Things That Made Me Smile This Week

Five things that made me smile this wee.

1.   I got the most smiles from our weekly visit with our daughters.  They live about 40 minutes away and have been coming over to have dinner with us on Saturdays.  We’ve also been watching series together.  We watched all four seasons Fargo, which I totally loved.  The dark humor was awesome.

I didn’t think I would enjoy Castle Rock as much; I was totally spoiled with how great Fargo was.  I was a bit confused at first watching the first season episodes and it didn’t really make a lot of sense to me until the episode before the last one.  I had a big aha moment when I realized what was happening.  It took me back to my old favorite series, Dark Shadows.  The end left me wondering if The Kid was the devil for sure or was, he trapped in a world in which he didn’t belong?  I know how I wanted it to end; it didn’t go the way I wanted.  That’s okay.  We’ll start watching Season 2 next time we’re together.

Watching series together has been a great way for us all to relax and unwind.  We’re all pretty much home bound so we don’t have a lot of news to share.  When Bill has evenings off, we watch series together.  We watched all of Roots and Stranger Things.  I saw Roots when it aired originally in the 1970s and wow! In 2022, it’s still powerful.  I totally love Stranger Things and have enjoyed watching those kids grow up.  Season 4 was the best ever and I’ll be very happy when Season 5 is released.  Now the three of us are watching the Centennial miniseries.  That’s another show that is very well made.

2.  The next thing that made me smile was working the phone banks for Democrats running for office.  I absolutely adore and respect our Representative Andy Kim.  He is so down to earth and wants to help us regular people.  He’s not as progressive as, say, AOC, Bernie or Elizabeth Warren but that’s ok.  He looks out for us and lives in NJ (not Washington) to be with his wife, family and people.  He should have been a shoe-in again but the census caused redistricting.  Our district lost one county and gained parts of two new ones.  We’ve been calling voters in those two near areas mostly.  Most of them were unaware of the districting changes.  None of the people I talked to have been mean to me.

I’ve also done a couple of phone banks for AOC and the Democratic NY state senate candidate she’s supporting, Kristen Gonzalez.  I’d never heard of Gonzalez but she sounds like she at least leans progressive.

I smile because I feel like I’m doing something to stop tRump and the GQP from destroying our democracy and replacing it with authoritarian fascism and “Christian” nationalism.

1.     3   I signed up to be an election worker.  Again, I felt like I was doing something positive.  I’ve been reading about how tRump, the GQP, and other domestic terrorists have been harassing and threatening election workers to the point they don’t want to do the job anymore.  But we can’t let the bad guys win by intimidation.  That’s what organized crime figures do, terrify and threaten people to get what they want.  It can’t stand.

2.     4.  It’s been a busy week for the FBI and DOJ.  Finally, after such a long wait, there may be justice for the kingpin plotters of the coup attempt.  The FBI raided tRump’s Mar-a-lago because he continued to keep files he should have turned in when he left the White House.  Some of these seemed to be nuclear information files.  A lot of them were top top secret.  What was tRump doing with them?  The wheels of justice grind very slowly but also surely and hopefully tRump will finally be indicted for all his crimes.

All of tRump’s henchmen are beginning to fall too, like dominoes.  All of that made me smile.

3.      5 Last, but not least, after a year of bickering, dickering and betrayal, Congress finally passed the Inflation Reduction Act.  That was the name given it so that all the Dems would vote for it, including Smanchinema.  The act will pump a lot of money into trying to reduce climate change.  I smiled and smiled about this one.  I’d been writing about all the damage our recklessness has caused by abusing the Earth and its resources.  Now we have dirty air and water, intense heat waves, more powerful storms and drought.  Without making changes, we would make ourselves extinct along with all the other animals, birds, fish, and sea creatures.  Another big benefit is that Medicare will be able to negotiate with suppliers for the most expensive drugs.

Hoping to have a post like this again next week.