What does your morning look like? Shower thoughts.

I'm up. The Shower Deities deemed it fit that the moody hot water heater worked (it was not working last night), so I got a nice, hot shower. The plumber dude is coming this morning, so I hope that it'll be more dependable shortly.

I was almost late getting to work yesterday! First, I went down a rabbit hole writing a poem. I don't know if this happens to other writers, but I got this idea and the first line that popped into my head as I was getting ready to shower yesterday morning. I mean, I was unclothed. No pen, paper. So, I quickly put my bathrobe on, ran to the computer, and typed out what my brain was dictating. Well...then it kept going. And going. And then I had to rush to shower, rush to get breakfast, etc. And I even started fiddling with the draft again. Next thing you know, I'm on the road behind someone who insisted on doing 35 (maybe 40 in a daring moment) all the way from Littleton to Lisbon. Weaving and bobbing. Slowing down further. We had a parade of cars lined up behind. I didn't dare pass the car, as it was not reliably in the lane. So...I got there. I had a few scant minutes to gather my thoughts, but I managed. 

This morning, I woke up around 4:30 because G got the coffee going early. I'm glad he was up early; it was due to his diligence that we had hot water this morning. He kept resetting it, and it finally agreed to work. O, he had plans: he was setting the pots of water to boil, and he was going to walk me over to Meg's house in the dark to shower, if need be. Lucky for us all, it was not needed. I appreciate his thoughtfulness, though. 

I didn't get up at 4:30; I fell back to sleep, and got up at my appointed time, had coffee, read the paper (a "big nuthin'"), and chatted with G for a bit. Took a leisurely shower, got coffee #2-- and here we are. I much prefer this kind of slow roll into the day. 

I am studiously ignoring the news for a few more minutes. It's troubling. It's scary. It's off the rails-- who wants to live in a fascist state? Especially when there are people seeking ultimate power, who believe that the "whole purpose of postmenopausal women" is to help with child care for their families. These are the same people who would like to move the retirement goalposts to over 70 years old. So--riddle me this, Mr. Entitled Fake Hillbilly, just how would women, ages 50-70, pay their bills? I mean, I don't mind helping Meg with Holly-- I love the little imp. I love my family. But I still need to work. I need income, insurance, and security. If his unstated ideal is that my slightly-older-than-I-am husband is going to somehow shoulder it all while I play with dollies on the daily, then what happens when/if he gets sick? Or when someone's spouse passes away? It's not like he saying, sure, leave the work force and the security you have with a job, and the government will replace that income and insurance with a monthly stipend. 

Just because J.D.Vance's MIL was willing and able to leave her well-paying, respectable job to come and nanny for them for a year, so his wife could pursue her legal career... yeah. Don't even get me started on gender roles/ roles of immigrant women, etc. And when the chips fall in a couple of weeks, I don't want to be officially erased. I have worked long and hard to achieve what I have: two graduate degrees, a measure of career respect, and I get to eat regularly and pay the plumber to fix the hot water. 

I'm glad to have what I do. Is it all I ever wanted? No. Of course not. As life goes along, our needs and desires shift and change. But what I have works pretty well for me, as long as we can pay for it, and we can repair it. It's a typical, middle of the middle-class life. We know how fragile it is; G being out of work for months this year really tapped our reserves. We have a mortgage to keep paying for, because we could never afford a house earlier in our marriage. But we are ten years in on a 30 year note, so we are getting there. Realistically, we'll both have to keep working for quite a while yet. What we have is dependent on how we were raised and what we can achieve on the daily. If the GOP wants to tell me that I've got it all wrong, then they can come and pay the bills. Not all of us have a anarchistic sugar-daddy to set us up in our careers, and most of us don't have the financial flexibility to not work. 

Yes, it makes me angry and scared. As a woman over 50, life can be hard enough. Don't make it harder. They need to be given a reality slap.

Have a good day,

C