Onward with no resolutions!

 

45 minutes before sunrise, on Monday the 5th of January 2026.  It's coming, you can see that it's on its way, painting the clouds!

I have made NO resolutions for the new year.  Just to survive it, I guess.  Keep on breathing with each new day.  Try to still be a good person when the part of my identity that is as a US citizen gets smeared by a leadership team that does not believe in following the rule of law, either our own or in any global sense.  I do not like to think of myself as a "bully", but the things that have been done "in my name", "on my behalf" in the past year are disturbing.  

I am keeping my head down and trying to do the things I need to do to keep my little household and my furry friends going.

Tuesday January 6th, epiphany.  Ember went to day care.  My trainer wasn't feeling well, so that's been shifted to Thursday this week.  I went round the house with the vacuum, did mostly human laundry, but one load of dog towels.  The x-pen is slowly shrinking in the parlor.

I keep shifting things around, trying to make it roomier.  On Wednesday morning, January 7th, I took a photo of Ember with two of her "stuffies" on her cushy dog bed in the now "naked" corner of the parlor.  Such a good girl!

Does this look roomier?

Our human errand run on Wednesday morning was to drop physical payments in the post office mailbox.  After reading a couple of disturbing things online about changing rules surrounding taxes, I wasn't going to trust even the official mailbox around the block from me.

Oh, what were the disturbing things that I read?  First, that the IRS is discontinuing the IRS file direct application.  Which essentially means if you used this in the past, now you're likely to either have to find another free tax filing app or pay for one of the tax filing applications.  The link is to a recommended article.  Don't know how long it will be up.

I have been paying Turbo Tax for decades, so it doesn't really change what I'm doing, but this is disturbing to me:  another way to "reduce" the federal workforce and in general make it "more work" for the consumer/end user.  

Second, it was the announcement that the post office would change how they postmark mail.  This includes tax payments and mail-in ballots, which could have a negative impact on 1) whether your vote counts in an election, and 2) whether you get penalized for when you paid your estimated or owed taxes.  I hope I'm not the only one paying attention to these things! 

I'm a notch more paranoid about how and when I mail things.  I was already driving my mail in ballot to the election commission office.  But it makes me think.  I've got it pretty cushy.  I have a car, the time off to do this, and am still physically able to drive.  People who are less fortunate might be less inclined or able to do so, and they would then be the ones whose vote might be suppressed, or who might be charged penalties.

Wednesday afternoon, the news invaded.  Again.  I am in emotional paralysis.  37-year-old white, female, US citizen, killed by a federal agent, as she tried to get away from them.  She was shot dead by one of the agents, and the video looks pretty damning.  To said agent.  Young woman was probably terrified and certainly didn't intend to herself be violent. She is deceased; there is no way for her to testify as to her state of mind.  

I expect / suspect that she was there to "document" what was happening in her city. I can easily see my own daughter in law in that kind of role.  Not a violent person, but a person who is out to observe and warn and report.  

Apparently to certain people parking your car sideways in the street for three minutes (as one video shows was done) is sufficient justification to pull you from said car and beat up on you.  If you try to evade, it's enough to get you shot.  My own opinion:  some folks are too high strung and have too touchy an emotional trigger for law enforcement work.  We all make up stories in our minds to try to make sense of what we see.  I try to not cast the person "on the other side" as a villain or evil.  That doesn't mean I think their actions were justified. Especially when they led to loss of life.  Folks, we are all human beings!

Thursday, it rained most of the day, and the warm spell we've been blessed with is on its last legs.  Ember went to day care, and I read for enjoyment, trying to avoid the news.  I did a minimal amount of housework and ate entirely too much.  

Friday morning it was below the freezing mark when I got up.  Fortunately, most of Thursday's rainfall had drained away.  I was pretty careful trundling the garbage bin to the curb, and even more so taking the dog out on the deck (elevated, wooden, and not as dry as the concrete out front) to go do her business in the back yard.

After poo patrol we went off in the car for me to do some grocery shopping.  

When I came back out, this was the view:

I peered carefully to make sure I was choosing the car that had Ember in the back seat. I loaded my groceries and drove off.  As I was getting back into my car after taking this photo, the driver of the other one came out to his car, and we exchanged "nice car" comments!  Seriously, I have two nieces that each have a Honda Fit, same color, as my Dexter.  One of them is even the same model year.  This particular "twin" was a little more recent a year than Dexter.

Small world.  Trying to stay positive, while praying for those directly impacted by events that invade the space of the news.  LIFE, in itself is good.  Spark on and hug your loved ones.