I got a call yesterday mid-afternoon from a nice-sounding woman who said she was the food service manager at Limestone Creek Elementary School. That’s where Robin and Kirsten went to elementary school in the 90’s. The lady asked if I was still interested in a job with food service. I said I was, and we agreed to meet tomorrow (now today) at 3:00 pm.

So now I’m one step closer to becoming a lunch lady. It’s three in the morning, and I’m tapping away on this computer, after waking up at 1:51. It occurred to me that my greatest fear is not being physically fit enough for the job.

I haven’t been to the gym but once since Covid took over our lives. After I went that one time to the Silver Sneakers class, the Delta variant started making the news, and I backed off. Now I’m preparing to jump into work that requires physical labor, at this point of unknown quantity and duration. Will I be able to handle it? That is the question. We’ll see.

Right now, after I finish this post, I’m going to watch the DVD I bought from Amazon (of course) about the pandemic of 1918. I still have it in my mind to write a satirical piece about Covid terrorism – on both sides of the argument. I want to get it done before my anger and frustration with the vaxxer vs anti-vaxxer nonsense subsides. Gotta finish that outline this week – in between interviews to be Granny O, lunch lady. Wish me luck today.

I got no phone call yesterday from the elementary school out here in the Farms to set up my interview for the role of Granny O, the lunch lady. But I can understand that – after a hectic, short-handed lunch period, who wants to call somebody up and interview them for a job that will go to another cafeteria? Nonetheless, I really do want to hear soon..I feel my future is waiting in the wings…

Having said all that, and apologizing for keeping everyone waiting with bated breath, can we talk about China for a bit? I’ve been thinking about it quite a lot since the news about Evergrande being ready to implode and Xi (aka ‘the government’) the Magnificant being unwilling to bail them out of the mess they’re in, caused by Xi (government) in the first place..whew! You get the idea…

Anyway, here’s the thing. Xi has positioned himself to be absolute ruler by purging the competition, changing the rules of the game, and showing, via Hong Kong, that he is ruthless. Sound familiar – Hitler? Stalin? It’s an old play book, and historically, one that hasn’t worked out well for either the despot or the people he rules. I don’t think it will be any different for Xi or for China. He likely thinks he knows best, which means he has no respect for the Chinese people. He’s also influenced by his youth under the Mao-created Cultural Revolution, where his sister died and his family suffered terribly. So he perceives the good citizens of the very large country of China as sheep to be shepherded – or herded, in the case of Hong Kong.

Having said all that as background, let’s focus on the economics of the situation in China. Xi (government) has taken the power away from tech companies and Chinese billionaires. Some who have crossed him are now MIA (Jack Ma from Ali Baba, e.g.). His newest initiative is for these wealthy companies to ‘share the wealth’ with start-up companies and the rural areas that haven’t benefitted from their success. In effect, it’s the ‘collectivization’ strategy initiated by Stalin that starved millions; the ‘collectivization’ in Vietnam that starved millions..it’s a page from the oldest playbooks of Bolshevism. It completely undoes the strategy initiated in the late 80’s and early 90’s by Deng Xiaoping. That strategy led to the successes that created those billionaires and tech giants.

Xi intends to undo all that, and continues to threaten Taiwan, a sample of the ruthless label generated with Hong Kong. There are several ironies here. This makes him the ‘new’ Mao, who used the Cultural Revolution as a way to stay in power. Will Xi end up repeating the actions of the man who nearly ruined his life? Maybe not intentionally, but likely within the realm of possibility. When the ‘collectivization’ strategy fails, who will take the blame? What will Xi do to distract people from these failures? That’s where the really big purges will kick in; and then Taiwan will be in real trouble.

Xi’s strategy simply won’t work. It would be like trying to dismiss gravity. But it will take time for the failures to clearly manifest themselves. That’s when we – and Taiwan – need to seriously worry – say some time in ’28?

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? With the nonsense going on today, who wants to comment? First of all, it’s a waste of time, it doesn’t make me feel better and eventually becomes a rant. Don’t want that.

So instead, I’m gonna embark on a new career path – yes, at my age, dear. And what is this new ‘career’ path? Lunch lady..aka food service worker I at one of several elementary schools in Jupiter. OMG, you say (or write?) Yes, Virginia, I am excited to say I will become a lunch lady. OK, why?

Well, first of all, they need the help. Second of all, hey – gives me something to blog about, right? It’s at most 5 hours a day, aerobic exercise (if my knees hold up), and I’ll be doing something good, safely ’cause I’m as vaccinated as a body can be.

Craziness, you say? Well, we’ll see..will there be any great exposés of food service – the ‘Pandora Papers’ of the lunch line? Not likely..what there will be, assuming I get the job, will be small vignettes about my day serving, cleaning or tallying lunches for little kids. What could be any more exciting than that? Ahem..that was a rhetorical question.

So stay tuned for the further adventures of Granny O Lunch Lady..can’t wait!

Yesterday we drove down to the West Palm Service Plaza to get our foster-to-adopt female boxer. She was picked up as a stray in Miami-Dade, checked out, vaccinated, chipped and turned over to a boxer rescue group. We were approved on Tuesday to be a foster family, and a volunteer was calling Wednesday night about “Bernice”, a name which Kiernan said did not fit her. It was Kiernan that came up with Penny because her coat is the color of an oft-handled one cent piece. I added Lain, in honor of our granddaughter. So now she’s Penny Lain. I’ll ask Alexa to play some Beatles music to honor her new moniker.

The story I make up about Penny is that she was a breeder in a puppy mill. She was probably kept caged for most of her life which looks to be between 6 and 8 years. Penny is small-framed with soulful brown eyes. She’s practically toothless, so her diet now consists of ground turkey and brown rice; she gobbled up every morsel for her breakfast. When we walk together, she looks out at the world as though it’s totally new and marvelous. For the next two weeks, we will walk together with the leash just to be sure she doesn’t try to explore too much of that outside world.

Right now we’re on the living room couch. She’s asleep, but prior to dropping off, she did her best to merge her body into mine. She seems starved for human interaction, which fits with the breeder scenario. She used the crate to sleep last night, but insisted the door be left open. We’re not sure about cat interaction yet, but early signs are she has no interest in Maddox the porch dweller.

I’m sure there will be lots more about Penny in the future. Having a dog again will be a big change for us, but a good one. I think Penny Lain has found a home.

Remember 2008? Well, the meltdown in ’08 actually started in ’07, but nobody noticed until it was a tidal wave. Well, the meltdown of ’22 has started in ’21, and nobody’s noticing. I am.

Two names will go down in infamy for bringing down Credit Suisse, the company that will start the dominos falling. Archegos and Greensill Capital. Credit Suisse bet on both these companies, that are now in bankruptcy. The losses are going to run into the billions. More important: when Credit Suisse goes down, they will likely take others with them. So why isn’t this the headline on the front page of every newspaper in town? Because we’re all distracted by other news: the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, and Matt Gaetz dragging a 17 year old around with him on his travels.

So back to the point: Archegos Capital was borrowing from multiple banks that somehow didn’t know about each other. Archegos Capital is a guy named Bill Hwang, banned from Hong Kong markets because of insider trading nine years ago. In the age of the internet, how is that possible the banks didn’t know about his debt load? That’s a good question. But the failure came from a bad review. Yep. When you own a bunch of stock (Viacom and Discovery, Inc.???) and somebody writes a bad review and you were using borrowed money to buy those stocks that just went down in value…gosh! It’s 1929 all over again!

Greensill capital was highly leveraged (remember credit default swaps?) and its insuror, Tokio Marine Management, got cold feet and wouldn’t renew their policy. That brought the entire house of cards down. This is ’08 for sure..and there will be more to come from companies you likely never heard of before they melt.

It seems like we’re back to ’07 and the financial fall is just beginning. When it begins to affect US banks, will the government bail them out this time? Uh, nope. First of all, the government just gave away all this year’s tax revenue to all of us. No money left in the till. Besides, the Biden administration ain’t the same as the end of the Bush/beginning of the Obama administration. No Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and head of the New York Fed branch Tim Geitner to guide this disaster. Instead, there’s the hangover from the Mnuchin days when all this started. The new Secretary of the Treasury (who is it ..quick..not a clue, right? It’s Janet Yellen, formerly head of the Fed..ok, then who’s running the Fed? Jerome Powell.) These two are the ones driving fiscal policy right now that will not have any money left over to bail out the banks. So I start to get that sinking feeling that comes when you’re in the stateroom and the Titanic hits that bump in the ocean.

When I wrote the Suffer the Children series, it was a very similar situation. Lots of bad things happened with a pandemic of parents killing children, covered up by the government. When the smoke cleared from all that, everyone figured out the US government was insolvent. No gold in Ft. Knox, no cash in the bank…a taste of things to come in the next year.

Get ready.

Elizabeth Keubler Ross described the five stages a person going through in dealing with the death of a loved one. I am going through those stages now in dealing with the near-death of this country.

Yesterday, I was in denial, so I found humor in Viking dude’s appearance – inside the capital building, wreaking mayhem with the rest of his unwashed mass insurrectionists (the UMI’s). Now I’m moving smartly on to anger. Yeah, baby, I am angry. Not at Trump – he’s toast. I’m angry at the likes of Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Louie Gohmert, Brian Mast (because he’s our Congressman) and that capital policeman who opened the door to the UMIs. I spit on all of you. So I’ll write this, and then maybe I can move on to depression.

Here’s what he said yesterday in his ‘concession’ speech:

I’d like to begin by addressing the heinous attack on the United States Capitol. Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem. Why are you outraged? You fostered it

I immediately deployed the National Guard and the federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders. America is and must always be a nation of law and order. That’s a lie. It took hours for the National Guard to arrive, and it was too late by the time they did.

The demonstrators who infiltrated the capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy. To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. Really? Yes, I think they do represent your Ruined America. And there was no ‘infiltration’. They blasted through broken windows, with a woman dying in the process. You craven coward with your squirrel words.

And to those who broke the law, you will pay. We have just been through an intense election, and the emotions are high. But now tempers must be cooled and calm restored. Who the hell wrote this paragraph? I think he riffed line two and maybe three. How do I know? The speechwriter who wrote this would never have put these three disparate notions into one paragraph. Doesn’t fit with the mold.

We must get on with the business of America. My campaign vigorously pursued every legal avenue to contest the election results. And some illegal ones, like trying to intimidate the Georgia Secretary of State into ‘finding’ over eleven thousand votes. Gimme a break.

My only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote. In so doing, I was fighting to defend American Democracy. I continue to strongly believe that we must reform our election laws to verify the identity and the eligibility of all voters and to ensure faith and confidence in all future elections. Now Congress has certified the results. This is the bullshit paragraph. You were doing exactly the opposite. The integrity of the votes? Yeah, the ones for you. Defend American Democracy? By stealing an election? Reform election laws so you can win every time. Now Congress has certified the results – with the exception of those Senators and Congressman who voted against doing so. A pox on their house – oh, wait! There’s already a pox on all their houses (cue Viking dude).

And a new administration will be inaugurated on January 20. Put there by our black and brown voters from Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Phoenix. We owe you all a huge debt of gratitude for showing up. My own state succumbed to Trumpism. Aargh.

My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation. 2020 has been a challenging time for our people. Your focus now turns to saving your own skin between now and the 20th. Gonna pardon yourself for any and all crimes committed during your four years? Sure, why not?

A menacing pandemic has upended the lives of our citizens, isolated millions in their homes, damaged our economy and claimed countless lives. Defeating this pandemic and rebuilding the greatest economy on earth will require all of us working together. Oh, Donald, please don’t pretend you even care, and for God’s sake, don’t help. You’ve helped enough.

It will require a renewed emphasis on the civic values of patriotism, faith, charity, community and family. We must revitalize the sacred bonds of love and loyalty that bind us together as one national family. Wow. Remember, you just sicc’d Viking dude on Congress? I know you’re reading this off a teleprompter, but I’ll bet your nose grew at least a millimeter when you read these lines.

To the citizens of our country, serving as your president has been the honor of my lifetime. And to all of my wonderful supporters, I know you are disappointed, but I also want you to know that our incredible journey is only just beginning. And he’s baaacckk. Your incredible reign of terror is not beginning, it’s ending. Good riddance. Gbye.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America. God has damned America because over 70 million of us support this guy. Damn all of you. Yes I said it: damn all of you for being gullible enough to fall for this guy’s goddamned bullshit. You all see yourselves as good Christians and upright citizens. You are silly, white, members of a cult..a cult of personality so obviously corrupt and evil that even a 7 year old knows that. My Kiernan told me so..

So if paragraph 6 comes true, and Viking dude has to go to jail, I’d prefer his punishment instead to being forced to watch Donald give this speech over and over again. Think of it as deprogramming. It was used successfully in the 60’s when kids joined the Krishnas or the Moonies. Maybe it’ll work this time and Viking dude will lay down his horns and get a job serving lutefisk at Ingebretsen’s Nordic Marketplace in Minneapolis – get it – Viking? OK, a little humor never hurts, at the end of a rant. Right?

Eight more days ’til Christmas and the only one that thinks that’s too long is Kiernan. I guess when you’re six, the time before the Yule does drag a bit.

We had John’s birthday dinner last night, and a little family talk before and after. Robin had a conference with Kiernan’s teacher, who said what all teachers of ‘different’ children say: “she needs to be medicated”. I think Kiernan is very bright (don’t all grandma’s think so?) and gets bored in a regular classroom with 24 kids. All roads point to very small class private school, but there’s a process to get there, I’m told. The child has to suffer first and then – and only then – can deliverance come in the form of individualized education. Just because children are chronologically the same doesn’t mean they are – the same.

Kiernan does well in math, but stinks at reading. That’s the exact opposite of her mother and aunt’s tendencies. They were right brained; she’s left brained, just like her dad. He hates reading too, so he helps her with her math. I find Kiernan receives information much better aurally than visually. She says the letters jump around in front of her eyes, but if she hears a story, she can practically repeat it verbatim. What does that say about her situation? I think she needs the equivalent of books for blind children, to help her see the words as a whole, rather than sounding it out. She seems to have no capacity for sounding out. That technique makes no sense to her at all. So I’ll be looking at the library for science-based books that talk to her. I believe the answer to correct this deficiency is repetition, repetition, repetition!

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated in solving this conundrum. Hyperactive, my patoot. She’s bored! The problem is not the child, it’s the system that expects uniformity based on age. Silly system.

It’s Monday, the week before Christmas. We decorated the tree yesterday, and managed to get it done without drama. I’m working on patience with these kinds of activities, recognizing that Christmas is for young children. It is not a list of chores to be got through. Therapy and Clemmie are working on me to be a better mother and grandmother. About time, eh?

Today is brother John’s birthday – he is 67 today, which means next month I will be seventy. Doesn’t seventy sound oh so much older than 69? I know, not really..it’s just a number. Based on good genes and sticking with the gym, I intend to be around for a while..so much left to learn. So Happy Birthday, brother! I’ll bake you a lemon cake to celebrate your 67 years on this earth.

It feels odd not having a writing assignment every day, other than this blog. I am still like a mule in harness..gotta pull the load and go somewhere. But book 5 of the series is done and ready for publication on Christmas day, as previously mentioned. Then I’ll simultaneously work on the new Trumpet project and finish up the Algorithmic Brain. Just waiting for a book from the library that I put on hold to start things off with the trumpet project. Any suggestions of superb trumpeters would be appreciated.

Also working on getting my sinus issue resolved..went to Jupiter Medical Center Urgent Care to get an antibiotic to clear up the infection I’ve probably had for a couple of years! Now I just have to let my system recover from years of Flonase and Xyrtec. Gonna try my friend Bobbi’s suggestion of Simply Saline as a daily therapeutic. Getting tired of waking up every morning with a headache.

That’s all for the moment…enjoy your week.

Three hundred twenty five more days until the 2020 election, and things just keep getting more dismal. After watching the 60 minutes of the PBS Newshour last night, I turned to Erik and said, “Every one of those stories was depressing. Is there no hope?”

Not on that front, anyway. So what to do in time fraught with misery and dismay? Focus on what’s important to you. Today, Robin, Colter, Kiernan and I went to Home Depot to find the perfect Christmas tree. We’re pretty happy with the one we selected, even tho’ we had to go to two different stores to find it. Now Erik and Colter are putting up the Christmas lights on the from eave of the house. We bought two light up reindeer, and ordered a sleigh/reindeer combination. It should be here some time next week.

Decorating for Christmas; planning the Christmas menu to share with family and friends – what could be better? Nothing. Give it a try.

So have you noticed that the closer we get to impeachment votes, the crazier everyone gets? Is this the end of the world, people? I don’t think so. We know how all this will end, so why the drama? It reminds me of that video where all the North Koreans are wading into the water, chasing after Kim Jong Un, or the young’un as I call him..they are trying to show how much they adore this crazy dude in order not to be sent to a re-education camp. It’s the same way with Republicans..a question of fealty to Tsar Donald. It’d be sickening, if it weren’t so ludicrous. I feel the bad karma building for all of them – when it arrives…damn!

But that’s not what I came to talk about – I want to talk about exercise. I started doing Silver Sneakers when we lived in Vero, and learned to sort of like it .. nah, that’s a lie..I learned to recognize it’s good for me, but I will never like it. What I don’t like – beyond just about everything else – is falling down and becoming incapacitated. So Silver Sneakers is my method for trying to stay upright.

Then there’s my daughter Robin and her husband Colter and granddaughter Kiernan. They all participate in radical sports events – like the Savage Race and the Spartan Race. Here Robin and Colter are participating in the Spartan last weekend. Do you see the look on their faces? Yes, they look happy! I don’t think I will ever achieve that level of happiness with Silver Sneakers. But if it keeps me vertical – that’s good enough.