Tag: Strait of Hormuz

I Wouldn’t Have Missed It (For the World)

Tuesday!

It feels a little off to be heading for the office for the first time this week today, and I will most likely think it’s Monday all day. Ah, well, there are worse things, right? (Gestures wildly at the world around me.) I was busy thinking about other things yesterday that I kind of lost track of the news. I think we’re blockading the Strait of Hormuz even though the idea was to open it? This 3-D chess is just too much for my obviously simple mind. And a congressmen from each party resigned due to credible sexual assault/harassment charges, but the adjudicated rapist is still in office? Did I miss anything besides PPP (Pedo President Pestilence) striking out at infamous fifth-place finisher Riley Gaines because she played the blasphemy card on His Imperial Flatulence? (I do wish he’d added, “she’s a loser. She finished fifth.”) The worst part of our current situation is not knowing what news is actually true or not. I literally hate this timeline. I’ve been checking out both the BBC (not entirely trustworthy) or Al-Jazeera (same) but…I trust them more than I do our American outlets.

I also think I have actually figured out why I am having difficulty reading anymore; it’s because I have to read for my works-in-progress and since I am not reading those, my mind isn’t letting me read for pleasure. It’s more of that evangelical Christian work-for-reward mentality that was drilled into me as a child (more of the miseducation I and so many others received); if you’re not reading for your work you cannot read for your pleasure. So, so puritanical, and so typical of the American Dream mindset, whose very first corollary is you must work your life must be about work and should revolve around work and then you die.

I personally think that kind of live to work mentality is a huge problem, but…what can I say? My preference is always to be relaxing. Sue me for not fitting into the American norm (AGAIN). I also think this is the smarter way to live, but others are certainly free to disagree. Maybe the difference is because my true calling isn’t a 9-to-5? My writing has always been, to me, my true job, which gives me a healthy distance from my day job; I don’t depend on it for my self-worth or self-esteem. I perform my job efficiently, my clients like me, and I believe in the work I do while I’m there, which puts me ahead of so many Americans. I never wanted to chase dollars; contentment was always more appealing to me and feeling well-rounded. I haven’t even let my actual career my life, either. It’s satisfying. I enjoy writing, even the drudgery parts I have to endure to finish telling the story I want to tell. Some discipline is necessary, of course; probably more than I certainly have allowed lately, that’s for sure. I want to get back to writing some fiction this week; anything, really, be it a short story or a book.

We started watching a new show on Apple TV this past weekend, Stick with Owen Wilson. It sounded like it could have been like Ted Lasso, but at the same time it’s another tired sports cliche show so I wasn’t wild about starting it. Well, it is like Ted Lasso, and it’s heartwarming and sweet and hits all the right notes for people who’ve been looking for their next great watch. I’m looking forward to watching more.

And huzzah for Hungary! The masses are rejecting authoritarianism (Trumpism?) worldwide, and it is wondrous in our eyes. It also gave me hope for the midterms. MAGA is burning to the ground, but they still have Fox and all the rest of the lamestream media carrying their water for them–and even the ones who are leaving MAGA aren’t becoming progressives; they’ll just hibernate until their next demagogue comes along. We’re always so relieved the threat is over that we kind of want to just get back to normal without any punishment, or atonement…just like after the Civil War. Are we finally going to deal with all of this shit from the past, or are we going to leave it to fester and rot and poison the country from within yet again? My guess is the latter; it’s what we always do.

Hungary

I don’t feel tired this morning, either. I didn’t want to get up at my usual time, but did and I am not as tired as I worried I’d feel. I am going to make groceries on my way home from work tonight, and I have some things I need to get done. I did spend some time after work yesterday cleaning up the kitchen and even doing the floors, and it was nice coming downstairs to an orderly kitchen this morning. I shaved my head yesterday, too, so am feeling a bit better about how I am presenting to the world today–I hate how gray what little hair I have left is–and I have a sink full of dishes I need to wash tonight after work. But the coffee is kicking in and I am feeling good, so I am going to go head into the spice mines. Have a lovely Tuesday, Constant Reader, and I’ll be back tomorrow morning.

Given my lifelong affinity for ancient Egypt, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that I became a cat lover.

He’s a Heartache

Thursday dawns and it is my last day in the office for the week. Huzzah! I don’t think I’ve worked an entire week straight in a while–funerals, holidays, sick–and I could tell yesterday afternoon around three when I hit a wall. Lord have mercy, how tired I was–or as my grandmother used to pronounce it, lawda mersa ah’m tahrd. You see why I don’t ever spell out phonetically what a Southern person is saying and how they say it. Spellcheck would go insane, and can you imagine how the copy editor would respond? Anyway, I feel pretty good this morning. I slept well again, an the Sparkster even got into bed and cuddled around my knees in the middle of the night, which I am sure made the sleep more restful. It’s amazing how pets are calming, isn’t it? I was very tired when I got home from running errands–the mail and making groceries; I had to throw out everything in the freezer1–so after putting everything away I collapsed into my chair, Sparky joined me, and I lost myself in the news (always grim) before rewatching another episode of The Traitors, most recent American season. Last night’s episode is when Rob first appeared in bib overalls without a shirt, which is ironically the same episode he began to win me over as someone other than just a pretty face. It’s such an obsession for me now, but it’s very highly entertaining.

I don’t think we’re busy today in the clinic, and it’s just me again today. I have some paperwork that needs catching up on, so I should be able to get everything done at the office today, or I could just bring it home and do it tomorrow when I get my work-at-home day. Choices, right? I do have some things I’d like to get done this weekend on top of the usual every weekend chores; reading and writing and so forth. I want to get another newsletter out this weekend, so I can get back on schedule with that. I also want to get started revising Jackson Square Jazz, too. I paged through the book again last night, and it really is a kitchen-sink book. I think I wanted it to be extremely complicated with lots of twists and turns along the way, and it definitely did that.

I also have to set up Sparky’s new water fountain. He’s taken to drinking directly from the faucet–he even has a specific chirp now for water–so I thought he might like to have a drinking fountain. It wasn’t terribly expensive, but I don’t know if he will like it or not. Ah, well, I inherited some money from a friend, so I spent some of that money on it, so I won’t be out a lot if he doesn’t. And who knows? He might take to it immediately. Stranger things have happened, after all.

Can I just say that I’m extremely tired of having the country run by fascist morons? After this week’s flirtation with nuclear annihilation, the great “dealmaker” wound up agreeing to a ceasefire that sure as fuck looked like a surrender treaty. All those billions, all those lives lost or injuries, the depletion of our weapons arsenal, and now every ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz has to pay a two million dollar toll? Are we tired of all this winning yet? If only someone could have warned all those MAGA voters…oh, wait. Looks like those two bitches you misogynistic scum couldn’t bring yourself to vote for were right about everything. Too bad they had vaginas, right? Because someone with a button mushroom sized penis who has been overcompensating for it most of his life is such a better choice. And it’s not like he didn’t tell you everything he was going to do, too, so miss me with your “I didn’t vote for this.” Yeah, you actually did. And I will never let anyone forget that as long as I am breathing. You voted against democracy and for fascism. Is the New York Times sending people to rust belt diners to see how those simple country folk are faring well with the consequences of their racism and misogyny? I think not.

Sigh.

And on that note I am heading into the spice mines. Have a lovely Thursday, Constant Reader, and I will be back in the morning yet again, bright and early.

  1. It’s working properly again; I think I must have hit the thermostat in the freezer putting something in there and accidentally turned it to the lowest setting. I think it was also overly full, too. ↩︎