Columbia County Ben Franklin Pandora Antonin Scalia Obama Mitch McConnell Oil Prices Saturday Night Live Cruz Rubio Trump
Outside, a light snow is falling and I am sequestered in the cottage, where I have been all day. It’s very chill though tomorrow we are supposed to hit the low fifties. We are all rolling our eyes about this winter which seems unlike any winter I have experienced since I’ve been up in Columbia County. For the most part, it’s been like a long, chill fall and not like winter.
There is a fire in the Franklin Stove though I have the door closed. I am not after aesthetics tonight, I am after heat. There has been a chill to the cottage all day and I am seeking to counter it with the stove, which could almost heat the house when I keep it stocked with logs and the door closed. Good old Ben Franklin; a fount of inventions…
Jazz is playing on Pandora. I am getting better so I am no longer feeling the need for silence. It is the first day I haven’t spoken to my sister since this began. I’m healing but am still so tired; I sleep a deep sleep every night and usually for nine to eleven hours. Ah, “sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care…” My sleeve has been raveled and needs knitting up…
Several friends have called today to check on the state of my health and after I have assured them I am on the mend, our talk seems to go to politics and all express a dismay at the political world we are living in. Scalia is dead and McConnell has sworn to delay an appointment until we have a new President. And, frankly, I rolled my eyes at that. Somehow, it seems the Republicans think of Obama as an eight year constitutional crisis and I don’t understand that.
I haven’t always agreed with him and I don’t think he is a constitutional crisis personified. I have never understood what seems a pathological hatred for the man by Republicans.
After a discussion of Scalia, we immediately go to Trump who has caused the campaign for the Republican nomination to resemble a Saturday Night Live comedy sketch.
And yet it’s all very real. And the vitriol between the Republicans is so unseemly. I am appalled. But they are taking it very seriously. And that’s more than a little frightening… Cruz, Rubio, Trump are espousing the politics of fear and hatred from what I see. Where is hope? Belief in the future?
The rest of the world is ticking on. The Australians have uncovered a ring of drug smugglers using bras to carry meth. The WHO is working to figure out Zika. Ehud Olmert, a former Israeli Prime Minister, is off to prison while proclaiming his innocence. Gas is under $2.00 a gallon in most places.
The world is nuts. When hasn’t it been? It is just this is our nuts and we have to deal with it.
Tags: Antonin Scalia, Ben Franklin, Claverack, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mitch McConnel, Obama, Pandora, Saturday Night Live, Ted Cruz
Letter from the Vineyard 
February 17, 2016 at 3:11 pm |
Mat – glad to hear that you are on the mend. It sounds like your body is responding well to the deep sleep. Tip: Don’t read the news immediately before sleeping. Keep the R’s contained to your hours awake.
February 17, 2016 at 3:44 pm |
Good advice, Bruce. I’ve been taking it, actually. No news after about 7 PM… And I have been sleeping deeply. My primary care doctor phoned this morning and told me the blood work he did last week came back and all is very good, which is very good. Gastroenterologist on Friday.