@slowdecline48 I have to admit the way you described it made me laugh but I'm sure it's anything but funny that you suffer with it. Does anything help or does it have to sort of run it's course on its own? 

@mytwistedsoul Nothing helps it...nothing I've tried so far, anyway. Am wondering if simethicone tablets should be a regular part of my diet now, kinda like a medical sacrament...

@slowdecline48 That really sucks that nothing helps. Have you tried chamomile or peppermint tea? From what I read it might help alittle but you know you better than I do lol. I hesitate to suggest it. Personally I can't stand chamomile tea myself but I looked online and  it's supposed to help with gas and intestinal discomfort - might be worth giving it a try?  

@mytwistedsoul I do drink tea regularly...had to give up coffee. It was a sacrifice. But I don't imbibe chamomile tea all the time. *shrug* It's worth a shot. At this point I'll take any suggestions short of "suck on a piece of depleted uranium for a week, then see if there's any improvement"...

@slowdecline48 Idk if you it's something you need to drink every day or just when there's a flare up of symptoms. It would be awesome if it could help you

@slowdecline48
Hi decline.
I started a bit to watch your threads, but I could not find the message you sent me yesterday about your age. You can help me find it if you want to.

A question, gentle reader:

Did you ever wish you could sleep in a regular pattern, like normal healthy people do?

@slowdecline48 Sleep? What is this mythical thing you speak of? 

I do! People talk about how the got 8 -9-10 hours of sleep and I'm in awe! Sorry that you struggle with sleep too 

@mytwistedsoul 😂 I've asked the same question... "'sleep'? What does that mean?? I've never heard this word before."

The website where I normally post my finished work & better sketches has been inaccessible to me for almost two weeks now.

The login module isn't working right. I've typed my password correctly; I double-checked so I know for sure. After entering the password, the site used to send a 6-digit numerical code to my e-mail. Once I type in the code the site is supposed to grant access, but it does not. I even picked the "lost password" option & followed the link to reset it...no good. Same results.

The last couple times I tried logging in, the site didn't even send the 6-digit code to my e-mail! Whoever is in charge of the website's back end not only doesn't know what he's doing, but probably can't tell his elbow from his rectum...which I suspect isn't wiped often enough.

So my gallery is still up on the site. However I cannot access it nor talk to the few artists I know in the community there.

As of now, I don't have anyplace to post my finished artwork. It's back to square one while I look for a decent place online...*sigh*

A reason for contentment:

the price of gold, from one year ago

I had a good afternoon.

Several weeks ago I got in a conversation with the guy who picks up the trash in this apartment anthill (& a few others)...turns out he likes to work with his hands too. We talked some more; later he invited me to his house, where I met his wife & their two dogs. Today was my 2nd time there.

Finally, I have a decent place to build my canes. I can only get to his place every couple weeks but it beats being stuck with my slightly rotted, half-sheltered patio. Today I made the most of it.

Will post snapshots of the current cane in the "hobby journal" tomorrow or Monday. It's almost done now & looking pretty good overall.

Allergy season has arrived.

I knew it was coming, of course...knew it was here for certain by 0500 hrs this morning.

Here's what my weather app looked like when I checked it a bit later:

Note what the colored bar at the top says, gentle reader.

...yes indeed. I will spend the rest of this month through March mostly staying by the two little air filtration devices in my place (they're not that effective but better than nothing), cleaning whenever I have the energy & living on herbal teas, OTC allergy & cold products, & any cough syrup with dextromethorphan. Ain't life f***ing grand?... 😶‍🌫️💩

Not everything is bad, however. Right now the markets are still doing rather well, all things considered. Gold is still above $2,000/oz; I think 2K is the current support level for gold & will be for the foreseeable future. That means that the price per oz. is unlikely to drop below 2K...if it does, it will not go very far nor will it stay down for long. Previously the support level was above $1,900/oz, until September of '23.

Before I forget:

Welcome anytime I enjoyed browsing through … thank you for extending yourself 🙌🙌😎😎💯💯

Am glad someone is enjoying this, anyway... If you actually read all that, you must have time to yourself at home, like me. 😝

@slowdecline48

Yes retired as recovering from flu …. 

@SunShineAlwaysGrateful Oh s***, I wasn't aware of that. Take it easy & drink plenty of hot tea!

Thank you I am currently experiencing prednisone withdrawal not fun exhausted mostly … but the flu finally behind me. It’s beeb a rough month … looking forward to feeling normal ….

Guess there's no denying it now: Craigslist is terminal. It's dyin' slllooowwww.

The only active sections on that site now are all in "For Sale". There are barely any job postings or ads for services, at least in my area. The surrounding towns have few ads themselves. Yep...Fakebook Marketplace has definitely stolen CL's thunder. In the forums there are only a few people left & it seems like they're all over 50.

I've said it before & I'll say it again: everything changes, & everything stays the same. This is not as contradictory as it seems at first glance.

In other unimportant news, I finally got back into my account on the art/gaming website where my gallery is. I was locked out for over two weeks, so I had to catch up with what's going on there....no, I will not post a link. Some of what I draw/paint & post there ain't proper for Cupsians to look at.

"Familiarity breeds indifference. We have seen too much pure, bright color at Woolworths to find it intrinsically transporting. And here we may note that, by its amazing capacity to give us too much of the best things, modern technology has tended to devaluate the traditional vision-inducing materials. The illumination of a city, for example, was once a rare event, reserved for victories and national holidays, for the canonization of saints and the crowning of kings. Now it occurs nightly and celebrates the virtues of gin, cigarettes and toothpaste."

- Aldous Huxley, Heaven and H.e.l.l

Sittin' here with head pain, after dinner & two trips to the porcelain throne.

We have all heard countless times about how important it is to maintain a healthy diet, eat nutritious foods & not sugar-loaded junk, etc. One part of that is plenty of fiber input. Well now I've started making stew on weekends--it's an ethnic/religious thing--& while this may be a good habit overall...it takes some getting used to.

How long will the acclimation period go, exactly? When will I get to the point where I don't get an automatic flareup while my guts turn out 20-lb. bronze ingots like some kind of foundry?

💨💨💩💩💩💩💨  🤕🤧

Edit: So the digestive ordeal is mostly over...in the process, I was awake most of the night & the left side of my chest (& what feels like is just underneath it) hurts whenever I inhale. I know what it is & it's nothing serious, just one more item on the list of irritations. All that's left is to gulp an NSAID with some cheese, & lay down again.

Life is a pain in the a££.

Isn't it surprising how things sneak up on you every so often, when you just wander into a situation & some aspect or two reminds you of something from the past, & then it all comes flooding back.

Tonight I was poking around Youtoob for songs when I found a singer I've seen before, a good while back. Had forgotten how much she resembles a woman I met during my college days...so far, the only woman I ever wanted to marry. Given my age & how my life is now, she will almost certainly remain the only one.

She was not my first love but she was my first serious love (for lack of a better phrase). Until I met her, I was a free man & liked it...after being with her for four months, I wanted to exchange vows & settle down for the first time in my life. I wanted her for my own, & would do whatever it took to make it so. I would've become her husband, been faithful, stuck by her through any catastrophe...there was one little problem: we had religious differences. More than that, she was a woman of faith while I've always had skeptical/questioning tendencies.

Very few people can maintain a relationship with such differences between them.

Eventually we broke up; I made the move, just as I'd been the one to start the relationship. She & I remained friends for a good while after that. We liked each other, but we both knew that romantically it would never work.

...I have never forgotten her.

...wherever you are out there, I still miss you, N.

@slowdecline48 awww that's really sad 😢. But hey it's never to late to meet the right person, your never to old for love. I'm single😉

@Tinywhisper11 Thanks, babe...if I ever go to Britain, I'll have to look you up. 😄

@slowdecline48 😁❤❤❤

Before I crash again, here's a report on other unimportant news:

1. The left side of my chest hurts whenever I inhale deeply. It's not serious; I know this condition as it's acted up before. Just one more item on the list of irritations that comprise my life.
2. The guy in the western end of the apartment anthill that I helped for a few weeks is no longer there. His unit is empty....he was receiving hospice care when I met him, had oxygen tanks in his living room & some kind of machine to give him oxygen if he needed it. I know of two ambulance trips he took (neither one when I was there--heard about it later); he was on several meds.... Can't say with 100% certainty, but I'm pretty sure he d!ed in there.

R.I.P., old redneck from LA.*

Also, @Helgafy - would you not post Bible verses in my journal, please. You obviously mean well & that's great, but I don't find much pleasure or solace in scripture generally. I do have a TNK, etc. but as I said, I am faith-challenged...that is a politically correct term for "I can't really believe in an O³** deity". After many years of research, talks with others & contemplation, I concluded that a supreme god may exist but the idea of it being the biblical god of Avraham is patently absurd.

*The swampy state, not Los Angeles.

**acronym for omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent.

@slowdecline48

Friend - I've seen your message here. And I'm sorry that I hurted you with quoting Bibleverses. I just thought we had something in common since you went to "Souls" spiritual thread and your ancients so wonderful gave us the Old Testament. So I'm sorry, sorry, sorry. From your friend in Norway - Helga.
I have seen your art a bit, photoes - drawings - writing fine letter. What a fine artist you are. 

You didn't "hurt" me...I'm just easily irritated. It's unfortunately one of my less friendly traits, which I inherited from my father. (He was very bright but Moses on a pogo stick, could he be abrasive!...)

Yeah, I stop by the R&S Forum once in a while. But I am not a member of it. There are reasons for that. Posted an entry here last year soon after the forum was created.

@slowdecline48

Think of that. You writing in Florida (I think that's where you live - I think you wrote it once) and me writing here in Bergen, Norway. But my time is 11.17 a.m. - yours must be 3-5 in the night. 

@Helgafy It's 5:33 a m. here right now! 😆 (I'm a nocturnal creature)

@slowdecline48awww sorry about  your friend😞do you live in a care home too?

@Tinywhisper11 No, I'm in a little 1BR place. I know I won't be here forever...at some point they'll jack up the rent, I won't be able to afford it & then I'll have to camp out wherever until I find a place & nail it down. If that's possible by then.

@slowdecline48 I'm not sure what a 1BR place is?? I live in a old folks nursing home 😁 I'm only 23 so perhaps not that ideal, but it works for me ❤ could you get into an assisted living home?

Life stinks. Life really stinks right now...one more reason which I won't reveal here.

Just know that for me, today (& probably the rest of the week), life sucks on elephant testes harder than an over-the-hill p0rn actress.

In times like this one, my statements on aging--you can read them here--are as relevant & true as ever...maybe more so now.

@slowdecline48 gives you a hug ❤❤