And, Good Riddance to You, 2017

2017 is almost in the books. And that's a good thing.

2017 was pretty much a dumpster fire. Our country had elected a thrice married, sexual abuser as president - with a large number of Evangelicals supporting him! Things could only go up, right?! Hmmm, not so much!

It turns out that our President had trouble figuring out who should be in cabinet level positions and who shouldn't. And former General Flynn certainly shouldn't have been. Among others.

And our Tweeter-in-chief apparently also gets his news from Fox News which has led to a few embarrassing tweets. Although, I'm not sure any were quite as bad as his made-up word "covfefe", which he still has not defined for us.

2017 also gave us outspoken white supremacy in Charlottesville, VA. Along with a riot and homicide. While it was good to have a national conversation on race, it was pretty disappointing to hear the President talk about "fine people" on both sides of the issue. Really? Did you see those Nazi flags?

And while we were airing dirty laundry, we also got to find out a few of the people who were guilty of sexual abuse and harassment in Hollywood and in government. Sadly, though the President has been accused (and there is a tape), he has not stepped down. But, there has been some necessary house cleaning in other industries, so better late than never.

World events weren't much better. North Korea has nuclear weapons and is willing and able to use them. Our country's diplomatic service appears to be depleted from it's previous situation. Folks, this ain't good.

In my own personal sphere, my mom had back surgery in the spring and then again in the fall. She may look like she's 40, but her vertebrae tell a different story. The "advantage" to her having these surgeries was that I spent lots of time with her and my dad and my aunt. The down side was the surgeries (duh!) and the Atlanta traffic! Atlanta, ya'll all need some Xanax or something. I was happy to come back to my small town of 2000 people.

The very last few days of 2017 haven't been a ton of fun because Patrick and I are doing the ketogenic diet because I've read that it might help my chronic migraine. Have you heard about this diet? It's low carb (almost no carb), moderate protein, and high fat. That sounds great until you realize that almost every processed food we eat has added sugar. So, we have to cook almost everything from scratch. Also, the first five to seven days are what is called "keto flu" when your body is adjusting to the changes. In order to do this really healthy thing, you have to feel like death (headaches (yes, more), thirst, muscle aches, dizziness) for about a week. We started on the 28th so we should be feeling better by tomorrow or the next day. I hope.

Our upstairs toilet leaked a couple of times and dripped water down into the living room this fall. That made for lots of fun. Right now, about a quarter of the ceiling is torn up where the contractor was looking at the damage. But, the insurance is covering the work for a new ceiling, so it's not all bad!

2017, you could have been a better year. Yes, I learned a lot through the difficulties of the year. But, good riddance, I'm not sorry to see you go!

Bring on 2018!!

Catherine