It’s been a month since I last wrote out here. Things got … weird. Bad. Busy. Bad. Scary.
My Mother in Law passed away almost two weeks ago. That was bad. Really bad. She was 94 years old but doing so well that no one expected it. The whole thing happened really fast. She fell and hit her head. No one thought it was a big deal. Then she went to the hospital. They didn’t think it was a big deal but held her for observation. A day later she couldn’t talk. A day after that she fell unconscious. And she never woke up.
At that age, the end, when it comes, can be sudden and based on some little thing that just doesn’t look like anything.
So I’ve spent almost two weeks in Arizona helping with end-of-life stuff. It isn’t all done, but it’s done enough that we could come home. Not a good trip at all.
We’re all in something of a state of shock.
While we were in Arizona, of course, Donald Trump won the 2024 election. I wasn’t surprised, but I’m surrounded by people who utterly weren’t expecting it. That’s what happens when you crawl into a safe little bubble and believe all that your preferred ideological news sources say. Me, I’d spent a good amount of this last month following political polls, both left and right leaning. And I’ve consumed news sources, both left and right leaning. And it sure looked to me that Trump was in position to sweep this thing. Going into election night, I wasn’t sure it was going to happen, but I was braced for it.
As things stand right now, Trump has 295 EVs. I expect him to get 311 and win the popular vote by at least 2 million. This is in line with what various unaffiliated pollsters have been saying. Republicans also have the Senate and, if trends continue, will likely hold the House. So it’s going to be a Republican government with Trump in charge.
People around me are in shock and extremely upset. Me, I don’t like Trump, but I’m also not allergic to him. Some of what he says he wants to do sounds good to me (cut 2 trillion out of the federal budget, deport illegal immigrants who have criminal tendencies, work to end the wars in Ukraine and Israel, install integrity in our federal elections by at least requiring voter ID). But I’m worried that he’ll overreach and do crazy things that won’t sit well with anyone. He could easily go too far with illegal immigrants, for example. So I’ll just have to sit tight and wait to see how this plays out.
The next four years are going to be … interesting. Interesting times. I think there’s a curse about that.
That’s all for now. Hopefully it won’t be another month before I have to time post here.
Proof of life, finished for now.