It’s that kind of day here, gang.

Not just rain, but high winds. And loyal readers of this lofty blog no doubt recall that high winds trigger my PTSD.

So I’m trying to just stay away from the windows. So that I don’t see all the trees blowing around. And I’m trying to just breathe, and let go of the fact that I have to go out and drive around in all this later today…

Meanwhile.

Lunch yesterday with my Q-following girlfriend was great. Once we were done talking about Phil and the reset, we — ACK!!!— talked about Medicare insurance, burial insurance, beneficiaries, my fantastic insurance guy…

WTF, right??? That’s what old people talk about!!! But anyway, talk about it, we did, because she wants better Medicare coverage and my insurance guy truly is fantastic.

We hung out at Tequilaville for 2 and 1/2 hours. And the food seemed even better than it’s been the other 27 million times I’ve eaten there.

And there were college football games on the many TV screens. And there were quite a few other customers hanging out. So it was absolutely NOTHING like being here in my room, alone at my desk, in the middle of nowhere which was kinda what I needed.

What I really actually need is a vacation, gang. I am so emotionally worn out from the constant caregiving.

If I requested a vacation, the Agency would give me one, but you know me. What I really need is about a week of doing nothing. Just walking in the wilderness, or sitting out in the backyard and looking up at the stars at night. You know, some really restorative downtime.

Yet all I ever really want to do on a “vacation” is go to NYC…

Which of course involves getting my birth mom here to take care of the cats. And then the hassle of all that traveling to & from 2 different airports.

And then I come home and need a vacation… but NYC is so expensive that I can’t even think about taking any more days off. I have to get right back to work!

So.

I’m trying to find a way to decompress from the caregiving shifts that doesn’t require being in Midtown Manhattan.

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But speaking of caregiving–

While I was with my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man yesterday, I taught him my middle name. (My real middle name, not my professional middle name.)

ME: “It’s starts with a J and has 3 letters and rhymes with toy.”

HE (thinking a lot): “Joe?”

ME: “No. It’s starts with a J and has 3 letters and rhymes with TOY.”

HE (thinking a lot more): “Jan?”

ME: (etc., etc.)

But when he finally realized my middle name was Joy, this really delighted him. And as luck would have it, he started singing my favorite hymn! (Below) And then he said, “You are my angel, Marilyn Joy.”

He always just makes me smile so much, gang.

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I still have not figured out which work-in-progress I want to tackle now that The Curse of Our Profound Disorder has gone off to the publisher.

Of course, the minute Sandra’s schedule frees up, I’m going to be really busy with my projects with her.

But I still want to make some headway in everything on my desk that needs to be finished and published before I die… (I’m not planning to die anytime soon, I just have a whole lot of half-finished manuscripts around here. And, as I’ve probably said a hundred times by now, the caregiving jobs are so emotionally and psychologically draining, that I can only focus enough to write if I have an entire day off.)

Anyway. I want to make some headway. So we shall see where the Muse finally lands, gang.

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That’s kind of it for now.

I want to do yoga, wash my hair, etc., before heading out for my shift with the retired Minister and his delightful wife and cat!

Enjoy your Sunday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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As if I don’t listen to enough Tom Petty around here!

I leave you with this today.

In preparation for tomorrow and for what would have been Tom Petty’s 75th birthday….

This is a cool song. Originally, it was unreleased. But they put it on the posthumous collection, American Treasure, 2018, Disc 2. If you are familiar with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ songs, you will recognize some of these lyrics because they wound up in other songs, including in their hit song, “My Life, Your World.”

But the lyrics make for a really cool song here. — “Walkin’ From the Fire”, written in 1984. Enjoy, gang.

“Walkin’ From The Fire”

They come out here with the dog on a chain
And they took my little brother away
Tell my mama he was selling cocaine
They took my brother to the juvenile house
Where they held him for a quarter of an ounce
My mama told me not to hang around the house

I’m walkin’ from the fire
Don’t put me in a corner
Yeah, I’m trying to walk away
Let this one blow over
But I’m fightin’ like a tiger
Don’t put me in the corner

Last time I seen her was a discotheque
Countin’ buttons on a lawyer’s vest
She walked out but it ain’t over yet

I’m walkin’ from the fire
Don’t put me in a corner
Just try to walk away
Let this one blow over
But I’m fightin’ like a tiger
Don’t put me in the corner

I’m walkin’ from the fire
Don’t put me in a corner
I’m walkin’ from the fire
Don’t put me in a corner

Mama used to rock back in 1953
Buys him all the records that they sell on TV
I know Chuck Berry wasn’t saying that for me

I’m walkin’ from the fire
Don’t put me in a corner
Yes, I’m turning that cheek
‘Til this is all over
But I’m fightin’ like a tiger
Don’t put me in the corner

I’m walkin’ from the fire
I’m walkin’ from the fire

c- 1984 Tom Petty