That's good. Probably worth it to thank the firefighter(s) in particular, and maybe a donation to a fire house charity or something in their name(s). Small mercies, but so keenly felt.

That is a very encouraging update, Hec!

Jesus. 2020 can just stop already! So sorry to hear everything JZ and Cashmere and Teppy and everyone else are going through.

The term "Doomscrolling" is so appropriate for what following social media is like these days.

My wife has been on edge since Covid hit and the civil unrest the last few days has been particularly rough on her (we both jump everytime we get an emergency alert on our phones and we've been getting 2-4 a night ever since the shooting on Sunday.) Thankfully our son seems to be handling it well so far. (Also, I had a "How the hell is Matilda a high schooler already?" moment and then realized that yes, that's how the passage of time works since my son just turned 13 a couple months ago.)

It doesn't help that people are spreading outrageous nonsense online, making it really difficult to know what's actually going on. Today's latest nonsense is someone claiming that they arrested a bunch of people from Seattle "driving a can turned into a bomb" and they heard from an FBI guy working the protests that "more are coming" and it turns out it's fucking charity food service. [link]

My heart breaks for Jacob Blake's family (especially his poor kids that were in the car when he got shot) and the people who've lost their homes and businesses to the riots (some of the businesses that burned down had apartments on the second floor) and the people shot by that idiot vigilante kid and it's all just too much. And then I have friends telling me on Facebook the rioting is "necessary" because "peaceful protests don't work" and basically accusing me of being naive and/or racist just because I don't want the city I live in to be on fire. It's like "good job guys, way to play into the 'crazy anarchist left' stereotype that the GOP tries to paint us as." I'm all for serious police reform and I've made this clear but apparently I'm supposed to be cheering on everyone who is actively demonstrating against police brutality regardless of their words or tactics.

That's an awesome firefighter, Hec!

I have nothing but respect for the firefighters that were battling the blazes here. I think at one point we had units from as far as 80 miles away from both IL and WI working through the night on 50 separate fires.

I can't even imagine what it's like for all you folks out west where it seems like the whole damn world is on fire.

{{Kalshane}} It is really overwhelming.

I went through my FB feed and snoozed for 30 days everything but friends. None of the new or other various sources that I had been following. It helped. Some things I just unfollowed.

Thank you, Laura. I'm glad Skinner is okay (I somehow initially missed that in the flood of awful that seems to be hitting everyone.)

I've thought about it, but right now with the protests still actively happening (thank God last night was peaceful other than some idiot kids throwing rocks and fireworks at houses) it feels like I have to keep up just be safe. Nothing has gotten closer than a mile from our house at far, but I had to talk my wife down the other night about not packing up the car and fleeing to my grandmother's house because there were rumors on social media that a bunch of people were coming from out of town to set our schools on fire (we love 4 houses down from an elementary school). It's just exhausting. (Normally were great at being each other's voice of reason, but this year has been too much for her.)

THat must be very hard, Kalshane. Stay safe

Thanks. I know there's a lot of people in the city and elsewhere having a way harder time than we are. Venting helps a bit, I think. (Oof, the typos in my posts are atrocious. It almost pains me to leave them be, but it seems silly to edit when I got my point across.)

{{{Kalshane}}}

Pretty sure we can all agree that NOBODY wants riots. Pretty sure not even rioters want riots.

I'm not crazy, right?

I saw a post this morning, urging people to bring guns to an "anti-protest" to "shut them down in our city."

Our city. OUR city.

As if minorities and their allies don't live there, too. It's ridiculous and racist and stupid.

Timelies all!

Hugs and ~ma to all who need/want them.