Christmas has come and gone again, and now it’s New Year’s Eve. I hope your big holiday for the year was a stand alone success. It probably doesn’t compare to the Xmas magic on Full House or some other saccharine family TV comedy, but as long as it holds its own as a fairly good day, you’re doing fine. I found this holiday fairly boring, and I have slept too much, eaten too much, drank too much and been trapped in the house because of shitty weather too much. Oh well, it still beats getting up at 5 am and doing things in the rain all day. Hard to believe that at the end of the coming year this century will already be a quarter over.
Something I’ve noticed – and you probably have too – is that when things are about to run out or die, they often go out with a bang. In physics, stars that reach the end of their lives often flare up to thousands of times their usual brightness before they die – a supernova. Lightbulbs usually flash as they expire too, making a very tiny little supernova. When I’m pouring syrup on my morning waffles and the bottle is running out, typically there’s more left than I need, so I pour the last of it on and get a supernova syrup puddle. Many things end with an all-consuming increase in intensity. This is all well and good, but the other day I came across a very interesting supernova I didn’t know about. It’s called Terminal Surge, or Terminal Lucidity, and it specifically relates to people who are about to die. Apparently, people who are bedridden, mentally crippled with dementia and/or debilitated in some way, often spring back to clarity and energy right before they die. They will sit up and recognize people, start eating again, and anyone visiting thinks the person has turned the corner and is getting better. Then of course, they die. Sometimes it’s in the final hours, but there are cases of it going on for days prior to dying, and for a short supernova they are their old selves again. Not everyone who is slipping away suddenly sits up and regains focus, but when they do, often it is very confusing and upsetting for family and friends. I was talking to a nurse friend of mine, and she says they call it “rallying.” She knew all about the process but had never heard the fancy Terminal Surge label.
Usually on New Years I gush about world peace and the need for someone sane and intelligent to take a leadership role in some countries who can control global goings on, and usually my pleas are in vain. Trump will be back in power in three weeks as I write this, and he seems more bonkers than ever. First, he thinks he’s going to save Americans money by putting huge tariffs on imports, but his tiny little brain doesn’t realize that the tariffs get paid by his consumers, not the country of origin. Canada can escape this tariff hell by beefing up our border security so that less fentanyl gets through to the US. Get a load of this fact: supposing our local fentanyl producer wants to ruin some good, clean American lives – he will need to pass his product through American border security, not Canadian! Maybe Trump could use some better advice. Also, he seems to be looking for a new Age of Empires, as he has expressed interest in annexing Canada, Panama and Greenland. Ice and tropical fruit. It’s like he’s been looking at a Mar-A-Lago cocktail. I haven’t looked at the news yet today, so maybe he’s thought of more places he’d like to conquer. Maybe a country with tiny bamboo umbrellas. I heard them say on the radio that around 40% of Canadians under the age of 30 would be fine with joining the US. The older the age group in the poll, the less the support for joining there was. Anyone older would be a little worried about our health care system and pensions getting taken away, or I would hope they are. The US isn’t big on wasting its tax income helping people, not when there is so much military equipment to buy.
Anyways, bitch, bitch, bitch. It’s all I’ve got.
Happy 2025!