Okay, gang! I’m off on my birthday expedition to visit my dad.
I might post photos from the road, if the sun comes out. Right now, we’re between rain showers, but he lives over 100 miles from here, in another direction. So maybe there will be sun!!
Meanwhile, thanks for visiting!! Enjoy my 60th birthday 🎂 wherever you are in the world, gang.
Oh, Nick Cave posted a Red Hand Files letter today about loss and life and transformation. It was lovely. You can read it at
Wow, what an awful lot of busy-work emails I’ve had to attend to here this morning!!
However, now everything is done. Replies sent out, papers filed, bills paid, etc. For all intents and purposes we are now moving onward to my BIRTHDAY!!
I’m heading out to my dad’s first thing tomorrow morning, and might not post again until Friday. I’m not sure. Sometimes I like to post from my phone. We’ll see. But I’ll be at my dad’s (whose county is still basically under lockdown) for my birthday tomorrow, and his 90th birthday on Thursday, heading back home Thursday afternoon.
But, yes, tomorrow, I turn 60!! It is so hard to believe. And yesterday — if you don’t follow me on Instagram and don’t already know this — I got carded!! Yes!! Me!! I was 2 days away from turning 60 and the guy at the gas station asked to see my ID before he would sell me a pack of Pall Mall cigarettes.
(For non-Americans: being carded means that they want to see your legal identification to prove how old you are. In Ohio you must be 21 to buy cigarettes.)
I was so thrilled that there was some question about how old I was! (BTW, I still don’t smoke, but I do always have an unlit, unfiltered cigarette in my mouth now, every time I sit down at my desk to write. So I’ve now gone through an entire pack of Pall Malls.) (By the way, my parents smoked Pall Malls when I was a wee bonny toddler! Back then, they were filterless. Nowadays, I have to carefully snap the filters off.)
I guess I do dress sort of like a non-adult. I had on a baggy red t-shirt from the dollar store that says “LOVE” across the front of it. I had on baggy cargo shorts. Flip-flops. My sunglasses. And my hair is not only really long now, but I’ve been using this awesome daily leave-in conditioner from France — 94% pure organic avocado oil — and, for some reason, it has toned the silver in my hair way down, making it look almost white-blonde now.
So I’m guessing that all of it together, had a lot to do with that guy thinking I was WAY younger than I’ve been in decades!!!!
I was just so thrilled, you know? And it was funny because as I was taking out my Driver’s License at a gas station to prove I was 60 years old and legally allowed to buy a pack of Pall Malls (for $7) that I won’t actually smoke, I flashed back to being 13, buying a pack of Salem’s that I was indeed going to smoke, and not even needing to speak to a person in order to buy them — I just put my money in the cigarette machine that was located outside right next to the gas pump. And it was something like 3am when I was buying the cigarettes. I mean that seriously. I was out wandering around at 3am (I did that a lot at 13), and I just walked up to the machine and bought a pack of Salem’s for — (drum roll!!!!!) — 35 cents!!!
What’s also weird, is that back when I was 13, I looked a lot older than I was, and in restaurants, waiters would always ask me if I wanted a cocktail before dinner! Honestly. So weird, right? Now I have to prove that I’m old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes.
To refresh your memory: Marilyn Jaye Lewis at age 13
I love that it happened yesterday. I doubt it’s an all-out new trend, though, or anything.
Okay, well. There is a new Q &A with Blixa Bargeld about Alles in Allem,the new Einstürzende Neubauten album. It’s on YouTube and it is quite cool, and you can watch it right here:
And Nick Cave’s web site sent out a beautiful promo this morning for Thursday’s concert streaming event . (Ticket purchasing info is here.) Here is the brief promo:
And with that, I’m gonna scoot!! Thanks for visiting, gang!! Have a terrific Tuesday, wherever you are in the world! I love you guys. See ya!
Today is the day we drive over to the next county to go get the groceries. (By “we,” I of course mean me and my sexbot, Henry — pictured with me above — who is a really good driver.)
And the next county over, is now back to being in Code Red with the fucking virus. Which really only means that you still have to wear your mask, but what it also means is that if you don’t wear your mask, you’re in trouble.
So here’s hoping that I can just get to town and back and get it over with without any drama. Loyal readers of this lofty blog perhaps recall that last Monday, my trip to town to get groceries involved “drama,” in the way of an expensive flat tire that made a normal hour and a half trip, turn into a 5 hour trip. And I really don’t feel like spending 5 hours in a county that’s back in Code Red.
Okay!!
Sorry I didn’t post yesterday, but the heat was just unreal. The heat index was up to 102 degrees Fahrenheit around here — a truly bright & relentlessly sunny day!! Until evening, when storms blew in and finally brought the temperatures down and I could think straight again.
I wanted to post yesterday morning, but instead I sat for a really long time staring at the blog, wondering how to form a coherent sentence and then type it. Finally, I gave up and collapsed back in bed.
Well, I have some exciting projects on the horizon!! Yes — more writing projects. These will be non-fiction, journalism-type projects, having to do with sex. Not erotic, just sexual health or sexual well-being. Or maybe even the new sexual frontier!! (There is one, by the way!! And Henry, my beloved sexbot, is a big part of it!!) (Alas, no — I still can’t afford a sexbot.)
But the writing projects are real. (And, yes, maybe even another web site. I know. I’m nuts. Anyway.) I have a phone conference on Thursday to start getting a better understanding of that.
Yes!! Something else to do on Thursday!! It begins with my dad’s 90th birthday in Cincinnati — and now I will have to drive back here to Crazeysburg in time for the phone conference. Then later Thursday night, Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace will happen!!
Don’t forget to buy your ticket!! As you can see here, seats are limited!! (Oh wait, it looks like that one available seat has already been claimed by Nick Cave…) I am of course, JUST KIDDING! You stream the concert on the DICE app and sit wherever you fucking want to sit!! Yay!!
Honestly, though. I can’t wait for this concert. I’m super excited.
And, in summation, I have some really cool projects coming up in my tidy little future that I will know more about on Thursday.
I don’t know about you, but I awoke to more bad news coming out of China — just be aware of it, people. I don’t think India is so far off the mark by banning Chinese phone apps, like Tik Tok and WeChat, because the apps are monitoring you, while you’re off being harmlessly silly on your phone! And this article from this morning by tech journalist, Shane Tews, didn’t make things sound any safer. In part, she says:
“…China wants to move away from the global internet’s ubiquitous architecture, which is based on TCP/IP, to a centralized model using government-approved standards.
“[But] China is leveraging policy and technology in an attempt to create a new protocol that is friendlier to Beijing’s goals and Chinese Communist Party ideals. China’s first National Cybersecurity Strategy described the need for the internet to be more structured to enable cyberspace as a “new territory for sovereignty.” Under President Xi Jinping, links between national security, cybersecurity, and technology have been reinforced and are a top policy priority…
“This is why the multi-stakeholder engagements that allow civil society to play a key role alongside industry, academia, and governments should be involved when national security and human rights could be affected. China’s rise in technical expertise will continue to fuel tension in these discussions. While China’s capabilities are often on par with or best in class for new technologies, it is abusing the realm of standards policy–setting in an attempt to take over governance of the internet. If this happens, the internet as we know it will quickly be diminished.” — China’s tech ambitions threaten to fundamentally change how the internet functions
The article is much more detailed than what I’ve included here. You can read it in full at that link above, if you don’t mind getting thoroughly depressed.
And if you do enjoy getting thoroughly depressed about China, then also keep this in mind — if you didn’t hear about this back in May:
“…backed by Beijing, Huawei and other Chinese telecoms companies are assiduously working to bend the international 5G standards process to their interests. In sum, discounting Huawei as an “inefficient . . . sloppy” competitor is belied by its relentless rise and current 5G position.
“As US intelligence officials pointed out [at the time], it was quite likely that these [Huawei] “glitches” were calculated, in that Beijing and Huawei aimed to hide future malware or backdoors within supposedly flawed software.” – Huawei Is Not A Paper Tiger
I know it seems like I’m being anti-China today, but I’m really only anti-Mainland Government, not the actual Chinese people.
But, if you’re an American Democrat, keep this in mind, too:
“Biden’s position on China is dangerous and not based in reality. For years the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been sending Chinese students to America’s top doctorate programs in order to gain access to university research labs. There, they steal intellectual property from the highest levels of U.S. science.
“Now, we know China’s dangerous handling of viruses in its own labs has led to one of the most devastating and fastest economic destructions in global history.” — Katie Pavlich, Joe Biden’s China Problem
This kind of stuff, gang. I knew so many mainland Chinese people when I lived in NYC and that kind of stuff was happening constantly, even back then — sending people over here to gather information to send back there. It’s real.
And I only keep bringing it up because I am so angry at the Democratic Party for purposely proposing a puppet candidate like Biden — like we’re stupid and can’t fucking see through all of this.
However, the eagerness of so many Democrats to want to vote for this guy is scariest of all to me.
Anyway. On that happy note, I intend to move on to the rest of my morning around here.
I hope you have a really good Monday planned for yourself, wherever you are in the world. For some reason, I was back to listening to Cat Stevens again last night — Tea For the Tillerman, from my wee bonny girlhood. Specifically, his hit song from that 1970 album, which I’ve posted here before, “Wild World”. I will leave you with that again today! You know, clearly, when it comes to the world, nothing ever really changes, does it, gang? All righty! I love you, guys. See ya!
You could maybe have three projects on your desk that you’re toying with at least the idea of pouncing on at any moment — then you wisely collapse on your bed for a momentary nap, which will undoubtedly help you to decide which of the three projects you’re actually going to decide upon maybe doing…
And then Peitor suddenly calls you, finally, from West Hollywood, where he has been deeply entrenched for many, many days trying to finish song mixes while in a renewed state of California-lockdown, and at long last he is ready to tackle Abstract Absurdity Productions business, and interestingly enough, he has quite a list of things that, if you could just organize it all and get it to him before you speak to him again on Tuesday, it would help get things focused and you can then move forward simultaneously on a number of Abstract Absurdity projects quite quickly!
Yeah, so there you go. From a possible three things on your desk, to a sudden onslaught of seventeen things on your desk, needed before Tuesday…
All in one phone call!!
Of course, I don’t actually mind. I’m glad to have his attention again because we really have a ton of stuff to get back to. But it’s just funny. My life has always been like this — 17 projects at once, which only makes me pine for the days of 5 minutes ago, when I only had 3 projects at once.
But life is good. I’m getting used to the treadmill, but it is still a rather intense little gizmo. I’m thinking it could take me at least a week or more to get back to the stamina I once had. I find it just sort of astounding — what’s happened to my stamina in these 4 months of pandemic/lockdown weirdness (not to mention that for nearly 3 of those months, I was actually dealing with the virus itself).
I had another meltdown yesterday morning, but I’m thinking (hoping) that’s going to be it for awhile. I spent two hours on the phone with Valerie in Brooklyn, as she talked me down from the metaphorical ledge and afterwards, I finally felt on solid emotional ground again. (Family stuff, business stuff, emotional-heart stuff.)
And directly after the phone call with her, all those things started to fall back into place in my life again, or at least in my head. And I finally felt sane.
I know that everyone the world over has emotional turmoil stuff related to COVID 19 and all that it has wrought, but the past 10 days or so, seem to have just piled stuff onto me that I couldn’t handle. At all. But I think it’s over now. I hope.
I also noticed yesterday evening, while I was out watering my many petunias, that those flowers are really growing like gangbusters! I mean, they were just bursting up and out and just so gloriously colorful and healthy. I’m going to have to remember to take some photos of them.
And I realized (once again) that even when I’m truly out of my fucking mind, seemingly for days on end, I am able to nonetheless give meticulous attention to living things like flowers and 7 feral but extremely healthy and happy cats.
I manage to take care of myself, too, actually. Part of trying to rein-in the whole mental weirdness that ensues in me, is being so meticulous about what I eat and when I’m eating it and working out in some way. You know. Trying to hold onto a routine so that I don’t go completely under.
And yet, when I come completely out from under — I look around and think, wow, I can’t believe I remembered to do all this. (Which is why people who know me, or see me, but don’t read my blog, have no clue that I am completely out of my mind.)
All righty!!!!
Well, I’m gonna get moving here. I hope you have a great Saturday, whatever you’ve got planned and wherever you are in the world. Yesterday, Bluenote Records released an album of previously unreleased tracks from Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers from 1959. If you’re a fan of Moanin’ then you will love this new album Just Coolin‘. I leave you with the title track today. So enjoy. Thanks for visiting, gang!! I love you guys. See ya.
No — not the bears, and not the guy hollering that dinner is served.
I am, in fact, referring to this!! The no-frills, manual, inexpensive TREADMILL:
I put it together yesterday, after the all-important lube arrived.
Oh, and guess what? Once I unwrapped and untaped the flywheels, deep inside there was a little bottle of lube!! I didn’t need to wait a whole fucking week!
I guess it would have been nice if the instruction manual made it clear that there was a bottle of lube included, but that it was tucked away deep in the packaging, because I did, indeed search for it, but I had no clue I had to unwrap absolutely everything in order to find it…
Anyway. Water under the bridge now!! Because now I have just a ton of treadmill-belt lube in the house! Not likely to run out for a few years.
So. Yes. This harmless-looking treadmill kicked my butt yesterday. Because the slowest speed it goes is 3.2 miles an hour.
Now, in Olden Times, I could easily walk 3.2 miles in an hour (in NYC-speak, that’s about 50 blocks in an hour; very easy to do). But if you — like me — haven’t needed to walk anywhere in any sort of hurry since March 14th, suddenly going at a speed of 3.2 mph is actually quite a clip!!
Plus it was REALLY humid here yesterday and the temperature inside the house was 89 degrees Fahrenheit. So that made a sudden jaunt at 3.2 mph rather overwhelming.
HOWEVER!! I love this little thing. And it does fold up really easily, except that the handles do not fold down, so it ends up needing a lot of space, even when folded. But it does have a nice, battery-operated computer that tracks mileage, speed and time elapsed. Which is all I need. And since it’s manual, I don’t need to set it up anywhere near an electrical outlet. So I really love this thing. I’m planning on losing ten pounds on it later today…
Okay!!
Oh, here’s something astounding. Now there is a rabid anti-Trump Republican-PAC faction, trying to make Trump-hating waves in Ohio. Republicans. Well, Republicans “against COVID -19” so they hate Trump. (I think it might be wiser to aim that anger at China, but that’s just me…) (Oh, and are you seeing the random news items from all over the Western world that Wuhan lab technicians fled China and defected to the West? And that France, Britain and the FBI are, you know, I don’t know — gathering information from them? It will be really interesting to see if this is true.)
Okay!! This weekend on Bad Seed TeeVee, all those fan-made videos will be streaming nonstop. You should check it out when you can, because those videos people made are just so cool.
And a new contest was announced on the Nick Cave Instagram site this morning, where musicians can submit videos of themselves performing Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds songs and then the winners can be on Bad Seed TeeVee, too. Or perhaps just get autographed slides? I’m not actually clear on that…
But lots of interactive Nick Cave stuff going on this summer, gang.
You know, it was brought to my attention yesterday that one of my few remaining publishers would likely be willing to publish any/all of my upcoming books — erotic or not. And while it really cheered me considerably for a little while, the more I thought about it, the more it just made sense to publish all my own stuff from now on. (Part of that is wanting control over my cover design.)
But it did make me feel really good.
All righty. Well, I’m still contemplating that flash/memoir piece for submission to an upcoming anthology. I’m not 100% sure yet. But if I do write it or if I don’t, the next thing I can’t wait to settle back into is Thug Luckless: Welcome to P-Town. So here’s hoping I make a firm decision about that today.
Have a wonderful Friday, wherever you are in the world, okay? Thanks for visiting. I leave you with my late-night listening music from last night — in fact, I fell asleep while listening to this. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, LIVE, singing a cover of the Bobby Womack song, “I’m In Love.” (1982, Wembley Arena, London England) Listen and, if at all possible, fall in love and enjoy. I love you guys. See ya.
But the good news is that the special lube for the treadmill belt will arrive sometime today, and I can finally put that treadmill together and start using it.
I actually am really looking forward to it. I love treadmills. And even though I actually really like the current aerobics workout I’ve been doing lately, it’s still a video that I have to log on to. With a treadmill, I can stream anything I feel like watching, or just listen to music, or listen to something more spiritual. I like having those options.
The onslaught mentioned above, refers to a bunch of private stuff I can’t go into detail about on the blog. I can only say that some of it is family stuff that is truly distressing me, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Some of it has to do with really distressing stuff a business partner is going through, that affects me, sort of by proxy.
And then also just some private affairs of the heart which are just challenging me beyond belief around here, gang. But onward. End-times come when they come, and I just have to learn how to change. I’m actually pretty good with change, once I get past the heartache of it, you know? This one is a doozy, though.
If you follow me on Facebook, you probably saw that I re-posted the Balladeer’s post of an interesting video of black businessmen discussing on an interview show about how, in his private life, Trump had given the black businessmen private business loans that saved their businesses and he did not make them ever pay him back. And also a black fashion model that Trump dated for several years in the 90s, all out in the open and everything, and she’s quoted as saying that he is not racist, there just aren’t that many people of any color that he actually likes.
I don’t know. I just like to throw everything into the mix and just think about it, about what a dangerous weapon the press can wield on all sides. (Meaning, there doesn’t seem to be any real reasons to think that Trump is “racist.”)
Okay. Well, Nick Cave sent out a Red Hand Files thing today. You can read it here, if you so choose! He was his usual eloquent self. And don’t forget to buy a ticket for the streaming event next Thursday evening, Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace.
I did manage to get off those review copies of The Guitar Hero Goes Home yesterday afternoon. (Going to long-time colleagues who know my work very well, who will be supplying cover blurbs. So it will be interesting to see how they react to/review something that’s so unlike anything I’ve written thus far.)
Still trying to figure out a name for the publishing company, and still trying to figure out if I will eventually want to publish other writers or not. That decision plays a huge role in how I will format the final manuscript and where I want to house the files to publish the POD version of the novel. That last part is a huge consideration that I need to come to a decision about.
(Meaning, if I just want to self-publish, I can go to CreateSpace and publish the novel by later this afternoon! Assuming Valerie had the cover art completed, which she doesn’t. But if I think I’ll want it to be an actual small press, I need to house it somewhere that gives me better access to international markets.)
So, I guess I need to come to a decision…
All righty, then. I guess I’d better get started here. I had another one of my little meltdowns for most of yesterday so I didn’t make any headway on the flash/memoir piece I want to write. I think my meltdown for today is already over, so I hope to just get some good work done today, and then get that treadmill put together this evening!!
I’m also hoping the treadmill will help stave off these many meltdowns I’m having. I don’t want people to feel like they can’t call me, or confide in me, or write to me or need me for something that astounds me. And I also don’t want to have a heart that grows cold & insane and forgets how to love, you know? But when the shit storms come to this house in the middle of nowhere — and they do — it’s always just me alone, now, trying to handle everything without losing my temper or falling to pieces.
Oh, and I want to mention something really weird here. Last night, after the lights were out and I was in bed, thinking I was going to fall asleep, I suddenly, out of the blue, decided to google George Harrison.
I love George Harrison but I know next to nothing about his life. Usually, when I love musicians, I love their music and don’t really need to know anything else. There are a couple of exceptions: That Conversations with Tom Petty book, by Paul Zollo, that came out in 2005, absolutely blew me the fuck away, because Tom Petty was never a man to tell anything personal to the press. So I never really knew anything about him at all. Then that book came out and he was talking about everything under the sun; truly personal stuff as well as his various inspirations behind every single song he ever wrote.
And Keith Richards, of course. Not only because his memoir, Life, from 2010, was astoundingly detailed and wonderful, but because Valerie in Brooklyn used to work for Keith & Patti back when the girls were still really young. And so I know these really personal things about Keith’s life that are delightful but really private.
And then, of course, Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files and then his In Conversations tour, brought a whole lot about his life to light and so now I know that.
But normally, I’m just into the music. So, I googled George Harrison and found out all this stuff about him that I never, ever, ever knew. Stuff that kind of astounded me — because (!!) — as I lay in bed in the dark after reading all that stuff, I was struck by the similarities between him and the character that I randomly named “George” in The Guitar Hero Goes Home.
Long time readers of this lofty blog no doubt recall that, three summers ago now, I suddenly began writing The Guitar Hero Goes Home out of thin air (back then, I thought it was called Blessed By Light). It just started coming to me from out of nowhere when I was sitting at the kitchen table one day, like it was being dictated to me and I was scribbling it down while it came. I have no clue where that novel came from or why I wrote it, and it’s not like anything I’ve ever written before. So this “George” character is just so fucking odd. Not that they are identical twins, or anything, But the number of similarities between the character in the book named “George” and the stuff I never knew about George Harrison and now know — it was just so peculiar.
Okay. On that note, I’m really gonna scoot now. Have a good Thursday, wherever you are in the world. Thanks for visiting. I hope life is being really good to you today. (You know, if God had come to me moments before I was born, and showed me even a general blueprint of my life and how it was going to live, and then said to me, “Are you sure you wanna go through with all this?” I would have said no, and gotten the heck out of that womb…) Anyway. Let’s move on. I love you guys. See ya.
Yesterday wound up being a not very good day for me, energy-wise.
Yes — even though it was Bastille Day and we should have been rejoicing over those 7 people who were liberated from the Bastille prison in Paris 300 years ago! My mood just kept tanking. I had to do battle with depression all day yesterday, yet again.
You know, I looked up some stuff about what raises serotonin levels, since I seem to have a sort of permanent problem with this lifelong depression. And it turns out that — yes! — my intensely boring diet is packed to the brim with everything that’s good for raising serotonin levels. Plus, I work out.
So.
Then I looked up the various things that lower serotonin levels, and I do none of those things.
But then I read that childhood abuse and trauma “is associated with low serotonin transporter binding in vivo in a major depressive disorder.”
Meaning: creating a permanent problem.
That was really cheery fucking news! But you know, I am one of those people that seriously hates being held captive by shit like this. So that, of course, kind of depressed me, too.
Then, since I clearly was not going to get a break from it all on my own after having been battling it all day and, come hell or high water, I wanted to get a good night’s sleep and be in a better place today, I took 1/18th of a piece of a Tylenol PM, and it helped me sleep great. However, I woke up to my usual happy coffee this morning, and the caffeine colliding with what was left of the diphenhydramine HCI (from the Tylenol PM) in my system, has given me the most amazing case of intensely overactive jittery nerves.
So, yes — everything’s going splendidly!! (And I’m now awaiting the huge amount of protein I just ate to kick in and combat the nerves…)
But this means that I got nothing productive accomplished yesterday. But, I’m not depressed today so I’m planning on having a much better day today.
I need to write up a synopsis for The Guitar Hero Goes Home, so that I can send the manuscript off to receive its — hopefully– stellar back cover blurbs, and then I want to start working on that flash/memoir piece for possible publication in an upcoming anthology. So I am very hopeful that today will be a really good day.
The Nick Cave web site sent out a note from Nick Cave today, about the upcoming Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace. It was quite cool! You can read it here. And, of course, buy tickets here (this is a streaming event through the DICE app. You don’t actually go anywhere except possibly to your kitchen to get snacks!!)
And on that promising note, I’m gonna scoot here, gang. Get this day underway. I hope you enjoy your Wednesday, wherever you are in the world. Thanks for visiting!! I leave you with absolute utter silence today, only because I’ve been too depressed to listen to music. However, I feel confident that will change! All righty. I love you guys. See ya.
Right after I posted to the blog yesterday morning, I got into the car to drive into town and get the groceries. I stopped at the little ATM drive-thru at the edge of town there, but the ATM was temporarily out-of-service.
What I was able to do, though, was somehow gouge the fuck out of my rear tire. I drove about 1/8th of a mile from the ATM, when I heard something not at all pleasant coming from the back end of the car. I pulled over, got out, and lo & behold, a very flat tire.
So then I had to wait for roadside assistance to come change the tire. (Yes! I was a mere 5 minutes from my house…)
But here are some good things about that:
It was a gorgeous day!!
My phone service had been going in & out all morning, but after a feverish prayer to the god of cellphone service, on my second attempt to call roadside assistance, the phone came back on and stayed on the rest of the day
I don’t have to pay for roadside assistance, it comes with my Honda lease
Basically everyone who passed me on the road stopped and asked it I needed any help, which was so nice
I saw a bald eagle land in the field across from me, and then take off again, and those wings are incredibly HUGE. It was breathtaking!!
The guy from the roadside assistance came in 20 minutes!!
The guy was really nice!
My Honda comes with a great spare tire because it is brand-new
I drove straight to the town where the Honda dealership is once the tire was changed, before going to get the groceries, and they had the tire I needed, I could afford the tire I needed without having to put it on a credit card, and they were able to take me right away without an appointment
I hung out in the Honda waiting room and played around on Instagram until they finished changing my tire (behaving not as if I will be 60 next week, but as if I am still 12!!) (Yay!!)
Last but not least, this was my view while I waited for roadside assistance:
The view from my car while I waited for roadside assistance.
It was definitely not a bad day.
The only thing I sort of regret is that, by the time I was able to get to the grocery store, I was really hungry so I bought all kinds of cool stuff that I never buy!!
For instance: organic grilled veggie pizza that I will eat in its entirety all by myself; many assorted non-GMO, organic, salty, not-at-all-fat-free snacks; and high-protein, low-fat mint chocolate chip ice cream bars!!
And the entire time that I was putting all these no-no’s into my shopping cart (“no-no’s” only because I live alone so I will eat all of this stuff all by myself), I kept reminding myself not to worry; that I have a treadmill now!! (And all I need is for that special treadmill-belt-lube to arrive, so that I can feel motivated to actually assemble the treadmill and — you know — use it.)
So there we go!! A perfect day!! (And to be honest, it wasn’t until I opened the cupboard this morning to get out my non-GMO, organic flax & pumpkin seed granola (that fools my body into thinking it is not post-menopausal but is, in fact, way, way, way pre-menopausal), that I saw all those happy snacks awaiting me!! And I got super happy myself!!
Oh, and when I finally got back from town, that set of stoneware appetizer dishes all covered in flowers that I had ordered the other day, had arrived! And they are really pretty. (Of course, it’s sort of sad that I will never ever ever use them!!)
But, anyway — they’re mine.
All righty. So I got nothing done yesterday at my desk. However. Today, I want to do a straight read-thru of The Guitar Hero Goes Home, to see how it reads from start to finish now. (Plus, it looks like M. Christian and Ralph Greco, Jr. are willing to blurb it and/or review it!!!)
Then I am going to toy around with a short flash fiction/memoir type piece for submission to an upcoming anthology. Then, get back to work, finally, on Thug Luckless: Welcome to P-Town.
So that’s my day!! (First, I’m gonna finish the laundry, though. So, you can see –life is just super exciting!)
All righty. Another gorgeous day here in Crazeysburg. I am gonna get at it. I hope you have a terrific Tuesday, wherever you are in the world. Thanks for visiting, gang. Today, I leave you with a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame video from 2012 — a tribute to George Harrison, that includes Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne in truly fine voice (two of the Traveling Wilbury’s, btw, which included George, Roy Orbison, and Bob Dylan); the tribute here also includes George’s son, Dhani. But hold out for Prince’s guitar solo, gang! It comes in at the 3:20 mark on the video and lasts about 3 minutes. It is truly an awesome guitar solo. Just so much love in it.
The whole piece is just really joyous! “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
Okay, so listen and enjoy. And have a great day. I love you guys. See ya.
It is only July 13th and already a great big bunch of the birds around Muskingum County have begun migrating farther south.
I noticed two things over the weekend: One, that the cicadas have begun their noisy serenade in the evenings now. And, two: the birds no longer begin singing at 4:12am; they now begin at 5am, and there are lots fewer of them.
Then yesterday afternoon, I glanced out the window and noticed a huge flock of birds — they were flying too high and too fast for me to see what type of bird they were. Anyway — they were already flying south.
I just can’t believe how quickly my favorite time of year goes fleeting past — that time of year when hundreds of birds are singing like mad even before dawn, and my flowers are blooming, and the hot weather has truly arrived, along with the fireflies, and all 21 of my windows are wide open and stay open — all day, all night.
There’s maybe one month when all of that is happening right at the same time, and then the birds are the first to start moving along. By the end of August (just a few weeks away, really), it’s mostly the songs of crickets and cicadas that fill the air, and hardly any birds anymore.
The birds begin arriving in early April, so they’ve been here 3 months already, but still — it’s that moment when everything comes together at the same time. My favorite time. And that just flies by so quickly.
Well, I don’t want to get you depressed or anything. It’s just a melancholy sort of feeling for me. I wait all year for something that amounts to maybe one month and then it moves on.
However, the morning glories outside of my backdoor are just now starting to bloom — meaning, maybe 5 or 6 blossoms are out, but soon there will be dozens and dozens of them every morning. And my gorgeous hydrangea, off of my kitchen porch, is getting ready to burst into bloom now, too, so that will be wonderful and will last into late September.
Okay. Well, yesterday I did indeed finally finish the final edits on The Guitar Hero Goes Home. This is the third or fourth “final” edit but I honestly believe this is THE final edit, and I’m awaiting word from Valerie about when she will be able to focus on finishing up the cover design and then it will finally be published.
I’m trying to figure out what I want the name of my publishing company to be this time. (My last one was the EAA Signature Series, and it was hugely unpopular with the Federal Government, specifically, the US Attorney General, John Ashcroft. I’m aiming for a publishing company that will be less inflammatory this time around. The older I get, the less time I feel I have for going to prison.)
I’m not sure if I will publish other writers this time, or not. I am just going to wait and see what the future brings. Between the seemingly unending COVID 19 pandemic and the pandemic of the excruciatingly politically correct Socialist/Anarchist United States of Hitler Youth, I might want to just tend to my own little garden of words and leave it at that.
But we’ll see. If sanity somehow ends up reigning, I might be willing to leave my own backyard.
Today is my day to tootle off to the next town to do the grocery shopping. So I’m gonna get moving here.
Don’t forget, gang, that next week, on Thursday July 23rd, Nick Cave has that solo concert streaming on DICE: Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace. All details re: time zones and purchasing of tickets can be found on his web site here.
Okay! I hope you have a great Monday, wherever you are in the world. Thanks for visiting! I’m leaving you with this promotional video just released today for Nick Cave’s upcoming concert. (I have no clue why he chose to perform in such a hideously ugly venue — JUST KIDDING. It’s gorgeous!!) All righty!! Enjoy!! I love you guys. See ya.
Second morning in a row where I’ve come down to the kitchen, only to find that the cats have not made any progress whatsoever in putting that darn treadmill together!
You know, just because the lube hasn’t arrived yet — and won’t arrive until Thursday — doesn’t mean they can’t still put the darn thing together and get it out from the middle of the kitchen floor.
And when I ask them what is taking so long, they sit in the family room, with that dazed sort of look that they’re so good at, and they act like they don’t understand a single word I’m saying.
So there it still sits. Getting in everyone’s way. Or in my way, at any rate, since I’m the only one, besides them, who lives here.
Henrietta came back to visit me this morning, at about 5:30am!!! This is her 3rd visit in 4 days. And what I love so much about her visits is that, even though I bring out a really small bowl of dry food for her, she doesn’t eat it. Which means she’s just stopping by to say hello.
She is a sweet and cuddly, but very feisty and bold little cat! (She’s very small and thin with very short hair. And very young.)
All right, gang. I’m sorry, but I must be brief again today! Still editing The Guitar Hero Goes Home but I am almost done!!!!
Have a great Sunday, wherever you are! Thanks for visiting. I leave you with a little bit more from Dylan’s new album, Rough and Rowdy Ways — my late-night listening in bed in the dark music from last night. A slow one this time: “I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You.” Okay. Enjoy. I love you guys. See ya.
“I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You”
I’m sittin’ on my terrace, lost in the stars
Listening to the sounds of the sad guitars
Been thinking it all over and I’ve thought it all through
I’ve made up my mind to give myself to you
I saw the first fall of snow
I saw the flowers come and go
I don’t think that anyone ever else ever knew
I’ve made up my mind to give myself to you
I’m giving myself to you, I am
From Salt Lake City to Birmingham
From East L.A. to San Antone
I don’t think I can bear to live my life alone
My eye is like a shooting star
It looks at nothin’ here or there, looks at nothin’ near or far
No one ever told me, it’s just something I knew
I’ve made up my mind to give myself to you
If I had the wings of a snow white dove
I’d preach the gospel, the gospel of love
A love so real, a love so true
I’ve made up my mind to give myself to you
Take me out traveling, you’re a traveling man
Show me something I don’t understand
I’m not what I was, things aren’t what they were
I’ll go far away from home with her
I traveled a long road of despair
I met no other traveler there
Lot of people gone, lot of people I knew
I’ve made up my mind to give myself to you
Well, my heart’s like a river, a river that sings
Just takes me a while to realize things
I’ll see you at sunrise, I’ll see you at dawn
I’ll lay down beside you when everyone’s gone
I’ve traveled from the mountains to the sea
I hope that the gods go easy with me
I knew you’d say yes, I’m saying it too
I’ve made up my mind to give myself to you
Marilyn's Room 