The Ecstasy & The Agony

 January 6, 2021

Well, it started off okay. I found the election results in Georgia a pleasant surprise. It seems important that a new government leadership should have an opportunity to enact their approach without the huge stop sign in the form of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to navigate. There are times a split government can serve a purpose, but the prevailing plague requires a freer hand to correct the course after almost a year of mismanagement. It appears the Majority Leader now becomes the Minority Leader and the committees will have new leadership in the Senate. Hopefully, it means a prompt response toward a better plan to combat the virus.

This morning started well. It's weigh-in Wednesday, so it was nice to see my weight is down to a new low (below 219) which is a weight I haven't seen for about 20 years. To those that don't know, getting my weight down so the BMI is under 30 and no longer in the "obese" category was a priority since April. Now I'm considered only "overweight". Normal seems like a galaxy far far away, but it's still a work in progress.

Today was a walk day. I'm trying to get to a point I can do a running event and actually run. It'll be a 5K, but that is an improvement over 0K and represents a goal. The training plan calls for running at certain intervals three times a week. That made today a walk day, but it was a strenuous one - 5 miles up and down some good grades in the area.

Upon returning, I grabbed our now-empty garbage can and because I have two hands, grabbed the neighbor's as well. I was about to drop the neighbor's can when I saw him trotting out to intercept me halfway. It's a little bit of a running joke and competition as we try to see who grabs the cans shortly after they are emptied and who brings it back to the respective homes. Today was a tie.

He was obviously excited about something. "Have you been following the news?" he said. I thought, yeah, pretty interesting how the Georgia runoff went to the Democrat Senator candidates and it represented a shift in control. Pretty cool, I told him. And he continues, "It's so crazy what is happening." Obviously, at this point, I was missing something. "Did something happen in the last few hours, because I haven't had the TV on." Then he starts rambling about the Capitol and being under siege and police and shots fired and ... holy shit! 

Well, you know what it is. 

My response is probably similar to about the same as most Americans. So many vacillations between anger, despair, angst, appalled, confused, directionless, helpless, shameful, you name it. 

Certain events happen and you'll always remember where you were when you heard the news. 9/11 was like that. I remember driving to work and listening to the Bob & Tom comedy show on the radio, hearing their regular irrelevant banter turn to serious tones about planes flying into the World Trade Center buildings. I saw the first images on a TV screen in the Certainteed plant lobby. A sudden dread rolled through my body. This was one of those times. I'll always remember standing at the end of our driveway wondering if this was a pivotal moment that would change our lives. Wondering if the United States, already going the wrong way in terms of how we support and nurture our citizenry with policies suggesting "you are on your own" when calamity hits, now has lost its standing as a pillar of democracy and self rule. It's tough to see how it plays out at the moment. 

I could use a good alternate reality right now.