I am so tired this week
Photo by Jesse Paul on Unsplash
I’m worn out, and a clock change is mostly to blame. Daylight saving time ended this past weekend, and my son has been waking up much earlier than he should and falling asleep much earlier than he should.
A young child’s body runs on light and routine. When clocks fall back an hour, a kid who normally wakes at 8:30 a.m. pops up at what feels like 7:30 a.m. to him, and by early evening he’s sleepy. Each year I relearn that the adjustment takes days, and the adults pay for it.
Changing clocks to use more evening daylight has a longer history than most of us realise. These days our phones and computers handle the change on their own. The old clocks around the house and the clock in the car don’t, so I have to update them. Note: this update appears on Buy Me a Coffee first and reaches the usual blog platforms afterwards.
A Halloween with extra sugar
Halloween involves kids going door to door for candy. We spent the afternoon at the local event on Main Street, where participating stores handed out free candy or swag to kids who stopped in. The turnout was bigger than last year, and some stores had long lines just for candy or swag.
After the event ended, we had dinner and went out around the neighbourhood for the usual trick-or-treating. It was a normal Halloween. Still, some of the candy was more sugary than I remember, and that made it harder for my son to calm down and sleep. The next day was the time change, so the timing could not have been worse.
Easing into the holiday season
Halloween is over, and the slow lurch toward the holiday season has begun. Most of October went to sharing and producing notes and other content, including blog articles, urging people to vote in Canada and the United States.
Since then, most of Canada’s elections have wrapped up. The exception is the 6 federal byelections on December 7, which fill seats that fell vacant between general elections. Ontario has 2 of them, including Scarborough North here in Toronto, and the other 4 are in Quebec province and Saskatchewan.
The United States voted in its midterms on November 3. That’s the election held halfway through a president’s 4-year term, when all 435 House seats and about a third of the Senate are on the ballot.
Most Popular Articles from October
Canadian Returnee
Fake Canadians are Flooding Social Media
What Orange Shirt Day Means to Indigenous Canadians
American Refugee
What Trump’s Second Term Delivered So Far
I Asked Locals About the Trade War
What readers read in October
On Canadian Returnee, the pieces that drew the most readers included “Fake Canadians are Flooding Social Media” and “How to Buy Canadian.” Another was “What Orange Shirt Day Means to Indigenous Canadians.” Orange Shirt Day, on September 30, honours the children taken to residential schools in Canada, and the survivors.
Over on American Refugee, readers gravitated to “What Trump’s Second Term Delivered So Far.” Readers also went to “Where You Can Shop Canadian” and “I Asked Locals About the Trade War.”
As election season winds down, I want each of my weekly publishing days to have its own job. One day goes to Canadian or global current events. Another covers life in Canada through observation and personal experience, and the last takes on local Ontario and Toronto issues.
If you’re trying to understand Canada, something here should be for you. Questions about the American experience, about leaving or about staying, belong on American Refugee, so comment away there.
I hope it works out
If Americans don’t show up, or if they rely on voting options such as mail-in ballots that can be invalidated, then America, as people still believe in it, is effectively a lost cause. Enough swing-state voters already made the wrong choice, either by staying home or by voting for Trump when it mattered.
The next time someone complains about a social issue, ask whether they ever voted. Without a vote behind it, the complaint is performative outrage for attention, and it adds only noise to the discourse. If an American online account says it opposes the far right and the far left while calling itself a red-blooded American, it’s likely a troll; treat it that way.
Voters can correct that now. Nobody who sat out the last round gets to claim blamelessness. Florida wants to be known as the stupid state after all.
I really hope the American midterm elections work out, and I also want this election to be done. I’ve watched years of political campaigning, and I’ve heard for just as long that the midterms will turn things around.
A former classmate of mine has been running an election campaign for at least 2 years, judging by their social media updates on rallies and networking events, along with casual meetings with local constituents. They consider that normal in America. In Canada, active campaigns last no more than 2 months, and then voting starts. Federal law sets a minimum of 36 days and a cap of 50.
Rumours of escalation abroad
There are rumours that Trump will treat the election setback as an excuse to escalate the war against Iran again. Trump himself has said the war will end “immediately after the election,” and some Democrats have said they expect a bigger escalation. Israel, meanwhile, is dealing with its own election setback: Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc won 53 seats on October 27, short of the 61 needed for a majority and down from the 68 his coalition held before.
Brazil and Serbia made a choice to push back against illiberal values, and that’s a relief. Lula won a fourth term in Brazil’s October 25 runoff over Flavio Bolsonaro. The same day in Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat to the student-led Student List after 14 years in power. People in Israel and America seem unsure whether illiberal rule or an open society is the right direction.
Trump has also worked on phasing out sanctions against Russia. On October 16, he waived new sanctions and tariffs on Russian energy 2 days before they were due to take effect under a law he signed in September. He says he wants to keep Russia at the bargaining table. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the move rewards Putin, and it is a bid to undermine Ukraine. Europe and much of the world still can’t materially help Ukraine at this point.
What to do
If you’re in the United States, check that your ballot isn’t thrown out on a technicality and work towards reform. When you hear someone complain about things, ask them whether they voted. Anyone with a child at home might go easy on the Halloween candy and give them a few days to catch up. Also, update the clock in the car too.
Writing is what I do, but the bills don’t accept passion as payment, so a paid annual subscription would go a long way toward keeping us going. If you rather support the free articles, you can buy me a coffee, or restack or share this with someone who wants to understand Canada. Thank you for reading.