Wasn't it GREAT?

 I'm sitting here smiling ear to ear.  This has been one of the best Thanksgivings ever.  Of course, I miss my Minnesota family and they are not fodder for any of my angry holiday rants.  I'm venting about my in-laws and their offspring.  

COVID has allowed us to ditch traditions that have grated on hosts nerves for decades.  For years I would cook large meals for holidays.  As all the kids in the family grew so did their entitlement attitudes.  It became expected that holiday meals magically appeared without effort on my part and I, as a host, should know to plan via telepathy if these now grown kids were going to show up at all and on time; and if they did, if they were going to bring a plus one.  Answering invitations in a timely manner, or at all,  is something that is completely lost on them.  

This year I got the big BOW OUT.  Nope, not hosting.  We were fine just with our household bubble.  It's much safer than mixing households.  Another family member, who I will refer to as K, lives in town and invited her elderly mother and father over.  Pretty soon it was the elderly parents and the Melting Snow Woman (their completely useless, lazy, and nasty alcoholic daughter who is 53 years old and sister to K).  Then it was Melting Snow Woman's daughter, toddler, and husband.  Then it was Melting Snow Woman's other daughter who decided at the night before Thanksgiving that she wanted to come and also bring along her girlfriend.  

Stop right there.  K's invitation was to her elderly parents.  The others are like toilet paper on a shoe that wanted to trail along uninvited.  It's so unfair to K.  She was planning on a very small gathering and it morphed into a circus of several households.  The toilet paper brigade is like a swarm of locusts.  They will find a host, completely consume them, and then move on.  I was so proud of K when she put the brakes on hosting the toilet paper locust brigade.  She simply stated that was too many without notice and it was not safe.  

K's parents ended up hosting the locusts, which is sad as they are elderly and not in the best of health, and K was trying to do something nice for them.  I'm sure the locusts sat on their bottoms while the elderly lady cooked and cleaned and did not contribute one bit as that is what they are known for.  However, the parents are reaping what they have sown.  

The point is that the locust toilet paper brigade landed exactly at the source of their hatching.  It's sad that they will consume and kill their hosts, but I have no control over that and I'm glad to be rid of the pests.  LIBERATED AT LAST :)

COVID Curfew

 We here in Sonoma County have been issued a curfew between the hours of 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM.  I'm not exactly sure what that means, but everything is pretty much shut down anyway.  Now everybody has their undies in a bunch because there's concern that it won't be enforced by law enforcement.  I don't get that, either.  These same people who want the police to drop what they are doing and hunt down anybody who is not donning a mask don't think we need law enforcement, anyway.  

Which has me go to the "defund the police" battle cry as of late.  The do-gooders think that monetary resources are best served for mental health professionals and the like instead of cops.  Let's think that through for a minute.  Are psychologists going to ride along with cops?  How will it be determined that mental health is needed instead of arrest and incarceration?  That line is awfully thin and blurry.  Cops get called for seemingly routine 5150 that can turn ugly and violent without notice by the time the 911 call is placed and the cops arrive.  Sometimes even non-emergency calls turn ugly and violent.  Are psychologists also willing to put their lives on the line for these first responder calls? 

Where I'm going is that answering a police call, whether 911 or not, is like a box of chocolates for law enforcement - they never know what they're going to get. 

COVID Deaths

 Everybody is pointing fingers about the US death rate with the COVID virus.  Here's what the media is not telling you.  For every chronic underlying health condition (i.e., heart disease, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, etc.) raises your chances of dying from the virus exponentially.  Many in our population have multiple underlying issues, mainly obesity and high blood pressure, that the rest of the industrialized world does not suffer from.  

Who's fault is that?

Our lifestyle is full of processed, chemically infused crap full of fat, salt, and empty calories that we call food.  We count walking from the fridge to the couch as exercise.  Smoking and drinking are the least of our problems in comparison (poetic license invoked).  

Again, who's taking responsibility for their underlying health conditions?  It's so much more fun to blame, isn't it? 

Love Fool

 Nobody has more fun in ordinary places than I.  I can manage to have people break out in song in the grocery store aisle.  Take yesterday, for example.  I was at the grocery store picking up totally mundane, routine items when a song from yesteryear came over the sound system while I was in the pet food aisle.  There were two other women in the pet food aisle as well.  When this song came I started it off with singing the lyrics, the others joined in.  Pretty soon everybody who came in the pet food aisle was singing along.  

It's Official: The Holiday Season

 As much as 2020 has brought us challenges, it's about over.  We are living in a brave, new world.  Things are not going to get any easier, my friends.  Life is and always has been difficult.  There is no such thing as an 'easy' life.

Off that subject as there is good happening even if you need to search for it. 

Are you already tired of Christmas commercials the day after Halloween?  There's a bright spot.  Nobody is obligated to host ungrateful family this year.  WHOPPPPEEEEEEE!!!!!! Nobody is obligated to host anything :)   I GET A YEAR OFF :)     I can just have me immediate family here without any residual guilt from extended family members wondering why I won't include their snotty, entitled, ungrateful, brat offspring for holiday gatherings.  Just to be clear, these are adults who should have learned basic manners by now (reflection of parenting that coddles them and makes excuses for them). 

This is a dream come true for me.  I'm already envisioning my perfectly roasted turkey with all the trimmings with those I truly love around the table.  After we eat we will put on our comfy clothes and play games, watch a movie, or fall asleep on the couch - maybe all the above.  We can take off and go for a beach walk or hike at a local park as well if we feel like it.  Bottom line is that we have options and can do things on the fly with our much smaller numbers.  It will be the same for Christmas - small numbers means more quality time with my kids without their snotty cousins being around brooding on the couch and sneering at everybody.  

Added bonus this year:   NO COMPANY CHRISTMAS PARTIES :)   I don't understand why employers think that giving up our sacred free time to be with people we are are forced to interact with all week long is supposed to be joyful.   NOT.  There's not enough alcohol in the world to make company parties tolerable.  Speaking of which, here comes Fred from accounting.  He's making a bee-line for you to corner you to talk for hours about creating an ESOP.  RUN!!!!!!!!!

Do We Have A President?

Do we have a president yet?  Who really cares.  Presidents are purchased by corporations and the uber wealthy.  Everybody has their undies in a bunch like it's going to make a difference one way or another when our lives will go on.  

Want change in the world?  Be it.  No excuses.  That especially goes to the fake liberals who wave flags and post signs for the oppressed, but don't want to share their gated neighborhood and fight every low income housing under the guise of environmentalism.