Day 29

April 14, 2020

Yesterday became "Grump Day". Today is considerably better. I may even have another go at making bread. So far it's 1 for 2.

I was wondering the other day about the decline of the Roman Empire in light of the rather chaotic situation in the US these days. And while I realize they are not in as dire a situation, the paragraph below from Wikipedia caused me to see the present situation through a slightly different lens. Fanciful, I know. I think the parts that struck me the most were the underlined bits.

"The Roman Empire lost the strengths that had allowed it to exercise effective control over its Western provinces; modern historians posit factors including the effectiveness and numbers of the army, the health and numbers of the Roman population compared to its less urbanized and more epidemic-resistant neighbors, the strength of the economy, the competence of the Emperors, the internal struggles for power, the religious changes of the period, and the efficiency of the civil administration. Increasing pressure from invading barbarians outside Roman culture also contributed greatly to the collapse."

I watched the President of the United States of America go into a complete 8-year-old temper tantrum yesterday. He was rude, incoherent, all but swearing, using his favourite word "fake", getting very red/orange in the face (wonder what his blood pressure was), and lying. I have resisted, to a large extent, from making comments about what happens in the US these days. But this was just extraordinary. The various media will have put the timeline of COVID-19 reactions together so I don't need to do that. There were some mistakes made and when the reviews happen - probably next year - we'll know what could have/should have been done. Blaming everything on Obama and every other person in the world is asinine. There, that's off my chest!

On a far less vital item - I can't get my hair trimmed this week. It's not that I am hellbent on being stunningly beautiful but I miss my favourite hairdresser and getting caught up on her goings-on. She is a dear friend and neighbour. So I will get shaggier and live with it. And No, I'm not letting the resident handyman do a thing with scissors!

Onwards!