Pros and Cons

Lychee is almost here.  Obviously I am thinking a lot about being a parent.


I am looking forward to:

-The chance that she'll join the Girl Scouts.  A direct cookie connection!  On the other hand, having boxes stacked in the house might not be a good thing...

-Reading to her.  We already do it a little, and I'm sure I'll need some hard candy to keep my throat from drying out, but Miss Mox and I will read to her a lot.  Hopefully she is as into reading as we are.

-Her being potty trained.  I know it is a couple of years away, but it can't come soon enough.  And that's before I've had to deal with diapers...

-Taking her to try strange and interesting food.  Miss Mox will bail, but I love trying new things and hope Lychee wants to join me.

-Figuring out her interests.  We will provide as many experiences as we can, and help her figure out what she likes.  Sports?  Music?  History?  Cooking?  All of the above and more?


Not looking forward to

-Diapers and puke.

-Not being able to keep up with her.  My back and my stamina are not kidlike. 

-Her dating.  At all.  Boys or girls, nice or not, it will be a challenge for us and her suitors.

Who's Left?

Bernie Sanders has had a good run.  The last few weeks he has picked up a few delegates, and his supporters are all excited about the next few states.  Even if he wins them, though, he will be way behind Hillary.  He should drop out.  He had his chance, and did surprisingly well but not good enough to win the nomination. 

Rubio is out; other Republicans will be out soon.  It's going to come down to Trump vs. Clinton.  Trump was a surprise to the Republicans, and he is threatening to take over the party.  They created him, of course.  Now most of them are afraid of the monster they unleased, though some are jumping on the bandwagon.  He represents the ignorant, bigoted wing of the GOP- in other words, most of it.  They say they're not that way, but they are. How do I know this?  Because so many Republicans will end up voting for him.  Why?  "Well, at least he's not Hillary."  I know she is a typical politician, but I don't understand why they hate her so much that they are willing to elect a bigot. 

"She lied!"  Well, she's a politician, that's part of the job description.  And Trump lies in every speech he makes, and most Reps aren't bothered by it.  So that's off the table. So, now tell me why you don't like her.  Tell me why you want a reality star, a sleazy scam artist, a habitual self-promoter.  Tell me why you think he is more qualified to be president.  I am very disappointed in any remaining supposedly-rational conservatives who would support him.

Some Sanders supporters say they will never vote for Clinton.  If they enable Trump to win by not voting, or by writing in a candidate who has no hope of winning, part of the blame for whatever Trump does will be theirs.  Similarly, if any Clinton supporters refuse to vote for Sanders in the fall if he somehow gets the nomination, they share the blame too.  Look, I am not a fan of Hillary.  There is plenty I disagree with her about.  However, if she wins the nomination I will vote for her.  If Bernie wins, I will vote for him.  Why?  Because either of them is better than Trump (or any of the Republicans this time around.)  You don't like her?  Fine.  Suck it up, and vote against Trump.  Listen, we don't always have perfect candidates.  Actually, we never do.  Run yourself if you think you can do a better job.  We have the candidates we have.  That's the real world.  Sometimes you go into a restaurant and have a surfeit of good choices.  It's hard to narrow things down.  In politics, it's usually the opposite: there are no good choices, just too many bad ones.  You have to choose the least bad option, not the super awesome one.   That's called reality.

I think the fact that so many Sanders supporters are saying they won't vote for Clinton is a subconscious acknowledgement that they think she will win the nomination...  I don't hear
Clinton supporters saying they refuse to vote for Sanders in the general election, possibly for the same reason.   I wish we had someone else running, but I will vote for anyone who has a chance to beat Trump.

Decisions, Decisions

If you are having a hard time deciding between Trump and Clinton, you need to do some self-evaluation. A lot of people don't like Hillary.   I disagree with her on a lot of things.  Fewer than with Trump, though.   I don't much like her, but I like him less.   I'm not a fan of most politicians.  But ask yourself which of those two would make the better president.  If you think the better president would be the racist scumbag; the unscrupulous businessman; the guy who encourages violence among his supporters; who threatens to sue anyone who disagrees with him- I question your human decency.  Hillary has the experience, knowledge, and temperament to be president.  Trump does not.  A lot of the stuff people don't like about her is made up, distorted, sketchy.  The stuff I don't like about Trump is true, and he says it every day.

 I really don't get it.  He is a demagogue, a charlatan, and a boor.  (I know, those are big words for his followers.)  The people I've seen supporting him are lunatics.  They seem disconnected from reality.  What is it that they think will make him a good president?  He has no experience or qualifications as a politician, statesman, whatever.  They may say he is a good businessman.  He is not.  He is a scam artist.  When he doesn't get his way in a deal, he sues.  If it's a little guy, he tries to take his house.  He's an asshole.  He advocates violence.  None of the qualities I've seen him display are ones I'd want in a president.  If you want someone like that,... well, you already know what I think of you.

I'm glad people stood up to him in Chicago, and made it very clear that he is not welcome.  I hope that happens other places, and I will join in if he comes to my town.  I do worry about what will happen- his supporters are nutbags, and dangerous, and things could get very nasty.  But not standing up to him will make things even worse.

Retreads

Things are getting busy here, and I am going to dig up some old blog posts, and other things I've written, to fill up the next few months.  If I have time and energy I will write new stuff, maybe about diapers and sleep deprivation.  For now, here is an ode to Volkswagens, old and new, that I wrote twenty years ago.




                                  Apologia....why I traded my Bus for a shiny new Fox

     This summer, when the temperature was topping 90 everyday and the world was one of swimming pools, sports, and suntans, I was thinking about winter.  Among other things, I was thinking how cold my trusty 1972 Volkswagen Bus was on a cold winter's night, even after it had "warmed up."  As I stood on the dealer's lot for the tenth time, pondering the decision to give up the Transporter and everything that went with it, the thought of shivering in that box on wheels, squinting at the road through frost that seemed unlikely to melt until springtime, became the deciding factor.  I caved...and drove off the lot in a brand new '93 Fox, the low-end Volkswagen sedan.
     Oh yeah, I miss the Bus.  There's just something about it...maybe that air-cooled, almost-aviation engine sound. The space, too--heck, the stuff I had stashed in the Bus' various hidey-holes filled the entire trunk of the Fox!  All sorts of useful (and useless) items--some of which I still carry around; I hate the thought of not having the right tool or picnic accessory with me.  I miss the grins and giggles and waves and peace signs.  I miss being able to look drive-through restaurant employees in the eye.  I miss not having to worry about just how close I am to that--scrrrrape!--fence.  How could I hurt the Bus?  Now I have to wash and wax and worry.  Before, if it started raining, everyone except me had to rush out and roll their windows up.  Not me...the Bus could take it.  I could haul anything, with no fear of damaging the upholstery (what there was of it).  I hauled quite a few people, moved furniture, carried trash to the dump, even thought about taking a rooster to its new home: hey, it could fly out of a pickup, and the Bus was like a cage on wheels.   If the thing got dirty, I could just hose it out.  And I miss the headroom...driving the Bus was like being in the living room of a small house: everything was within a few steps.  And I'll miss the white: though it was hard to see in the snow, it kept reasonably cool in the summer.  The Fox is an interesting color.  It's "raspberry," a name not calculated to produce respect in most minds.  It's nice, though.  I thought it was just dark red, but in some light it has a purplish cast.
     But I won't miss the freezing temps in winter (that's with the heater on...), or the feeling of running on the ragged edge of the motor vehicle safety laws (the turn signal?  The muffler?  Yes, officer, I'll get right on them.)  I won't miss being nearly blown off the road by semis and crosswinds.  I won't miss blasting the stereo just to hear it over the engine (and my voice activated microcassette recorder was useless, because the noise kept it continuously activated--even when the muffler was intact, the wind noise at 55 was unbelievable.)  I won't miss struggling just to keep an even speed, much less accelerate, on uphill entrance ramps.  It's nice, too, not having to finesse the stick into gear.  Or having to shut the door slowly, so as not to knock the window out of its track and then spend fifteen minutes getting it back in place.
      I always felt bad subjecting others to the severe conditions of the Bus.  Now I have heat and AC and comfortable seats.  Girls say the Fox is cute, and it's much more pleasant and classy to ride in.  'Course, the Bus did have that fold-out queen-size bed in back...
     I'll always miss the Bus.  But, the VW dealer took good care of it, and now it has been sold to another Bus aficionado--friends have seen it tooling around town.  At least I know it has a good home, because after all, who would buy a Bus except someone who loves them?