Here We Come, Rehoboth!

Yes! Here we come, Rehoboth! We haven’t had the pleasure for the past two Lethal Virus years, however, this year we decided that we absolutely needed a vacation! We rented a house, packed our clothes, piled up the car and at nine o’clock in the morning off we went! Woo-hoo!

The trip is about four hours long from Northern Virginia – depending on your location – to Rehoboth, Delaware. So, after all the morning coffees and teas, a pit stop was necessary, and for old woman me it was essential! There are no decent Rest Stops on our route such as there are on the Interstate we usually drive to New York, therefore, we had to make do with the McDonald’s facilities where the kids bought some goodies, we bought coffee and then used the bathroom. It was a disaster zone, and I am pretty sure it wasn’t the fault of the employees who had to keep it clean. It was mostly the patrons! Have they no bathrooms in their homes? Do they have to throw toilet paper and paper towels on the floors when there are available trash cans? Must they pee all around the bowl, and on the seat? It was disgusting and uncivilized! And, can McDonald’s not afford to hire an attendant who can Clean and Disinfect their toilets periodically during the day? I would certainly think so! On the way back from Rehoboth, we stopped at a Starbucks for coffee and facilities. It was in a better condition, though they, too, could do with an attendant to maintain proper hygiene! Goodness! Neither of them is hurting for money, but they do have the pervasive quality of greed that is destroying this nation!

Rehoboth is a bustling little city, as usual, though not as crowded as it is in July and August when we had planned our vacations in previous years. Very, very few people wore masks, but we did whenever we stepped into one of the shops, however, we planned and enjoyed our meals at the restaurants where there were maskless outside tables, and many of those establishments had adjusted to our Virus Reality and created those spaces. Moreover, just not having to shop, clean and cook our meals was simply heavenly, and made restaurants all the more enjoyable, notwithstanding the fact that prices have gone up, and quality of food has gone down!

The little city that this resort has become is not unlike many little towns and resorts across these United States, and, really, in worldwide touristic destinations. There are year-round residents and there are the tourists, or vacationers like ourselves. There is also a fascinating infra-structure built around the vacation rental homes, which are plentiful! For instance: one morning, sitting on our patio that looked out to the street, we saw a lovely young woman and her son on their bikes. We chatted. Apparently she has a business that she started about a decade ago and that had thirty customers to begin with, and nowadays has about four hundred. That business entails going around each of the rental homes that the company overseeing them contracted her for, wheel out the rubbish and recycling bins on the assigned pickup days in the early morning, and wheel them back in during the evening. The purpose of this assignment is that many renters forget, or disregard their rubbish chore creating a headache for the rental and trash/recycling companies. Voila! A business was thus created! There are quite a few such small enterprises that have sprung up around rentals. It’s really interesting how opportunities arise and families are sustained!

True to form, I took time off and watched the Congressional Hearings as my family were teasing me for being such a political junkie even when on vacation! C’est la vie! One thought that kept on recurring as I followed the proceedings was that the die-hard Trumpists will not change their minds. They just won’t! I doubt that they realize that he was only Used by the Plotters who have been working on a sick Ideology for a few decades! Also, there must be quite a few Republicans/Conservatives who, as they watch the Hearings, might come to the realization that Trump took them for a ride, and preyed on their corrupt gullibility, however, many of them will never admit this in order not to embarrass themselves with their families/friends and lose face for being saps who were used and manipulated. I have seen this happen so often in my life, especially during times of crisis in the Middle East when people took sides, became agitated, argued vehemently and defended their stance with passion only to find out after all the dust had settled that they had been manipulated. Frankly, it has sadly happened to me too on occasion. We are all: Left, Right and Center liable to behave that way sometimes, and quite reluctant to admit that we were wrong. That damn obdurate human nature of ours! Moreover, and more interestingly, what the Hearings depicted is that despite all our bitching about the corrupt elements working in our government – and there are many – the majority of those civil servants are ethical, moral, conscientious and dedicated human beings. That is indeed very heartening!

Anyway, on Friday, June 17 we saw a helicopter circling above the Rehoboth skies.

“Biden and Jill are spending the weekend here,” says daughter.

“Will you take me to his house?” I ask.

“What for?”

“I just want to have a word, or two with him.”

“You think the Secret Service will allow you?” says pragmatic younger daughter.

“Why not? I am an old, harmless, unarmed woman.”

“Hah,” she says mockingly, “and if you insist and persist you’ll be whisked off to Guantanamo!”

“They haven’t shuttered that up yet!???” I ask, mockingly!

“No. Anyway, what would you say to him?”

“Quite a few things! Oh! Quite a few! But, I will start by telling him not to mind the flak he’s getting from our so-called journalists, commentators, pundits etc. and, especially, that Rupert Murdoch – what an evil man! –  station! How I ever – ever! – thought Tucker was a cute guy I have no idea! (Regrettably, I’ve made small misjudgments like this here and there during my eight years of blogging!) I will also tell Biden that he came upon a United States, and a World, really, that are in total dysfunction and not entirely through his own making! Not that I won’t tell him what I think he Should be doing domestically, and internationally, because I have quite a bit to say about all that!” Daughters scoffed at me! Dream on, they said facetiously.

However, no sooner had we returned from vacationing, with spirits and energy restored, a humongous miasma descended upon the US: The Supreme Court handed down its two macabre decisions regarding Guns and Abortion and to my horror, the horror of the nation and the world, we have again demonstrated that we are sinking into an Authoritarian, Racist, White, Christian, Colonist Republic that is frightening and dangerous! We are being Talibanized! Tragic!

Nota Bene: I reread my blog on “Abortion” dated 2/28/2015. Appropriate then and, especially now!