Idiopathic Epilepsy

...or, what the vet thinks Ryder has.

On October 2 of last year, Ryder had what looked like a seizure of some sort. It was terrifying, with us never having seen anything like it. At that point, Ryder would have been about 4.5 years old.

Amp and I were in the kitchen, and we heard a loud thump from the direction of the family room. We looked over and saw Ryder getting back to his feet from a prone position. We chuckled and thought he must have wiped out coming down the nearby stairs too fast.

Then we noticed he was shaking bit. We thought he scared himself. Then we saw that he was having trouble standing, and he looked like he was going to fall over walking toward us.

Sleeping baby

We went to him, and Grace came running. She sat next to him on the floor and held him, and told us that he was going to fall down if she didn't hold him up.

Amp scooped him up and sat on the couch with him, holding him and comforting him. He promptly threw up all over her lap. He was quivering and shaking, and I'm probably putting my feelings onto him, but he seemed scared.

The quivering and shaking was not severe, and only lasted 3 or 4 minutes before subsiding, but those few minutes seemed like an eternity. When he was done shaking he cuddled into Amp's lap (he's not normally a lap dog), and let her hold him for 15 or 20 minutes. He was as docile as we've ever seen him. At the end of the 15 or 20 minutes, he stood up, jumped off the couch, and trotted off toward the kitchen like nothing had ever happened.

Helping cook

While this was going on, I gave a panicky call to the vet, who said bring him over as soon as you can.

So we did.

They checked him with a thorough physical exam and a bunch of basic blood work. Everything came back fine. His heart and lungs sounded great. His reflexes were good. His lab work was perfect. If you didn't know what had just happened, he was acting and looking perfectly normal.

The vet's opinion, especially given that he was a middle-aged beagle, was idiopathic epilepsy. Her advice was to keep an eye on him, see if it happened again, and stay in touch.

On December 2 (two months to the day) he had an almost-identical episode. Brief. Not severe. Completely back to normal after 15 or 20 minutes of cuddling.

We didn't panic and reported in to the vet. She said one more of these and we should discuss next steps.

Christmas snacks!

This afternoon at about 3:00pm, almost exactly two months (again) from the last one, Ryder had his third almost-identical episode. I was on a work call, and Grace was a trooper. No panic. Scooped him up and sat on the couch and held him steady. Talked to him and soothed him. And it passed, almost exactly like the others had.

Amp got home from work shortly after, and we took him to the vet an hour later. All tests were the same as after the first episode; physically he was great. A preliminary diagnosis of Idiopathic Epilepsy was made. We discussed next steps (all virtual as they examined Ryder in the office and talked to us on the phone in the parking lot). The most reasonable next step is to put Ryder on a drug called Zonisamide, which is a "primary anti-convulsant". It is the best first choice, being well-tolerated with a minimum of side effects. One dose with the morning meal. One dose with the evening meal. Two doses every day. Which means that Ryder will now be taking more prescription medications that the rest of us combined. By a daily score of Ryder 2 versus everybody else zero.

The girls' first question, after "is he OK?", was "what are we going to do, Dad?"

I think they are worried about the cost of treatments, and whether that cost (or cost avoidance) would win out over Ryder...

We are going to do what the vet recommends, of course.

I never ever ever ever ever wanted a dog. I made that abundantly clear. But now we have a dog and I love him with all my heart. According to Lilo and Stitch, Ohana means family, and family means no-one left behind. So we do what we need to do and hope for the best.

If this doesn't work, we'll try the next thing. And the next. Until we run out of nexts.

Ryder is one of us now.

 

Custer State Park, South Dakota

Next up in my Dakota series of painting efforts will be something roughly based on the photo below. This scene is typical of the gently rolling grassland hills that dominate the southern part of the park.

Custer State Park, July 31, 2011

This scene doesn't make for the greatest painting composition, so after I painted a first effort at this, I sat back, looked at it, and knew something was missing. On the one hand, what I had done was a pretty faithful representation of the picture. But on the other hand, faithfully reproducing a photo doesn't always make for the best painting.

So I went back to the photos from the rest of this particular hike, and found this:

Custer State Park, flowers in the valley

To make a more interesting composition, I added some of these lavender and yellow flowers in the foreground. And added another clump of trees in the right mid-ground to balance the trees in the left distance. The new trees are only roughed in, and will require some additional work, as they are closer to the foreground and won't end up quite as...vague.

After the first batch of changes (bad lighting)

This might not be a faithful copy of the original photo, but it does capture the essence of this hike and the landscape of the park, and makes for a far more interesting painting composition. There is a lesson to be learned here...

Something still didn't seem quite right though, mainly in the lower left part of the composition. So I added the first rough-in of a clump of bushes running down the swale between the hills. Better I think.

Second batch of changes (better lighting)

The newer trees and bushes still need work, but it seems to be getting closer to a better painting.

That being said, I'm also reaching the point where I need to wrap this up and move on to the next one...

Finishing up Scottsbluff

In the interests of moving on to the next painting, I think this will be the end of this one (cough cough).

Near Scottsbluff, Nebraska, July 2011

The bluff on the right still needs some work, so when this dries I will probably not be able to resist the temptation to revisit it, but who knows... Yeah, OK, I know. I look at the geologic stratification lines and they are too regular, so something will need to be done to break them up a little. But that is a story for another day.

In the meantime, at least the picture is taken with a good color balance, and is a good representation of what the painting actually looks like.

As for what comes next, I have been going through the hundreds of pictures taken on the Dakotas trip in 2011, and the number of these good quality pictures that could be turned into a sketch or painting is dozens at least. So be prepared to see some Dakotas paintings in the near future.

Scotts Bluff Nebraska

About a half a lifetime ago, back in 2011, the boys went on a camping trip to the Dakotas, and it was the best outdoorsy experience of my life. As I work on my painting, it seems only reasonable to go back through the hundreds of pictures I took during that trip (and others) and attempt to paint some of those scenes...

Near Scotts Bluff Nebraska

After flying into Denver, we drove through the southeast corner of Wyoming (Cheyenne) and then into western Nebraska before heading north into the Black Hills of South Dakota and then on into North Dakota (Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit to be specific). The views around Scotts Bluff were amazing...

Armed with a bunch of large tubes of Charvin oil paints and a host of dirt-cheap canvas panels from Walmart (Daler Rowney and Royal & Langnickel brands), I've committed to getting over my fear of starting a painting. Maybe. Anyway, here's a rough sketch in thinned burnt sienna of the picture from July 30, 2011...

A rough sketch

... and the first layer of an oil painting sketch. The point of this exercise is to paint something quickly. Paint what you see. This was done in about 30 minutes. When it has tacked up in a few days, I will go back and clean it up. This will be primarily focused on the large bluff to the right, which is a hot mess at this point. But fixable. I'll also be adjusting the green tones of the grasslands. There are supposed to be brighter green highlights but everything is a little too olivey-brown. Part of this is the lighting for the picture - the colors are more vibrant on the canvas than they are in the photo.

Near Scotts Bluff Nebraska, 11" by 14"

I'm looking for a representation, not an exact duplication. This is something that is easy to get hung up on as a beginning artist. I don't need to copy the photograph (why would I...I already have the photograph). Evocative. Not a photocopy in paint.

Anyway, it's a Saturday. I did the thing - I made a painting. Tomorrow's another day...

Times Change, and the Society of Ancients

When I started this blog in September of 2009, approximately 944 posts and eleven and a half years ago, I couldn't have imagined how much my life, and my focus, would change. The intent of the blog at the start was to be updates on my hobby of historical miniatures wargaming (toy soldiers for adults). Painting figures. Fighting tabletop battles. Collecting figures. Conventions. Making terrain pieces.

That was more or less true for a while, off and on for the better part of at least half a decade, interspersed with bits of whatever else was going on in my life.

Inevitably, the blog would ride the tides of my current areas of interest for a certain period of time. It's fascinating to take some time and go back through what the majority of the posts have been for blocks of time over the years.

Sometimes, beauty is right outside your front door...

Historical miniatures. Literature. Hiking. Geocaching. Music. Sentimental trips down memory lane. Dungeons and Dragons and fantasy roleplaying games. Writing. Art. YouTube inspired re-visits to every concert I was ever privileged to attend in my (mostly) younger days. Family. My kids. Philosophical nonsense ramblings. Learning to paint and draw (art). Political rants. More family stuff. Dog pictures.

Whose chair is this, anyway?...

This rambling journey was brought sharply into focus when the editor of Slingshot, the publication of the esteemed Society of Ancients, a wargaming society in England, contacted me to ask if some pictures from my blog could be used in their publication. Of course I said "of course". And they used some pictures in their most recent issue, and credited me, which was a great honor. Part of our gentleman's agreement was that they would include a link to my blog on their website. Which got me to thinking. My blog hasn't really been primarily about miniatures gaming in quite some time. Recently, my blog has included political rants that some might find...shall we say, off-putting. So I let the SoA folks know that they could scrap the link to my blog if they wanted, for that reason, which I think they did.

I'm proud of my political views and stand by them. Somewhere down the road I would like to think my kids will reflect on my liberal political and social views and respect me for them. I also recognize that this is a completely different thing than someone wanting to go to a blog and find miniatures wargaming content and get something different entirely. So, to the Society of Ancients and specifically the editor of Slingshot, thank you for using my pictures. It is an honor. You are a gentleman, and I thank you.

As for the rest of my blog...it is what it is. In 2009 it was intended to be an outlet for my miniatures wargaming hobby. The pictures used by Slingshot were mostly from 2014. In the ensuing 11+ years since the blog's inception it has proven to be an outlet for that and so much more.

Someday I may even post more wargaming content.

Fear of Failure

There is something that has become very clear to me as I continue on my learn-to-paint journey. I have a significant fear of failure. I work hard at my day job all day every day. And then I think about a painting that I would like to create in the evening or over the weekend. And more often than not, I am sad to say, that is as far as it goes.

I think. I plan. I think some more. And then I often do something other than picking up a paint brush and getting started. Maybe I should just watch a Flyers hockey game instead...

Why? The answer to that one is pretty easy. I expect that I will attempt a painting and not like the result. It is far easier to go to the Jerry's Artarama store in Newark Delaware, or even the local Michael's store, browse the art supplies, buy some stuff I don't need (because I already have more art supplies than I can use) and consider myself a fledgling artist, than it is to actually try to make some art.

Which is odd, in that many of the paintings I have actually completed have been OK, and I am able to look at them through the lens of someone who is a beginner at all this, and be happy at what I have done. Some of them I like a lot.

All of which I find strangely fascinating. I would consider myself to be relatively bright and relatively self-aware, and yet despite how easy it is to stand back and objectively recognize all of this, I am finding it hard to break the cycle of self-doubt.

Anyway, they say that the first step towards solving a problem is to admit that you have a problem. So, yeah, I have an actually-doing-the-thing-rather-than-just-thinking-about-doing-the-thing problem.

I'd like to work on a painting or two this weekend. I have a bunch of thoughts in my head.

Let's see what happens...

Inauguration Day

Today was quite a day in America. Some of the same. Some very different. Some odd. And some strangely normal. Strangely normal is refreshing these days.

On the one hand, an old white guy was sworn in as the 46th President of these United States. So...same old same old. 43 old white guys. Then a young black guy. Then an old white clown. And now another old white guy. Not much difference there.

On the other hand, after a never-ending string of old white guys as the Vice President, today we watched a Vice President-elect take the oath of office...and it wasn't the same old same old. It was a young, part Black, part south Asian woman.

It's certainly too early to call it a trend, but for over 200 years we had a monotonous string of the same thing. And within the last 5 years, we have had people of color, and a female, in the highest offices in the land. So, it's a start. I'm not saying that every high office should be held by a woman or person of color, but it would be nice if things moving forward better reflected what America looks like. More than 50% of us are women. Something along the lines of a third of us aren't white. And I say this as an aging white guy......every politician shouldn't look like me. Because when I look around, at work, in my neighborhood, in my kids' schools, and in the community at large...not everyone looks like me. And that's a good thing. A great thing. Our representative democracy should look like that too. When the few rule over the great many, it's not a good thing. It's not right, and from a practical standpoint, it's not sustainable. Revolutions are born out of that kind of imbalance.

It's also nice to think that there are little girls and little kids of color who are growing up in an America where there have always been minorities and women in the White House. That has never happened before. Not for my kids, and certainly not for me.

Some things are odd. An inaugural ceremony with very few people present. A parade to the White House with lots of military and police but almost no spectators.

And then there are some strangely normal things. Strangely normal things that seem odd but shouldn't. A daily White House press briefing that (A) actually happened, and (B) gave truthful information and answered questions openly and honestly, even if the answer was "I don't know (or can't say) but we'll get back to you". There are times when different is good, and there are times like this when a return to normalcy is what is needed. We need this.

As I write this, I have been wandering in an out of my home office, watching bits and pieces of the inaugural concert that is being shown on all the networks. So a few random thoughts... Lin-Manuel Miranda is a national treasure. There are performers out there that you (or I) may not know, but should. Kamala Harris is impressive. Young girls and kids of color look like they have another role model to look up to. Most importantly, we need to believe in hope, and a better future. It might be difficult to achieve, but striving for anything less is...why bother.

There is also the recognition that as good as today feels, there is a lot of hard work ahead. Digging out of a huge hole that somebody else dug is hard work. But necessary.

As Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama just said on TV, the Biden administration's success is our success, so we work together for the greater good. I hope.

As a registered Republican but clearly a Democrat, I can say that when I look back at all of the modern-era former presidents (living or not), I can view all of them as good men regardless of their political affiliations and ideology. Carter was a largely ineffective president (much of this due to circumstances), but an absolutely wonderful human being. Bush the elder was a good man, a decorated veteran, and a patriot. Clinton might have been the brightest of the bunch, but had his flaws that undermined his successes. Bush the younger I generally strongly disagreed with while in office, but when viewed in his later years (without the likes of Cheney and Rumsfeld distorting my view), has consistently stood on the side of that which is right and good regardless of political party. Removing the politics, he is unquestionably a good man, and has earned my respect. I liked Obama a lot (being a liberal Democrat and all that). You can disagree on political ideology and yet recognize that each legitimately believed they were doing the right thing, and respect them for that. You win the election, you call the shots for a while. That's how it works.

Conspicuously absent today was the former grifter-in-chief. Which was good. There isn't enough time that will pass or a large enough bottle of wine to ever make the last four years right.

To Presidents Carter, Bush the elder (posthumously), Clinton, Bush the younger, and Obama: thank you for your service.

To President Biden: good luck, you're gonna need it.

To Americans everywhere: Keep the faith. It's gonna get better.

It's a New Year...

...and yet in many ways, it still feels like the old year.

We mainly stay at home. We worry about the future. We wish things were different. Lots of things. Grace's remaining year and a half in high school. Julia's venturing out into the wide world. Not getting sick and dying. So for these days, pretty much the usual.

On the plus side, despite the very significant challenges we are facing, our federal government will soon be led by an adult, and not...whatever it is we have had for the past four years. Misogynistic, narcissistic, psychopathic, racist, fascist, incompetent grifter. But I digress...

Amp has gotten her first dose of the Moderna vaccine as a frontline healthcare worker. Grace may be able to get vaccinated soon as a part time worker in a retirement community (one of the vaccines is age 16 and up). We believe in vaccines. We don't believe that the vaccines will give the government the ability to mind-control us. They already have super-duper super-top-secret military satellites for that...

In the meantime, I work. Lots of extra hours, which is the down side of a semi-permanent work at home arrangement. My office is now never more than about 50 feet from anywhere in the house...

I'm painting some. I'll share more on my recent attempts soon, but in the meantime, I ordered some frames from Jerry's Artarama and had Amp pick the paintings she wanted to use the frames on.

So we have three small 8 by 10 paintings in the entry hall near the front door (two acrylics and one oil), and one 16 by 20 in the basement.

Three 8 by 10's

They look nice framed, and it feels kinda nice to have something I created hanging on the walls of my home.

A 16 by 20

If nothing else, it gives me some motivation to try to create something better...

Stay safe, and be well.

Life's Been Good

There is a lot of tragedy and suffering in the world these days, and that is good cause to reflect on how fortunate I am, and have been. And with luck, maybe, will continue to be...

Small reminders seem to be popping up frequently these last few days.

A Christmas present T-shirt from the Life is Good brand... [A perfect gift I might addd - this is Ryder in a nutshell...]

An offhand comment from the kids: "we're lucky, this was a good Christmas".

And YouTube teeing up an Eagles song while I sit here at my desk doodling on some Dungeons and Dragons maps in the hopes that me and my friends will get to play again some day in the not too distant future. The Eagles song? Life's Been Good, of course.

That's very true. Life has indeed been good. I'd like to think that I am appreciative enough of my good fortune on a daily basis that I don't need the reminder, but if there is some higher power out there emphasizing the point, then thanks. Things haven't always been perfect. Or easy. I've succeeded at some things and failed at others. There have been challenges, and will continue to be.

But all in all, I would agree with Joe Walsh. Life's been good to me so far.

Simple Little Landscape

I hope you are all well in this holiday season.

Rolling Hills

In the absence of a real post...here's a simple little 11 inch by 14 inch impressionistic landscape in oils (Lukas 1862 oil paints for the most part, with a Gamblin black mixed in).

Stay safe. Stay home. Be well. Better times are ahead.

Hunger... and Christmas

2020 is not a normal year. Understatement. But it has served to highlight problems that have existed for a very long time in America. We are the richest nation on Earth. And we have hungry people. Lots of hungry people. That makes no sense. This year moreso than ever.

Christmas is a time for celebration, for family, and for gift giving.

This year, we think we will do something a little different.

For background, my mom, my children's grandmother, has always been very generous with regards to Christmas. She gives us money every year with which to buy gifts for ourselves and the children (since she can't get out to do the shopping herself). We have always been very grateful for what she has given us. It's not an insignificant gift in total.

At dinner tonight, we told the kids what we would like to do. We explained how their grandmother has given us money for their gifts. We proposed that we would prefer to take Grandmom's money, and a bunch of our own, and find an assortment of good local causes to donate to. This would of course mean less gifts for them...

They loved the idea, and in the intervening few hours, have provided a number of options for us to consider. So this is what we will do... Support local food banks. Local shelters. Local causes that support the greater good.

I couldn't be more proud that we basically said "we want to take money for your gifts and give it to total strangers in need", and the kids' immediate response was "YYYEESSSSS!!!!!...How much can we give?"

Maybe we have raised these kids right...

Another Win for Democracy

Another day, another bunch of Tr#$%/Republican lawsuits unceremoniously thrown out of court. For those of you keeping score at home, that is 1 for 51, give or take. [And the 1 was allowing observers to move from 10 feet away from ballot counting to within 6 feet of ballot counting...]

SCOTUS says F#$% off

This was a big one, though. This evening, the Supreme Court of the United States rejected Orange Hit#$r's bid to turn the USA into an autocracy. In a ruling that only took a handful of words, the highest court in the land basically said "go away and don't come back." And this is a Court that is 6-3 conservative, and has 3 members installed by Tr#$%.

America remains a place where democracy is in significant danger these days, but at least we live to fight another day.

GV Football - Covid version

Garnet Valley football finished their abbreviated regular season Central League schedule tonight with an away game at Haverford.

We won handily 39-8, against a previously undefeated Haverford team, on their field. I watched the game streaming on YouTube since we don't go to away games this year (the band as a whole, or us personally). The livestream announcers were the Haverford folks, and they kept saying throughout the course of the game how the game was much closer than the score. I would argue that after Haverford scored once early in the game...the game pretty much was the score.

One more TD to go...

This was on the heels of wins of 42-6 (Lower Merion), 68-6 (Conestoga), 46-6 (at Upper Darby), and 44-0 (Ridley). Boy, that Ridley shutout felt good. So we finished the season 5-0, with a combined score of 239-26 (an average of 47.8 to 5.2). To Haverford's credit, our 39 points scored was a season low. And their 8 points scored on us was a season high against us. We never gave up more than one score in a game. OK, yeah, I'm gloating a bit...

This gives us a quick-turnaround playoff game Wednesday night, at home, against Marple Newtown. The game will be jammed in before Thanksgiving and the anticipated super-spreader family events. Win, lose, or draw, this will be the end of GV football 2020, and therefore also GV marching band 2020. There will be no extended playoffs as usual.

It isn't normal by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a small touch of normal, and that alone is worth something. It's worth a lot, actually.

On a personal note, this means that Grace gets one more game to march with the band, on the field, in her clarinet section. Next year, with luck, she will be elevated from Field Major to Drum Major, and Drum Majors don't march on the field. As excited as she is about the prospect of being a Drum Major, she is sad at the other implications of what this means. The clarinet section has been important to her throughout her high school years.

Sigh...

How did we get here so fast?

2020 Sucks

This year has been, with minor exceptions, horrible. And it shows every indication of getting far worse this winter before it hopefully gets better in the spring.

Nothing is normal. Everything is cancelled, or at least postponed. I'm an admitted homebody and confirmed introvert, but even I can't do many of the things that I would normally do. I have a hard time imagining what an extrovert must be feeling.

Covid scares are everywhere. We've had a few negative tests in the family. So far so good, I guess. But we have friends that have had it, some milder and some worse. And some friends and family dead and gone.

I'm generally a positive and optimistic person, but it's difficult sometimes. Stories are everywhere about the mental health impacts of the pandemic, and I can empathize. As I said, I am a generally happy and optimistic person, but it's hard sometimes. And if it's hard for an optimist...

In these tough times, I find myself falling back on the things that give me comfort and joy. Family. Cooking. Fiddling around (badly) on the guitars hanging on the wall in the basement. Learning to paint.

Music continues to be, as it has always been to me, a comfort. And while silver linings during the pandemic are hard to come by, there are a number of musicians and bands posting great videos of quarantine music. I envy their talent, and am thankful for what that talent brings into the world.

The Doobie Brothers YouTube channel is a gem. I have posted links to some of their songs before, but they recently posted a video, with Peter Frampton, of the Eric Clapton song Let It Rain, which has always been a favorite of mine.

Another great channel has been John Fogerty's, where he posts new versions of his classic songs accompanied by his daughter and two sons. This is City of New Orleans, from a few months ago. And here is Have You Ever Seen the Rain. Check out the rest of their songs from this year on his channel.

Be well. Check on your friends to see how they are doing. Talk to people. 

Wear a mask.

Stay safe.

If You Could Read My Mind

I've always been a fan of Gordon Lightfoot, and more recently a fan of YouTube music personality Rick Beato. Beato did an episode of What Makes This Song Great recently on Lightfoot's song If You Could Read My Mind. If you are a music geek and you like this sort of deep dive into a song's construction, this series really can't be beat. And this is a great song that is a good deal more complicated than you would realize unless you had a knowledgeable guide to walk you through it.

Anyway, it's not politics...

Life's a Seesaw

Brother Dave's post on John Lodge, bass player of the Moody Blues, was a trigger. My favorite band ever. So I must weigh in.

Weigh in on what, I'm not exactly sure, but I can never resist the chance to post something about the Moody Blues.

In 1968 the Moodies were young. I was an infant. Ride My Seesaw, their concert encore song for 50+ years, was a great song then.

It was a great song 25 years ago at Red Rocks.

It still is now, 50 years later. Or at least a couple years ago at their long-overdue Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Mike Pinder went his own way long ago. And flautist/vocalist Ray Thomas sadly died of cancer in 2018.

But those that are left soldier on. Justin. John. Graeme.

At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame show in 2018 (linked above), Justin Hayward (guitars and vocals) was 72 years old, and John Lodge (bass and vocals) was 73. Drummer Graeme Edge, for the record, was 77... This is also the only song in the current day concert repertoire on which Justin plays a Fender Telecaster.

I've seen the Moodies somewhere around a dozen times, from venues as large as the Spectrum and the Mann Music Center to as small as the Tower Theater and the casinos of Atlantic City, from as far back as 1982 to as recently as a few years ago. I've seen Justin Hayward on solo tours in small venues in Wilmington Delaware. And they've been great every time. But I am biased.

Respect your elders. They may have forgotten more than you will ever know.

Serendipity, and a Long Road Ahead

A bit of serendipity... At 11:26am Saturday morning, major news outlets began a cascading series of declarations that Joe Biden had won the presidency. Not twenty minutes later, we had a knock on our door. There was a package on the front porch. It seems that a sign we had ordered as a fundraising donation 3 weeks prior had finally arrived. From China, ironically. A 12 inch by 18 inch lawn sign.

Delco, baby!

A little bit of gloating aside (this sign is resting comfortably in the flower bed outside my front door), the Biden transition team is going to face an uphill battle ahead. Our outgoing toddler seems intent on burning the house down on his way out the door. Predictable. Unfortunate, but predictable. Anyone who thought otherwise hasn't been paying attention for the last 4 years. No transition funding from the GSA. No access to security briefings. And Republican leadership sits idly by. There are 52 Republican senators. 4 have called to congratulate president elect Biden. Shameful.

The toddler will continue firing people from important positions, jeopardizing our national security. Secretary of Defense, the most important of all such positions was today, via Tweet of course. Other critical positions will follow. The toddler will no doubt soon begin pardoning every crooked friend in sight. The capstone of this, I am predicting, is that for the first time in American history, a President will preemptively pardon himself. The upside to all of this is that presidential pardons only protect one from federal prosecution. States can still do whatever they want...

On the bright side, Biden announced a Covid advisory board packed with eminent scientists and medical experts. So that's a ray of hope. And to give backhanded credit to our departing toddler, the focus on nothing Covid-related except a vaccine will probably have some benefit. Vaccines are important. Obviously. But so are masks, social distancing and everything else in the meantime. And under a rational administration, I will be willing to believe that science and not political gain will be the determining factor in declaring a vaccine safe and effective. If and when the Biden administration says that a vaccine is safe and effective, I will be first in line. And if it has limited shelf life, I will be first in line for all of my booster shots. Because I believe that a Biden administration endorsement will be for my benefit, and not just for theirs. In Fauci I trust.

On a personal level, Covid is knocking on our door, much like it is knocking on everyone's. People in the high school. People related to the band. People at Grace's work. Everywhere. Record bad numbers every day. Europe is shutting down again. The pain, suffering and tragedy goes on and on, and those least able to protect themselves from it suffer the worst.

It will be a long road ahead, and a dark Covid winter.

But we shall overcome.

We have no choice.

It's Morning in America

A new day has dawned at my home, in Pennsylvania, and in America. Bright sun. Blue skies. Unseasonably warm temperatures. A beautiful autumn day. The nicest day we have had around here in quite a while.

At 11:26am eastern time Saturday morning my most fervent hope became a reality. After 4+ excruciating days the state of Pennsylvania was called by the Associated Press, and within moments, by almost every major news organization in the United States. And with it the US Presidential election was called. After an all-too-expected delay, even Fox News called it.

Joseph R Biden Jr will be the 46th President of the United States of America.

Cities across the United States erupted in joyous celebration. Dancing in the streets. Music. Masked (but not socially-distanced enough) spontaneous gatherings spread throughout the land. Well, at least in the cities...

World leaders sent their congratulations. And if there was any question of the importance of this election on America's standing on the world stage...

Fireworks exploded over London.

Church bells were rung throughout Paris.

And Germany...

In 1950, the city of Philadelphia gave Berlin a bell that they called the "Freedom Bell." It rests in the Rathaus Schoneberg in West Berlin. They usually only ring the Freedom Bell at noon on Christmas Eve, and again on New Year's Eve. They rang it today.

As a proud lifelong Delco resident (Delaware County, in suburban Philadelphia PENNSYLVANIA), a Flyers hockey fan, and a Game of Thrones fan, I can only say:

Philadelphia Freedom

[Credits to Brother Dave on the Gritty image. I have spent the last day or more being texted dozens of amazing images....this was not yet one of them!!]

The Democratic Process

Obviously, based on prior posts, I am against the Fourth Reich in America. That being said, I am heartened by what I have been watching gut-wrenchingly unfold over the course of the last few days. Not just the results, but more so the process.

Tuesday night I went to bed ready to cry, and slept maybe a few minutes here and there. Wednesday looked better as the Democratic-leaning mail-in and early ballots began to be counted. Including my family's. Thursday.....waiting. Hopeful but still scared. And I suspect we will go to bed scared.

Vegas odds are 92% to 8%, or better (from my point of view). None of that matters until all the votes are counted and we are done.

Win, Lose or Draw, the democratic process in America has been unfolding exactly as it is supposed to do. Based on applicable and wildly varying state law with regards to filing dates, postmarked dates, received-by dates, and all other technicalities, each state is adjudicating and counting ballots exactly as it is supposed to do.

That is as it should be.

The good guys may win. The good guys may lose. But come what may, and regardless of the amount of time the whole world is left twisting in the wind waiting for an outcome, this is how democracy works in America. Especially given the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic and the huge amounts of mail-in ballots cast this year, credit should be given to the countless thousands of workers volunteering their time to make sure things unfold as they should. Vote counters. Poll watchers. On all sides.

I hope for the best, for both myself and my wife and kids. For all of us, whether some of us know it or not.

If no more proof is needed on who deserves to be President and try to lead us out of this pandemic and all its related complications, I would refer those people to the respective public addresses by the two candidates earlier this evening. Biden gave an inclusive, thoughtful, wait-and-see, and dare I say "presidential" short speech about being patient and letting our democratic process play out. And then our current occupant of the White House gave a rambling, disjointed, and lie-filled temper tantrum based on some alternate reality, doing his best to undercut the legitimacy of our democracy. Par for the course, but exactly what was expected: a three-year old jumping up and down, screaming and spinning in circles, flinging poop in every direction.

An encapsulation of everything you need to know.

He needs to go. Go to jail. Go to Russia. Go to the non-extradition jurisdictions of Argentina or wherever else. I don't know. I don't care. Just go. And take his spawn with him.

Win the election and unleash the dogs of the Southern District of New York.

Which is why we need these swing states (including mine) to come through and quash this nonsense for once and for all. Otherwise, four years from now, we might not have a democracy left...

Dark Days for America

My parents were registered Republicans. So when the time came to register for voting many years ago, I registered as a Republican. I'm still registered as a Republican. And I have absolutely no idea why.

I'm not sure when the Republican party became the party of gleeful willful ignorance, but that's what they have become. Science doesn't matter. The human impact on global warming is a fraud. Math and science and education are overrated. The Covid-19 pandemic is going away on its own. We're doing a great job. All of it.

This occupant of the White House has made it OK to bring your racism out of the closet and proudly wave the flag of the 1950s. I don't get it. I don't get it in the slightest.

People voted for ... that person ... in 2016 in part in support of the idea of the Washington outsider who was going to come in and shake things up. The successful businessman who would bring that experience to the Presidency.

What we have seen instead is a man whose only business experience is in taking advantage of bankruptcy laws, and how to run a tax-avoidance shell game between dozens of failing business entities, passing debt from one to the other to the other. Whose only interest is in getting reelected for the stroking of his ego. Whose only interest is getting elected to the job, but who has no interest in actually doing the job. The self-proclaimed President of the 47% of the American people who voted for him. The rest of us are scum. His words.

Anyway...

Back to my original point. Disgust with the Republican party, of which I am theoretically one. When did we become the party of voter suppression? News story after story after story come out about someone taking someone to court with the express goal of invalidating legally cast ballots, or trying to put laws and procedures and processes in place that make it harder to vote. In the cities. Among the poorer populations. The people who are far more likely to vote Democrat. And it is ALWAYS Republican efforts to do this.

What are Republicans afraid of?

Well, that's easy. Republicans see the world turning brown around them, and it scares them to death. If every American who was eligible to vote did vote, the Republican party as it is constituted at this moment, would basically cease to exist as a relevant political party. Every position they hold is a minority position in the popular vote. That's what scares them. And so they have no choice but to suppress the vote.

Unfortunately, this is an all-too-easy card to play in the divided America of today. Fear the brown people. As a result, you get swarms of Trump-supporting pickup trucks, American flags waving, trying to drive a Biden/Harris campaign bus off the road in Texas. And on and on. Why are we Republicans always on the wrong side of what is right these days?

I have 12 American flags and you only have 10. I'm more patriotic than you.

We are better than this. We have to be.

Let the people vote. All the people. And let the cards fall where they may.

That's the American way.

And as someone who lives in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, I can only hope that we atone for our sins of 2016 and contribute to giving this narcissistic racist fraud the drubbing he deserves.

My prediction of what will happen tomorrow?

Regardless of what is happening in the real world, Trump will declare himself the winner. Which of course means nothing.

States will commit to counting all legally and legitimately cast ballots, as per their state laws, regardless of the time it takes.

The Republicans will ignite a firestorm of lawsuits attempting one last time to suppress the vote.

These lawsuits will be rejected by a variety of local jurisdictions, state supreme courts, and federal district courts, as they have rejected the dozens of similar lawsuits already filed around the country by Republicans in just the past few days.

Votes will be counted. All the votes.

The will of the people will be done.

Eventually.

I just hope that more Americans believe in what Democrats believe than believe in what Republicans seem to believe.

Either way, I'm changing my voter registration.