2021 Life Logs, Day 6: Shame Brought Upon Us
Date: Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 39, Low 29 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Heather came over around 3:30 pm to reset my thermostat. When she got out of the van she looked very worried. When I asked what was wrong, she replied by saying nothing was wrong other than that our democracy was being attacked. At first I thought nothing of her statement as Donald Trump does this every day, but then she explained to me what was happening in Washington, DC. I wasn’t surprised since Donald Trump has been promising for weeks that something “wild” would happen on January 6th, but still it was shocking to turn on the television and watch what was happening inside the capitol building. And as I continued to watch, I was even more surprised to see how casually the rioters were despite the police presence. Why weren’t they being arrested? Tonight, normalcy has been restored in the capitol building, but those same people who were rioting today are still out there and who knows what might happen next. There has been no press conference with any of the powers apprising us of the situation. It is quite disturbing. And it is almost as disturbing to see the Senate and House to continue on tonight almost as if nothing has happened today. I know it is good to put on your best face as the rest of world watches, but it seems to me someone needs to be talking about getting Donald Trump out of office immediately. He incited this insurrection with his rhetoric which seems treasonous to me. Telling people re-election was stolen from him is an outright lie and encouraging people to attempt a coup based on that lie should be reason enough to remove him from office. Tonight’s byline in the Washington Post is that today is the day American democracy was brought to the brink. Shameful and sad. The only good news today was that the two Senate positions up for grabs in yesterday’s Georgia run-off election went to the Democrats. Joe Biden will begin his presidency with a 50-50 Senate and Mitch McConnell will no longer to be the Majority Leader. Hallelujah!

Resetting my thermostat has not solved my furnace problem. It is still only 64 degrees in here. So, tomorrow morning I will call in the big guns and hope they can come fix the problem quickly. And despite the political unrest today, I did reach my goal of getting the Christmas tree undecorated and put outside . . . something I always do on the Twelfth Day of Christmas.
The highlight of my day was receiving a family photo from Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco in front of their Christmas tree just before they took it down. Ziggy and Coco woke up with new comforters and fluffy pillows on their beds for Three Kings Day. Jo also sent me a few of her best photos from 2020. I love getting the photos, but can’t wait until I can go visit and see them in person.