missizzy

Over the weekend, mom filled out the form to be vaccinated by the city. They've since contacted her, but only to say they don't know yet which priority group she'll be in; that has to depend on how many people older than her sign up. So now we're both of us still waiting to hear back.
As of right now, I am still expecting to go in tomorrow. And the more I read, the more I'd rather go in tomorrow than any time between then and Trump leaving office, since it seems the violence in DC will continue until then. I'm not sure the Senate kicking him out early would've even made much different to that, unless his insurgents chose to target them while they were doing it. Heck, I suppose we might have a higher chance of him actually being convicted if someone else like New York indicts/arrests him first. Still, it's not a good sign that McConnell refused to call the Senate back. He might even still be hoping for a successful coup next week. I wish I could be certain that won't happen.

It was always too much to hope for that there wouldn't be House members and Senators both challenging the election results on the 6th. Honestly, I spent two years terrified they wouldn't ratify the results at all. Now it seems that's not the way this is going, but Wednesday is still going to be a very long day.
It's been cloudy and rainy so far this new year. It's probably going to be at least somewhat a year of mourning, if it doesn't turn out to be a year of worse. Also, our medical provider now has a timetable for when they expect to be done vaccinating their staff and will move on to people with medical conditions and people 75 and up. Which makes me wonder if my poor 74-year-old mother might even have to wait as long as I will. Although if that wait happens to go past next November, then she'll be eligible for a vaccine immediately. (Seriously, how are they going to handle people who turn age-eligible during the rollout?)
Been trying to figure out how to make fractal art again. I made a few over a decade back and I've long thought I'd like to do it again. Except it seems the fractals and software both have gotten way more complicated since then.

My mother had to go in to the doctor again this week. Nothing dire right now, though. She asked about the vaccine, of course, but they aren't answering very many questions about that. So we are left with the latest claim about people over 75 getting it soon, which means she is one year too young!
Though who knows if that claim meant anything, anyway. I suppose we really were all foolish enough to think that this huge-ass spending bill, for good or ill, was finally a done deal. Hell, the fact that they funded his damn wall honestly made me think he might sign it just for that. Maybe a month ago he would have. Now I am left maybe a little relieved one or two things in there didn't pass, but way, way more anxious about everything we're now not getting. Hell, if someone doesn't give the metro their relief money, then the time when I will finally be working on site full time again may find me with no easy way to get there!
Not the least stressful beginning to the five days off I've managed to make for myself. Still, as long as mom doesn't have to run to the doctor again during them, they'll probably be enjoyable enough, in the end.

Holiday decorations have started to come out, though the supermarket isn't fully decked out yet. But Christmas probably won't be much of Christmas when on top of everything else, there's a good chance I'll be facing a furlough of over a month by then. Mom and I have money in the bank, and surviving that long shouldn't be a problem, especially if I get paid when Biden reopens the government-but of course there's the lingering fear the Senate won't let him. You think after 2019 they'd allow that one, but nothing's certain anymore.
And after months of not feeling too restless, just the hint of a vaccine in the works has left me wanting very badly to fast forward through the next half a year or so, or however long it takes for this to all be over. We all have been provided a look at the light at the end of the tunnel, and that makes getting through what may be the most painful time yet easier in some ways, but harder in others.
Heck, it would be nice for the weather to settle down. I've now had headaches plaguing me for two weeks.

The flush of victory makes most people feel optimistic, and I admit, I have much less dread of the future than I've had for the past four years. There's still the very great worry of what will happen between now and late January, of course, and all the problems that aren't going to go away then either. But now I see things beyond that, and even beyond a vaccine that we now can rely on both receiving and trusting in whenever it arrives. When I step outside and see the autumnal beauty of the world, it no longer feels like a tragically doomed thing. We've got a few years, at least. The world will never be the same as it was before Trump or before COVID. But there are parts of it we can get back, if we just last long enough.
I'm not forgiving anyone, though. I swore I wouldn't four years ago, and I'm keeping to that. And I still don't think I'll ever truly love this country again. But there are many good people in it, and maybe it's a good idea to keep sight of that.

Yesterday, when she was done with it, my mother took the style section of the Washington Post over to the two gay guys that live next door to give it to the one of them whose mother had been profile as someone who was finally voting for the first time. Bit late of her, especially with a son so directly affected by the politics she seemingly wanted to not care about, but he was apparently delighted to see her written about there, complete with a nice big picture.
Such stories are all well and good, but the more I hear about what's going on, the more likely it seems Trump is going to blatantly steal this election. And meanwhile, there are also stories about GWU advising its students to stock up on essentials and DC residents boarding their houses up, bracing for the violence in the streets we've long known is going to be coming, possibly regardless of outcome. Ours is not a neighborhood likely to be directly targeted for such things, but if things get big enough...well, our house is not far enough from the Potomac for my comfort, honestly.

If his doctors were actually telling the truth of Trump's condition, honestly, I'd be extremely pissed. Both that he got the miracle drugs for free, and that this stupid disease couldn't even make him suffer for nearly long enough-that wouldn't even have the possibly scary fallout that his dying would. But as it is, we're just in our normal state of terror of what the hell's going to happen next, only slightly elevated by the probability that our President not being in his right mind is likely now a literal affair. We'll see who's alive at the end of the week?
Though I'd also be pissed if I got killed now, when I finally finished episode 76 of Vox Machina literally just now. The last three episodes have been a slow affair, partly because, honestly, episodes 74-75 make for a rather uncomfortable watch in 2020. The whole City of Brass is an ill-advised setup, and I know it's not entirely Matt's creation, but he should've been a bit more prudent about using it. Now I want to finally get to watch the climatic battles of this arc. And Perc'halia's meeting at the door, of course.

Sunday evening as soon as she heard the tax returns were out, mom came in, crowing already. Trump's not paying taxes has seemed to have touched a nerve, if social media is any indication. I ended up skimming through the NYT's summary. But all I could think was that anyone who didn't have the horse sense to already be voting for Biden at this point was extremely unlikely to either read or believe any of it. Had it come out four years ago, it could've brought him down then, but events have proceeded long past that stage nowadays.
Of course, I've never actually been hit with the kind of huge all-at-once tax bill that my mom's dealt with multiple times, especially since the GOP tax scam passed-except I know already I'm going to be next year, thanks to Trump's little stunt with suspending what us federal employees are supposed to be putting into social security. Though even without that particular deduction, I have about what Trump pays in yearly taxes deducted in federal taxes from my salary each month. (That doesn't take state taxes into account.)
Even so, what really hit me about the whole thing was the slipperiness and how much he's gotten away with just by keeping the IRS tied up in court. This when I've spent this entire pandemic fretting about the error in my taxes I don't know when and where to fix because the clinic we got them done at never reopened near us. This is a game rich people benefit by and force the rest of us to play and usually lose at.

My Die Hard dice finally arrived today. I now have a nice little collection, especially because they threw in a gift fifth set with the four I'd actually bought. Also a card with my name on the front, that says Bidet to Critters and expresses a hope that our new treasures will bring us victory in battle in Exandria, which I love probably more than I should. I'm starting to seriously consider looking for an online game, though I'd probably also want to buy the player's handbook first. In any case, there's no hurry.
Meanwhile, over 36 hours since my Frumpkin keychain headed for a DHL distribution center down in Florida, USPS still has not recorded it as being received into their system. Which, given the state involved, is grimly telling. Florida's one of the states they'll fight the hardest to keep out of Biden and other Democrat hands. And I read tweets about the exposure of DeJoy, but how much practical good will that do at this point?

Our cable woes continue. The decrease in available charges did not stop us from receiving a bill with a sizable amount of money adding for some sort of new services. The paper bill didn't specify what they were, and we went to an website where it took us too long to find our billing info, and then that didn't explain anything either. We tried to do an online chat for help, but couldn't figure out how to input our issue. Also, with the same bill, we got a notice acknowledging that we had cancelled our service.
They did at least acknowledge that we have now overpaid them, and did not charge us for this month. Even so, we're going to have to go to one of their brick-and-mortar stores to try to get an explanation for this behavior. Maybe even get a price list for the various packages, so we can consider getting DisneyXD back. Except right now I don't particularly want to pay them more money. We still plan to get most of our bills switched to autopay, but maybe not this one anymore.
Unless, of course, we lose any other way to send them. This carrying off of mailboxes honestly reminds me of the last years of the Roman Republic, when people would literally carry off the voting urns to halt an election. There wasn't much the people could do then, either.