2021 JOURNAL JAN 1st: For our now normal New Years Eve: Chandon Brut, the annual firing up of the aged boob tube to watch "Dinner for One" together and a small amount of black-eyed peas (this year with corn muffins from scratch!) for luck. This is what counts as an elaborate ceremony and sacred rite around here. Yep, we're dull... JAN 7th: And of course our presidential putz attempts a putsch. And being a putz, it was a half-assed, half-baked and halfwitted attempt at a putsch. Here's to incompetency! JAN 7th: I predict there will soon be an new adjective to attach to a political opponent: trumpian. The horrors it might conjure could be quite effective with the proper audience... JAN 10th: Snow! Our last measurable snowfall was in 2017... JAN 15th: Our president, Donnie, is not particularly smart or capable at anything. But boy, oh boy, does he know how to hold a grudge. And there are apparently no lengths he will not go to for revenge and payback. Double. Triple. And, just our luck, this trait was a perfect fit with a sizable portion of the electorate that are still trying to win and litigate a war they lost over 150 years ago... JAN 21st: Well, we certainly have had a decade's worth of Wednesdays this month. The 6th was dominated my our homegrown, magical thinking Jacksonians attempting a G.I. Joe-clad re-enactment of the storming of the Bastille. Fortunately, in the end they proved as incompetent as their Fearless Leader. And now the consequences are deservedly raining down on their pointy little heads. On the 13th Fearless Leader entered the rarefied air of being impeached twice in a single term. And this one may stick, awarding the ultimate booby prize of being banned from federal office for life. The 20th's Inaugural was anything but normal. But given that the Black Plague was in town and the recent attempted putsch, not totally unexpected. And we still have the 27th to go. Here's hoping it will prove to be the best Wednesday in years by producing absolutely nothing newsworthy from Washington for an entire day... FEB 9th: Watch your step and don't mind the mess. Reconfiguring my website for the umpteenth time. Everyone needs a hobby. And in other news, Trump's senate trial began today. Gee, I wonder how it will turn out... FEB 22nd: [imported from a family Facebook post on Feb 20, 2021] Power restored this AM after slightly more than 110 hours without. First order of business was to brew coffee. We have our priorities straight. Now the waiting for water to reappear after 50+ hours. That's been off due to a broken main at the apartments that couldn't be addressed without electricity by the contractors. And the city water is off anyway. Catch 22-ish. This has been an interesting but not particularly pleasant change of pace. Walking about with every warm thing we own on inside. Sleeping under mountains of afghans. Raiding the bodegas with electricity for a dazzling array of junk foods that required neither heating nor plates. Tossing several hundred dollars of fridge/freezer comestibles that had begun smell like a dead moose. And thank goodness for the ancient technology of hurricane lamps. We're shabby, stinky and grumpy but, while it may be a bit premature, we're thinking of having tee shirts emblazoned with: "We Survived the Austin Ice Age"... [and as of this post, we are still waiting for water] --- every@ma.sdf.org ---