Perplexed, Saddened and Amused

What it's like to be old and vaguely aware in this century

I had an account at QVC attached to an old credit card I had believed was canceled. Didn't the credit card company tell me it canceled it and gave me a new one? And why does the Christmas in July sale insist on shipping your gifts to your recipients in August? They won't even add a Do Not Open Until Christmas note, as if…

Yes I know home shopping is an old lady thing. I am an old lady, wandering the aisles behind a cart for bargains for an hour, then reaching the line and realizing you don't have the energy to wait for 20 minutes, abandoning your cart right there, is probably an old person's prerogative (need I explain the attraction to Amazon's business model again-need I also explain why Walgreens is going broke?) I hadn't been to a Ross in a long time. Maybe my full cart will still be sitting there if I ever go back…

And the other day HULU warned me that they were in possession of an old credit card which no longer worked-maybe that's where it went. OK thanks, HULU cuz Ive been fucking trying to cancel you since the Salem Witch trials ended or was that Outlander, which never seems to end.

The mysteries of credit card scams, cancellations and rescams (AI made that into rescues but I foiled them, I think.) I do, of course, have Disney+ since I am a grandmother which includes GDed HULU! And don't get me restarted on Disneyland and their lack of care for people of some disability.

In the morning as I eat my breakfast and drink my overly sugared coffee, I can listen to Democracy Now on kpfa but I need to be close enough to turn about a third of the show off because I, who suffer no bombing, no torture, no American, Israeli or Salvadoran concentration camps, can't ingest those reports with my breakfast much longer.

I hear the voice of rage and ruin.

So I used to be able to, thanks to my anachronistic and oversized Cable bill, then turn on a recording of a late show from the night before and hear a version of the trump chaos news that was as real and true as anything on MS Whatever. But now Stephen is a memory and Jimmy abandons his show for the summer. I tried Fallon-blah- and long ago gave up on Seth, can't land a joke to save anybody's life. Nicolle Wallace is funnier by a lot.

So here's another conundrum. I watch a lot of PBS’ British mysteries. Some are wonderful like Patience & Annika (already canceled by some idiot)). I bought a damn subscription to PBS cuz, you know, the right thing to do etc. No, because I like many of the shows etc Except Midsummer Murders or Vera.

But how the hell do I get the app on my TV and why is all this shit so effing hard? I wanna watch Foyles War, not the same 5 episodes they show on one of our local PBS stations-even as dumb as I am-I can remember how he tripped up the villain after the 5th or 6th reshowing-Geezus H Krist!

I peruse my list of substack reading and/or watching while my entire lower body goes numb and my eyelashes flutter down. I learn the latest trump horror by way of discovering something we used to do to protect the water, the air or animals in their lairs. Geezus, I didn't know that. Did I need to?

As some of you know, I recently got kicked off-again-from that local app of uphill vs downhill fascists and their latest stupidities but no one knows who makes these gratuitous decisions or why it always stops you to ask, “talking politics”? Geezus is there any other type of conversation on there? Yes I know there are cats and dogs who aren't really lost but have usually misplaced their keepers for a few hours of unobserved fun. Maybe we should ask them how they do it!

Ive been trying to make short videos about things that piss me off-and how can that be short, you ask? Someone showed me how to foil Instagram so you can make a slightly longer video but I can only retain instructions like that for 6 minutes up to 4 days (and no I don't know your name or how we met.) So I asked one of my no longer young grown children, who, of course, had no idea.

The only reason I made my first video was because of the way this version of the Oakland city council passed a budget in record time, with the fewest negotiations and tireless meetings where annoying constituents shared their inefficient concerns. Turns out, they're proud of that….

Maybe in a time when government seems completely incompetent to solve our problems, untrumpian inspired politicians believe that more efficiency, less democracy is what's needed.

But please take note that when trump and his creepy minions want to send secret police into our towns and cities to terrorize us or deregulate industries and science while whitewashing history, they're quite competent.

Enough confusion, outright anger and authoritarian moves from DC, Sacramento to Oakland [see my latest video https://youtube.com/shorts/xXWPCVNVwag?is=0BvF5AtLUBiKSYE7] What are some of the things that get us through the day or me at least?

There's a wonderful nature show, the kind that doesn't show animals perishing violent deaths, except maybe fish, being offered by NBC, the Americas, Fun Facts, etc narrated by Oakland’s own Tom Hanks. Find it, enjoy (actually produced by the BBC.)

I also watch many of New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie's short talks on Instagram. I have liked all but the last one where he discusses watching some more Star Wars shows. Why? And what is wrong with men (many of them) and their taste?

So while I, a woman approaching her 80s, struggle with producing my own talking head videos and who knows more about local government by far, than the average PhD on Next Door, also knows too much now about tariffs and the Middle East (I like to read history books) I still have friends who believe Facebook is about to, I don't know, confiscate their photos for some alien purpose. They said so on TV, really??

OK I'll stop now. Btw, while I thought we had already burned down the available open spaces in California-turns out we still have more smoke to breathe from one too close to Russian River resorts. Someone do something about that will you? This is when we need efficiency, dear leaders…not discussing our documented (like city chsrter on funding the police commission etc) needs.

That's All folks (for now)!