It’s Only Early January

Posted on January 10, 2026 by mygothlaundry

Well! What a fun week it has been! Jesus wept. I mean we started out with the “President” of the US kidnapping the president of Venezuela and it’s just gone downhill from there. I could write at some length about what I think about ICE, and Renee Good’s murder, and the other ICE murders that aren’t being talked about so much because (as we have always known in this country; be real) people who aren’t white and middle class and preferably blonde or blonde adjacent apparently pretty much deserve to be murdered out of hand by thugs in balaclavas. I am having an increasing amount of trouble dealing with the cognitive dissonance of going to work and pretending everything is fine. I notice, on rereading this blog, that this is a common, possibly constant theme. I suppose it’s time to just take it as a given.

Anyway! On to this week’s photos!

a photograph of a watery landscape with trees perfectly reflected in still water
On Saturday, January 3, Harvey and I went to Lewis & Clark National Park – specifically, Netul Landing. This is where Lewis and Clark set up camp, or near it, or something. It’s dark history, really – here is where they cut down the trees and killed the beavers and cheated the Native Americans, here is where they raped Sacagawea and lived through a brutal wet winter. But the river is beautiful.
a photo of some trees in water; the water is not usually there
Sunday, January 4: Fort Stevens Historic Area. It’s flooding. A lot of this area is flooding. So many natural disasters are eerily beautiful and floods are just photogenic as hell.
a photo of a classroom door. There is a window in the door. Behind the window are tables and chairs set up in a square and behind that are two more windows, through which is a view of the Columbia river.
Monday, January 5, back at work. The view from Towler Hall is jaw droppingly beautiful.
A photo of a black cat sitting on the kitchen floor.
Tuesday, January 6: This is Mr. Binks, our mostly feral, thoroughly evil, utterly adored, black cat.
A photo of a wide window showcasing a view of the Columbia River
Wednesday, January 7: I am attempting to move around a bit at work. This is the college gym. I should use it more often – more often than never. On Wednesday I walked around the track 6 or 7 times like a real gym going type athletic person! In my work clothes! The view is amazing but just walking in circles is not, really.
a photo taken at evening, hence blue, of some trees by the river. A ship is visible through the tree branches.
Thursday, January 8. There’s no way I can describe everything- I mean, this is outside the Safeway. I have been trying to get photos of ships through branches and so far I don’t really like any of them.
A photo of an older woman in an eagle costume standing by the street with a rainbow flag. Next to here is another older woman with a Resist flag.

And that’s Friday, January 9: at lunch I went down to the Renee Good vigil / protest. It was my lunch hour so I snuck away, as I have been doing on and off for the last year, to stand there with some sign or another. It feels pretty pointless, tbh, but then I think, this is literally the least I can do so I had better damn well do it. I have made some signs I quite like – I had an early one that said No Musk! No Ice! Stamp Trump’s Gestapo Out Like Lice! which I thought was catchy and adorable. I made drawings of Elon Musk as a muskrat with blood dripping from his claws and lice in face scarves and MAGA hats. Most people seemed confused. For Friday’s protest I borrowed a nice sign that says Melt Ice that was made by an artist I know. It’s much cleaner and more elegant than my signs. I asked the lady in this amazing costume if I could take her photo and she and her neighbor agreed. These ladies are fearless or maybe they don’t quite get where all this is going. I wish I didn’t. I hope, actually, I don’t. Where I think this is all going is very, very dark.

While we were standing there and cars were going by beeping or shooting us the finger or doing this sort of revving maneuver to shoot out exhaust that is a MAGA specialty when confronted with protests – I think they are burning the planet to own the libs? Such a great strategy – this giant truck pulled up into the middle lane. Oh fuck, I thought, this is where it gets real in little Astoria and I prepared myself for, uh, I don’t know, the back to open and a bunch of ICE to come out to kill us all? We aren’t there yet, fortunately. The driver got out, shot everyone a sort of apologetic smile and booked up the hill to the Bowpicker, Astoria’s famous fish and chips boat. And the fish and chips are pretty good, it is true.

I kind of really love that.

I have no other news. I worked all week. I made dinner every night, more or less, except Thursday when I went to the tiki bar and had gin instead. I took Harvey for a long walk on the beach this morning that we both needed badly. Today is my brother’s 77th birthday; I got him a vanilla latte at the good coffee hut. And so it goes, day by day, ICE murder by ICE murder and a hilariously devastating story by Alexandra Petri in the Atlantic.

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