I'd like to go back to aliens and murder hornets, please.

I can't pretend I didn't see this coming.

I knew that there was nothing magical about breaking out a new wall calendar, or kissing at midnight, or any of the other cheerful events as the New Year rolls in.

I knew we'd still have worsening COVID-19 numbers, and some sort of unrest as Trump resisted the orderly transfer of power.

I even expected (and still expect) armed resistance from the far right.

But it's still shocking to see it happen.

We aren't even a week into 2021 yet. Already we have new variants of the Corona virus on American soil... one of those variants is resistant to current treatment options.  Both are more contagious than the one we've been dealing with up until now.

So today we have three variants of Coronavirus to deal with, and a report of 3664 deaths in the past 24 hour period.  

Oh, and armed white supremacists and far right militias stormed the Capitol Building in Washington DC, waving the confederate flag in the halls of congress, vandalizing offices, and looting the building. 

You'd think, after viewing the massive show of firepower at Black Lives Matters protests this year that there would be plenty of riot police and armored vehicles that could prevent these violent insurgents from this attempted coup, but there was narry a bullet-proof vest to be seen, until later in the day, when Capitol Police had to gear up.  These traitors to our nation were invited in.... by a sitting president... who simply did not want to give up his seat in the oval office, even though it was clearly the will of the People, as expressed in the election last November.

I do not expect things to get better any time soon.  Not with the Bugaloo, not with coronavirus.  

On the plus side of things (but still weird enough to be feared as a sign of the apocalypse), the Democrats now have control of the Senate, after a Georgia run-off where both Democrats won.  I only expected to be reading that in one of those weird alternate history fiction novels. 

and even weirder: Buffalo Bills have taken the AFC East and are going to the playoffs heavy favorites. 

So many people couldn't wait for 2020 to be over and get into 2021.  I wonder how many are sitting home today wishing they could go back. If these are just the opening salvos from 2021, I shudder to think of what's coming next. I could find myself longing for aliens and murder hornets.