Inaugurated

Like possibly a lot of people, I held my breath up until the minute he finished the oath of office. Praying for a Hail Mary epiphany that would have him saying 'you know what?  I really don't want to do this job.  I have no idea how I ended up here'.

He didn't.  He is officially the 45th President of the United States of America.  God help us all.

There's obviously a lot of chatter and so many varying perspectives on the subject - and I get that this is a part of our process.  There are two primary political parties in our country and the power between them bounces back and forth throughout time.  I get that.  I have no issue with that.  I wasn't a huge fan of either Bush Presidents but I never thought those individuals were horrible people.

That's not true of our current President.  And it's that simple statement - that we elected a horrible human being to the highest office in our land - that throttles me.  I still can't get over it -

From the election until this week, I've been able to tamp it all down. Going with my usual 'trust the process' approach to things and realizing that it's not going to be a great four years but it is what it is.

But the guy is already dismantling healthcare in our country (again) and the striking, gut-wrenching difference this time around?  We have a son who will always have a serious pre-existing condition that may always make him uninsurable.  Or insurable at great expense.

And that really scares me.  A lot.  Way more than the thought of four years of this asshole as our President.

I'm in Reno this weekend and it's so beautiful.  There was light snow falling when the plane landed and we made our way to the hotel shuttle.  (The implied we in this story are the group of people Atlantis flew here for the weekend - and I was surprised to realize on the short drive from the airport to the hotel that it wasn't even necessarily individuals who gambled at Atlantis, which is what I thought.  One lady said she's never played here before but she was on the list.  And...one couple looks really familiar and I feel like I've seen them before - and then the husband (again on the very short drive to hotel) states matter of factly (in the context of a discussion about Atlantis also giving away free cruises last week) 'my wife can't leave the country because she just got off probation for banking charges'.  Geez...the things people say.

Good thing it's gorgeous today - I can't wait to call this home - and I'm losing horribly so...the beauty offsets the travesty of the slot trouncing I am enduring.  Sat next to a lady on the plane who lived in Livermore for years - moved to Reno 18 years ago saying 'I'll just try it for a year and then move back to California' - but she stayed.  She absolutely loves it and said she has never had any issues in snow - she does drive a 4 wheel drive car and doesn't even change snow tires - but she was quick to say 'I don't live on a hill - I live in the valley.  If I lived on a hill, I might have to do the tire swap to get to/from.  On the very rare days when I think I need more traction, I just don't go out - and those days are very rare'.

Still, it's a fun time - and free Blue Moons or Mai Tai's is pretty awesome.  :-)

I'm heading back downstairs for a bit.  May do a Hail Mary of my own on my favorite Buffalo machine - which I had to get help to find 'cuz they are renovating and they moved them.  Took all the luck with them, too, based on the play on them yesterday.  But today is a new day and you never know - one spin can heal a lot of trouncing and that's the thing I like to remember.

I'm not sure what the next four years will be like - and it scares me.  But I refuse to feel hopeless. Absolutely refuse to give in to that feeling regarding the fate of our country.  It's hard not to at times the past couple weeks - really hard.  But I have to keep hoping - there's a lot of really unhappy people out there and I think Trump is going to start feeling our wrath.  Not sure how an egotistical megalomaniac is going to handle rejection. He can't personally bully every single one of us though Lord knows he will sure try.