Between today’s news, yesterday’s news, the news of the last year, the news of the last ten years, life, the universe, and everything, simply starting to scream is high on my list of things to do. I’m just not sure that I could stop.
I did get a haircut, and I can hear train whistles. I guess things don’t TOTALLY suck.
Tomorrow might be better. That possibility is what gets me up every morning. And prevents a 5150 hold. Well, that and Diet Coke (my caffeine substrate of choice).
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Paul, Photography, Politics
Especially when you’re eating ice cream. Ice cream is by definition a perfect good. How come it can be turned into a nightmare, a horrible, painful thing by brain freeze?
This is proof to me that there is no kind, benovolent, loving, omnipotent God or Creator. There may be a Creator, or we may be in a simulation of some sort, but there’s no omnipotence involved. There are any number of errors or bugs in the system.
On the ultimate scale of horrors, the top billing of course goes to things like childhood cancer or worms that have their larva grow in your eyeballs and blind you for life. Not to mention the existance and ongoing lack of consequences for a whole raft of current US politicians. Despite all of the press it gets in Bible, we’re not seeing nearly enough smiting these days.
But having had a busy, stressful day and persevering and getting things accomplished and rewarding yourself with some quality ice cream, only to be BLINDED by unstoppable pain after like three bites, that’s gotta be up there on the list. And it’s very personal. (Not that eyeball larva isn’t…)
I’d like to talk to the manager, please!
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Moral Outrage, Paul, Photography, Politics, Religion
Oh, god, this office. The guy who was in this office. The stories behind him being hired, and then being fired six months later. The stories I could tell if the statute of limitations on slander ever expires. But isn’t the truth an absolute defense against slander?
I was telling someone about this guy and my experiences with him just the other day. Maybe that subconscious trigger led me to this set of pictures when I was looking for something random to share.
Or, he’s haunting me. Could go either way.
Frankly, if I’m going to be haunted, I would prefer someone much different. More succubussy, for starters.
Filed under Paul, Photography
To be clear, 2005 for me was like Sirius the star, the astronomical object, not Sirius the satellite music service.
Sirius (the star) is the brightest star (other than the Sun) as seen from Earth, over twice as bright as the second brightest (Canopus). It’s been known for thousands and thousands of years since it’s so prominent. It’s the “Dog Star” and when it appears as the morning star it’s the beginning of summer and the “dog days.” Lots of interesting facts about Sirius and it’s history.
Despite being known and prominent for centuries, it wasn’t until 1844 that astronomers noted that it’s part of a binary star system. The huge, bright star we see is now known as “Sirius A” – there’s a much smaller, much dimmer white dwarf which can only be seen with a good sized telescope that’s known now as “Sirius B.”
This is where I make the comparison to 2025.
“Sirius A” = all of the pain and bullshit that was the world (Russia vs Ukraine, etm…) and US politics (the rigged and stolen Presidential election that no one seems to care about, the Mango Manchurian Candidate and all of his disgusting actions and idiotic, psychotic rantings and misinformation, the billionaires who bought Congress and the Supreme Court, the Epstein files, the National Guard in our cities, ICE, Brain-Worm Bobby and his [literally] insane health policies, and on and on and on and one, etm…)
“Sirius B” = our Forever Home, finding it after years of searching, getting the purchase done, getting the move (more or less) done, and still being amazed on a daily basis that we own and live in such a COOL place!
Given the enormous difference in magnitude between the two, it almost seems inappropriate or embarrassing to be so pleased about the house, given the enormity of the suffering and death around the world and in our country. Yet, on an individual level, it really shouldn’t be ignored or lost in the chaos. Yes, big picture, it’s a tiny thing compared to the potential end of US democracy or the start of the Second US Civil War, but it’s a HUGE freakin’ thing in our personal lives.
So, it reminded me of Sirius.
What about 2026? Well, as I might have hinted at, I think Trump should be in jail for the rest of his life, or tried and executed for high treason, and then we need to find a way to sweep the GOP and our illegitimate Supreme Court out of power and change the rules so this can never happen again. I suspect there might be more than enough bribery, perjury, embezzlement, and other crimes in there to put a LOT of the GOP into cells next to Trump’s. Time to clean house and take our country back. (I wish I knew how to do that, but that’s above my pay grade. I’m open to suggestions.)
That’s the biggest day in, day out, universal objective for the new year, but there’s the usual on a personal level as well. There are always things that I can and want to do better, and since I’ll be hitting one of those “red-letter” birthdays in March, as always I need to do a better job of taking care of myself physically.
We’ll see. The intentions are good. The spirit is strong, but the body is weak.
Stupid body. (And holy guacamole, Batman! That’s a metric shit ton of grey hair. 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯)
I hope all y’all get through the New Years’ celebrations safely and in one piece. I’m sure you all have your own list of things to be aware of and improve on where possible – best of luck to you all and may the odds be ever in your favor.
If nothing else, “Project Hail Mary” hits theaters in March. How bad can a year be with that coming out to look forward to? (He asks innocently, fully understanding that he’s probably tempting the Fates with such a statement.)
I’ll see all y’all on the other side.
Filed under Astronomy, Forever Home, Paul, Photography, Politics
Did anyone else know that Christmas is a week from today? And no one told me?? Thanks!
I mean, I knew it was December, and Christmas was coming, but I really hadn’t paid much attention to the details.
IT’S ONLY A WEEK AWAY!
Boy, that one snuck up on me…
Filed under Paul, Photography
I don’t know who created the meme. The images are obviously from “The Princess Bride,” one of the finest movies ever made.
Sunday nights tend to lean towards “ugly & depressing” these days, often because A) the weekend that I was hoping would be restful and relaxing was anything but, and B) because the week ahead is expected to be Hell on Wheels, with Monday earning its reputation as “MONDAY! 🤮🤯🤬😐”
The news feeds from last night and pretty much one thing after another all day today didn’t help, AT ALL.
One foot in front of another, having each others’ backs, we will all get through it.
But would it freakin’ kill the Universe / God / Karma / {insert deity name here} to cut us just a little bit of slack? Really?
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Memes, Paul
About sixteen months ago, I wroteTake Advantage Of Your Opportunities When You Get Them:
At our old house on Pomelo, the streets were flat and we were about five houses down the street from the elementary school, so we would have the ice cream truck by almost daily during the summer, every year. I would always hear it and always be busy, so I always figured that I would go out and catch the truck and get a random, spontaneous ice cream treat some other time in the future. Tomorrow. Or the next day. Next week, maybe. Next month…
Six years ago we moved to this house, which is at the top of a really long, steep hill that the ice cream truck might or might not be able to actually get up, and we’re nowhere near a school. Thus, NO ice cream trucks here. EVER.
And something made me think about that and realize that I had the opportunity almost daily for DECADES and I almost never took advantage of those opportunities. And now I’m out of luck.
Something else to check out when we’re shopping for the Forever Home. And you can bet if I find out that we’re on a regular path for an ice cream truck, I’ll be dropping everything and sprinting out for an ice cream sandwich when I hear that tinny, electronic circus tune. If I happen to be in the middle of a work Zoom meeting? C’est la vie! A guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do! I’ll be older and wiser the next time.
Today it happened. Fortunately, I was not in the middle of a work Zoom meeting.
While I’ve never heard an ice cream truck on our street before in the past 4+ months, this afternoon the sound was unmistakable. Tinny, electronic Christmas music.
I do not normally have my wallet or any money on my person when I’m working from home and time was short (our block only has six houses on each side, so he didn’t have far to go and head back out) so I broke the land-speed record getting to the bedroom on the other side of the house, grabbing my wallet, and sprinting out the front door. Fortunately, some kids from next door had slowed him down.
Mr. Reyes’ van has seen better days and looks like it’s been ridden hard and put away wet more than once. But it was chock o’ block full of frozen goodness, EXACTLY the way that I remembered it from my childhood. It was practically an out of body experience.
I got a Blue Bunny Chips Glaore! Cookie Sandwich, 300 calories, 12g of fat, 15mb of cholesterol, and 46g of carbohydrates, all of them delightful. For the Long-Suffering Wife I grabbed a Blue Bunny Drumstick. I asked the driver (perhaps Mr. Reyes himself?) to remember us and come back soon, I would be listening for his signal.
Then, planning for the future, since I almost missed him while sprinting through the house for my wallet, I grabbed some singles and have designated them as “Emergency Ice Cream Truck Money.”
When singles pile up I normally stuff them in a drawer and try to remember to take them when I travel for tips, but now I have a stack right where I can grab them quick and head out the front door. My office is at the front of the house, right by the front door, so when he comes back, next time I’ll be ready.
Just because it’s a simple, fondly-remembered experience from childhood doesn’t mean that the adult can’t stack the deck to make it successfully happen again!
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Forever Home, Paul, Photography
Literally.
When I’m going to take a picture with my iPhone at night and I don’t realize that the phone is set to the forward facing camera with the flash on instead of the rear camera with no flash.
Damn, I look like shit!
Filed under Paul, Photography
Mondays! Am I right? Ho, ho, freaking ho, Merry freaking Christmas!
If I’m letting my brain burble for a moment and I’m surfing through videos of sunsets and planes and loons and wild critters and so on on Instagram and you and your mind-numbingly STUPID product interrupt my flow with an ad, I will hate you with the white-hot fire of a million suns.
If on top of that the audio on your ad starts with, “Whoever invented this deserves a raise!” then I hope that they’re excavating a whole new level of Hell for you and I hope you’re there soon.
If the audio on your ad starts with “How did it take until 2025 for someone to figure this out…” then I’m wondering why YOU didn’t figure it out and get insanely filthy rich last year, so YOU get the next level of Hell underneath that one.
If the audio on your ad starts with both, I will break the land speed record hitting the “mute” and “delete” buttons and I will make a voodoo doll of you to make sure that every time you think about sex you get kidney stones instead.
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Farce, Paul, Video
Choose your Hell…
Concentrate on those important tasks for hour after hour after hour? End up exhausted, barely able to keep your eyes open and capable of staggering to bed, little or no energy or time to do anything else, anything enjoyable.
Work hard but put down your labor when the allotted time comes? Feel okay, have the time and energy to read a book or watch the hockey game – but the whole time your brain is racing about your deadlines and how you’re risking failure, and trying to sleep is futile and troubled.
In between somewhere? There’s a reason it’s called “work/life BALANCE.” Some days it feels like that balancing act is being done with you as a last-minute substitute for Philippe Petit, on a high wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
Which, if you’re tired enough, becomes an allegorical phrase from the Tamarian language. “Paul, a poor substitute for Philippe, on a high wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.”
IYKYK!
Filed under Memes, Paul, Photography
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 