I’m tired. I’m betting you’re tired too.
It’s been 84 days since Gov. Tom Wolf (Pennsylvania) ordered all schools to close and shortly thereafter all non-life sustaining business statewide to shutter. I wasn’t mad about it. I was glad to do my part to help flatten the curve. And of course, I didn’t want to risk getting sick either. Every person in my household has one or more preexisting conditions they can check on the high risk column.
In that time, we’ve become pros at pantry and household supply inventory management. We started trying to do our grocery shopping 2-3 weeks out at a time and quickly found that to be impossible. No toilet paper. No cleaning supplies. No pasta. No frozen vegetables. Limited canned goods. About 2/3 of our attempted curbside orders went unfilled because the items were out of stock.
We’re stressing over imagined food shortages and real money troubles. Battling the tightening grips of hopelessness and depression. Struggling each day to find any kind of motivation to do anything.
It’s been a really long 84 days—and that’s coming from a previously anxiety-ridden, introverted homebody to whom staying at home and worrying are old hat!
I live in emboldened Trump territory. There are yard signs, huge banners draped the full length of porches, and self-made shrines of varying sorts in people’s yards everywhere I look with new ones cropping up regularly. I don’t get it. I can’t wrap my head around the idea that anyone supports him. It makes absolutely no logical sense to me. Trying to figure it out makes my brain hurt.
There’s nothing I can do—except vote.
The primary here was June 2. We all received our mail-in ballots too late to mail them back, so they were hand-delivered to the county board of elections office. Granted, it was just the primary and the top level spots are already decided, but there were other races on that ballot that were just as important in deciding the chain of government from the ground up. Trickle-down economics don’t work and neither does trickle-down government! We need to build from the base up so it’s all standing on a strong, supportive foundation, and that’s why we made sure our ballots got in on time. I hope you did too!
November is coming and I’d like to see this shitshow go off the air. Hopefully, so would you.