So. On this rather dismal day, I am determined to focus on positive things.

I've been exercise-walking for a bit more than a year now, and I know that I am the healthier for it. (My physician and his lab techs have yet to weigh in.) If I press, I can walk 3.0 miles in under 39 minutes. Fall has come to the trail: I've heard the thin whistle of a White-Throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) and seen a butterbutt (more formally, "Myrtle" Warbler [Dendroica coronata]). Woolly bear caterpillars are the road-kill of the month along the W&OD. Virginia Power has been trimming trees and brush from under the power lines that run along the trail. The cutting has been unpleasantly dramatic, and the equipment tends to chew up the unpaved shoulders of the trail. But I'm focusing on positive things.

Leta is an absolute darling, and I don't tell her I love her enough. She is just one of the things in my life that I am so fortunate in.

Unlike a lot of people, I have been gainfully employed continuously since shortly after arriving in this area 24 years ago. I know where the next mortgage payment is coming from, and my credit cards aren't maxed out.

In reading Ernst Mayr's What Evolution Is, I learned about Trichoplax adhaerens, the simplest multi-celled organism. This mysterious critter has never been observed in the wild. Makes you wonder whether it can actually survive outside of the lab.

I intend to do two things. First, to redouble my efforts to make the world a better place for people to live, since it's for damn sure this administration can't be counted on to do that.

Second, to do something to understand the (what I perceive to be) scared, angry, unhappy people who have put that man back in office. (The greedy, corrupt ones I'm not concerned about.) Maybe ask some questions of Leta's right-wing engineer friends. Maybe go to a NASCAR race. I have noticed that my blogroll skews left, and maybe I need to get out more. (I used to read The Bleat, but I found Lileks' self-described screeds tedious.) Understand, mind you, not convince.

Oh, and one more positive thing. At least this way Brad DeLong won't lack for material for another four years.

posted: 8:34:57 PM