Monday, November 9 2020

Dear Journal,

Good morning, everyone. Happy Monday, and welcome to a new week. I got so much sleep this weekend that I was able to easily shoot out of bed to greet my phone alarm, and I'm grateful for it. I had a lot of chores to catch up on. Putting all the food away, cleaning the kitchen, and tidying up the house is something I usually reserve for Sunday evening, but I got a little carried away with yesterday's evening journal entry and wrote clear up until bedtime. Before the first pot of coffee, I powered through the dishes, I wiped up the dining room table, and I broke down a giant cardboard box and stuffed it into our recycling bin. The morning's first cup of coffee tastes so good when you earn it, doesn't it?

Kind of a strange morning today. While I was getting ready for the day I noticed that Rodney's bedroom light was turned on. On some days, we wakes up early and quietly plays with toys or books in his room until its time to come out. I peeked inside of his room to make sure he was fine. I saw him absent mindedly wandering around his room, then all of the sudden he stood motionless beside his bed, and a little dribble rolled onto the floor.

The whole thing was nothing short of infuriating. As I cleaned him up, I tried to question him as to why he would pee on the floor through his pajamas when his toilet was only three feet away. He just tearfully repeated "I have no idea," I learned phrase of his that might make me chuckle on any other day.

I made him clean up the mess this time. In a huff I placed a bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels at his feet and stood over him while he mopped up the mess. I made him explain what happened to Marissa, and he's currently thinking it over in his bedroom.

Sitting at the computer now, I can't help but think about the ordeal from my perspective. When it comes to pee and poop, we practice patience and operate with the understanding that he's still learning about how his body works. But lately it feels like my patience met with his indifference. Something set me off about seeing him indifferently soil his pajamas and leave a musty puddle on the floor.

So that was a strange little ordeal that is difficult to shake off now, but we'll figure it out. After writing this entry, I'll head up stairs and take another pass at figuring out what happened from Rodney's perspective.

Sip. How is your morning going so far? Does your day also start with a nice, leisurely floor urination standing at your bed side? And how was your weekend?

We had a great weekend, kicking things off with a hectic work Friday that that magically fizzled away at quitting time. My work decided to keep the early Friday cut perk around at least through the end of the year, and as you'd expect, Friday afternoon is magical. My celebration ritual as of late is laying out on the couch with a beer and catching up on NFL high lights from the week.

We also like to order out from Friday's. And while we wait for our favorite pizza to be delivered, the entire house enjoys an afternoon nap.

But that's nothing compared to the nap we took on Saturday. While out running errands, we heard the news that the Associated Press had officially called the election for Biden. People danced in their driveways. We saw people sitting in lawn chairs behind signs that said Honk for Biden. Our next door neighbors were cheering so loudly that they could be heard from our front yard. Marissa and I got started on a bottle of wine then took an afternoon nap over Rodney's quiet time.

A realize some readers of this blog might be disappointed with the election results. I'm not hear to rub your nose in it - judging by my Facebook and Twitter timeline as of late, you're probably getting enough shit from people as it is. But if you support Trump, than I trust you're aware of how much he gets under people's skin - it's a celebrated trait of his. Well, speaking as someone who's been thoroughly annoyed and disgusted with Donald Trump over the last four years, believe me when I saw the nap we took on Saturday after hearing the news of his disposal was comforting on an otherworldly level. Marissa and I called it the first nap we've taken in Rodney's lifetime where Trump wasn't the President.

Yes, we're aware he still has another two months. Donald Trump doesn't have a conceding bone in his body, and who knows, these might be the worst two months yet. But in the meantime, I can finally begin to mentally remove him from office, and judging by how good that Saturday nap was, I craved that on physical and spiritual levels that I wasn't even unaware of.

Don't get me wrong, when he's not standing next to Trump, I find Biden underwhelming. Ironically, I agree with a lot of Trump's criticisms of the democratic establishment. I think democrats pander too much, I think they turn a blind eye to dirty money, and they can be a bit out of touch with real people. But one thing I think the democrats nail is public health, and I'm hopeful that our country will finally start to get a handle on COVID-19.

So that was pretty much the weekend. I have a short work week. Starting Wednesday, I asked off work to help out with Marissa's art show. Between now and then I have interns to train and a new on-call schedule to figure out. I better brew some more coffee. Maybe later this week I'll celebrate finishing work out with one of those lovely Trump-free naps - those are healing for the soul.

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you have a wonderful day today.