Randomness

Skitter wants to know WHY!

Why is this tune lodged in my bean this morning?

I was never a Tom Petty OR Stevie Nicks fan (yeah, they’re both talented as hell, just not my thing) so, wut up?

This is a break up song—catchy hook, nothing deep.

Say you've had a little trouble in town
Say you're keeping some demons down
Stop draggin' my
Stop draggin' my (stop)
Stop draggin' my heart around

I don’t get why it’s stuck in my head this morning. Maybe because it’s another bleak, chilly, rainy day here in Valhalla—perfect for a serving of heaping plate of irksome melancholia?
~~~
I’m attempting, yet again, to NOT read the news first thing on waking. Honest to fuck, it’s not as though, in putting off facing the world outside Valhalla, I’m going to miss some urgent, flashing, life changing report. I CAN put off the doom consumption for an hour or two. This was my physical therapist’s idea—start the day with my most despised exercises (clamshells and arches) and get them outta the way before I’m fully awake.

It's a good morning for Oreos, no?

Makes sense. I’m on it. It occurs to me though that I’m just trading one pain for another. Granted, the pt exercises will eventually lead to me becoming stronger, more physically stable and able—a good thing. Reading the news? Yes, I’ll be well informed BUT also sad, anxious and, possibly, demoralized—NOT a good thing. I need to delay that shit.

Why are unrewarding bad habits so hard to break?
~~~
And speaking of demons (we were, weren’t we?)…I started reading Barbara Kingsolver’s latest, Demon Copperhead. Truly? I thought it would be about, ya know, demons who would in some way resemble the snakes.

I KNOW, Kingsolver doesn’t write fantasy/horror. She doesn’t pen amusing escapism. Nope. She’s a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, essayist and poet.

Cool but, but, but…the title! This should be about Zoroastrian snake demons, right? Right?!

Ah, nope, that’s a big negatoire good buddies.

Demon Copperhead is a re-telling of David Copperfield set in Appalachia—possibly the most depressing corner of America. Now, if I read David Copperfield it was WAY back in my long ago misspent youth. All I remember is that it was big-sad inspiring and there were no space ships and zero mythical beasties.

How’m I doing with Kingsolver’s tale? Not swimmingly at all. It’s not her—it’s totally me. The story, while well written, is bleak as all hell—just one chapter and vignette after another of child abuse, drug addiction and dashed dreams. Very Dickensian.

If I want to soak in this level of misery and hopelessness (which, generally, I do NOT) I could just read the goddamn news. I believe it’s now time to quit this and dive into a lovely Terry Pratchett.

Hello Discworld—white courtesy telephone.

Slow Growth

The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
~ Confucius

This morning was my last physical therapy appointment. The last one for now, that is. My original goal had been to transition from walker to cane. I’ve been, however, judged not physically capable of this feat. Not YET anyway. The general plan is for me to keep doing all the at-home exercises (and there are a shit-ton of ‘em) for the next six months and then try walker to cane PT again.

I’m disheartened but also determined. Additionally, I recognize that I’ve not been as diligent as possible. What’s needed, for starters, is more structure. A specific, regular time of day for my workouts would help. Giving myself a bit of credit and grace would be useful too.

One step at a time.

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.
~ Walter Elliot

Meanwhile in England, some ignorant, stupid, stupid teenage boy cut down the country’s most photographed, precious tree. It was more than 400 years old. I only mention it but England is hardly brimming with old forests.

We mentioned earlier that new shoots may be able to grow from the base of the tree trunk - but it's going to take time for the tree to become what it was.

"We would expect new growth to start next spring or summer but it will take a few years to develop into even a small tree, and around 150 to 200 years before it is anywhere close to what we have lost," says Mike Feather, the estate manager at the Woodland Trust. (source)

Rotten kid. I imagine he learned how to disrespect and defile nature from his parents. Or not. Maybe they’re wonderful, planet respecting humans and the kid’s a psychopath. I wonder how many tortured dead animals have been found in this family’s town.

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying 'I will try again tomorrow.'
~ Mary Anne Radmacher

I will exercise more later today.

Oh, Canada

Just in case you were wondering ‘why can’t the U.S. be sane or WAY less insane like, ya know, Canada?’ OR maybe you were wanting to know ‘why are all the batshit crazies in the U.S.?’ Maybe this bit of news out of Saskatchewan might make you feel better. Or not.

She claims to be the Queen of Canada, and now she's holding court in an abandoned school.
~~~
Ms Didulo and her followers spread a variety of different beliefs, including sovereign citizen, anti-vaccination conspiracies, and ideas related to QAnon - a wide-ranging, completely unfounded theory that says former US President Donald Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles in government, business and the media.
~~~
Ms Didulo also frequently calls for violence against those administering Covid vaccines to children, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
"She's the ultimate anti-government person," Ms Sarteschi said, noting that Ms Didulo regularly threatens to execute her opponents. (source)

Didulo's Telegram channel has 36,000 followers. Not Selena Gomez on Threads numbers (7.3 million followers) but it ain't chicken feed. Every whack-a-loon dictator wannabe has to start somewhere.

In the benighted, bug-fuck U.S.A. the five biggest exports are:

1. Gasoline and Other Fuels
2. Crude Petroleum
3. Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) and Other Natural Gases
4. Civilian Aircraft Parts
5. Passenger Vehicles

Fer realies, I would have named the top five exports as:

1. Hollywood films and teevee shows
2. Guns
3. Unhinged Violence
4. Crackbrained Lunacy

and

5. the ever popular, indignant, entitled, rhetorical bullshit of DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM (see Cancun Cruz and Lauren New Boobs)

The fecal-brained Trump Crime Klan and their barking mad followers fall neatly under the Crackbrained Lunacy header. A solid oozing chunk of them fit in the Unhinged Violence category too (see January sixth seditionists). I’m wondering if, when Cheeto and the Cheetettes finally go to prison, along with their faithful worshipers (AKA deranged, dumb-fuckian treason weasels) will Trumpism turn into a full blown Jim Jones style cult. Perhaps it is already.

YES!

THIS is how it's done!

" President Joe Biden grabbed a bullhorn on the picket line Tuesday and urged striking auto workers to “stick with it” in an unparalleled show of support for organized labor by a modern president.

Donning a union ballcap and exchanging fist bumps, Biden told United Auto Workers strikers that “you deserve the significant raise you need” ...

“No deal, no wheels!” workers chanted as Biden arrived at a General Motors parts distribution warehouse, one of several facilities that has been targeted in a widening strike now in its 12th day. “No pay, no parts!”  

Despite concerns that a prolonged strike could undermine the economy, particularly in the crucial battleground state of Michigan, the Democratic president encouraged workers to keep fighting for better wages at a time when car companies have seen rising profits. " (source)

***

" The White House announced Mr Biden’s visit to the UAW workers last week, soon after Mr Trump announced he would skip the 27 September Republican presidential debate in California to visit Detroit, the heart of US vehicle manufacturing.
     ~~~
Mr Biden was invited to visit the UAW members by the group’s president, Shawn Fain, who has sometimes been critical of Mr Trump.

In his Truth Social post, Mr Trump - who has not been invited by the UAW - vowed that car workers are “toast” if they do not endorse him and if he does not win the election. " (source) 

He's threatening the workers and their union. Somehow—and I could be mistaken but, ya know, doubt it—I don't think this'll be a winning strategy.

***

Referring to the currently out on bail fraudster/grifter/sex offender UAW President Shawn Fain told CNN:

" "I don't think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for."

"He serves the billionaire class and that's what's wrong with this country," Fain added.
     ~~~
Trump is scheduled to give a prime-time speech Wednesday instead of attending the second Republican primary debate. " (source)

Cheeto will do anything to avoid getting on stage with his challengers. He knows, on some deep down level, that he's incapable of making any sort of coherent argument or defense. The golf cart riding, shouting, bloated tray of grease soaked cheap burgers and fries can't even keep his Bush brothers straight. He thinks we’re headed into World War II and that he beat Obama, not Clinton, in 2016. The former guy’s not exactly connected to reality.

***

" Former President Donald Trump said he was traveling to Detroit to rally with striking autoworkers, but the location he settled on for his Wednesday event is a nonunion parts supplier whose workers aren’t at all involved with the strike.

...Shawn Fain pointed that out after President Joe Biden’s stop at a picket line in Belleville, Michigan, on Tuesday.

“I find it odd he’s going to go to a nonunion business to talk to union workers,” Fain told reporters after Biden’s stop. “I don’t think he gets it, but that’s up to people to decide.”  " (source)

Autumn

The autumnal equinox was this past Saturday. The Earth's axis and its orbit were lined up so that both northern and southern hemispheres of our human plagued planet got amounts of sunlight. Here in Boston it’s now fall OR pumpkin spice season if you’re so inclined.

The weather’s changing—of course it fucking is! What this means, specifically, is that I’m cold ALL the damn time and, even when I’m not hungry, I feel like noshing (or at least snacking). This a sad constant—not good. I’m now so close to my weight loss goal. It’s not the time to 24/7 stuff myself with pasta, pizza, cakes and cannolis.

What can I do to combat my ravenous appetite and the annoying cold? For starters I can switch out the contents of my dresser drawers. It’s time to load in the sweatshirts, turtlenecks, long sleeve Ts and socks. Not only does this mean I’ll be warmer, wearing more seasonally appropriate clothing, I’ll also get in some decent balance exercise. Ya know, bending, gathering, standing, stretching and all that. It’s stunning, to me anyway, how much strength and balance is required to do even the most mundane of tasks.

Pearls Before Swine

I’ve become accustomed to doing little more than sitting around (in bed or my big green comfy chair) reading. Being physically unstable (i.e., a colossal fall risk) has dovetailed neatly with my inherent laziness. Now that I can do more, I NEED to do more. Use it or lose it and all that.

The ultimate key to not being cold is getting my ass up and moving. I can elliptical, do my myriad PT exercises, some minor housecleaning and, if the weather’s not awful, take walks.

Sadly, we’re now in the 537th straight day of rain and high winds (OK, it feels like it's been 537 days!). There are whitecaps (fer fuck’s sake!) on our normally calm, placid bay. It’s a measly 58º outside now! Yes I know, come January, 58º will feel positively tropical. Well, it’s not winter yet—summer was just last week, goddamnit.

Enough kvetching. Time to get dressed and head out to my physical therapy appointment. Joy.

Things—needed and not

Why is this a thing?

Spider Venom That Causes Big Boners Could Be A New Viagra

What’s wrong with the old Viagra? Is this spider venom somehow superior? Does it give a longer lasting, stiffer stiffy? Is this, outside of the adult film industry, needed or useful?

On average women are fertile on 36 to 60 days out of the year. Men, on the other hand, can fertilize eggs 24/7/365 days of the year.

Let’s fund research into new boner meds after women have equal rights, including autonomy over our own damn bodies.
~~~
Great slams from John Scalzi’s latest book Starter Villain:

• Bourgeois Fistula
• Scrotemonkey
• Pustulant Trash Fire
• Smoothbrained—This insult derives from the belief that the more folds a person’s brain has, the smarter they are. So, the thinking goes, a person with a smooth brain is dumb as a rock. (source)

The character, who’s a clear insult virtuoso, is a dolphin whose pod is attempting to unionize. He’s def not going to win his cause through cunning diplomacy though.
~~~
You know you’re old and out of touch when you’re constantly saying/thinking who?

• Pete Davidson???? Is he a game show host? Maybe one of Faux News’ talking zombie heads?
  

• Jordan Peterson? No fucking clue who this is.

• Taylor Swift? Yeah, I get that she’s some sort of big time entertainer but what does she do? Is she this generation’s Barbra Streisand or Whitney Houston? Ya know, a Broadway style belter or what?

• Tim Scott? I understand he’s a Black Republican (paging Mr. Paradox, white courtesy telephone) congresscritter AND a tightly closeted gay individual. Why does he occasionally appear in my newsfeed though? Has he done something brilliant or heinous? Since he’s a Republi/Fascist, odds favor the latter.

• Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner? No idea who they are BUT I see they’re getting a divorce and it’s a nasty one. //shrugs// I’m hard pressed to give a damn about wealthy, healthy white people woes. Yup, I appreciate that they’re in emotional pain but, seems to me, they’re in a position to suffer in luxurious comfort.

Yes, I can google these folks and I have. None were worth the effort.
~~~
Colorado Congresswoman LOOK-AT-ME strikes (herself smack dab in the face) yet again.

“It’s been 20 years since I was in the dating scene,” she told Waters. “And back then, there were not infrared cameras watching my every move. But it’s a lesson learned.” (source)

So, as long as there aren’t any surveillance cameras, it’s okay for her to illegally vape, record and give the boyfriend a handie in a crowded public theater? She can also be as rude and obnoxious as she wants as long as there aren’t cameras to record and put paid to her lying ass “apologies?”

I only mention it BUT I’ve done a lot of stupid things in my life but I’ve never been THIS much of a tiny brained, entitled twatzilla. Nor have I ever been this trashy and moronic on the U.S. taxpayer’s dime. But, hey, nice new tits, chicky!
~~~

So I’m scrolling through Threads and come across this:

Ukraine is already having success with their current unitary warhead options, most notably the…

Maybe it’s just me but I first read this as urinary warheads. Before I thought that can’t be right, I was wondering what a urinary warhead would do. Golden showers a la Cheeto in Russia* but in a grand, major battlefield way? This alone could win the war because Russian soldiers would be too humiliated to continue raping, torturing, murdering and bombing their way through Ukraine. No one wants to be peed on, without consent, for a worldwide audience.

Emmm, I went back and reread—unitary warhead.

Unitary.

Nevermind.

 * yes, I know that P01135809 wasn't, purportedly, golden showered—he just watched. STILL—icky and twisted.

Comix and Clashes

Have you seen Litterbox Comics? It’s got cats! It’s got science! What more could I want? Okay, maybe a few flying teacups and the odd dragon or two. 

 See the panels below for the inspiring Litterbox comic (at bottom) and a few bits it brought out, (just above). I’ve excerpted for your reading pleasure. Yur welcome.

By the way, I try to avoid reading the comments on most posts (obvs, I'm not always successful in that endeavor). We humans seem to be obsessively fond of arguing/talking shit. Doesn’t matter if it’s about whether or not the Republi/Fascist party consists of nothing but egomaniacal, dimwitted and greedheaded performance “artists” (spoiler alert: yes, that descriptive applies to each and every one of those ratfucking fucks) or if orange marmalade is superior to grape jelly (it is, duh). Put the question or statement online and there will be a brawl.

This one was intriguing, informative and amusing though. Also, it's an unusually civilized dust up (for the intertubes).

Commenter 1: A single atom is smaller than the wavelength of light so is invisible and colourless.

Commenter 2: Since a mass of atoms has color, then each individual atom must as well.
Take iron. It is made (in pure form) of a single atom, repeated over and over- the Iron (Fe) atom. We see it. It has color. Unless we are from the UK, in which case, it has the more complex colour.

Slice it thin enough, and it will begin to become translucent. The fewer atoms reflect a lower amount of color, but still a non-zero amount of reflectiveness and color.

The same is true of a single atom.

Commenter 3: I would argue that atoms are where colors come from. Or, more specifically, electrons. If you…excite an orbiting electron it's going raise up into a higher energy state. Then it's going to release that energy in the form of light to 'quantum leap' back to lower states of energy. The amount of energy needed to jump orbits will determine the frequency, or color, that you see.

Commenter 4: No. Single atoms are smaller than the wavelength of visible light and cannot be said to have colour.

Commenter 5: But do colors exist? Or only wavelengths of light the substance reflects back at the observer and how the observer experiences the wavelength as a color.

Commenter 6: Even if atoms weren't too small to have colour, isn't it so that matter only has colour by virtue of the light that falls on it, ie what light it reflects? Eg plants are green because they absorb the other parts of the spectrum, and only reflect green?

Sleepless in Valhalla

I got a whopping two hours of sleep last night.

Whyzat and WTF?

Got me hanging. I was good about exercising yesterday so I should have slept well. Still, Hypnos, that slacker, couldn’t be bothered to grace me with his goddamn presence.

Fucker.

Today, I’ve got to do my complete balance and strength workout (I plan on shining at tomorrow’s PT appointment), get the latest COVID booster (at 4PM), elliptical my ass off and maybe stop by Saint Fratelli’s for some emergency cannolis.

Yeah, that’s the ticket!

Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.
~ Anthony Burgess

I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?
~ Ernest Hemingway

Without enough sleep, we all become tall two-year-olds.
~ JoJo Jensen 

This is me today—a tall, cranky toddler.

I've always envied people who sleep easily. Their brains must be cleaner, the floorboards of the skull well swept, all the little monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of the bed.
~ David Benioff

Horndog Rabid Weasels

 You know things are radically outta control when, of the two, Madge Trailer Trash comes off as slightly less vile than Lauren New Boobs.

I get it—these two twatzillas are just useful cockroaches exhibitionists. Their job is to suck up all the eyes and ears—we’re too busy laughing at these failed rodeo clowns to see what’s happening behind the curtain.

The more despicable villains are, of course, Tommy Tuberville, Gym Jordan, Ron Johnson, Cancun Cruz…hell's bells, it’s the entire fucking party. When Mitt corporations-are-people-my-friend Romney comes across as a man of the people, you know America is swirling down the stinking gas station toilet bowl.

The Republican Party is, and has been for a very long time, nothing but a pack of Democracy murdering performance artists.

On that note, I’m not one to flog a dying, rabid weasel (no…REALLY!) but what kind of career does Bobo think she’s gonna have now that she’s made an even bigger not-safe-for-work,-children-or-pregnant-women annoying clown of herself? I mean, it’s right there on video—her vaping (in a public theater—not exactly legal), her stroking off her date (in public—again, not legal), her taking pics and vid’s of the performance (waddya know, illegal) and being a rude, argumentative, entitled fuck (not illegal, just incredibly classless and, given her position as a House Rep, stupid). 

Her non-apologies were laughable and having her not yet ex-husband offer excuses? That ex-jailbird, convicted of showing off his wang to teens? Yeah, that’s, like TOTALLY, gonna get her three failed GEDed ass outta the dog house. (Also, I wonder who wrote the mea culpa for him—his attorney or hers?) At this point she’s made herself too banefully ridiculous for even the Fox propaganda channels.

Then this oxygen sucking absurdity says she’ll never date a Democrat again. Huh. What this sounds like to me is her blaming her own caught-on-tape asinine performance on him because...because he’s an evil blue influence that she was too weak to resist? Sure babe.

Also seems like, in Booby’s undeveloped mind, dating a Democrat is a greater sin than being a boorish, lawbreaking, lying, hypocritical and hateful, nimrodian social moron.

“Do you know who I am,” she shrieked. We do. Someone ought to clue her in since, obviously, she doesn’t.

An aside—her date. Theoretically, he’s a successful businessman who votes smart and conducts his biz in a sane, welcoming-to-all manner. WHY would he go out with this toxic twatzilla? Was he bored and horny—figured she’d be a relatively cheap, easy one night stand? Why risk your professional reputation over such a useless and vile bit of tripe?

Colorado’s District 3, which New Boobs theoretically represents, has a population of 731,516. She won her last race by a scant 546 votes.

If you’re in her district VOTE HER OUT. You deserve better. We all deserve better. Vote Adam Frisch!

Blast from the Past?

Ya know how on ShoutyFace there’s that people you may know feature? Often enough the names/faces are complete strangers OR folks who may as well be. We may have a few mutual friends, maybe their name rings a bell but I’ve never met them (or don’t remember having known them).

Then there’s the rare person who I actually knew and recall fondly or semi-fondly. Do I send a friend request? More often than not, no. Why not? If I knew them in high school there’s a 50/50 chance they grew up to be Cheeto voting Republi/Fascists. I’m careful with my ShoutyFace account—that is, I want to keep it a warm safe haven, away from bullies, generic fuckwads, Jesus pushers, authoritarian mosquito-brained orange cultists and other assorted undesirables.

It takes no small amount of energy to keep my morale flying and I don’t need or want the annoyance and aggravation these types inevitably bring to the table. I mean, fer fucks sake, I truly enjoy people’s family, pet and holiday pics. I like funny memes, animal pics, stories and vids, art stuff, links to informative news and opinion columns (the sane, intelligent ones like Heather Cox Richardson or Jeff Tiedrich) and science posts are always welcome. Got a complaint or something you feel like whining about? As long as it’s not targeting marginalized groups—yeah, bring it.

That’s a pretty broad range, right? Why allow piss in the pool?

What I don’t want are posts by proselytizing christians, insecure assholes who just live for a ‘good’ verbal brawl and preening, condescending twatzillas (AKA Karens and Chads).

Why’s this come up this morning? I checked into the site and saw an interesting friend suggestion. It was for a dude I was friendly with in high school. Friendly (NOT in the friends-with-benefits way) until his mother put her foot down, saying he was not allowed to speak with or so much as acknowledge me anymore.

‘the fuck??????

This happened to me a few times back then. Why? Who the hell knows. Possibly I gave off serious Imma-steal-your-son’s-virginity-and-turn-him-into-a-free-thinker vibes? Maybe I came off as too wild or needy or independent or just different and definitely not blonde.

So, I checked out this, now 66 year old, dude’s profile (as much as can be seen without being 'friends'). Maybe his mommy will let us be friends now? Emmmmmm. He’s a preacher—a preacher in ultra conservative rural Western Pennsylvania at some generic (probably evangelical) christian church. He has many, MANY children. That line, famously attributed to Grouch Marx comes to mind:

I love my cigar, too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while.

This fella and I have SIX mutual friends though—three of whom I consider actual, not mere ShoutyFace ‘friends’ and two aren’t even christian (or Christian). That last bit—that’s really got my curiosity in the stratosphere. Who is this guy now. I mean, it’s clear that he and I’ve lived radically divergent lives. Is he one of those hellfire, brimstone, bullshit and child abusing “christians” or does he have actual morals and at least half a brain?

I don’t need to send him a friend request but I’m, without a doubt, wicked curious.

Fool

 Here’s a book I’m never gonna buy, borrow or bother to even glance at—Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner’s The Masters. Why not?

In an interview with The New York Times — which was published online Friday, to promote his new book, The Masters — Wenner said he didn’t include interviews with Black and female musicians in his book because they aren’t “articulate” enough. (source)

Not articulate enough? Asswipe, you’re interviewing musicians not presidential candidates. Do you expect all musicians to sound like white tenured linguist/philosophy professors from Harvard. Is Ted Nugent articulate enough for Wenner? I mean, Nuge is white AND, supposedly, has a penis. Theoretically, he’s also a musician.

“When whites use the word [articulate] in reference to blacks, it often carries a subtext of amazement, even bewilderment. . . . [which] is inherently offensive because it suggests that the recipient of the ‘compliment’ is notably different from other black people.” (source)

Wenner went on to say “Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.” Given his poor sentence structure, I wonder if he needs to crack open a dictionary and look up what articulate means.

Are you a musician with a vagina? Sorry, our boy Jann doesn’t think you’re intellectual enough, articulate enough OR a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. Gee, too bad Patti, Grace, Ann, Chrissie, Joni, etc. Are you a Black woman rock ’n' roller? By Wenner’s standards you’re totally not worth his time. Sorry Aretha, Tina, Ms. Armatrading, Ms. Summer, Poly Styrene, etc.

“You’re so articulate” means you do not deserve the low-intensity holocaust despite your blackness. It means you are the smart puppy to be saved from the thresher that is the dog pound. It means “you have done what is needed to be done to be worthy of my hearing.” (source)

Women and Black people don't meet Jann's bullshit standards. Microagression much, fuckwad?

Wenner’s non-apology “apology” is a stinking dead toad.

“Maybe I should have gone and found one Black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up to that same historical standard, just to avert this kind of criticism,” he said. “Maybe I’m old-fashioned and I don’t give a [expletive] or whatever.” (source)

Maybe you’re an oafish asshole with limited taste who’s never engaged in a second of introspection and don’t know what the fuck you're talking about…hmmmmm? A better title for the book would’ve been I’m a Fanbois for These Old White Dudes. Way to drown your legacy in a pool of stupidity, racism and misogyny.

Rut-roh

 I’ve been in a rut. What’s your rut look like, I hear (okay, imagine) you asking.

It’s all balance and strength exercising, reading and more of it, dealing with ongoing health shit (side effects or are these new tumor symptoms or my wild imagination? Who the fuck knows but I’m certain that one of the highly educated, trained and lauded docs on my pit crew will fill me in) and then there’s the lounging about doing sad/angry punk-ass impressions of a wasting away Victorian gentlewoman. Busy, busy life but not real fun.

This dull shit gets old. Hells bells, I’M old (just like this tedious routine). It’s past time to get my hemispherical ass in gear and start doing new stuff. 

My initial thoughts?

1) Doodling/painting on large (18”x24”) sheets of paper.

My essential tremors are STILL too out of control to do anything even vaguely realistic but I can play around with colors and see what happens. Fer fucks sake, Matisse changed styles and mediums when his health crapped out—so can I. 

In his later years, Matisse’s health gradually deteriorated. He often had to spend prolonged periods of time on bed rest, or in a wheelchair. Although oil painting in bed would present a challenge, cutting out paper was a technique that could be done virtually anywhere, even when lying down. This technique meant even when he was struggling to stand, he could still exercise the incredible creativity of his mind.  (source)

Also, yes, one of my neurological team is working on the shaking problem. We’re still experimenting with meds. BTW, her name is, awesomely enough, Dr. Goodheart!

The extra added benefit of doodle/painting—since I’ll be working at an easel and will need full range of arm movement, I’ll be standing while scribbling. Standing for even a few minutes at a time counts as balance rehab work. Thus, I get unbored AND stronger at the same time. SO. MUCH. WIN!

Now to explore what I’m able to create with these shaking, twitchy hands and head.

2) Though COVID is back on stage (Ten and I are getting the new booster shots on Monday), careful travel IS possible. ROAD TRIP!

I’m mobile enough to manage short walks, small museum visits and gazing down on gorgeous landscapes from lofty mountaintops. A northern New England trip it will be. Given that our trusty and zippy steed (Godzilla) is fully electric, we’ll need to map out a route with public charging stations in mind. Also, we’ll want to take Cake with us. He’d get lonely if we left him on his own. Yes, Jen and Oni would visit BUT our good boy is used to us being home with him almost 24/7. We don’t want to give our little Angel Butt a complex or anything. We aren’t monsters, ya know!

Extra added benny of the trip? All the research (hotels which allow cats, electric car charging stations and sites we want to scope out) will keep me from doomscrolling.

There must be other new things I can do to pull myself out of Rut Valley but what? My first thought is always let’s go hear some new, rad bands! Yeah…cool but I seem to be deaf. Have been for the past 19 years too. I would have thought I’d be used to that by now.

Nope.

3) Ten and I could explore new places to lunch. Yes, COVID is back but midweek suburban lunch hours aren’t exactly hopping.

We went to a place yesterday which—pre-COVID and before my two years of surgeries and inpatient rehab—I liked. Sadly, it’s lost its charm. The place always tried to come off as upscale (complete with condescending, snooty maître d’). In reality, it was a comfortable, mid-range joint—nice furnishings though. They had decent waitstaff, good bartenders and decent food (though nowhere near enough veggie options). Now? The food’s bland as fuck (in comparison, Gerber’s baby food is wildly seasoned) and the maître d’ (a different one yesterday) is still a prick.

Time to explore other, more interesting options.

We're in for nasty weather...

 Got a couple songs in my head this morning—Bad Moon Rising  (Creedence Clearwater Revival) and Burning Down the House (Talking Heads). Why? The weather forecast is intense. There’s a hurricane warning and a tropical storm alert. 

Here! In fucking New England. AND I gotta head into Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary in a few for a visit with my cornea doc. Joy…just oodles of and shit.

Have some pics and lyrics whilst I go figure out  how to affix sandbags to my walker. Also, what does one wear for a potentially cataclysmic weather event?

Don't go around tonight
Well it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise

I hear hurricanes a-blowin'
I know the end is comin' soon
I fear rivers over flowin'
I hear the voice of rage and ruin

Don't go around tonight
Well it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise, alright

Hope you got your things together
Hope you are quite prepared to die
Looks like we're in for nasty weather
One eye is taken for an eye

And
Ah, watch out
You might get what you're after
Cool babies
Strange but not a stranger
I'm an ordinary guy
Burning down the house

Hold tight
Wait 'til the party's over
Hold tight
We're in for nasty weather
There has got to be a way
Burning down the house

Here's your ticket, pack your bags
Time for jumpin' overboard
Transportation is here
Close enough but not too far
Maybe you know where you are
Fightin' fire with fire

Ride It

It’s been a stormy week. The weather—not necessarily me.

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.
~ Willa Cather

The way you write ronin is 浪人 with the character for wave and the character for person, which is pretty much how I feel, like a little wave person, floating around on the stormy sea of life.
~ Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being

Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm.
~ Marcus Garvey

Like all of us in this storm between birth and death, I can wreak no great changes on the world, only small changes for the better, I hope, in the lives of those I love.
~ Dean Koontz

You can learn to prevent a storm, or you can learn to ride the storm. If you learn to ride the storm, the storm is not a problem anymore.
~ Jaggi Vasudev

It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
~ Frederick Douglass

Riders on the Storm ~ The Doors