Category: Florida

it’s 2024 — now more than ever, vote!

whbeebe

https://www.vote.org

We need to vote, in every election and in every jurisdiction we live in and are legally allowed to do so. For Florida, a.k.a. DeSantistan, we need to vote to push back hard against the decade’s long Republican campaign to deprive anyone who isn’t male, white, and rich of any rights they wish to enjoy, such as the right to vote.

The link beneath the vote.org logo will take you to a web site that will quickly and efficiently help you determine, based on where you live, when, where, and how to vote or register to vote if you aren’t registered. Voting works. It has been shown to work repeatedly in every election, major and minor, on year or off, if people are willing to vote and vote with compassion and intelligence, two key qualities that the Republican party are deathly afraid of and will do anything to stamp out within their own ranks. The Republican party is no longer the party of conservatism, but the party of authoritarianism leaning hard into fascism. Republicans now say the quiet parts out loud, that it is their intention to block and dismantle everything democratic that doesn’t support them and their rough ride over every citizen for political power and absolute control.

Please, at the very least, vote.

new years day — the aftermath

whbeebe
Virtual fireworks that didn’t bother anyone, not even these party animals.

New Years Eve was a wild time around the old neighborhood. Booms and pops and crackles were going off everywhere around us, especially at the magic moment of midnight. That’s when it seemed all hell was breaking loose. All my animals were not amused. For example I had Luke, the alpha and biggest of the clowder, sitting in my lap. Every time a firework went off he would shake, until one was so close, and thus so loud, that he shot off my lap and into some safe spot in the house to hide. The others were just as traumatized. Sometime around 3am I awoke briefly to find a cat either on me or next to me. I shifted the load to something a bit more comfortable and then went back to sleep.

This morning I awoke to heavy smog over Florida, and most of the southeast US. That came about because of the still air over the Florida peninsula, combined with dense low fog and the smoke from all those fireworks that were detonated the night before. When I went out around 6:30am local time I could see the crap hanging in the air, and of course, still smell all the smoke produced by all those fireworks. According to the weather service this should all begin to clear out around 9am local time. In the mean time I stay indoors as much as possible and keep the windows closed to keep out the filth and stench from all those reveler firework explosions.

And of course, no start of the year would be complete without a birthday celebration on Animal Crossing. I have a deeply ingrained habit of setting my birthday to January 1 and whatever year strikes my fancy at the time I’m asked. Except for certain government agencies where my correct birthday date is required, nobody else needs my birthday. It’s a way for me to try and minimize the damage of a breach of personal data from a site that might get hacked. That, and refusing to give out my social security number to anyone except government agencies. Anyway, a wonderful Animal Crossing birthday was had by all, especially my avatar.