Nothing to Talk About?

So, what do you write about when you have nothing to say? I suppose I always have an opinion, but nothing in the news is catching my attention and trying to occupying my brain. We have elections coming up later in the year, the January 6 commission seemingly is wreaking havoc on the Trump allegiant, cold weather has taken hold throughout the country, we have projects in planning, mid-point and near completion, Christmas still needs put away, a shingles vaccine that kicked my butt, and our car is in the shop for who knows how long. See, I have plenty to write about, plenty to mumble about, but I’m in a funk about caring right now.

Isn’t that nice? My ability to put life on hold while my mind takes a vacation from life. We’ve still been accomplishing things. Our patio furniture is about to arrive after a mere six months on order. Like everything else, we blame it on COVID. Such a wide swath of blame it gets too. Resource companies can’t find people to mine, log, or create. Manufacturers can’t get resources due to supply chain breakdowns both in the US and internationally. Shipping companies can’t deliver due to lack of drivers. And the consumer is restricted, in the end, to sit and wait out the backlog of everything. This, all due to COVID. Some like to throw in the fact that we can’t get people back to work because of Biden and the socialists still providing unemployment at a higher amount than most were making. To the best of my knowledge, that ended back in the Fall of 2020. But it is a political voting year and the Republicans have lost all sight of morality for the truth. I don’t feel I have much to say about it other than it may be our new normal. Unemployment is actually down and continues to drop. Resource materials are still there. So, is it COVID or the restrictions put on all levels of industry that have hampered a previously efficient process? As with everything, I suspect truth lies in the middle and that what this country does better than most is to deflect blame. It’s always someone else at fault.

Shingrex Vaccine first dose kicked my butt. I don’t remember ever getting a vaccine that I got all but one of the listed side effects and I’m not so sure I didn’t have it too. It lasted for over a week and today is the first day I feel I’m back to near normal. The sad thing is that I have to get the second dose in April just prior to going to California for baby watch. If I react to it the same way as this time, I won’t be allowed to go, and justifiably so, as a precaution for the mother to be. Might have to move it up to the end of March to give myself time to recover before going. At least I had none of the allergic reactions listed. Everyone that got vaccinated for shingles before says they didn’t have the issues I did, but they had a different form of the vaccination. Improvements tend to do that, they get better and better at reducing the percentage chance of acquiring the disease, but the vaccine mimics it closer and the reactions are stronger.

The mid-term voting is this fall. As with all mid-terms, we can expect the shift in power in the House and Senate or at least one of them, thereby making Biden a lame-duck for the rest of his term. But this one feels different. With the Republicans advancing their white-supremacy voting rights reduction agenda successfully throughout many states, either one of two things will happen. It will piss the minority populace off enough that they will make sure they turn out in droves or they will not show up as some ill-advised stand that will not prove anything other than the Republican party being on target to a landslide. Even more of a concern will be that the restrictions will ensure that Trump will be reelected or one of his sadly obvious minions. I have never seen more lily-livered fools in my life that don’t seem to understand that by taking a stand to not support Trump that the stupid white trash group they are worried about will go back, like in the past, and just not show up to vote. It is a quandary I’m sure for many of the GOP, but it would sure be nice to see the majority of them grow a pair and end this chaotic craziness that has beset us all. For now, I’m trying to take a break, but I’m reminded with every commercial that the gubernatorial race is heating up with no less than seven vying for the GOP nod. Not to mention every social media outlet and TV is covering the Jan 6 commission with many thinking there will actually be something that comes out of it except for recommendation for the justice department to please look into it further. Do any of you really think something is going to come from it? If so, I have some beautiful low-land in the Everglades I’d like to sell you. I acquired it the last time I had faith in a governmental oversight group seeing it through that justice would be achieved.

The cold weather across the country has been devasting this year. So far, Texas has been spared any substantial cold. We pray we don’t have a repeat of last year because I fear we’d find out that the energy commission in Texas did nothing in upgrading the grid and energy sights to allow them to handle any severe weather conditions. Maybe I’m a little pessimistic about governmental follow-through, but I worked for them for almost forty years and I don’t have much faith that any allocated money got steered to the much-needed infrastructure update. What most don’t understand is that government monies can only be allocated in the year in which the money was available and any left-over money not allocated in that year remains in that pot of inefficient spending. That is why I spent everything we were budgeted for and then went after the money others didn’t spend because they thought it would make them look better to be budget conscience. All it accomplished was giving themselves something to whine about as I spent their money for them. Anyway, unless Texas allocated 2022 spending to infrastructure, we can only pray that we don’t get severe cold or heat in this year as the grid still won’t handle extremes.

Jen got into a fender bender on December 2^nd. It is now late January, and they are waiting on thirty percent of the parts needed to repair the car and get it back on the road for us. Current cost of repair is in excess of fifty-five percent of the value of the car. When I inquired what it would take to total the vehicle, I was told it would have to reach seventy-five percent of value. We are talking about a mere $6,000 and with the increase in price for parts, I’m not convinced we won’t be looking for a new car in the future. Sadly, when we had numerous cars around, we wouldn’t have worried about it as much, but now we are down to the truck and the turtle (Can-Am defender), and the turtle isn’t street legal outside of the neighborhood. We had dropped rental car availability when we had four cars, but even if we still had the coverage, they would have only paid for it for a month. Normally enough to cover you right? Not now, we are looking at the end of February to the beginning of March. Of course, we heard the same excuse as everything else, can’t get parts due to COVID.

On the bright side, I am blessed with work. Lots of work! Game room alone will take another month of solid work. I plan on getting that done when Jen heads to California for two or three months. The decks need stained about the June timeframe along with treatment to all the privacy fencing. We have been busy on the real estate scene too. We finally helped Dad get through the process of the Cove Park lot, as well as his house, in having Mom pulled off the records. With a stroke of the pen, he signed the Cove Park lot over to us as payment for his future funeral services costs and as reimbursement for the expense we covered on Mom’s. Not a vacant lot we really wanted, but does hold value and we’ll sell it eventually for a small profit. We got an address assigned to our Meadow Circle lot making it easier to move forward with building something. We finished with the surveying and replats of the lot extension behind our house allowing us to move forward with finding a garage we’d like to build. Before that, we have to move the fence back thirty feet, get plans drawn up, acquire HOA approvals, get cement poured, and the building erected. Jen is going to Scotland later in the year with Bettie. I also have the flooring to be laid in the guest house while she’s gone, painting, switch repair, not to mention just restoring power to the building over the next couple of weeks.

Nothing going on huh? Like always, Jen and I rarely have idle time to enjoy what we accomplish. But as I said, I set my mind to idle for a while. Time has come to an end on that luxury though as I’m realizing I don’t have the time to take off. Too many things are requiring my attention, and now Kate has asked me to teach her how to repair the garbage disposal and replace the microwave at her house. I still need to paint Dad’s front pillars at his house and paint the storage building. I swear I need three of me to keep up with myself. I mumble to myself and yes, even under my breath, wondering why I retired and left the cushy life of employment. If I had known retirement was going to increase taxes, afford me no extra time, and have a thousand things going on at once, I’d never had retired. On the positive, at least I’m my own boss when Jen allows it.