Playing in the Shambles

Start with some brown rice and a small can of pork ‘n’ beans. Add a few hamburger dill pickle chips, some freshly-ground black pepper, and a couple of dashes of yellow mustard. Stir it a bit, and eat with a few Wheat Thins “Toasted Chips” (Great Plains Multigrain).

It probably sounds a bit weird, and it really is, but it’s surprisingly tasty. And I’m gonna keep telling myself that until I believe it ;^) No, it’s really pretty good. The pickles & mustard & pepper give it a nice little zing.

Finish it off with a small quantity of cold skim milk. Oh, what a good boy am I.

It is, per tradition, “Black Friday”. I think it’s a shopping thing. It’s a very bright day outside, I believe (I can’t really see outside very well as things are right now). I wouldn’t say it’s “white”, but the post title is nonetheless intended to convey the mixture of dark and light.

I gotta tell ya, as a blogger, coming up with post titles is the hardest part of my, erm, job.

Although I intend to stay away from stores as much as possible, I do have the post office on the agenda. I was going to drift by the library as well (not a habit, though I would like for it to be), but it appears that they are closed today. One less thing to do is not necessarily bad.

Maybe I can cram a little walk in before the whole breakfast-and-a-shower thing. I dunno, it’s kinda chilly outside, according to the Intarwebs.

Anyway, time to put my butt in motion. Let’s be careful out there.

I used to be so into ELO, and I still think Jeff Lynne is amazingly talented and productive. I grew tired of the group’s music, though, and remained that way for a long time. I think I just listened to it all too much–another lesson I should have learned in overdoing things.

Have a very happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Why can’t you leave me alone???!!!

Oh well, it hasn’t been all that bad lately.

Oh boy, now I’ve done it =^P

Been recording a little today. Have two or three songs so close to something like completion. One I just can never get the bass part quite right; also the vocal. Another I made some good progress after unearthing an old session, but it lacks a bass part entirely, and also will need a final vocal track. I didn’t have the energy or focus to really spend all day at it, and wound up just sort of conserving my energy and picking up a few supplies. I finally managed to put in the fuel additive I let the guy at AutoZone sell me the other day, and gassed up the truck.

One little weird, but cool, thing that happened today: around about two o’clock this afternoon, I decided I wanted some tea. It’s just so nice on my still-slightly-raw throat. I noticed I hadn’t dumped the last load from the small infuser, and that was enough to make me decide to use the large pot. No sooner had I finished pouring the boiling water and setting the nice Irish Breakfast to steeping, than I heard a car drive past outside. I looked out the door, and it was my neighbor Gary, his arms full of groceries. I asked if he might like a nice cup of hot tea. As we were talking, JD, a drummer we’ve known for years, pulled up. Soon the three of us were sitting in Gary’s living room, having tea and a chat. I don’t think I could have timed that more perfectly if I were actually psychic. I love things like that =O)

I’m taking more Röda Lacket white portion than anything these days, so I guess I will call this my current favorite snus.

I’d say it’s way too early to even begin to declare an all-time favorite. I’ve been using Swedish snus for three months and eleven days now.

209 lb today. Woo-hoo! ‘Course I dressed as lightly as possible and went up there with nothing but a few sips of water and a snus, but I didn’t expect that needle to end up west of 210. That’s 95 lb below the high-blubber mark, the exact date of which I might rediscover tomorrow, but I’m pretty sure has been, easily, twenty years.

Also, I think I got the best, most nearly-normal night’s sleep I’ve had in just ages. Cutting back on the caffeine and nicotine probably helped, and some lovely (if slightly wacky) conversation apparently didn’t hurt.

NB The wackiness is certainly at least a little bit due to me =)

I know what it is like to have other people drain one’s energy. I also realize, with a painful pinch, that I can be a drain as well. I would much rather not be either drainer or drainee, so how to pull that off?

I suppose drains will pop up from time to time, and should probably be dealt with through loving patience and firmness. As far as the other side of it, when I realize that I am sucking (as it were), I think the thing to do is to let go at once. That doesn’t mean anything drama-queen dramatic like “I shall never trouble you again! Goodbye forever!” or “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!” It just means stop clinging, sucking, being a drain. Stop that behavior. ‘Course, talk is cheap.

We’re all connected anyway, I believe, so I suppose there’s no need to cling.

Note: This was written after a stressful day on something like one hour’s sleep, after a stressful couple of weeks. Now, when I say stressful, it isn’t like I’m in Iraq being chased by a rifle-wielding guy on a camel. I realize (I think) that all this stuff is relative. Anyway, take this for what it’s worth, which probably isn’t much.

Fans. Gotta love ‘em. ;^)

Speaking of friends, I have lots of ‘em. More than I deserve. Then again, what constitutes a “friend”, anyway? There are friends and then there are friends. If we receive according to how we give, then they aren’t after me for money or status, but they are also kind of distant. There are weeds in all my gardens.

I think I’m building up to say something about my future intentions, but talk is really cheap. Is there anything I can do with this blog, besides just talk? I want to believe the answer is yes. In the meantime, there really is stuff to do, so this is me getting off my butt.