Ashland, southern Oregon — Sunday, November 8, 2026.
Drizzly and chilly outside, a beaten gray sky hangs low over Ashland. 54 degrees, it rains off and on, a pattern expected to carry through the high of 60 F. A few remaining shimmering maples are ablaze in red against the misty gray.
Gina (sister) took Mom by the house Friday. The house is Mom’s house. Given the upcoming holiday season, my mind flashes back to past travels and its associated planning. Ten years ago — 2016 — my wife and I would be talking about going back East to see Mom and my sisters in Pittsburgh, then visiting my wife’s mother and sister in West Virginia. We usually flew into Pittsburgh, rented a car, visited a day or two in Pittsburgh, drove down, visited there for several days, and then drove back up to Pittsburgh and spent several more days.
Plans slowly changed. My wife’s mother moved into an assisted living place as her Parkinson’s advanced. Our visits were quiet times sitting with her, waiting for her to speak. We would take her favorite food to her a few times, dinner from Bob Evans. Then she passed and the visits were only to Pittsburgh.
Reflecting on this year’s travel plans, I’m working around my medical issues, and my wife’s RA issues would make cross-country travel a daunting challenge.
Part of these thoughts emerged from a friend’s medical crisis. She lost her husband on October 17, 2026. Thursday, she had a stroke and went to the hospital for a carotid artery stent. Her surgery was Friday morning. She’s been unresponsive since then.
Sorry. I didn’t plan to write a somber post. That’s just what emerged. It’s not unique; millions of people have similar stories about life, family, and change. Experiencing these things in parallel to me, my wife says little about it, but I know she deeply feels the changes and losses. Ultimately, as with almost everything else, we process differently. Neither way is right or wrong, just different.
On the very, very positive side, I have wonderful memories of journeys ‘home’ to visit with Mom and my sisters and their families and will keep feasting on them.
Also emerging were more reflections about the 2026 blue tide. Republicans staying home instead of voting was a significant reason why Democrats strongly prevailed. That’s nothing to count on for future elections, but it certainly repudiates Trump and the GOP’s direction for the company: Republicans couldn’t even hold their noses to vote to keep Republicans in office under Trump.
It seems like Trump is subdued since then. I imagine that a sane person in Donald Trump’s situation would be digging into the post-mortem to discover what went wrong. But Trump always buries his head. Right until he election, he insisted that his approval ratings were great. Since then, he blamed the losses on the candidates, continuing his standard of ignoring truth and reality.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
Donald Trump refuses to accept that he was on the ballot, and that’s why Republicans lost. Trump thinks “everyone is profiting” because the stock market is up, completely ignoring the affordability issues caused by rising gas, diesel, oil, food, and healthcare prices.
Just like their leader, Donald Trump, MAGAts are blaming everything rather than looking squarely at the truth and Steve Bannon wants to double down on the failed policies.
With my thoughts of going ‘home’ in the past and Republicans staying home, Les Neurons predictably responded with…a song about home.
The Neurons actually played multiple songs about home in my morning mental music stream. We had Ozzy, Bruce, John Denver, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Motley Crue, Simon and Garfunkel all offering songs about being home, hometowns, and going home. It was Home-a-palooza in the head.
I eventually landed on a favorite song by Blind Faith, a 1969 gem called “Can’t Find My Way Home”. I came across this version by Rachel Price and enjoyed it, so I offer it to you.
I ended up on this song because I wondered how the GOP was going to find their way home. Under Trump, they’ve been promoting election deniers and candidates running on hate and deception. The voters rejected so where — or how — will the GOP turn now?
Meanwhile, the Democrats have found a cadre of strong, principled, young candidates, and many won. I’m not going to celebrate too much because holding office change people, as do events. Despite my age, I still can’t see the future.
May you and your family enjoy a wonderful day at home or traveling, whatever works for you, as long as you find solace and joy in what you do.
Cheers
Leave a Reply