2017 - November ...SO MUCH Going On!

11-06 (early a.m.):  The Emperor of Japan is speaking right now; Trump is visiting Asia this week.  He says he doesn’t believe Japan and the United States have ever had such a strong bond… he calls him Donald.  He says they support us 100%, even if we have to take military action against North Korea; he says we need to put maximum pressure on North Korea right now to relinquish their nuclear and missile development.  He talked about their dinner together being so enjoyable that the “almost forgot how time flew.”  That’s cute.  President Trump is speaking now; he says it’s been great to be there, thanking the Japanese Emperor for his hospitality. 

(Excerpt: A Letter to Heaven, Part 4, 'The Journey'):  "Yesterday; a 26-year old Air Force veteran… discharged dishonorably in 2014, who lived close to the area, shot and killed 26 people and injured 20 others in a church service today in Sutherland, Texas.  Ten of the injured are in critical condition, and one child has died.  My God, what is wrong with this world?  They say he has no apparent links to “terrorism” but what else do you call this??  Dressed in black, a black mask with a skullface, wearing armor and armed with assault weapons, he shot a couple people outside and then went into the church shooting.  They say he walked almost all the way up to the front, shooting all the way up and all the way back out… an average of 50 or so people attend that church every week; he shot 46 of them ages 18 months to 77 years.  It’s all the news is talking about today.  It’s said to be the worst church massacre in United States history; definitely in Texas history.  Almost twenty-four hours ago, as I sit and write; the thought of it is overwhelming.  The people being interviewed, talking about the horror of it all, it brings me to tears; and we may never know why for sure.  He is reported to have had some type of mental illness, and had been charged with domestic violence before; his wife’s parents attended that church, although they don’t appear to have been there yesterday.  There is some talk of “atheism” but whether it’s because he was atheist and just taking his anger out on random believers, or what, is not yet known.  Officials say there is no religious motive so far as they know, though; they are blaming “bad blood.”  The sheriff reports that there were some domestic issues going on between him and the in-laws.  Apparently he had been sending the mother-in-law threatening texts, so you have to wonder if it was somehow related, but then why.  Why yesterday?  Why their church, but not them?  The Pastor spoke, vowing to keep worshiping God no matter what danger comes; he ended with a prayer.

I spent the day with Eric today – picked him up from the halfway house on a 12-hour pass; it was good to see him, and he looks really good.  He’s put some muscle on those scrawny arms and built up his back and chest quite a bit; he looks happy, he looks clean.  He says he thinks he has it knocked this time.  He claims he has no desire to go back to using.  This makes me hopeful, but then hearing him talk with Kristofer about the ‘trips’ they had on acid before he went to prison make me wonder if he will ever be over it.

11-07 (4:40 AM) Just woke up - Anderson Cooper is on, talking about what is now being referred to the biggest mass church shooting in U.S. history, which came only weeks after the biggest mass shooting in U.S. history, the Las Vegas shooting… he is interviewing the mother and sister of a sixteen year old girl that was shot at the church.  They described what a wonderful person this girl was; she wanted to be a neo-natal nurse because she loved caring for babies.  Her mom said she was so excited to graduate and get on with her career; the sister described her as “kind of annoying” but “sweet” and “generous.”  Anderson asked them, “how do you go on after losing someone like this?  They replied, “we don’t know… we are trying to figure that out.”  They added, “things will never be the same.”  I found myself blurting out, “no they won’t.”  Tears began to flow.  It hurts no less today than it did years ago; I still miss you every day.  You are the driving force behind almost everything I do now; my life was forever changed the day you died.  My prayers go out to these people now suffering the same challenge."

11-10-2017: So many things going on in the world right now… Russia, Trump, all of Asia loves him it seems, shootings, riots, confusion over the confederate flag/ civil war, statues and monuments being taken down and removed from public parks (as if we can erase our past by not acknowledging it), and now, I hear there is a petition to get rid of the national anthem because “it’s racist”?  What is going on people?

11-14… 80 degrees today; average 68.(15^th) slight cool down (16^th) warm again, 78

11-17: Another influential man in Hollywood has been accused of sexual harassment… of another man. Terry Crews tells a story of being grabbed by the genitals when he attempted to shake his molester’s hand after a party _ years ago….Two more woman have made accusations against Roy Moore (candidate for senate); he still denies it all and refuses to drop out of the race, even though other politicians have called for him to do so.  I believe people will support these women and vote accordingly anyway.  This opens the door for ANYONE to safely tell if they have been violated by anyone else, regardless of status.  Louis CK, Harvey Weinstein… Kevin Spacey; crazy. Contracts being cancelled, movie release scrapped, sponsors pulled out, indefinite banishment industry wide pretty much for all of them – and more accusations still being made every day.  What a time we are living in… it’s about damn time all that crap stops.  People need to be held accountable for their actions, everywhere, at all times and that’s all there is to it.

11-20-2017:  On Late Night with Seth Meyers tonight, the first guest stated something I found to be quite poignant at this particular point in time: “The reckoning now, the tsunami... the crashing of all these pent up secrets and rage and righteous indignations that women have had to bear – and not just women, now men too, as we are learning in the case of Kevin Spacey and others… is connected to what happened a year and a half ago… [*speaking of when our current president admitted to doing the same thing, and sixteen women made accusations against him, and now, the fact that Trump won’t even comment on the accusations against Roy Moore] …he [Trump] doesn’t actually care about what happens in the world; he just wants the attention on him.” ~Chris Hayes

(Excerpt: A Letter to Heaven, Part 4, 'The Journey'):  Working on my book again tonight (Part 2); I’ve tried to put in time now and then this year, and quite a bit more lately… aiming for January 5, 2018 to have it published.  You would have been 55 on that day, once again, seemingly two years older than me (even though I would catch up to only ‘a year’ apart eight months later (for those next four months).  I turned 53 this year and it just doesn’t seem much different than twenty years ago, when I realized I was finally older than you would ever be.  Seems almost ironic now that you would die just one week before your 33^rd birthday; symbolic somehow (on Kasey’s father’s birthday, the day before hers and with Eric’s the day after); what a week you left us to deal with every year.  I mean, we can’t just ignore it, because we can’t forget it; those days are constant reminders of the week you spent in the hospital before you finally let go and they removed the machines.  I STILL remember it as if it were yesterday – and the fact that we are getting close to ‘those dates’ again, and I’m trying to get this Part 2 edited, makes this year even a little rougher.  Dredging up all these old journal notes; entries I’d overlooked before when I through my eBook together so quickly in 2009.  This will be quite a revision from that one.  Much information I had forgotten; hmmm, you know, I wasn’t in the best frame of mind at that time.  So notebooks are scattered, and journals are sparsely written for about three years there; 2005-2008 or so.  I was in kind of a fog during that time and it’s been a little emotional going back through it all; my writings by hand, my many randomly named and arbitrarily stored documents, both in Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect (which many probably have never even heard of now).  I sure hope Kris got everything off of my three old computers and onto my external hard…and that I haven’t wiped any of it out accidentally.)  God, I worry so much about losing my writings, or how I’m ever going to find them again once stored.  I should really have a log where I enter every document I store and the file and folder it is stored in; I think I pick the right place every time, and yet it never fails that I can’t the one document I am looking for.  I’ve got to figure out a better method of organization.

11-19: Della Reese died today (Touched by an Angel co-star)

11-20:  Temperatures dropping in the northwest and mid-east; Charles Manson dead

*A 14-year old girl, Harper Edigar (?), has been given a job as a columnist by the New York Times!  That’s awesome.

David Cassidy (Keith from the Partridge Family) passed away at the age of 67 today; he struggled with addiction to alcohol throughout his life – diagnosed with dementia in his 50’s, he retired.

11-21: Now Charlie Rose, respected veteran author and journalist and morning show host, has EIGHT women accusing him of sexual assault!  As far back as the 90’s they say, he would grab women’s legs, groping, presenting himself to several women naked at least a dozen times, and making unwanted advances, ‘lewd’ phone calls and comments.  “That’s just Charlie,” some would say – but the behavior was allowed to continue.  He admits behaving insensitively and tells the women, “I hear them…”; but claims he thought he was “pursuing shared feelings.”  CBS has suspended him, effective immediately and more women are expected to come forward against him in coming weeks.  They say there was a lot of ‘talk’ and some people (on the inside) actually knew, allowing the behavior to continue.  Harvey Weinstein?  I’ve lost track of how many women have come out with accusations against him.  A second woman has come forward against Al Franken too, grabbing her rear end when they posed for a photo her husband was taking of them, while he was a sitting Senator; he says he “feels badly [she] came away from [their] interaction feeling disrespected.”  The other woman, whom he was shown pretending to grab boobs of in a photo, now viral, has also accused him of forcibly kissing her backstage after a USO tour.  Governor of Alabama, Roy Moore, a current candidate (for Senate, I believe) has more than a dozen women who say he either tried, or did actually, sexually assault them AS TEENAGERS, when he was a 32 year old District Attorney..  He says he “never dated any girl without the permission of her mother.”  Oh my god, are you kidding me???~!  Louis CK has been basically blacklisted by everybody; a movie he just finished making, ready for release, has been pulled from release, all contracts cancelled, sponsors pulled out… his career is over.  Numerous accusations against executive producer, Roger Ales and reporter, Bill O’Reily, at the FOX network came out last year; they say the cost to Fox was about Fifty Million dollars; this includes sponsor withdrawals and advertisement withdrawals, as well as settlements paid out to accusers; now, the paper that exposed the allegations against O’Reily {The New York Times} has a journalist, John Thrush, with four female coworkers making allegations of sexual harassment against him!

*This IS happening.  Men and women are realizing that this kind of treatment does not have to be tolerated BY ANY BODY; victims are noticing more and more that it is okay to tell!  It’s the only way this type of behavior is ever going to stop; and it’s about time.  Dan Abrams explains that even “unwanted touching” can be a criminal act and people, both male and female, need to be more careful with their behavior.

11-24 (the day after thanksgiving) New accusations against Al Frankin; and a third women accuses a congressman “Conyers” who called her into his office where he was wearing only his shirt and underwear!  Oh my god!  This is crazy…but like, awesome crazy.  I am so glad shit like this is coming out; showing how prevalent this problem is ALL OVER THE PLACE, in every industry, in every country around the world.  It’s definitely time it stops. ;-)

Also a veteran police officer, killed with his own service weapon one day before he was scheduled to testify against eight Baltimore officers, for “shaking down citizens, stealing drugs and then selling them” the news says.  Sounds suspicious... Shawn Suitor, I believe, was his name; people are out of their minds.

Now a mail bomb plot exposed; planned for Obama during his Presidency and some governor, who actually opened it, but the bomb failed… this was a little old lady!  And what got her caught was a single CAT hair, which they matched up to her cat!  That’s crazy all the way around!

Wow… a Brussels Griffin took first place at the National Dog Show yesterday!  That’s the little dog that looks like my Velvet – I had never heard of it until about a year ago when someone asked me if that’s what she was; I came home and Googled it and couldn’t believe the resemblence.  It was uncanny; this one was blonde, but the same little face, many said looks like Chubaka, but the reporter said he thought it looked more like an ewok!  So many people tell me Velvet looks like an ewok.  That is just strange.

11-28:  Only 4% of the nation is covered in snow right now, opposed to it’s normal (or average) 28% ~!  “Unseasonably warm,” they are calling it… yeah.  It sure is.

11-29:  Woke up to the following news this morning:  Eli Manning is benched?  Why?  Not known yet.  Prince Harry has gotten engaged to an American woman, who is half white and half black; in itself, a big deal.  Marriage, to take place at Windsor Castle.  And, it looks like we are going to war, fairly soon, with North Korea; they launched a missile overnight that has been verified by our people over there to have the capability of reaching the ENTIRE United States.  We aren’t going to wait for them to weaponize it and send it our way.  We can’t.