Wednesday morning felt different after a restless, silent, very dark night.
We had lost power at 3 PM the day before as Southern California was slammed with extremely high winds, and we had no idea how long we’d be without it. It was obvious that I wouldn’t be working remotely that morning, though. As it happened, we were powerless for a total of roughly 21 hours. And we were without cable, internet, and WiFi for a couple of hours longer
You’d think we would be pretty accustomed to feeling isolated by now. California began its COVID lockdown ten months ago(!!). That said, the connections provided by technology have been taking the edge off that isolation. Being cut off from that takes it to a whole other miserable level.
But as winds of change blew on January 20th, I felt reconnected…and not so miserable.
While driving to the office that morning, I tuned into the Inauguration ceremonies broadcast on NPR. And as I listened, I felt moved, excited, and maybe even a bit hopeful. Flipping the calendar to a new year doesn’t change much all by itself. Flipping the balance of power actually might.
And here’s where to get your own set of Presidential Pair Action Figures.
And in other, less-newsworthy news…
I finished two books this week and continued my experiment with mini-reviews on Instagram. It’s been hard to shake the idea that I need to have 250-300 words to say about a book (Writing paid reviews for Shelf Awareness ingrained that.) Here’s the awful truth, though: sometimes I just don’t. And it’s kind of nice not to push for that when I’m not feeling it.
I had, and have, the same feeling. I watched a little bit of the inauguration while at work and I won’t lie that I teared up more than once, especially when Kamala took the oath.
Same (although I was driving, so I needed to keep that under control)!
I felt a collective sigh of relief and calm on January 20 amongst my family and friends. It will not be perfect and I’ll be frustrated with this adminstration, but, as one friend said, “that’s better than feeling terrified.”
As my son put it later that day, “It’s Boring In America.” Not sure I totally agree with him, but it’s nice to feel like you might be OK if you ignore the news for a day or two!
I am so glad you are feeling reconnected…even despite the power outage — that can be rough indeed. We watched the inauguration with my daughter as part of her social studies class assignment. It was good to see, but she claims it was boring….kids!
I was sorry not to be able to watch, but even just hearing it was pretty inspiring. (But in fourth grade, I probably would have been bored too ?.)
It’s pretty bad when power outages suddenly become the norm. Sure makes you appreciate power when you have it. We talked before but I think we both feel such a sense of relief now that the clown is out of office.
Remember when “fire season” was a season? Climate change is real. It’s good to have an administration in place now that knows that. (Science is real, too.)