For those who followed our trip to Portugal last month, here is some breaking news: we are leaving on another trip tomorrow. Not as exotic (to the extent that Portugal is exotic), and not as long. But we are going to Saratoga Springs NY to meet several regular readers of this blog, returning to DC on Saturday. So five nights and six days on the road. We will, of course, keep you posted.

And, yes, we decided to start our trip on Labor Day, when no one else is on the highway. We have always been intelligent that way. Well, here is our plan: we are not going to drive up to Saratoga Springs the way we would almost any other day of the year. That route would take us up I-95 to the Jersey Turnpike, then onto the Garden State to the New York State line and then on to Saratoga Springs, north of Albany, about 400 miles from Washington. It would also cost us about $35 in tolls. But the idea of driving from here to Baltimore to Philadelphia to New York City and onward on Labor was not very appealing. So we are going to change routes.

We are going to drive up through Pennsylvania, west of Philly, up I-81, spend tomorrow night in the birthplace of our President, Scranton PA at the Radisson, which is (it appears) the renovated Scranton railroad station, and turn east when we get to Binghamton to drive to Albany and then to Saratoga. That will save us the $35 in tolls. It would normally add an hour to the trip, but my guess is on Labor Day, the time on the two routes will be closer to the same, but the western route just more pleasant. We will see.

Other than that? We did survive our week as babysitters. We did go to the baseball game yesterday, but were not very happen when the Nats were behind 9-1 in only the third inning. And we did watch the first episode (of seven) of Tammy and George last night (it’s about a year old, on Showtime and Paramount), and enjoyed the music (is Wabash Cannonball the best song ever written other than Beethoven’s Ode to Joy?) and Jessica Chastain. Speaking of best, is Jessica Chastain the best actress of our time? I am thinking she is – I’d give her two Tammies – for her portrayal of Tammy Wynette in Tammy and George, and for her portrayal of Tammy Faye Baker in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”. She won a Critics Choice award for the first, and an Oscar for the second. We also saw her in the remake of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage (did I get that right?) on TV a couple of years ago – she was excellent there too, although the show itself was nothing to write a blog about.

Finally, one more thought. September is going to be the month of the biggest political mess in this country in our lifetimes (and, yes I know, that is saying something). In addition to all of the hullabaloo (I spelled that right the first time) about Trump and his six trials and probably another hurricane or two, we are going to have a really serious attempt by the lunatic right wing Republicans to shut down the government. Yes, I know we just went through this a few months ago, but it’s that time again – the end of the fiscal year on September 30.

The report is that Kevin McCarthy is trying to avoid a shutdown by coming up with something that will satisfy his lunatic right wing (his entire party is crazy right wing – so I will refer to the really crazy ones as the lunatic right wing), and that the something he has decided on was to open up, or to promise to open up, impeachment hearings on Biden. The first part of those hearings, I assume, would be devoted to trying to find some grounds on which Biden could be impeached and by then, the fiscal year problem would be way past.

But the lunatic right wing probably won’t fall for this lame promise. They will set up their own standard for continuing the “unessential” tasks of the government. Like: we will pass a short term continuing resolution if all charges (state and federal) against Trump the neo-Christ are dismissed with prejudice. They could do that, you know. They don’t like the government anyway, so there’d be no loss there in their minds (to the extent they have minds). So, they think, what’s to lose?

If they don’t want to go that far, think of all the other things they could demand as leverage, since that appears to the name of the game right now.

Don’t think I am exaggerating. Or if you do, just wait and see – you may change your mind.

Remember Bette Davis’ “Buckle your seat belt. We’re in for a bumpy ride”? (If it was Bette Davis, if that’s how she spells her first name, and if the quote is at all accurate) For this month, that quote is insufficient. As I said (only one paragraph ago), “just wait and see.”

Until tomorrow.