Walkabout Thoughts #69

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts…from a walk on Friday 3/29/2024

Very little if any politics in this one...

Weather for the day… starting out, 52° sunny with broken clouds

Podcast Marc Maron Episode 1525 - David Krumholtz

More of an art and reminiscent blog today...

First thing I'll say is at the end of the podcast where David says he sadly found a while back he has a disease. Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome: Causes, Treatment, and More

I agree with him about those like me who had smoked weed going back to the 70s that it's too strong anymore. They took medical cancer weed and weaponized it to what it is today. It was once fun, communal, a special thing to do with friends dodging police and everyone to avoid ruining your life. It WAS special. Now I just get the weaker stuff. I want to relax and be creative, not go comatose. Yes, we used to smoke our brains out, but you had to if you wanted to get blasted. If we had THIS weed back then? We wouldn't have needed as much. Less is better, potency is good as it's requiring less, but when some today smoke or vape it like we did back when, it ain't the same situation. Now it's just another drug. Fine, legal is better. I long fought for its legality. But it's just not the same. Anyway, thought people should know about this condition David has which he talks about right at the end of the podcast. Cheers!

I just wanna update something I said, I think in my last blog of my last walk about thoughts number 68 where I said when I was in the Air Force I got thin. My mom said I looked ill but I'd never felt that good in my life. I was also in a physically demanding job, packing parachutes and 228 pound B 52 drag chutes, anywhere from 3 to 14 a day, plus emergency and PJ chutes. What I wanted to update here was that I felt bad when my mom had said that. This was only a few years after my little brother died of liver cancer. And so my looking like a different person to her (she probably wouldn’t have said that if I had gained weight), it probably seriously disturbed and scared her. But the reason was oe found my wife had hypoglycemia and she became a vegetarian, and did all the cooking. When she asked if that was OK, I told her if it tasted good, I’d eat it, even though I do like eating meat. She was a good cook. With daily physical exercise and a lot of it, I’d come home and have to take a shower (more than anything because I reeked of JP-4 jet fuel exhaust from the B-52 drag chutes. Then I'd lay on our waterbed for a few minutes and turn on the vibrator because my muscles hurt. It would loosen me up and then I’ll be good for the rest of that day, or weekend. I got to where could pick up 556 pounds, with half each hand and walk two drag chutes out of the packing room into the pick up room. I once had a lighthearted contest with some PJs. These are awesome Air Force paramedics who jump into a combat zone and rescue the wounded. Talk about American heroes. These guys didn’t go in and fight to kill, they went in to fight to save lives. Sure, they'd kill people, but that wasn't their focus.

Recollecting those times, I told our boss one day that I had some philosophical issues working in an organization to support our air crews who flew to “melt entire cities” of men, women, children and the elderly. His advice was to stop thinking about that. “You’re a lifesaver. We’re survival equipment. Just think as far as your saving the lives of those we’re here to support, in case of war, who protect our country.” I had no choice either way but that really helped. Plus if a pilot or air crewmember ever used your chute you got anywhere from a bottle to a case of whiskey, depending on how much they revered their life, so…hey, I was like 20 at the time.

If a B-52 drag chute ever failed, there could be a potential nuclear incident at the end of a runway. So in a way I was also protecting the local community. In my case, Spokane, Washington at Fairchild Air Force base, in Washington state, a SAC, Strategic Air Command base. Which I don’t believe it is anymore.

I also had to cross train into our front shop in the building, inside our four World War II hangers, and so became a Fabric and Rubbergear Specialist as well as being a Parachute Rigger. Which I thought was a step down, working on environmental suits and life rafts and rubbergear. But then the guys in the front shop thought it was a step down to become a parachute rigger, so…

When I was Parachute Shop Supervisor later on, I got to train and certify parachute riggers for the Survival school, outback of the airbase, next to the POW Museum and where they did SERE training (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape ). It was interesting times, in the Cold War. I even got to meet a Russian agent, an America, who was gathering ELINT, where he was hidden in a camper in the woods by the base. Nice guy. But I talked to the base about it and they just said, “Yeah, we know. There's a few of them. Not a problem.” I later ended up going through two months of OSI testing and interviews until they accepted me into the Office of Special Investigations (their FBI), but that’s another story that I’ve detailed elsewhere… did you know there was an FBI magazine? I used to read them sitting in the OSI lobby.

Got up today with a sinus headache. Kind of feeling like crap today, like I have been lately...long Covid. Gotta love it. First half mile on the walk today did not feel great. My heart felt uncomfortable, as it does but after the first half mile starting to feel pretty damn great, as this tends to go, every time.

On the podcast Marc’s guest (David Krumholtz) doesn’t like Greek food because the meat is always too dry and the spices. “They don’t believe in medium rare.” He also doesn’t like Mediterranean food. Mediterranean food, one of the healthiest diets on the planet. I love Mediterranean food, and I really like Greek food. Well, I like food. I've said I should probably be weigh a lot more than I do. But then I don't really eat that much. I love Thai food, it's probably my favorite. It was my grandfather‘s favorite and it took me years to find out why, and when I found out? Yep, I am my grandfather‘s grandson. But then he probably had been in Thailand back in the 1940s or 50s I know ha'd been to Mumbai (Bombay, when he was there) as I have film footage of him on a vacant main street there as a cow walked down the middle of the road in like, I don’t know, maybe the mid 1940s. Still hoping to do a documentary about him, but I have to get a lot more info from the government and submit some FOIA requests.

Anyway, I love trying foods from around the world. When I worked at the University of Washington in the mid to late 80s, after I left the Tower Records company (MTS Incorporated), which got me through college. Well my VA benefits got me through college, but Tower helped. And it helped buffer me a little financially in going from college into civilian life when I graduated. Which was kind of sad, but we had a good time and now I have a good community of Tower employee friends we know from back in the day. We just lost one of them recently, my best friend for many years and ex-roommate.

Anyway, when I was at the “Udub” (UofW) you could go up the “Ave” (University Way NE) in the “U District” and eat Thai food, or American food, or Ethiopian food, or all kinds of different things. Later in the 90s when I worked in Bellevue, Washington. It was the same thing. Walk a few blocks and you could get food really good food from all around the world. Very high end neighborhood. there. I parked below the building across the street from the building I worked in where there was a bank that I used. And in using that branch, who are used to big money types, I got to know. with my little money, what it was like to be treated with great respect. And it was amazing. I mean, I doubled my salary leaving the UW for US West Technologies, but made way less than some of those international types.

I parked in the basement parking garage, came up to the main floor of that building, got a coffee and you could stand there listening to people in expensive clothes, talking to one another in all kinds of different languages. It was amazingly cool, as I said. I would then cross the street to a building full of techs who all dressed pretty much like me, and the contrast was dark and kind of depressing. It was nice to be comfortable though. But you'd walk out of one building with beautiful people in incredible threads to a building of potentially smarter people, who really didn’t give much of a shit about fashion. But I have to say it was an amazing environment to work in and to be around all of those people, in both buildings.

Now starting my 2nd mile and feeling so much better already...

Marc’s podcast guest is David is telling a story about how his mom was a real bastard of a person but she should’ve been a comedian, in her own right. He said she liked to really take it out on his dad. She’d have him sit for her to draw a picture of him and then after like 20 minutes turn the picture around and it’s a cock and balls. And, she do that to her son, too. Man, I gotta wonder about what her issues must’ve been.

I’m gonna tell you what just happened: I’m using voice to text as I walk and talk on my iPhone 11. It’s still like brand new and I've had it for years so I don’t see upgrading it. Yet. I'm waiting for a software upgrade or something that turns it into it a brick. So I’m trying to tap on the text screen so I can type something manually and it messes up. So I tap it again, just as I realize I’m hitting, accidentally, text that says, paste. NO! When I started walking today, as I usually do from last time, I had gotten done walking, then at home I would email all this entire document to my laptop so I could create my blog off this document. Anyway, it was a long blog last time, longest this year, so far, and so it pasted that entire blog in the buffer still, back into this current document. So I had to go through the process of selecting only this part of that old text and delete it. And so I did. I then proceeded to do the exact same mistake and paste all over again!

Now when your walking this isn’t what you wanna be doing. I selected the whole slug of text again and deleted it again. Only this time I selected a single word and copied it. And so, here we are and now and finally we’re good to go. As I told an online author acquaintance, Mark David Gerson, in a posting today on Facebook where he said he’s working on a new book and suddenly thought of two great ideas for two new books but he’s begging his creativity to give him a break! My response to him was, “The trials and tribulations of the creative mind.” To which he laughed back at me.

It’s funny, he wrote his book that he’s still promoting, 10 years ago. Which of late has been getting some traction. I wrote my biggest and perhaps best book “Death of heaven “and published in 2012. Then revised it with an editor in 2014 and of course, I’m still pushing it. It’s up for two or three book awards this year because I finally got around to that. I'd tried to send it to book award a couple years after I published it, when I thought of it, but no one would take it because it hadn't been published within that past year, or that year. It’s gotten good reviews though and I do really like it. It’s an epic book on the order of “Three Body Problem” now on Netflix (great series, I also had just finished the 30 episode, Chinese version on Amazon Prime). It’s not as deep, but it’s as widespread in so far as history, and in my case, the history of the earth going back to before it existed, and then up to the present, where it may be at the end of it in the book. Or not.

So, Marc’s guest is also talking about his dad and how he was once at a restaurant and found a olive pit that he had crunched down on. he took it out and realized it was a pit somebody had expelled from an olive they were eating, probably kitchen crew, and he complained loudly to the waiter who said he must’ve put it in there. Which made him madder. It just reminds me of my mom who said she learned from our grandfather that “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” Growing up we kids hated hearing that.

I had finally told her one day that it doesn’t mean to whine and whine and piss people off just to get what you want (to be fair, too often in my life I wish I had been that squeaky wheel). My sister once told me that whenever she went to lunch with our mom, she always ended up sending her meal back. Because she figured, mom thought that’s how rich people acted. My sister finally retired after a lifetime as mostly a Senior Flight Attendant. She told me that she'd had meals with actual rich people and they did not act that way and would be humiliated doing something like that. I asked my mom about her behavior and just she said, “Well I get my way don’t I?” I didn’t give it much thought for years until Donald Trump came on the scene and I realized what a little little bitch that guy is. And that's all I'm going to say on that.

I have to say if you ever met my grandmother, who is kind of my second mom, thank God for her. She was self-educated and God I don’t know where my life would’ve gone without her. Then you look at my aunt, my mom‘s older sister, you could go, “OK I could see that. Mom and daughter.” But then you look at my mom and you look at my grandmother and you wonder, what the hell? Even my grandmother once said to me that there were times she wondered if before she left the hospital with my mom as an infant, if somebody hadn’t swapped her out. I can see that. But I also have to say I’d really rather have had my mom, as I did.

My cousin said recently, with what she went through with her mom, as much as she loved her, she loved coming over to our house because she could leave whenever she wanted but our house was so chaotic, it was fun. I liked going to stay at her house because her parents were so consistent and rational and I always knew what was coming, even if I didn’t always like it.

We are all afraid of my stepdad. Well, not so much my sister as he treated her the best. But then she was pretty awesome, still is. Our cousin had asked me some years ago: “What was the deal with you guys? You'd always send me to ask him things if you needed to talk to him?” Talking about the step-dad.

We told her that he’d give us a bunch of crap and we were scared of him He worked two jobs, was always tired and didn’t much like dealing with us kids. We knew if you talk to him, he would never say a cross word to you. And she said, “Oh yeah, my dad would’ve killed him.” There were times I wished her dad was my dad, but not so much her mom who was way too damn strict for my sensibilities.

I remember going over to her house in the 60s and they had plastic on the inside of their car doors (for resale value), and plastic covers on their furniture and she would (not really but kind of) follow us around with Lysol, cleaning all the time, as if we were just filthy little ragamuffins, which maybe we were. I suspect we had a better childhood though as I would get up in the morning, eat, leave the house and maybe come back for lunch, then come back before dusk. I’d have all kinds of adventures that I doubt she did. Though I'd have to ask her…

This is weird… I’m 68 1/2 now and I’m walking, feeling like every step I take is one step older… which I am. But then I guess that’s emotional while intellectually I’m feeling every step is making me younger in someway.

Because when I do get up to 5 miles, every other day, at least, I do feel so much better, healthier and stronger. And you might go, well, yeah! But long Covid makes this whole thing different. Damn, I was really hanging onto the thought that it would be gone within two years which is beginning of April. Not seeing that happen. The first time I think maybe, perhaps, possibly it was gone in 18 months? But then I wasn’t sure after that if I were catching something once in a while or what was going on. If this is going to go on until summer, or fall, I’m fine with that...as long as it goes… The… Fuck… Away! Ciao! Buh BYE!

I’ve been trying to use AI as much as possible to get used to it. Something I've done in having worked in technology. When something new comes up, I’m on the bleeding edge and I want to learn it before everybody else. I’m not so much into that bleeding edge stuff, anymore. I've been having a lot of problems with that anymore. I've tried using several AI now. Mostly I'm using “Copilot” and once they instituted that, it seemed to crippl it, now I have to argue with it. I have to fight with it at times, if I can even get it to do what I want sometimes. It’s so just being so overly careful about what it says now. It doesn’t just kick out actual information. It worries about politics or something. So it’s become a pain. Not always, just too much. I suspect it might be different on a personal install however.

I mention that because it will only let you post 4000 words in creative mode, or for the exact mode, 2000 words. I would like to just point it to a web site and say summarize this. But it wants you to paste it in its' little box and it doesn’t like going out to websites. What I would like to do with this blog, because these get kind of long. I’d like to tell it read my blog, then quickly summarize it and I could put that at the top. Then anyone coming to this blog could just look at the top and go, “nope not reading that today.” Or maybe, “absolutely, I gotta read this.”

My whole design on this walkabout concept, transcription and blogging, is to make it easy going, don't overthink it, don’t over edit it. Just try to make it readable and throw it out there and that’s what you get. That’s a certain kind of “thing” that’s more of an insight and survey of my thought processes in the moment. I find that interesting. But then I studied psych and phenomenology and perhaps that has something to do with that orientation?

I’ve said this before, about this blog versus my published writings. How this is designed. A blog that should be open ended, just a brain dump. There’s times where I want to read carefully instructed arguments. There’s times where I want to read somebody’s honest beliefs and thoughts, stream of consciousness. This is not the former, not well crafted, not highly edited, not carefully considered. Just another person talking.

Somewhere in the middle of those last few paragraphs, I started my 3rd mile...

This process is actually kind of fun. The biggest problem I have here in doing it is technology and time. While I’m talking, it stops recording me from time to time. I have to stop the recorder, restart it and sometimes it gets worse than that (reboot?). Then I have to get home, put it into my blog and be sure it’s not too embarrassing to read. Now it SHOULD be to some extent, by its nature. But if it's unreadable... no.

Marc's guest is talking here about “distancing himself from his Jewishness”, where they're both Jewish. As a kid I didn’t know much about Jews. But my family is from the east coast, Philadelphia, New Jersey, maybe New York. So growing up in the 1960s and 70s I’d been to the East Coast a bunch of times. Lived briefly in Philly. Manhattan. Jersey City. Cape May, New Jersey, where I learned to surf (thank you to my cousin Jeff).

One time when I was 12, maybe, I was in Philly, Cherry Hill I think it was, where my cousin lived with my aunt and uncle. He had a really cute next-door neighbor, a Jewish girl. I’m not gonna go into that story, but it is pretty funny and ironic. And I’ve talked about it elsewhere. My point is, I got to know some old Jewish women on those trips and one day I realize a little shocked, just how much being around them felt like I was around old Catholic women. It was from that date forward that I started to understand the Jewishness of Catholicism. Kinda. Any one who’s experienced this, knows exactly what I’m talking about. I told my mom about it when we got back to Tacoma, Washington in the 60s. She thought and said, “Yeah sure, I could see that.” And we both laughed.

David Krumholtz on podcast: “I am that Nazi propaganda poster. I can make that face… “ “I am a Jew. I am a proud Jew. The only Jew I have a problem with is myself.” He then says his mom was born in the country of Hungary.

My mom was born in Brooklyn. But her dad was born in Czechoslovakia in 1894. Which I understand hadn’t existed until after he was born (October 28, 1918) and doesn’t exist anymore, now being the Czech Republican (November 1989) which is really weird state of affairs. I mean he died in like '74, so I guess it doesn’t bother him either way.

Krumholtz said his dad’s family was born in Brooklyn.

Oh, I should mention this. “Three-Body”, The Chinese version of 30 episodes on Amazon Prime. I finished that last week. Lots of subtitles. Episode 13 in the last half is a subtitle nightmare. I tried to complain to Amazon so they can get it fixed but there seems to be no way. So I figured a way and shot them a message. We’ll see what happens. No actually, we probably won’t.

I heard Netflix had “3 Body Problem” coming out last Friday and produced by one of the guys from Game of Thrones. Loved Game of Thrones. Trying to like House of Dragons. But it ain’t no Game of Thrones. Not yet anyway, but I’ll keep watching.

Anyway, I finished the Netflix version and I really liked it. It was however interesting to have seen the previous version, first. This story is from a set of Chinese books and it has been made into one form of video or another since I think, 2004, several times. They made interesting choices in the Netflix version and I just got my son to start it and he just finished it. He and I constantly talk about quantum physics issues each from our own towns now. He has from his mother, probably, better math skills than me, and definitely artist skills because she was/is an artist (Clive Barker has a piece of her art, or he requested a copy of something of mine she made when I met him one time of several, so she made him on and I mailed it to him in London back then). I guess she still is an artist but she works in plants now at a store in our old college town up north. Anyway, he's way smart. I make a good sounding board because I’ve always had that talent. To take things I don’t understand and make them better. I'm very good at putting weird choices together and making them work well together.

One example was the last company I worked at, this in the early 2000s. I was a variety of things there, like webmaster, systems administrator, network admin, whatever. I supported the programmers. I walked over to a programmer's cubicle one day and she looked pretty frustrated. I asked, “What’s the problem?” She said she had a problem with the code and was stumped. I told her to show me. She said, “Do you know this programming language?” I told her no, but to show me anyway and so she did. I pointed at the code on screen and said, “There’s your problem.” She looked at me like I was nuts. Then looked at the code, looked it over a little harder. Looked back at me in shock and said, “You’re right, that IS the problem. But how could you know?” I said, “Well, it’s all just logic flow, right?” And I moved on to the next programer to see if I could help, as she watched me walk off very confused. I saw that it was my job at that time to not just do my job, but talk to them to see what they needed to keep them moving forward. Finding a way to get that to them so they could not be stopped needlessly.

I don’t know what the hell my son talking about half the time. But I’m always giving him angles to look at things from to help him get outside the box he maybe shouldn’t even be in.

Create a secret number one: I’ve been doing this for decades and it’s I guess it’s made me money plenty of times. And leaves people looking at me like I’m a genius or something wondering how did he do that and that’s amazing…

Trying to think of an example here. I have a really good example but I can’t think of what it is right now. I’ll give you the concept. I know two ways to write. Structured with an outline as Clive Barker does or used to. He told me once that’s how he wrote. That was back in the late 80s, maybe early 90s? Then there is exploratory writing. Just start writing, see where it takes you. Or, expeditionary writing. Adventure writing, the adventure OF writing.

I was watching Paul Simon's docu series "In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon", on Amazon Prime and he said it, what I was trying to remember: discovery. Discovery writing. You discover, or uncover the story as you write it out. You see, as with I suppose AI, what the next word is and what goes best with it and you put that down and onto the next. In my mind I watch the "movie" in real time. That reminds me of 8th grade at Holy Rosary elementary parochial school where I went for a single somewhat nightmarish year. 

But we got to take Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics in an experimental class. I got up to reading 10,000 words per minute at 80% comprehension (up from the initial 280 words per minute and 60% comprehension...which saddened and surprised me as I was an avid reader, mostly of sci fi at that time. But by time I finished the course, and I had read the most books of all the students, at 60 books those months (I think it was a three month period). But another kid won the most books read at 89. Who told me a few years later, "I just lied, I wanted to win." Whatever.

Anyway, when I read a book, a novel, it would take me about an hour or less and it was like feeding a computer program into my mind and I would see an actual movie of the book in my mind while I read it. That was very cool. But I eventually stopped doing it as I like a book, especially one I loved, to last as long as possible. Days. A week, or longer if I could feed pages to myself as if on a feeding schedule, relishing each page, every word.

What is fun for me, and I’ve heard authors say this, is to sit down and start writing from a concept you have, a kernel of an idea that you flesh it out. You just see where it goes and you discover as you write, whatever you find most exciting. I try to write myself into a corner all the time. I write myself into impossible situations. Then I have to write my way out of it. In my fantasy or sci-fi, or whatever, I try to be very based in physics and reality. Because that’s what I enjoy reading, or watching.

I’m used to writing myself into situations that seem impossible to get out of. A technique I learned, probably when I was a kid, maybe in Civil Air Patrol search and rescue training. When you get into an impossible situation, turnaround and look the other way. Change your perspective.

Back in the 70s my older and more experienced brother once told me when you drop acid, if it gets too intense, change the channel. If you’re literally watching TV, literally change the channel to something lighter. I actually had to do that one time and it worked brilliantly. If you’re up against an enemy, tactically, realistically, practically, you don’t want to do what they’re gonna expect you to do. So either do the opposite or do something the opposite and something lateral to that. Seemingly random, but now.

As I’ve always told my kids, always have a second, a B plan. If you have a plan B, have a C plan. And a D plan. Basically have one more plan than your opponent will have, always. I think I said this on my last blog, too.

As I start my 4th mile…

Do the unexpected. It works really well in whatever situation you are in, in your mind, or physically, just turn around and look in the opposite direction. It's amazing how often literally looking in an unexpected direction offers insight. Sometimes you’ll even see the enemy coming at you, because that was their B plan.

Marc Maron: “People ask where all the Jews have gone”, I think he means in comedy. He said he thinks it’s all the antidepressants. And they both laugh.

End of last year, and I’ll be honest about this… anyone who’s read these blogs knows that on this walk? There is a little free library in front of somebody’s house. If you’re a reader, and you don’t know about that, check it out. Bring a book you’re done with, put it in there, take one out, it’s a great deal. For years, I’ve been putting in one of my books I wrote. And they'd go away pretty quickly. My last published fiction book I put in there, along with my last published nonfiction book. Fiction book's gone, pretty quickly. Nonfiction book? Still there and I think I put them in there back in December.

The fiction book actually came back and had obviously been read. I'd been hoping for that for a long time. Now it’s gone again. Which is what you want. So I feel honored that finally happened. And that book was: Anthology of Evil II, Vol. II, The Unwritten. I really like that story. I had a blast writing it, and it took me a couple years. Because I wrote myself into a corner that I couldn’t get out of.

It took two years for me to figure out how to get out of it. Anyway, the other book is selling well in a health food store that my son runs. It's titled Suffering “Long Covid”. Good book, it's up for an award this year, as my the other fiction book is, “Death of heaven”. But it’s at that point in Covid and the season that I guess people aren’t interested in it.

It may be the title’s a problem. But it’s the revised updated version from January 2024 and I may do another update on the research/medicine this next January with newly found long Covid info from 2024. I’ve had people say it really helped them in various ways. One guy told my son in his store, after having bought and read it, that as far as the Covid Omicron version goes, he finally understands what the hell was going on with it. Which I take as high praise. There’s an interesting review on Amazon about it by someone who has been in epidemiology for 18 years who really liked it. More high praise. So anyway, after months now, it's still sitting in the little free library kiosk. Heavy sigh...

You know what sucks on these walks, this time of year? Fireplace smoke. Which can be aromatic as long as people aren’t burning garbage or trash in their fireplace. Which is just disgusting, like sticking your nose in somebody’s toilet. I know people use fireplaces for pleasure, and to save money. I certainly used to. When I moved with my kids and wife into a couple acres in the woods back in 2000, there was so much downed timber that we burned it up. We reclaimed a lot of lawn and it took us five years requiring no expensive electric heat. When finally we started using the electric furnace, the electric bill was a shock, but my kids and I enjoyed the lack of working the wood pile and certified metal standalone fireplace. Which was very nice. But my point is, I wish there was a converter in these fireplace chimneys so you could burn all you want and smoke wouldn’t be released. I'm good with the smell, just not real into the particulate matter, or the greenhouse gases, I suppose.

I have to say that after a long time of thinking Apple Air Pods were stupid, I mean, who’s gonna buy something that expensive without a cord where you could so easily lose them? I finally broke down and bought some a year or so ago and while you do have to be careful when you bend over sometimes, as one usually will fall out, not always, and you can track them down on your phone, I have to say I do love these things. I’ve been through a lot of different earpieces over the years, and I have to say, these are my favorite. I love the case that when you put them in there, it charges them, brilliant. And yes, I got the insurance on them.

OK passed the 3 1/2 mile mark.

I’ve got until 4 miles to decide, do I turn around and do one more mile? Can I handle it? Should I handle it? Should I do what I had planned which is to do a few more 4 mile walks before going to 5, finally? I so want to do 5 miles. Because last time, when I first ever got up to the 5 miles with long Covid, it wasn’t until I hit the 5 mile mark that I really started feeling better. There is my motivation.

I’m feeling better now at 4 miles, but what if I feel way better with 5 miles? Regardless, it’s going to trash me for a day or two. After a winter of not feeling well and being in my recliner in the living room, mostly..my first walk recently left me after the walk, with a really sore area someplace I’ve never experienced before. I’ve had shin splints, or this that or the other thing from hiking a lot in my youth, search and rescue in CAP. But this was my “core” and a bit lower. A weird area to feel like you strained muscles, because you haven’t used them for months. But a strong core feels great. And once you get that back, continuing the work out to your extremities is much easier. I prefer to work on my core before everything else when beginning work outs again after time off. I used to work on everything else first (like doing arm curls with barbells and dumbbells) and then eventually get a strong core. Fuck that. Now my favorite thing is the “sit up challenge” where you start doing sit ups and add five every day for a month. By that month‘s end? Man, I always feel so much better. So... core first. And the rest comes easier.

Oh, the other thing to do on walks when you’re trying to get into shape is, after a few walks, start holding your stomach in. And I’ve talked about this before. Tighten your stomach muscles up, suck them up into your ribs and back toward your spine. Hold it for a few seconds count and then expand it over time and after a while, you realize you’re just kind of holding it in without thinking. It can take a month or two.

It just occurred to me, anyone wondering why I even do any of this blog thing. Partly because I had a blog. Because I wasn’t using it and that’s a waste of resources. Because it’s also motivational for me, as I walk and lately, that’s the most important thing as anything, to move.

They’ve recently done a research project where people had to move every half hour or something, all day, every day, and while some people dropped out, and some people didn’t keep it up after the study, they say it literally change the lives of some people for the better. I could definitely see that. It’s a big argument for the standing work desk. Especially with a treadmill.

OK. I’m at 4 miles. I think I could do 5 miles. But it’s not supposed to rain Sunday, in two days for my next walk (plan is to do 5 miles every other day, then after a while, consider ever day). My left ankle, the one that gives me problems is in a slip on ankle brace. Hurts just a wee bit now. So I think I’ll call it a day.

Here’s the thing I find about workouts and I’ve done a lot of workouts. I started working out in 1965 in fifth grade in Karate (Isshinryu). A lot of pain, a lot of “push through the pain”. A lot of learn to ignore the pain. In 1980 I took Aikido in college. From that day on, I thought screw this pushing through the pain crap. There’s actually ways to work out where you don’t need to suffer. If you're not a professional, why are you hurting yourself so much?

It’s like being an artist, as one of my professors told us, the whole starving artist concept is bullshit and they’ve done studies to prove if you suffer for your art, you really don’t have to. It makes a great story, but it doesn’t necessarily make for great art. So work smarter. Not just harder.

For anyone questioning my editing this before releasing it, as I talked about above, it took me two or three hours last time to edit that piece. I got home after a really nice walk that day and spent the entire afternoon reading and editing, with had news or documentaries on in the background. I’m not making money off of this. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this. So what’s wrong about my reading through once, making quick corrections and getting it out there, ASAP? If I was being really serious about this, I'd take a couple days on each blog. I don’t see where that really benefits anybody that much though, especially considering the concept of a walking/talking piece And doing it often. Obviously with taking winters off…

And I’ll leave you with that.

It’s noon now and time for lunch.
Temperature is 56°.

I wish you all great success and health! Until next time!

Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #67

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts…

Weather for the day… starting out, 51°. When I got home, 55°, with broken clouds. Great day for a walk.

Podcast Marc Maron's WTF ep with Eddie Pepitone

Always recognize your primary plan and prepare a Plan B. If you have a Plan B, consider a Plan C, and perhaps even a Plan D. Not everyone has a plan, so if you do, you’re already doing well. Having a backup plan puts you ahead of the game. The more backup plans you have, the more redundancy you build into your systems, which is beneficial. However, be mindful not to overburden yourself with too many contingencies.

Every system should have a backup. As a former parachute rigger in the Air Force, I learned the importance of this. I once inquired about the backup for the emergency parachute, having been a sport jumper with two chutes prior to my service. I was told that the airplane itself is the primary means of landing, and the emergency parachute is just that—an emergency option. Therefore, an additional backup for the emergency chute isn’t necessary.

I was also told a story about the only person who survived an emergency egress from a KC-135 Stratotanker—a crew chief who managed to escape by dropping head first down the ladder tube with a toolbox. However, he had forgotten to take a parachute, so effectively, no one has ever successfully used an emergency egress in flight. While such stories are often shared, it’s hard to distinguish between what’s true and what’s merely a tale."

On Marc Maron’s podcast, Eddie Pepitone mentioned that he had his Achilles tendon repaired years ago by a surgeon who also worked for the Seahawks. This reminded me of my own experience. Back in ‘88, I had my first knee surgery, and in 2000, the other knee was operated on by the Seahawks’ in-house surgeon. I trusted I was in good hands, having both procedures done at Seattle Surgery Services.

The last surgery was when I lived in Covington. I took the Bainbridge ferry to Seattle and decided to walk up the steep hill to the surgery center. I mentioned this to the nurse, who found it odd but okay. It was funny. She asked, "You walked up that hill, to have knee surgery? Okayyy..."

Around that time, my marriage ended in divorce. My ex-wife’s mother, who worked at a hospital in Covington, had recommended this surgeon, which was a kind gesture. Sadly, she and her husband have since passed away. I believe the surgeon had recently left the Seahawks, but I’m confident the care was still top-notch. Reflecting on these stories, I realize how they shape our experiences, even if some may be more legend than fact.

Eddie Pepitone mentioned on Marc Maron’s podcast that he had surgery in his 30s, and now at 65, he reflects on that time. I’m 68, so back in 2000 when I was 45, it seems I might have been treated by the new Seahawks doctor who succeeded my previous one.

It’s interesting how people are surprised by the ease with which one can get injured, like stepping off a curb and breaking an ankle. I had a similar experience when I heard a snap while walking on a flat sidewalk and ended up with a severe ankle sprain. Thankfully, it wasn’t broken.

During the podcast, Eddie Pepitone also shared a humorous anecdote about his phase of smoking Jasmine cigarettes, to which Marc Maron jokingly called him a coward, prompting laughter from both.

In the mid-80s, while working at Tower Video on Mercer Street in Seattle, I developed a fondness for French cigarettes, introduced to me by my then-girlfriend, who would later become my wife and eventually my ex-wife. She preferred the blue ones, while I was partial to the green. During that time, I also experimented with clove cigarettes, attracted by their aroma and the belief that they were somehow less harmful.

From the moment I started smoking weed in August 1974 in Phoenix, Arizona (introduced by my brother and his friend and neighbor just before my 16th birthday)...from the beginning my friends and I aimed to inhale what was as cool , moist and particle-free as possible. We found that joints didn’t compare to the potential of a bong. Nowadays, vaping seems to be a preferable option, as it involves inhaling vapor rather than smoke. However, it’s important to be cautious of vape filaments that can deteriorate and release particles if they burn, which is also detrimental to health. Ultimately, the healthiest choice being to avoid inhaling any heated substances or particulate matter altogether.

Reflecting on a comment about Eddie Pepitone being emotionally stunted, he humorously retorted that he seeks advice from 12-year-olds. This sparked a memory of my own childhood in the '60s when an adult sought my advice. Despite my initial hesitation, I obliged, and my input seemed to be well-received. Such interactions were not uncommon for me, even though my friends didn’t always understand me

During military service, I was recognized with a good conduct medal and numerous awards. I was also considered by my psychology department advisor professor to be among, as he pout it, "the top 10% of the top 10% of university psychology students nationwide, not by grades but by his observation—a claim I found flattering yet questionable. he was a distinguished Brown University graduate, taught psychology, in the awareness and reasoning division, and phenomenology. He wasn't easy and demanded a lot from us in his teachings, which extended to both my girlfriend and me, who lived with me at the time. She was incredibly intelligent, highly regarded by our peers, and I credit her with helping me through college—a sentiment she graciously reciprocated years later which I found rather humbling.

Eddie Pepitone shared an insight with Marc revealing that many of his stage characters are derived from his father’s ‘operatic rage’. This struck a chord with me, as my stepfather exhibited a similar intensity, though it was rooted in intimidation and mental abuse.

In a lighthearted moment, Pepitone mistakenly used ‘absurdum’ instead of ‘absurdism’, which Maron found fascinating. I also liked it. It sounded, familiar. They discussed how the digital age has led us to a state of ‘absurdum’, a playful take on the Latin phrase ‘reductio ad absurdum’, which means reducing something to absurdity. Maron confirmed that ‘absurdum’ is indeed a real word, adding a touch of humor to their conversation about the complexities of modern life.

 
I made it! 3.5 miles guaranteeing me for if I ever want to get home. Now I have a half mile to decide if I want to go for five or overdo it. Feel like I’m done. This is a good accomplishment.

I agree with the podcast and they’re saying that bullying is so prevalent nowadays. And it’s true. Donald Trump is nothing but a bully and a criminal. And people are attracted to him because he is a bully. They think it’s for other reasons many times, but that’s what it comes down to a that authoritarians are bullies and criminals and abusive. And narcissistic. Their main game plan is to cut others down to elevate themselves, and then reap the power theft.

They referenced the flat earth society as "flat earthers". I’ve always thought they were ridiculous. Unless it’s an absurdist philosophy or absurdist religion or maybe more so an absurdist science. I mean if they really believe it they’re foolish or at the worst they’re severely and probably selectively ignorant. Which is what MAGA is based on. That bullying. I mean, I created my own absurdist, religion, "PurpleIsm". If flat earthers our professing to believe that nonsense out of a desire to break the norms of society, I fully get THAT! But too many of them, take it too serious and try to act like it’s real and there’s people who actually believe them and buy into it, because they’re just not that, I don't know, bright or educated? There’s so much fake facts and disinformation today we really have to be more careful than we've had to be all through history.

This is good to address. The podcast mentions news filters and Maron said yes, it's set to panic as a default. And that’s so true today. My older brother thinks I’m a "Libtard" (I refuse to call him a "conservaRat" or a "RepubliCant" (or ""Cunt" in the British sense), or stoop to Trump level childish ad hominems, damn trump is immature, how anyone likes him is quite beyond the pale). Though I really don’t fit that definition. Why? I don't blindly accept beliefs, I have a long foundation proving my course both directions. He just grew up with his beliefs and reinforced them as it was fun. I've pushed hard to accept reality regardless of my beliefs or desires. Sucks often but better to put your life on the line for reality, that fantasies or conspiracies.


It’s stupid thing to say and he knows better, and I told him that and he sort of backed off. Too many Fox News viewers believe what they’re told. I tried watching Fox News. I just can’t do it, too many disingenuous lies and bullshit and fake facts and purposeful disinformation, and even passing along what Russia says. When I watch what I do enjoy watching, I can’t help it as I was trained this way… so that when they say something too far from the truth, I know it, I see it and, I either disbelieve them, or I take time to look it up. Whenever I’m gonna tell others, I take time to vet my information. 

Now, when you hear someone say "I do my own research" it’s a red light that they’re likely full of shit. If they do any research, if they research isn’t just listening to Fox News talking heads that is, they tend only to go down as I discovered because I’ve checked this, they only go down like one layer in vetting something. This information or misinformation checking is generally merely one or two layers deep. Any professional or trained researcher knows the old journalism triangulation method, which I hear is not really used today and allegedly sometimes for good reasons, and bad. 

But it’s a good note for most people to look for three desperate very different sources, preferably ones who would normally disagree with each other and try to prove what you believe... to be false. If you can’t then you’re on something. Going out to prove what you believe is true too often leads to confirmation bias. I would say 98% of what my brother tells me as ground shaking horrific conspiracy theory stuff takes me under five minutes, often about 30 seconds to disprove that’s some weak shit there.

Well anyway, that's it for today. I just stuck with the 4 miles. Next time hopefully, 5 miles! After I got home, the left ankle is sore. Damn, the older you get the less you can sit around. I heard on NPR today a study about people taking time often to move around during day. Results were people's attitudes and physicality were far better and many kept it up, with some having it change their life style for the better.

I wish you all great success and health! Until next time!

Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #60

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts… August 8, 2023, Tuesday

Weather for the day… 67° starting out, 71° when I got home

Podcast Smartless episode with Paul Giamatti
Then WTF with Marc Maron, episode "Show business is my life." Gary Mule Deer documentary

Look up OC & Stigs directed by Robert Altman

So it’s been a few days. My last walk was last Thursday. My long Covid book is in my son's health food store and he asked for more copies because it’s selling. So I thought I’d throw some Amazon ads up on it but  they rejected them because of capitalization issues that I cannot figure out what the hell they’re talking about. But my book death of heaven, which is a pretty good book if I do say so, the last reviewer said it's the "best horror book they ever read". Ignore the fact that though she was honest, and an avid reader, we were housemates back in the early 90s for nearly a year, in the U District area of Seattle Washington. My antiwar documentary short film, Pvt. Ravel‘s Bolero" is doing well and with the last two awards now has 22 international film festival awards, with more to come, hopefully. My screenplay "The Teenage Bodyguard" now has three international awards. Aside from having long Covid, which is continuing to diminish in half life stages, which makes you feel like it’s never gonna go away as it’s now been over a year, I’m otherwise having a pretty good year, artistically speaking. I’m also feeling what you hear people say about being an overnight sensations, when famous people who get that...their response, is yeah, I did this all really fast overnight after like 20 years of working at it hard and feeling utterly hopeless. Well not to worry, I'm no overnight success, yet, if ever...

So with today’s walk, I’m having problems with the muscles in my left arch, it’s been tender to step on lately, so I used hot and cold on it last night. It’s a lot better but still kind of tender. Still I’m out walking on it hobbling along. I want my damn 5 miles. It’s been a while. Think I only got in 3 miles last Thursday which just ain’t acceptable

SmartLess guys are asking Paul Giamatti, since he did cartoons at Yale towards the end there, as well as acting towards the end, what his goto doodle is. I had some in high school. If I go back and look at my old papers I tend to see stars everywhere, which at some point, when my kids were young, would’ve been considered... I don’t know, pentagrams or something. I think my crazy ex-wife said about my my oldest son, not her son but stepson, when he was drawing "pentagrams" weren’t pentagrams. She thought he was gonna grow up and be a serial killer. He was a problem kid (ADHD, broken family and pissed about it, as I was as a kid) I don’t think we were much unalike. But then having had trouble with his mother and his stepmother, thanks to me. Sorry kid. Never my intention. She thought he was into, I don’t know? Devil worship? I said, what the fuck? I said when I was a kid I drew those, too. They’re just fun and easy to draw without thinking. A kind of Zen thing. Anyway, I also liked to draw spaceships, little simple doodles, but the main one I did was a snake head with octopus legs. I have no idea where I got that from it was just fun to draw, and I did it all the time, again and again.

Jason is asking Paul about his movies because it feels to him like everything has been and has been really prestigious. In an odd way that reminds me of having pets. All my life people have commented on my pets as being uniquely cool pets. And for years, I just assumed I was lucky but I picked them well, which is true, but I finally came to realize, when I had a friend I thought was a very cool person, who went to the same thing where they said people always said their pets were cool. I thought they were pretty chill too, and I said "Hey maybe it’s not so much our pets as it's us? Because pets do take on, you know, certain characteristics from their owners." So maybe some of the films Paul is in are seen in hindsight as prestigious, are in part that way because of him. He would probably say, maybe, in some small way. But depending on the talent and crew you associate with, the screenplay, you accept working with directors, and other actors, in those  you work with who you're asked by or you’re attracted to, maybe it’s somewhat his choices, so in the end, the movies came off as very good films. Wow, that was a convoluted sentence or two...

You know, I realized a week or two ago that I’ve had a really productive phase recently. I think these "walkabout thought" blogs have helped because I felt I needed to get them out (transcribe, sort of edit and publish). A couple weeks back, I spent three days getting caught up and that was a chore, working all day every day for a few days... on something. But it’s interesting that before Covid I had done a couple of films and mostly had finished my latest "Pvt. Ravel’s Bolero" documentary/filmic poem done, then took on the effort during long Covid and getting it out to film festivals, which took a lot of effort for me at the time. Then since I did that, I have gotten out 2 books, sequels to "Anthology of Evil", my first collection of short stories. Then since I didn’t have any new movies as I was submitting my last two films to festivals, I started submitting my screenplays. I guess my true crime screenplay is finally ready because it started winning awards, while just a few years ago it wasn’t winning anything. It’s just a matter of spending years if you have to. to keep fine-tuning your craft and good things will come of it.

Paul saying, while his film "Sideways" kind of killed the Merlot industry for a bit, he’s really not a wine drinker and didn’t know anything about it. He prefers Mezcal. The guys (Smartless) started talking about Jason when he was younger, driving around with a candle lit on his dashboard. The things we do when we’re young like that. The only thing I can think of for myself was that I used to wear leather driving gloves. This was when I had my 1967 RS/SS Camaro convertible which two years later would it be called a Z28. I didn’t really wear the gloves to be cool, although it may have evolved into that. I actually wore them for functional reasons because I was a street racer. I kept losing drags in my Camaro because it had a 350 stock engine, and I kept coming up against "built" engines. I was far better at any kind of a rally thing, as I was really good at driving a course. Or zipping through town and finding, or losing somebody. Which came in handy in the Air Force when I lost a cop once. I knew he was going to give me a ticket for speeding as I happened to zip by him hidden on a side street. This is in my "The Teenage Bodyguard" screenplay. I was in a 1975 Monza Town Coupe of all things. I whipped around the block and came back up behind him. Going downhill to a stoplight. Pulled up behind him at the light. I saw him looking both ways for me. Where did he go? He turned left and I turned right. I started wearing those driving gloves long before that, because when I was going fast around corners and straightening out the wheel would whip around straight it could hurt. Also, my hands would slip sometimes when I spun the wheel to go around a corner (this started in my first Camaro), and I found that wearing gloves really stuck to the steering wheel, as well as protecting my hands and skin. So I kept wearing them for a while after I wasn’t doing that kind of crazy shit anymore. And then I think I went in the Air Force and I don’t know if I started wearing them again when I got my second '75 Rally Sport Camaro. I traded in the Monza in about '77? A whole different kind of animal, not a rally car but could do 140 on the freeway and it just hummed along after you hit 100MPH. When I got that Camaro I stripped all the California gear off the engine with a kid I worked with on base in the parachute shop and put an Edelbrock manifold and Holly 650 "double pumper" and glass pack mufflers & headers on it.

So they’re asking Paul for acting "horror stories". He couldn’t think of any, and they asked, what about forgetting your lines? And he said, No not really. But then he came up with a story about Seattle when he lived here. Which reminded me of, let’s see, my second or third grade doing a school play. I was on stage with my best friend, Jimmy Snowberger (or Jimmy Snow), believe it or not two, of my friends, it always blew me away about their names. One moved away and was replaced by the other, oddly enough. We were doing this play about two prospectors eating dinner in the wild. I’m standing, he's kneeling down by the fake fire. I ask if he wants me to clean the plates. He says, No three Rivers will take care of it. I asked, three rivers? And he says, Yeah. Here three rivers, here three rivers. And a dog is supposed to come over and lick the plates clean. Right in the middle of this really short play? I said my line while looking down at him. And I see him hesitate. I think I see him freeze. He looked up at me, blank. And I would’ve given him his line, but stupidly, I said, don’t you dare. I said it slow and stern. Do not walk off the stage and leave me here alone! Which apparently gave him the idea. Because I look up and see the teacher in the wings. He turns around and sees her. He looks back at me. Then he just stands up and walks to her. Leaving me standing there, sideways to the audience. I look out of the audience, of a whole auditorium of parents staring at me. I  looked over at him off stage, as if to indicate to the audience that it’s him, not me. I can see him talking to the teacher. Finally he comes back kneels down, says his line and we finish the play to big applause. I never got on stage again, for years. Until eighth grade at Holy Rosary parochial school when they forced me to be in the school choir for Christmas. I refused at first. My eighth grade class had a thousand year old Nun and leader of the Convent there and our principal. So I sung in the Christmas choir. Mom got a kick out of it anyway. Interesting to note that I never again wanted to do acting. I actually took theater 101 at University because I want to learn about theater and I didn’t see anything indicated about having to act. First day, our Yale Masters grad theater teacher tells us we'd have to get up and act out who we are, on stage without speaking. Almost every guy in the place got up and walked out of the theater. I just sat there squirming. He then had us count off by threes to go up by groups. Then at some point I'd had enough and got up and walked out. That was just after he said about the guys leaving, that that was good, and part of his plan. That weeded out the guys who didn’t need to be there. As I stood and started to walk out, I looked around and it seems like every girl in there was really good looking. As I walked away, there was a groaning of disappointment by the entire class. I wasn’t too bad looking back then and I kind of stood out on campus. I’ve always wondered, had I known the girls were gonna react like that would I have stayed? If I could’ve just gotten over that few moments on stage acting like a fool, how would things have gone from there? You know, the problem wasn’t so much getting on stage, as it was that I really had no clue what to do. Probably few others did too. And I had a phobia to doing things when I totally don’t know what I’m doing, or if I know that I’m gonna do a bad job for lack of whatever it takes to do it. I always want to do well. While I used to be a bit of a perfectionist, it rattled my nerves so bad at the time but I eventually got over it. The Air Force had helped some. College certainly helped. Getting a degree in psychology and having to take group therapy for a quarter helped (I rebelled about taking "group", but was told, then you don't graduate, so...). But there it is. Then in the early 90s I got a head shot join taken at a talent agency in Seattle, the Mode Talent Agency, and then sent me out for auditions. But there were some internal problems at the agency and they fired two women who worked there, and they seemed less professional and never called me back, that was the end of that.

OK I’ve now walked 2 1/2 miles and I’m limping pretty good on my left ankle, so 3 miles is it for the day today, again. Dammit! Well headed home now. I’ll ice it down and heat it up. Keep doing that all day, put some more CBD oil on it like I did last night.

Paul has a pretty interesting story about being on stage in a small theater in Seattle when somebody out of the audience gets up on stage with him, and kind of disrupts everything. He can tell it better than I would

Now they’re talking on the podcast about, Will having to get a colonoscopy this week or the week of this recording. And they’re talking about what they’ve gone through and things like that. I may have mentioned this before, but in 10th grade I had to have surgery on my left arch. I have really flat feet and somehow still got in the Air Force. But when I came out of surgery and was awake again, the nurse came in from surgery and said everything went well. Your doctor will be in to talk to you and I've got to say, you had all of us laughing all the way through surgery. And I said what? I said, I remember that you told me to count backwards from 100 and I remember getting to 96. She said, oh you were really talkative. I said, well what did I say? She said, don’t worry about it. I said. no I really want to know what the hell I said? She said, honey what happens or is said in surgery stays in surgery. And she would not tell me, which worried me even more. I mean a 15-year-old guy doesn’t wanna feel exposed that he said some embarrassing shit when he doesn’t have a clue what he was saying. You know? Oh well, no closure on that event.

What if she had told me everything I said, and I wrote it down and worked on it and created a standup routine and became a comic out of it? Maybe I would’ve gotten over my fear of being on stage sooner? Who knows?

OK since it’s funny beyond the joke that they tell on the podcast… Jason tells a joke, which apparently the guys have heard 30 times already and he gets it wrong every time, but he’s telling Paul that  aDr. walks into an operating room, patient's laying there. Doctor says, OK Jerry, this time no hard-on. The patient says, Dr. my name is Kevin. And the doctor says, no, I’m Jerry. I preferred the way Jason told it. It was succinct to the point had a punch but the guys are still ribbon him about it, mostly because he’s done it wrong so many times before.

So I’ll be honest about this. I put my book "death of heaven" in the free little library here on the street. And I don’t know, the third or fourth time I’ve done this over the past few years. The longest it’s gone without somebody taking it, I think was a week. Seems to me it’s been here now like going on three weeks. Still sitting there, homeless, but happy for the shelter, but it's wishing somebody would take it home and read it. I liked my last review on Amazon saying it’s the "best horror story I’ve ever read", and they’ve read a lot of horror stories. I say that because I know who posted that. And no, they would tell the truth if they thought it sucks, they're just that kind of person.

Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #31

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts…

Weather for the day… 47 degrees and lightly overcast, and I can see blue here and there.

Podcast for the day podcast “Pod Save America“ episode, “After Balloon Delight" with a visit by Ron Klain

Instagram post for the day

Damn. It took me months after the worst of this bout of long Covid to get up to a mile and eventually five miles. Then winter hit and back down to 3 mile walks. But without my lack of conditioning overall and my lungs and long Covid exacerbated vagus nerve issues of blood pressure and heart rate. And then, my right knee went out. I asked the VA for x-rays and they said, "Go for it." But I said, "Well, I’m gonna wait and see how it heals." The Nurse said it might just be as bad as I thought and suggested stretching after walking (Hold 30 seconds before it releases, then another 30 seconds, something she learned working in the pain clinic). But I was sure it was leading to surgery. Because when I felt like this before in 1989 and 2000 in my left and right knee operations, respectively, this was how I felt. This time I was barely able to walk without a cane at first. But the last week or so it’s been good and I’m not needing a cane at all. And in this walk now, I'm past the half mile mark and feeling good. But I don’t wanna overdo it. So maybe next walk I’ll try two miles. It’s just so annoying. I’m used to most of my life be able to push it. In that sense I certainly miss my 20s and 30s, to be sure. But...you take what you have and make it the best it can be.

Olympic Mountains behind cloud cover

Ron Klain on the podcast has a good point regarding “Biden’s swagger“ if you will, at theSOTU last night. Because when Joe Biden come into office two years ago, the country was in the shit. We were still suffering from the Trump infection and Trump insurrection, the failed coup, the two trump impeachments and now we’re seeing how all the crimes he committed (actually most of his life) are in the courts and headed to the courst, while the DOJ finally get around to himeand why there’s a question about this, why there was ever, I  (we) don’t know. It’s somewhat because he was POTUS, but let’s face it, people were reticent to hold him accountable before that. It’s ridiculous. Indict him, try him and let justice go forward as it should. As it would with any of US. But anyway, things are so much better now after 2 years and in so many ways. The whole time Biden had to put up with mouthy MAGA types in Republican disingenuous, if not outright disinformation. And these new childish Republican congressional types, last night, utterly no class whatsoever, some of them. Remember when a miserable Joe Wilson yelled "You Lie!" at President Obama? Not the good Joe Wilson, because most Joe Wilson’s I know we’re good guys. I remember watching that thinking, "This is only gonna get worse on the Republican side." And here we are. The kangaroo Court Republican Congressionals are in session.

We currently have one political party in America. The Democratic Party. About a third of the Republican Party has lost its fucking mind, a third of it is, I think stunned, and a third of it is trying really hard to be the old Republican party, but they’re like Russian tanks in the mud.

We’ve had one Chinese balloon this POTUS46 term at least three we know of, under POUTS45. So I really don’t know what all this noise is about. Trump didn’t do a damn thing, at least Biden shot it down at some point. Not to mention Chinese spy satellites cann't see a lot anyway more than beyond what they already know, with a balloon that went over what everybody knows about mostly anyway. and the missile silos are where? Underground. Do we know if we signal jammed signals from the balloon gathering intelligence back to China? Because if no data was gathered over American soil, WTF is all the noise about? As for not shooting it down sooner, let’s see… say Biden shoots it down, and a piece of it kills an American citizen. So rather than dealing with all this crap from Republicans now, we'd be dealing with a dead American from an action Biden took? You do the math. Republicans would have lost their minds. "Why couldn't you wait until it hit the Atlantic and THEN shoot it down?" On the other hand, had Biden shot it down over American soil and it landed on a Drag story hour? As mentioned in the podcast, that would really screw up the Republican speaking points. Maybe they'd implode?

If the balloon wasn’t getting all that much information, our counter-intelligence certainly was. We had a chance to study it’s capabilities, and we can now pick up pieces of it to potentially learn a hell of a lot more. Apparently they gamed out trying to safeuly capture it, but there isn't the technology for that.

Just to say, milestones for Democrats these past two years are quite a few, actually. Milestones for Republicans outside of the negative MAGA insanity? Was working bipartisan with Democrats to get things passsed. Which I think pretty much says it all...

Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #11

My thoughts, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts...a blog designed and meant to be freely associating, on the run, and not perfectly edited:

Weather for the day… When I started out I was hoping I could get my walk in before the rain started. Air quality index was 50, rated "good". During my walk I checked it and it was 33. Last time I checked it was 30. I felt a slight drizzle begin and then immediately stop. Could be a few degrees warmer though and it’s supposed to be 53° today. It was 51 when I left home. Wearing a fleece and shell. I got my jacket shell when I purchased it on the way to the airport in 2015, headed to Ireland. I wore that walking all over Ireland, literally its four corners. It still looks brand new. That day that I left home, where I had a couple acres in the woods and had raised my kids who had  moved out by then... I walked a mile to the park-and-ride, caught the bus to the ferry, and rode the Bainbridge ferry over to Seattle. Then on the way to the underground light rail station to Seattle airport at SeaTac, I stopped at the North Face store on the corner. I looked at a lot of stuff with the salesperson and finally settled on this $99 coat shell. At the time I thought it was expensive and buying a "shell" was weird. She was looking at me like I was crazy there in the store. But I bit the bullet and I bought it. And I grew to love it all the way around Ireland. It was perfect for layering, because the weather there was so much like here in the Pacific Northwest. I was cool when it needed to be and kept me warmer than I'd expected. I felt very at home. And today, almost eight years later well, I went in August so just over seven years... it looks like it’s never been worn! Plus you can roll it up and it fits in its own pocket. I love the hood too, and the inner pockets.

Podcast for the day is from Pod Save America.

Second podcast for the day is John Heilemann's Hell and Highwater. With Michael Dowd and Jennifer Palmieri.

Instagram post for the day is getting a lot of attention...

For those complaining that the MSM lies (for rational people unaware what that indicates, "Mainstream Media", how it's three letters not two is curious), have a fundamental misunderstanding and limited comprehension of how journalism functional (outside of right wing disinfo/propaganda entities). When investigating a report and stumbling on a misperception or incorrect facts, in it getting reported, it will typically later be corrected. But with the right wing MSM )which there is)… they’re reporting lies upfront, not misperceptions, but intended, outright lies...that don’t change. Because... they’re lies. The only time those change is when they find a more effective lie, or their lies are shown to be such obvious lies that even the right questions them. At which point they shift to a better lie and encapsulate the first lie. Or rationalizing or explaining it off to their right wing believers, who will just see it as something they merely had to make more clear in what they were intending to say. Trump was an expert at that. To the point that people still think he’s a great guy and someone to vote for, rather than demand for him, justice, prison and execution.

People have got to stop knocking people who complain about the arising the cost of milk, or gas to get to work, or to transport their kids. These are real issues. While the rich and wealthy in complaining about costs, we are indeed looking at greed, for the most part. But when you can’t afford to take care of your kids, or your loved ones, that’s a whole different paradigm you’re dealing with. People need to realize that Republicans aren't going to save them and that their whole method of operation has nothing to do with helping them. Other than what they say to get votes, to get more power and money. Money by the way, that is greatly coming from those people in dire need, and the rest of us doing at least a little better. Look, I’m not rich. I’m retired and just getting by on a pension I luckily earned, and Social Security that Republicans want to take away. Which would essentially put me out on the street. So thanks for that! After spending years in the Air Force and a lifetime paying taxes and into Social Security, they want to punish me/us? WTF? And so, fuck them! Thank you, very much! Please sir, can I NOT have another?

President Biden this week gave a speech where he said, if Democrats retain and gain power in this election, he will First Thing, sign into law protections for abortion. If you’re against that, well you got to admit then you’re a misogynist and this isn't about pre-birth children at all. Because it sure as hell isn’t about protecting them once they're born, as we’ve seen time and again. The second thing he said was that he’s releasing more gas to lower the cost of gas nationwide. Which has already been going back down. Regardless what Republicans are claiming. And we're still working on Saudi Arabia and that whole nightmare jackasses contingency, related to OPEC.

The AQI was 50 today when I left home. It’s overcast. The winds have blown the forest fire smoke away and it’s supposed to rain soon. Rained a little bit yesterday. It’s a nice day for a hike, or a walkabout. Now to be accurate, I do believe a “walkabout“ is a walk about and not a standard closed course like I’m doing, walking up and down the same street. My "walkabout" part of my walkabout is metaphorical, in my taking in new information from podcasts and ruminating on things and sharing those thoughts. That is definitely a walkabout. So maybe my title it should be in quotes, but… it’s not.

From the podcast: “Voting for Republicans will not fix inflation. It’s voting for abortion bans and guaranteeing that inflation will continue.” I would also add it will throw Ukraine to Putin. After all we’ve done. After all NATO and others have done to protect and save them against an illegal and genocidal war by an autocrat (who Trump loves) who hasn’t been fairly elected in 20 years. Guaranteeing that you will be elected, as Putin has (nooo... he’s not afraid of open elections at all...), is not an open and free election.

To be clear when Republicans call liberals “extremist“ what they’re actually saying is they’re leaning too far into progress which makes conservative and those with a more backward orientation to social evolution, uncomfortable. When liberals, Democrats and many independents, say Republicans are extremist, they’re actually being extremist, in having enabled, ignored, supported and acted upon sedition and insurrection. That’s something no one should ignore. I don’t care who you are or what side you're on. 

Replacing the government is not in the US Constitution. Regardless of what the framers, a few of them, may have said. If you’re claiming the Constitution as the foundation of your rights to an insurrection, you’re not reading the American Constitution at all. You’re just listening to Republicans, Trump, conspiracy theories on the Internet, and our enemies across the world who full heartedly are supporting you.

So MAGA types are recording people dropping off ballots at drop boxes, some even following those people after that (i.e., Intimidation). Voters should drop ballots while friends surround them with an opaque curtain. That will drive MAGA nuts. This recording people voting is immature intimidation tactics. What are they, in 2nd grade? This wouldn't intimidate me in the least, though it might some. It's the level of irritating like: "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you!" Good grief. They're devolving. It's just setting up for later actions and gumming up the entire election process, both now and later.

This is more foolish. Even MAGA know Republican's support business, especially big business. And most of them know corporations are price gouging us right now, when they shouldn’t be. Corporations have been set up to help America, by the American government but right now, all they’re doing is reaping profits. Every time in my life that I’ve heard America was an economic trouble, corporations price gouge. Sometimes maintaining a price, is price gouging. And they’re raising prices. But we need all Americans to connect those two things and realize that Republicans aren’t your friend in this. I don’t care who you are. Because even the corporations and wealthy they’re supporting. are based in this country. Damaging the country is not good for anybody. Except for short term profits. But what Republicans don’t get is there’s more to life than numbers, money, and enrichening oneself with wealth and power. I know, sounds stupid saying it, why wouldn't they ignore ethics and reap rewards, right? That's kind of sick though. Those people, people like that, should never of been allowed in politics. Seeing the left as the same, is just incorrect and factually delusional.

It was the Democrats that went after big Pharma recently, and why many, when it kicks in, will be doing better. Republicans didn’t do that, they have been fighting that kind of thing, all the way. Returning Democrats to power after this election means they will go after big Pharma again, as well as corporations. And no, Republicans don't like that. But you're not, we're not, corporations. Not sure how that is so hard for some to see.

It seems to me with Republicans and MAGA doing all they can to end elections, to curb elections, to make it more difficult to vote, we’re on a path to eliminate in-person poll booth voting and we need to immediately go to mail-in ballots. That eliminates all this nonsense about polling booths MAGA types are trying to pull. To gum things up, question everything, intimidate ...that's not AMERICAN. There may be a few problems for some regarding all mail in ballots, but we'll just have to work that out. It may take a year or two if we start now, but it solves a lot of problems Republicans keep drumming up. We’ve been rapidly moving into remote work in recent years, saving our infrastructure and our roads. Considering pandemics and right wing abuses of our citizens in relation to elections, this seems like a pretty obvious fix.

Have you heard that some counties/states are going to hand counted of election ballots? Even though we know for a fact it’s less accurate because of human error then machines? This whole movement by Republicans in the far right, against machine counting is unbelievably divisive. Anyone that knows anything about people and computers should know that hand counting is a bad idea. It's WHY WE DON'T DO IT!

Early Georgia election numbers are in and voting is up 85% from the last midterm election there. Doesn’t mean anybody’s winning, it just means it’s good that we have more people getting involved in voting. Because I really believe if everybody in America voted there would be no MAGA, and there would be no Republican party such as we have. There wouldn't have been an insurrection. Or fear now that Republicans will end democracy here.

Democrats need to be focused on working class people without a college degree and Latinos. Because that seems to be where the leaking votes are going away. That’s from Democratic candidate Tim Ryan. I added the part about Latinos though. Ryan’s opponent is JD Vance who has two mega donors. That, is never good for any candidate's voters.

I need to call Comcast and ask them if there’s a way I can save money while keeping what I’ve got in my current package. This is something you should do every so often for phone and cable and maybe some other things. At least half the time I've called about that, they’ve had some way I can save at least some money and sometimes, a lot.

I have to say, people like Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell, JD Vance, after having Trump slam them really hard, especially if I was about to get up on stage after Trump said how much I kiss his ass… I would definitely have a come back, You've got to punch back. Those like Trump and Putin, either appreciate that or respond appropriately and not how you might think. I would definitely punch back at Trump when I got to the mic, in a way (if I were MAGA like JD Vance and Trump), where I would get in a comment where the audience would go, "oh I don’t believe he said that" followed by some laughter and applause. Otherwise, why am I up there? Something that would resonate. But I would never let anyone racially slur my wife like McConnell allowed from Trump. Or to attack me like that and I don’t give a damn who they are, I’m coming back at them. And frankly, there’s some integrity involved. Because if you lose your candidacy over something like that, you deserve it. Find another career. That’s the problem with these MAGA Republicans. They have no boundaries. Their ethics are in the Trump cesspool/swamp he created. Their ambition has completely eviscerated their ethics. Do anything to win? The only place that makes sense is in war and it often doesn’t even make sense then. Which is why we have the military governed by civilian authority. When war gets to a point like Putin is in where Russia has been consistently defeated, someone hast to take the reins and say, "OK STOP! ENOUGH ALREADY!" But that's the problem with autocracies. Single point of failure.

JD Vance has invested in companies with foreign workers. Deflating his self promoted image of himself. Looking at his stance on China, there's no there, there.

Tim Ryan had a good point about paying off college tuition loans in that we should at least let some of these people, with high interest-rates, be able to get lower interest rates as that alone would help a lot. And, we need to fix the problem that is the high cost of college tuition. I stand by what I've said, that we get a K-12 for free since over 100 years ago, because we knew that would raise the entire country up. And it did. It was massively cost effective. But everything has advance so far that we need to make that now, K-14. So people can get out of that in a level where there are more jobs open to them. When I graduated high school in 1973 I knew at the time I wasn’t prepared for any decent job. It made me angry. Which was why after three years of trying (to get a really good job, I did have one), I went in the Air Force. I got out, then got a couple of degrees which the VA paid for. But, tuition wasn’t ridiculous. I got a high tech job eventually and made a decent amount of money. Which allowed me an mostly reasonable retirement. I didn't get to a job with a retirement plan until late, or I’d be even better off.

I worked at University of Washington for 7 1/2 years and when I talked to them years later about being vested for retirement, they said I was a few months short. I had thought for years I was vested when I left. I asked them a few years ago about that and they said, "Yep, you're a few months short." But after I left the UDub where I worked at University bookstore, the University of Washington Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center and the UW Personnel office, I was asked to come back and work for Harborview Medical Center again. I wasn’t salaried, though. But I’m just curious if that added that few months on, that I needed? Maybe I was invested there for retirement. But you know how things go right? Probably not.

I mentioned in previous walkabout blogs about tightening your core as you walk and counting your steps. So I’ve been doing that since I first... actually before I first mentioned it, and today I’m doing 100 steps counts. What’s interesting is that it’s gotten easier I can do it for longer now and noticed today that when I tightened up my stomach muscles, sucking in my belly button toward my spine, it also tightens up the muscles above it in my chest, I’ve to my shoulders. Which was not my conscious intention. But that’s where the muscle tone has moved up to. Cool. This, after two years of Covid and long Covid, which kept me extremely sedentary all through 2021, and then again from March 2022, until not that long ago.

Speaking of which, it’s been a few days since my last walk because of the smoke and poor air quality from forest fires. It was over a week before that walk, since my previous one. I wasn’t sure if I’d make it today, but it looks like I am gonna make my standard 5 miles. Took a lot out of me, but it feels good.

Also, I had been complaining about my left ankle which was really painful and problematic since I began walking months ago. I can say now that I believe it’s been healed, at least since my last walk. Though I continue to wear an ankle brace sleeve.

The other day I tried drinking a glass of wine with lunch. Because of my long Covid, it would make my blood pressure go crazy when I did that. So being able to drink any alcohol is a sign of healing. And it went great! I had bought a little four pack of individual, inexpensive wine bottles. Tasted pretty good. I decided yesterday that today would be a good day for a steak. It’s been a couple weeks or so since I had a steak. I'll take the frozen steak out of my freezer, toss it in my air fryer and a little bit later, not very long, I'll be eating steak and win. I can even throw some shrimp on there I keep in the freezer. A class act lunch as a reward for getting my 5 miles down. And for dessert, I have a very tasty (and not very big) sugarless ice cream bar on a stick. Very creamy. Doesn’t taste sugar-free like what I grew up with that tasted nasty and bitter. And it doesn’t affect my blood sugar level at all. Which is good for long covid. Which seems to be fading.

I mentioned this before, but when I walk I use speech to text for my transcription. Especially when you get tired walking, you don’t always enunciate clearly when you get into thought and talking. So I will get back home and remember I had some really insightful things to say but I don’t have a clue what I was saying for a sentence or so in a paragraph because it makes no sense. It’s both comical and frustrating. Sometimes a bit angrifying. But, I’ve learned it’s better than nothing. So I do my best. I get home, I transfer the file to my laptop, put it into my blog, read through it once, cleaning it up as best I can and post it. It’s a bit rough and my thoughts sometimes are a bit jumbled. But I’m not trying to write the great American blog here. Just sharing some ideas. And besides, I want to finish up my book on long Covid. Which is done and the cover graphics are now with my cover artist. I made up the cover but he’s going to take the concept and make it look better than I’ll ever be able to make it look.

Back to this nonsense... it’s truly odd how Republicans don’t give a wit about them being our threat to democracy and only being focused mostly right now on inflation. Because that’s the best selling point they’ve got. Whatever you do, don’t look at who they are, or what they’ve done. Certainly not as judged by any neutral observers.

This is a progressive country and always has been or we would never have been founded. We just have an infatuation every so many years with fascism, autocracy, and conservatism. When you take a group like that, who is a frustrated minority and are consistently out of power...when they get back in power (and then fail so often) it frustrates them to the degree that they become toxic unto themselves. That’s why in part, we had a January 6 insurrection.

My next walk may be Sunday, but if not, probably Monday, in two days. All depending on weather and air quality (that I think may be good at least for a bit).  I'll be able to listen to the next "Ultra" podcast episode! So looking forward to the rest of its' entire season!

Have a great weekend.