Speechless

 I have been pretty much speechless for a month, at least in print, because it's so hard to control my right arm without hurting it some.  I decided today would be a good day to write something and get back to living fairly normally.

But I made the mistake of watching the elector certification debates early.  It was silly just listening to supposedly intelligent people posture and pretend to be outraged about the election results and only to please a clown president with no morals and no grasp of reality.

I had a few things to do today and was in and out and had some phone conversations and came back to find an attack on the Capitol by "protesters" who couldn't resist obeying their king and actually showing the country how loyal and devoted they are by an act of violence.

There was a day in 2016 when I went to visit my mother in the nursing home.  I think it was the day after the election of Trump.  I had never called myself a Democrat or a Republican and always voted for the person I thought would do the best job of running our country, after lots of reading of opinions and asking questions, etc.

But even I, with no more knowledge than I had at the time, knew what a mistake it was for this man to be entrusted with our country.  It scared me to death.  I tried to find one person who voted for him to tell me why they did so, but I never did get an answer.  It turned out that he developed an unwavering cult following where no one much cared what he did and found his daily lies and atrocities adorable.  He was backed and excused by his own TV show, Fox News, so people who watched only that show were told how wonderful he was daily and how evil the "media" was to actually check his speeches for misinformation.

It was a feeling of relief to know he was not going to be allowed to do any more damage to democracy and our country, but we all knew that it would get worse before it got better. The attack on the election process was relentless, and even after his 60 lawsuits were thrown out, he was still able to convince his sheep-like followers that there was rampant cheating in the voting system.  There was nothing found, and it was pretty much considered to be the smoothest election in years.  But that doesn't matter.  Millions of people choose to believe this person over professionals and even the Supreme Court.  I can't even imagine this.

All this is well documented and said in much better words than I can express, but I'm comforted by hearing Democrats and Republicans alike with one voice tonight decrying a dangerous and unhinged individual and praying for healing of the division in our country and for the damage that has been done.  

I would love for the country to run smoothly for a while and for the leaders to be able to concentrate their efforts on getting rid of the pandemic and not have to hear the latest tantrums and crazy tweeting of a president who didn't even pretend to do his job.

I know it won't be a perfect world, but it has to be better than it has been.  I'm looking forward to getting my vaccination along with everyone else and getting back to some semblance of living a normal life.

I have a lot of work to do before I can even pick up anything or raise my harm above my hand - a LOT.  But I plan to give it my best and try to do what I'm told.  I also face a new problem with atrial fibrillation and will find out the plans for that tomorrow.  Sometimes I just wake up in the middle of the night worrying about the future and wondering how I will handle things.  I hear it's normal to have this anxiety after a trauma or an illness, but I'm ready for it to go away.

I got to spend some sweet time with my girls last weekend, and it was lovely.  Just their voices and the feel of their hair and their hands!  I've missed the every-day togetherness we once had.

They had come over to open a special gift from Carol and David, and they were thrilled over their elf soap and beautiful ornaments.

The cats are doing their best to help us bring in the Christmas decorations and get them stored away.

And although I can't drive it yet, I now have a new-er car.  It was driven from Idaho over Snoqualmie Pass in a snowstorm on New Year's Day.  Quite an adventure, and I know I'm going to enjoy it.  The family drove by to say hello and let me approve of my new ride.  I think it's cute.

I was clearing off some of the many drawings I had on my refrigerator and noticed this depiction of my surgery by Graysen.  She has the "nail" correct, for sure.

It hurts me to look at this!  But I'm glad Dr. Marshall knows what he's doing.

I'm not sure I'll have that much to say in the coming days, but maybe some (good) interesting things will happen!