Life of Wry

Things to report on four fronts.

Front #1: Peter and Maya are coming with us to the Dolomites later in the year! Jim and I booked the trip a few months ago and invited P&M to come along. There’s no question they wanted to join us but it’s complicated. Maya’s a working woman now and her available vacation time is limited. Peter never met a vacation he didn’t want to take and seems to be able to work vacations into his workload just fine, but going without Maya was not going to be as appealing. Somehow they worked it out. (Side note: Peter requested a deadline from us for their decision, which turned out to be a great strategy.. for all of us. That deadline was today. I was over the moon when they called this afternoon with this incredible decision. I can hardly wait.)

Front #2: I just applied the 42nd and final layer of Efudex on my aching, chapped, stiff skin. Twenty one days, two applications a day… and now I’m done and can begin the healing process. From the looks of it, the chemicals found a lot to react to (the redness suggests all kinds of cancer cells were simmering below the surface). So I guess I can assume mission accomplished and all the discomfort is not for naught. I can feel good about that as unpleasant as this last three weeks has been.

Front #3: Related to last night’s post about Guatemala’s presidential transition… it happened. It may not have been without drama, but as Lance told me, elections in Central America are always a bit dicey. Also this morning, Lance’s good friend and our tour guide Rufino was sworn in as mayor of his small (I presume) town (which one, I’m not sure). He’s also now an anti-corruption official (he ran for mayor on an anti-corruption platform which was well received, evidently). This would seem to signal good things for Guatemala. I’m happy about that.

Front #4: Oh my.. the Iowa caucuses were tonight. Not a surprising outcome, though mightily disappointing: trump won 98 of 99 counties and ended up with 51+ percent of the vote. Ugh. Haley and DeSantis more or less tied, some 30+ percentage points behind. I mean. I still believe it’s better for Biden to run against a sociopath and hope he’s the nominee, but I just hate what it says about our fellow citizens. I’m just gobsmacked. As shocking as a runaway victory for a twice-impeached guy with four indictments and 91 criminal charges, are the results of the “entrance polls” conducted of caucus goers as they showed up for tonight’s votes. Listen to this: two thirds said they still thought that Biden’s election was illegitimate! That’s just bananas. Worse than that, again, two thirds said they’d still vote to elect trump if he were found guilty of any of his upcoming charges. Like, sure! I’d elect a felon to serve as president! And not just any felon…. a guy who tried to overturn a free and fair election (fact) and encouraged (and watched) an invasion of our state Capitol, and stole top secret government documents containing sensitive states secrets and stored them in a publicly accessible bathroom at his resort and first lied that he didn’t have them then refused to give them back when asked over the course of a year and a half. And has sexually assaulted numerous women (presently on trial for defaming one of them, after have been proven guilty of rape), and engaged in fraudulent business practices.. you know, but that’s just who he is. That’s my kinda pres! As gobsmacking, Republican officials are already falling all over themselves coming out with enthusiastic endorsements because none of them possesses balls or backbones. I just can’t.

So….

The score on the day: 3 really great things and 1 horrible thing. Focussing on the good.

I’m tempted to post a pic of the efudex effect…. oh.. hell, why not. I’ll make it small picture:

You can see why I’ve stayed at home for the last few weeks.