SENT 10/29/10: FOUR KVETCHES & ONE OBSERVATION

 

Subscribe to My Blog! October 29, 2020 4 Kvetches & 1 Observation PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. IF THIS BLOG WAS FORWARDED TO YOU, YOU ARE NOT SUBSCRIBED. CLICK HERE TO TEXT FOR BIDEN & OTHER BLUES. IT'S COMPLICATED TO SIGN UP, BUT YOU REACH A LOT OF PEOPLE. CLICK HERE FOR PHONE BANKING NEAR YOU! FIRST THE OBSERVATION: Just from my small personal perch, I see that this Presidential election is truly an international event: My friend Pat in London sent me a postcard, writing of her sympathy for my anxiety about "November 3." Now, I might have known that an important election was happening in England, but I certainly wouldn't have the actual DATE imprinted in my brain. My friend Katrina in Nova Scotia (Canada) says she is sick of going to dinner parties where the only subject of conversation is Der Toddler's latest outrage. My friend Rosalia in Morocco is American and is of course sending me pro-Biden anti-Trump links by the truckload for my blog. THAT'S no surprise. But she told me her good friend Bouchaib was deeply moved by the speech Biden gave on Fourth of July in Gettysburg. When was the last time I listened to a speech by anyone running for office in another country? Never. My friend Lieke in Holland is as obsessed and overwhelmed by the election as I am. All these people know that the result of this election will affect their countries too, damn it! Wish I didn't live in the belly of the biggest beast around. But I also think they actually have an affection, not just for me, but for Americans, for the United States. Maybe I'm deluding myself. KVETCH #1: I'm am drowning in a sea of possibilities: There are so many ways I can work for the election of Biden and other Blues. There are so many ways that the Evil GOP can minimize the number of Biden supporters that can vote. There are so many ways the EGOP can disrupt the count of the vote of the people who DO manage to fill out a ballot and get it delivered. If, after those hurdles are leaped over, and it is very clear that Biden won the popular vote AND the Electoral College, there are STILL so many ways the EGOP can subvert a democratic outcome. And then, there are so many ways that Sane People can fight the subversion of our democracy if the EGOP does any of these evil things. I say "Evil GOP" rather than Trump, because he would be powerless without their organization behind him. In truth, he is lazy. As one NYT columnist said, "Don't worry about a coup. Trump is too lazy and incompetent to organize one!" True, he's got his Insane Base. Probably all those Trumpers, left outside to freeze to death in the cold night after the Trump rally in Omaha, would be absolutely THRILLED to leave the world that way. But come on, he can't organize ANYTHING! He needs the EGOP. Anyhow, I'm a mess. How much uncertainty can a person take? Pandemic, wildfires, a fascist takeover. Okay, the first two I have to face no matter what. But the third? It helps me that people all over the world are with us. KVETCH #2: I have trouble applying eyebrow pencil. I did it this morning, because I had an interview about my play anthology, which I thought was on Zoom. My eyebrows are not visible to the human eye without some help. The problem is getting the eyebrows to match. First your left eyebrow is lighter than your right eyebrow. So you veeeery carefully apply a LITTLE BIT of eyebrow pencil to your left eyebrow -- and suddenly now your LEFT eyebrow is DARKER than the right! Grrr.... So then you apply a teeny tiny bit of eyebrow pencil to your RIGHT eyebrow -- which then makes it DARKER than its opposite, the LEFT eyebrow. And you keep repeating this procedure until it looks like you have two dark fuzzy caterpillars confronting each other across your forehead! Well, it turned out the interview was only audio, so the interviewer never got a chance to see my caterpillars. KVETCH #3: This was the headline in today's New York Times: "Trump Runs as if Virus were Already Defeated" What an idiot! Right? Right? Well. I remember reading in the Chronicle about when he came to California during the 2016 campaign. He spoke with the farmers in the Central Valley. One of the farmers asked him, "What are you going to do about the drought?" And Trump answered, "Forget about the drought. There's no more drought, The problem is over. Don't worry anymore about the drought." That was his answer! Because he HAD no answer. And he didn't give a damn about the drought OR the farmers. The only thing he's ever really cared to do is lower taxes for the rich AND build a wall to keep out poor people. And I thought, "Well, he's lost these farmers." I mean, who is more reality-based than FARMERS? They have to wrestle food out of the ground, overcoming many obstacles in the process! They've got to be intimately connected to nature in order to survive in farming. He's just made a fool of himself in front of them, I said to myself. GOOD! And then the next morning in the paper, there was an article about the farmers voting to endorse Trump. I mean, if FARMERS refuse to look reality in the face, then WHO WILL?? I hope the farmers feel differently now, since Trump DIDN'T make the drought magically disappear. But what if they don't? What if the magic hope is enough? What if the magic hope that the pandemic is over is enough? SO KEEP ON VOLUNTEERING TO MAKE THOSE LAST-MINUTE PHONE CALLS FOR BIDEN! AND THANK GOODNESS THE STOCK MARKET IS TANKING AT THIS MOMENT. SOMETIMES BAD NEWS IS GOOD NEWS. KVETCH #4: I won't be able to have my yearly Tree Dahlia Party. The tree dahlias are just starting to bloom. They always bloom in November, when almost nothing else is blooming. And they're magnificent, on 15-20 foot bamboo-like stems. Yes, that's feet, not inches. As you can see, a few of them have opened. They're all over the yard, so in a week or so, when you look up, you'll see dozens and dozens of large pink flowers. Or you can stand on the deck and look down on them across the garden. Then they start dropping their flowers, so the ground is covered in pink petals. Above and below, pink. It's not a big party, my yearly Tree Dahlia Party -- maybe 10, 15 friends. Potluck. Very relaxed. No way am I having ten people over at once. That would make me sooooo nervous. I can have two or three over at a time, and I will. But the tree dahlias are only in full bloom for about two weeks, so it is nice to have a real party. Oh well. Of course, I get to enjoy the flowers all day every day. But I do love to share my garden with others. Oh well. I'm doing a lot of oh-welling, these last eight months. And you? My dear Bloggelinis, I've been plunging into fear and depression, climbing out of the pit, feeling good, even euphoric just because I'm alive for a little while, falling off the cliff again. My gosh, what would it be like if I were bipolar or something? I've always said that nobody knows the future, but THIS is RIDICULOUS! Terry