I’m in sunny Puerto Rico on vacation. The backdoor of our Airbnb is right on the beach. You would think how lucky I am. But the front door of our rental is on a very loud, busy road. The traffic noise wakes us early in the morning and makes it difficult falling asleep at night.

I shouldn’t complain, you say. Well, we’ve had a rough week. Last Sunday I drove through a small drainage ditch running across the road. I didn’t see it in time to slow down enough to avoid partly dislodging my left front bumper. I’ve made an appointment at a body shop to repair it next week.

On Monday I spent eleven hours with my partner in the ER. We went to the hospital because she was having very severe back pains. Turns out she has a kidney stone. The ER doc gave her pain medication and told her to drink lots of water. While the pain has subsided fortunately, she’s still waiting for the stone to pass. Meanwhile, she’s having trouble sleeping and her energy level is pretty low.

The next day I’m eating a cracker and a cap on a tooth on the lower left side of my mouth breaks. I’m not in pain, but I am having difficulty chewing on that side of my mouth. I’ve made an appointment with my dentist back in Santa Fe to replace it when we get home.

That’s the kind of week it’s been. Consequently, I haven’t been able to focus on my blog. So, I took this past week off. My daughter and her boyfriend arrive today. I think I won’t have time to write my blog this coming week either.

But once I recover from my vacation, I’ll get back to blogging with renewed vigor!

Meanwhile, I wish you all the best wherever you may be in these troubling times.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.