Cranky Traveler

I had to take a quick trip to New York last week (after being there only about two weeks earlier) for my day job and found the experience to be both exhausting and annoying. I'm just not cut out to travel constantly. Getting up early to get to the airport, going through the hassle of checking in for a flight, schlepping through security, boarding, the flight itself, deplaning...it's all exhausting. If I had to travel constantly for work, I'd have to find another job. This last trip, while not bad in terms of my flights leaving and arriving on time and having no real problems, still annoyed me because I just wasn't in the mood to travel. I was the cranky traveler. Everything was pissing me off. The sweater I wore when flying out of O'Hare set off the security monitors, so I had to get a pat down complete with a check around the waistband of my pants. Lovely. And O'Hare still doesn't have their monorail working, so I had to get on the shuttle bus from the economy parking lot to get to the terminal. This thing has been down for, what, two years now? Ridiculous. That adds an extra half hour onto my commute time. Coming back through Newark, I had a terrible burger at an airport in the restaurant. (Everyone doesn't want ketchup on their burgers, folks.) Then the woman sitting next to me on the flight kept elbowing me every time she turned a page in her book, so I had to contort myself to avoid contact with her. I didn't get home until after 11:30 pm Thursday and I was exhausted, but couldn't sleep. Great. Again, I was cranky, and there were no real problems. The weather was great in NYC and I usually enjoy going there even though my time is short when I'm there for work. I really need to take a week off or do a long weekend in New York so I have time to actually enjoy the city.

Too Much!

I went to the Chicago Auto Show today to check out the new cars on the market. Not that I'm in the market for a new car myself especially considering I finally paid off the used car I have. I'm looking forward to NOT having a car payment for a while and I intend to drive my heap until the wheels fall off. But I digress. At the auto show, I saw one car after another priced so high that I don't know who could afford such a vehicle. Only rarely did I see a car that started under $20K. Most of the small crossover vehicles were $30K and up. No wonder the kids are calling for Uber and Lyft. They can't afford to own a car! And, once you get the car payments taken care of, what about insurance and maintenance? People are financing cars for 7 years now. That's crazy. I'm all about used cars these days. If I had to get another one, I'd get a used car again. One of my coworkers made fun of me for buying a used car, but I'm beyond that kind of nonsense. I buy what I can afford. So while he's digging deep to make payments on a new Mercedes, my Volkswagen was financed at a monthly rate I could afford and now that baby is paid for. In my old(er) age, I've stopped caring about what people think of my financial situation. I buy what I can afford and I'm not ashamed to tell anyone I don't have the money for something when I don't. Now that my car is paid off, I'd like a new refrigerator so that's what I'm planning to purchase this year. And they're crazy expensive too! I'm not even looking for some fancy, stainless steel model. I just want an old-school freezer on the top white fridge to replace the cutesy one I have with the freezer on the bottom that holds NOTHING. When I bought my place from the previous owner, the appliances came with it, so I didn't purchase them. I was glad to have them, but the fridge is not my style at all. In due time, it'll be replaced.

Now More Than Ever!

I did a post a week or so ago arguing against having states like Iowa and New Hampshire be the at the forefront of the presidential candidate race because neither state represents the country in terms of racial, religious, whatever demographics. With all of the shenanigans going on now after the debacle that was the Iowa Caucuses, the powers that be need to get moving and make sure the state of Iowa isn't the front runner in the next election cycle. The demographics issue alone should be enough to make the political committees decide to take both Iowa and New Hampshire out of their lead spots, but now with the caucus issues, there's even more reason to move on from Iowa in particular. I disagree with caucusing anyway. What happened to casting your ballet anonymously? All of that goes out the window when you have to declare your vote in a public forum.

In other news, is anyone really surprised that Donny T. lives to ride another day? Did anyone really think he was on his way out of office? Come on. The only way to get rid of him at this point is to vote him out. The mere thought of spending another four years dealing with this guy's juvenile behavior, ridiculous tweets, and overwhelming idiocy is enough to make me run, not walk, to the polls on election day. I saw a survey today that claimed only 61 percent (or something like that) of people intended to vote in the next election. That number seems ridiculously low, especially given the situation the country is in right now. I shouldn't be surprised but I am surprised that the number isn't higher. I know better than to trust pollsters in this day and age, but this poll does leave me concerned. Are people that apathetic? I know it's hard to believe in democracy these days, but we need to keep hope alive. Now more than ever.

All Things to All People

One of my favorite expressions is "You can't be all things to all people." I firmly believe this. In my younger years, I tried to be all things to all people and failed. Eventually I realized that it's an impossible task and became okay with not trying to satisfy everyone. I got a text last week from some Bernie campaign folks. (How they got my number is beyond me. Maybe they got a hold of it through some Democratic database.) In any case, I was asked if I'd Feel the Bern for the 2020 election and my response was "Nope" complete with a thumbs down emoji. Then I got a text back asking why I wasn't supporting Bernie. I told these folks that I didn't feel Bernie could beat Donny T, but that I'd support whoever the Democratic nominee was. In any presidential race, you'll always have candidates who are good in some areas and bad in others. No candidate is perfect. You have to weigh the person's good plans against his/her bad ones and hope for the best. With this year's field of candidates, I dislike many things about many of them, but my main concern is making Donny pack it in and take his corrupt cronies, stooges, and family of grifters should all GTFO of the White House.

I just read an article today on Politico about Iowa residents being worried that they'll lose their status as the first state for candidate caucusing. They SHOULD lose their front runner status. Iowa and New Hampshire both should lose their front runner status because neither state has a diverse population that represents the United States. Two of the whitest states in the country get to have the first say in who should be the "winning" candidates? Please. It's a joke. One of the Iowans interviewed in the story said the citizens may not look diverse, but they vote in a diverse way. Obama! Yeah, whatever. It's past time to have another state lead the charge in primary voting, one that more favorably represents the citizens of the country as a whole.

Music

In my effort to drown out the impeachment, the coronavirus, and most of the other bad news flooding the airwaves these days, I've been listening to music by two artists I hadn't been familiar with: Leon Bridges and Jill Barber. I happened to hear a song called "Texas Sun" by Leon Bridges and a band called Khruangbin on a Sirius station while I was driving and really liked it, so I looked into some of his other music. He's very talented and I hate that I'm late to the game in even hearing of him, but I don't tend to listen to a lot of modern music.

Jill Barber came on my radar when I was looking for Louis Armstrong's version of "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" (thanks, Grantchester!) and I listened to her version via iTunes and was hooked. Her version "A Kiss..." is really great not only because of her voice, but because of the arrangement. The violin sections are really wonderful. She also sings a version of "Sukiyaki" that I enjoy.

After watching the first season of "The Politician" on Netflix, I was driven to download Billy Joel's "Vienna" (which, unfortunately, is not on my Billy Joel's greatest hits CD) and James Taylor's version of Joni Mitchell's song "River." I am not a Mitchell fan, but JT's version of "River" is very soothing and very Taylor-esque. If you're a fan of his music, as I am, you'll surely enjoy it.

This Is Why...

I need to stop watching these Netflix documentaries like the ones involving the Bikram yoga guy and the Fyre Festival because they only serve to reinforce my feeling that there are a lot of gullible people in the world. I'm constantly amazed at what people are willing to believe. This is why Donny T is POTUS. It's really sad that so many people seem to get taken my charlatans these days. You'd think with the wealth of information out there via the internet that people would do more research before investing in something, but the internet is part of the problem. There's so much bad information out there that sometimes it's hard to find the good information. When I watched both documentaries, I kept thinking about that posted from the X Files that Mulder had in his office that said "I Want to Believe." The Fyre Festival people wanted to believe they were attending an exclusive event with fashionable people. The Bikram followers wanted to believe they were in the presence of a true yogi who could transform their lives. Yeah. Okay. Irrationality loses to rationality on a daily basis. It happens to all of us from time to time, but hopefully not to such an extent.

Coyotes and Hypocrites

We've had a few coyote attacks in Chicago lately and a few of the animals have been rounded up, but I believe there's still one (or more) out there on the loose. The animal experts keep saying it's unusual for coyotes to attack humans, but they're clearly attacking folks around here. A kid was attacked and a man claimed one bit him on the ass. (The ass attack was still under investigation.) Animals are just that...animals. Their behavior is unpredictable and that's why your dog isn't held accountable for biting someone (or for biting another animal). You, as the owner, are held accountable for your dog's actions. I've watched enough episodes of The People's Court and Judge Judy to know that. Two of the theories I heard on the news were that the coyotes that attacked people around here were sick and, therefore, exhibiting abnormal behavior as a result of illness and the other theory was that the coyotes had become too familiar with people because people had been feeding them. I can believe both scenarios. I could see someone mistaking a coyote for a dog and feeding it. Sad, but true. It's still amazing to me to know that we have wild coyotes roaming the streets of Chicago. Crazy!

In other news, I was emailing with a coworker last week about Harry and Meghan's exit from the Royal Family since that fiasco has been all over the news lately. I am not a royal watcher at all. I might take a look at pictures of the kids that show up in the media, but that's about it. I don't keep up with the palace intrigue because I largely don't care. But when I was asked to give my views on Megxit, I admitted my feelings were mixed. On one hand, Harry and Meghan should live their lives as they see fit. If they want to walk away from royal life, then they should. On the other hand, I think Meghan got a rude awakening after marrying Harry and just wasn't prepared for the changes her life would take as a result. I remember telling someone back when they first announced their engagement that no amount of love in the world would make me marry into something like that, not after I'd been free and controlling my own life for more than 30 years. To go from being an independent person to under the thumb of the Queen, unable to make even basic decisions about what to wear or where to go? Forget it. But that's what she signed up for when she married into that family. Still, it kills me that the media just dump on this woman and act like the royals aren't a hot mess themselves. They're far from being squeaky clean, yet they want to pull rank on the half-black American woman? Please. Such hypocrites.