Last night we learned that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died from complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer. She held on as long as she could.

I learned last night that saying things like “R.I.P.” or “she’s in a better place” is inappropriate. She was Jewish and it isn’t right to use Christian sentiments on the occasion of her death. Better to honor who she was by saying, in Jewish tradition, “May her memory be a blessing.”

I hope that there are enough Senators with common decency and integrity to resist Mitch McConnell’s push to replace RBG immediately. He refused President Obama’s SCOTUS nominee because “it is an election year” (in 2016), and he needs to honor that sentiment now as well, but he’s already signaled that Trump’s nominee will get a hearing on the Senate Floor. It’s going to be a colossal shit-show between now and the election.

There is very little I can do about RBG’s passing, or the shit-show in Washington, D.C. But I can vote in this election, and will do so as soon as I get my ballot.

In other news, closer to home, the neuropathy in my back flared up just as I was heading to bed — burning, tingling, pain all around my upper back near my right shoulder blade. I had already taken my night-time meds but apparently that didn’t help. I tried lidocaine cream. I tried a frozen gel pack. These measures only briefly interrupted the pain. So I tried a couple hits of Vitamin M, and I was at least able to go back to bed and fall asleep for about 5.5 hours. Now that I’m up this morning, the pain is still there in my back, but not a searing, screeching pain. Just the normal tingly pain. 🙁

A while back, my daughter requested a pocketed shawl, and asked if I could make one. I didn’t purchase the requested pattern, but made my own design. She picked out the yarn and approved the design when I showed her early progress pictures. Yesterday I finished the second pocket to be applied, and all of the actual crocheting part is done. There is some embellishment that I need to apply to both pockets before they can be sewn into place and all the other loose ends and tails get woven in. But the crocheting is done, and my right thumb and middle finger are now in pain with trigger joints. Not a smart thing to power crochet through a project, but I’m glad I got it done. Meanwhile, my right hand is sort of useless for much of anything today. I’ll let it rest and pursue other projects that don’t require a lot of repetitive motion.

Gawd, I hate getting older and watching my body fall apart in ways I couldn’t imagine when I was younger.