We saw the International Space Station this evening, making its way rapidly across the eastern sky. Six minutes from horizon to horizon. We were able to be in place and see it on schedule due to this cool little website / service, Spot The Station. Sign up for it and you’ll get text messages every time the ISS is visible at your location. I’m always inspired watching that tiny point of light race across the sky, knowing that people from several countries are aboard it doing scientific work. And exploring.

The news tonight was just depressing. Texas suing other states for electing Biden (!?!). Election deniers protesting violently. Mask deniers protesting violently. I have to keep reminding myself, half of all Americans are below the average (median) IQ. And some large percentage of them have been captured by the Faux News bubble. They just live in a different reality, one in which facts and science don’t matter much. I don’t begrudge them their beliefs, but their tendency to act out with violence is just as unacceptable as when hard-core lefties do the same. Get some perspective, people.

I have to say, even with all my activities, COVID is wearing me down. We have nothing to complain about on our hill in Socal – we are safe, healthy, financially OK, able to take long walks and never leave our property. And yet I’m weary of the new normal. I can only imagine how it feels not to have some or any of those advantages and still be weighed down by the pandemic. That’s just 2020.