Almost no one is writing anymore. Apart from John and June, I seem to be alone out here. Even Chuck has disappeared. I hope it’s temporary; there are already so few people blogging these days. It’s the holidays, when people are living life and not hanging out online, plus the pandemic has, I suspect, left us with nothing to write about. At least nothing happens to write about. But that just means there should be more time for writing about what one THINKS and FEELS and CARES about.
We watched David Attenborough’s documentary A Life on Our Planet yesterday. It was hard to watch, which had nothing to do with the fact that it was beautifully filmed. I find everything that has to do with climate change and global warming hard to watch these days. It feels like all the things we can do, us ordinary folk, is so small as to not matter at all…but that’s the same thinking that causes people not to vote. If you think your vote doesn’t count, and you DON’T VOTE because of it, then your vote truly didn’t count. It’s the same with climate change, in some ways. I know that it will take huge and immediate change on a corporate, national and global level to really effect a difference but even the small changes that we ALL choose to make will help. Feed the birds. Plant butterfly bushes and trees. Host bees. Eat less meat, or none, if you can manage. Recycle. Be more thoughtful of the products you buy and the packaging they come in. Change to sustainable alternatives for toiletries and cosmetics. Donate to organizations that are driving true change. Write to your government and legislators. VOTE, for fuck’s sake.
Anders was skimming through YouTube the other day and stopped on a Jimmy Kimmel segment from The Tonight Show where he was making fun of Trump’s hair which was blowing about in the wind, as he ascended the steps to Air Force One. It’s an old clip, but it made me deeply uncomfortable. And not because I like or care about Trump or his feelings. Calling someone names and making fun of their appearance is what TRUMP does. I don’t like seeing it from him, or anyone else. I have a similar reaction to shows like Idol, where even though the ostensible point is to find a musical star…the underlying message that it’s okay to make fun of people who aren’t very good at singing during the auditions, was enough for me to only watch it a couple of times and to restrict it from my children’s TV-watching when they were young. We watched an episode or two together and I told them why I didn’t like the show and how I thought it normalized the kind of meanness that we see so much of in today’s world. Call me a party-pooper if you want, but I think it’s a symptom AND a cause and shouldn’t be encouraged.
My sister is at my mom’s house, helping her pack and sort everything. She’s putting most of her stuff into storage, while she’s in temporary quarters at a friend’s place. Martin was there for a few days over Christmas, and Sarah’s family was there, too but left yesterday. I wish SO much that I could be there to help. It’s unfair that the entire burden has fallen on my sister for everything that has happened this year, but it is what it is, thanks to COVID. My mom has to be out no later than January 15 which doesn’t leave a lot of time for sorting through a huge house STUFFED with stuff. They are making good headway, though, judging by the photos Sarah has been sending me. They have piles to go to charity, and to the dump. The people buying the house are probably going to take some of the furniture, too, which will mean less to deal with later, at least. I’m so sad not to be there, for both of them.
I’m officially tired of leftovers, of which we have a LOT, from both Swedish julbord and Christmas dinner. It’s been turkey and trimmings nearly every day for both lunch and dinner for almost a week. I love the leftovers, but a solid diet of the same thing every day is getting to me. Time for sushi! Karin’s picking up dinner after playing badminton in Lund for dinner tonight. 🙂 I’m also officially tired of the shit weather we’ve been having FOREVER, but there isn’t so much I can do to change that. Rain and grey cloud cover every day is very tiresome.
2021 is our 25th wedding anniversary. I’m already thinking about what we can do to celebrate it. Will we be able to travel? If so, should we go somewhere, and in that case, where? Chicago (the scene of the crime)? Somewhere we’ve been and loved and wanted to go back to? Somewhere we’ve never been and have always wanted to go to? 25 years is silver anniversary. One site I looked at for anniversary ideas suggesting changing things up at home. Anders is already planning to renovate our kitchen…does that count? 😀 Ideas welcome!