What a week

Wow. Just wow.

It's really hard to know what to say. Every day has been bad -- one high/low point for me was Kellyanne Conway telling Judy Woodruff on the NewsHour that the press should "just listen" for a while, not comment on what Trump is doing. The look on Judy Woodruff's face, as she struggled to maintain control. One bright spot was that secret recording of Republicans talking about how impossible it will be to repeal/replace the ACA. But Trump's final big acts of the week -- banning Muslims, essentially -- and putting that idiot Steve Bannon on the National Security Council -- just wiped me out. Everything feels so desperate. If those people who are so excited that Trump's going to ban abortion could just look beyond their noses and notice what ELSE he's doing...

I think the Serenity Prayer is going to be very important during the next four years.

• I am not the President, so I cannot sign, or unsign, executive orders. That's the part I cannot change. I cannot give myself that sort of power. 
• What I CAN change is my own behavior. I can write letters, make phone calls, go on marches, carry signs, post comments online, get ready to vote in two years, and encourage other people to vote. 
• What I must NOT do is get upset that my actions do not have immediate results, i.e., I must have the wisdom to know the difference between what I can and cannot change. I must go on working with the things I can change. Don't give up. They don't win until we give up.

But wow. This is not going to be easy.

My political action of the week was writing a letter to the editor about the Women's March and sending it to our local newspaper last Sunday -- and seeing it published in the paper on Wednesday. I won't link to it here, since I make a halfhearted attempt to keep this blog anonymous, but I was happy with it. Maybe it made a difference to someone. An old friend also posted it on her Facebook page, so it got a little more exposure than it would have otherwise.

What to do this week? I read that the White House has closed down its public comment line, so people are now calling Trump's businesses instead. That sounds like an amusing activity. Call Mar-a-Lago and discuss the ACA. I'll aim to communicate three times this week, either by phone, email, or a paper letter or postcard. That's the plan. It's good to have a plan.

Other than politics, it was a so-so week. Rocket Boy has had a dreadful cold, which I'm trying not to catch. I'm still fighting depression with all I've got, understanding that what I've got is not much. One good thing is that I have not been grouchy. Not enough energy for that, I think. My one class is going pretty well, nice kids, but it depresses me to think about it, for some reason. So I try not to think about it much. Because it meets at 12, and I get up at 7 to get the boos off to school by 8, I have enough time in the morning to prepare, don't have to do it the night before. That'll change next week when I'll have a stack of assignments to grade, but for now it's working out. After a great deal of unnecessary effort I also managed to apply, officially, for the part-time temporary job that I am supposedly being direct-hired to do, starting in mid February. At several points during the process I decided to give up and not apply, because it was too hard. Fortunately I did not give up. It depresses me to think about having that job too, but I'm trying not to think about that either, since it is nonsense. It will be an interesting job and of course we need the money. I'm just too depressed to think rationally right now.

Last Sunday, the day after the March, I took Kid A to the Butterfly Pavilion (while Rocket Boy took Kid B to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science). The boys had been fighting and desperately wanted to do something without the other. This weekend Kid B wanted me to take HIM to the Butterfly Pavilion, but I said no, because that's such an expensive place. I get paid on Tuesday, but it'll be a tiny paycheck because I'm only teaching one class and my entire health insurance payment will be deducted from that. Then, on February 1st, our insurance will be cancelled. On the plus side, I paid off my credit card bill. I had a small CD mature two weeks ago, so I asked the credit union to dump it into my account, so that I can use it to pay our property taxes. I figured it made sense to pay off the credit card too. Next year I have one more small CD that will mature and I can use it to pay the property taxes -- and then we'll have no more CDs and what will we do in 2019? I have no idea.

OK, leaving that depressing topic and moving on... actually, I have one more thing to add. Rocket Boy and I caught an interesting bit on the NewsHour this week about a new book called Fifty-five, Unemployed, and Faking Normal. Listening to the description, I said to RB, "That's us! It's a book about us!" I had no idea there were so many people in our situation. We're in better shape than most, really. But the whole bit about not being able to get a job even though you have all this experience and education... I want to read the book. We won a $50 Amazon gift certificate in a snow sculpture contest recently, and I've been trying to think of something family-oriented we could get for $50. But now I'm thinking each of us could choose something that costs about $12.50 and call it good. Mine could be that book.

Let's see, is there anything else I want to mention? I've read 4 books so far this year, and am deep into a 5th, so keeping on schedule there. I've also seen 8 movies, rather ahead of the curve on that one. First I had to watch 2 David Bowie movies, to honor the first anniversary of his death, then I took the kids to see Moana, then we rented Southside with You to honor Obama as he left office, then we needed to watch Ivanhoe because I was reading Knights Castle to the kids and they were not understanding it, and then we needed to watch some films based on Raymond Chandler's novels because I'm reading a book about him, and one of those was Murder My Sweet starring Dick Powell, so then Rocket Boy had to rent another Dick Powell film noir. The need for mindless entertainment to distract from the ghastly political news is involved here.

Oh, and tonight we had Chinese take-out, in honor of Chinese New Year, and we started taking down the Christmas tree, because Candlemas is fast approaching. We took off all the ornaments today, and we'll work on the lights and the tree itself as the week progresses. Try to have everything gone in time for the Groundhog.

So that's our week. I'm really glad January is almost over. Even though we lose our health insurance in 3 days.