So a couple of weeks ago, I was happily reading on my front porch, when I got a frantic message from a friend telling me that former President Trump had been shot. I dashed into the house to watch it unfold on live TV. I was, and still am,horrified. Love him or hate him, no one deserves to be shot over politics. What the heck did they think would be the outcome of this had it succeeded in killing him? I’ve seen a lot of opinions, ranging from “the right would do nothing” to “it would start a civil war.” I’m somewhere in the middle of that, I doubt that people who love him would actually do nothing, but civil war? No, we’re not that far gone. Yet.

I saw a lot of people being excoriated for wishing the shooter had better aim. Not only is that a pretty horrible thing to say, it’s a pretty stupid thing to say on social media. Keep your opinions to yourselves and you’ll stay out of a lot of trouble.

And in a matter of days, we had one candidate shot and another withdraw from the race. Well, it wasn’t much of a race with him in it, more like a slow creep. Anyone who can claim with a straight face that they didn’t know for a long time that Biden was not firing on all cylinders, is lying to themselves, and to you. And that includes all the news media, and the currently annointed candidate for the Democrat party.

This leads me to a couple of things. One, who is actually in charge here? If we get attacked, is Joe sleeping or is he capable of ordering a defense? If he’s too old and incapacitated to campaign, is he really capable of being President? Also, did the people who voted in the primary vote for Joe or for Kamalama-DingDong? I would be seriously pissed if my vote was just tossed out like so much garbage and someone was just chosen in the place of the winner! If the Orioles won the World Series and couldn’t make the victory parade, would we allow another team to just take the title and the laps? Dear Lord, how can anyone see this as okay?

Also, is no one else concerned that she went from basically a desk ornament to the most wonderful Vice President ever, in the matter of a few days? And we’re being fed a steady diet of “don’t believe what you know to be true, trust us when we tell you she was NEVER called the border Czart!’ I fear for this country, I really do!

I’m rereading Hillbilly Elegy – I read it when it first was published and liked it, I have it on Kindle so I reloaded it and started it the other day. I also watched the movie last weekend after learning that it existed. (The book is a lot better) i belong to a book group on Facebook and one member posted that she was reading the book. Oh, the comments! According to a certain group – probably all crazy cat ladies (that’s a joke, people) totally slammed the book as nothing but lies. I don’t normally engage but I was possessed by a couple of beers and decided to play. I commented that he was simple “speaking his truth.” I was told he wasn’t really a Hillbilly at all, and I said, ‘Well maybe he identifies as one! ” Seriously, I thought about their claims that people who lived in the area he writes about have said it’s lies, and thought “well, they don’t come off really well so maybe you should consider that.” My older sister has told me more than once that my memories of certain events are completely false. So who’s right? It’s possible she is, but equally possible that I am. I’m pretty sure that if I wrote a book about the town where I grew up – a small town in Upstate NY – most of the inhabitants would swear that certain events never happened, that I was never treated like that, that I was totally lying! I should probably do it just to prove my point, but I’m too lazy! (In case you didn’t know, this is the book J.D. Vance wrote about his life growing up in Appalachia)

In Maverick news, there’s a puppy at daycare who is looking and smelling so mighty fine that all the boys are feeling funny in their pants. Yeah, it’s a joy to have an intact male dog when there’s a female close by in heat. She’s a little Olde English Bulldogge, and I am totally in love with her brother, however that is not a breed I could handle. I have enough trouble with a Golden Retriever! Maverick is not currently very happy with Mommah, my back has made it difficult to take him for a walk so on weekends, we spend as much time as we can outside – and the heat has made that difficult as well. I love the heat, but I’m not wearing a fur coat outside. Or inside, for that matter. 🙂 So we muddle along, training is not going to happen when he’s not thinking with his brain, distractions are not working, his Miss Humpy Pillow is getting a workout and my nerves are stlightly frazzled – but that’s why there’s booze in this house!

My back seems to actually be getting better. I purchased a grounding mat – after doing some reading about Earthing, I decided it was worth a shot. Is it helping? I dunno, when I get up in the morning, it doesn’t seem to take as long to loosen up as it did before. I’ll continue to use it and let you know if it’s just my imagination or if there’s something to this.

But wait, there’s more! I saw the surgeon today and he thinks it’s not time for an operation, so there will be another round of shots in my future. I’m okay with that, the thought of surgery was not one I wished to entertain.

And what are we reading, aside from Hillbilly Elegy? The Dream and the Nightmare, about how programs aimed at helping most often make things worse – a bit dated but still valid. Cormoran Strike #3, as soon as the library gets it back in stock. And I think I’ll reread The Parasitic Mind by Gad Saad. He’s a bit of a character but the book is very good, read it awhile ago and I feel like I need to revisit it.

I really need to get back to blogging more often!