I recently started seeing a new medical practice. When you’re a new patient, you have to give them your medical history, sometimes two or three times because their systems are crap.
This time around I got asked a question I’ve never seen
before:
I mean—it wasn’t hard to answer. But it stopped me in my
tracks, because holy crap: I haven’t had four or more drinks in a day since I
was in my mid-30s.
Also—who actually answers that in the affirmative?
©2026 Bas Bleu
Last Monday I was cautiously optimistically grateful at the prospect of voters mandating the return of Democratic control of the House.
Well—as you know—the universe blessed our endeavors and the
voters gave us the House and Senate. At time of writing, the Mississippi and
Alaska senate races are still being determined, but we have a Fetterman-proof
upper house in any case.
With this in mind, I filled my space with candles yesterday
for the beginning of Diwali, one of my favorite holiday commemorations because
it’s all about the victory of light over darkness. Not only do I like the soft
light that groups of candles give off, the very act of lighting them one at a
time and nursing along some of the ones at the end of their life slows me down.
It calms me down.
Filling a room with candle light takes time; you can’t flip
a switch and move on to the next task on your to-do list. And if you’re
lighting those floating jobbers, you have to be very focused on not disturbing
the water, because then it dowses the flames and you have to wipe them off and
start over again.
It’s like the count-breaths-to-21 methodology of
meditation: if you lose count because your monkey mind is distracted, you have
to begin again from one.
There are some days I never make it into double digits.
But there’s something about knowing how happy the moving
lights will make me that enables me to persevere with candles. I light them,
sit back and watch; and for at least a few minutes the world around me is
peaceful and full of hope. Light prevails over darkness, love conquers fear,
and good triumphs over evil.
It’s something to hold onto in these dark, dark times.
Well, that and all the Blue streams washing through
governments throughout the country. Truly reason to spark gratitude.
©2026 Bas Bleu
Well, I am still absorbing the tectonic shift in the American body politic that the electorate delivered on Tuesday.
I mean—Susan Collins taking her much-clutched pearls back
to Maine. A Black woman Democrat the governor of Georgia. Kansas sending its
first Democratic senator to Washington since 1932. A Native American Senator
from Minnesota and a Muslim one from Michigan. (Mike Rogers can keep his
house in Florida.) Greg Abbott replaced as governor of Texas by a Latina, who
toasted her victory on Tuesday with the first Democratic senator that state has
elected since 1988. Jon Husted sitting his much-praised (by the Kleptocrat) ass
down in Ohio, and a John Fetterman-proof Senate count. Virginia Foxx
bitch-slapped in North Carolina and Lauren Boebert ditto in Colorado.
And Elon Musk setting half a million dollars on fire to
support a whole string of losers. (Also
Dang.
I can’t stop smiling; I am engulfed in joy.
So my earworm for today is the version of “Joyful, Joyful”
performed in Sister Act II: Back in the Habit. Turn up the volume and
dance.
©2026 Bas Bleu
Okay, while I’m taking a minute to savor the victory America achieved on Tuesday, I’ll leave you with a car I saw a couple of weeks ago.
Unique decoration for sure.
©2026 Bas Bleu
At the time of writing, we still don’t know the outcome of yesterday’s elections. Truth be told, it’s possible that some of the election results won’t be finalized for some time. But so much is hanging on them.
Viz:
©2026 Bas Bleu
As a matter of principle, whenever I see a Cybertruck, I must audibly murmur “asshole”, because the universe demands it.
And the one I saw in Herndon on Saturday was kind of double
asshole, because it had a (heretofore unseen by me) variant of the ridiculous
Tea Party license plate. You know—the one with the curled snake that mostly
looks like the poop emoji. (Virginia will do anything to make a buck.)
But I did like the seasonal decoration, even though if he’d gone more than 35 MPH, that webbing would be gone.
I still invoked the universe’s mantra.
©2026 Bas Bleu
It’s appropriate this year that Election Day is at the earlier end of the cycle (first Tuesday after the first Monday in November—the earliest an election could be held would be on 2 November), because we’re still in that liminal time when the living take notice of the dead (and possibly vice versa).
We just celebrated Halloween on Saturday, which is rooted
in the Celtic holiday of Samhain—marking the bringing in of the harvest to
sustain people through the shorter days and colder temperatures of winter.
Samhain also honors those who have preceded us into death, keeping their memory
alive through the generations.
Yesterday and today, Christians marked All Saints Day and
All Souls Day, essentially carrying on the Celtic tradition. The wall between
this world and the next is more frangible around now, and it’s a time for
lighting protective and cleansing bonfires.
Our Latino neighbors (within this country and up and down
the Americas) are also celebrating El DÃa de Muertos, honoring those who’ve
passed and taking account of the living.
So it’s a truly appropriate time for considering how we
want the next two years to go in our country, and voting accordingly. It is not
hyperbolic to say this is a life-or-death decision; a choice between good and
evil, light and darkness. Everything is riding on the outcome of tomorrow’s
elections. No vote is inconsequential.
Today I’m grateful for the millions of Americans who have
already cast their ballots, by mail, drop-off box or in-person. Also for the
poll workers who show up throughout the voting season to make the whole thing
work. And for those who manage the process of counting the votes and certifying
their accuracy. (A decade ago I wouldn’t even have thought about them, but
after the experience of 2020, I recognize them as true heroes of democracy.)
I’m also grateful for the (Republican-run) state of Alaska,
whose lawyers just told the Kleptocrat’s DOJ to get stuffed with its lawsuit
demanding that the vote not be certified unless the incumbent senator wins. (As of writing, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in favor of the DOJ getting stuffed, and it's currently before the Nineth Circuit on appeal.)
There is a real threat that the Kleptocrat will try to invalidate or ignore any results that do not please him; we are truly in a dangerous time. So the ordinary people who do their civic duty are more important than ever.
I am holding my breath.
Obviously, with general elections always set for the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, they’re going to come soon after Halloween. This year, given the grotesque and terrifying state of the Republican-controlled government, it seems particularly appropriate that voters are officially going to the polls three days after the ghouls and goblins have their night.
In honor of that, today I’m giving you Modest Mussorgsky’s “Night
on Bald Mountain”. Specifically the cut from Disney’s 1941 animated
masterpiece, Fantasia. Disney mucked up the ending, but it's still a fantastic watch.
(Fun Fact: I lent a VHS tape of Fantasia to a, uh,
younger colleague in North Carolina several decades ago. He came back all in
awe: “Hey—it had the Scrubbing Bubbles music!”)
Stay safe and vote!
©2026 Bas Bleu
Time for some pix of Halloween decorations.
I’ve noticed that every year this house really gets into
it:
And a couple of entries from the same cluster:
This year I noticed that residents of a nearby apartment complex are making a statement:
Another townhouse cluster got into the act:
And regulars from my own:
©2026 Bas Bleu
So, the thing that caught my attention about this truck was the “Tub’s” on the side.
And by “caught my attention” I mean “ate the enamel off my teeth”. Someone paid money to have the possessive instead of the plural painted on their commercial vehicle and either didn’t notice or didn’t care. (Unless it's actually the LLC of Fashion Tub?)
But then I realized that the back of the truck—the one all
spiffified with images and colors—got it right.
My teeth are in real danger.
©2026 Bas Bleu
