Geez.
I go away for a few days and everything just goes haywire.
I'm not talking about the electric car we had to rescue, or the dishwasher that was full of soap suds upon our return.
I'm talking about the full-on trade war instituted by the former game show host and the international fallout created by what might best be described as "reactionary tariffs."
As my wife and I made a mad dash to the south end of the state, evil and misguided things were happening on the other side of the continent. These things went largely ignored because the intent of our trip was to vacate and shun. Vacation. We made a conscious effort to keep ourselves from doom-scrolling as we waited in line for The Jungle Cruise. We used our cellular phone connection to track our food orders and our relative location in The Happiest Place On Earth.
It takes a very concerted effort to be an adult about having fun like a child. While we pondered over choices like Buzz Lightyear or Space Mountain, the world was mulling over how to deal with the enfant terrible who was alternately setting up tee times and destroying the global economy. The newest and most ugly revelations of the convicted felon's most recent attempts at "making America a laughing stock," or MALS as it appears on red baseball caps made in China was not made fully apparent to this vacationing couple until we headed north once again to return to our "quiet normal life."
We unpacked. We got the electric car back on the charger. We rinsed the excess soap out of the dishwasher. We apologized to the cat for leaving him to deal with all the extra stress and got back to the business of real life in these "United" States.