Being 88

How many of you sleep 6 or 7 hours at least when you go to bed at night? Somehow, after I passed by maybe 85 or 86, my sleep habits became . . . at best problematic. What do I mean by that? Well, I go to sleep (WE go to sleep) sometime before 10 each night. Occasionally we might be awake between 10 and 11, but mostly not.  And then, I awaken, thinking it’s 4 or 5, but it turns out that it’s maybe 10:30 or 11.  Then I return to sleeping, only to awaken at maybe 2:30 – 3:00. And then, it’s every half to ¾ of an hour until sometime near 5- 5:30. And then sleep escapes out the window and I make believe until about 6 – 6:15, when I finally declare it quits.  If something untoward occurs during the night, like the other night when the heavens opened up and poured water down upon our house for about an hour, then my “sleep” is gone, because I’m thinking about whether the basement is flooding.  Now that’s the other thing. One of the things that often keeps me from returning to sleep is that my brain suddenly begins thinking about something, like, Oh I have to begin raking the leaves sometime tomorrow.

Now mind you, when I was “young” (any age below say 60), I used to be able to sleep til 8 or 9, unless I had set the alarm clock (remember those??).  Course, I also used to be able to go to dinner, have a gin and tonic (or two), then some nice wine with dinner, and maybe a brandy after dinner, and still walk away from the table and drive home.  Yeah, remember those days???  Now it’s a beer or a glass of wine with dinner and then driving very carefully home.  Yeah, such fun.

Now to be fair, I can still rake and sweep/blow all the leaves away from our drive, and cut back our now overgrown hibiscus and lantana bushes, and still manage to walk back into the house without collapsing in a heap. Oh, I’m tired and even a bit achy, but basically ok.  Happily, we decided we would not have a lawn, and so we have bushes and ivy growing instead (we actually DO NOT OWN A LAWNMOWER). And yes, the control freaks masquerading as “master gardeners” probably all hate what I quaintly call my “garden”, I love it.

But all of these are simply quirks of the aging process. Yeah, yeah, I’m probably a classic “cranky old man” (it’s how I refer to my blog by the way), but still I have managed to continue to lead a normal life and maintain fairly normal relationships with friends and neighbors.  But ever since the arrival of the “bad old days”, you know the Days of Donald Trump and his MAGAHeads, I have begun to wonder about my cognitive abilities. I simply can no longer even pretend to understand how theoretically thinking human beings could even pretend to support, no less vote for some of these cretins who now have begun populating the Halls of our Congress.  And with the midterms now nearly over, my brain is close to simply shutting down.  Think – “ordinary humans” actually re-elected Marjorie Taylor Greene. But how could that be?? She gave herself away with her first two years—Jewish Space Lasers are the cause of California’s wildfires??? Really, you said that and then didn’t back away with a big laugh??? And that Herschel Walker dude, who keeps pretending publicly that he is what he isn’t.  I’m only surprised that he hasn’t yet claimed to be the first man on the moon.  Now, he’s Black, so I assume he gets some votes for that, but unfortunately for him, so is his opponent, Raphael Warnock. And even more unfortunate for Walker, Raphael Warnock seems a man of normal intelligence and even in possession of an ethical and thoughtful brain.  And then there’s that dreadful pseudohuman running for governor of Arizona – Kari Lake. From Wiklpedia:

“Lake returned to Arizona in 1999 and became an evening anchor for KSAZ-TV (Fox 10 Phoenix). While at KSAZ, Lake interviewed President Barack Obama in 2016 and President Donald Trump in 2020.

In her last years working in the media, Lake shared false and unverified information on social media, prompting criticism^[3] and acquiring a reputation as a provocateur.^[11] In 2018, she opposed the Red for Ed movement, which sought more funding for education through strikes and protests, claiming that movement was a "big push to legalize pot"; she later apologized for the statement (saying that she "made an incorrect conclusion") and, according to the station's regional human resources director, subsequently took an unexpected month-long leave from her position at the station. In July 2019, Lake was caught on "hot mic" footage promoting her account on the web platform Parler. She shared COVID-19 misinformation on Twitter and Facebook in April 2020. Lake's statements and actions made her a divisive figure among colleagues in her last years at the station.

In March 2021, she announced her departure from KSAZ, one day after FTVLive, a television news industry site, published a video clip of Lake at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando; the website questioned whether Lake was there as a journalist or as a member of a movement. In June 2021, she announced her campaign for governor.

So isn’t voting for Lake somewhat akin to voting for Fucker Carlson??? I mean, Arizona folks, how could you???

And then, of course, Ronnie DeSantis won his claim to Florida’s governorship. Floridians apparently don’t care who they elect, since apparently the state will soon be totally under water and it will no longer matter.

Now throughout this mess of an election, the braindead Donald sits presiding over the now moribund Republican party (yeah, keep on rolling Ike). He is now tantalizing his faithful by promising to be their president again.  Course, he may just be promising to be the president of the MaraLago Braindead Contingent, his latest creation.  But he does keep them panting hard awaiting his next arrival at their door to collect his dues.

So, I’m having increasing difficulties maintaining my brain function. Apparently brains, when presented continually with bizarre images and tales, begin to falter and even imagine that weird events are the “new normal”.  So, along with Climate Catastrophe, our new Political shitstorm now every two years, my brain has begun wondering whether I have moved suddenly to maybe Mars??

Or maybe, I am in some time warp and have returned to the past. Who knows, maybe I am now German and it’s 1936 and Adolph is now yelling at us all about the need to Make Germany Great Again. See that’s what happens when you apply too much stress to an aging brain?

So see you on our lovely planned trip on that wonderful Titanic. Won’t it be fun???