shtf « Robin Writes

Actually, I could entitle this “things I’ve learned since the weather turned cold.”

It takes, to date, about an hour or so to get the fire in the furnace burning.
It takes about another hour or so for the temp to reach 120, which is when the blower kicks on.
With our new, warmer bedding set, we really don’t need to put another log on before we go to bed.
When the sun shines in the front windows (south-facing), the temp in the office and bedroom goes up to around 82. No heat sources needed as long as the outside temp is above 40.
In a small house, it’s really hard to find a place to hang up winter coats.

The first two only matter in the evening, say, between 6:00 and 9:00, at least so far. We’ve had some nights down in the 30s lately, and once I get chilled outside (like with a north wind), I stay pretty cold the rest of the day/evening.

Over the weekend, I unpacked, from barn storage, all the winter stuff: long underwear, really heavy coats, sweaters, and so forth. Yes, I’d already packed and put away the summer clothes. A few things might make it to the dropbox in town, if they’re still in fair condition, but as long as they fit, they’ll stay.

Somewhere.

I might be able to find space for a few hooks on the walls, but wall space is at a premium here. In desperation, I took an older over-the-door rack and stuck it on the kitchen door, going outside. Hard to see out, but that’s okay. Now, if I could only find one to go over the front door too . . .

Changing habits is hard.

Well, that’s kind of a no-brainer, right?

We’re currently having a big discussion here about the television. I’m not much of a TV watcher; I do like movies, and there are some series/shows I like, but if I miss them it’s no big deal. Sometimes a program will catch my interest for a few minutes.

My husband, on the other hand, is, yes, a TV junkie. He used to turn it on in the morning, which drove me nuts—too much noise way too early in the day—but he has since stopped that. He usually watches while he eats lunch, and for an hour or so afterward, and turns it on from 5:00 until around 10:00 or 11:00.

Now, before we moved, we talked about this. We had no TV at all down here for about eight months after we bought the place, and so in the evenings we’d sit outside and talk or play cards at the kitchen table.

Then he came down here by himself for a week.

So he brought our smaller TV along and bought a DVD player and a ton of old movie collections.

After a while, that got old, and a few months later we moved. Now, living and working here, I need Internet service, but we decided to go just with a TV antenna—which works great, and the old shows we mostly got on non-network channels provided a lot of laughs.

Roku, however, doesn’t work very well, and by the end of the month, when our LIMITED INTERNET is running out, it doesn’t work at all.

Seriously, who ever heard of LIMITED??

Today, DirecTV is coming out. I hate them. They’re hard to deal with. I do NOT want another dish or antenna or whatever junking up the place.

But at least he’ll have, what, 200+ channels to fall asleep to? 😉

Oh, yeah, I was talking about habits, right? Well, the TV is certainly one of them, but where I was originally going with this was my own daily routine. I used to spend a couple hours online, working and reading the news and emails, and then get dressed and moving and start the ACTUAL working, like editing and so forth, until lunchtime.

Now, particularly in winter—not to mention LIMITED INTERNET—the daylight hours are much shorter, so I have to get my butt in gear. Some days it’s easier than others, but I’m slowly moving toward an hour first thing in the morning, and then a few hours later in the day after all the outside chores are done.

Since, yes, I have a lot of habits, I’m having to readjust them all constantly—and it’s rather tiring!

I’m looking forward to no big outdoor projects this winter and doing more baking, some leatherworking, and maybe even figuring out how to get that second knitting stitch on the damn needles without dropping the first one.

When it comes to crafty stuff, I am a sloooow learner.

OMG.

I had an entire, lengthy post for today, reasoned, balanced, and yes, a little anger and annoyance thrown in, but I’ve decided to do this instead:

Grow up, special snowflakes!

The world did not end because Trump was elected. Are you not all carrying on today as usual? Did you get up, eat breakfast, go to work? Has a SWAT team broken down your door and dragged you off to a FEMA camp? Yes, I’m aware that I’m mixing up your government buzzwords.

If you are gay, black, Hispanic, do you really think that something horrible is going to happen overnight, now, today, in the next couple months, or even the next four years? Really? Shut down your emotions for a minute and think about this.

How long do the Feds take to pass laws?

How often are those laws actually enforced and to what degree?

How often do adults sit on the floor and cry and carry on like children?

Okay, I did this once when my daughter was four and had a tantrum. I threw myself down on the floor and next to her and kicked and screamed for a few minutes right along with her. She stopped, I stopped, we both felt better.

But this isn’t about your feelings. Special snowflakes are all about feelings. Instead of saying “I feel,” try it out with “I believe.” Do you really BELIEVE that the Feds are coming for you?

If so, do you think sitting on your butt and crying about it is going to make a difference?

Stand up, speak up. Make plans to protect yourself. Then you can sit back and focus on grown-up things, like working for change. Same thing I said during all the Ferguson protests, except I used “violence” instead of “feelings.”

Forget the “safe space” myth. Your safe space is your home, it’s yours, and the rest of world isn’t obligated to make you “feel” anything. That is on you, within you.

Protests will get you nowhere—take action. Protests are like wearing pink to “raise awareness.” Who the hell needs to be made aware??

Whew, now that that’s over, let’s talk about why Trump was elected. Why did people vote for him? Living where I do, I’ve conducted my own “exit poll.” And, as a full disclaimer, I have more friends on social media who are liberal than I do who are conservative.

So again, why did people choose Trump over Clinton?

Some did because, to them, Clinton was no choice at all, for different reasons. And some simply didn’t choose at all.

All of them, yes, DO want to “make America great” again—but it’s probably not what you think. No one wants to roll back to the 1950s in the area of social construct, but they DO want to be Americans and have pride of country; they want to have jobs they can count on with a decent paycheck and access to the boss instead of answering to corporate bullshit; they’re tired of being regulated and taxed to death, and they’re tired of paying for everyone else. They want to feel safe, just like everyone else, but they don’t need a safe space or an offense-free society.

In a nutshell, they feel they can take care of themselves if given the chance to do so without government interference.

Around here, people take care of people. If someone has a disagreement, they move past it, either by discussion or maybe even an all-out fistfight. Feelings are fine, but they aren’t definitive of the person or the situation. If someone is in need, the neighbors pitch in with assistance or food or whatever is needed.

SO MUCH of America now consists of government jobs or the service industry. We don’t create, we don’t make things, and so pride of accomplishment is gone by the wayside. This is what they want to bring back. All of this.

And I’ll say this again: I don’t know a single person who is racist, misogynistic, or xenophobic. Not one. No one voted for Trump because of the negative things he said or did or allegedly did. Maybe elsewhere, but not here, and I’m quite certain there are many, many other places about which you could say the same thing. Are there bad things happening? Yes. And those are the ones that make the headlines.

But mostly, those who voted for Trump are tired of being told what’s “right,” particularly when they disagree with the definition.

They’re tired of being called names, see above, when they haven’t done or said anything to warrant that.

They’re tired of being told they’re wrong all the time, simply because they disagree.

They’re tired of hearing “love and tolerance” preached at them.

They’re tired of being talked down to and told they’re “unevolved” or “archaic” or “less than.”

They’re tired of having their asses jumped because they inadvertently used the wrong word to describe a group a people—not an offensive word, just a word that is no longer in style as per the group being described. As an example, in my lifetime, black people have been referred to as “Negro,” “African-American,” “black,” and now “people of color (POC).”

They’re tired of being told that “cultural appropriation” is wrong, even in the cases of kids’ Halloween costumes.

They’re tired of 18-year-olds needing a “safe space” and emotional support animals, when many 18-year-olds are overseas, in uniform.

They’re tired of protests and riots and they see this as whining and complaining and laziness. And they’re particularly tired of the violence involved in many of these. They believe you should work for change, they know it’s not happening overnight, and they know that yes, sometimes it costs money to implement that change. They see these protests as a way for people to participate—in nothing but a large crowd and perhaps a few moments in the spotlight.

And yes, they’re tired of giving people free rides—this is how they see it: they work 12-14 hours a day, so can others. And this may well circle us right back to the economy, those government jobs that give so many perks and the service jobs that have little pride of work well done.

Think about that: someone is job-hunting and what do they find? They can work in a cubicle, pushing paper, they can ring up folks at a cash register, they can answer incoming calls or make collection calls. Who could get excited about that? Where’s the actual work? And no, I’m not saying these people don’t work, but there’s no end result, no complete product, just endless repetition and more of the same, each day.

Religion plays a part too. These voters are tired of hearing that Christianity doesn’t matter, that those who claim to be Christian continue to pick and choose, switch right to wrong and vice versa. They’re tired of hearing they believe a “myth” and having to kowtow to those of other religions. They’re tired of hearing all religions are the same.

Many of these things have little to do with Trump himself, but have everything to do with change from the last eight years of a Democrat as president.

Remember when Obama was elected? Those who opposed him were called a lot of names then too. Those who were fearful of their lives being turned upside down were mocked and ridiculed.

What I’m seeing is the anger and lack of tolerance being shown, in both situations, by the left. And yes, again, there are factions—the so-called alt-right—that are promoting and promulgating violence and hate. These people likely aren’t fed up, they’re just assholes. We’ve always had them, we always will.

So let’s flip it: why did people NOT vote for Clinton?

Because that promised more of the same as the current administration. All the things people are tired of.

Not because she’s a woman—hell, most of the people I know think a woman could run circles around a man in the White House. Seriously. I

And, you’re going to laugh at this part, but folks around here believe in integrity and the whole FBI investigation mess and the lying—actual or implied—was a big negative. Big enough to outweigh other issues.

Bigly, if you will . . .

I’m going to wrap this up now, but just know that your day-to-day life is not really going to change. Not for a long time, if ever. But you do need to toughen up and cut your fellow Americans some slack.