Bring It, Christmas

So here we are, on the eve of December, with fall in full swing. Leaves are falling, falling, and the ground becomes a canvas of oranges and reds and yellows. One of the few places that always demonstrates the changing of season in full grandeur is Sac State, a small forest of a campus. Which, now, is virtually abandoned. Again. We've been directed to forego our former plans of face to face education in the wake of the most recent surge of Covid-19. The worst surge yet, with numbers spiking far higher than they ever have. 

Sigh.

2020 has been such a train wreck. It started full of optimism and promise, as years so often do. The start of the 20s! Again! We barely made it half way through March and BAM! Our world, as we knew it, collapsed around us. Now it's clear that we are incapable of dealing with this pandemic. Our society just simply can't do it. Hopefully a vaccine will be just around the corner, as that's the only thing that will apparently stand a chance of getting up out of this mess.  And hopefully by then we won't have completely forgotten what "normal" was like.

And Christmas is just around the corner, and houses in the neighborhood are starting to sprout lights and statues and various baubles of the holiday season. Though, not that many. I went for a walk around the neighborhood this evening - and to be sure, there was some impressive displays of festivity - but it seems less than 10% of houses had decor. Well, it's still early, I suppose. I haven't put out anything myself, but I do still plan to erect my annual Disney-ornamented tree. So at least some things will be "normal" this season. 

And today, I did some Christmas shopping for my son, so that part of the holiday tradition is underway. I imagine this Christmas will be a challenge to many. I'm still not sure how it will be for me. I mean, in many ways I've been quite fortunate this year, despite the pandemic. I still get a paycheck at least, which means I can still pay rent, and other bills. Not everyone can say the same. This will be my first Christmas in many years spent in an apartment. Which brings its own challenges in getting inspired for the holidays. But it will hopefully be my last as well, which inspires hope. It's a superficial thing to be worried over, I know. But that doesn't make it less real.

And it occurred to me during my walk this night that in the last 25 years or so, I've lived at about 10 different places. That's an average of moving once every 2.5 years. And that's a lot, especially for someone who loathes change and moving in particular. Hard to build any sort of consistency of tradition, especially for the holidays, when your living arrangement varies so often. 

But it's okay, I will persevere. And next year, new traditions will begin. With any luck, pandemic free. And it will, with any luck, be the start of my longest tenure at any residence since the house I grew up in, back in North Highlands, over 40 years ago. And that one lasted all of what, 14 years or so?

But for now, it's nearly December, and we have to focus on this year's Christmas, laden with Covid restrictions and boarded up businesses and booming homeless populations.  And curfews and masks and social distancing.Oh my. I'm sure our society will survive, somehow, and be better in the end, someday. I mean we have to believe that, right? But for now, let's enjoy some well-deserved distraction. Bring on the Christmas season!

To Vote or Not To Vote

So, yesterday was election Tuesday in America, with Donald Trump running for re-election against Joe Biden. And even now, at 10am Pacific Time a day later, we still don't know who won. If we go with who currently has the lead in the states where it's still too close to call, Biden would win.  If we used that same logic last night, Trump would have won. As far as the popular vote goes, Biden is about 2.5 million votes in the lead.

Kind of looks like four years ago, except it's a bit closer of a race as far as electoral college votes go.

Four years ago, America elected someone whose sole qualification was that they were rich. They had no political experience, no military experience. Yet they were elected to the highest position in the land for both. It would be like me landing a job as the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. Crazy. Yet, amazingly, we survived. And he we are again, almost on the brink of repeating history. Well, at least he does have some political experience now.

I actually did vote, though it was back and forth there for awhile. Honestly, none of the candidates or issues really inspired me much. I should say none of the top candidates, since we are in effect only voting for the top two. And it saddens me that in this country, with all the potential candidates we have and all who were originally running before the primaries, that it's been whittled down to basically the two worst choices. Voting for the least objectionable candidate has become something of a motto around here.

Americans, for a long, long time, have been brainwashed to believe that only the top candidate from each of the top two parties has a chance of winning. And that's certainly true, as it now stands. Folks say that a vote for anyone else just "takes votes away" from these two candidates, and that you're throwing your vote away by not voting for one of them. But imagine if tens of millions of Americans decided to vote another way - any other way. That would certainly put a kink in the results. And even if it was not initially successful in getting someone else elected, perhaps it would turn the tide enough to convince this country that they can elect someone else. Of course, millions would have to eschew party lines for this to happen. But it could happen, it could.

Anyways, I wasn't really sure if I was going to actually vote until the morning of the election. I wasn't even really aware of what propositions or measures were on the ballot, save from the little info I could glean from the campaign signs plastered all over the city. But as is always the case, they offer no real details of substance.

So this year, I voted based simply on the little description of each item on the ballot. If it seemed reasonable, I voted yes. If it didn't, or if I was at least unsure, I voted no. Did my vote make any difference, sway any results? I seriously doubt it. 

I did no research, save for taking a quiz which asked your stance on various hot topics of the day, and then ran through all sorts of visually stimulating screen shots while it "calculated" my results to see which presidential candidate I was most in line with. And guess what? The winner, for me, was neither Biden nor Trump.

So I didn't vote for either of them.

As an aside, I would add that our political system is clearly broken. It is dysfunctional and corrupt, controlled only by money and special interests. Which is why our "top" two candidates are always the ones with the deepest pockets.  And the whole government seems locked in a never ending stalemate, on all of the most important issues.

Sigh. Maybe I shouldn't have bothered voting.