Thursday Date Night

This was a typical day, and the blog entry is relatively brief. It was our first tranquil day together for the trip.

We finished the night at Chili’s, after 8, closer to 9 for dinner. Deborah and I were enjoying a date night after all the traveling and rushing we had in Iceland and back. Our dinner was typical industrial restaurant food, explaining in just a few plates why Americans are overweight and have high salt and sugar levels. I remember Chili’s food to be better and with more choices. And that there was actually chili at Chili’s. Still, it was nice to slow down a bit and enjoy a meal.

Before this, we went to the new Superman movie. It was bright but harsh and did not follow the easy Hollywood stories of yet another woman who needs rescuing and falls for the handsome prince, well, an alien or, as it was explained in the film, a metahuman. There was also a fascinating exploration of Journalism and how it works, as well as why it is essential. The villain was certainly too dark, and there is a moment that went too far. Still, it did show that the only alien or inhuman person in the story was Lex Luthor, an interesting way to frame him (as opposed to the mad but funny and corrupt version from Gene Hackman, which I often think about). I would recommend the movie.

Before this, Deborah worked on important work stuff that had come up, while I wrote, paid bills, and did laundry in Deborah’s excellent laundry machines. We just hung out and brought Panera Bread soup and sandwiches for lunch for us and Liam and Donovon, Deborah’s sons. I pet the dogs, but not as much as they wanted.

I rose early and had breakfast at the hotel. I wrote the blog in my room and came out later for breakfast, which was a bit picked over at that time, and the coffee was out. The kind staff brought out more coffee, and all was good in the world again. There was a banana this time, and that made up for any shortfalls.

I will take a slight detour into politics. I am seeing more attempts to grab headlines from the White House, and Trump seems to repeat tariff demands, threats to take over the Fed, and changing positions on Russia; he appears to be caught in a whirlwind that needs to control the headlines. While I cannot say anything nice about Trump, I have seen this before with other presidents: the glow of the election fades, and the grind of governing starts to take over. The campaign trail tricks, promises, and lies cannot make a government run. It is a challenging time for Trump and the White House. Again, we have seen this before as the president runs low on the political capital generated by winning an election.

The cuts, so random, are shutting down and reducing services in many ways. The state governments have relied on borrowed Federal money and centralized distribution of funds for most of the last seventy years. Deciding that the burdens of education, healthcare, weather forecasting, and emergency services are not part of the Federal government without the agreement of the states to cover these necessary functions of government seems mad to me. States will have to borrow money or raise taxes to cover these services, or forgo them. It will also take years to create these services at the local level. There will be chaos next year.

Sorry if I am dark today, but this is on my mind. It is beginning to look like a whirlwind in Washington.

Thanks for reading.