I was at a party this weekend on the back side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, just south of Lake Tahoe this weekend.
On the front porch of the home of my friends, a band was playing a pretty decent group of classic rock and roll songs. People mingled and talked. An old iron stove was in the front yard keeping people warm. A group of women danced.
In the distance a large cloud slipped down the side of the mountains, over the house, and we got to be part of the first snow of the season. The air was filled with hugs fluffy flakes of snow mixed with icy sleet like rain.
My husband Teddy and I went inside, rather than stay out in the snow and sleet with the dancers and hard core old wood stove fans. The band had a roof over their head so they continued to play.
Once inside I started talking to a nice man about art, and California politics, and cults, and it all seemed like normal party conversations. As always I did not mention I write a blog about parenting, modern life, empty nests, books, Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts, and the paranormal world in general. I always keep it to myself.
So we’re talking. Then ALL OF THE SUDDEN the person I’m talking to said, “In 2035 there will be no more narcissistic self centered people such as those on the ______________ fill in the blank political party, because our galaxy, the Milky Way, is colliding with another galaxy. He did not give me the name of that other galaxy. I did not ask. I did not ask why this was going to make everyone seem suddenly nice, but it was. Not so nice people were either going to die from natural causes, kill themselves, or choose to leave their leaders and self-centered ways behind. Most were going to die according to the guy sitting in front of me in a vintage mid-century modern rocking chair. Then he said he was concerned about my husband. From there he started talking about QAnon. I wasn’t sure if he admired them, was part of them, or what the point of his story was. It was a rabbit hole I just wasn’t up to jumping into. I smiled and excused myself to go to the bathroom.
I didn’t go to the bathroom. I went out to the back deck and rubbed the dog on the head. Then I found my husband, the one people worry about, in the kitchen talking to an old friend about cars. It could have been sports but I’m pretty sure it was cars. Then they quickly switched to bragging about their kids and congratulating each other on that.
“Did you leave your tinfoil hat in the car?” I asked Teddy.
“I see you talked to our friend. I could have told you he was fucking nuts.”
The the host of the party just laughed and said, “I see you’ve talked to ___________. He is something else. Nuts.”
I guess it is ok to be nuts when you’re on the backside of a mountain in the snow, while a band plays, and people keep dancing around a wood stove, and inside everyone else is eating carrot cake and talking about cars, their kids, and everything else, and dogs.
The next day the snow had stopped. It was my birthday. We drove home through the mountains. The fire damage was tragic.
The fact that we’re having an election soon doesn’t make any difference because there will still not be enough help for putting out our preventing fires. It is just like the lack of resources for school, the fact that we’re not building more UC or CSU campuses, or holding PG&E accountable for fires. It is just like the fact that my husband was attacked by a homeless man and the police wouldn’t come back because he didn’t end up in the hospital. A homeless man came into his business and threatened him, but non of the 4 police cars 3 blocks down could come help when Teddy called 911. Nor did the police show up when a guy tried to set up his homeless camp in a friend’s yard and pulled a knife on our friends (who had children at home.) But hey, the elected officials tell us how much money they’ve poured into the problem which is only getting worse. One day, at about 1:00 PM I was turning my car right before a freeway onramp when a guy came out of his tent, pulled it out and waved at me. If my husband would have done that he would have been arrested.
Maybe tonight I’ll fill out my ballot and vote against everyone and everything.
But until then, I’ll think of how beautiful the mountains were despite the fire damage. I’ll be thankful for the people who aren’t in the government but making things work. I’ll think about art, the squirrels in my yard, the humming birds I saw this morning, my dog, my cats, the eagles that fly over my house, and the coyotes who sang the songs of their people like demons last night. I’ll pull out my summer garden, harvest my gourds, and get the ground ready for winter herbs, greens, and flowers.
Late on Saturday night as the band played, and the sky cleared I looked up at the millions of stars I could see in the high desert sky. I knew there were others out there, people not so different from us, but so far away. By the time I can see their star thousands of years might have passed. I can wave but only to ancestors of the current inhabitants.
I didn’t see any collisions with other galaxies or black holes in the sky, or QAnon believers lurking behind the bushes.
So I’m off to my garden, where there is no crazy, and the only mysteries where all of the weeds come from, and what the humming birds would like me to plant for them.
~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman
Vampire Maman 