I’m taking a vacation in a couple of weeks. I’m headed for the wilderness. And this is the best idea I’ve come up with in a long time. I just can’t take this shit much longer. It’s going to kill me if I don’t get away from it.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Vacations are good. It’s important to unplug periodically and reconnect with those in our lives who matter, to reconnect with nature, etc.
get enough of it.
Enjoy. Refresh. Recharge.
Outer Banks? Some good Dems there!!!
Have a restful time wherever, but know we all will need you back in full swing ASAP. We need your sanity and insight.
yeah, well it’s my sanity I’m concerned about.
Please do what is necessary for yourself. Be well.
Personally, the news cycles have been crazy-making since the primaries got started. Hasn’t improved. Not by a long shot. So yeah, unplugging occasionally is becoming a necessity for me just to keep the stress under some semblance of control. The last few weeks taught me the value of some quality time taking a long drive to one of the coasts. Gotta do that a lot more often. In an ideal world, I’d go alone. But I’ll put up with family squabbles instead, and still feel more grounded afterwards. Definitely take care of your sanity. We’re all going to need to remain as clear headed as we can to ride out the rest of this storm.
I’m starting to feel the same way. It makes me sick to even turn on the news these days. Scaramooch? Right out of Central Casting for a Wall Street Con Man. He puts Gordon Gekko to shame.
Enjoy your time away.
I have a feeling Scaramucci is a bridge too far and will quietly erode Trump’s support over time. He sounds like money when he talks; not the Trump ethos. All Trump’s other mouthpieces spoke like his constituents with limited reasoning and vocabulary.
Trump supporters are very reptile-brained about that kind of identity politics; don’t even realise it.
So in the locker room at the gym this morning, I was between two guys who really likes them some Trumpster. He has already accomplished more than Obama did in eight years you know. They both agreed to that. Unfortunately, I missed what that was, since they didn’t think it too important to say anything more about it. But then one of them geniuses went on about the conspiracy of 9/11. I was waiting to hear all about it. But they had about finished dressing by then so he promised to tell his buddy all about it when next they meet. I just hope I am around. That should be a nice story, except I’m not sure I can last through it without exploding.
Driving through our little downtown in NJ yesterday, I saw some young guys on the sidewalk outside our post office with a big “Help Trump, pull over” sign, which sent a chill down my spine. Our town is traditionally R but trending D, and isn’t normally this overtly political (nor ignorant, though I have seen some of the genuinely “fake news” emails the local R party passes around internally that pumped up T “he stopped his limo in the middle of nowhere and helped a family with a flat tire”?? and smeared O in barely concealed racist terms – nice folks).
Poor little billionaire handed the free world needs help from the rubes, it’s all so unfair.
I live in a solid R community and state. It is discouraging to hear what so many believe about democrats and almost everything, So I stay with some close group of friends, some of whom are R but not so nutty.
Boo, my fondest memories of “time off” were camping by my lonesome at a private campground in VA when I was in my early 20s. Had a cooler with sodas, sandwiches, a few beers, a pile of Omni magazines I bought used, and a couple of good books. Every day I’d wake up, swim in the lake, come back to the tent to eat, and doze off in the middle of the day reading. Sooooo relaxing.
Local state and national parks have some pretty good swimming and/or hiking if that’s your thing. Many of the side trails off the AT are quite nice. Camping’s cheap!
(It’s a terrible / great time for political junkies. My productivity is down to maybe 10% and I’m in a constant state of mild panic – and here I was thinking it really couldn’t get much worse than the W years. T’s election alone took a couple of years off my life.)
. . . worse than the W years.”
Ditto.
Oh, how naive we were. I dared to imagine that disastrous GOP governance would immunize us from repeating that mistake for a generation. Ha! (Laugh’s on me.)
I failed to take into account the wonders a massive (and massively funded) Rightwing-Noise-Machine infrastructure and vote-suppression campaign, combined with All-Obstruction,-Lies,-and-Character-Assassination-All-the-Time,-Scorched-Earth,-Winning-Is-the-Only
-Thing politics could accomplish.
Silly me.
Silly us.
Silly democracy.
Silly country.
Silly Reality.
I wonder if what were’re seeing with T is just a warm-up for the time (coming quite soon) when it’s down to one crazy fucking trillionaire who owns and runs the entire world. Every “news” outlet Fox times a thousand, everyone’s head full of stupid shit, every “leader” a moron.
Hey, I lived in Virginia and loved hiking the trails there. Some beautiful mountains, like McAffe’s Knob, a really spectacular view. A friend of mine walked the trails each year for a week of his vacation. And he did it solo as well. And like you, he loved every minute of it.
By all means, flee to the wilderness for a while and enjoy some unplugged, unhurried time away from all the insanity and dross.
Have a great vacation – headed to Squaw Valley next Friday myself.
Some rafting on the Truckee, dinner at Jake’s on the Lake, hiking up at High Camp.
Thank goodness for California on every level at this moment.
As bad as it is in the US, it has to be even more terrifying around the world. It’s no fun to realize that the place you looked up to as an ideal is not only flawed but turns out to be a senile old country that cant get its shit together. Sure, Obama was charismatic but he just looks like a temporary break in the pattern of national stupidity.
I was just reminiscing today about my last visit to Squaw, for the High Sierra Music Festival pre-children…Sounds like you have a great trip planned!
You’ve produced some heavy duty analysis lately and honestly, it’s been good for us to see things spelled out. But that intensive work will drain your batteries something fierce.
Go, run, get away and enjoy some down time. We’ll miss the wisdom, but you won’t be sharp when you’re exhausted and tired of the whole mess.
Enjoy!
Word of caution. Leave the electronics home. Lock one phone in the trunk for emergency.
Don’t even glance at the ubiquitous TV sets in bars, convenience stores, and so on.
On the way home prepare yourself for a culture shock of re-entry into the news cycle.
You will appreciate your diligence for the time away from crazy.
Have a great and well-deserved time away.
“Leave the electronics home.”
I concur. A connected vacation just isn’t a vacation. On our last woods-related program activity (enclosed lean-to at Stokes – awesome!) I discovered the walkie-talkie could receive the FM band, and literally half the relaxation went right out the window with that realization alone.
My family still has a small cabin in the Sierras built by my great grandfather in 1925. Even though a big grocery store is just a 25 minute drive away, the cabin is tucked away in a canyon where there is no radio, no tv, no cell service, and no internet. It is heaven!
Enjoy your time off – your insights and analysis are much appreciated.
I think I would go insane without my exploits into the wilderness. I hope that you have a great time and that you’re able to fully disengage yourself from current events and politics in general for a bit.
It seems like a lot of us are having the same idea as you. I spent time this weekend researching places for some “unplugged” time in the wilderness for me, the wife, and the dog. I need some time in the woods. Hiking, star-gazing, evening campfires, and staring at some water.
Like you, I feel like I am teetering on the edge. And the daily weight of this is taking its toll on every facet of my being. I have had conversations with a few other people who are in the same boat. If I don’t recharge soon I feel like I’m going to flame out.
As moribund as I might have felt during the worst days of the Bush administration, nothing from that time compares to my current frame of mind. It is scary, in almost every way imaginable.
Get away for whatever time you need. For your good and the good of everyone you love.
I highly recommend wilderness. Take care of yourself.
It’s been way too fucking long since I’ve been in the mountains, and I should try to take my own advice. I’m pretty broke but could afford a campsite I think.
WHAT THE FUCK AM I GONNA READ NOW?
Jk. Have fun.
Totally agree. Some days it simply overwhelms me. We need to take care of ourselves and not give this crazy man the power to take us down.
I live on the edge of wilderness, so I am going hiking today and tomorrow with close friends. Peak of the alpine flower season. No thunderstorms predicted until Wednesday.
I spent a few vacations at a dude ranch in Peaceful Valley outside of Boulder, got out into the mountains out there. What a wonderful wilderness to explore!
Have a great time. Lots of trees and rivers and mountains [or oceans] to be seen out there!