This Post is in Parts
Jan. 12th, 2025 06:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spryngPart One: Head in the Sand
I mean, not completely of course, but I haven't been checking mainstream news sources outside of NPR and I have an extension on my browser that changes the incoming president's name to hilarious but often bizarre epitaphs so I don't register that something is even about him, and I have largely blocked/unfollowed folks' socials who only doom-post and it has vastly improved my mood.
As I mentioned in another post, I am focusing more on what I can do locally and in my community, and there's just nothing but screaming into a void to do on the national level, especially with state reps like ours. Sure, I could call them -- and I do plan to make that a weekly practice starting in February -- but they're all MAGA republicans and they're going to vote like MAGA republicans. Best I can do is keep me and mine safe.
So yeah, that means I'm actively avoiding any mention of Trump's latest tweets or wild delusions, because we all know he's not going to invade Greenland, but he is going to strip taxes for his rich friends. We're in a fullblown oligarchy, folks. The next ten years are going to be... something.
And I have to have hope it'll only be ten. I'm reading a book that's been going around the socials of several folks I respect that's been giving me a little hope. It's called the Fourth Turning and while there are definitely some over-simplifications and wish-mongering, the general thesis of an ebb and flow of generations as they react to what they see as the negatives of their parents, does seem to ring true. It's a reminder that history is huger than us, that we have been in times as dark as these before, and it wasn't the end of the world.
That said, I am worried that we're taking a step back in terms of social progress, especially queer acceptance. But then, again, there's not much I as an individual can do. I will have to keep hope that rights granted are not so easily stripped away and even if we end up in a more rigid and role-strict society after this, the queers will be allowed to live this time.
So yeah. Head in sand.
Part Two: Broken Pipes
Our kitchen sink backs up on an annual basis. We did pretty good this year and made it 1.5 years between back-ups, but our last plumber said the pipes were so clogged from previous owners we would have to expect this kind of thing. Thinking it was business as usual, I asked my dad if he had a snake.
Things kind of... snowballed from there. He tried snaking from the sink, snaking from the roof, kept ignoring me when I said we had two separate lines for the different sides of the house and scratching his head that he couldn't seem to see when the kitchen water came through, and then mid-morning I was cleaning the dining room and noticed my feet were wet. There was water on the floor. Water coming up from between the floorboards.
Well. Fuck.
We had family and out of town (out of country) friends over today and I had hoped to make lunch but with the sink out of commission, didn't want to deal with all the dishes. We went out to eat and let that area dry a bit and it's definitely less wet now, but... oof. Somehow a pipe must have burst in our wall and I'm not saying it was because my dad was trying to force a snake through, but also maybe we should have just called a plumber outright.
Hindsight is 20/20. Fuck.
Part Three: Friends from out of country
When I was in high school, we had an exchange student from Serbia. He was a cool sports dude, and I was an awkward lesbian who didn't know how to deal with dudes. We weren't really friends but I did visit him when I lived in Germany the following year. Since then, I've heard of his life every few years through my mom, but I hadn't met him.
He was randomly in town this week, so more than 20 years later I got to say hi again. It was a little weird -- I have a lot of negative feelings from around that time. But he was cool and his kids were kind of incredible? Like, two boys singing Vanessa Carlton together and able to easily play with CG and Toddler. IDK, I was just impressed; if I could raise Toddler that well, I'd be pretty happy.
Anyway, I apparently still have a lot to deal with from those years that I'm not ready to yet, but at least he was cool.
I mean, not completely of course, but I haven't been checking mainstream news sources outside of NPR and I have an extension on my browser that changes the incoming president's name to hilarious but often bizarre epitaphs so I don't register that something is even about him, and I have largely blocked/unfollowed folks' socials who only doom-post and it has vastly improved my mood.
As I mentioned in another post, I am focusing more on what I can do locally and in my community, and there's just nothing but screaming into a void to do on the national level, especially with state reps like ours. Sure, I could call them -- and I do plan to make that a weekly practice starting in February -- but they're all MAGA republicans and they're going to vote like MAGA republicans. Best I can do is keep me and mine safe.
So yeah, that means I'm actively avoiding any mention of Trump's latest tweets or wild delusions, because we all know he's not going to invade Greenland, but he is going to strip taxes for his rich friends. We're in a fullblown oligarchy, folks. The next ten years are going to be... something.
And I have to have hope it'll only be ten. I'm reading a book that's been going around the socials of several folks I respect that's been giving me a little hope. It's called the Fourth Turning and while there are definitely some over-simplifications and wish-mongering, the general thesis of an ebb and flow of generations as they react to what they see as the negatives of their parents, does seem to ring true. It's a reminder that history is huger than us, that we have been in times as dark as these before, and it wasn't the end of the world.
That said, I am worried that we're taking a step back in terms of social progress, especially queer acceptance. But then, again, there's not much I as an individual can do. I will have to keep hope that rights granted are not so easily stripped away and even if we end up in a more rigid and role-strict society after this, the queers will be allowed to live this time.
So yeah. Head in sand.
Part Two: Broken Pipes
Our kitchen sink backs up on an annual basis. We did pretty good this year and made it 1.5 years between back-ups, but our last plumber said the pipes were so clogged from previous owners we would have to expect this kind of thing. Thinking it was business as usual, I asked my dad if he had a snake.
Things kind of... snowballed from there. He tried snaking from the sink, snaking from the roof, kept ignoring me when I said we had two separate lines for the different sides of the house and scratching his head that he couldn't seem to see when the kitchen water came through, and then mid-morning I was cleaning the dining room and noticed my feet were wet. There was water on the floor. Water coming up from between the floorboards.
Well. Fuck.
We had family and out of town (out of country) friends over today and I had hoped to make lunch but with the sink out of commission, didn't want to deal with all the dishes. We went out to eat and let that area dry a bit and it's definitely less wet now, but... oof. Somehow a pipe must have burst in our wall and I'm not saying it was because my dad was trying to force a snake through, but also maybe we should have just called a plumber outright.
Hindsight is 20/20. Fuck.
Part Three: Friends from out of country
When I was in high school, we had an exchange student from Serbia. He was a cool sports dude, and I was an awkward lesbian who didn't know how to deal with dudes. We weren't really friends but I did visit him when I lived in Germany the following year. Since then, I've heard of his life every few years through my mom, but I hadn't met him.
He was randomly in town this week, so more than 20 years later I got to say hi again. It was a little weird -- I have a lot of negative feelings from around that time. But he was cool and his kids were kind of incredible? Like, two boys singing Vanessa Carlton together and able to easily play with CG and Toddler. IDK, I was just impressed; if I could raise Toddler that well, I'd be pretty happy.
Anyway, I apparently still have a lot to deal with from those years that I'm not ready to yet, but at least he was cool.
