Shipwrecked & Comatose

I'm not sure exactly when the bug got up my butt.  I would say it was about 3 or 4 years ago.  I may even have to partially credit reading The Fault in Our Stars .  I can only say at some point Amsterdam became a city that was a major item on the Bucket List .  It seemed like a city that contained a little of everything I love as a tourist: beautiful scenery and architecture, friendly people, and plenty of museums and culture. I put it off for a few years.  I never seemed to be able to get the money together.  Twice my father made me offers I couldn't refuse for other vacations like Prague and the cruise to the Mediterranean .  Amsterdam was put on the back burner again and again. I had no major plans for the back half of 2017, so I considered taking a trip in the fall.  I got Kevin tentatively on board with the idea.  We were planning our usual Chincoteague trip in July and wanted to escape winter in March by going to Hawaii.  I th...

It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, And what the LORD doth require of thee: Only to do justly , and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. - Micah 6:8 One of the strongest arguments against massive border walls and a gestapo-like mass roundup and deportation of undocumented workers is it will have a negative effect on the industries that depend on immigrant labor.  Those industries are crucial to the daily lives of all Americans.  Immigrants provide the labor for the food, beverage (including wine) and meatpacking industries.  It is likely that any food you didn't grow yourself was handled by an immigrant worker at some point.  Thanks to stricter immigration rules, even without 2,000-mile border walls, farmers are having a more difficult time finding laborers in recent years.  Despite the stereotypes of immigrants "stealing" jobs from native-born Americans, the jobs are certainly open to Americans.  The problem is Americans don't wa...

If there is anything out there that has lifted my spirits this weekend it was seeing and hearing about all of the protest marches nationwide and globally.  Who says Americans haven't "come together and united"?  We have united indeed.  Millions of Americans are united to fight to be on the right side of history. We stand strong together and we can get through this.  If we keep this momentum up, we will become a stronger and more united nation. I have come to pity Trump supporters.  Today I asked myself, why they love him so much.  What has he done that makes him such a hero in their eyes?  Let's look at the facts. By all accounts Donald Trump is a textbook narcissist.  People who have met him in person have given accounts of his self-serving, grandiose behavior.  He has made some outrageously sexist and racist statements.  He truly seems to revel in unkindness and cruelty.  Despite all of this, his supporters seem to think he ...

It's very easy to say, "Not my president," when a candidate you loathe wins the general election.  Many of you even hashtag it.  You can say it as much as you want, but it won't be true.  If you are a citizen of the United States of America, Donald Trump is your president.  No hashtag will change that. Let me reiterate that.  You are a citizen of the United States of America. Donald Trump is President of all citizens of the United States of America. So we accept it, because we understand that's how the democracy works (however imperfectly).  My question for Donald Trump is if he understands it. Being president of the United States means being President of the  United States. It does not mean President of white people. It does not mean President of Christians.  It does not mean President of the wealthy.  It does not mean President of Republicans.  It does not mean President of cisgendered and straight people. It means ...

Aren't you glad this isn't a political post? 2016 was the year to try to rebuild my strength to pre-surgery levels and try to find a way back to a healthy weight and bodyfat level. I succeeded at the former, but failed at the latter.  Nonetheless, I celebrate my success.  Over the course of the year I sometimes looked at the routines in my various workout programs and thought, "That's too hard.  I can't do that."  Then I went ahead and did it.  I continue to amaze myself every day. I swore that I needed to accept my body and just deal with the fact that I'm not willing to make the changes needed  to radically make over my body.  I got my level of fitness back and that's all that matters. Or is it? Unfortunately in recent months my pony has become impossible for me to ride.  She is unresponsive and even combative when I ask her for simple tasks.  My trainer has asked me to consider if I might be too heavy for her.  I think she m...

The word from the armchair political analysts and the corporate media pundits is  that Donald Trump won the election because he suckered the white working class into believing he will bring manufacturing jobs into the United States.  Under Trump everyone will be working well-paid jobs again. This will never happen of course.  Manufacturing companies have nothing to gain by having their factories in the US where minimum wage laws and OSHA rules apply.  American corporations want to treat their workers in a standard most Americans would never accept.  Due to union busting over the past three decades, even if companies did bring their factories back to the US, manufacturing wages and benefits would not be any better than working at WalMart or McDonalds. Trump has stocked his cabinet with billionaires like him (or actually I should say true billionaires who are far more successful than he is and even more ruthless).  They aren't going to care about the work...

After this election, I have been reading nonstop about all the poor assumptions liberals made about this country and its voting habits, and how their biggest mistake was not understanding "Real America". What is "Real America"?  Real America is geographically the central states of the US, often referred to as "flyover territory" in a derogatory fashion.  The people who live there are characterized as white, working class (or poor), Christian, and conservative.  Their education levels rarely go beyond high school.  They are seen as clinging desperately to a world that never really existed.  They fear change.  They fear being left behind by an ever-increasing multicultural population and the globalization of the economy. It doesn't matter if these stereotypes are true or not.  Every election we have ever had panders to them.  The assumption is every politician is eager to grab votes from minorities, educated and professional women, and big citie...