Last Minute Thoughts on 2020

Well, the big new is that millons of Americans lost their unemployment benefits today and notoby will get paid any more stimulus checks.  President Trump is being obstenant for no good reason and refusing to sign the COVID 19 relief bill.   The President has done a lot of things to stir ill will against a lot of people.  I'm still trying to figure out why he fired his attorney general, William Barr.  He was his hand picked crony and he still couldn't get along with him.  It's harder and harder for even the most diehard Trump supporter to continue to justify the things that he does.  Meanwhile we all know that the new year won't hold immediate promise of relief for the Corona virus because new peaks will be had in the new year.  Just to think eleven months ago nobody heard of the Corona virus.  For weeks it was just a bleep in the newspaper articles.  Just another oddity like Sarrs or Ebola or H1N1.  Those passed with no problem and initially there was no reason to believe this virus wouldn't do likewise.  But by the second half of February it was clear that something was very wrong.  There was that "thing" you got tired of hearing about and you thought it was being overplayed because after all it didn't affect us.  I'm going to continue with this blog post tomorrow if I think about it.  It's been a long year and it's still not over yet.  The official virus count-down won't officially have its anniversary till President Joe Biden is sworn into office, if he is sworn into office.  I still hear that congress has the power to invalidate the election if they want to and put literally anything up to a vote.  President Trump still believes he will be president on January 21st.  If God is soverign he cn do anything he wants.  Maybe he's just playing the suspense game with us- - like with Gidian in the Bible.  He waits until things look completely hopeless and then he acts.  

The Christmas Star

The conjunction of our two biggest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, occurred early Monday evening three hours after the sun went down in the southwestern skies.  This was the closest conjunction since the twelve hundreds and to the naked eye it looked like one star, that didn't twinkle.  I guess it's supposed to portend the arrival of international peace and brotherhood and all that stuff.  We could use an actual manifestation of God to hang our hat of faith on these days.  What is real trumps what exists only in the mind, in my book.  The trouble with Neil of KFI's program is that so little of it seems to have any real relation to anything.  He said "Last things should be ranked as last in importance".  So the second coming doesn't interest Neil the way it interests the rest of us.  Christmas 2020 is celebrated under a cloud.  People travel because they want to reunite with loved ones they haven't seen in a while, even though it risks the worsening of the pandemic and sets new death records.  Yesterday I got a bunch of gifts from this place but one thing I'm looking for is a decent antenna for my TV so I can watch the Lakers on channel seven because the Lakers always play on channel seven on Christmas day.  

President Trump would have to be called a "bad loser" from the way he's reacted to a lot of stuff.  It's hard to drum up mental support for the things he does like these fifty pardons he's done or whatever.  Now he is vetoing both the defense bill for next year's budget, and also the COVID 19 relief bill that was all set through hard-fought negotiation.  Instead of six hundred dollars in the mail, the citizens won't be getting a thing thanks to our President.  More and more Republicans are turning against him.  Biden is still keeping a relatively low profile.  It's hard not to be encouraged by Biden's speeches.  They seem down to earth and practical and sensible.  One can only hope 2021 will be a better year than this past year, which has been a long one.  January started off normal but we know what soon happened.   I'll have more than this to say in a new year's message I am contemplating writing.  

The Uniqueness of Christ's Attoning Sacrifice

Some people talk about picking up their cross and following Jesus or "This is just my cross to bear".  But Jesus Christ's was a unique sacrifice in that only he could do it.  Only he was qualified to attempt to make the sacrifice.  It could be said that "Jesus was the only one with a choice".  We can't make the choice to let or not let that cup pass us by.  People point to Jesus's prayer as a denied prayer because when his hour came he had to make the ultimate sacrifice of his body on the cross.  We couldn't duplicate the atoning work he did on the cross even if we wanted to.   And Jesus only had to do it once, not two or three times because "he didn't get it right the first time".  Sometimes there is a real blessing in not having to go through things two or three times rather than just once, knowing you'll never have to face that peril again.  Think about it.  As Neil Savedra is so fond of saying "You only go around once in life".

Today is December 16th and it's Beethoven's birthday.  I thought they were going to make it an all Beethoven day on the classical music station, KUSC.  They don't play enough Beethoven on that station anyhow.  In my personal life we are in severe lockdown.  This morning they were saying we couldn't even venture out of the room to smoke.  That one seems to have gone lax and people have been out there.  They could lock the door, I suppose.  They say the COVID19 virus in Orange County is worse than it's ever been just as two vaccines now are coming on the market.  We'll see if it's always darkest before the dawn. 

The Vaccine is On It's Way

 This is Monday after two on the second day of confinement to our rooms.  It’s also elector day, which is December 14, 2020.  I had the live coverage on this morning and Trump was leading 55 votes to Biden’s 27.  They also had a thing on the eight biggest daily disasters in the country and the Galveston Hurricane wins it hands down.  9 – 11 nosed out Pearl Harbor, which surprised.  Pearl Harbor was still in the two thousands.  Trump still has a few tricks up his sleeve.  He may have been turned down by the Supreme Court including his three appointed justices,  but now Ted Cruz gets on TV and says he will lead a movement not to approve any of Joe Biden’s cabinet appointments.  That’ll fix his wagon, and it’s never been tried before on such a massive basis so there is no precident.  But more significant than that is today is NOT the day that Biden is certified as president.  That comes when Congress on January 6^th actually certifies the vote count and declares him president.  In the shabby deal of1877 a lot of Hanky Panky went on by where the southern slaves lost all their rights they had just won in blood.  The poll numbers don’t look good for a broad concencus of support either.  They say 78% of people who voted for Trump don’t believe he is the legitimate President.  All of this bad news for Biden is good news for me for those who have been following my blogs and fleeces to God.  In terms of Biden’s style it’s constructive. He is not pie in the sky like Obama was.  And he isn’t pushed around by fears of a Republican backlash but seems inclined to follow his own agenda.  In other news there are spring tides causing flooding.  The basketball season has started up again after a brief two month hiatus.  The Cleveland Indians are another team that intends to change their name.  I even heard another report that the “Boston” Braves were going to change their name.

Yesterday afternoon I watched the LA Chargers and the Atlanta Braves duke it out.  There wasn’t that much scoring later game since yesterday’s report.  The Chargers scored a touchdown making it seventeen all.  It stayed that way for a while.  Finally the Chargers got a last chance to kick a 43 yard field goal.  They kicked it right down the middle and won the game with two seconds to go 20 to 17.  For once the Chargers actually won a close game.  For dinner we had sloppy Joes but the meat was bad.  I didn’t like it but nobody else noticed it.  I didn’t get sick from it or anything.  We had a cucumber and onion salad and a chocolate chip cookie and that was it.  Dinner was served around four thirty which is normal eating time for me.  I’ve been really going through the instant coffee and I mean the new jar I just bought on Saturday.  It was dial twirling and then the KNXT news and the CBS network news.  I got drowsy as the evening progressed even without the Ambien, but only to a point.  After six thirty or so I turned to the Sunday Night football game between the ‘49ers and the Washington Redskins.  Sixty Minutes had three interesting segments.  There was a thing on how Arab nationals in this country get away with murder.  This seems to be standard Republican operating policy since 2001.  They get whisked off to the safety of their own country with well executed escape plans.  Then there was a thing on how Hospital prices are skyrocketing and services are getting no better.  Then there was a thing on how the police give this drug Kennington or something like that.  It’s a powerful knock-out pill that’s probably as powerful as these drugs you see in old movies they shoot people with and turn people into zombies.  Only in this case they will give you a drug for double your actual weight and it kills you, and they’ve even invented a new disease to go along with it.  Then it was something on two and I switched to the Simpson’s, which ran past eight thirty.  How do they keep coming up with new shows?  Then it was another show briefly.  Finally I got my sleeping medication and all the rest of my meds.  I rang the bell and came down but was told to go back to my room.  I was told there was some big emergency that apparently lasted two hours because that was the delay.  It was close to twenty to nine.   After a while I went out and smoked and I even made coffee not knowing how long I was going to be staying up.  Taking Ambien late like that has the advantage though because it means it doesn’t wear off as fast as normal. 

The vaccine is on it’s way.  Last week it was rolled out in England and we all cheered.  This week it’s being rolled out in the U S.   It’s a good thing too because the death news couldn’t get any worse.  Today they say we will surpass three hundred thousand deaths in the US.  Just last week it was 275,000.  They made the decision to confine us apparently in the dead of night on Saturday.  And it took effect immediately.  News from Orange County is bad.  They say that the growing surges of the viruses are only going to get worse and are no where peaking.

I made coffee when I got up for my cigarette at ten till two.  I actually made the coffee before I went out for the cigarette.  I believe coffee increases serotonin, which creates a sense of personal confidence and helps relieve anxiety.  That’s why I take it.  This was a morning to try our patience.  I rang the bell for service at not quite five thirty.  Almost immediately Alex came in and turned off the light and said Christian would be up in a bit to give me my Ativan.  That “bit” turned into nearly a three hour wait where my tension only grew.  The hours passed and I wasn’t worried at first.  But it became clear their timetable for today was not like yesterday.  Yesterday I got all of my medication at twenty to seven.   Today they didn’t come for the early cup of coffee that they do till nearly seven thirty.  Nothing was going on in the building.  I had KNX ratio on and off during the morning but got bored with the news.  I had this odd feeling of being abandoned and trapped.  We got our breakfast a little past seven thirty.  By then I was pretty jittery.  We got milk and OJ and coffee and out main tray but they could have thrown in a box of Raison Bran just as easily and they didn’t.  We had French toast and butter and syrup and two sausages for the main meal.  I also ate Joe’s sausages.  Earlier Joe gave me potato chips.  I wandered around the building.  I came across that lady with the accent downstairs on the east hall after eight.  She gave me my medication then but she didn’t have to.  She could just as easily told me to go back to my room.   She told me she would get the Ativan as soon as she was done with that hallway.  I went back to my room.  A few minutes later when I had about given up hope the redhead showed up with the Ativan.  It was eight fifteen.  The drug takes over an hour to take effect.  My other symptons this morning included inflamed sinuses and feverishness.