2018 Life Logs, Day 323: Shameful, Shameful
Date: Monday, November 19, 2018
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Warmer; High 55, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I had a good day until I watched the news tonight. When I saw our President visiting the site of the disastrous Camp Fire in northern California and he didn’t even know the name of the community of Paradise, I was aghast. How can the President of the United States visit the site of such a terrible disaster and not even know the name of the town? He called it Pleasant a couple of times before he was corrected. It would have been funny if it weren’t so shameful. And then listening to him blaming the fire on a lack of forest management and suggesting we rake the forest floor like they do in Finland was just over the top. First of all, northern California’s climate is very different from Finland’s, but secondly, Finland doesn’t rake their forest floor. Shameful, shameful. But other than our President, I think the rest of us will be keeping the people of Paradise, the survivors, the dead, the missing, and all of the firefighters in our thoughts throughout the Thanksgiving holiday.

I started my day at the gym with a pilates class and biking on the recumbent bike and then came home to do some outside work in the warmth of the day. It was in the 50’s today, but on Thanksgiving Day the high is forecast to be 30 degrees colder. So today was the day to do garden clean-up and leaf raking. Yes, I did rake leaves, but I was not doing it to prevent forest fires! I also did a little Thanksgiving Dinner prep and baking. Tomorrow I have a physical therapy appointment and will then drive to Scituate, just south of Boston, to visit with Doris and Shirley, my neighbors that are spending Thanksgiving in their ‘other’ home.