The Beginnings Of An Escape Plan

Ever since the current administration was (re)elected, we have wondered what we would do if the worst-case scenario played out.  The Wife was adamant that we needed to have at least a concept of a plan.  I was hesitant, thinking we should stick it out.  I felt that leaving the country would be wrong when so many people do not have the luxury of that option.  The last eleven weeks, especially the last one, have shifted my way of thinking.  I still think we should stay, but I am now a little more amenable to making a contingency plan.

First of all, we can't stay in America so we have to consider where we would go.  During the COVID pandemic the Wife put in the time and paperwork to become a citizen of Luxembourg through her ancestral connections.  This means she, as a European Union (EU) citizen, can live anywhere in the EU.  I, on the other hand, am not an EU citizen but, As I am married to an EU citizen, I can become a permanent resident of Luxembourg, similar to having an American green card.  Residency allows me to live in Luxembourg indefinitely, but I cannot move to other EU nations.  I would still be restricted to 90 to 180 days, depending on the country's rules, just like any tourist.

I still need to investigate how to transfer our American retirement funds to EU/non-American financial institutions. I don't think there is a way to do this without incurring a large tax bill. Currently, this isn't an issue as the money can stay in America. However, if things really go all authoritarian, I could see restrictions on moving funds out of the country becoming a problem.  Until then, I have moved all our stock holdings to cash to protect our assets.

There is still a lot more to plan but let's hope this stays a hypothetical plan that never needs to be exercised.

Weekly Ephemera #138

• Where the heck did April come from, and what did it do with March?!?
• We went to see Bob Dylan and the Band on April Fool's day and boy howdy did I feel like a fool for going.
• I walked three times this cloudy, gloomy, and windy week.   I walked 24.7 miles (39.7 km), which was close to my goal.  Next week, barring any unforeseen distraction, I will try to go more miles.
• Thursday and part of Friday, I watched the tariffs cluster-F demolish the growing economy this administration inherited.  Earlier today I put in sell orders for all my stock investments.  This decision drove me crazy – too many what-ifs and WTFs.  The uncertainty in the world, and the economy, is making me feel very uncomfortable.  Going to all cash and 'safe' investments will help me rest a little better at night ... if the FOMO doesn't kill me first.

Weekly Ephemera #130

Theme of the week: I do not get it. I just do not understand anything anymore.

• This week started with avoidance.  I avoided watching the inauguration by watching/listening to non-political podcasts and music.  Unfortunately, since I steep myself in news nearly everyday, this reprieve from politics lasted twenty-four hours.
• Took my car for its first service since I bought it.  I drive my car so infrequently that I usually don't hit the mileage maintenance target in a year.  I think I actually walk more in a week than I drive.
• Went in for a teeth cleaning.  This may be one of the few dentist appointments when I didn't have any issues.
• I walked twice a this week.  I skipped my Monday walk due to the single digit temperatures accompanied by negative wind chills temperatures.  I probably could have walked as I know how to properly layer and bundle up for cold weather but I cocooned in podcasts instead.  The two walks I did totaled 24.1 miles (38.8 km).  Next week we're having spring-like weather so I should be able to get three walks in.
• Watch 'The Wild Robot".  It has been nominated, and in many cases won, best animated film rewards.  It's pretty good.  A bit on the saccharine side but definitely a safe place in our current situation.  It reminded me, at least superficially, a bit of the robot in Becky Chambers' Monk & Robot books.
• I am getting an MRI this week to check my prostate.  I think they are being overly cautious but better to be safe I guess.  I wish it wasn't so expensive though.
• My cousin sent me a bunch of family pictures my Aunt had.  I may start posting a few.  Here's one:

"Bruce giving PJ a Pepsi"
Developed January 1975
Picture taken in Guatemala.  Probably taken around Christmas 1974.  PJ was a peekapoo.

Weekly Ephemera #129

• This was a medical week as I mentioned in this post.  This coming week I have a dentist appointment which I expect to go smoothly as I have no issues with my teeth at the moment - yay!
• The Wife and I went to the REI outlet on Tuesday to get some stuff for the Wife's Camino this summer.  The Wife is looking for shoes that will work with her bunions.  While they didn't have a shoe in her size she did confirm that she should be wearing a wide shoe.
  
  I broke one of my backpack tie down connectors during the Camino section back in 2023.  I finally purchased a replacement and my backpack is back in working order.  If we finish the Camino this summer my backpack will be retired.  It looks like it's been through a lot ... which it has.
• Even though we haven't left for Guatemala yet, we started planning our fall trip.  The trip will include Greece, Albania, Macedonia, and Malta.  We are still working out the details so I will have to post more detailed plans in a later post once things are finalized.
• Due to the doctor's appointments early in the week I only walked twice this week.  I did 21.9 miles (35.2 km).  I am trying to change up my routes going places I haven't walked before or have walked for a long time.  I still don't understand why a 10 mile walk one day feels terribly hard but two days later it feels merely difficult.  I was hoping, over time, these distances would get more consistently easier.  They are not.
  
  I am considering walking Monday when the high temperature will be 9℉ (-12.8℃) with wind chills in the negative double digits.  This would get me out of the house so watching the inauguration would not be a perverse temptation.  Hypothermia or depressing anguish ... thems the choices.
• I watched a couple of shows this week.  The Wife suggested "The Contestant" about a Japanese game show contestant.  It was weird, fascinating, and cringy cruel at times but in the end it was an uplifting story.
  
  As a light palette cleanser I watched the "Goosebumps" series on Disney.  It was aimed at a younger audience but it felt comforting to me.

Weekly Ephemera #118

I missed last weekend's Ephemera post as we had guests staying at our house.

• The Wife's aunt and cousin flew up from Florida and visited over last weekend.  We'd stayed at the cousin's place earlier this year.  They visited with friends and family in the area.  It was a very nice visit.
• The election ... well ... we all know what happened.  It sucked.  I hate all the uncertainty it will bring in the coming months/years.
• I'd given up ever getting enough money from our insurance company to fix the hail damage on our roof.  I'd been talking with them for four months with no luck.  The Wife said it was her turn.  One call later and the insurance company is sending a second adjuster out this week to reassess the damage.  My hope has been restored.
• I walked two times this week for a total of 23.6 miles (37.9 km).  Both walks were after the election results were known and it was nice to be distracted.  Unfortunately I saw my first cybertruck out in the wild which yanked me back to reality.  Damn it was ugly.
• We cleaned all the furniture and stuff off the deck.  I'll be power washing the deck to get it ready for winter.

The Day After

 Despite being a pessimist, I find myself always

underestimating the stupidity of the American people.

Weekly Ephemera #115

• 
  We received our ballots for the upcoming election in the mail this week.  We filled them out on Friday and I dropped them in the  ballot drop box yesterday.  Nebraska is one of two states that divide their electoral votes by how the political districts vote.  The district where Omaha is located is known as the blue dot as, in past elections, it often goes to the Democrats.  The rest of Nebraska is as red - i.e. Republican - as they come.  There are scenarios where the Democrats win the presidency by one electoral votes - Nebraska's blue dot - but I hope it doesn't come down to one district in the middle of the country.
• I resumed walking this week.  I walked three times totalling 26.3 miles (42.3 km) so I walked a very slow, five day long marathon.  I'm happy that I was able to restart so easily.  Now I just need to do this next week ... and the next  ... and the next.
• I started to watch the second season of "Rings of Power" on Prime.  It's interesting even though the Lord of the Rings books have never really interested me very much.
• We will be have our first frost/freeze over the next few days.  Glad to see Fall finally arriving.  We brought our plants in today and I'll be turning on the furnace (it was checked out earlier this week and everything is working per specifications) later tonight.
• The first Great Britain post will drop tomorrow.

A Misnamed Weekly Ephemera #110

On Sunday Mom's visitation and funeral service were held.  I was pleasantly surprised how many people came to pay their respects.  I saw aunts and cousins I hadn't seen since the 1980s.  Mom's Pastor led a wonderful service.  The whole thing was very heartwarming.

Other highlights of last week:

• The week was filled with meetings about Mom's funeral preparation.  It was not as hectic as I expected it would be but the Wife and Mom's stepsons took a lot of pressure off me.  Not being Mom's executor kept things to a minimum.  I did a few things to help the executor.  I'd been dealing with some of Mom's accounts when we were trying to get her on Medicaid so it was easy for me to handle the closing of some of those accounts. 
• On Saturday we attended the Tim Walz for Vice President rally that was held a couple miles from where we live.  It was our first political rally and we were happy to see how positive it was.



The non-AI generated crowd in the Astro theater.  You can see us in this photo if you look closely.

(Photo 'borrowed' from an Alex Cole - @acnewsitics - Xitter post)

The line going in stretched for a long ways.  We got in the theater that has a 2,400 capacity and the outside amphitheater was used for overflow held another 5,500.  There were speeches by Congressional/senate candidates, music by a very talented twelve year old Jayde Dorsey, and speeches from Tim Walz and his wife.  It was an interesting ... and exhausting ... experience. 

 

Photos of the rally can be found in my 2024-08-17 Gov Tim Walz Rally, The Astro, La Vista, NE Google Photos album.

• Keeping in the political realm I started watching the fourth season of "The Boys". 
• This coming week I hope to return to my 'normal' routine and to start walking again.  I can't remember when I last had a 'normal' week.

Weekly Ephemera #103

• Mom continues to recuperate at the rehab facility.  The pain in her back is nearly gone and the sciatic pain in her leg is becoming less frequent.  Unfortunately the pain in her neck as she heals is taking its sweet time going away.  This week she goes to her first post-op doctor's visit to get her staples removed.
  
  To keep Mom's options open, the Wife and I visited an assisted living facility.  The place was like a resort.  We left there thinking we would like to move in there someday.
• June has been crappy when it comes to people's health.  Multiple people in our families are dealing with all sorts of health issues.  It's all a bit overwhelming at times.  It's been a tough month.
• On Thursday we watched the presidential debate.  It went from bad to worse.  As I watched it I flashed back to how I felt on election night 2016.  It feels like things are changing and not in a good way.
• We had a hail storm this week.  The slow moving storm parked over our house and hailstones larger than golf balls but smaller than tennis balls wreaked havoc on our lawn furniture.  The sound of the stones hitting our picture window was horrific.  Fortunately all our windows are intact but frames and some screens have some damage.  We have roofers and window people coming to inspect for damage and give us estimates for any required repairs.
  
  

  

  One of our chairs with ten hailstone holes.
  (Photo taken by the Wife)

• I restarted walking this week after a nearly four week hiatus.  I walked twice, including on a day when it was nearly 100℉ (38℃), for a total of 13.9 miles (22.4 km).  It felt good getting back out in the fresh air but my body didn't enjoy it as much.  The hiatus didn't help. 

Weekly Ephemera #69

• This week I had lots of opportunities to walk but ended up only taking two.  On Labor Day I hoped to get a longer walk in but I decided the holiday would be a good time to clean the kitchen and bathrooms.  On Wednesday when I had another chance for a longer walk I stayed home due to the smoke from the canadian wildfires that made going outside hazardous to my allergies.  I stayed home and streamed some shows instead.  I finally went for walks on Thursday and Friday doing a total of 14.1 miles (22.6 km).  The smoke had diminished greatly and the temperatures were approaching fall-like so the walking was delightful.
• This week I caught up on some shows and watched a few movies.  I started with Marvel's "Secret invasion".  It was ok but they obviously tried to do this on the cheap and it felt a bit like a throw away filler.
  
  Yesterday, while the Wife watched football, I watched a few movies.  The first was "The Menu".  It was an interesting horror, thriller, comedy that didn't quite hit the mark.  Next was "Dungeon & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves".  This was a perfectly fine action, adventure, comedy.  Not great but about what I'd expected.  Finally I went towards the weird.  "Three Thousand Years of Longing" is a modern fairy tale where a literary scholar, specializing in how science is supplanting mythology, encounters a Djinn.  The movie is a commentary on storytelling and the modern world.  In the end you have to decide if what she encountered was real or if it was all a story told in a hallucination.  It was interestingly quirky in an understated way.  All in all, the movies I watched yesterday were ... ok.
  
• Tomorrow is September 11th.  In the past I would often dedicate a whole post on remembering the day.  I am done with that.  The events on that day could have been the catalyst for positive change in the world.  We could have turned an act of hate into an act of global unity.  Instead that act of hate has metastasized into division, bigotry, and idiocy.  I will not dedicate a whole post to September 11th until this world of ours has regained its sanity.  I just hope to be alive to see it.

Weekly Ephemera #43

• I did my taxes this week.  This was a weird return since the Wife retired this year and our health insurance is from the affordable care act now.  One of the easiest returns I've done in years.  Turns out we are getting a larger than expected refund this year.  It's large enough to pay for our Key West Roadtrip so that's something.  I usually hate giving the Government a free loan but I'll get over it when the money is in the bank.
• I decided to skip the State of the Union speech on Tuesday.  Probably the first one I've missed it in several years ... possibly decades.  I felt a bit guilty as I read my book instead but the feeling passed.  Things have changed a lot as you pretty much can get summaries and relevant pictures and clips any time you want.  Ain't technological progress wonderful.
• Speaking of technology  I deleted the "Tweet to me" button from my sidebar.  I suspect it was never used and I also suspect it will likely stop functioning as Elno monitizes Twitter into the ground.  I'm not leaving Twitter yet.  I have read rumors that the IFTTT service I use to repost Homer's Travels to Twitter may stop working too.  If it does then my Twitter presence may become read-only.
• I walked three times this week for a total of 25.7 miles (41.3 km).  The two weeks off due to our Key West Roadtrip didn't help much.  My legs were a bit sore but by the end of the week I'd recovered the progress I had before the trip.

Weekly Ephemera #41

• The holidays are behind us.  The oak tree ornaments put away the Thursday before New Years.  The Wife put away the Christmas tree ornaments on Friday.  I took down the Christmas tree on Saturday.  The Outside lights and wreaths came down on New Years Day.  We stayed up New Years Eve and welcomed the arrival of 2023.  Hopefully 2023 will be an improvement over the past three years.
• Spots appeared on the ceiling over several rooms.  A roofer was called in.  He found no leaks but it was wet inside the attic and, after consulting with more experienced roofers in his office, determined that there wasn't enough ventilation in the attic resulting in air/snow being sucked into the roof vents instead of air going out.  Combine this with the more efficient whole house humidifier we had installed with our new furnace and the frigid temps we've had recently, resulted in ice forming in the attic that eventually melted leaving the water spots on our ceiling.  The roofers will be adding three turbine vents (for FREE) and two bathroom vents (which were being vented incorrectly into the attic).  The price for all this was unexpectedly low which was a good thing.
• Watched a lot of the Sh!tshow that was the Speaker of the House selection process.
• I started scanning/taking pictures of the eighty or so travel magnets we purchased during our Fall Travels.  I've finished the 'easy' ones (i.e. flat magnets that can be scanned in batches on my flatbed scanner) and have about forty more to photograph.   I am uploading them after I've taken pictures and edited them.  You can see them on the Travel Magnet tab at the top of the blog.
• I walked three times each week since Christmas.  During Christmas week I walked 23 miles (37 km).  For the first week of the year I managed 19.9 miles (32 km) which wasn't a bad start to 2023.

Weekly Ephemera #34

• I got my COVID bivalent booster and flu shots on Monday.  I feel safer now.  Coincidentally I received a call from a CDC pollster the same night asking about my vaccination status.  The Wife got her COVID bivalent booster on Tuesday (she got the flu shot a week or so ago).
• All my prostate biopsies (twelve samples were taken) came back "Negative for malignancy" which made me dance a happy dance (in my head).  I don't have to go back for another year.
• The elections on Tuesday were a mixed bag.  I'd been telling people for a while that the midterm elections would tell us where our country is going.  A decisive win by the crazy party, you know which, would have been a very bad omen.  Instead we had only a slight shift from the status quo.  Some pundits are saying this bodes well for the future and that Democracy has been saved.  Has it though?  The people who were trying to tear down our Democracy are still there.  They haven't gone anywhere.  They are just licking their wounds and declaring that they've been cheated once again.  The danger I was worried about has just been postponed.  We will now have to wait two more years to see where our nation is heading.  The encouraging thing was the youth and the independent vote.  They both came out and voted for Democracy and Rights.  This gives me cautious hope.
• Winter seems to have arrived a bit early this year.  The temperatures this coming week will barely get above freezing.
• You know what is nice when it's cold?  A nice hot shower.  We are getting a new hot water heater installed on Monday.  I think our current one was built in 1996 (our house was built in 1997) which might explain why our water isn't always as hot as it should be.
• I walked once this week for a grand total of 6.75 miles (10.86 km).  The cold weather was actually nice.  I didn't sweat as much.  I do need to walk more than once per week though and for longer distances.  I need to light a fire under my butt.

Weekly Ephemera #33

• On Tuesday I had a prostate biopsy.  It went a lot quicker than I expected and the aftereffects were not nearly as bad as I'd anticipated.  Having said this I really don't want to do that again.  Results should be out this week.  I have a follow up to discuss them on Thursday.
• We were supposed to have our first snow early Saturday morning.  They were forecasting 2 - 4 inches (5 - 10 cm).  When we got up Saturday morning we were disappointed to see zero inches.  Not even any snow flakes.  I guess we will have to wait a little longer for the first snow this year.
• I walked once this week.  It was very short - only 5.6 miles (8.9 km) - but it was a start.  I was going to walk on Friday but we had on and off rain and it was a cold rain so decided to stay inside.
• I am an avid Twitter doomscroller and I was disappointed when a billionaire with few redeeming values bought the social network this week.  I decided to look at other social network options and chose to experiment with Mastodon.  Mastodon is decentralized, not owned by any company, and gives the users some more control.  It is still a work in progress and there is a learning curve to overcome but I think it shows some promise.  At this stage it helps to be a computer geek.  I'm sure that will change as more people join.
  
  There are several different mastodon servers out there and I chose to join twit.social which is run by the folks at This Week in Tech (TWiT).  I've been watching their podcasts for a while now and I've been a fan of the head TWiT, Leo Laporte, since his TechTV days. They've been running the mastodon instance for a while now so I made an account there.
  
  I'm finding a lot of people I followed on Twitter are moving/have moved to mastodon.  If you have a mastodon account and would like to follow me, you can find me at @HomersTravels (twit.social/@HomersTravels).  [Note:  you do not need a twit.social account, just an account on any mastodon server]
• If you live in the US  don't forget to turn all you non-connected clocks back an hour as daylight saving time has ended.
• Tuesday is election day here.  If you've voted ... Thank You.  If you haven't but intend to ... Thank You.  If you do not intend to vote ... you are dead to me.  Yes, it's that important.

Weekly Ephemera #32

• 
  This week the Wife and I filled out and dropped off our ballots for the 2022 midterm elections.  I am fairly certain that nobody with an (R) in front of their name got any of our votes.  The sad thing about living in Nebraska, a red state, is out of the nineteen choices we had to make, thirteen were Republicans running either unopposed or opposed only by the even worse Libertarian party candidates.  I wish the Democratic party would at least try.
  
• This last week I had my bi-annual blood draw.  After having little control of my food on our travels I totally expected my numbers to be bad.  Turns out my cholesterol was not so bad but my A1C moved up into the diabetic range again.  I'd warned my doctor that I expected the bad numbers and that I would be returning to a better diet and exercise regime and I was pleasantly surprised my doctor decided to let this one ride.
• This coming week I will be having a prostate biopsy.  Wish me luck everyone.  🤞
• I uploaded the last of my Ethiopia pictures.  I added ninety-nine more pictures to the album which can be found in my 2022-10 Ethiopia Google Photos album.

A Homer's Travels Look Back At 2021

2021 … From a burning dumpster fire to an epidemic of stupid.  I entered this year with some modicum of hope but it seemed the idiocy got in the way at every turn.  All I could do as the year progressed was shake my head in disbelief and turn off the news.

Let's look back at 2021, shall we:

• January: The Blue Jays finally found my yard.  They made several appearances in my backyard this year, more than all our years in Omaha combined.  I started a journey of one thousand miles with good intentions.  Cookies welcomed the new administration.  A little hope in poetic form.
• February: The joy of a frosty morning. I went a little bird nerdy at the beginning of the year as demonstrated by this picture of a Junco. Cold days visited us this month.  A visit to Mars.  A symbol of Q and things to come that finally came down six months later.
• March: My first COVID-19 vaccination and the start of Spring.  We were so innocent then.  Who knew the vaccination would be so controversial?
• April: On the second anniversary of starting my Appalachian Trail attempt I decided to go back and finish it.  With the second shot and a couple weeks the end of the tunnel was in view … briefly.
• May: I was in a funk but travel plans were coming together.  I was two days late commemorating the tenth anniversary of my first Camino.  I had no good excuse for being late.  Another new bird visited our backyard.
• June: We went on our roadtrip to the southeastern USA.  The first two weeks of the month we drove nearly four thousand miles.  The remainder of the month I documented our trip and we hosted the Wife's brother and niece as they volunteered at the Olympic swim trials.  It felt good to be out of the house even though where we went evoked many mixed feelings.
• July: I finished documenting our southeast roadtrip.  I aged another year.  The Wife and I watched more Olympic coverage than we usually do (which is a lot) and I suggested a change to how they run the games which I'm certain no one involved took note of.
• August: I added the multitude of magnets collected during our southeast roadtrip.  We had a wasp visitor bearing gifts.  A storm came through and dumped a lot of water on downtown Omaha.  This storm had followed one that knocked out my Mom's power for nearly five days.  Following the storms and summerly hot and humid weather our air conditioner gave up the ghost and was replaced along with our similar aged furnace.  I admired some street art on a parking garage.
• September: I finally caught up on on my backlog of podcasts (a result of the Appalachian Trail hike) and read my first book in nearly a year and a half.  I remembered the twentieth anniversary of 9-11 by looking at how I had remembered it the prior years and considering the mess we are in.  My hikes took me back into nature, the first since I left the Appalachian Trail, where I was saddened by what the passing of time had done to a once mighty tree.  I welcomed the cooler weather of the autumnal equinox even though summer hung on a little longer.
• October: The Wife and a traveling nun had something in common.  My eighth Caminoversary was not forgotten this year.  A couple bird feeder bandits were caught red handed.  The month ended with a ghostly visitation.
• November: We had our first snow flurries of this unusual winter.  The month went by in a blink so I summarized what I'd done.
• December: I was surprised by the first bloom of my Christmas cactus.  We finally had our first significant snowfall even tho it didn't last long.  The month was unexpectedly warm until the last week of the month.  I didn't post about it but my Mom's husband passed away this month just short of his one hundredth birthday.  It was a sad note just before Christmas.
• Walking: I started the one thousand mile challenge thinking it would be easy for me to accomplish.  I did not take into account the heat of summer or the disinterest of the fall that really slowed my progress.  I hiked 831.12 miles over 79 hikes.  It was the third highest annual mileage since I started keeping track in 2007.  I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't complete the challenge but I still managed to hike quite a few miles.
• Biking: This year I didn't ride my bike at all.
• Books: I spent most of the year catching up on podcasts that had accumulated after my Appalachian Trail attempt. Once I'd finally caught up to the present I started back into my reading though this wasn't until September.  I didn't set a goal like I'd done previous years since I wanted to ease back into reading without any pressure.  I did pretty good (for me) reading eight books.  Here are my Goodreads Stats for 2021.
• Concerts, Shows & Music :  COVID-19 … need I say more...again?  No live shows at all this year.  I almost went to a free Elvis Costello concert but the heat and humidity … and frankly crowds kept me from doing it.  Like last year I did listen to a lot of music on Spotify.  Here is my Spotify 2021 Wrapped if you want to explore what the shuffle button did music-wise this year.

• I posted 61 times this year.  Like last year I found it hard to get myself motivated to write. The summer roadtrip helped a bit.  I still didn't want to talk about the pandemic.  I still didn't want to post about politics.  There was too much of that out there and everything else was overwhelmed.  I didn't feel like adding to the amount of stupid that inundated us in 2021 so I didn't.

What will 2022 bring?  I have some health issues that will have to be straightened out.  I want to spend more time with Mom.  The Wife is retiring at the end of this school year.  Health permitting I will finish the Appalachian Trail.  We have a big adventure planned for the early fall.  In other words, there will be a lot of change coming this year.  With great change comes great adjustment.

Here's to a Happy, Prosperous, and Healthy New Year for all.  May all your dreams come true in 2022.

(That last line rhymes!)

Shame

This graffiti has been on display for months.  This is a disgrace.  For those who are not aware, "Save Our Children" is a slogan of QAnon, the FBI designated domestic terrorist organization.

QAnon graffiti on a very prominent place along I-80.

It's time for this filth be removed by the city.

Another Chance To Get It Right.

 I started President Obama's first term with cautious hope.  Over the next eight years I was disappointed.  The President was too nice and the Congress was too obstructionist.  I still was hopeful through most of his two terms but unbeknownst to me Obama's presidency had started something malicious and idiotic.

Four years ago the hope of the New Presidency was gone.  I saw only disaster coming and, for once, my prediction came true.  The last four years of this narcissistic grifter has left our democracy in shambles with over four hundred people dead.  Conspiracies like QAnon have infiltrated the White House and the legislature.  I'm not sure where our nation is heading and it scares me.

Today we have a new President.  President Biden and Vice-President Harris enter office under the cloud of militant threats and a nation split along ideological and, frankly, idiotic lines.

Will they be able to correct our course?  Will America once again gain its proper place in this world?  My first instincts say that this will take one or two generations to right itself.  I want to have hope but I do not think there is much to inspire hope.  As always, Time will tell.

Dark Chocolate Oreos covered in fudge.

On a side note, I am continuing the tradition I started four years ago. I am eating a bag of Oreos during the inauguration.  in 2017 it was a family size bag of chocolate Oreos.  For this one it is a smaller box of fudge covered dark chocolate Oreos.

May the cookies and the next four years be full of healing.

A Homer's Travels Look Back At 2020

2020 … What an unending shit show. A year of two pandemics: one a deadly virus and the other a narcissistic proto-Fascist.  We learned just how ignorant and selfish our fellow Americans are.  It seemed like another bad thing happened every day and the days went on forever … but not in a good way.  A year of anxiety and mental funk that can not be over soon enough.

Let's look back at the dumpster fire that was 2020, shall we:

• January: Like last year, when we started the year in Iceland, we started 2020 in a foreign county - this time Chilean Patagonia.  I announce my departure from Facebook.
• February: On the first of the month I officially deleted my Facebook account.  A quiet month with an extra Leap Day to lengthen this unending year even more.
• March: The pandemic cometh.  This was the month things started to shut down due to COVID-19.  The beginning of spring brought some hope it would not last long.  The birds returned to our backyard while toilet paper mysteriously disappeared.
• April: On the anniversary of the start of my Appalachian Trail (AT) attempt I decided not to go back to finish the last three hundred miles.  My annual exam shouted "Diabetic".  We had eight inches of late snow.
• May: Gloves and masks became more plentiful … in the roadside garbage.
• June: I recognized that while I was accounted for … I was not present in the world.  This lack of presence started when I returned from the AT and has persisted through the year.  Omaha participated in the protest of inequality and injustice.  Summer arrived and with it came a surge in COVID-19 cases.  Is there a limit to human idiocy?
• July: We celebrated our twenty-third anniversary and my fifty-seventh birthday.  2020 not being satisfied with just a pandemic, Santiago had to be put down this month as well.
• August: This month included an almost tragic bunny tale, a return of a monarch, and the positive news of a negative result.
• September: I remembered 9-11 and the changing of the seasons.  I struggled with my many AT what ifs.  I got the flu which, in the time of COVID-19 is actually good news.
• October: The Wife and I did one of the most important things of the year and voted.  The Wife had another birthday.  We ended the month with a quiet Halloween.
• November: The elections dominated this month as it has most of the fall.  Music helped get through some of it.  Thanksgiving produced yet another surge.
• December: I updated my Appalachian Trail posts.  The Christmas season started.  I forgot.  What kind of surge will Christmas bring?  The vaccine has its work cut out for it.
• Walking: I restarted walking this year with a new purpose: coping with diabetes.  I hiked 640.6 miles over 73 hikes.  It is the fourth highest mileage since I started keeping track in 2007.  I'm actually surprised how much I hiked this year.  It didn't feel like that much.
• Biking: This year I didn't ride my bike at all.  No excuse.  I just wasn't present enough to go riding.
• Books: The funk I was in wasn't conducive to reading and I only read one book this year.  Here are my Goodreads Stats for 2020.  I did read some back issues of magazines but the real replacement for my reading was either sleeping or listening to podcasts (often both at the same time).
• Concerts, Shows & Music :  COVID-19 … need I say more?  No live shows at all this year.  I did listen to a lot of music on Spotify.  Here is my Spotify 2020 Wrapped if you want to explore what I did music-wise this year.  The playlist really doesn't mean much since I mostly listened to my "Music I Like" playlist on shuffle so the 2020 recap is more a testament of what the Shuffle Random Number Generator algorithm picked for me.

• I posted 58 times this year - the lowest since I started Homer's Travels in 2006.  I posted less than I did on the Appalachian Trail.  Sad.  I just couldn't get myself motivated to write.  We didn't go on vacation this year along with almost everyone else.  I didn't want to talk about the pandemic.  I didn't want to post about politics.  There was too much of that out there and everything else was overpowered.  I didn't feel like adding to the dreary mess that we were bombarded with in 2020 so I didn't. 

There is hope on the horizon but there was hope on 2019's horizon as well.  No one saw the pandemic coming and no one knew just how unprepared we were.  But with the vaccinations finally being distributed and a change of leadership we can start dreaming of normalcy again.  How will the future unfold changed by this year's experiences?  Some things will have slowed.  Other things will be accelerated.  The future is in our hands.

Here's to a Happy, Prosperous, Healthy, and Boring New Year for all.  May all your dreams come true in 2021.

Good Riddance To Bad Rubbish

To our EX-President I only have one thing to say which I will express with a song:

Warning:  This song uses the F-word in copious amounts and is Not Safe For Work (NSFW)

"F**k You"

by Lily Allen