Continued Confessions
while sweating
This first day of summer feels more as though I’ve been sweating for weeks. I do have window air conditioning units in the bedroom and tv room, but I’m miserly when it comes to running them. And for some reason the air conditioning in my car starts out quite nicely but after a while it’s blowing warm air. So I had to get out to the post office this morning to ship my daughter’s birthday present, and I also fed a large black bag of soda cans into the recycle machine at 10 cents a can, with the resultant $6.30 going to a few groceries. I also hit the bank to cash two small checks, which is pretty funny when I explain. My mortgage payment will be going down this coming year by the munificent sum of 50 cents a month, and I received a reimbursement of $8.46 from last year’s collection by the mortgage provider for my local taxes. In addition, I received a check for $7.20 from a credit card company with whom I had a negative balance. So that gives me $15.66 MAD MONEY!
I’m sharing this minutiae because I understand that the big political issue many pollsters are promoting is the economy. As I’ve shared before, being a child in post-War Britain meant taking care of the pennies was paramount. And now as an old person relying mainly on Social Security and Medicare, I’m eternally grateful for those teachings. This morning I spent an hour on my heavy reading about the international great powers, but last night my light reading was Garrison Keillor’s Cheerfulness in which he shares what it is like to be old. He has some wonderful insight into navigating the next year or so as I am just behind him.
I also spent quite a lot of time this morning reviewing the terrifying Project 2025 which so many great Substack contributors are laying out for us (Ahmed Baba interviews California Congressman Jared Huffman who is heading a coalition to save democracy). And of course, yesterday having been Juneteenth, I’m learning as much as I can about our newest Federal holiday.
Finally, with the death of Willie Mays and now Donald Sutherland, I think it may be time to celebrate people who are still with us and not have to wait until they’re gone to hear about them. Along those lines, I was thrilled to see Patti Smith was at Symphony Space with Joan Baez to celebrate Joan’s book of poetry. Get the details at Patti’s Stack.
And now I have to chill, as my man suggested when he called, because again Afib had its way with me this morning. I think a little AC and telly might be what the doctor ordered. TTFN
I’m no medical doctor, but I doubt it’s not outside of the realm of possibility, that going into Afib around the same time you’re reading up on Project 2025 is no coincidence. I’m a wide open minded science thinker, correlation is closer to causation than all of those academic journal peer reviewers want to admit.
Loved this post, Katherine. Indeed, we are having a massive heat wave. It's great to save your pennies, but in this case I say, turn on the AC, especially if you have Afib, which I know is a you-know-what. That said, I was trying to read through the Project 2025 and I don't know if it made me so mad I almost had a stroke, or scared me so much I almost had a heart attack. Either way, it was not pretty. On a more positive note, I attended my grandson's graduation from Queen's University (my Alma Mater) and he received the University Medal for having the highest marks in his department, Math and Statistics. Not sure if I can handle being the grandmother of a brain. As a precaution am not wearing a button up blouse, in case in my pride I should pop the buttons. Hope you are feeling better.