2024, Health, home, Media, TV, Uncategorized

Scary Bears!

40 Comments

Husband and I have rarely watched much TV the 40 years we have been married. Our TV has always been in the basement. We rarely hang out in the basement. The TV is currently completely disconnected from the cable because we had a basement remodel in the spring. The only news we hear is NPR and the local papers we get. I avoid any news that comes up on my phone regarding the election.

I am in Dallas right now at a conference. Husband is back at home. I have turned on the TV in the hotel room, and I am so glad we don’t watch much at home. I was struck by Jacque’s comment about a self imposed news desert during the election weeks right now. I am stressed enough by the election news, and if I was regularly watching TV I would be a complete mess. Self care is important. When our children were little, we would often say “Scary Bears! ” when something frightening happened. Self care actions like Jacque’s can reduce the Scary Bears in our lives.

How are you coping with the current election stresses? What do you do for self care? What will you and won’t you watch on TV?

40 thoughts on “Scary Bears!”

  1. Well – I can tell you that you can run the TV 24/7 and never see any news. Of course the channels that I keep on will show you medicare enrollment commercials every ten minutes, but no news.

    I know that ostriches don’t actually bury their heads in the sand, but that’s my current life metaphor. Trying to go about my life this week without spending too much time cogitating on the election. Yesterday I spent quite bit of time in the kitchen. Two batches of sugar cookies decorated for Halloween (gravestones, skulls, ghosts, brooms, coffins, bats, pumpkins – interesting how many Halloween cookies cutters I own). Then a batch of pumpkin bread skulls (yes, I actually have a pan for skeleton heads – sigh). Then I spent time in my studio, putting the skulls in treat bags with a few candies for my six neighborhood kids and adding cute Halloween tags and ribbon. I will deliver these this morning.

    I have candy ready and I’ll put out the Halloween luminarias later but with today’s forecast, not sure how many trick-or-treaters I will get.

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      1. Well, you’re welcome to come on over. Because even if I get the regular number of T&Ters, I’ll still have way too much candy. Plus the cookies. Plus the extra pumpkin bread skulls. Plus the brownies that YA made two days ago. Plus the apple hand pies and blueberry turnovers in the fridge. Plus the Halloween Oreos that I can never pass by. Sweets galore this week!

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  3. I find the national obsession with electing a president quite annoying. It didn’t used to be this way, folks! IMO, it should be a much lower priority than we allow it to be. Why? Because ALL media (not just the Main Stream Media) is in the business of selling commercials. Giving you important information and/or “facts” is secondary.

    I cope mostly by ignoring the presidential campaign as much as possible. I watch comedians like Colbert poke fun at political figures (especially Trump). I listen to music. I get outside and away from electronics. I write.

    Unfortunately my wife “doom watches” news coverage and is quite stressed about the possibility of Trump winning. TOo many people seem to see this as a life or death situation (on both sides) when in fact, life will proceed pretty much as it has if Harris wins, and will proceed about 95% as it has if Trump wins.

    Yes, the election will be contested if Trump loses, but he’s not in the position of power that he was in Jan. 2021 when he incited the Capitol riot. MAGAs will protest, maybe riot, maybe go on vigilante sprees, but the vast majority of us will get up every morning, go to work or school or to the senior center for cards or bingo or senior yoga class, and life will go on.

    For either candidate/party to make the sweeping changes they promise, they’ll need to control Congress. And that doesn’t usually happen. (Thank goodness!) So small compromises will be made here and there so our reps can boast that they work across the aisle, but little will change for the country.

    We’re still going bankrupt at an alarming rate. We still have a broken medical system. Social Security’s insolvency deadline is now visible down the road–not just some far off year that is easy to ignore. The interest on our national debt is fast becoming the largest single expense the nation has.

    Imagine what your budget would look like if the interest payment on your credit cards was larger than your mortgage, your car payment, your insurance premiums, or your grocery bill. Wouldn’t you try to cut back and pay off that debt ASAP? Of course you would.

    On the other hand, the government (no matter who’s in charge) decides that the best way to deal with that problem is to SPEND MORE MONEY. Money that we create out of nothing. Reducing that debt would require cutting spending, raising taxes, or both. And NO ONE seems to be willing to take that hit.

    Until the people retake control of how we govern ourselves, change the laws that favor the rich and the powerful into laws that are fair to EVERYONE, and boot all the rich and powerful out of office and don’t let them back in, we screwed.

    But it’ll be a slow, painful, screwing. That’s the stress and anxiety all of us are feeling. We know we’re getting screwed, and each twist of the government screwdriver forces the pain deeper inside us.

    *END political rant* 🙂

    I watch little TV except the occasional streaming series, sitcom reruns, live sports, and bits and pieces of news, weather, and sports reporting.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  4. I’m not stressed about the election at all. Remember when Reagan started a nuclear war? Or when one or the other Bush put all non-straight people in concentration camps? Or when Obama prohibited the practice of Christianity? Yeah, me either. Sure, bad laws may be passed and rights may be curtailed if The Other Side gets in office, but guess what, when The Other Other Side gets in power again (after all, no party stays in power forever), they can pass other laws, and the people can organize to regain rights the way they did to gain them in the first place. I will vote, pray for a fair and peaceful election process, and then leave it to the gods…and our very durable Constitution.

    –Crow Girl

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  5. We haven’t had a cable hook-up for years, and you need cable to get TV in Winona. So all we see is what we stream – PBS News Hour about once a week (or at least Brooks & Capehart), sports for Husband, and some Netflix, the only streaming service we have. I know we miss a lot, but oh well.

    We also don’t listen to much news, since we read The Week magazine, though that news is “old news”, not breaking news, but again, oh well. I get the details of the big news items that I’ve already heard.

    So that’s a lot of the self-care – not being immersed in it. And staying busy with things that seem important. – i.e., we will go over to help staff the local DFL office for a couple of hours today.

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    1. I enjoy “The Week”. For years I subscribed to it for the my waiting room and it, along with another magazine called “Mindful,” were stolen regularly ( I was fine with that). David Brooks is so interesting. I have followed his career and writing for years. While I often disagree with him, I love his research and his explanations. So much of his life changed in the last 20 years, nudging him away from Conservatism. HIs writing about that process has been heart-wrenching to me. HE had to challenge his own thinking on many things and do things that were antithetical to himself, like a divorce. I could relate.

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  6. Rise and Grit Your Teeth, Baboons,

    While I wish I could take the attitude of Chris and Crow Girl, I cannot. #45’s psychological profile is too dangerous. Unfortunately age and illness have not slowed his sociopathy at all. He is a grifter and con man, and he would be worse in power without guardrails. I suspect that this is also Renee’s concern, but I do not want to speak for her in this matter.

    So I am doing my best to distract away from this topic. Therefore, news is off, music (Radio Heartland, Pandora, Apple Music) is on. So is HGTV. And if I need to go to VS and get cookies I will do so.

    I am still recovering from the cold (no, not COVID) brought to us by Lou’s PCA, and the anger about that is also distracting me, so I let myself dwell on it a bit because it feels better than anxiety! Tomorrow Lou has an early, early morning diagnostic procedure in Lakeville regarding the back pain he experiences. I will take Ipad, Ipod, and anything else to distract me from the news in the waiting area.

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  7. I’m on a news diet right now too. I’ve been boycotting it for some time. The ads on mainstream tv and the evening news just raise my blood pressure. I’ve already voted, and I certainly don’t need the additional stress of listening to the madness. Even the weather forecasters put a lot of drama into their segment, so I usually turn to the NOAA website. There’s a lot of good, factual information there.

    Even MPR daytime discussion programming stresses me out. I enjoy Kerri Miller on “Talking Volumes” but I don’t need the rest of it. There really is a lot of doom and gloom. I appreciate Chris’ insights about our lives not changing a whole lot. My brother said something that is possibly true, but still unsettling – that democracies only last about 250 years before revolutions begin. He also reminded me that, with the electoral college, we don’t have a true democracy.

    I’ve been listening to Radio Heartland, audiobooks, podcasts like “This American Life” and “The Moth”. I always enjoy a good story, and right now escapism is helping me cope. I can listen and focus on my knitting. I have several fiber projects started that need finishing now. I’m also crocheting some hats and a lap throw for a friend who is going through chemo for breast cancer. Next spring she will undergo mastectomy. They have knitting patterns for breast “implants” (bra stuffers) that are made from yarns that won’t irritate that sensitive scarred skin. I’ll make her some of those too.

    The only Halloween celebrating I will do will be some prayers for my loved ones who have passed. No sweets or candy are allowed right now, but it’s nice to hear about all the yummy goodies you’re making, VS.

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  12. PSA. I should done this a while ago, but it was never a good time for me to sit down and type this out. If you ever post something and when you hit reply, it looks like it ought to be going someplace and it doesn’t, if you text me or email me right away, maybe I can find it in spam. And restore it. But you need to do it either text or email because I’m not always looking at the blog and I only check spam in the mornings for the most part.

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  13. I don’t usually watch too much news. A person can only take so much. And generally I think every story has some slant too it. Even the Star Trib and our lousy local paper will have different versions of the same story.
    I want to be optimistic, the pendulum always swings. And I think about the election of 1800.

    This from ‘Wiki’: The campaign was bitter and characterized by slander and personal attacks on both sides. Federalists spread rumors that the Democratic-Republicans were radical atheists[7] who would ruin the country (based on the Democratic-Republican support for the French Revolution). In 1798, George Washington had complained “that you could as soon scrub the blackamoor white, as to change the principles of a professed Democrat; and that he will leave nothing unattempted to overturn the Government of this Country”.[8] Meanwhile, the Democratic-Republicans accused Federalists of subverting republican principles with the Alien and Sedition Acts, some of which were later declared unconstitutional after their expiration by the Supreme Court, and relying for their support on foreign immigrants[clarification needed]; they also accused Federalists of favoring Britain and the other coalition countries in their war with France in order to promote aristocratic, anti-democratic values.

    Sounds familiar, eh?
    But how much damage can be done, and how long would it take to store balance? Plus the two months between results and Jan 20th. That’s what I worry about too.

    But right now I got a show to put on!

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  14. I’ve moved on from politics to The Voice. I gave the NBC reality show zero attention, which was a principled decision which includes never having seen (other than clips) The Apprentice, Jersey Shore, Survivor, Batchelor, Kardashians…
    Then, last month, while out in New York, my daughter and, more importantly, my son-in-law, hooked me on it. My son-in-law is an amazing man!
    I’m glad I got him. If it’s good enough for Seth, it’s good enough for me.

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  16. I don’t draw analogies between the current campaign and historical ones in which a candidate was accused ot this or that by the opposiition – that’s normal. When a candidate is opposed by significant numbers of his own party, former staffers, former cabinet officials, not to mention the person who served as his first vice president, it should get our attention as voters. It’s just not normal. The degree to which we’ve just come to accept the “new abnormal” worries me. Some days it feels like we’re just sleepwalking toward the edge of a cliff.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Republicans_who_oppose_the_Donald_Trump_2024_presidential_campaign

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    1. I agree, Linda; what’s going on is far from “normal.” I watched the whole Madison Square Garden debacle, from end to end. The level of hatred and lies spewed by speaker after speaker was astounding and disheartening.

      As an old woman, and one who is sick to boot, it’s possible that I personally won’t live long enough to fully experience the consequences of how this election turns out. I’m not convinced that if the Democrats manage to pull off a victory (which I expects them to do, by the way) that it will be the end of it. I don’t understand how you could think that a DJT victory won’t have dire consequences for millions of people all over the world.

      .

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        1. Oh, Ben, I fully expect to live that long. What I’m worried about is that if DJT doesn’t win – and I hope the hell he doesn’t – he’ll contest the results. I wouldn’t put it past him and his most ardent supporters to resort to violence. I don’t even want to speculate about what’s going to happen if he does. I think his first term in office was horrible, and he is determined that a second will be much worse. And with Vance in the picture, the future looks grim indeed.

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