WWG1WGOTR

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored," broadcasting from the Independent Republic of Johnsonia! Did you watch that fluffy inaugural celebration on Wednesday night? I did, and I wept the whole way through. Seriously, Jon Bon Jovi singing "Here Comes the Sun?" And did you see Yo Yo Ma? For the love of fruit flies. And then fireworks at the end. Johnsonia is going to send the Biden administration a nice pecan pie!

Don't know about you, but when I was growing up I had lots of cousins that were good friends to me. Now they're all scattered to the wind, and I don't even try to keep up with them. I carry a grudge against my father's people for wanting to sell the farm, and some of my mom's nieces and nephews climbed on the Trump train. Meh, cousins. 

Therefore I was decidedly unenthusiastic when I got a text message from one of my cousins, asking if she could give my phone number to her older brother. This particular brother was a blister on my heel growing up. I have no fond memories of him. But I'm not heartless, so I said sure, fling him my digits.

He called a few days later, and it happened that Mr. J was out. So I picked up the call.

Y'all see me here, I can blather on and on with no brakes whatsoever. But get me in a social situation, or on a phone line, and I have next to nothing to say. Mostly that doesn't matter, though. My experience is that the most I ever need to say is "uh huh" and "oh yes, you're right." And that covers it.

So this cousin starts off somewhat sane, politely asking me about my family and telling me how much I meant to him back in the day (not mutual). But it soon turned out that his real reason for calling was to see if I knew about The Storm.

Yes, that Storm. The lunatic lives in Florida, so at first I thought he might be talking about an off-season hurricane, but no.

He launched into a long diatribe about the Deep State that included the most ridiculous things you have never heard, and me telling him that I did some anti-fascist actions didn't even slow him down. Antifa is "infiltrated," like pretty much everything else from Maine to Hawaii.

And when I called him on his bullshit, which I did frequently, he said, "Anne Janette, you know I'm smart, right?" (Not really) Then he delivered up the juiciest: "It's all over the Internet. All you have to do is look."

Just look on the Internet?

Well, for a hot second I thought he might be right, because hardly anyone believes that the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus is nearly extinct. I know I've talked myself blue about the tree octopus, because it's all over the Internet.

I finally got the windbag off the line by telling him I had firewood to stack. Yes, readers. I used that very excuse. Wasn't even fake. After getting an earful of QAnon, I grimly stacked a cord of hardwood like it was cotton candy.

Gave this no more thought until the day before Inauguration, when I saw him trying to call me again. I sent him a text and said I didn't have time in my life for advanced crazy.

To which he replied that, if I know what's good for me, I'll go right away and tank up my car with gas and get a big wad of cash and be ready for Judgment Day Armageddon The Apocolypse the Overthrow of America by a Worldwide Papal Conspiracy That Controls Everything. He said I should be very afraid. Where would I even go? Did I know?

I texted him back, "I'll go to Camden. No one cares about Camden."

KaChing! Anne for the win! That shut him up. Because of course it's true.

There's a streak of crazy a mile wide that runs through my mother's family. You can literally trace it backwards in the family tree. All the same, it's sad to see someone so deluded that he thinks the world is going to come to an end because the members of the Supreme Court are pedophiles. What a burden, these delusions of grandeur! ("I know what I'm talking about, I've done my research on the Internet!")

If any of my cousins are reading this, please be aware. My happy writing career was put out of business by the Internet. In my reference book work, I had to fact-check everything. And Gods forbid I misspelled someone's name! No one knows better than I do what a stinking swamp of misinformation can be found on the Internet.

Ever notice that I don't fact-check anything on this blog? I don't have to! It's the Internet!

Gosh, now I can say I know someone who believes QAnon. Where They Go One, They Go Off The Rails.

Really wish these people would be Raptured.