A Day Late And a Dollar Short

On Washington Journal they discuss what I call the myth of the blue collar Democrat voting for Ronald Reagan.  They did so according to the argument because the living standard had fallen since the end of World War II to 1980 due to government deficit spending.  And overregulation was taking away their jobs.  Of course there is a hint that Blacks were stealing your job, too.   Needless to say the recession of 1982 hadn’t even begun till after Reagan was elected in 1980 and today 35 years later unions are destroyed and your pension funds have been stolen and the purchasing power of your wages has fallen.  We didn’t have the sort of inflation in 2016 that we had in 1980 so that was no excuse to vote for Trump.  Also the job figure is at 4.1% now and most people agree that Trump inherited a strong economy but when Obama was elected the economy was in shambles and he was left to clean up the mess created by the previous administration.  But there is this persistent romantic idea that Reagan understood the blue caller worker.  The other topic I watched was this lady reporter who was put in charge of covering the Trump campaign of 2016 despite all of the better options she had in her personal life, and nobody took Trump seriously in 2015.  I guess there were experts who said Trump wouldn’t last six week in the heat of a protracted campaign. 

 Sixty Minutes had a thing on ISIS destroying valuable ancient Christian and historic manuscripts that were priceless.  A whole library was burned by ISIS as well as personal treasures.  ISIS is pure evil.  Then it was that Japanese baseball player who is as good at hitting as he is at pitching and sometime after that piece was shown, he signed with the Angels.  Then there was a thing on a collection of Scotch Whiskey distilleries on this island in the Highlands.   Then there was a bombardment of Christmas specials and I watched the Simpson’s about Krusty getting baptized in an unorthodox manner.  Rev Lovejoy needs converts.

This is Christmas 2017.   For you album searchers, the re-vamped “Red Album” of ours came out in mid December of 2016 and can be found in “Skeletons from the Closet”.  I spent a lot of time looking for it.  I need to somehow index my stuff or something.  My only actual gift so far this Christmas will be at lunchtime today.  Saturday’s gathering was thus a little strange that there was no gift exchange, as well as no crackling fire; because apparently our air is too polluted they’re issuing alerts, if you believe the news.   Where is the Christmas spirit?  I noted that KLOS was playing “Subdivisions” by Rush.  Bill Handel wasn’t on.  Instead it was Jesus you-know-who talking about the overriding universality of Death, as if we didn’t already know.

I had on “Breakfast with the Beatles”.  It was Christmas songs.   I heard portions of the 1963 and 1965 Christmas messages and all of the 1964 and 1966 messages.  They played “Blue Christmas”, “Sleigh Ride Together with You” and “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” by the Fab Four, patterned after Beatle songs.  They played “All I want for Christmas is a Beatle” and also “I Want a Beatle for Christmas”.  They played “Jingle Bells” by Sinatra and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” and a rocky version of “Wonderful Christmas Time.  They played "Christmas With the Beatles".

(Saturday December 23rd) Tim called at a quarter to two and then again at two o clock.  I made preparations and left to wait and Tim picked me up in Dad’s old car that also used to be Mom’s car.  Marie expressed curiosity about my health.  She gave me a thousand milligram capsule of Vitamin C and gave me a thing of bottled water to take with me but I forgot.  We got to Mom’s and we used the stairs to get up there, which I think was the first time using the stairs in that place.  Marie had also mentioned giving me a calendar so I didn’t ask Mom for one.  Mom was ready to go.  We went down there via Orangewood.  We got there at a quarter to three.  Mom noted that the house had been painted.  She said she didn’t remember traveling along Brookhurst.  I said that I always traveled that way coming home from the dentist.  We got there at a quarter to three.  Wendy wasn’t there and she wouldn’t arrive till after three thirty.  Tim and Paul went out to pick up the order for our dinners from Marie Calendar.  That took 45 minutes or something.  I felt like kind of a fifth wheel.  I was in the living room by myself when I wasn’t wandering around.  There were pieces of celery and cucumber out but no official orderves.  Paul had said something about buying ice cream as well as nuts.  We didn’t use either.  We did have Martinelli’s and it was pomegranate cider, which was good.  Judy was in a wheel chair working at the computer.  It felt as though I had arrived early.  Basically there was no gift exchange, which shortened the evening considerably.  We didn’t play any of those games either.  Wendy wasn’t dressed as fancy as she usually is.  She brought more salad fixings we didn’t need.  We sat down at the table and had a generous bowl of the salad Elizabeth had made.  Elizabeth went off shift at four and Rita came on to assist Judy.  Judy’s shaking appeared minor but the Parkinsons has obviously affected her leg movement.  MC remembered the onion rings I had with my roast beef French dip sandwich.  It was really good and there was abundant dip.  The conversation was about Judy’s A1C rating or whatever that is the health of the hemoglobin as an indicator of pre-diabetes.  Judy said doctors don’t want blood sugar dipping below 120 because they don’t want to treat hypoglycemia.  When I was tested 115 was the upper allowable high.  Wendy talked about leaving home to walk three miles in the dark at five in the morning through an industrial zone like refinaries and such in Torrance and Gardenia.  I wouldn’t do it.  Mom complained that she had no appetite.  We were going to wait before dessert but very little time passed.  Tim was in charge of making the coffee but for both cups I got less than half a cup and it was instant and not even that hot.  Wendy brought bakery pies of French apple and reduced sugar cherry.  I had the cherry first with Ready Whip.  We had whipping cream also but we didn’t use it.  Then I asked for and got a slightly small piece of the French apple.  Paul kept having bowls of the salad.  Later Mom complained about being tired and wanting to go home.  Tim wanted to show photographs or movies on TV but Paul didn’t have the right plugs.  The current bird is named Benji and he is a screechy one.  He responded to his name with me and Marie but not with Wendy.  I went to the bathroom twice but it was mostly passing gas.  Mom complained that the bathroom appeared to be scaled down with a low toilet and too narrow for a walker.  Marie let me pick out two wall calendars which were of animals.  The fruit cake was huge.  Elizabeth helped Judy make those.  I got home a little after six thirty.  I was dropped off before Mom this time.  I didn’t even have to be late for medication.  Naturally the first thing I did was have the one remaining cigarette.