Tag: family

Double Life

Here we are and Pay-the-Bills Wednesday has somehow rolled back around again. How is that even possible? Madness, am I right? I’m getting more tired the deeper into the week we get, but I’m sleeping well and deeply, so hopefully I can make it to work-at-home Friday safely and easily. I’m also enjoying this colder (for us) weather. Fall and spring are my favorite, albeit the briefest, seasons in New Orleans. I really don’t mind the winter that much, either, here. I just don’t like snow, ice and frigid wind that cuts right to the bone. But it’s nice not sweating to death in the car before the a/c starts blowing cold, or from just walking a bag of garbage to the bins through hot soupy air.

Yesterday wasn’t bad. I got things done at the office, then came home to do some chores and write something due tonight at the latest, and there are definitely some emails I need to get to today. I am going to head uptown to get the mail after work and make some groceries–nothing major, but we need a few things–and I did get caught up on my Real Housewives shows once I was home from the office last night. I wasn’t terribly tired when I got home, and Sparky needed his bonding time once I walked in the door. When Paul got home, we watched another episode of The Diplomat, which may be my favorite current show–it’s very smart and the cast is exceptional, and Keri Russell, Alison Janney, and Jodie Whittaker are killing it.

This entire Jalen Hurts situation is so insane to me; how was that medical advice possibly considered legitimate and not insane by anyone with a brain? Has everyone forgotten that the same thing almost killed Serena Williams twice? I don’t really follow the NFL, but I remember Jalen Hurts from his years in college football. Sure, I hated it when LSU had to play him, but that was because he was so good, and he seemed like someone not driven by ego, evidenced by his not leaving Alabama after being benched until his final year of eligibility, when he transferred to Oklahoma–and Alabama’s fans were cool with it, which is unheard of for that fan base. So, clearly a good guy. He’s also ridiculously good looking, and I love that his entire team is Black women. I suspect the lawsuit from this horrific medical incompetence could potentially bankrupt the Eagles–and it should. New Orleans would have never in a million years pulled this kind of shit on Drew Brees back in the day.

But then again, Drew is a white man, just saying.

I do feel pretty good this morning, honestly. I should be able to get my next newsletter out either today or tomorrow, and should have no problem getting another out over the weekend. Doing my Halloween Horror Month and writing newsletters about horror media that I am visiting (or revisiting) makes them much easier to produce, but don’t worry–we’ll be back to Greg’s Observations again soon enough. I also know I can’t be the only one who is ready for this election cycle to be fucking over. The recent GOP smear ads have been particularly disgusting–the one about Amy Acton in Ohio is completely disqualifying for Vivek Ramaswamy, whom calling a bottom-feeder is a compliment. The ones in Texas–which we sometimes get to see, hurray–are especially egregious and evil. How people can view this horrific lies and vote for the people putting them out is beyond me–but then, the last ten years have been an eye-opening experience, and sorry not sorry; that genie isn’t going back into the bottle. Y’all showed the world who you really are, and no amount of tears and FAFO is ever going to make me change my mind about what pieces of shit you are.

The “people going no contact with MAGA” has definitely become a broader, bigger issue, and it’s getting coverage…but always from the perspective of the people being cut off, and the fact they are mystified that this happened to them tells me everything I need to know about what kind of people they are. I read one piece yesterday from a mother whose son disinvited her and her husband from his wedding, and doesn’t really speak to them anymore because…well, she just doesn’t know why, and how could her son do this to her? The entire piece was the greatest example of why her son wants nothing to do with her anymore that I could possibly think up; and did she really think writing and publishing an article about how cruel her son is being to her for no reason? Just her publishing the piece would ensure she would never see me or my children again, which shows she’s probably done and said some pretty horrific things because she’s his mother, damn it, and he is SUPPOSED to love her no matter what.

The fact that she isn’t leading with “I wish he would tell me what led to this so I could make it right”? I am #teamson all the way. This sort of thing doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

Maybe some self-reflection, ma’am?

And on that note, I am heading into the spice mines. Have a lovely Wednesday, and I shall return in the morning!

This would make a terrific book cover image! I love how spooky the bayous in the wetlands can look. Robert Miller does excellent nature photography of Louisiana. Support his work at https://www.rmpgallery.com/

Since I Held You

Here we are on a chilly Tuesday morning, after reality’s bitch slap yesterday, but I jest, really; it was very pleasant feeling rested mentally and physically, and it was a pretty good day overall, methinks. I felt good most of the day, my breakfast and lunch were marvelous, and I was also able to leave a bit early to beat traffic, which was also lovely. I do not miss the humidity. If we could have the heat with a bit less humidity, that would make an enormous and great improvement on our summers. It’s also nice to be waking up in my bed under a pile of blankets on a chilly morning, with a hungry cat nuzzling me to get up and feed him.

I sent out a newsletter yesterday finally, about the movie Gaslight, which I watched with my dad last week (you can click here to read it, if you like). We also watched Beat the Devil, which didn’t move me to write about it; it’s not one of Humphrey Bogart’s best, despite an excellent cast including Jennifer Jones, Robert Morley, and Gina Lollobrigida. While Gaslight may not technically be a horror film, what else would you call a plot that involves a husband trying to drive his wife insane? I also think the Gothic trope of “is my husband trying to kill me?” pushes them into the horror realm; what is more horrible than marrying someone who wants to kill you? And no one believes you? I remember reading an article a long time ago that said that one of the biggest fears shared by most Americans is wrongful imprisonment, which was taken to mean not just prison, but being locked up in a mental hospital when you don’t belong there or being forced into rehab. The fear also has the corollary of not being believed, and as someone who has been accused of doing something wrong that I didn’t do–and wasn’t believed–is a fucking nightmare.1

I came straight home after work, no stops or errands, and did some more chores once I got home and plopped down into my easy chair. Paul got home later, and we watched another episode of The Diplomat, which is most excellent, and they just added Jodie Whittaker, whom I love, to the cast as the new British Prime Minister. I slept well last night, and feel relaxed still this morning, which is nice. It sucks when you cannot sleep well, and that last week before I left I most definitely was having sleeping issues, and I am not sure why that happened. I also spent some digging out from under the massive emails I’d accumulated while I was gone, and yes, I know I still owe some replies to people, which I am hoping to get to today. I also have text messages to reply to–the bane of coming back from a wireless blackout is having to clean up everything that was let go for the duration–but I managed to get everything caught up at the office that had been let slide during my absence; the least fun part of vacation is catching up on everything that accumulated. I am also enjoying this cool weather, that seems to not be a false autumn but our actual fall–yes, when seventies are the high during the day but sixties at night is fall in New Orleans; colder than that is what we consider winter. I forgot to turn the dishwasher overnight, so will turn it on right as I leave…then I can unload it tonight when I get home. There’s also a load of laundry I need to do tonight, too. I worked on another newsletter (two actually; books I’ve recently read), and tonight when I get home it’s time to get caught up on the Housewives. I also need to make a Costco list, since we are going to go Friday afternoon after work.

The banality of every day life can be a boon sometimes rather than a bane, methinks.

In my random dive through the Internet yesterday I discovered two more interesting things about Louisiana: one, that Decatur Street used to be called “Vendetta Alley” because of all the shootings and knife fights back in the day (and doesn’t that make a great title for a noir?); and Watson Break, another indigenous mound city in Louisiana, to go along with Poverty Point. I am always learning new things about New Orleans and Louisiana’s history, which is fun but a constant reminder of how little I know about both–which begs the lie that I am somehow an expert on all things New Orleans. Trust me, I am not.

And on that note, I am heading into the spice mines. Have a marvelous Tuesday full of tacos, if that’s your jam, Constant Reader, and I’ll be back tomorrow bright and early. Till then!

Back in my bar-slut days, I had a pair of white jean Daisy Dukes much shorter than the ones above.
  1. Not being believed is a key component of Gothic suspense. ↩︎

Don’t Cha Stop

What a lovely vacation that was, both terribly needed and completely necessary at the same time. Sometimes, you need to get away from the day-in day-out routine–especially when you can tell you’re starting to burn out a little. It was soul-nurturing to unplug almost completely from my life and my world; no news, no social media, no emails, no blogging, no writing, no editing, no pressures. Just relaxation, lovely sleep and rest, and quality time with my father and sister. One of the big thrills of driving up north is now knowing there’s an In ‘n’ Out Burger in Franklin, Tennessee–and getting to eat at a lovely Southern chain from my childhood, Jack’s1. Is there anything more relatably Alabaman than eating at Jack’s? Well, maybe that and orange/yellow meat watermelons. There was such a lovely chill in the air, too, when I got home Friday night–and the cool continued through yesterday; so much so that I’ve decided to make potato leek soup for the week; the ingredients are being delivered later this morning.

I allowed myself to sleep a little later yesterday morning, as it was still chilly and my blankets were warm. I had to run errands before the LSU game began at the ungodly hour of eleven in the morning–this is why yesterday morning’s blog signaling my return to my reality was shorter than I’d wanted; I got home from said errands barely in time to see the opening kickoff. Despite the excellent sleep, I was still a bit bone-tired, so after I put away the groceries I’d made I decided to have an easy day today, of recalibrating and getting caught up on things while games played all day on the television (more on that later). I managed to launder the bed linens and the rest of the laundry, and the dishes, too. I ordered more things to be delivered this morning, and I plan to start getting caught up on other things this morning. I also want to spend some time reading this morning, with my coffee and something to eat before the groceries are delivered. I may talk a walk at some point, too–the weather is cool enough for it and I now have my headphones to wear; I hope to take several walks per week while listening to something on Audible as I do. It’s an easy way to keep engaging with reading, after all.

College football and SEC madness. I just had a feeling yesterday morning that if I didn’t watch the Auburn-Georgia game, Auburn might win. Weird, right? I put on the Alabama-Tennessee game on instead…but jumped over there to see that it was the first quarter and Georgia was already up, 14-0, so I quickly flipped back to the Alabama game. LSU blew out Mississippi State 31-0; MSU was ranked higher so it was considered technically an upset, and where was this LSU team last week? Kentucky kept its winning ways going by winning at Oklahoma, but it wasn’t just the SEC that was whacked yesterday; the last game we watched was BYU upsetting Notre Dame last night. Miami managed to survive Florida State last night in overtime, so my guess is they will be number one this morning. ALl the big game players last week lost yesterday, with number one Georgia going down to Auburn and Alabama getting beat by Tennessee (Bama hasn’t won in Knoxville since 2020); Texas also got beaten by Florida to pair with the Oklahoma loss. Mississippi blew out Missouri, too, and Arkansas won their first SEC game since 2024 by beating Vanderbilt. Definitely a wild and crazy day in college football–with Ohio State getting incredibly lucky at Indiana, ending their winning streak. Overall, a fun and exciting day of college football. There are no undefeated teams in the SEC anymore; and there aren’t many now with only one loss–Mississippi, Georgia and Kentucky, I believe, are the only ones. Is this a big turnaround season for Kentucky? I think the conference is pretty much solid from top to bottom, and on any given Saturday, any team can beat any other–which makes for an interesting season, methinks.

So yes, it’s a relaxing and chilly Sunday morning here in the Lost Apartment. I had a lovely day overall, despite being a bit achy-tired in the bones and joints. I took care of the laundry and the dishes…not only that, but as I said, I even left the house on a chilly (fifties!) weekend morning to run a couple of errands. I worked on newsletters, made some notes in my journal, and just feel rested and relaxed. My brain feels rejuvenated and creative. and getting back into reading was so fucking lovely; reading is feeding my brain and creativity, which is part of the reason I love reading so much. I don’t think you can be a writer if you’re not also a voracious reader. I know I can’t. You have to feed your brain to keep it active, after all, and what better way to feed your creativity, intellect and emotional wellness than reading a clever, extremely well written book? I ordered groceries to be delivered this morning, and will probably order some more, too, because I need a few more things I didn’t order last night.

I still have some touching up to do around here, and the email inbox is wildly out of control. I am going to spend some more time reading Mazywood this morning, which is fantastic; this Halloween Horror Month has been absolutely marvelous with the books I’ve read; I enjoyed everything I read on my trip, and am looking forward to reading some more. I have endless newsletters to get finished and sent out–I spent some time working on them yesterday–and I also want to take a walk this morning, around the neighborhood, while it’s still cool. I suspect the weather will be back to normal from this chilly spell, but…that’s New Orleans weather for you.

And on that note, I am heading into the spice mines. Have a lovely Sunday however you choose to spend it, Constant Reader, and I will be back tomorrow morning before my return to work. Till then, stay safe!

Pro wrestler Ravishing Rick Rude out of character
  1. I still remember the jingle from my childhood: Jack’s hamburgers are good good good, you’ll go back back back to Jack’s Jack’s Jack’s for more more more. ↩︎

Moving in Stereo

Sunday night and I am in my hotel in Alabama, having arrived less than half an hour ago and getting checked in, bringing things in for the night, and settling into my sweats and house slippers. My room is very cold–so hopefully I’ll sleep well tonight. Tomorrow is the cemetery for Mom’s birthday (would have been 84), and after that we’ll head up to Kentucky, which is about seven hours or so from here (when I drive from New Orleans up there directly, halfway is about a little past Birmingham). The big driving day will be Friday, when I drive back to New Orleans (and will get caught in Chattanooga, huzzah!). But I’m glad I am doing this trip, the drive up was most pleasant, and I stopped at Jack’s in Ellisville, Mississippi, which is now my sweet spot. I also waited to get gas until Tuscaloosa, so I have an almost completely full tank for tomorrow. I am really enjoying listening to Shadowland, but am confused by a few things so I need to check the book itself. (Moments later.) Okay, I was right, and I also know why I was confused. No worries! My mind does wander sometimes in the car when I’m listening–something in the narrative may strike my imagination and send it winging off for a few moments, and I miss things. I also shouldn’t start listening until I am on 59 N and through New Orleans and over the lake and through Slidell and the area where 10, 12 and 59 all come together–one of the many messy highway convergences in southeastern Louisiana (there are some horrific ones in Baton Rouge, too), because there’s too much traffic and so I need to pay more attention to that than listening.

Okay, it’s Saturday morning and obviously, I didn’t post while I was away–nor did I finish the post I’d started the night I arrived in Alabama. Monday we visited Mom, and then I drove up to Kentucky behind Dad’s truck. The drive up was pleasant, the visit was lovely–made even lovelier by me unplugging completely from everything–and I drove home yesterday. I finished reading Shadowland (loved it) and am loving Mazywood. I-75S was a parking lot between Chattanooga and Knoxville, which added about another hour or so to the drive. I listened to Riley Sager’s The Only One Left on the drive home, and it was about sixty degrees when I finally got home and unloaded the car and unpacked. I slept well during the trip, but oh, did my own bed feel fantastic when I finally went to bed last night. (I also missed Sparky a lot, and he’s been glued to me since I walked in the door.) It’s in the 50’s this morning, and I have a couple of errands to run this morning before LSU’s 11 am start time this morning for the Mississippi State game. In Kentucky, I watched Beat the Devil and Gaslight–the Gothic tradition was very strong in that movie (more on that later)–which was kind of fun, and I am behind on everything I am watching–reality shows in particular, which should be fun to get caught up on as the weekend progresses.

Gaslight is an excellent movie, and where the term “gaslighting” comes from; if you’re unfamiliar with the film, it’s not a spoiler (plus, movie is from 1944) to say the story is about a young woman whose husband is toying with her mind, making her believe she is losing her mind. It’s brilliantly conceived, and if to modern eyes it might seem a bit old-fashioned (why doesn’t she stand up for herself?) but women had so little power or control of their lives once they were married…I’ve always felt that Gothic suspense is, for want of a more accurate term, is “women’s noir”–domestic suspense also falls sometimes under that umbrella–because, while they may not be about amoral women trying to get what they want through criminal activity, they are about women’s fears, and I am sure someone has made the connection between the popularity of that style of film/book in the mid to late 20th century because women were so powerless, and its decline after the rise of feminism. I’ve always loved Gothics–which is why I have such affinity for both crime and horror’s Gothic sub-genres–and Gaslight encapsulates those fears so perfectly–and Ingrid Bergman deserved the Oscar she won for it; she also was at the peak of her beauty at the same time, and is just so stunning on screen that you can’t take your eyes off of her–and she had such beautiful skin!

Sigh. So much to get done! So, I should probably head into the spice mines this morning. If I owe you an email, apologies–I’ll hopefully get to them over the next few days–and cleaning and errands and…sighs again. Anyway, enjoy your day, Constant Reader, and I’ll be back again tomorrow morning. Till then!

This is Orleans Parish Criminal Court, on Tulane Avenue. The square white building behind on the right is Orleans Parish Prison (OPP).

Bye Bye Love

It’s now Friday morning with a storm taking aim at the Gulf Coast and I am driving northbound later. I have a benefits meeting on-line this morning before I can load up the car and head out on the highway (looking for adventure) later on. I’ll probably have to drive through rain, but Dad’s going to his high school’s football game so won’t be there until after I arrive (he got in last night). Yesterday was a pretty good day; it’s literally amazing what a difference getting a good night’s sleep can have on a person. I felt good all day, got a lot of stuff done at the office, and then departed to run my errands: food for Paul and the mail. I also picked up two books: Dr. Stacey Patton’s Strung Up: How White America Learned to Lynch Black Children, which is, I am sure, going to be a difficult if necessary read, and The Rush by Nathaniel Philbrick, about the California Gold Rush and the Civil War. I love Philbrick’s work–I do love some excellent history–and while I am trying to only read horror this month…Dr. Patton’s book certainly qualifies as real-life horror, doesn’t it? (And yes, the very first picture on the very first page is of the horribly damaged body of a lynching victim, in all of its horror and nastiness and inhumanity. When I do read and write about Dr. Patton’s book, I will probably call the entry Southern Discomfort.)

Yes, I was tired when I got home last night, dipping into this week’s Real Housewives of Salt Lake City while Sparky dozed deeply in a cat puddle in my lap. I suspect he’s going to miss me all week, but will be very glad to see me when I get home next Friday evening. I still have to pack–I have my annual benefits meeting from work on-line at nine this morning–and then I’ll get to cleaning up and packing. I’m probably taking too much with me to read and/or work on, but…there are worse things than not having enough to read or work on. The storm will come through Alabama where we’ll be tomorrow morning and afternoon; so we’ll probably be indoors watching football games tomorrow morning/afternoon. I’m going to take my time driving, and I am in no rush to leave. It may be rough–I may consider postponing the drive until Sunday morning–but…I think it’ll be okay. I won’t decide this morning–but if I am not here tomorrow morning, it’s because I am up there.

The books I need to read to moderate the panel in Baton Rouge arrived, and I am very intrigued–both are science-fiction young adult novels in series that appear to be space operas, a la Star Wars, which we all know is my jam. I do feel a little unqualified–I don’t think I’ve ever read y/a scifi before–because I am not a big scifi guy; not that I don’t like it, but I read mostly crime fiction. I’ve read the big scifi names–Azimov, Heinlein, the Dune series, etc.–and dabbled a bit in the lesser-knowns, always enjoyed it, and have definitely seen more film in the genre than read books. So, I am going to have to do some research, not only on the genre but my panelists as well, which is always fun, but will also interrupt my horror reading for the month, which I think I will extend into November since my October is being broken up by a trip and by having to read outside of horror. And then it’s Noirmas season!

Hopefully this trip is going to get me to a place where I can read regularly again. I am really looking forward to listening to Shadowlands in the car on the way up there, and then reading some more while I am up in Kentucky this coming week. I’m not sure what the week up there will hold for me–we may go exploring or sight-seeing, as Kentucky is both beautiful and historic; Dad and I went to two Civil War battlefields one time when I was up there, and of course I’ve always wanted to see Henry Clay’s home, and that of his brother–abolitionist Cassius Clay, whom Muhammed Ali was originally named after–which could be fun. I know we’ll probably do some Dad errands, and I’ll get to see my sister.

And I always enjoy the drive back to New Orleans from up there, too.

After further checking the weather, there’s a possibility–a strong one–of flash flooding along 59 north thru Mississippi today when I’d be driving through there, so yeah, going to wait until Sunday morning now–which gives me time to do the packing and cleaning and some errands and so forth. It also means I can have some things delivered tomorrow for Paul and all the pressure of hurrying has been reduced. Heavy sigh. That’s a good thing, and it also gives me more time to get things done before I leave Sunday morning, which is yet another plus.

Which means I will be here again tomorrow morning! So now, I am going to head into my meeting and the spice mines for the rest of the day. Have a lovely Friday, Constant Reader, and I’ll be back again tomorrow morning! See you then!

I do appreciate that he’s not waxed and completely hairless.

Just What I Needed

Thursday, with Isiais still loping along out there in the Gulf (of MEXICO). Last time I looked, we here in New Orleans are out of the danger zone, or so it seems. I’ve not yet checked this morning, but before I went to bed it was heading in more of a between-Mobile-and-Pensacola landfall, continuing north. As long as I leave New Orleans by one-ish, I should be able to miss any outer bands spinning our way. It will be weird to be in a massive thunderstorm up there in a motel, but probably pretty cozy. OKay, I checked and yes, New Orleans is outside of the cone completely, with that landfall still even further east a bit this morning. The storm won’t get up to where we’re staying until Saturday night, which should make the Georgia-Alabama game messy, to say the least. Should at least be interesting…I also wonder if the storm has changed Palpatine the Incompetent’s mind about attending; every home team he sees play loses, so Bama fans best hope their foul god changes his mind about going.

I finally slept well last night and feel rested and good this morning, at least for the moment. I was very tired yesterday when I got off work, but did manage to run an errand and do some chores when I got home. Tonight I’ll need to start packing for tomorrow–I can’t believe it’s tomorrow already–so hopefully I’ll have a good night’s sleep tonight as well. I got some of the things done on my list that needed to be done before I leave, which was cool–hopefully today I’ll be able to do the same again–and leave town with a clear conscience. Shadowlands is queued up on my Spotify to listen to, and I am going to take some things with me to write/work on while I’m gone, so we can see how that all works out, too. I’m coming back next Friday, so I’ll be gone a week–and pretty much out of pocket for that time; not even sure that I’ll be able to keep this up while I am gone. Maybe I can also get some newsletters out; stranger things have happened.

It is so amazing what a good night’s sleep will do. I feel so good this morning! It may not last of course; sometimes it works out that way. Usually I am already tired going into the work day, but after having restless sleep most of the week, sleeping well made a huge difference. Good thing, because I need to be productive today, both at home and at work. I have to run errands after work tonight, and may have one to run on my way out of town tomorrow morning. I’ve got a list of things to get Paul to eat during my absence, and of course, I don’t want to leave behind a messy apartment to come home to, which always kind of sucks. I also want to do some more editing work before I leave, and work on a short story. We watched another episode of Neagley last night, which was amazing; maybe we can finish it tonight before I leave. We also still haven’t watched the finale of Lanterns yet, which is also amazing; we got so caught up in Neagley that we don’t really want to watch much of anything else until it’s done.

Sigh. I am going to take a lot of stuff with me on this trip, only to end up not doing any of it, aren’t I? But…better to have it with me in case I want to work on it. If I don’t take it, I’ll want to; if I do take it, I won’t. I am also probably packing too many books to take with me, too. I’m not sure what all we’re going to get up to while I’m in Kentucky, but generally I end up not having a lot of time until after eight-ish or so to do anything with; but I should be able to get some of my horror reading out of the way, at the least. I’ll probably finish Shadowlands in the car on the way up, and will probably pick out another horror to listen to on the way home; there’s a few more books in Adam Cesare’s Clown in a Cornfield series, which I absolutely love. And I still have to rewatch A Nightmare on Elm Street for the first time since I first saw it back in college.

And on that note, I am going to get another cup of coffee, heat up my breakfast sandwich, and head into the spice mines for the day. Have a lovely Thursday, Constant Reader, and I will see you tomorrow before I hit the road.

The St. Roch chapel supposedly helps cure the disabled, who then leave their prosthetics behind….

Good Times Roll

Sunday morning and rather gray out there this morning as I swill coffee and battle Sparky for my desk chair (he’s sprawled across my desk playing with things on it, in full attack and knocking things off to the floor mode). My shoulder still aches and I do feel a bit inside-out this morning, but much better than I did yesterday. I slept deeply and well last night, too–a side effect of the shots, perhaps?

It started raining yesterday morning as I headed uptown to get my flu shot and my next COVID vaccination, and it was pouring by the time I got home. I felt a bit underwhelmed after I got inside–the way I’m usually mildly feverish and dramatically lethargic whenever I get the shots. My shoulder was also sore, and as it rained pretty much the entire (our flash flood warning flashed across the screen just before five), it felt chilly and damp inside, which also makes me just want to huddle up under a blanket. I figured since the day of the shots is always a lost day (anything I may get done is a bonus to be proud of), what better day to have such a day as a college football Saturday? That way I’m guaranteed easy entertainment all day with very little effort on my part. I didn’t have anything delivered because it seemed like a shitty thing to do–make people go out in this weather, but then again, they’re out there because they need to be, which makes it even shittier, and around and around the moral question goes–but it was coming down so consistently I didn’t want to walk to the gate to get anything, either. I also decided the trash could wait until I won’t get drenched…but the day wasn’t a total loss: there were good games on all day (more on that later), and I did get the kitchen under control again–the previous few days I’d let it slide a bit.

LSU made mincemeat out of McNeese State (63-14) last night, which was nice to watch leisurely. It was a crazy day in college football, with strange outcomes and so forth, and no way of knowing how good anyone is. Minnesota beat Michigan yesterday for the first time since I was a senior in high school (1977), which was wild as hell, and maybe the most interesting game of the morning. But seriously, what the hell, SEC? Missouri embarrasses Florida a week after losing to Mississippi State and Florida humiliated Ole Miss; Alabama blew out Mississippi State, and Kentucky–two weeks after embarrassing Texas A&M in College Station, looked terrible against the South Carolina team Missouri and Alabama have already destroyed at first, before bouncing back with an overtime one-point win.. How does any of this make sense? So far, it looks like (to me, anyway) that once again Georgia and Alabama are the best teams in the league; Texas is also undefeated but I don’t think they’ll beat either. Auburn lost to Tennessee, but it was a good game at least. Miami also blew out Clemson last night, so….maybe LSU is as good as Miami? Like I said, it’s too early to tell this season who is going to the playoffs and who is not. Northwestern also applied belt to ass to Penn State. Good thing they fired their coach midseason last year, right?

It looks like it’s going to be gloomy with off-and-on rain all day, with the flooding storms coming later this afternoon, so any deliveries have to be here by four, something I will look into once I post this and move over to the easy chair with the laptop. I did start writing some things yesterday, which was nice, considering how discombobulated and off I felt. I dug through my last three journals looking for the start of said short story yesterday, and I guess I didn’t write it down, but I remember it. It’s set in the late 1970s in a small Kansas college town, and starts with a girl witnessing an attack from her dorm window on a Saturday night–it’s for the no-corpse anthology due later this year–but I am not sure how I can end it just yet. My mind, despite my spaciness yesterday (and the tired legs this morning), was being fertile and creative somehow through all of that, and I do have another story I started percolating up there in my head. I have some things I need to do, and some emails to answer, and I really do need to start getting organized as the last quarter of the year is now here.

This whole Cornell thing has women up in arms, and rightly so. I personally think the MEN who did this–and it was clearly not the first nor the last time–should be chemically, if not physically, castrated1. There is no excuse and no way out of this, no way to justify any of it, and the victim-blaming is not flying this time. This societal reckoning is way overdue, and yes, I absolutely one hundred percent believe they did this, thought nothing of it because women are just living sex toys and sperm depositories to so many of them, and yes, it’s definitely a pack mentality.

And on that note, I am going to let this whiny cat have my desk chair and I am moving to my easy chair. May you have a lovely Sunday, Constant Reader, and I will see you again tomorrow morning.

An abandoned bridge in the woods in Alabama. Rather evocative, isn’t it?
  1. Including all the professional adults who failed everyone here. ↩︎

Music

Saturday in the Lost Apartment and all is well, or so it seems. Yesterday wasn’t the worst day, just kind of a quiet one where I felt off most of the day and couldn’t quite puzzle it out until later in the afternoon: I wasn’t in my normal routine. I had to go to the office for a meeting yesterday morning, ran an errand on the way home, but they had turned off the water to install a new shower in the carriage house, so I couldn’t do laundry or dishes or anything until it was turned back on. I definitely was out of sorts throughout the day. This morning I have to get get my shots (flu and COVID), and run another couple of errands while I am uptown. We didn’t have any gully-washer thunderstorms, either–when we did get rain, it seemed to be that kind that forms when the humidity gets to 100% and it solidifies as water/rain. I also have a lot of my plate this weekend. As I was lying in bed this morning waiting for Sparky’s “feed me” chirps, I started thinking about all the things I do need to get done and was like, when did I get so busy again? I kind of don’t like it! But naught to do but make a list and check things off as they do get done. We’re also supposed to get a lot of rain between now and Monday night, but it’s sunny right now–the forecast claims a thunderstorm will be here within the next hour, but that’s New Orleans for you; the sun can be shining and not a cloud in the sky one minute, and then twenty minutes later it’s pitch black outside and the streets are flooding.

It’s always an adventure.

We watched more AHS: 13 last night, which isn’t as off-the-rails as I had originally thought, but still not very tightly written, despite the brevity of the episodes. I also answered a question I’d been asking myself for a long time: why do I keep watching Ryan Murphy shows when I know they will inevitably be disappointing? As I watched Jessica Lange last night, I realized I watch for the cast. Murphy always has this interesting mix of really talented performers and not as talented but beautiful boys…and then you have someone like Evan Peters, insanely talented and incredibly beautiful. Murphy is also strong into casting nepo babies, but I remain committed to never watching anything with a Kardashian in it.

There are a lot of good football games on today, but LSU is playing McNeese State tonight in Baton Rouge. We’ll watch, even though better games are on because, well, LSU. I’ll miss the start of Alabama-Mississippi State–both are undefeated–but Alabama hasn’t lost to them since 2007 and maybe has lost to them maybe less than ten times historically? I remember it was Mississippi State that broke Alabama’s winning streak in 1980–they hadn’t lost since the early part of the 1978 season–so it is possible, but I’ll believe MSU can win when I see it happen. I almost always default Alabama to win, because they generally do. I do think this is a make-or-break year for their coach; if Alabama misses the play-offs for the third year in a row, he might be done for. Alabama hasn’t won the natty since 2020–which is a long time now for those spoiled fans, who got used to playing for it almost every year under Nick Saban.

The bar there is set even higher than the one in Baton Rouge.

I did spend some more time with The Dead Zone yesterday, which is a marvelously constructed novel, and reading again after so many years I am appreciating the book so much more than all the previous times I read it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed every page on every read; but this time, I am marveling at the craftmanship and the incredible structuring of it. It really is a masterwork (I had always liked The Shining but never loved it. When I revisited that one again sometime in the last years, I appreciated it more (I don’t really like toddlers-in-danger stories; hence why I never connected with either Pet Sematary or Cujo) than I ever had before. If The Stand wasn’t so damned long, I would love to revisit it as well. That, for the record, has always been my favorite King novel.

I must admit, when I learned Vanity Fair was doing a big profile on Erica Kirk I literally rolled my eyes and thought, not this Nazi bitch again and thought, this is why I didn’t renew my subscription (it wasn’t; I’d just forgotten and hadn’t gotten around to it yet) and didn’t. Silly me, Vanity Fair–I forgot you have game, and what you did to the people around Trump in that “emperor has no clothes” piece and photoshoot you did with them, showing that they are actually more awful and stupid than previously believed. I should have known you’d lure the fame-hungry grifter in with the promise of a profile and photoshoot, setting her up to look as bad as humanly possible. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. I will be renewing today. You deserve my money for how you cover the narcissistic grifters to whom any attention is better than no attention. Thank you for your service to the Republic.

I also love that Governor Hochul has appointed bad-ass Leticia James to oversee the new investigation into the Cornell gang-rape situation. If the victim is going to actually get any justice, Leticia James will get it for her. I feel a lot better about this case now, and I also think it’s time to do away with campus police. They can be security, but the campus needs to be under the local police jurisdiction at the very least, if not the state’s. The campus police don’t work for the good of the students they work to protect the university. So parents, don’t think campus police are there to protect your children. They are not, just like the police only protect property, not people (and yes, those priorities are askew).

And on that note, I am going to post this and then do some chores around here before it’s time to head uptown for my shots. Have a lovely Saturday, Constant Reader, and I will see you again tomorrow morning.

Beautiful young Louis Jourdan

Nobody’s Perfect

Tuesday morning and we survived Monday, did we not? It wasn’t a terrible day. WE were busier than usual in the clinic, so the day passed relatively quickly. I also made an appointment to get my flu and COVID shots for the year for this Saturday; if I am going to react to them, what better way to do so then in my easy chair while watching college football and dipping some more into The Dead Zone? That will also get me out of the house on Saturday, so I may as well run other errands while I am out. I have an in-person meeting Friday, so I am probably going to do all my hours in the office–at least, that’s what I am thinking today; that may change between now and then. Paul went to the gym last night shortly after I got home, so when he got home from that we queued up this week’s Lanterns, which was wild; I really do enjoy this show and not just because Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler are very good looking men. It doesn’t hurt, though; I’m not saying that! But it’s very well written, acted, and produced; perhaps the best DC television series I’ve ever seen (I may not be remembering some others, but I don’t think so). I slept very well last night and feel a bit Tuesday-ish this morning, but not terribly bad.

I checked the call for submissions for the story I finished over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised to see the deadline isn’t Thursday, but rather the 31st. That relieves some of the pressure to get it finished and polished, but doesn’t mean I should wait until the last minute, either. I know there are tense and point of view issues with it, so what I am thinking is I should let it sit until this weekend–something else I can do in case I have a reaction to the shots is edit the hard copy with post-it notes and a yellow highlighter. (Yes, I am old school.) I am also glad I checked because the word limit is four thousand, not five. The story checks in now at 4126 words, so it needs tightening for sure. I also got caught up on emails yesterday, which was a very lovely thing. I don’t know why I am so reluctant to deal with emails these days, but I imagine it has everything to do with the hundreds of emails I used to get weekly: who knew volunteer work came with PTSD? I sure didn’t.

I know now. Lesson learned. I eventually always figure it out; it may take me years, but I do.

Today is a slow one in the clinic, so I should be able to get caught up on administrative details. I can also tell I’m feeling better, physically and mentally, because I am keeping up with my paperwork and everything. I finally have a system, and it works beautifully; much better than the disorganized and inefficient way I was doing it–and it was, indeed, a rut I felt into while I wasn’t in top form and just surviving every day (I don’t longingly dream of retirement anymore, either), which was a deeply unpleasant way to live.

I also scheduled a newsletter for this morning; you can click here to read it. I have been working on this one for a very long time; it’s about the incidents that led to me writing #shedeservedit, and what I was trying to do with the book. The Cornell situation pushed me back to the essay and I finished it; I held off on sending it out because I didn’t want anyone to think I was trying to promote the book off the back of that poor victim, but talking about the book and why I wrote it isn’t promoting it; it’s about exploring a major societal issue we don’t seem terribly interested in solving: men’s entitled expectations towards women’s bodies: an unconscious woman isn’t an invitation for rape.

And on that note I am heading into the spice mines. Have a lovely day, Constant Reader, and I will check in with you again tomorrow morning.

Frozen

Wednesday Pay the Bills Day has rolled around again somehow, and here we are. I woke up from a very deep sleep around three thirty this morning, and napped/dozed until the shattering shriek of the alarm pierced through the darkness, impacting my ear drums with such a brutal assault that I had no choice but to hit snooze…followed by turning the alarm off and getting up before that horrendous noise erupted again. I feel pretty good this morning. I wasn’t terribly tired when I got home after work and errands; I sat with His Majesty sleeping in my lap for a while as I caught up on the news (that UN Speech–so aspirational and inspirational. Cut to media: “He’s finally sounding presidential.1” Eye roll to infinity) before getting up to clean up the kitchen. I unloaded the dishwasher and ran another load overnight, and cleaned off the counters, took out the trash and recycling, too. If I can keep up with the dishes and stuff all week, I don’t have to do that on the weekend and thus can get more of this long overdue deep clean of the house done. There are some awesome games this weekend, too, capped off with Texas A&M coming to Death Valley for a night game.

The Saints play at home this Sunday in the afternoon, as well, so I can get things done in the morning and early afternoon and then settle into my chair for the game. And while I have some work to do on work-at-home Friday as well, it’s just paperwork.

I feel pretty good this morning, and like I have finally managed to adjust to getting up at six. I am so not a morning person, and for most of my life succeeded in not having a 9-to-5 job–I’d rather sleep and get up when I am done sleeping and work in the afternoons and evenings. Then again, whenever I had an early morning job in the past, it would eventually get to the point where I’d look ahead and just see this kind of nightmare existence stretching on and on forever. Maybe I don’t do that anymore because an end is in sight? Granted, that’s dependent on being able to retire…which, by how things are going in this country, may not be possible.

I realized yesterday, when I saw that the “Clavicular” creature (Braden Peters, because of course his name is Braden) was arrested for allegedly drugging and raping a minor, that my essay series (which I am way behind on) for the newsletter about my not being a “typical male” and my personal struggles with the straitjacket of heterosexual values was primarily because I can’t really write about masculinity and my outsider’s view of it without defining those qualities that defined it when I was growing up–but reading this arrest news reminded me that I am not the only man who’s wrestled with masculinity tropes. Headlines have been screaming at us for years now about the “crisis” for straight men who are bewildered at how to be a man in this modern age…and wind up turning to idiots in the “manosphere”, or people like this idiot (or the Tate brothers) selling them a bundle of lies and bullshit about what “women really want” and so on, making men the victim in a society that continues to center them. (If only we could all be as oppressed as the straight white man in the US, amirite?) And there it was–how interesting that the issues a gay guy had with masculine tropes is now a straight man’s problem.

Years ago, Paul and I watched a horrible gay dating reality show called Boy Meets Boy, and something I noticed in that show–which had a terrible surprise twist that makes me think I should somehow rewatch and write about it again. Anyway, something I noticed about James–which I was noticing on other matchmaking shows as well–was he always talked about who the perfect man for him would be. That’s fine–we all have that kind of image in our heads when we’re single, don’t we–but…the premise is “I’m perfect and this is who he needs to be”, when the entire time I’m listening to him and watching and thinking, what do YOU have to offer? (My dream was a husband who liked to laugh, read, and was smart. My dream came true.) I mean, being chosen by him was how you won the show, but at the same time it was an awful lot of I and not a lot of we, which made me think he’d never find someone.

But this reminds me very much of the male loneliness epidemic and all these “crises” people are monetizing by telling young men how to be men…rather than doing the actual work they need to do in order to be attractive to a woman as a life mate. Women don’t care about muscles all that much; the truth is, the bar is set so low for most men that it staggers the mind that they can’t meet it, you know? Flowers on special dates, the occasional candy, and just listening to them and treating them like an actual living, breathing human being actually goes a very long fucking way.

And on that note, I am heading into the spice mines. Have a lovely day, and I will see you again tomorrow morning bright and early. See ya then!

  1. I am being facetious here, but how many times have we heard some stupid pundit say something like this in the past? ↩︎