I did not expect to be writing this series of blogs the week that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted the mask mandate for all vaccinated people. Ironically, the discussions around me everywhere—and I do mean everywhere—have all been about fear, in one form or another. I’m vaccinated, but I’m not ready […]
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Author’s Note: I wrote this on January 3, which (in case you’ve lost track in this already long year) was three days before January 6, when insurrectionists attacked the U.S. Capitol. I still have high hopes for 2021. We just have to go through some 2020 bullshit here this month on the political side. On […]
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Yeah, we’re doing it again. Because COVID infections are worse. I’d think it was just us in the U.S., but today’s news is that Scotland is locking down until February 1, with other countries to follow. I really have no words, except how sorry I am for folks who are suffering from the disease or […]
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Unless things go horribly wrong in the next two days—and this being 2020, that’s entirely possible—we will make it to 2021. As my Pearls Before Swine Day-To-Day Calendar reminded me this week, the change of year is an arbitrary construction that we imbue with great meaning. I looked at that cartoon and thought, I don’t […]
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I have considered writing this short series for more than a month now, and every time I envision it, I see myself standing in a pile of rubble, surveying the landscape. It’s almost a movie scene, probably an amalgam of every disaster movie I’ve ever seen. The camera focuses on a small section of rubble, […]
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On Saturday, November 14, I went on my usual morning run. I chose the route that took me past the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, one of the country’s top-rated high schools. When I ran past this school pre-COVID, I would often hear voices raised in song, or a particularly amazing band practice. Sometimes […]
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Well, that happened. Thank heavens. Seriously, 2020 has lasted, by my count, 4,852,376 days so far, and of those, 50.000 of those days occurred last week. As predicted, all business slowed to a crawl as the entire world watched the United States finished voting on November 3, and then tallied the votes. Hardworking people in […]
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I grew up in difficult times, not just for the world, but for my family as well. My family’s difficulties paralleled the difficulties around us. For example, my nephew, the first baby I ever held, died the same week as President John F. Kennedy. As the country reeled from his assassination, my parents and my […]
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A post has gone viral on Facebook recently to note the six-month mark of the pandemic. At six months, Aisha Ahmad, the author of the post (which I can link to thanks to one of my Patreon supporters who found it for me), says it’s okay if we’ve hit an emotional wall. In fact, it’s […]
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I’ve been rage donating all weekend. Yeah, it’s a thing. And this time, the jukebox in my head has been playing Bananarama’s 1984 hit “Cruel Summer” on an endless loop in my head. You don’t need me to regurgitate the events of the last few weeks, or maybe you do, because some of you will […]
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