Today the UPS man left me my prescription for next week’s festivities and a large insulated box Karean sent with a chicken pot pie, which Finn and I promptly ate for dinner. NOM NOM NOM. I also had a friend stop by after dinner with a growler of the Belgian Dubbel we brewed a couple of weeks ago, and we stood around the kitchen and drank beer and caught up, and that was really great. Renie sent me a lovely gray hat just in time for all of my hair to fall out (or me to shave it off, whichever comes first) that is warm and comfortable. A couple of days ago another friends’ mom stopped by to drop off some soup, a book for Finn, and a copy of People Magazine from 1989 which is some of the most hilarious reading I’ve done all year.
This situation sucks, and I don’t want to do this, but everyone we know has been amazing, truly supportive, and I often don’t feel like I deserve it. But I am thankful and humbled and can’t imagine how we could do this by ourselves.
Interesting...
- January 22
Maryland Representative Andy Harris walked through a magnetometer near the House chamber yesterday with a concealed gun. When he was confronted, he tried to get another Congressman to hold it for him—who wisely declined. Harris has been a House member since 2008; he was an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, and also chief of obstetric anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. (Being a Hopkins-trained physician apparently does not prevent one from being a total fucking crackpot). Among other things, he supported Trump's claims that the election was unfair, alleging “large-scale voting irregularities,” including “secret, unobserved vote counting in the swing states.”
This barking asshat represents my district, and I'm embarrassed.
January 12
Destroying planets and using fear of this battle station to keep the local systems in line was my No. 1 passion until — about 30 seconds ago, weirdly! That was when I saw the X-wings that had evaded our turbo-lasers and were proceeding down a trench toward our vulnerable thermal exhaust port — and realized I had to speak up. I thought: What if remorselessly destroying planets isn’t my passion? What if my real passion is staying alive and avoiding the consequences of my actions?
This is from a couple of days ago but I've been crashing on a big project at work, and it still makes me laugh.
January 8
The President of the American Federation of Teachers issued a formal statement on Betsy DeVos' resignation today.
January 5
A detective wrote in a probable cause statement that Brandenburg, 46, is an admitted conspiracy theorist and that he told investigators he intentionally tried to ruin the vaccine because it could hurt people by changing their DNA.
Fantastic. I guess this asshole doesn't remember his Hippocratic oath class in pharmacy school.
December 29
The New York Times has posted an absolutely incredible investigation and recreation of the shooting death of Breonna Taylor. Using body cam footage, newly released records, and after-accident interviews, they show how the police detail who broke her door down made multiple careless mistakes and endangered her life and the lives of her neighbors by blindly shooting into a darkened apartment without announcing who they were or why they were there. This is 18 minutes worth watching.
