An Unplanned Absence...

Due to circumstances beyond our control, I find myself on a brief vacance from writing. I just have too much real world stuff going on to find the headspace to compose anything more than another list.

Let me recommend some very good reading while I'm away (it won't be forever, just a few more days)- Nick Mason's autobio Inside Out, a history of Pink Floyd is hilarious and sympathetic and insightful.

The Westies, Inside Hell's Kitchen's Irish Mob by TJ English, is a pretty darn good little history about the real guys in "Goodfellas" who happen to have been my neighborhood locals back in the day.

AND our own Susan has her first book launching!!!!!
http://susan-swiderski.blogspot.com/
so definitely check her out.

I'm so sorry for this dereliction of duty, but there is a time for everything and right now is not a time to write. Thankfully my editor is alright with that, too.

Okay, see you soon!!! xo

The Windy Moon

So today is my 50-somethingeth birthday and everything has been hash from about 3 a.m. on. There is no time for anything because the Comcast guy got here an hour BEFORE schedule, which put the rest of the day in a tailspin. Celebrating birthday? No, because I have other things that have to be done that were going to be done earlier but got pushed back. The next 45 minutes are open. Whoopee.

Bright spot of the day- Niecely sent me a backup computer,. My Myrtle BeachSisInLaw directed them to send me her former laptop, so I'll have no excuse to not be online anymore. :) Nephew cleaned it up and put something in it so that if it goes haywire he can fix it. And Niecely cross stitched a portrait from the pic of Greg and me from last birthday. I don't even know how she did it, but it's utterly beautiful. It must've taken days and days to do. Absolutely love it. When Stevil gets a pic of it I'll post it.

Not to be entirely complaining, I had 81 emails with various happy birthday wishes. And then Facebook too. I managed to get the official FB notification wiped off but that didn't entirely work. One person wishes a HB, the crowd goes, "eh?" and there's a stampede of personal messages. :D It's lovely, really. Just overwhelming on a stressful day.

Anyway, yes, I'm alive. And another year's on the ageometer. And the internet/computer is mostly working, and the cable channels are back with my "free month" gone. I'm very grateful to my friends, especially Steve West of Fearless Computing (802 387 0058), for their support and for getting me a working computer after Sunny blew up, for next to nothing. I'm getting used to Windows XP and IE8, and all will be well after this full moon is over.

We also got notice that the BHA will be coming in here on the 2nd to measure the place for raising up the baseboard heaters, water heater, electric sockets and installing flood gates. When they do the actual work we'll be tossed out of our homes again. That's the morning after Strider and new puppy will be coming in late, too. The one damn morning we'll want to laze around and the first time I'll have seen her since Thanksgiving and the very first time I'll meet new puppy. Bastids. My life is so full of them.

Yes, and I blame this full moon for how things are and how I feel today. It's the Wind Moon. Everything is a rush, everything is a priority, everything will piss you off. In the old days, this is the work day from Hell that ended by going home with a "fat boy" bottle of wine and a liquid dinner that ended in an early bedtime.

Well, I have 12 minutes free until the next thing I have to do. Then something else at 6. About 7:30 I'll be free to have something to eat and then start working on my column that's due tomorrow. I figure by the time that's done I'll be a right bitch, and it'll be time to go to bed.

Meh, birthdays are overrated anyway.

Cynicism Pisses Me Off

This is a re-post.
There are plenty of things to be pissed off about these days. But nothing, nothing pisses me off like cynicism. Because it kills everything good. Like self-pity, it destroys everything else but itself. And it does so smugly. Think about that. I'm not original in saying that. It's just true.

Oh it's all so grand and easy to sit back like a know it all and proclaim actions worthless. And declare all the cowardly spineless reasons why one shouldn't be bothered. "That's the way it is; they have all the control," "Nothing will come of it, it'll be covered up and the corruption will go on." Yes it will, if that's all you have to say. It takes effort to change things, in case you hadn't noticed. But it's so much easier to be a fucking do-nothing critic, isn't it? Just tut-tut and throw out some meek half-wittiness and sit back in your own complacent, superior enabling.

Well I'm not having it. I'm sick to hell of my generation's excuses. If you don't want a fight and are willing to let things stay in the shitty shape they are, have at it. But not me. And don't bring me down with your hopeless demoralizing diaper-dipping, either. I'll rip a new one for you. Lead, follow or get out of the way. I'm no leader but I'll be damned before I join the wallowing whining bunch of nay-saying lazy shits who shake their heads with self-congratulatory cynicism.

A Little Better All the Time

This is what we should see way more of on our streets

Ah, Spring. Part Deux

It's an icy mess out there this morning, with a steady downpour of sleet. It'll be nice out one of these days... this isn't one of them.

Since I promised Geo. I'd post when, my column for Vermont Views is up:
http://www.vermontviews.org/vermontviews.org/Stones_of_Years.html

And aside from a litany of complaints and grouses, I got nothing. Maybe later. Think Spring-y thoughts!