Baby Steps
24/08/20 07:04
This month seems to be getting away from me when it comes to staying on top of my journal. What's that all about? It's true, I have been distracted by politics and everything else going on but what else is new. I watched not a second of the democrat's 4-day virtual convention. By all accounts, it was DARK. Maybe that says more about my sources, but the little snippets I've seen and heard seem to bear that out. It was four days of Orange Man Bad. You'd think the democrats might be interested in painting a brighter picture of what they have to offer compared to the last four years of our nation under Trump. Uh, no.
It's not just my take on all of this. Biden got no bump from their four-day hoo-hah. You might write that off to the fact that it was the first virtual convention ever in the history of presidential conventions. One other thing that Biden has made clear over the last several days is that he is for a national mask mandate and that he would shut down the country if the science warranted it. That alone should disqualify Biden from becoming president. The collateral damage of shutdowns is far worse than the shut downs themselves in terms of suicides, etc. That's just a fact.
So we'll see what Trump and his team have to work with this coming week. Oh, and did I mention that the democrats offered no plan for Biden's four-year stint? What does he stand for? What will he do? How long will he be in office before the Dems replace him with Kamala Harris? Just imagine, our first black woman president. I would be okay with that were she not such a left-wing nut job. She's a San Fran-sicko lib through and through, and Sleepy Joe is their trojan horse, but you won't hear that from their lips. I think the American people are on to this game of theirs and will vote with both feet come election day. It's a fraud!
Trump has a good line-up of speakers scheduled, and I expect we'll get a surprise speaker or two. He's already released his game plan for the next four years, so there's that. Most of this stuff will be going on later in the evening so I'll be catching the highlights the following day. Trump is behind in the national polls by more than a few points or, so the media will tell you.
It's deja vu all over again, eh? He's further ahead than he was in 2016 when he beat the pantsuit off of Hillary Clinton, so that's a good thing. You can't believe a damn thing they tell you when it comes to the polls. Still, it's better to fight like you're ten points behind.
Evan asked if I might lend a hand with the task of putting a shine on his place over in Exeter. Sure, happy to do that. I grabbed the usual cleaning supplies and got on the road. We've been after him lately to stay on top of things, but he's not particularly inclined to do that knowing what we know about how he keeps his place. He's a few clicks short of having the organizational skills to do what needs to be done, and he's brave enough to give a holler when he's feeling overwhelmed and unable to get the job done. This is the first time Evan has been open to having us lend a hand, so that's not bad. He's been living in Exeter for a bit better than a year now, so that should tell you something.
I'm such a whirlwind when it comes to this Maids-R-Us business. Evan had all he could do to stay out of my way, but he did manage to work with me to whip his refrigerator into shape, and he took out the trash while I ran the vacuum cleaner through his place. He moved furniture while I vacuumed under this and that, and we exchanged high fives when we had collectively rid his apartment of any obvious and not so obvious dust bunnies. Had we known what a dust bunny generator that rug of his would be when we bought it, we would have never made the purchase.
We loaded the dishwasher together and ran it on an extended cycle to make sure everything was not only cleaned but was spotless and ready to be put away. I wasn't leaving that place until we put every clean glass, plate, and piece of silverware away in their proper place. I sensed that Evan used his dishwasher, but he wasn't very good at taking things out of the dishwasher and putting them away. Why bother when you can just take them directly out of the dishwasher? Makes sense. Right?
Ev could probably do a better job throwing things away. He's not a hoarder, but he doesn't go the extra mile when this that or the other container is empty. That goes for items in his refrigerator, in his freezer, etc. We probably decreased the clutter in his refrigerator by 50% after throwing away empty containers and bottles of this, that, and the other thing that he just never uses anymore. There's that organizational thing again.
I should have been more insistent that he take over the vacuuming when I was doing my thing with the dust bunnies. He declined, but I think it would have done him good to see what a difference he can make by doing something as simple as running the vacuum cleaner through his place. It was a missed opportunity. I took some before and after video footage of his apartment which I always want to do whenever I get started on something big. Like a couple of realtors on a location shoot, we walked from room to room, from appliance to appliance, from sink to sink, with Evan in every frame pointing to the areas most worthy of mention. It was a good day.
Not to be outdone, I worked with Nancy to get over this irrational fear of hers that prevented her from going into stores over the last six months. Maybe "irrational" is the wrong word. And just to be clear, I'm talking about food shopping for the most part. I don't know what it is about the food store shopping that has Nancy with her knickers in a knot, but I do know that it cannot continue. We have to whittle away at these kinds of things so as not to let them control her life and our lives. Today, it's food shopping. Tomorrow, it could be something more substantial. Let's get this thing out of the way, and we can go from there. So, that's what we did.
See, that wasn't so bad. I do think that Nancy had forgotten how to go food shopping. The arrows on the floor at the beginning of every aisle, while put in place to direct traffic and to maximize social distancing in the era of Covid, provided real-time guidance. Nancy complied without so much as a fuss. She was happy to be routed truth be told and I was delighted to see her taking direction as well as she did. She was back on her proverbial bicycle pedaling away as she had never been away, and I couldn't have been any prouder. Had we done this sooner, we might have avoided the angst of it all but it's done now so that's that.
I should mention it, because it's an integral part of this story, that I had put my foot down about the shopping business. It had little to do with the food shopping, but I never told Nancy that. It had everything to do with helping her to move on with her life and to come out of the shadows as it were. I'm talking about being afraid of your own shadow and how that can be disabling and devastating if not favorably resolved. You might say that she was collateral damage in the fight against the virus. I was determined not to let her become a victim, so when the time came, we moved forward together. Baby steps.
Did I mention that Evan got electrocuted? He had just arrived here at our home the other day in the middle of a raging thunderstorm. Evan was standing in the garage speaking to his mom, and he was too close to the metal rails that act as a guide for our garage doors. I was on my way home after picking up a coffee, so I wasn't there, but Evan filled me in when he called me in the immediate aftermath of the event. I'm still not clear on what the scene in the garage looked like this all went down, but I think it may have happened so fast that if you blinked, you might have missed it.
Evan said he felt a jolt run through his body as he came into contact with the metal braces one the garage door. He didn't pass out; he didn't collapse; he didn't lose consciousness one way or the other. Any time your child gets electrocuted, and he lives to talk about, it it's a good day. There was no smell in the air of singed hair or scorched clothing.
I asked that he check the bottom of his feet to see if he could detect an entrance or exit point of the alleged jolt but there was nothing to see. One had to imagine that something got rewired in the process so we kept a close eye on him for the rest of his time at our house. He didn't seem to be any worse for wear and that's a good thing. Nancy's only comment was, "that boy can't catch a break."
We debated whether or not to bring the Ev man into one of the local convenient care facilities to have him checked out, but I thought that might be a bridge too far given that he seemed mostly unfazed by the event. I might have agreed to have him phone it in to see if they thought anything more was warranted but that never came up as an option. Long story short, we've moved on.
Last night was night number two of the RNC, and while not as wildly successful as night one, it was nonetheless a good night. When you get the speeches without all the fanfare and fuss that goes along with satisfying hordes of conventioneers, and that's where we are today amid the midst of this damn pandemic, things move along, and messages get delivered with greater clarity and dispatch. I'm not a big Melania Trump fan, but she did the Donald a solid by delivering a stellar heartfelt speech on behalf of her husband and her nation.
Melania gave mention to the pain that we as a nation have suffered due to the virus, and she asked that the looters and shooters plaguing our nation in democrat run cities stop doing what they're doing for the betterment of our country. The difference between the speeches delivered by Marxist Michelle Obama during the DNC and Melania Trump couldn't have been more different.
Ironically, it is the craziness in the streets in the democrat-run cities that have good god-fearing people coast to coast clearing the shelves in gun stores to better protect their property and their families better from the scourge of scum wreaking havoc in our inner cities. If that goes away, and peace and tranquility sets in, it could benefit Biden come November 3rd. To date, not one Democrat has denounced the criminal activity, and that is not lost on anyone paying even an iota of attention.
Good for Melania is what I say. And if it helps Trump get over the finish line in November, it may well be because of what she said and how she said it. It was a message of hope and that should resonate with every god fearing woman sitting in their suburban homes looking for answers and reassurance during these difficult times. They want reassurance that liberal fanatics will not be proselytizing to their children in the schools and that their children can sleep soundly at night without the fear of Marxists with megaphones rousing them from their dreams.
It's not just my take on all of this. Biden got no bump from their four-day hoo-hah. You might write that off to the fact that it was the first virtual convention ever in the history of presidential conventions. One other thing that Biden has made clear over the last several days is that he is for a national mask mandate and that he would shut down the country if the science warranted it. That alone should disqualify Biden from becoming president. The collateral damage of shutdowns is far worse than the shut downs themselves in terms of suicides, etc. That's just a fact.
So we'll see what Trump and his team have to work with this coming week. Oh, and did I mention that the democrats offered no plan for Biden's four-year stint? What does he stand for? What will he do? How long will he be in office before the Dems replace him with Kamala Harris? Just imagine, our first black woman president. I would be okay with that were she not such a left-wing nut job. She's a San Fran-sicko lib through and through, and Sleepy Joe is their trojan horse, but you won't hear that from their lips. I think the American people are on to this game of theirs and will vote with both feet come election day. It's a fraud!
Trump has a good line-up of speakers scheduled, and I expect we'll get a surprise speaker or two. He's already released his game plan for the next four years, so there's that. Most of this stuff will be going on later in the evening so I'll be catching the highlights the following day. Trump is behind in the national polls by more than a few points or, so the media will tell you.
It's deja vu all over again, eh? He's further ahead than he was in 2016 when he beat the pantsuit off of Hillary Clinton, so that's a good thing. You can't believe a damn thing they tell you when it comes to the polls. Still, it's better to fight like you're ten points behind.
Evan asked if I might lend a hand with the task of putting a shine on his place over in Exeter. Sure, happy to do that. I grabbed the usual cleaning supplies and got on the road. We've been after him lately to stay on top of things, but he's not particularly inclined to do that knowing what we know about how he keeps his place. He's a few clicks short of having the organizational skills to do what needs to be done, and he's brave enough to give a holler when he's feeling overwhelmed and unable to get the job done. This is the first time Evan has been open to having us lend a hand, so that's not bad. He's been living in Exeter for a bit better than a year now, so that should tell you something.
I'm such a whirlwind when it comes to this Maids-R-Us business. Evan had all he could do to stay out of my way, but he did manage to work with me to whip his refrigerator into shape, and he took out the trash while I ran the vacuum cleaner through his place. He moved furniture while I vacuumed under this and that, and we exchanged high fives when we had collectively rid his apartment of any obvious and not so obvious dust bunnies. Had we known what a dust bunny generator that rug of his would be when we bought it, we would have never made the purchase.
We loaded the dishwasher together and ran it on an extended cycle to make sure everything was not only cleaned but was spotless and ready to be put away. I wasn't leaving that place until we put every clean glass, plate, and piece of silverware away in their proper place. I sensed that Evan used his dishwasher, but he wasn't very good at taking things out of the dishwasher and putting them away. Why bother when you can just take them directly out of the dishwasher? Makes sense. Right?
Ev could probably do a better job throwing things away. He's not a hoarder, but he doesn't go the extra mile when this that or the other container is empty. That goes for items in his refrigerator, in his freezer, etc. We probably decreased the clutter in his refrigerator by 50% after throwing away empty containers and bottles of this, that, and the other thing that he just never uses anymore. There's that organizational thing again.
I should have been more insistent that he take over the vacuuming when I was doing my thing with the dust bunnies. He declined, but I think it would have done him good to see what a difference he can make by doing something as simple as running the vacuum cleaner through his place. It was a missed opportunity. I took some before and after video footage of his apartment which I always want to do whenever I get started on something big. Like a couple of realtors on a location shoot, we walked from room to room, from appliance to appliance, from sink to sink, with Evan in every frame pointing to the areas most worthy of mention. It was a good day.
Not to be outdone, I worked with Nancy to get over this irrational fear of hers that prevented her from going into stores over the last six months. Maybe "irrational" is the wrong word. And just to be clear, I'm talking about food shopping for the most part. I don't know what it is about the food store shopping that has Nancy with her knickers in a knot, but I do know that it cannot continue. We have to whittle away at these kinds of things so as not to let them control her life and our lives. Today, it's food shopping. Tomorrow, it could be something more substantial. Let's get this thing out of the way, and we can go from there. So, that's what we did.
See, that wasn't so bad. I do think that Nancy had forgotten how to go food shopping. The arrows on the floor at the beginning of every aisle, while put in place to direct traffic and to maximize social distancing in the era of Covid, provided real-time guidance. Nancy complied without so much as a fuss. She was happy to be routed truth be told and I was delighted to see her taking direction as well as she did. She was back on her proverbial bicycle pedaling away as she had never been away, and I couldn't have been any prouder. Had we done this sooner, we might have avoided the angst of it all but it's done now so that's that.
I should mention it, because it's an integral part of this story, that I had put my foot down about the shopping business. It had little to do with the food shopping, but I never told Nancy that. It had everything to do with helping her to move on with her life and to come out of the shadows as it were. I'm talking about being afraid of your own shadow and how that can be disabling and devastating if not favorably resolved. You might say that she was collateral damage in the fight against the virus. I was determined not to let her become a victim, so when the time came, we moved forward together. Baby steps.
Did I mention that Evan got electrocuted? He had just arrived here at our home the other day in the middle of a raging thunderstorm. Evan was standing in the garage speaking to his mom, and he was too close to the metal rails that act as a guide for our garage doors. I was on my way home after picking up a coffee, so I wasn't there, but Evan filled me in when he called me in the immediate aftermath of the event. I'm still not clear on what the scene in the garage looked like this all went down, but I think it may have happened so fast that if you blinked, you might have missed it.
Evan said he felt a jolt run through his body as he came into contact with the metal braces one the garage door. He didn't pass out; he didn't collapse; he didn't lose consciousness one way or the other. Any time your child gets electrocuted, and he lives to talk about, it it's a good day. There was no smell in the air of singed hair or scorched clothing.
I asked that he check the bottom of his feet to see if he could detect an entrance or exit point of the alleged jolt but there was nothing to see. One had to imagine that something got rewired in the process so we kept a close eye on him for the rest of his time at our house. He didn't seem to be any worse for wear and that's a good thing. Nancy's only comment was, "that boy can't catch a break."
We debated whether or not to bring the Ev man into one of the local convenient care facilities to have him checked out, but I thought that might be a bridge too far given that he seemed mostly unfazed by the event. I might have agreed to have him phone it in to see if they thought anything more was warranted but that never came up as an option. Long story short, we've moved on.
Last night was night number two of the RNC, and while not as wildly successful as night one, it was nonetheless a good night. When you get the speeches without all the fanfare and fuss that goes along with satisfying hordes of conventioneers, and that's where we are today amid the midst of this damn pandemic, things move along, and messages get delivered with greater clarity and dispatch. I'm not a big Melania Trump fan, but she did the Donald a solid by delivering a stellar heartfelt speech on behalf of her husband and her nation.
Melania gave mention to the pain that we as a nation have suffered due to the virus, and she asked that the looters and shooters plaguing our nation in democrat run cities stop doing what they're doing for the betterment of our country. The difference between the speeches delivered by Marxist Michelle Obama during the DNC and Melania Trump couldn't have been more different.
Ironically, it is the craziness in the streets in the democrat-run cities that have good god-fearing people coast to coast clearing the shelves in gun stores to better protect their property and their families better from the scourge of scum wreaking havoc in our inner cities. If that goes away, and peace and tranquility sets in, it could benefit Biden come November 3rd. To date, not one Democrat has denounced the criminal activity, and that is not lost on anyone paying even an iota of attention.
Good for Melania is what I say. And if it helps Trump get over the finish line in November, it may well be because of what she said and how she said it. It was a message of hope and that should resonate with every god fearing woman sitting in their suburban homes looking for answers and reassurance during these difficult times. They want reassurance that liberal fanatics will not be proselytizing to their children in the schools and that their children can sleep soundly at night without the fear of Marxists with megaphones rousing them from their dreams.