Weltschmerz week of Oct 29

Musings not so good week of Oct 29

With wind and rain on Monday and Tuesday, our fringe effects of Hurricane Sandy, power was out from midnight Mon to noon Tues, not too much to put up with, but Tessa, little terrier mix, was sick with fever and lethargy and apparent pain—difficulty moving from one place to another, and needing help to get onto or off the couch.  And I had a toothache. 

As rain diminished later on Tuesday, I made an appointment with the vet for Tessa, and took her in at 3:15.  While he could not pinpoint her problem, he was able to rule out Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, and a couple of others, gave her shots of antibiotic and anti-inflammatory drugs, and pills to take twice a day for fifteen days.  I also got a refill of Frankie’s allergy pills, which are also administered twice daily.  I am happy to say Tessa has made an amazing recovery, is really all better now.  It remains to be seen what happens when her drug regimen is over.

On Wed I voted early at the courthouse, there was a line, not intolerable, chatted with some friends, manned Democratic headquarters in the afternoon.  Did some phone banking.  On Thursday I mailed copies of 13 pages that we had done to the state hdqtrs.   Received new pages by email from state hdqtrs, with a note, “Forward.”

I went to the dentist on Fri a.m., was diagnosed with abscessed tooth, and was prescribed an antibiotic for that.  I then stopped by the Dem hdqtrs—not open in the morning, and someone else had duty in the afternoon, but I needed to drop off some materials.  After I exited the building, I realized that I had locked the key inside the building, had carefully locked all the doors before exiting.  We keep the key to the front door in a lockbox at the back door.  Well, at least I had not locked my car keys inside, and my cell phone was working, so I called Dorothy and laid it on her.  I just could not bring myself to try to track down somebody with another key.   Then I went to Southern States to get some feed, and discovered that I could not find my debit card.  No problem, I just wrote a check.  I stopped by dollar store to get some tinned cat and dog food, ‘cause they have our brands cheaper than elsewhere.  They have a system where they just take the blank check and run it through, and then you sign on the little window.  But it wouldn’t take my signature, and she couldn’t get it to work; after several tries to reboot the machine, etc., we finally switched to another machine and had to start all over.  In the meantime, rummaging around in my purse I found the wayward debit card and was able to use that.

I came home and took a long nap.

But these travails are all trivial compared to what is going on elsewhere, and I know much was preying on my mind.  There was a pall hanging over the nation in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the overwhelming, heartrending scenes of devastation, and the reality that this was the fruition of long years, decades even, of denial of scientific evidence of global warming, failure to take any action to mitigate the inexorable progress of climate change, and consequent disastrous weather events.   As well, watching the antics of voter suppression, concerned with how this would affect the election, and most of all, affect our democracy. 

Then, on Friday evening, I was watching the msnbc special on Hurricane Sandy, a tribute and benefit concert.  After some banter and music, a scrolling of scenes from the beaches and communities devastated by the storm.   Much moved, I sat at my computer and started making the following notes:

Did anyone really think it would end with Katrina?  Or did anyone think anything would be done to prevent such a horrible event occurring again?  Storm of the century, indeed.  The century has barely begun and we have already had two “storms of the century.”  And don’t even think about the drought, the wildfires, the floods, the tornadoes, and elsewhere, Africa drying up, Asia washing away, Arctic and Antarctic breaking up, glaciers melting, Australia not sure whether to expire under wildfires or floods—and now, watching those scenes from Staten Island, Rockaway, the Jersey beaches, the blizzards, it doesn’t even bear thinking about. 

And it didn’t have to be this way. 

It was at this point that it was like a huge stabbing pain in my heart, and overwhelmed with despair, I burst into tears.  I cried and cried, all the pent up despair over the years, decades even, of watching the failures to heed the warnings of scientists about global warming/climate change, the denial, the refusal to take any action over this, the gravest problem facing the world.  While we crept inexorably toward the tipping point, the point of no return.  While the whole world watched, and waited, and hoped.  And now, it is too late.