the neon light's on me tonight

[the_siobhan]

Still alive.

Occasionally I see posts by people who say, oh sorry I've been so quiet, I've been doing all my posting on this other site. Not me, nope. I go quiet because I suck on all social media.

***

The Old Man really really really wanted to do a dinner out with the family and I just couldn't bring myself to say no to him again yet again. I made a point of getting him his flu shot a couple of weeks ago because apparently this year's flu is a fucker, and then last night we took him out to a steak house. I was thinking I could reduce the risk by doing it 1) midweek, 2) before December started proper and 3) before office Xmas parties and family get-togethers make the numbers sky-rocket. Well #1 & 2 didn't come through for me because the place was packed. And then at the last minute the nephew couldn't come because he tested positive for covid.

Still, the Old Man said he really enjoyed himself. When spring comes we'll do it again at an outside venue - hopefully with the nephew this time - and if we can make that our new tradition I'll feel better about saying no to winter indoor gatherings. I should have done more of that this past summer, but he spent most of it in the hospital. He's in good spirits and good energy now though, so hopefully that lasts.

***

Tomorrow we drop of the bed that we finally got for him. Holy shit those things are expensive. I mean it makes sense they would be, they have to be sturdy enough not to break on people and the mattress is pretty high-tech, but still. Even so it will still be cheaper than the rental.

I am behind on so many things. My to-do list is a fucking joke, seriously, it's one of those cartoon things that has pages stapled on the bottom and just spreads all over the floor when you pick it up.

My to-do list includes writing and phoning politicians because things are a nightmare in Ontario right now. I had an argument with the housemate yesterday about how yes, voting matters, because if we weren't spending so much energy struggling to stop the Conservatives from making things worse, maybe we would have the energy to push to make things better? They made the counter-argument that this province always chooses one of the two big main parties and always the one that isn't in the federal seat - so struggling against the Conservatives is never going to not be a thing on some government level and we should just focus our energy elsewhere. They have a valid point I think, but also you gotta start somewhere, so yelling at politicians is still an item on my daily planner, because honestly I have the time equivalent of 2.5 full-time jobs now and that's what I can manage.

***

I'm trying to get back into Write Every day. Dear Lord. My brain is like the Sahara. I've been trying to write a story from the perspective of a person who struggles with depression which you would think would be easy for me, but it's surprisingly difficult to put the experience to paper.

So I was thinking about it one night when I was lying-in-bed-not-sleeping and it occurred to me that for me at least, depression has always really been about anger. So if I can write a character who is just quietly fucking furious all the time I might get closer to what I'm trying to express.

Could be an interesting exercise, if nothing else.

***

So yeah. Same old, same old over here.

Comments

[greylock]

I go quiet because I suck on all social media.
At least you are consistent!

When spring comes we'll do it again at an outside venue

I was wondering why you didn't do an outside thing. Then I remembered seasons, and latitude!

I had an argument with the housemate yesterday about how yes, voting matters,

Every vote matters.
Here's a tweet from ABC data analyst Casey Briggs om how counting is going in Victoria right now:
https://twitter.com/CaseyBriggs/status/1598554511047503872
That's crazy!

Speaking of crazy, the vote difference between Lauren Boebert and her challenger was less than five votes.

They made the counter-argument that this province always chooses one of the two big main parties

And the best way to change that is not do anything. I don't get that argument. I get being tired and disengaged, and frustrated, but damnit, I don't get that argument.

We've just had the most productive government federally, doing more in six months that the Cons did in six years. I might not love it, but damnit, shit got done, and we elected enough independents that they worked together.

[china_shop]

Occasionally I see posts by people who say, oh sorry I've been so quiet, I've been doing all my posting on this other site. Not me, nope. I go quiet because I suck on all social media.

Ha, this is me, too, when I go quiet.

It's good to hear from you. ♥

[solo]

Occasionally I see posts by people who say, oh sorry I've been so quiet, I've been doing all my posting on this other site. Not me, nope. I go quiet because I suck on all social media.

I feel you!

Commiserations on sucky Conservative politics... from a place with sucky Conservative politics.

[redbird]

You have to start somewhere, and we don't all have to be working on the same things, or in the same ways, including but not limited to electing candidates or asking them to do X or not do Y. The emails I send to my Congresswoman -- Ayanna Pressley -- are rather different than the ones I'd send to a different representative, or in a different district or state.

Sometimes my answer to "why are you spending your energy on X?" is "what are you doing instead?" And then maybe I'll do that too, or instead of what I had been thinking of doing, and sometimes it's a "why bother?" of indifference. At which point, maybe those emails won't help save the world, but neither will me reading another mystery novel or book about molluscs.

There's room for both "elect/re-elect/defeat $candidate" and "contact your representative about this issue" and, in some places, working to pass or defeat ballot measures about things like income tax rates and transgender rights. There's also room for doing things entirely outside the electoral system, and those suggestions don't contradict each other.

[grimjim]

Is said housemate aware of the situation in Alberta? Things can definitely get worse.

[the_siobhan]

Sometimes my answer to "why are you spending your energy on X?" is "what are you doing instead?"

That is a really excellent response and I think I'm going to steal that for future use.

[elusis]

the vote difference between Lauren Boebert and her challenger was less than five votes.

... WHAT

[elusis]

I have ended friendships because the other person not only stuck to "voting doesn't matter" but discouraged other people from voting.

Text organizing - sending or following up on text messages with progressive orgs - has been some of the most satisfying activism I've ever done while sitting on my ass at home. Helping to get info on poll locations and hours to Black voters in various southern US states, for example. Making sure people knew how to register to vote. Connecting ex-felons with orgs to help them get their right to vote back. Yeah, everyone complains now "oh I get so many texts around elections" and I always tell them "look just text back STOP and have some grace because we have actually made a measurable difference in some elections already." I resist the urge to say "... unlike your cutesy scrapbooking postcard party..." because I'm a bad person but not THAT bad, quite.

The other direction I focus my activism is encouraging people to run for something, which I also do via text organizing. Dog catcher, school board, whatever - because the other guys sure as hell are.

[greylock]

Just looking at the recount stats, it looks like it's actually just 550 votes.
So, either I misread, or there was one county where that was the difference.
I saw it when I was trying to puzzle out the whole vote curing palava.

[warriorsavant]

I think it's a Canadian thing that whichever party is in power in Ottawa, the provinces go with the (an?) other party. Our version of checks and balances. Quebec, as always adds the linguistic/ethnic element to screw up my nice theory.

[houseof9cats]

When the very right to vote is on the chopping block, I'd say that's enough reason to go out there and vote. For voting. Bc holy shit, are we really here right now? We are.

I hear you on the seething anger.

[the_siobhan]

The argument isn't against voting. The argument is, "neither party is going to do enough to prevent apocalyptic climate collapse, so instead of spending your activism spoons on engaging the vote, you get more bang for your buck by spending those hours on things that will more effectively deter said climate collapse."

This debate started because our provincial government has passed a bill that will hand over large chunks of the green belt around Toronto to private developers. It's seeing an enormous backlash, which is good, but I can't help looking at all the energy being devoted to just... staying in the same place. What could we accomplish if we weren't fighting to keep things from getting worse?

Our province always votes for whichever of the two major partys is not in power federally. This time, that means we had the lowest voter turnout in history and we got the failed drug dealer again. Ford has been so so bad as Premier, and yet somehow people still wouldn't vote to get rid of him.