Can you ever remember a week like this? The whole country has gone insane as the rest of the world looks at us and shakes there head. Got some updates about the week and we’re all sick of politics, so I’ll touch on the election just a little bit.
The State of the Nation
This week I have been, happy, thrilled, furious, and disillusioned. As I write this, the election hasn’t been called yet, but it seems unlikely Biden will lose. This is the happy and thrilled part. I’m not only happy because we’ll have a Democrat in the Oval Office, but it means the insanity that comes from there will end on January 20th.
The lies, gaslighting, deceptions, childish behavior, and insane tweets will keep coming, but at least it won’t come from the people’s house. We’ll finally see respect, dignity, and presidential behavior coming from there.
Actually, the tweets may stop. I’m not sure how much time their allowed on the internet in Rikers Island. I’m not sure the city and state of New York will actually send him there. There will be hesitancy on their part since he will be a former President. Plus, it could cause major upheaval. I can dream though. I am certain they plan to make his life, and his children’s life, a living hell.
The fury and disillusionment comes from the way #45 is acting and those that stand by him. There are some Republicans who have condemned his behavior and there are some who have backed up his lying ass. Most of them have remained silent which is just as complicit as those who repeat his deceitful words.
Sadly, it’s not all going away on January 20th. His cult will remain a cult and the Republican party that we once knew is dead. Remember when Democrats and Republicans would battle on capitol hill and then have drinks together afterwards? That’s because most of us had a sense of respect and dignity for each other. We may have vehemently disagreed how to get there, but we had a common goal to make our country better for all of us. That’s what forced our leaders to make compromise and work together in a bipartisan way. I believe we’ve lost that forever. I could give a ton of examples, but I promised I’d keep this short.
I said I was only going to write briefly about politics. I don’t think what I’ll write in the rest of this section has to do with politics, but I’ll allow you to draw your own conclusion. Despite everything we’ve seen over the last four years, nearly 70 million people voted for the fucker. Dear God! What have we become? And now, his cult is out in droves screaming the election was rigged and demanding the vote counting be stopped.
You know I’ve been ashamed of my country, but never so much as of now. I said it before that it no longer feels like home. I used to love being a U.S. citizen and used to be a political junkie. Now I’m so disillusioned, I feel no allegiance to it whatsoever. There have been so many great men and woman who have fought hard to make our country a better place and I’m grateful for them and salute them. Many are saying we now need to look at rebuilding our nation. To continue to make it a better place. I guess I agree with them it’s the right thing to do, but I don’t think I have it in me. Right now I just don’t care. That may change. I hope it changes. Right now I can’t imagine it will.
Words. Typing Words
The goal for November is to type 50,000 words in this month. It’s a goal writers throughout the world have signed up to participate. What a helluva week to get it started, huh? Of course, there’s election stress which has made it difficult, but a lot of other things have popped up that had to be attended to. I wasn’t able to start until yesterday. 5 days into the challenge. The good news is I’ve set my personal goal to write 2,500 words per day. Yesterday I finally got started and wrote 2,496 words. I really should have typed one more sentence to put me at my goal, but 4 words is close enough. Because I’m starting so late, I’m going to have to up my daily goal to around 3,000 words or more, but right now I feel I’m up for it. I already got on it at 5:30 this morning, so that’s a damn good start. I really should have taken advantage of those early hours to get some exercise in, but it didn’t even cross my mind. I was too distracted to immediately check how the voting count is going and then started writing. I’m confident I’ll be able to say in a later post that I’m back on target, at least as long as my mental state remains the same.
How’s the Brain & Body Functioning?
Despite how it sounds above, I’ve actually been doing pretty well. I mean, I have had election nightmares almost every night and have run on very little sleep, but that’s all situational. Sure, it may bring me down more than the average Joe, but I seem to be handling my sanity well.
The body is going great. I’m still at a little over a 90 pound loss, which is where I’ve been for awhile, but I most certainly am losing inches. None of my boxers, shorts, or pants will stay up without me having to practically wrap my belt completely around me. Most of my t-shirts fit on me like a MuMu. I’m fighting buying new clothes until I lose more weight, but it looks like I’ll have to hit Goodwill for some transitional clothes. It’s a pain in the ass to have my sweatpants fall to my ankles when I walk across the apartment, but a delicious pain it is.
I’ve been sleeping with a CPAP machine for 20 years or so. Not anymore! Two nights in a row Maurice had to wake me up because the air pressure coming in my nose was too strong and was forcing its way out my mouth. This creates an annoying wind tunnel sound. My doctor reduced it’s pressure to 4 (whatever that means) which is the lowest pressure a CPAP puts out. He told me once that gets to be too much pressure there’s nowhere else to go than to stop using it. It’s weird not slipping it on when going to bed. It was what told my brain it was time to sleep, but I’ll get used to it. Oh hell yes, I’ll get used to it.
Emigration Standstill
Maurice and I made a pact if Trump is reelected we would make preparations to move to Uruguay. This is nothing new to most of you out there. Our plan has been that if Biden wins we will continue to save up to build a tiny house. Now there’s a problem. Despite Biden’s win, it’s obvious from what I wrote above, I still don’t want to stay. In fact, I think I’m more disillusioned now more than ever.
Last night, just before bed, I told Maurice we’re going to need to have a talk because I have no intention of staying. It was a horrible time to bring it up, but it came out. He didn’t respond. I could tell he didn’t know how to respond. It’s not going to be a fun discussion and it’s going to take a lot of convincing to change my mind. For now, I’ve started looking at apartment costs there again. Up until now I’ve been looking at one bedroom apartments in the different barrios in the capital city of Montevideo. That’s changed. Now I’m looking at the cost of studio apartments in the big city as well as some of the smaller cities and towns across their coastline. I’ve looked at some of the places further inland where they’re cheaper too. I know I should wait until after our discussion, but when we go I don’t want to wait as long as we expected. Setting up temporarily in a cheaper way of living is fine with me.
I don’t know about you, but I’m interested in how this will play out. I don’t mean to say it’s a game, but I don’t know how we’ll overcome this stalemate.
With that, I’ll leave you now. It’s time to pump out some more words. Gotta reach 2,500+ today.
You piqued my interest about Uruguay and I’ve been reading. The big advantage of sticking to the capital city is that within the state run health care system, you can get care givers who speak English. Outside Montevideo that’s much less likely. I only read that in one source, so it would be worth checking. I’d suggest a next step would be to subscribe to an English language Uruguayan newspaper. Every country and city has its problems. It would worth immersing your self now, if you haven’t already started. The fun part about a studio apartment is that it lets you live your tiny house dream, at least the indoor aspect. It could be really fun to design an multifunctional space. Do you know if Ikea delivers there?
Regarding the election, I can barely look. I check out the NYT headline story, which is a US map with a delegate count up above. I can’t look at any of the stories about the craziness. I knew for certain all that was coming, just as I know that if the very stable genius looses there will be insanity like we’ve never seen in America up to and beyond January 20th, and his brand of evil craziness will haunt us forever. And if he wins American democracy and decency has ended. I saw a car drive by yesterday with a huge trump flag waving above it. It was a punch to the gut as strong as if they had a Nazi flag flying.
I’m so glad to hear you are doing well physically and find yourself with situationally appropriate emotions. I was worried about you earlier in the week. I think sometimes when one is depressed, it actually helps to have something big that everyone is down about. You don’t feel so alone. It can be the same catharsis as listening to the blues or breakup songs.
Your sermon contribution was amazing.Thank you for doing it.
Much Love!
Hi Lora, I’m glad I made you interested enough to check it out. Uruguay is definitely no Shangra-la. It has its share of many problems. It’s the most expensive city in Latin America, While those of us from cities like LA and NY will find it cheaper to live there, people from the Midwest or South may not. Their primary industries are farming and tourism. That means little manufacturing and everything is imported with heavy taxes. Wages are low, so those of us from the U.S. would need to work remotely to maintain a standard of living we’re used to. It’s equal distance from the Equator as say North Carolina or Georgia so it’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. We tend to view all of S.A. as tropical like Ecuador, but it’s not even close. It has it’s host of other ills. They also don’t have the best infrastructure. Watch out when walking down the sidewalk or you may break your ankle.
When I researched virtually every country in the world, Uruguay stood out because it’s extremely easy to emigrate to. If you make income from the U.S., you don’t have to pay taxes to Uruguay. They established that a number of years ago to encourage immigration. The government is stable, they’re stable financially. It’s also is extremely liberal. Gay rights, including marriage, are written into their constitution, as well as a woman’s right to choose. Although Catholicism is their primary religion, few attend and are Catholics in name only. They are secular. In fact the separation of church and state is more explicitly stated in their Constitution than us. For example, they don’t have Easter week. They still have that time off, but they refer to it as Tourism week. The pope visited there a number of years ago, so the president put up a large cross in the city. Many Uruguayans are irritated that it’s still there. While their schools need to improve, they do take progressive actions, such as every school aged child in the country is provided a computer. College is free, but unfortunately due to the low wages, many of that age can’t go because they have to work to help support their families. As is typical in that part of the world, you have multi-generations in one household. And of course, there’s their healthcare system. It is free to all, but most that can afford it buy insurance for quicker and better care. Gender reassignment surgery is even covered by the state. Hell, their doctor’s still make house calls.
Unlike most countries, Uruguayans speak very little English, possibly because of their school system. It’s extremely difficult to live there without learning Spanish. And it’s not even Spanish as we know it. It’s Uruguayan Spanish which is dramatically different than Mexican Spanish. You certainly can get by with Mexican Spanish, but there will be confusion at times.
I haven’t found an English speaking newspaper from there or television. They did have a news station on YouTube, but it doesn’t seem to be around any longer.
I’m in a Uruguayan expat group on Facebook which I check daily and have developed many great online friendships with people from different parts of Montevideo, as well as other coastal and inland cities. They share the cons as much as the pros. One person I’ve developed a relationship is with a British woman who has lived their about twenty years and owns an Inn. Her second occupation is promoting Uruguay to tourists and those considering emigration there. The Department of Tourism think she’s the best thing since dulce de leche. She provides, for a fee, an extensive assessment with those considering moving and I’ve learned she tells it like it is. If she thinks you’ll be miserable, she’ll tell you so with no hesitation. The assessment is not too expensive, and I have no doubt she’ll cut a deal for Maurice and I if I ask.
Sorry for the long response. I get excited talking about it and it’s my way of letting you know I’ve been doing my research.
As for the news here in the states. Keep doing what you’re doing and avoid it. Watch as the ballots are officially tallied, but try not to go further. Pennsylvania expects to have all their ballots counted today and we could see who won as early as tonight. Biden has already scheduled a press conference tonight, but I don’t know what that’s about. Leaks have been coming from the White House that there’s been a lot of discussion about how to tell 45 it’s over. He’s lost. Right now it’s leaning for either Ivanka, or Jared to be the one to tell him. He’ll put our country through hell up until January 20th. We ain’t seen nothing yet.
Thank you for the kind words about the sermon. My bullet points were much shorter and succinct and I should have stuck with them, but I found myself veering off which is why I took so much time. You did great as well.
I love it when people leave comments so I appreciate it when you do.
Big bear hugs!