Post election thoughts

Here we are America three days after the most shocking and disheartening election of my life.  I’m starting to accept that it’s a new world order now.  At first I thought I would not pay as close attention any more but I can see that isn’t going to happen.  The husband turned me into a political junkie over the 28 years that we’ve been together and we enjoy seeing who has heard the news first about whatever is the story of the day.  I still need to pay attention but I’m not going to obsess about it any longer.  I can see what it’s done to me in the past year.  But truth be told, I have had many things “thrown at me” over the last several months(my cat died unexpectedly and horribly and then my brother died) so it’s hard to say that my nervous habits, lack of sleep and tension in my neck and upper back were caused solely by this election.

I am very curious how this new presidency is going to turn out.  Since we couldn’t believe anything that Trump said during his campaign, saying one thing one day and the complete opposite the next day, it’s hard to determine which campaign promises he will keep.  Indeed, already I’m reading that he might not actually repeal Obamacare and instead amend it.  He said that he began thinking this way after his meeting with Obama this week.  This should be interesting since the leaders of the House and Senate have been hell bent on repealing this much needed health insurance law from the get-go.  I am curious how the president elect is going to get along with his republican congress.  Time will tell.

Last night I went to my daughter’s fall concert and I was treated to some lovely and soothing music.  And I began thinking, gosh, I’m going to spend more time doing things like this over the next several years.  I’m going to spend more time reading, blogging, visiting museums and doing other things that I enjoy.  Garrison Keillor’s piece prompted these thoughts. You can read that here if you like. We need to focus on how to get Miss M to college as well as plan for our retirement to southern Spain.  On that point there was another prediction that did not occur.  Tuesday night when it started to look like Hillary was going to lose the Dow futures dropped several hundred points.  Then magically the market did not crash!!  I guess investors were calmed by Trump’s speech? We met with our financial advisor last night as it was time for our semi-annual meeting.  And, so far, knock on wood, our investments are holding.  I was so sure that if Trump won that the market would crash, my funds would disappear and I would never be able to retire.  So I’m going to go forward and assume that I will actually be able to move to Spain.  Time to start planning!!

We went to one of our regular spots for dinner tonight and sat at the bar, a favorite as the bar tenders know us and it’s so comfy.  Hubby started talking about Veteran’s day and how it started out as Armistice day and the woman next to him asked if he was a veteran.  Uh, no, it’s just because it’s Veteran’s day, he told her.  And he volunteered his story about his father being stationed at Guam during WWII and I told the story of my father who landed on Utah Beach on D Day.  She was with her husband and they both shared the stories of their fathers in the military. We all toasted to Veteran’s day and shared a bit of humanity.  A few minutes later one of them asked what we thought about the election.  We were all on the same side and discussed a few things.  One of my thoughts today had to do with the low turnout this year.  And I shared that and said that if it gets as bad as we fear, perhaps it will startle those that didn’t vote to the point that they do vote in the next election.  We all hoped that this will happen. It felt great to share some conversation with like-minded people in our own community.

Yes, there are scary things going on out there but this encounter with two strangers, our neighbors who eat at our neighborhood restaurant, renewed my hope in humanity.  We do need to pay attention to what’s going on in Washington but I also think it’s a good idea to live your life, do the things that you enjoy, talk to your fellow citizens.  I intend to focus on my own life and hope to God we don’t have a stock market crash before I can fulfill my dream of retiring to Spain.  Coming soon are some more travel-related posts.  I hope you will come back for them :) Meanwhile, enjoy a nice photo: