my journal: various subjects, opinionating, CW at times
The title explains itself.
If you're interested in the ramblings of a middle-aged man with chronic conditions who, at times, sees things a little too clearly for his own good, then read on.
Sometimes I get political, but it won't be all the time.
I don't mind comments in general but if you're going to differ with what I write, that's fine--as long as you can explain your position clearly & reasonably. Rants, shouting & general incoherence will be ignored or flagged, depending on the situation. Try to remember that not everyone else in this world holds your beliefs.
Every so often I may post art or snapshots of projects I'm working on.
If you're still interested after reading all the above, great. (I do wonder at how much time you have on your hands, though)
Here it is as promised, folks...another one of my old reviews, for your entertainment:
@slowdecline48 I definitely wouldn't eat there after reading this. Doesn't sound appetizing at all! 😝
@mytwistedsoul In all fairness the review is from four years ago... If they haven't got their act together by now then the place is either closed down or will, soon.
@slowdecline48 Maybe they closed during the whole covid thing - a lot of places ended up having to go that route 😕
...too much to do; too tired to move
...feelin' like this song even though I've never picked cotton or worked in the fields...the lyrics starting at 3:35 are particularly accurate.
Yes, @Tinywhisper11, it goes to YouRube. But it's just a piece of music, & rather sedate by today's standards. Up to you (or the care staff?) if you must avoid it.
Now it's the night before a medical appointment, the night slowly turning into morning...I can't sleep, I've stayed awake intermittently blowing my rectal trombone because IBS, because my body has as much quality as some plastic electronic product slapped together by captive factory workers in Shenzen.
Life stinks.
@slowdecline48 I've always hated the fact that when you need sleep the most - always seems to be before an appointment or trip - we're least likely to be able to get any
I hope your appointment goes well!
@mytwistedsoul I appreciate the thought & the honesty. It went rather well, which is more than I expected. A while back I was lucky to find a GP who is not clinically brain-dead.
There's a prescription waiting for me at the drug dealership* but as I've been up for over 12 hrs now, I just want sleep... Will get it tomorrow.
*a.k.a. "pharmacy".
@slowdecline48 I'm glad it went well. And with a doctor that isn't brain dead - you really did luck out there! OMG dealership sounds right though 😂
I hope you can get some rest
Mother nature is a cruel b**ch.
If you're morbidly curious, you can read my surgery request, gentle reader...
So I'm on two antibiotics now, one of them in a gel. (It is applied to the skin)
Neither one is run-of-the-mill amoxicillin...the oral one doesn't mix well with dairy products. Or with my being out in the sun for too long.
Given the above facts & my doing all the other stuff to get through the current pollenpalooza, I won't be up to much for the next few weeks at least. I may not even log in at times. Of course I'm not doing any drawing, lettering, woodwork or anything else because I need to rest.
I will be back when I come back, whenever that is.
@slowdecline48 Take care Slow. I hope you feel better soon :)
@slowdecline48 hiiii ❤ did you miss me????😁 I've just started antibiotics again too. I've been ill and haven't been able to come on here for a week or so. I just did a quick catch up on your diary😋❤that's some high pollen😱😱 I'm glad you got a nice doctor ❤ I've never heard of popeyes before. And I was morbidly curious so read your surgery wish list, and dont worry I'll sort you out. With my old trusty chainsaw, don't worry it won't hurt much😈 I hope you start feeling better soon ❤❤ gives you a giant tiny hug ❤
My brain is floating tonight...
@slowdecline48 floating🤔🤔🤔 like all over the place? Drugs?? Or are you on a aeroplane??
It was grogginess, as I had just woke up...plus drugs, yeah. Cough syrup will do it to ya. It felt nice, actually.
@Tinywhisper11 Do people still say "aeroplane" in Great Britain?? 🤣 In America, that word was out of fashion by the mid-1950's!...
@slowdecline48 I have no idea 🤔🤔 actually I don't hear people say aeroplane except me🤔🤔 it's not my fault, I'm still learning about the world. 😎
😂😂😂😂😂
Hang out with me & you'll learn all kinds of stuff, honey... 😈
@slowdecline48 jesus on toast😂😂😂😂😂 so far that's what I've learnt from you ❤😂😂😂😂
Not much to report other than miscellanea...
- How boring do you have to be as a person for the last part of a dream, before waking, to be yourself munching on Triscuit crackers....right out of the box? My dreams have f**king product placement now. 🤦🏼♂️ I can remember when my dreams were actually exciting...
- Am mostly better than than I was last week...physically, that is. "Better" is relative, of course, when you're chronic. My usual conditions are still in effect.
- Been wanting to do more stuff in polymer clay lately. I will if I can gather sufficient energy.
- Still need to practice lettering.
- Re the Israeli-Arab conflict: I lean more rightward than I've been in years. Not just because of the Gaza war...that was the catalyst for my getting fed up with a few problems that have long aggravated not just Israel, but the US & the West in general. You probably don't want me to get started on this because I have a lot to say & some of it is, shall we say, impolite...but it is the truth as I know it to be.
- A song is in my head these days: It Ain't All Flowers by Sturgill Simpson. I'm not usually a country music fan but this guy is good. You can hear it here as well as on YouRube. The latter platform has some great live performances.
@slowdecline48 I'm not a big country fan either but this is a pretty good song - guess I just wanted to share it with you lol
@mytwistedsoul happy Valentine's day ❤ I love you ❤
@Tinywhisper11 Hey you ❤️ Thank you! Happy Valentine's Day to you too! Lots of love to you Tiny ❤️
Thank you for sharing that. It is the blue-collar anthem of the 21st century.
There's one little detail that Oliver Anthony is wrong about, in the line "Livin' in a new world / With an old soul", in that most of what he sings about is nothing new. Those issues are old as the d***ed hills. In the first city-states of Sumer there were men who made bricks out of mud (most of what there was to work with was dirt & mud), lots of farmers--& only one "big man" who ruled the city-state. With each petty king was his administration...technically they were priests but in fact they were the government bureaucracy. Most city-states had one or two banks, & those banks were family businesses. Those guys didn't have to worry about their next meal; they had access to money; they could have their luxuries. Whereas ditchdiggers & brickmakers subsisted on a diet of bread, beer*, & onions. Meat was a rare treat.
The bureaucrat-priests of Lagash, Kish, Ur, etc. never had to get their hands dirty. Nor did the guys who ran those primitive banking operations...ditchdiggers, brickmakers, farmers could live their entire lives without holding a silver or gold coin in their hands. And all that was over 5,000 years ago.
Ditto for Egypt, later Greece, Rome, etc. all the way to now. The only real changes have been technology, & the rise of billionaires whose fortunes are not tied to one specific country.
*By modern standards, Sumerian beer sucked. They didn't brew with hops; they didn't have hops or even know about it. Think of barley-flavored, used dish-water that is slightly fizzy.
@slowdecline48 yaaay! Polymer clay is fun, I've only used it once though, actually I don't think I still have the left over clay🤔🤔 I made a Xmas candy bowl😁 I'm actually a country music fan, but mostly 90s country. And I know absolutely nothing about wars, politics, and anything that's gonna upset and scare me. I like to live in my own happy little bubble😁❤
@Tinywhisper11 If you haven't clicked it yet, I'm pretty sure that link would not scare you. It goes to SoundCloud. And Sturgill Simpson isn't scary at all.
As for me, politics is something I have to know about...if only so I have a realistic idea of what the future will bring.
@slowdecline48 oh it's a safe link ❤ ❤ yourube doesn't scare me, I'm just not allowed to use it ❤
I live country music 🎶 🤠
Clay will be super fun!!
A cautionary tale for us in the West. This is what happens when inflation gets out of control:
"'Silver is the new gold' as Egyptians try to protect savings"
[The link goes to an investing.com article]
@slowdecline48 do you worry about money?? I get disability benefits and living costs from the government, I don't have a bank account. I'm not allowed one. So I don't even know how much I get. I guess when you have to work to live its much different. I feel sorry for all those who work so damn! Hard, just to barely get by in life😥 it's heartbreaking, and makes me feel kinda guilty.
happy Valentine's day btw ❤❤ I love you ❤
@Tinywhisper11 To an extent, yes. These days I worry more about expenses than anything else. In the last three years I've been hit by inflation as much as anyone else in my country. Money just doesn't go as far as it used to. We're all trying to stretch our dollars as far as they will go.
My situation is...odd. Am not gonna go into specifics--that's going too far for 7Cups--but while I'm not desperately poor, I am not particularly wealthy by American standards. (In this country, even a %age of the poorest people have cars & TVs) I'm disabled, & have been for a while now. Meniére's, chronic tendinitis & depression (partly caused by the first two conditions) mess me up...IBS & allergies don't help matters. My work history is terrible. If I lose the apartment I'm in, I don't know what I'll do...hit the streets, I guess.
It's too bad you're not allowed to have a savings account. You once said that my photos are the only way you get to see the world. Are you allowed to leave your place at all?... I get the impression it's a communal sort of place. Are there a lot of people living in the care home? If so, you must not have very much privacy.
@slowdecline48 you can come stay here with me 😁 I'll clean out the basement bodies for you ❤😎 it's actually a old folks nursing home I live in. I'm only 23 so it's not ideal, but they had to find a safe place fast for me ❤ and I love all the elderly people here ❤❤ this nursing home is a mansion with a huge enclosed garden. There's only 12 residents here including me. I can go out, but supervised. But I'm to scared to. My life is simple, and kinda boring but I'm so happy to be here😁❤ and there's lots of security cameras, and we have security guards who only let people come through the garden gates if they have a special card. After 18 years I was finally free, but I'm still not completely free, or will ever be completely safe, it sucks. But donkey balls
Think I'm spending a bit too much time on here...might have to stay out for a while. Tonight is the 2nd time I came across a post that I just had to comment on because I found it oblivious, to put it politely... Before that I read a rant post by a teenage girl who went through some horrific treatment I'm pretty sure she did nothing to deserve. She shouldn't be in--or go into--that situation & the perpetrators should be behind bars. Am not posting specifics because they're triggering to quite a few Cupsians, & I don't know who will read this.
I responded with some careful advice. After second thoughts, I scrounged some info online & added some links for the girl to follow. Haven't seen any response...hopefully she's seen it by now. She isn't in her right mind herself, so who can say when she will log in again.
...so now I'm in a foul mood tonight.
Don't get the wrong idea. By now I have a few friends here..."online friends", if that counts. There are some great people here; the volunteers are a dedicated bunch from what I've seen thus far. 7C is a good place for its purpose. But I've been hanging out in here for too long. And my apartment looks like 💩. Maybe I can make it slightly more civilized...if my body cooperates.
@slowdecline48 don't be sad ❤ we can only do so much to help some people. I've seen a lot of your responses to people here and your so sweet and caring ❤ there are lots of people with tragic stories here, it breaks my heart too. I guess spending to much time in here isn't great for our health, but on the other hand we are not exactly healthy people, we have chronic pain and need a escape. A place where we can be ourselves and make friends ❤ but yes dirty pig😁 go clean your apartment😁😁😁 I would clean my room, but I have cleaners😋 although I do need to clean my windows🤔🤔 but then again privacy is important🤔🤔 so I'll just leave them😂😂😂😂😂
@Tinywhisper11 I'm not sure which kid your talking about, I try to support so many people, so many teens on here are going through some real tough times😥 it's heartbreaking we can only do what we can do ❤❤ gives you a giant tiny hug ❤
One thing you should never forget: No matter how large & terrible our problems become, there is usually a way to solve them. If they cannot be solved then there is a way to ameliorate them. There may be more than one way. We just have to figure it out.
Perhaps the above has to be held as almost an article of faith in order for it to work...I dunno for sure.
Isn't it strange how every so often, you have a dream that gives you a lesson...perhaps a lesson you once knew but forgot--it's easy to forget. Life has its distractions--or a lesson that, because of those insistent distractions & the usual bulls***, you lose sight of. That's the key: focus. See your problem for what it is, do all the research you need, figure out a plan to solve (or at least reduce) that problem, & stick to the plan.
As African-Americans used to say, "keep your eyes on the prize".
It is especially important when, through the years, perhaps just by following your purpose & instincts, the problems become a cage you live inside of.
I'll be back when I come back.
@slowdecline48 Take care
@slowdecline48 what dream did you have?? Are you feeling trapped??please come back soon ❤ I love you ❤
