Since Trump's inauguration the two forms of social media I like best, FB and Insta, have become even more of a swamp filled with political types rending their garments and crying into the void. And its only the first week of his 4 year term. My feeds are private and I've created an echo chamber of friends and acquaintances I feel line up with my mind set and interests - and a lot of them are venting their emotions about Trump. I get it. But its kind of pointless and serves no purpose. Its like that scene in "Apollo 13" where the commander yells at his crew that freaking out isn't going to do anyone any good because once they are done yelling and screaming, they are still trapped in their situation and will have to face facts head on.  So I'm scrolling past the memes and news bits and such - it does me no good to wallow.

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My 50th high school reunion is coming up and my circle of friends from that time are mostly very excited about the whole thing. I'd love to see them and spend time with them outside of something like the reunion which holds no interest for me. Recently, one of our circle of friends from high school that I hadn't heard from in decades messaged me. He had been ostracized and shunned from our friend group years ago when he tried to run an insurance scam on one of us. He PM'd me a few times. First he said he was going to be in our home town and would like to meet up. When I didn't reply he PM'd the next day saying he was going to be here in town where I live now and would like to meet up. I didn't reply. I blocked him. Don't have time for that nonsense and we were never that close so I'm not sad about it.

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We are getting into the doldrums of Winter (Feb-March-April) and I'm starting to get cabin feverish. Its especially intense now that its my first Winter in retirement. No job to go to which is weird. I'm not bored - just a little at loose ends. I'm really appreciating the time to indulge in my hobbies - listening to music, movies and writing. All things I did haphazardly when I was working 50 hours a week. Its good to have time now. My other busy projects are mostly household organizing sorts of things and keeping up with cleaning and tidying. Its great to have the option of taking a little nap or burning through an afternoon with a good movie or show or just reading. Or journaling/writing - like now. Once the weather turns it'll be nice to do outside chores and start on some bigger house projects..

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Currently watching a crime series called CB Strike which is based on a series of books written by JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame. The detective,Strike, is interesting - a British military vet with a disability - he lost a leg in Afghanistan. The cases are complex and filmed really well - a good engaging series. I'm not bothered by JK Rowling's apparent trans-phobia - I'm used to separating the art from the artist. My regret in this respect is that many years ago I defended the director Roman Polanski on a friend's Facebook feed.  I argued that he didn't get a fair shake from the California judge who convicted him of child rape in absentia.  I was dead wrong and my friend blocked me and I haven't heard from her since. For the record - I can indeed separate the artist from the art but sometimes there's a line that shouldn't be crossed - escaping the country ahead of child rape charges is one of them.

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