The states are turning blue(and so am I)

It was an unprecedented Midterm election day on Tuesday. To me, it felt like something big was going to happen. That a tide might actually turn and perhaps sanity, common sense, and common decency was going to play a big part in how folks would vote. But man, I was not expecting the tide to turn THAT much. Wednesday morning I was blown away to say the least.

My wife and I stayed up till around 9:30pm watching the coverage before we went to bed. Even going to bed things were looking up for that big, blue wave to happy. Turns out it was a tsunami as everyone has dubbed it.

There was a lot of talk, especially in the state of Indiana, that some of these districts that went to blue from red was because of an influx of democrats moving in to these areas. The truth of the matter is that democrats did indeed come out and vote. But so did independents and yes, even republicans. That’s because even republicans are being hit by what this administration is doing; higher fuel costs, higher food costs, higher medical premiums, and putting us into a war we have no business being in. They weren’t voting for the LGBTQ community, or for Pro-Choice or DEI or wokeness…these are all the boogeyman words the Right use to scare conservatives into voting for all the truly ghastly shit they want to do. They were voting blue because of the bottom line…which is their wallets.

I’m sure there are some LGBTQ-friendly republicans. Not saying there aren’t, but the last three elections they were voting for tighter immigration policies(not necessarily masked police pulling people off the streets and their homes or work sites), Christian ideologies in terms of “God in schools, banning books, etc…”. That doesn’t make it better, but at least now there’s SOME common ground between sane lefties and sane righties. Leave people’s personal lives out of your political agenda. Stick to keeping us out of wars, out of debt, and not going into debt to get medical care.

You’d think going into Wednesday morning that I would have been on cloud nine, and I was extremely happy and proud of my fellow left leaners for showing up at the polls. I’m also proud of the right leaners that have had enough of this shitty clown show we’ve been dealing with since January 2025. But for some reason I had this pit in my stomach. A sense of dread and worry that wouldn’t leave me. In fact, it’s still there to some degree.

I told my wife, and she said well probably because you don’t have anyone at work you can really talk to anymore. One of my best friends and co-worker of 27 years retired back in May, so I’m literally the only person in my little cubicle area. The vast majority of the employees here are Trump supporters, so coming into work Wednesday morning almost felt like going behind enemy lines. I don’t talk politics and I don’t talk religion at work. That’s a rule my dad taught me at a young age. Those are the two biggest sources of argument, and I don’t need anymore agitation at work than what I already deal with. But a LOT of folks here don’t abide by that rule, and that’s because they’re all small town schmoes that think everyone thinks and worships and votes just like they do. So when they ask me “So what did you think of that election?”, expecting me to say “It was a crock of shit!!” and instead I say “Finally people are waking up from a decades-long nightmare”, they’re taken aback to say the least.

Fortunately only one person asked me that question, and it was a driver for General Petroleum delivering machine oil. This guy looks like a cross between Curly Joe, Tor Johnson, and Judge Holden from Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Not super tall, but stout like a drunken bowling ball. He would get into political discussions and religion talk with my partner all the time, and my partner was always willing to tell him he’s full of shit. I don’t like confrontation, so when he asked me “What did you think of that election?”, my simple reply was “Well it was pretty surprising.” He started at me then turned and left.

Thank Christ.

My BP was high all day yesterday. I felt like I was in a constant state of fight or flight. I had a dr appointment in the afternoon with my internist and it was 150/100 when she first took it. Took it again and it was even higher, 170/104. She asked if I check it daily and I said yes, and have been since May(after the hospital stay.) Up until yesterday my BP has been doing great.

This morning it was 140/91, still high even after my meds. I sent the cardiologist a message and told them because I’m not messing around with high BP anymore. I feel like it’s a combination of the stress of yesterday, as well as the previous month with our son getting into a car wreck. As well as finding out one of our good friends lost their 17-year old son to some mysterious illness. Died in his sleep Tuesday night. Then my best friend’s wife fell and shattered her arm, needing surgery to have a plate reconnect the bone.

It’s been a pretty stressful couple months.

I started questioning whether the Prozac was losing it’s hold on me. It’s been a lifesaver for the last several months, keeping me cool when I would used to run hot. But then I wondered if the magic was waning. After some research I realized that you can have crappy, stressful days even when you’re on Prozac so I stopped with those thoughts.

After 90 minutes I rechecked my BP and it dropped to 136/90, so trending down was a good thing to see. The nurse asked me to send the last two weeks of BP readings to her, which I did. Haven’t heard anything from her since this morning, so I’m assuming they aren’t super worried. Like I said, it’s only been like 36 hours since all of this. But I’m a worry wart nowadays when it come to my health. I don’t ever want to put myself in that situation again. It was scary…eye opening and necessary for me to wake the hell up, but still scary.

I think a lot of crazy emotions are running around in my head and heart and it’s causing that ‘pit in your stomach’ thing right now. I’m feeling better than I was this morning. The storm cloud above my head seems to have cleared. Still very overcast, but it’s not blocking out ALL the light now.

I’m only working half a day tomorrow. My wife and I are heading to Columbus, OH to see the band SML perform. I’m really excited for this show as they’re one of my current favorite bands. And it’s a set time as they’re playing two shows, one at 7pm and one at 9pm. We’re going to the 7pm show so we should still be able to make it back home around midnight or shortly after. Saturday my daughter is having a “Gotcha” party for her doggo Celeste. She’s had her three years. She even did one of those DNA tests to find out exactly what kind of dog she. She got the results and is revealing them at the party for everyone. And Sunday my wife and I are going to go see David Cross in Fort Wayne at the Clyde Theater.

So a full docket for the next three days.

Even writing this all out makes me feel better. It makes me feel like I’m not so crazy feeling the way I have lately. There’s a lot going on in our lives, and more to come in the next few weeks. We’re even dog sitting for our son and his girlfriend. We’re keeping their puppy Zucco for a week while their other, older dog Ryleigh recovers from dental surgery. Zucco and Celeste met for the first time a couple weeks ago and it went really well. They played well together, and when Zucco went over the line Celeste would let him know and he’d drop to his belly showing “hey, sorry. I give up.” So that should be fun or insane. Or both.

Okay, that’s enough from me. My friends outside the US?? Hey, just know that we’re trying to right this ship over here. Please be patient…for just a little bit more.

JH