Weather for the day… nice day, starting out, 68° sun clear sky, 70° back at home. Walk day, Friday, June 21, 2024.
First Podcast Marc Maron WTF? finishing up Episode 1549 - Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath) from yesterday. Possibly my first hero band from when I was in 10th grade in 1970.
This is now the next day. I was craving sweets yesterday and got a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and overdosed on sugar, I guess. I had the worst sleep last night. My heart was beating too fast so I took some Benadryl and half a melatonin. Which I’ve been doing good on avoiding and have been sleeping better without it. The Benadryl didn’t seem to be working well which it almost always does for my blood pressure and heart rate which seems to be issues of histamines. So that didn't work and I realized I was slightly dehydrated so I drank some water and started feeling better.
The thing about health issues lately, especially with long Covid issues, is you cannot find cause and effect and that’s scary. I can handle just about anything if I can fathom the cause and effect, especially when I figure out how to alleviate the situation.
I thought I’d take the day off but here I am, walking my 3 miles and it’s already 68° and supposed to get up to like 86° today. I’m on my 1st mile at 8:35 AM and it’s already getting warm.
First Podcast Marc Maron WTF? finishing up Episode 1549 - Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath) from yesterday. Possibly my first hero band from when I was in 10th grade in 1970.
This is now the next day. I was craving sweets yesterday and got a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and overdosed on sugar, I guess. I had the worst sleep last night. My heart was beating too fast so I took some Benadryl and half a melatonin. Which I’ve been doing good on avoiding and have been sleeping better without it. The Benadryl didn’t seem to be working well which it almost always does for my blood pressure and heart rate which seems to be issues of histamines. So that didn't work and I realized I was slightly dehydrated so I drank some water and started feeling better.
All I've asked of people, esp., my kids, was to vote.
For the same reason as Heinlein's comment above to take a side.
The least a citizen can do is vote.
If you complain about our government but don't vote, you have no right to complain.
When you vote it should make you want to make an informed decision.
The least a citizen can do is vote.
If you complain about our government but don't vote, you have no right to complain.
When you vote it should make you want to make an informed decision.
That forces you to know what you believe, and to take a stand.
On SOMETHING.
That affects you.
It affects others.
It's important and to neutralize that by saying it doesn't work or do anything, is almost a non sequitur.
The thing about health issues lately, especially with long Covid issues, is you cannot find cause and effect and that’s scary. I can handle just about anything if I can fathom the cause and effect, especially when I figure out how to alleviate the situation.
I think that has a lot to do with conspiracy theories and in the paranormal, in what freaks people out. When you can’t find cause and effect, it’s pretty scary. I remember when I got those Conan books as a kid. That character in the books made it clear the only thing he was afraid of were ghosts and the paranormal. He was afraid of no man or monster. If it bleeds, you can kill it. If it doesn’t bleed, then what the fuck? And that’s scary even to Conan.
Marc says Metallica was a real Sabbath band in the way they thought about music and Geezer said yeah especially their Black album.
I can’t remember if I mentioned I that so far I've gotten to quarterfinalist in the Emerging Screenwriters contest for Suspense screenplays for my, "The Teenage Bodyguard". Cool.
Geezer said he did his solo stuff in the 1990s and he said GZR was the band. He said he just had to get some stuff out of him and he really enjoyed it, but he knew he wasn’t gonna make any money with it. I need to check that out. I think I knew about this but forgot about it. He said it was really heavy stuff and as far as his fans loving it, maybe not so much? And he laughed.
I iced my left knee when I got home yesterday and today it seems to be my right knee causing me grief. Good grief.
I’m very much enjoying the walk today. The sun beating down on me has me a little worried because I want to finish at least my 3 miles today. When I went to Ireland for my 60th birthday, with my youngest back in 2015, I don’t think I had walked that much in recent decades. I used to love backpacking and being out in nature. I loved walking through the oldness of Ireland.
It’s interesting how much I enjoyed connecting back in the 1970s and how old everything was when I was in Connecticutt. Our oldest cemeteries in the Pacific Northwest go back to like the 1800s. The East Coast obviously goes back much further. While Ireland goes back a hell of a lot further.
I remember talking to somebody from Ireland and hearing this a few times from different people in how they don’t appreciate their culture and history so much because they’re attracted to America and her newness and shininess. They're not so taken with the antiquity of a country like Ireland as they just see it as having grown up with old buildings that suck and they want the new. Well, the new to me is the old. I grew up with the new in America, especially in the PNW. So, I crave history?
Geezer is saying since he stopped "boozing" he finds it more difficult for inspiration since he used to sit in the studio and have wine or beer and that’s just what he’s used to. My thought is microdose mushrooms. I kid you not. You gotta do just enough that you feel it but the changes that make in your brain chemistry are better than what the booze did. And it may help you get off the booze.
Geezer said he had a nervous breakdown in 1999 and someone told him he was depressed. Maybe I was lucky that I think I had my nervous breakdown in 1972. I had a headache one day that was so bad I got taken to the emergency room. The doctors hit me with morphine but it didn’t stop the pain. So they said they would knock me out and gave me Demerol. I woke up in a hospital room much later.
After three days three neurosurgeons suggested I move out of my parent's house at 17, or figure out how to cope living there. Mom had told them what our life was like with my stepfather. They gave me a prescription to Valium and sent me on my way. Actually, that might’ve been in early '73. I stayed at home, having previously run off once from home months earlier. When mom dragged me back with threats of arresting the guy I was staying with who was an adult living in Bremerton, oddly enough.Since I live there now after a lifetime of never waning to live here. But, it's nice.
I remember graduating high school in May or June whenever it was you got out of school and then had graduation a few weeks later. it was at the UPS Fieldhouse in Tacoma. My sister gave me a sword she got in Hawaii as a flight attendant. Then when I graduated from university 11 years later, after the USAF, she gave me a pen and pencil set, and was embarrassed. But I said, "No it’s actually perfect because I’ve graduated to a higher purpose. You gave me a sword for high school graduation. Now consider the adage, "The pen is mightier than the sword." So as usual you gave the perfect gift. She looked at me a bit sideways and said, "Well, I’m glad you see it that way!" She always gave me great gifts growing up. I remember after she got her first job, the family wasn't doing well. It was the first Christmas I remember no toys. I was about 12. Mom said, "You're 12 now, too old for toys." Trying to make the best of a bad situation. I remember getting socks. Socks? Seriously? Then I got several gifts from my sister and they were a bunch of the much desired "Maj. Matt Mason" moon toys. I was beside myself that Christmas, especially after such a massive let down from our parents.
I remember graduating high school in May or June whenever it was you got out of school and then had graduation a few weeks later. it was at the UPS Fieldhouse in Tacoma. My sister gave me a sword she got in Hawaii as a flight attendant. Then when I graduated from university 11 years later, after the USAF, she gave me a pen and pencil set, and was embarrassed. But I said, "No it’s actually perfect because I’ve graduated to a higher purpose. You gave me a sword for high school graduation. Now consider the adage, "The pen is mightier than the sword." So as usual you gave the perfect gift. She looked at me a bit sideways and said, "Well, I’m glad you see it that way!" She always gave me great gifts growing up. I remember after she got her first job, the family wasn't doing well. It was the first Christmas I remember no toys. I was about 12. Mom said, "You're 12 now, too old for toys." Trying to make the best of a bad situation. I remember getting socks. Socks? Seriously? Then I got several gifts from my sister and they were a bunch of the much desired "Maj. Matt Mason" moon toys. I was beside myself that Christmas, especially after such a massive let down from our parents.
After I moved out at 17 and rented an apartment in an old house from a really annoying old Jewish woman, my prescription for valium disappeared. Two weeks later it reappeared in my kitchen cupboard. I realized my landlady was going through my apartment when I wasn’t there.
Anyway, good to get your nervous breakdown out-of-the-way in your teens... maybe.
Geezer said his therapy had been writing music and the lyrics for songs and that the Sabbath album Sabotage was all about his depression. In the late 90s when they gave him Prozac, he said it wasn’t working at first and they told him you have to wait about six weeks. He said after those six weeks he started feeling like himself again and it was great. He details that in his book.
Well, sadly, that podcast is over so I switched over to Pod Save America, Trump Loses It Over Fox News Poll
Anyway, good to get your nervous breakdown out-of-the-way in your teens... maybe.
Geezer said his therapy had been writing music and the lyrics for songs and that the Sabbath album Sabotage was all about his depression. In the late 90s when they gave him Prozac, he said it wasn’t working at first and they told him you have to wait about six weeks. He said after those six weeks he started feeling like himself again and it was great. He details that in his book.
Well, sadly, that podcast is over so I switched over to Pod Save America, Trump Loses It Over Fox News Poll
Starting 2nd mile…
I would just like to say regarding this current controversy about Louisiana passing a law about putting the 10 Commandments in every school. How stupid is that?. One person who is pushing that said, "If you don’t like it, don’t look at them." OK? Now take that advice yourself about LGBTQ+ people.
Dumbass.
Switching to 3 miles every day instead of 5 miles every other day has caused me a backup with my blog. The last blog that went out took me all day to read through and finish. I read through it once, editing it, and then published having it go out the next morning at 6AM as normal. I can only do it for a couple of hours until I get bored and need to do something else, then return to it late which can take up much of the day. But it's getting easier as I do it more and is making me want to work on other things I've had on the back burning. Like finishing my film companion book for "Pvt. Ravel's Bolero". It's tough finishing things with no obvious reward but potential prospects.
So on the presidential debate next week...apparently the Biden team wants to win the coin toss for where the podium placement Is. The podcast is wondering if they are looking to get Biden’s good side to the camera? But somebody said, "No it’s probably to get Trump’s bad side toward the camera because that freaks him out."
Yeah, that’s brilliant, attack his weaknesses and what disrupts his mental processes because that’s what he’s been doing to everyone else since he started his ridiculousness about being POTUS.
Again, Americans don’t elect convicted felons as president. And if you’re gonna be pushing this crap about the 10 Commandments, that’s really screwing up your candidate. Because he’s broken after all and I think he's broken every commandment except murder, and in the next few years, we may start hearing something about That.
Maybe not that he actually had someone murdered, but that he failed in an attempt and therefore it's at least conspiracy. Actual conspiracy to murder. Remember. No matter how low you think Donald Trump can go? He will succeed to go ever lower.
Donald Trump: "CNN is fake news." That, from the Prophet of Fake News.
With Trump's bullshit that Biden has dementia (maybe Trump does), or his nonsense that Biden’s on drugs? I've said this before. I really think they need to do a drug test on the president and the ex-POTUS as they walk on stage for the debate.
Because I’m sure Biden isn’t doing anything. Other than old age meds like Trump is doing. But if anybody’s doing illegal drugs, it’s Donald Trump. Before he walks on stage, do a blood draw and tell him it’s gonna be tested for drugs, then you can give our the results before the end of the debate. See if Trump doesn’t refuse to go on stage or take the blood draw.
The problem with the absolute nonsense that Trump spews isn’t so much that he spews it and that IS a problem, but that MAGA gobbles it up so readily. This extremist right wing is so sad for America that there are no words for it. Though there are actually. Fascism. Authoritarianism. Theocracy.
Christian nationalism. White supremacism.
Considering the age of the candidates for the presidential debate, 90 seconds isn’t long enough for an answer and they should give them at least another 30 seconds
Starting my 3rd mile…
I started my walks this year wearing a fleece shirt. With the fuzzy stuff inside, insulated. And then to a lighter fleece shirt. Then to a short-sleeved shirt. Silk, one-color Hawaiian shirt type. Then a short-sleeved cotton shirt. Today a T-shirt, my University of Washington T-shirt. While I did not graduate there, I did take classes there and worked there for over seven years in the 80s and early 90s. I have worn my cargo shorts all year on these walks except for a few times on the first couple of walks this year, with jeans.
I do prefer summer and spring over fall or winter. When I was in high school I had a set of skis and a complete SCUBA set with dual 72 tanks. I had been surfing at 16 on the East Coast in Cape May, New Jersey. My younger cousin taught me. Who is conservative, who was an official in the carpenter's union and told me he hated Donald Trump because he’s dealt with him before and he always rips everybody off. He would never vote for him. That was in September of 2015 when I was returning from Ireland and spent a few days with him and his wife... in Florida. I have to say, weather wise (and Cuban sandwich-wise) I kind of loved Florida.
I used to say I was more of a surfer than a skier. I assume that had something to do with Civil Air Patrol search and rescue maneuvers in the sometimes freezing Cascade and Olympic mountains in our PNW because it would be just colder than Hell and I remember learning what it meant to be, "chilled to the bone". I learned about that term mid-junior high.
As a podcast is pointing out, there’s a huge desperate gap between the MAGA understanding of who the candidate Joe Biden is, and who the actual President Joe Biden is. It’s bizarre how such a conservative toxic fantasy is out there and how Republicans who support Trump are so unable to compare reality to their authoritarian paradigm.
Look it up. The authoritarian playbook states that you are a victim. You’re treated unfairly, journalism is dishonest and against you. Government institutions are bad. The country is failing. There is fear everywhere. There is "the other" after you, in our current American case that means immigrants, especially illegal immigrants. It’s a darkly spun fantasy.
All lies and conspiracy theories have a basis in truth the kernel of reality which they can use to spin rapidly away from it into a downward spiral of darkness.
Conspiracy theories: "A conspiracy theory is a bunch of nonexistent connections between random events." - Criminal Minds
The podcast is referring to that video clip of President Biden in Europe, where there’s a parachutist display and conservative media (not crazed conservatives but actual conservative, professional media, supposed "journalists") clipped it so it looks like he is standing off to the side from the group talking to no one, when he’s actually talking to a parachutist on the ground with his parachute. This kind of stuff is not news. It’s outright disinformation in the greatest Russian style.
I do think we need some kind of organization or institution that monitors disinformation and corrects it. Yes, this is as dangerous as Hell, especially if the Trump administration, as government, did it. We need a truth in news and OpEd law. People need to be held accountable and stop lying to the public merely for purposes of money, power, greed, and politics.
Donald Trump: "CNN is fake news." That, from the Prophet of Fake News.
With Trump's bullshit that Biden has dementia (maybe Trump does), or his nonsense that Biden’s on drugs? I've said this before. I really think they need to do a drug test on the president and the ex-POTUS as they walk on stage for the debate.
Because I’m sure Biden isn’t doing anything. Other than old age meds like Trump is doing. But if anybody’s doing illegal drugs, it’s Donald Trump. Before he walks on stage, do a blood draw and tell him it’s gonna be tested for drugs, then you can give our the results before the end of the debate. See if Trump doesn’t refuse to go on stage or take the blood draw.
The problem with the absolute nonsense that Trump spews isn’t so much that he spews it and that IS a problem, but that MAGA gobbles it up so readily. This extremist right wing is so sad for America that there are no words for it. Though there are actually. Fascism. Authoritarianism. Theocracy.
Christian nationalism. White supremacism.
Considering the age of the candidates for the presidential debate, 90 seconds isn’t long enough for an answer and they should give them at least another 30 seconds
Starting my 3rd mile…
I started my walks this year wearing a fleece shirt. With the fuzzy stuff inside, insulated. And then to a lighter fleece shirt. Then to a short-sleeved shirt. Silk, one-color Hawaiian shirt type. Then a short-sleeved cotton shirt. Today a T-shirt, my University of Washington T-shirt. While I did not graduate there, I did take classes there and worked there for over seven years in the 80s and early 90s. I have worn my cargo shorts all year on these walks except for a few times on the first couple of walks this year, with jeans.
I do prefer summer and spring over fall or winter. When I was in high school I had a set of skis and a complete SCUBA set with dual 72 tanks. I had been surfing at 16 on the East Coast in Cape May, New Jersey. My younger cousin taught me. Who is conservative, who was an official in the carpenter's union and told me he hated Donald Trump because he’s dealt with him before and he always rips everybody off. He would never vote for him. That was in September of 2015 when I was returning from Ireland and spent a few days with him and his wife... in Florida. I have to say, weather wise (and Cuban sandwich-wise) I kind of loved Florida.
I used to say I was more of a surfer than a skier. I assume that had something to do with Civil Air Patrol search and rescue maneuvers in the sometimes freezing Cascade and Olympic mountains in our PNW because it would be just colder than Hell and I remember learning what it meant to be, "chilled to the bone". I learned about that term mid-junior high.
As a podcast is pointing out, there’s a huge desperate gap between the MAGA understanding of who the candidate Joe Biden is, and who the actual President Joe Biden is. It’s bizarre how such a conservative toxic fantasy is out there and how Republicans who support Trump are so unable to compare reality to their authoritarian paradigm.
Look it up. The authoritarian playbook states that you are a victim. You’re treated unfairly, journalism is dishonest and against you. Government institutions are bad. The country is failing. There is fear everywhere. There is "the other" after you, in our current American case that means immigrants, especially illegal immigrants. It’s a darkly spun fantasy.
All lies and conspiracy theories have a basis in truth the kernel of reality which they can use to spin rapidly away from it into a downward spiral of darkness.
Conspiracy theories: "A conspiracy theory is a bunch of nonexistent connections between random events." - Criminal Minds
The podcast is referring to that video clip of President Biden in Europe, where there’s a parachutist display and conservative media (not crazed conservatives but actual conservative, professional media, supposed "journalists") clipped it so it looks like he is standing off to the side from the group talking to no one, when he’s actually talking to a parachutist on the ground with his parachute. This kind of stuff is not news. It’s outright disinformation in the greatest Russian style.
I do think we need some kind of organization or institution that monitors disinformation and corrects it. Yes, this is as dangerous as Hell, especially if the Trump administration, as government, did it. We need a truth in news and OpEd law. People need to be held accountable and stop lying to the public merely for purposes of money, power, greed, and politics.
Sure, spin the hell out of something, but don’t lie, and don’t disinform. IF you misinform then you have to be held accountable and need to correct it to your audience ASAP. And suffer the consequences. Consequences and punishments... that hurt.
IF we're going to fail, let's fail for real, in reality, not because of fantasies.
That’s why I think Trump has earned capital punishment for his insurrection actions as POTUS45. A national leader gets away with this shit and we still have MAGA Republican insurrectionists and seditionists in Congress who need to be dealt with? Seriously?
Otherwise, we’re staged to do this all over again and if not with Trump then with someone who worked it out better and the next time, it succeeds.
But if the state executes Donald Trump for his actions, the next authoritarian dictator wannabe will think twice and just maybe, not do it.
Otherwise, we’re screwed.
I know you shouldn’t binge alcohol or sugar, both dealing with insulin levels, but I learned a long time ago if you’re craving a food, try to satisfy it and then move on to ignore it. Rather than just ignore it and keep craving it. I’ve been craving sweets lately. Which can be a lack of protein in your diet. But then you don’t want too much protein and start putting on fat. So I had my pint of Ben & Jerry’s yesterday and some whipped cream and... overdid it and didn’t sleep well. Had disturbing blood pressure & heart rate issues in trying to sleep last night, but today? I really don’t feel like eating any sugar for a while. So, I don’t know...mission accomplished?
Kids. My adult kids don’t always live up to my standards. But they’re adults. I give them their autonomy. I raised them the best I could, often at odds with their moms. Both of whom had problems. Yes, I know the central point of failure seems to be me here. And I surely had something to do with the issues. But sometimes you're just not really well matched up to your spouse. Why? You didn’t pay enough attention ahead of time. And I surely had other issues going on. Don't we all?
Anyway, my kids didn’t have that kind of structure I did growing up. I refused to, for one thing, whip them with a belt. They didn’t start Karate at the age when I did and fight in tournaments. Or get military training in junior high or a lot of other things. Or have the freedom I did in the '60s that I did. Though I was not a helicopter parent. I mean, I was, but I did it at a distance to where they couldn’t see me and thought they were on their own. Invisible helicopter parenting.
So it’s a little frustrating now when they don’t do something that I would do in the way I would do it. But I give them their freedom from parental harassment which does nothing but push your kids away further anyway.
They know I’m here for them, always. They know I love them. I know they love me. I know my youngest has said had I not existed in their life, they would’ve killed themselves in high school. Let’s just say their mom is a control freak. My oldest son’s mom was quite the opposite in not really wanting to be a mom. It must be weird to love your kid, but not really want to be a parent. When we split up, I believe her parents pushed her into taking our son and threatening me with money and lawyers. Which they had and my family never really did. So I took all the bills and would see him every other weekend.
That’s why I think Trump has earned capital punishment for his insurrection actions as POTUS45. A national leader gets away with this shit and we still have MAGA Republican insurrectionists and seditionists in Congress who need to be dealt with? Seriously?
Otherwise, we’re staged to do this all over again and if not with Trump then with someone who worked it out better and the next time, it succeeds.
But if the state executes Donald Trump for his actions, the next authoritarian dictator wannabe will think twice and just maybe, not do it.
Otherwise, we’re screwed.
I know you shouldn’t binge alcohol or sugar, both dealing with insulin levels, but I learned a long time ago if you’re craving a food, try to satisfy it and then move on to ignore it. Rather than just ignore it and keep craving it. I’ve been craving sweets lately. Which can be a lack of protein in your diet. But then you don’t want too much protein and start putting on fat. So I had my pint of Ben & Jerry’s yesterday and some whipped cream and... overdid it and didn’t sleep well. Had disturbing blood pressure & heart rate issues in trying to sleep last night, but today? I really don’t feel like eating any sugar for a while. So, I don’t know...mission accomplished?
Kids. My adult kids don’t always live up to my standards. But they’re adults. I give them their autonomy. I raised them the best I could, often at odds with their moms. Both of whom had problems. Yes, I know the central point of failure seems to be me here. And I surely had something to do with the issues. But sometimes you're just not really well matched up to your spouse. Why? You didn’t pay enough attention ahead of time. And I surely had other issues going on. Don't we all?
Anyway, my kids didn’t have that kind of structure I did growing up. I refused to, for one thing, whip them with a belt. They didn’t start Karate at the age when I did and fight in tournaments. Or get military training in junior high or a lot of other things. Or have the freedom I did in the '60s that I did. Though I was not a helicopter parent. I mean, I was, but I did it at a distance to where they couldn’t see me and thought they were on their own. Invisible helicopter parenting.
So it’s a little frustrating now when they don’t do something that I would do in the way I would do it. But I give them their freedom from parental harassment which does nothing but push your kids away further anyway.
They know I’m here for them, always. They know I love them. I know they love me. I know my youngest has said had I not existed in their life, they would’ve killed themselves in high school. Let’s just say their mom is a control freak. My oldest son’s mom was quite the opposite in not really wanting to be a mom. It must be weird to love your kid, but not really want to be a parent. When we split up, I believe her parents pushed her into taking our son and threatening me with money and lawyers. Which they had and my family never really did. So I took all the bills and would see him every other weekend.
For those people who denigrate parents who only see their kids every other weekend, I know for me it was painful and wasn’t my choice. Especially when she moved with him to Portland. Yet I would drive halfway and to her benefit, she would meet me to drop him off and pick him back up.
Honestly, I don’t think she did it so much to be a good mom, as to get the freedom to get drunk. Because as my son told me as an adult, which I hadn't learned till years later, she became an alcoholic after we split up. She was trying hard to be when we were married but I was there, our son was there and we were broke. When we separated I asked her friend about her behavior. One fo them kindly said, "Look, we all partied like her at college. But then we grew up after we graduated. She...can’t."
That affected our kid. But she only had him for 18 months, when she gave him back because she admitted she couldn’t handle it. Anyway, as a parent, it’s scary. You do the best you can. As someone told me back then, and I'm so very grateful for this advice: "As long as you love them and they know it, they’ll forgive you for a lot of your mistakes."
On that note, I’ll bid you adieu…
And leave you with that. It’s noon and time for lunch.
Cheers! Sláinte!
That affected our kid. But she only had him for 18 months, when she gave him back because she admitted she couldn’t handle it. Anyway, as a parent, it’s scary. You do the best you can. As someone told me back then, and I'm so very grateful for this advice: "As long as you love them and they know it, they’ll forgive you for a lot of your mistakes."
On that note, I’ll bid you adieu…
And leave you with that. It’s noon and time for lunch.
Cheers! Sláinte!
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