Sparrow Tree Journal
Sunday, February 9, 2025
A new skill
Friday, February 7, 2025
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Rant
Three months ago, on Election Day, I swore I wasn't going to let the second Trump term cause me the daily anxiety and stress that the first did.
Yeah. That's not working out. At all.
I've never been so frightened in my life over politics and the direction of our country. Every day it's just more and more horror. The rule of law, precedents, norms, civilized behavior..............none of it means jack shit anymore.
I find myself resenting Trump voters even more than I used to, and that's saying a lot. I'll have zero, ZERO, sympathy when the lowlife losers and racists who voted us into this mess lose their Social Security, disability payments, workplace protections, FEMA disaster relief, Medicaid, and on and on and on. Fuck every single one of them. We tried and tried to tell people what a disaster this was going to be, and "owning the libs" meant more to them than anything good and worthwhile that America has stood for for the past 250 years. They can all go to hell and rot.
The only thing I regret is that the decent people in this country are going to suffer right along with them. Over the weekend I actually found myself googling "safest blue states for women and minorities" and making a plan for selling the house and moving before things get too bad and we're trapped here. States that border Canada are my first choice.
I can't even believe I just wrote such a thing here on the blog. Never in a million years did I think things would come to this. I love my house, my state, my life, but I won't sit around while our version of the Taliban comes into power and live under the control of such people. We have literal (neo) NAZIS running the show. NAZIS. And a way-too-large portion of our population are ALL FOR IT. It's sickening. Scary. Almost unbearable.
How are you coping? Do you think I'm crazy? Alarmist? If not, are you making plans? I'm afraid this is all going to get much, much worse before it gets better. If you have any words of comfort that might make me think otherwise or feel better, please share them.
And thanks for letting me get this off my chest. As you can probably tell, it's been a bad day.
Monday, February 3, 2025
Game changer
I took today off from work. I had a mid-morning appointment with my allergist, Dr. Stone, and I have loads of paid time off I can use. My appointment was just a follow up to check on my progress with the Dupixent injections. I was so excited to show him how great my skin looks! These shots have been a total game changer for my severe eczema. The skin on my ankles and feet hasn't been this clear (and itch free) in over 20 years!
I don't care about the lingering redness one bit, though. The skin is smooth, cool, and soft. It's not broken and bleeding from scratching anymore, and the terrible itching has stopped pretty much completely. I can't begin to tell you how much this has improved my quality of life!
Bless the doctor for being persistent in getting my insurance to cover the cost for this medicine. I'm beyond grateful.
Saturday, February 1, 2025
Miscellany
Friday, January 24, 2025
A coincidence, and a blast from the past
Last night I dreamed I was back in high school, and I was hanging out with my friend Trey. We were at the grocery store, picking out snacks because he was coming over to spend the night at my house. We were making plans to stay up late and watch scary movies.
As soon as I woke up and took a shower, I sat down in front of my computer with a cup of coffee and opened up Facebook. And would you believe it? Trey had sent me a private message with a picture of the two of us in high school that he found recently! CRAZY.
Baby Trey and Baby Jennifer, circa 1989. We were freshmen in high school.
We're still good friends all these years later. We met in kindergarten and now we're both on the verge of 50 years old.
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Snowy day
Overnight we got about 2-3 inches of snow. It's so pretty! Since our high temperature today is going to hover around the freezing mark, and tonight is supposed to be 13 degrees, I imagine it's going to stick around for a while.
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Prepared
It's 6am and 19 degrees outside. I'm drinking my second cup of coffee and preparing to don my heaviest sweater, coat, scarf, and hat and head out to work. Currently the only hazardous weather condition is the bitter cold, so we have school today. The winter storm warning doesn't take effect until early evening. I'm certain we won't have school tomorrow, and there's a chance we won't go back on Thursday, either. We'll see how it all shakes out.
We're well prepared for staying in and waiting out the weather. It's been a household goal of ours to keep the pantry, freezer, and household stores really well stocked up. The dogs and Marco have a month's worth of extra food on hand. We have several cases of bottled water on hand all the time.
All that careful planning and preparing comes in handy when something like this winter weather is coming. I don't have to scramble and navigate crowds in stores. And in this circumstance, even if we lose power, we have gas logs to keep warm and a gas stove for cooking. We have plenty of flashlights and candles, too. I'm not worried.
I stayed away from social media and the news yesterday. I couldn't watch the travesty in DC and I don't have anything to say about it, really. Everyone knows how I feel and most of you feel the same way, I'm sure. We're just going to have to buckle in and get ready for the ride.
So anyway, today I'm choosing to focus on the possibility of a rare winter snowfall. I have a feeling that the kids at school are going to be wild with excitement this morning at the prospect of snow. Good luck to my teacher friends trying to get anything done today!