Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The lights are all blinking red.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

We still have time to mess this up!

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Republicans do not pay their debts.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

This blog will pay for itself.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Republicans in disarray!

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Monday Night Open Thread

Monday Night Open Thread

by | 121 Comments

This post is in: 

Been super busy and Joelle has been having a rough go of it and still in a lot of pain. After being alone for so long it’s hard to remember that not everyone has the same kind of tolerance to physical pain and doesn’t heal as quickly. Also, the dogs and cats have been really acting up a lot today. All in all, everyone here is still having a better day than Matt Gaetz.

BTW- if you really want to test the strength of your relationship, try putting compression socks on the legs of your low pain tolerance having spouse after she has had a knee replacement. We both needed some alone time after that so that we could reflect on our life choices.

***

If you had been wondering what Trump’s obsession with the Panama Canal was, this will clear it all up:

What’s New

President-elect Donald Trump has started a quarrel with Panama over the fees it’s charging American ships to use the Panama Canal, while the Trump Organization is fighting a court case over taxes in the central American country.
What to Know

In June 2019, the owners of a Panama City hotel that was managed by Trump’s businesses, and carried the Trump brand, accused two companies, Trump Panama Hotel Management LLC and and Trump International Hotels Management LLC, of not paying taxes on their Panamanian earnings.

Last night, I couldn’t remember the genesis of his obsession with Greenland, and someone reminded me he wants to build a golf course there. He’s so fucking transparently obvious and such a clear phony yet somehow our media titans can’t see it or benefit too much from his rapacious greed. It’s just insulting to the fucking intelligence, anyway, and even more maddening is the redpilled maga idiots who just thing it is some deep 11 dimensional chess, as we used to say.

A real concern is that young and aspiring writers coming of age right now are going to think this is how must villains and corporate titans are (although nowadays with Musk and Thiel and the rest of these fucking mendacious techbros, it apparently is). But if you want to write good stuff, this is not how our villains are supposed to be. They are supposed to be complex, with multiple layers of motive and thought, and not just “I want to build a golf course in greenland and they said no so let’s nuke them.”

Fucking hell.

What is the late night crew up to?

*** UPDATE ***

Don’t forget to buy your Pet Calendars!!!

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  3. 3.

    Sure Lurkalot

    No worries, CNN is ON IT. It’s manifest destiny!

    President-elect Donald Trump appears to be entertaining an American territorial expansion that, if he’s serious, would rival the Louisiana Purchase or the deal that netted Alaska from Russia.

    And for someone who argued during the campaign that the US should pull back from foreign intervention, the ideas carry modern echoes of the 19th century doctrine of Manifest Destiny — a belief in the United States’ divine right to expand across the continent.

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/23/politics/trump-us-expansion-panama-canada-greenland/index.html

    Our media is irrevocably broken.

  4. 4.

    narya

    Drinking a beer called “Dallas Sucks” while friend watches his Pack. Mom only watches the first half of MNF games.

  5. 5.

    Tehanu

    I’m supposed to be wearing compression socks, but my arthritic knees won’t bend enough for me to get them on, and Hubby Dearest can’t help because of his Parkinsons.  I do remember a couple of years back when I did wear them and having to ask a co-worker to help me get them off toward the end of the work day because they were so tight I couldn’t stand them any more.   So there they sit in a drawer.

  6. 6.

    Jeffro

    Just think: if we had an actual Democratic messaging machine, we’d be able to point out to American voters and media outlets that trumpov is just banging on Panama because it wants him to pay the taxes he owes

  8. 8.

    moonbat

    Toasted the fact that 45 is one day closer to death with my favorite single malt and am planning some Xmas baking.

    Everything 45 does these days is so obviously an attempt at a shakedown it is not even funny. We should stop pointing and laughing at him and begin pointing and laughing at the corporate media outlets who pretend there is some sort of statecraft going on here.

  10. 10.

    lowtechcyclist

    Been living Murphy’s Christmas Vacation here, but I need to go to bed now, so I’ll try to write about it in the morning.

  12. 12.

    Ohio Mom

    I don’t know much about compression stockings, my compression sleeve isn’t that tight and goes on easily. Though when I take a break from wearing it for more than a day at a time, I can feel my arm getting heavier with stagnant lymph. I’m in awe that something so simple works so well.

    I know there are tricks to getting on sleeves and stockings that provide higher pressure. Have you checked YouTube for how-tos? So much of our lives as patients is a big DIY project.

  13. 13.

    Suzanne

    There are various pneumatic leg compression devices on the market, maybe try those instead of the socks?

  15. 15.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Watching video from the Santa Cruz Pier which collapsed earlier today after being hit by severe waves Fortunately, the pier had already been closed for repairs, after suffering prior storm damage, and the three workers in the area were rescued safety. Remarkably, the restrooms at the end of the pier stayed intact and floated ashore nearby. Yet another storm is hitting tonight, but we’re supposed to get a break in the weather on Christmas Day.

  16. 16.

    karen gail

    A headline caught my attention; something about this election and Trump: along with golden age/ gilded age.
    Trump was promising to bring back golden age during his campaign and some are tying the election and his choice of super wealthy to bringing back the “gilded age,” it might sound like a good thing but for those who actually pay attention to history it is a major red flag warning.

  25. 25.

    pat

    @pajaro:

    I don’t remember where I read it (I’m getting several substacks in my email) but when global warming has removed all the ice up in the north pole, it will be a shorter way to send ships than through the Panama Canal or Suez Canal.  In maybe 10 years or so….

    I do not think that trump can know that, but maybe someone has been whispering in his ear, huh?

  28. 28.

    coin operated

    Lesson learned from his previous administration…look for the shakedown. Knew about the Panama tax evasion…didn’t know about the golf course in Greenland. Helps to keep the “WTF is he doing now?” reactions tempered a bit….he really is that frigging transparent.

    The first ones in the tumbrels will have to be the managing editors at our failed media institutions. We deserve better.

    ETA…wishing the best for Joelle’s recovery and both y’alls sanity.

  29. 29.

    moonbat

    @coin operated: Hear, hear! As an ex-journalist who actually believed in the maxim of “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted”, I will be sitting and knitting at the foot of that guillotine.

  31. 31.

    Bupalos

    BTW- if you really want to test the strength of your relationship, try putting compression socks on the legs of your low pain tolerance having spouse after she has had a knee replacement.

    Or if you don’t, just accept the kind offer of opioids, and listen to her giggle about all the kittens that keep playing around her ankles.

  33. 33.

    hitchhiker

    I had to put compression socks on mr h after he broke his neck, and I’m grateful that his sensation was such a pathetic mess that he couldn’t really feel much. I, on the other hand, tweaked my lower back seriously by trying to get it done while bending over him.

    If you want a recommendation, here it is: practice on something until you get the hang of doing it super quickly and smoothly. I used a big squash.

  35. 35.

    Scout211

    This Trump retro playlist seems a little stale. Iceland again.

    However, I didn’t remember this tidbit from the first album:

    NBC    Miles Taylor, who was chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration, told MSNBC in 2020 that Trump had asked him and other officials in 2018 whether the U.S. could swap Greenland for Puerto Rico because, in Trump’s words, “Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor.” He said the conversation occurred before DHS officials traveled to Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, to help with the recovery from Hurricane Maria.

  36. 36.

    Ohio Mom

    I buy my compression sleeves at one of those weird drugstores that specializes in medical equipment. The owner is an expert on compression sleeves, stockings and various related devices.

    As my PT described her, “She’s the best sleeve fitter in the city.” Since my arm is small, off-the -shelf sleeves are too big for me. My fitter arranges custom-made sleeves for me.

    This stuff is tricky. I reccomend anyone having to do compression long term to find their city’s best fitter. For you, @Tehanu: , a fitter may be able to get stockings that close with zippers or Velcro.

  39. 39.

    Another Scott

    @pajaro: Donnie thinks it’s a bigly gigantic piece of property.  I mean have you seen how uuuge it is??

    Greenland appears the same size as Africa, when in reality Africa’s area is 14 times as large.

    Whoops.

    [ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ]

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  41. 41.

    pajaro

     

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    CNN’s article is pathetic, as one might expect.  Trump’s comment is  either a joke, or it isn’t.  One might ask Trump for clarification, if one were in a real news organization that wanted to inform its public, as opposed to being a headline-generator.  If it’s serious, it would worth explaining to the viewing public the levels of ignorance and lunacy required for someone to make a serious proposal to Denmark to rid itself of the place.

  42. 42.

    coin operated

    @Suzanne: +1. Pneumatic compression boots are marvelous devices. The fancier ones do progressive compression…starting at the foot and working their way up…but any of them will do the job.

  43. 43.

    Bupalos

    Casablanca is a great movie emotionally, and I’ve seen it enough times to watch the cinematography and I think it maybe broke new ground as far as filming eyes…lighting eyes and filming for eyes. And also, did they cast Ingrid Bergman because of her eye talent? Full control of the hydronic functions, etc…

  47. 47.

    mrmoshpotato

    Last night, I couldn’t remember the genesis of his obsession with Greenland, and someone reminded me he wants to build a golf course there.

    A golf course – in Greenland?!

    Now I have to start calling him a STUPID, fat, orange, fascist shitstain.

  48. 48.

    Mel

    One thing to be alert for is post-surgical depression in joint replacement recoveries. All three of my family members and two friends who have had knee and/or hip replacements, and had no history of depression, got whammed with terrible bouts of depression about a week after their surgeries.

    After the fact, all the surgeons said, “Oh yeah, that happens to a pretty decent number of patients. We ought to mention that.” Yep.  It would have been nice to know in advance…

  50. 50.

    frosty

    @Another Scott: The fucking Mercator Projection. Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Siberia all look much bigger than they really are.

    It’s a good map for navigation but that’s about it.

  52. 52.

    pat

    When I had my hip surgery, I got a device that I could roll up a sock and pull it up on my leg without bending down. Haven’t needed it in years. It certainly ought to be available at any place where you can get those compression socks, I would think Not sure how it would work with the compression socks, I have never needed them.

  53. 53.

    Bupalos

    @Scout211: This is actually the first thing I’m finding even vaguely surprising about Trump II: The ReDumbening. This thing where he talks about weird old colonial shit and a kind of cartoonish expansionism.

    It’s a little worrying, in that he’s essentially talking about military operations that have literally zero military opposition, where he could have the US military do something (pretty meaningless, but probably more meaningful in relative terms within the military) with essentially zero personal risk attached, so that no soldier would actually have to ask the question “is it was worth it?”

    You’d need to have a military that said “we’re not doing things that seem weird which we disagree with” which isn’t exactly in the core competence of militaries. Normally the question with militaries is whether they’ll accept the risk associated with the objective, and in this case it’s null on both sides. Which might be a really clever way to  frog-boil the military.

    Probably not. But I’m one of the few here that thinks Trump, while broadly ignorant, is actually a kind of genius in very particular ways

    I mean, does Trump want to operate in a world of rules, or does he want to operate in a world where rules have been shattered? What world are we in if we sort of “invade” and “seize” the canal?

    That’s potentially a better world for him.

  55. 55.

    beef

    @ShadeTail

    Xykon’s not complicated, but he has character, charisma, and competence. (Not high character, but what he has he has lots of. And the competence is only when he can’t take the lazy option.) We’re probably lucky our villains are lower quality.

  57. 57.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Jeffro:

    A hypothetical Democratic messaging machine might make sure every American knew that Trump was only trying to get out of paying the taxes that he owes, but a slight majority of. Americans would agree that he should never pay taxes to Panama.

    Everybody knew every bad thing about Trump, but they voted for him anyway.

  59. 59.

    Redshift

    @Scout211: I remembered he wanted to trade something for Greenland, but I had to search to remember what. But yeah, the blatantly racist “trade the brown people who aren’t really part of our country and who I’m getting shit for treating like they’re not really part of our country” tracks. He probably thinks Greenland has white people because it’s owned by Denmark and indigenous people don’t count.

    I don’t think the golf course thing is real, I think someone just made it up.

  60. 60.

    beckya57

    Campos over at LGM was just reminding us of JMM’s Trump’s Razor: the stupidest explanation is always the correct one.  Applied to the Greenland case, the Mercator map that makes Greenland look like a continent is probably why Trump covets it so.

  63. 63.

    Jay

    @pat:

    Not gonna happen.

    The eastern Arctic Ocean has only a few major islands and deep water.

    The Northwest Passage has shallow waters, hundreds of small and large islands, reefs and narrow passages.

    So while a shortened shipping route over the ruZZian Arctic will save time and money, a shipping route through the Canadian Arctic will be harrowing, slow, complex and dangerous.

  64. 64.

    ShadeTail

    @beef: Xykon is indeed all those things. He’s loads smarter, more self-aware, and more competent than the cheeto-colored clown. But he’s also very simple. He just wants to have so much power that nobody, including the gods themselves, can tell him what to do. That’s really all there is to him.

  65. 65.

    Mai Naem mobile ¹

    John – I had to do this for my dad. Wear a pair of latex(or nitrile) gloves when you’re putting the compression socks on. You get a better grip.  Also, turn the sock inside out to about just past the heel and put it on to the heel and then pull up the rest. Its a lot easier. I found this how to on YouTube. The demo is way better than my crappy instructions and its short.

    https://youtu.be/-GR1NAbpriE?si=pp9ZuTb4lz_IPb0C

  66. 66.

    NotMax

    Someone nearby is mightily aggrieved.

    Passed by a house in the area with a handpainted sheet of plywood displayed in the yard reading

    DO NOT GET [name of company] SOLAR

    (name redacted here for obvious reasons).

  68. 68.

    SpaceUnit

    trump probably thinks Greenland is overflowing with good, wholesome, and blonde Scandinavian folk.

     

    Shhh.  Nobody tell him.

  69. 69.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mel: After knee replacement, even when I could theoretically work again, I had a *way* harder time getting back to 100% productivity at work than I expected. Of course, one needs to factor in that this was also deep in the COVID pandemic shutdown and it was on top of the general one-day-same-as-the-next of the time, working remotely.

  77. 77.

    WTFGhost

    I’m sorry Joelle is still in pain.

    One thing about pain tolerance is, it’s something you can transfer somewhat. You know tricks that help you – tape up a couple of tongue depressors, and tell her “when I’m ready to pull up the compression stockings, bite hard… not before. If you bite before, you’ll still be shocked, but if you bite just a second or two in advance, it helps.”

    (Well, it helped *me*.)

    Another thing that really helps is *choices*. “Do you want your pain meds, or food? Remember, you might need to eat, first, because the pain meds make you nauseous.” (Also: docusate sodium/calcium are good bowel meds to avoid opiate constipation.)

    Just having the choice – “am I hungry, or in too much pain to care?” can help. Neither choice is good, but, but if you were in the field, and were asked, “broken primary arm, or broken secondary legbone?” you’d actually *appreciate* it. Both choices *suck*, but a person decides if they need to walk, or use their arms, and will have a better time handling it.

    Um. I hope this isn’t too dark – if so, translate it, I mean, damn, you were in the military. (I wasn’t – I just have a dark brain.)

    Also: I’ve never even *comprehended* the “on the count of three, okay? One (yank)” – you do something on the count of three so a person can brace himself. No matter how many times I see that joke in popular culture, I’ve always been the guy who says “if you say ‘count of three’, and you yank on the count of one, I’ll feel betrayed.”

    Remember: pain fatigues people, which weakens emotional processing, i.e., Joelle might be crabby, because she can’t express her exhaustion with being in pain and immobile.

    Um… did I ever mention that I express love by babbling about junk that might help people in a difficult situation? I don’t mean stalkerish love (“But dude, how many bathroom runs you making? Bad bean burrito?” <- Joke, but, wouldn’t it be freaky if I guessed right?) – just warm affection for people who deserve it this Christmas season.

    Remind Joelle, it can, it must, and it *will* get better, but, for now, yikes.

  79. 79.

    eclare

    @Nancy:

    WordPress gets weird around 2 am EST.  If you post around that time, and it looks like it got hung up, just stick with it and don’t repost.  It will take a while but your comment will eventually post.

  81. 81.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @lowtechcyclist: I apologize, I tried  to get Murphy to go away somewhere. It appears Murphy has arrived in your event cycle. Not sure if he’s left mine, however.

  82. 82.

    Gloria DryGarden

    Speaking of deep things, and Greenland, and golfing

    If one is walking towards one’s white golf ball on a white uneven surface,

    it’s my understanding that a person who falls into a crevasse might not be able to be retrieved. Even if they’re roped up. And that deep down, there are melt waters flowing along rapidly, no doubt around 32 degrees Fahrenheit water temps.
    one wonders…

  83. 83.

    NotMax

    Got a late start ion cookie baking. Didn’t begin mixing up the batter until 8 p.m.-ish. And that batter needs to firm up in the fridge for an hour. Second dozen (of probably what will end up being seven) ginger snaps in the oven.

    Usual recipe calls for one cup of molasses. Turned out what was nestled in the pantry yielded slightly under two-thirds of a cup so topped it off with honey.

    As the kewl kidz say, it’s all good.
    ;)

  84. 84.

    Shalimar

    Saw a picture of Elon Musk with Trump and it struck me that Musk looks a little like k.d. lang.  Now I can’t un-see it.  Poor k.d. lang.

  87. 87.

    cmorenc

    @Mel:

    One thing to be alert for is post-surgical depression in joint replacement recoveries. All three of my family members and two friends who have had knee and/or hip replacements, and had no history of depression, got whammed with terrible bouts of depression about a week after their surgeries.

    A big temporary depression-inducing component the first couple of weeks post-knee replacement is that it convincingly simulates what it would be like to inhabit the body of a decrepit 95-year old semi-invalid, but you’re only 55.

  89. 89.

    TBone

    The talk of compression socks has me remembering when I’d hafta do the morning struggle into pantyhose for the office (btw, who thought up that word hahahaha) when I was in excruciating, all over pain.  I’d hafta do both legs at once.  Scrunch them up from the top down in your hand and start with the toes. Pull up quick while wiggling.  Punch holes in them. Go to store on the way to work for backup hosiery.  After a while, I started buying slacks and floor length skirts to avoid stockings altogether and finally I just started wearing soft jeans and hoodies on my bad days.  “At least I’m dressed!”

    Joelle has my sympathy!

  92. 92.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @cmorenc: makes me think of the despair when my cast came off 6 weeks after a broken bone surgery, and I had no range of motion. I could not bend that joint.

    And they said to write the alphabet with that appendage. They said it would come. They didn’t give me any idea of how long, nor report that despair was a normal response. It took months and months. I thought I should have been given a pamphlet about the hopeless feeling, and that it would take a lot longer than one hoped.

  95. 95.

    Geminid

    Solved: the mystery of the missing grad student.

       My PhD student, Assad Hassan, has just learned he has become Syria’s new Foreign Minister. I wss asking his Indonesian and Palestinian classmates why he hasn’t been to class the last two weeks.

    Istanbul professor Hasan Aksakal posted this over the weekend and it went viral:

       I never thought my soft sense of humor would find such a big response in the Arab world. Egyptian, Qatari and Syrian journalists stopped working and started liking my tweets about books and cats. Now my nickname is Hasan Aksal al-Turki.

    When he’s not tweeting about books and cats, Professor Aksal writes books on intellectual history, including the impact of Romanticism on modern Turkish history. He also edited Spoon River Antologisi, a Turkish translation of the Edgar Lee Masters work.

    Aksal and his missing grad student may have talked about Masters’ poetry; Foreign Minister Assad Hassan al-Shaibari graduated from Damascus University in 2009 with a degree in Engish Language and Literature. He joined the opposition forces two years later when Syria’s civil war bvroke out.

  97. 97.

    TBone

    Today’s coffee has resulted in a surprise anxiety attack.  Grief sucks.

    Whelp, at least these are rare for me.

  98. 98.

    MagdaInBlack

    This weekend I was all fired up: gonna make sourdough pancakes for Christmas. ALL fired up.

    Today I could give a rats ass about pancakes for Christmas.

    We shall see.

    Good Morning !

  101. 101.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @TBone: I saw your comments from Sunday, just back lurking tonight. I am so sorry. It’s a good day for calming tea, rescue remedy, chamomile…

  104. 104.

    Geminid

    Yesterday the Russian cargo ship Urza Major sank off the Algerian coast after an explosion in its engine room. The ship was carrying equipment from bases in Syria that Russia evacuated. Two crewmen are missing.

  108. 108.

    evodevo

    @Tehanu: ​
    yep…if you can’t get them on relatively easily, they are the wrong size. They gave me some after my knee surgery because my knee swelled up like a balloon. I never used them. The swelling went away on its own after a few weeks of PT. I could never get why something that squeezed my leg that hard was supposed to “improve” circulation lol…

    Oh, and they make devices that make it easier to get the things on, I have been told…

  112. 112.

    Geminid

    Reps. David Joyce (OH14) and Andrew Garbarino (NY02) were the two Republican Ethics Committee members who voted to release the Gaetz report, according to Axios reporter Andrew Solander and others. David Joyce represents a district in Ohio’s northeast corner, while Garbarino’s district covers much of Long Island’s south shore.

  113. 113.

    Denali5

    Well, TFG found a way to grab the spotlight away from Mush. Make preposterous proposals – the newspapers love that sort of thing.

    Hope Joelle is feeling better today, I know she appreciates that you are there for her.

  114. 114.

    lowtechcyclist

    So, Murphy’s Christmas, so far:

    Prologue, last Thursday night: kiddo comes home about 10:30pm, produces a couple of parts of his passenger side mirror. He knocked over a mailbox with the mirror.  This had happened much earlier in the evening, he did not knock on their door to let them know what he’d done, so he got a serious talking-to about how you don’t hit and run.  And the next day, I stayed in the car while he went to their door, apologized, and offered to pay for the mailbox.

    Prologue 2: Saturday, our BIL who we would be staying with in Florida, who had been sick for 2 days, got tested for Covid. Positive.  He said he could self-quarantine in his room so that we could use the rest of the house.  (Turns out he’s been good as his word so far.)

    Prologue3, Sunday (which we’d hoped was the main event): we had a 10:10am flight on Southwest from BWI to Tampa.  It got delayed to 12:30, then to 2pm, then to 6pm, then it was canceled altogether.  They rebooked us on a 6:20pm flight, which actually left on time. (There were a whole bunch of us Flight 2766 cancelees on the 6:20 flight.)  But when we landed in Tampa, there was no gate available for something like 20 minutes – I’ve never been in a plane waiting for a gate as long as this.  It was after 11 when we finally got to BIL’s house, and after midnight when we finally got to bed.  (So much for Cubans from La Segunda in Ybor City for lunch that day!)

    Monday: FIL was sick all of Sunday.  Bought a Covid test pack, got him tested, he’s positive.  Probably got it from BIL; they had lunch together on Wednesday, BIL didn’t start having symptoms until Thursday.  FIL is 83, has COPD, is in generally poor health.  We spend hours trying to call his doctor, can’t get through the Phone Menu From Hell that didn’t seem to have any of the usual escape hatches to talk to a person. “If it’s an emergency, call 911. Otherwise, we will return your call within 24 hours.” I’m not a medical professional, but it seems there’s a lot of room between ‘911 emergency’ and ‘can wait 24 hours for a callback’ but it left us with only those two choices.

    FIL was too weak to walk from one room to the next safely, and was running a fever over 100, so we called 911 when the doctor’s office hadn’t returned our messages after a few hours.  The ER checked whatever they checked, his lungs were clear, his bloodwork was showing no problems other than the obvious, so they released him, leaving us the problem of getting him back into the house safely. Let’s just say that was an ordeal that was extremely hard on him.  We got him into bed sometime after 7pm, and then went to Denny’s to have what was my wife’s first meal since a bowl of cereal at 7am.

    And today’s started off with FIL calling us to tell us he’s fallen, so another 911 call. Had some serious skin tears – his skin’s really fragile.  Apparently he got stuck between his walker and the wall when he fell. My wife’s with him at the hospital now.  He had his phone with him when he fell – we’d told him to make sure to keep it with him, just in case. So he had it with him when he fell, and could call us.

    So that’s our Murphy’s Christmas so far.  The big Christmas dinner with 11 members of the extended family there has been off since we let everyone know of BIL’s and FIL’s Covid diagnoses, so it looks like my wife and son and I will have Christmas dinner together at one house or the other (BIL and FIL live within walking distance of each other), and deliver plates of food to BIL and FIL if they’re up to eating anything.  Neither has had any appetite since coming down with Covid, so probably not.

    But at least we’re here to help both of them out.  BIL would have done what he could for FIL if we hadn’t been here, but I thank the Lord we are here, because BIL’s too sick to have any business having to handle FIL’s situation by himself.  It’s about as far from an ideal Christmas as could be imagined, but we’re where we need to be right now, and that’s the important thing.

  116. 116.

    Glory b

    @lowtechcyclist: I would have gotten the address and written a letter.

    I’m thinking of the young woman (white) who was shot & killed turning around in someone’s driveway and the black kid who went to the wrong address picking up his little brother from a play date & got shot in the head by the homeowner (who was “afraid for his life”).

    Fortunately,  he survived.

    Also, the victims of road rage incidents, where they pull over & are assaulted by the other driver.

    Life in the US is different now.

  118. 118.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Glory b:

    Life in the US is different now.

    Well, it helped that the house in question was in my own neighborhood, and there had been no such threats or incidents here.

    But more specifically, I’d had occasion to knock on that particular door one night a couple of years ago: their house number on our street is a transpose of the number of the house directly across the street from me. And somehow (maybe something on the neighborhood Facebook group?) I found out about it, and wound up picking up some mail that had been inadvertently delivered to them, and taking it to my then-new neighbors across the street.

    So I had no reason to worry about my (white) son’s safety as he knocked on this door.  Now I agree that if he’d been Black or some other color than white (coulda happened, we adopted him), I’d have had him write a letter, because America is a very different place if you’re nonwhite, especially so if you’re Black.

  121. 121.

    evodevo

    @cmorenc: ​
      Yes. This. It DOES get better – I had my replacement in July and was assured that by 3-4 weeks it would be much better. NOT. It took till 6-7 weeks before I would see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now, 5 months in, I’m still stiff, but able to do farm chores and whiz through the grocery store without my canes, so…

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