Life of Wry

I feel numb. What just happened? Someone who is spectacularly unqualified and ill-suited for the job of president of the United States just edged out one of the most experienced people ever to seek the office, someone who’s been preparing for this job, it seems, her entire life. She eked out the popular vote (47.7% to 47.5% … a difference of 224,593 votes and counting) and he won the electoral college (279 to 228). It was one of the most bizarre, most toxic, most divisive election in modern history.

How to process.. what to think.. what to do?

So much of this is shocking and horrible, but how about this one: what do we say to our kids in the morning (a question Van Jones asked on a CNN panel tonight)? What the hell kind of message did this election just send to our children? We teach our kids to be polite, to be kind. We teach them about respect for all kinds and colors of people, how to be a good friend. We teach them basic manners and morals. We want them to be curious, to value learning and education, to be well prepared for challenges. We teach them to respect and revere nature, to be compassionate stewards of our precious planet.

For the last umpteen months, Donald Trump has shown us none of that.

We teach our children not to lie!

What are they to think? Trump spent his entire campaign lying. The nation–and our kids!–watched him lie and lie and lie. And behave very, very badly. Then we elected him President of the United States of America. So I guess we are teaching our kids that it’s okay to do and say whatever you must in order to get what you want.  That the end justifies the means. This was Trump’s signature M.O. and he was rewarded handsomely.  And, by the way, just because he delivered a carefully scripted speech at the end of the night and spoke in conciliatory tones and was gracious in victory, does not make sixteen months of foul-mouthed, bald-faced lies okay. It is not okay. Winning at all costs is not what we teach our children.

What do we say to people who are now very afraid?

What are women to think? He’s been boorish and entitled and rude and condescending throughout this entire campaign. In the course of the campaign, we learned that he has a history of abusive behavior. Misogyny is his calling card and a lifelong pattern of behavior. How do we ever trust him? What’s to become of women’s reproductive rights? Stunning we fear the loss of something as fundamentally basic. What era are we in?

Bigotry, disguised as a concern for safety, is a thread that’s been laced though so much of his campaign. What are immigrants–Muslims, Mexicans, Syrians–to think?  His fixes have been all about bans, walls, deportations, litmus tests.  And what about all the coded language about our need for law and order, and his ridiculous assertion that he will fix “the ghettos,” “vote for me, what have you got to lose?”  And never forget his repugnant role in the birther movement.. what are african americans to think?

He’s got not an ounce of compassion or humanity, or decency.

Our president.

He’s blustered and bullied and insulted and lied his way through the primaries, the general, and, totally improbably, right into the office of president… the most important, high profile job in the entire world. Nothing he said bothered his base. No insult went too far. How is this possible?

He’s coarse and crude. He calls people names.  He is devoid of humility. He is simply not a human being who has earned respect.

He actively campaigned for more guns, against the environment and stands by the idiocy that climate change is a hoax. On and on.

He has been insanely polarizing and outrageous from day one, yet nothing dissuades his supporters–his ill-informed base as well as partisan republican loyalists.

Our president.

He lost three debates. He was cavalier and unprepared, he has/had no policy positions, he doesn’t read, he knows nothing about history. He has no interest in history. He lacks even curiosity.

He has NO experience in government.

How is this going to work? Government doesn’t lend itself to unilateral decision making, Donald. You will not be free to call all the shots. Government is tedious, it’s about compromise, it’s about give and take. It’s about small advances. It’s about losing. Every win includes lots of losses. You are not wonky, you do not love wonk, you do not READ! YOU ARE NOT CUT OUT FOR GOVERNMENT WORK.

Go back to Trump Tower, please. Leave us alone. You have no business running for president.

And now he promises to unify. He has not earned the job of unifier.

What the hell kind of leader can he be to the other half of the country that he insulted and offended throughout the entire campaign. How is he going to lead me? I’m offended by everything he stands for. He abuses women. He bullied and shamed my candidate… we all watched it; it was sickening. What kind of leader could he possibly be to any ethnic community, or the LGBT community? How about immigrants, or people committed to fighting climate change?

Donald Trump raised his middle finger to Obama’s entire legacy, everything progressives care about. Everything.

You are not the unifier of me.

Bottom line for me, it’s just wrong.  A man like that, him in particular, should not be our president. It’s wrong, he’s wrong.

And oh…my god… Hillary. Like Mark Shields said tonight, wow…. this was one devastating blow, a loss for the ages. She’d already survived a crushing defeat to Obama eight years ago, but rose, continued to serve like a loyal foot soldier waiting for her turn. And she did come back to try again.  And, after a lifetime of public service, a lifetime of public office, an interminable, difficult, bruising campaign … she was finally, finally, ready for the job she is uniquely qualified to hold, and has, by all accounts, earned.

Over her lifetime, she’s survived attacks, so many unwarranted and undeserved. She withstood Trump’s relentless, often baseless, attacks for the last six months, most without a flinch. She planned, she worked, she studied, she prepared, she had it. Coming into tonight, she was damn near the presumptive president-elect, ahead in every poll, by every metric. She rented the larger hall, she planned the bigger party. She orchestrated everything: her victory, the celebration, the outfit, the transition, the future. She thought–we all thought–she had it in the bag.

How do you gracefully, publicly concede when all you feel is numb? How is it that you can be so qualified and so ready after a lifetime of preparation… and then lose to Trump, who cavalierly throws his hat into the ring, because why the hell not be leader of the world?, and is nothing but a big, bloated, entitled blowhard…petulant, thin-skinned, mean and breathtakingly ill-prepared? All of it.. the exact opposite of you?

How do you show your face?

Well… I wish she had. She needed to come out and concede. But anymore, it just doesn’t matter, does it? She’s done.

Going to bed. I hope when I wake up, I’ll find out it’s just been a bad dream.

~~

But hey, before I do… some happy pictures from the day:

It was gorgeous…

A beautiful day to wander across the street to the Senior Center and cast my vote for the nation’s first woman president!!

This was clearly a big deal! Lines were long in Rochester, NY, where people gathered to put their “I Voted” stickers on the gravestone of Susan B. Anthony!

By the end of the day, her tombstone was completely covered.

Our biggest news, however, was that this was Peter’s first election… and an historic one it certainly was.  I was so proud of him. He’d followed the presidential race intently for the entire 16-17 month campaign. He was enormously well versed in the issues. He researched all of California’s seventeen propositions (not that he didn’t have questions this morning about a couple of them). He gives me such incredible hope for the future!

Here’s something else that gives me incredible hope… a tweet from this person…

‘Nuff said!!

It’s. Almost. Over.

Longest, most horrifying, demoralizing election season ever. Gratified beyond measure that it’s almost over. After feeling smug during the few certain ups, and despondent during the too-frequent downs, my confidence in Hillary’s victory is now way back up and pretty solid. She’s got it, no question. Fingers crossed on the senate.

I’m most eager to hear how Trump will address his defeat tomorrow night. I am hoping against hope he takes the high road. He’ll need to be gracious, lest we have riots on our hands. I think he’ll do the right thing.

I’d vote for him!

Honestly. Kids can be so cute.

Went back up to Sparks today to canvass with the Hillary campaign. Three more days…

It felt good to be away from my computer (even though our smartphones were always charged and at hand, and we did check in from time to time, because, you know, FiveThirtyEight).

So… here’s a recap of the day:

Met at my house in the dark morning hours, piled into Ann’s van, and headed out…. me, Ann, Darlene, Maureen, Sherri and Pamela.

Watched the sun rise over foggy valley farm fields while sipping our Starbucks…

Were thrilled by snow at the summit…

(Guess the car got pretty fogged up with our steamy political fretting and analyses!)

Slings and arrows hurled at Trump aside, we were a pretty jolly bunch:

Arrived at the Sparks campaign headquarters at about 9:15, having just missed the morning’s training session. Many carloads of canvassers had left already and still the place was PACKED. Maybe a hundred people were still pouring through the doors; signing in; clustering around volunteers getting abbreviated training; standing in lines to get their clipboards, maps and address sheets; grabbing some snacks and water from the food table.

Have you ever seen more determined foot soldiers? Here are Pamela, Ann and Maureen reporting for duty…

Early voting ended yesterday in Nevada, so, as of today, the job of volunteers has officially shifted to Get Out The Vote (GOTV). Recall, that when we went up weeks ago, our job was to register voters. Once that deadline passed, campaign volunteers worked on actually encouraging democratic voters to cast ballots before the early voting deadline (a huge percentage of Nevada voters does that), and even to get people to the polls (California does not have onsite early voting, but Nevada does). Our job today is to knock on the doors of all of Sparks’ registered democrats and remind them to vote on Tuesday. We remind them of their polling place and its hours. We underscore that they live in a swing county in a swing state and every vote counts. We help them make a plan for election day voting. We make a note on our sheets about who they might be supporting in the presidential, senate and congressional races.

This is the woman who trained us. She’s explaining why some voters have been crossed out–they’ve already voted! Early voting in Nevada concluded yesterday and campaign volunteers worked late into the night to update the voter rolls (impressive work).

She also reviewed these canvassing rules:

Then, we were off. The six of us were assigned a huge apartment complex. We worked in pairs. Darlene and I were partners:

In two hours, she and I hit 41 apartments. The vast majority of people were not even home. We spoke to only five real live people–three of whom did not match the data sheet (a lot of turnover, particularly in apartment buildings). We only filled out TWO voting day plans. But that was two people we can confidently count on to show up on election day and vote for the democratic ticket. Multiply that by all the other people knocking on doors in Sparks in the next three days and you have a ground game with significant impact.

And here’s the thing: the ground game is a fantastic effort. It’s passionate work. These volunteers care deeply, each and every one (I count myself among them).  The work, the whole experience, feels like a breath of sanity. It felt so good and so healing to spend a day with informed, smart, caring people with shared world views working their butts off for a cause that feels critically important (electing Hillary).

My contribution a few weeks ago registering voters was tiny (two, even though one registered independent), and my contribution today ensuring that democrats get to the polls was also tiny (two, we hope). But it has value, goddammit! One, it’s a lesson in the multiplier effect… lots of people (in Hillary’s case, LOTS of people) contributing something, adds up… and that’s what a ground game is all about (take that Trump–he with no people-powered ground game whatsoever)! And two, it restores my faith in humanity. It feels enormously gratifying to be with like-minded people working toward a common objective, and just gives me the most blissful sense of social responsibility.

It also felt good to channel a mountain of anxiety and frustration into something constructive and useful and also critically important.

Yeah… that!

So anyway…. we canvassed. Then we broke for lunch.

We picked a great Mexican restaurant and had lively, very lively, conversations about all kinds of juicy topics. Great fun.

We returned to the field office and found dozens and dozens of volunteers all over the inside and outside, cell phones in hand, huddled over call sheets. There were so many volunteers in Sparks (and in Reno and Las Vegas, too, we learned) that they actually ran low on neighborhoods to canvass and were shifting to making calls.

Some shots:

Three of us returned to the streets (Ann, Maureen and Sherri) and three of us started making calls. I sat outside for awhile, then moved inside. I spent about two hours sitting in this cozy little corner (very comfy, I almost fell asleep):

It was a welcoming corner with rotating volunteers. I spoke to so many people… definitely a party vibe.

At one point, one of the campaign staffers brought a woman over to us to meet and chat up. Turned out it was Lisa Jackson, Obama’s very impressive head of the EPA (2009-2013, now the environmental director at Apple). She was on hand to motivate the volunteers.

How cool is that?

We hung around the office making calls, talking, eating (a bit) and absorbing all the good democratic juju until our other three returned, then took some photos…

Here are the “eens,” Darl and Maur:

Here are all of us:

Pamela, M, Sherri, D, Ann and me.

And then took off.

We were able to get through Reno okay (Trump was actually making an appearance there, coincidentally enough… Nevada being a very important swing state). I suggested we have dinner at the Monte Vista in Dutch Flat, which we did (great) and got home around 11:00pm

Whatta, whatta day.

~~

Note: The day after our effort, here’s what the Hillary campaign sent out:

As seen in the parking lot at the Fitness Garage this morning…

I do appreciate the Davis bubble.

I have a rant that goes with this predictable phenomenon: communities with a solid majority of college graduates, large cities with a high proportion of educated residents, college towns….all vote democrat.

But no need to rant. The phenomenon speaks for itself.

It just feels good to be among people who value education, reason, listening, thoughtful deliberation, facts. It also feels good to be among people who appreciate and celebrate diversity, and share a commitment to the common good.

Makes for a nice bubble.

This was kinda weird…

I came home yesterday to find this… at first a curious sight, then an utterly creepy one. Those polkadots you see all over the front wall next to our front door are beetles! Not sure I’ve ever seen whatever phenomenon this is. Here’s a close up:

Believe me, I’m just as surprised as you are that I got this close to a BEETLE! I’m also surprised the photo came out at all, as I was so totally freaked out being that close to a hard-shelled insect…. hard-shelled insects being at the very top of the list of things in life that make me shudder with disgust and run for the hills.

(Though, funnily enough, after nearly 60 years, beetles have slipped to #2 on the creepy list, replaced in the top spot by this year’s republican presidential candidate.)

I love baseball. My fanatical fan-ism for the last 13-14 years has been directed to one team–the one Peter played on, but I’ve always loved the game. I loved it from the time my brothers played little league, to the times I shared the daily recap of Dodgers games in the LA Times with my dad, to all the MLB games I got to attend over the years.

But these days, I don’t have a team. I can’t really claim to be a Dodgers fan anymore, and I’m not one of those crazy Giants fans–like both teams, but don’t keep up with either like a true fan would. I like the A’s and the River Cats, too, but really, I can like anyone.

2016 has been a crazy year and I pretty much missed the entire MLB season…. just like I missed the whole 2015 season and most seasons before that. Without cable, satellite or an MLB subscription, it’s sorta hard to keep up.

But…. during the World Series, the games show up on network TV… so even if I miss most of the season, I almost always tune into the WS.

Everyone knows the Cubs hadn’t won a world series since 1908 and the Indians hadn’t won since, I think, the 40s. Both sets of fans were coming unglued at the prospect of breaking the spell, so the World Series this year became quite the event.

And like good, instant fans, Jim and I watched the last few games together…and it was so much fun!

Tonight was GAME SEVEN!  The Cubs had come back from a 1-3 deficit to even the series so tonight was the big championship showdown. Look how thrilled we are!

(Took this selfie to text to Peter, who was watching with friends at school.)

The game was one for the ages… Cubs lead through most of it, the Indians tied it 6-6 in the bottom of the 8th, the Cubs got two in the top of the 10th, and the Indians could only answer with one, leaving them one short. But wow… it was an exciting, tense game–lots of hits (24 total!), lots of home runs, tons of thrills.

Some shots:

Moments after the final out, Cubs hop the dugout fence….

… and head for the traditional pile up:

Fans were happy… like Bill Murray…

… because it was a big deal…

Hordes gathered outside the stadium in Chicago too (even though the game was in Cleveland) ….

And that was that. Big congratulations to the Cubs and their long-suffering fans. The insta-fans on A Street in Davis had a great time.!

Bonus: it was a fantastic, politics-free few hours.

… in 2001:  Peter at the Impossible Acres Pumpkin Patch.

Scouting, apparently, the perfect pumpkin…

Locating said pumpkin and making off with the goods…

Halloween without the kid. A bit weird… not that Peter did much in the last 6-7 years having to do with Halloween… but still: kids’ holiday, no kid.

Ugh.

In honor of Halloweens past, here’s the photo I sentimentally posted to Facebook today:

Peter and Chenoa, back in the day.. the day being about 2001. They look about three years old, give or take a year. Both are lions. Jim made Peter’s costume. So sweet…

One of these days, I’ll compile a bit of a record of Halloween outfits… I remember maybe a leopard (a costume that’s been in the Frame family for decades and is passed down through the generations), a Black Widow spider, the above lion, a gulper eel, plutonium, an M&M… sure there were a lot more. Jim made most of Peter’s costumes and did a great job of it.

Anyway. No kiddo this year.

We had maybe our record of trick or treaters, however, even on a rainy All Hallows’ Eve: five. In two separate groups. That’s pretty good for this neighborhood.

Meanwhile…I made dinner tonight which, among other things, included artichoke. Grew up eating them regularly, but can’t recall ever preparing them myself, hard as that is to believe. Called mom to get cooking tips and it worked great:

I’d only been gone a week, but, as usual, it felt fantastic to be back home. Nothing like it.

Jim and I got out pretty early for a walk to brunch… wanted to beat the rain (which we just barely did).

Everything looks extra pretty on one’s first morning back:

That is across the street, and that little tree is the Borton’s son’s memorial tree, which was planted at least fifteen years ago.  I think it’s a linden but I’ll have to check that out. Wikipedia says lindens are fast growing trees.. but this one is anything but.

Breakfast at Bernardo’s, and my usual bowl of cafe au lait. Gorgeous today:

Back home… and we noticed our single solitary tomato plant–spectacularly low performing–had finally squeezed out its first fruit of the season. Its one and only. If I’m not mistaken, we planted this thing back in May or possibly June.

Last year, the tomatoes on the mound were ridiculous–thickly matted vines that produced an embarrassment of tomatoes.

Not so this year.

One tomato. Uno.

But, hey, will ya look at that Meyer lemon tree!!!

~~

Spent a fun evening at Carrie and Marc’s watching the Cubs win game five of the World Series at Wrigley Field. A big deal for Cubs fans–first World Series win at Wrigley in, like, 400 years or something. They are still behind the Indians 3-2 in the series, but it was a great and emotionally charged win. We ate a lot of great food and yelled our heads off for the Cubs (I exaggerate) because.. well…there are only two teams left to root for and the Cubs are certainly the sentimental favorite. Seem like nice enough guys.

Go Cubs.