Things I Used to Do.

January 20th cannot come soon enough. I’ll happily give up “the holidays” this year if we can just jump ahead, because fuck, we’re not going to be able to do holidays anyway.

Exactly as the experts predicted, COVID-19 is running out of control in the U.S. Our lame (duck) “president” is playing golf, pouting, and losing court cases challenging the election results, because THERE IS NO VALID CHALLENGE to the results. It’s very, very clear that “Count every legal vote,” is Republican-speak for “Count the white people’s votes.” And it’s also very clear that nobody’s buying that shit.

It’s all so depressingly transparent. And I still keep coming back to the reality that 70 fucking million of my fellow white people voted for him.

While the votes were being counted a woman I see out walking, sometimes by herself, sometimes with her husband, passed me and we said hi, and she said something to the effect of, “We’re going to be in for some big changes, huh?” in a depressed tone. I honestly had no idea how to respond. Was she sad that Biden won? Was she hopeful that he’s going to be the next President, but worried about how ugly things would get? I couldn’t tell.

We are there, where I hesitate to engage in political conversations with neighbors, because the divide is SO deep, and so wide, and damn, I really didn’t want to know, because I have to live with these people and I want to keep it civil. So I nodded and said something noncommittal, “Yes, I guess so!” and kept walking.

We have bigger issues to worry about, like how many Americans are going to be DEAD or with permanent health issues because we’ve fucked up the COVID response so royally. And we’re back to the divide, because yes, whether we believe in science and medical experts is now political, and Republicans are on the anti-science side.

So, I’m grateful that I work in a place that takes this seriously, and now even return to work in January is up in the air, because cases are climbing so much. Now that people are indoors and “so bored” with taking precautions, yeah, it’s just as every public health expert predicted: We Are Fucked. I am not happy about the idea that will probably be working from home forever; for one thing, I wish I’d spent more money on my bargain desk chair.

So, good things, things I used to do, and why I’m still on Facebook:

A couple of weeks ago a woman posted on a neighborhood Facebook page: she and her husband own a bicycle shop, and they offered pickup and delivery on bike tune-ups. They’d stop by, get the bike, take it to their shop, give it a good going over, and return it. This was like an answer to a longstanding minor prayer.

My bike had been sitting in my garage for nearly two years, on two flat tires, with squeaky brakes, and probably spider eggs in the gears. I have neither the skills nor the tools to tune up a bike; I’m a casual rider at most. I messaged the woman, her husband came and got my sad, possibly spider-filled bike, and returned it a few days later with fresh tubes in the tires and everything in spiffy riding order.

During Tropical Storm Eta.

So I haven’t actually ridden it yet, but it’s on tomorrow morning’s plan. Just a quick, cautious trip around the nearby streets, because at this point it’s almost like learning to ride all over again, but it’s finally a bit cooler here, now that we’ve maybe had our last hurricane threat, maybe, and I want to ride again.

I want to knit again, maybe, but yeah, since we are now in permanent summer here, maybe that’s not practical. But there’s still photography and my bike. I will knit, as GAWD IS MAH WITNUSS, I shall KNIT AGAIN! but it may be like, hats for the NC fam.

Hoping to rebuild a normal life, maybe, if we make it through the winter.

Come on, January 20!