Fog

 The fog is starting to clear, although I certainly do not feel safe yet. 

Got a belated holiday gift from work, an amazon gift card, which I spent on cat toys. 

Zeppo loved the wooly mouse on a string, but it was looking a bit cat-foxed. So, we got these. 

He is fully energized. When I stop making the mouse move, because he's pulled the rod out of my hands and cached said mouse on his rug, he comes and pats me on the arm to play more.  He's apparently not about to play 'fetch', that's my job. 

Freshly

Eleanor licks the condensation off the windows.  She either does it to clear it to see out, or she likes drinking water this way. Freshly condensed. Possibly both, of course.

 This week has been a struggle, the work hard, the worry great.  I'm coming to think that trying to continue in this job another six years is unsustainable. Three I can do, then I can retire and maybe get a part time non nursing job as a supplement. 

I keep watching the White House press briefings, it's an unexpected voice of hope and more importantly - reason. The horrible people are squealing and threatening, but they aren't actually getting very far.  Oh, there will be more violence, this is humanity all over. Somehow, I don't think the confederacy will rise again. 

Still not reading, sorry.  I know you are out there, I'm thinking about you. I can't make myself comment or read more than titles.  Can't take my eyes off the center yet.  That I managed to write this much is a bit of a miracle. 

Teal

Am I the only one to notice the similarities?

Rosalynn Carter and Jill Biden both had teal coats for the inauguration. I remember the comments about Rosalynn wearing a cloth coat, a break from the more usual fur coats for this occasion.  And here, Jill wore that same teal color. I don't think it was accidental. 

I've been looking at the fashion, because symbols matter, and I really like fashion history, fashion as costume. 

Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman, unexpected poetry slam inauguration. I was never completely confident we would get to this point. But, here we are. 

Still haven't got an ounce of patriotism, but I love the world.

Second vaccine in my arm. 

Mysteries

 As a distraction for my worry (waves hands at the world)  I've asked a couple of reddit forums to identify two mysteries of House. 

One is the blade left in the fireplace, which I cleaned up, but never identified. 

It is apparently a Filipino bolo, from Luzon and probably thePhilippine-American war. The original owners of the house probably included a veteran of that war, or the child of one.The second is the thing on the garage that I finally removed, stripped and have inside. 

Probably held a convex mirror for visibility in the tight turnaround area for the two garages for the two houses with the shared driveway. It was pretty banged up, which is likely how the mirror got dislodged and lost.

Holding

 My mind will not wrap,

My heart gone numb, my body

Sleeping on marble.

Despair seeping up

From under the icy floor. 

Awaiting orders.

When I got shipped over to Saudi for GWI, the night we got to our billet, we did not have sleeping bags or pads, only a woolen blanket and our carry bag. It was cold and the floors were marble. We had no idea what was ahead of us. 

These troops are a little different, most have likely seen actual combat. I guarantee, they are still cold and sore. 

At least we are holding, we are holding. 

Might

 We might yet turn this all around. I wept this morning at the news, and in gratitude to Stacey Abrams.  Help is coming, one day late.

Isn't she gorgeous? 

As for the corrupt traitors to our country and our world, may they live long and miserable lives without their honor, without their fortunes, and in terror of their lives. May they be hunted down and convicted and wake up every night in the wee hours with the sensation of the rope around their necks. May they live in terror in remote places, like nazi war criminals waiting for Mosad to find them. I don't want them executed, but I want them to live thinking that it is possible. I want their sycophants and trophy wives to live homeless, cold and hungry, spat upon by the maga-idiots they enabled.  

And may we all thrive and grow and forget their names, but not their crimes.