing some grocery shopping….might.
rikyrah
@JoyceH: ????
rikyrah
@Mary G:
I feel you.
I need this place.
I really do.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
I actually had a dream about eating a hot dog and movie popcorn!
They have allowed movie theaters to open here in Southern California. I’m going over the news stories about new procedures to keep everyone safe.
I don’t know. It may be a long time, if ever, before I go to the movies again, no matter how much I love the movie going experience.
rikyrah
@La Gata Gris:
I am so sorry????
La Gata Gris
Thanks everyone for the support. It’s been a hellish two weeks. AFter a bumpy year, and we’re probably all to varying degrees stressed out over this last bumpy years.
Poe Larity
La Gata Gris: sorry for your loss, cannot imagine.
Hi John,
You should move to substack and make the kind of money you deserve, I think your voice would be even more popular today and Biden needs all the help he can get.
I’m fine under this nym, survived the covid era and CA fires while others lost everything. 88 year old parental units get their second shots tomorrow. Whew. I almost ran a red light the other day, literally staring into the setting sun on a western road and my passenger yelling while all I could think was “stay on target”.
I think we all need to stay on target. We might not all make it, but the death star still lurks and we need to give the Jedi some time.
sab
@Ohio Mom: Wednesday we are two weeks from our last Moderna shot. A personal relief, but I feel weirdly guilty. Spouse and I are now okay, but the kids and grandkids are still living in Covid times, as are my younger siblings and spouse’s many nieces and nephews. I go to work to switch out files, and the receptionist is still at risk.
My husband was all jubilant that the coffee klatch could get back together in person this week, but instead they get to go to the funeral of a longtime friend. Two weeks ago there couldn’t have been a funeral. Several friends died this year and we couldn’t pay respects or gather together.
Florida Frog
@JoyceH: I am one of your readers. Your work has brought me much joy in a difficult year. I am so sorry for the loss of your twin. Take all the time you need to heal and sort out your future. Whether you write again or not you have given us a gift. Thank you.
Ohio Mom
I should add that of course I don’t think we should all rush back to restaurants, parties, movie theaters, gyms, or whatever.
And I am frustrated when I drive past the mall in my neighborhood and see that the parking lot is full — these people are slowing down progress for all of us. My area is still not where it was, Covid number-wise last summer.
But we are entering a liminal space. We aren’t there yet but in the distance we can see something else. It could take the better part of a year (and that is assuming no super variant arises) to get there, which just gives us more time to consider what we want to do with ourselves when we get there.
This is especially true for those of us who have had a big personal transition this past year, such as the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or something similar — we can’t yet build our new life, the one that will incorporate our changed status yet still propel us forward.
la caterina
I’m really struggling right now to just keep up with work and caring for my cat colony. The constant anxiety during TFG’s term has been replaced by a deep fatigue. This blog has been crucial to my survival. Cole, you may feel disconnected from the bog, but I, for one, feel connected to you and the other FP’ers: AnneLaurie, Betty C, Silverman, Watergirl, Cheryl Rofer, David Anderson et al. Not to mention the jackal regulars! You’re all mensches.
la caterina
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Congrats in the house! I’m so glad we got to see you on one of the holiday zooms.
Pennsylvanian
Looks like I’m late to the party but I’ll chime in anyway. I don’t remember when I started reading but it was around Iraq war time, I believe. JC was the only Republican that had people with other viewpoints posting and I have always found the comments section here to be educational and witty so I hung around. I loved John’s transformation from semi-a-hole Republican to flaming liberal. Well done, sir!
It is strange, but John’s life has paralleled my own in many ways. We are the same age, same family makeup, both had fat white cats that we loved (RIP Tunch and Lacey) and lost, got really into gardening and canning at the same time, were Steelers fans (I can’t watch anymore since I saw Concussion) and various other random things over the years. Oh and I’m from Pittsburgh, so home state adjacent!
I don’t comment much but I am here every day and feel like I know all of you. You don’t know how much I depend on the family here, especially over the last four years. I just marvel at the excellent writing content. Thanks to you all.
MMM
I miss #1. And I’m used to someone not responding to me. You need to read/watch more Chomsky.