George R. Shirer's Blog, page 9

Getting Older is Weird

Getting older is weird.Last night it was 34 degrees outside. Rainy. Windy.Inside, I was sweating beneath my blankets, tossing and turning, unable to get comfortable.Apparently, I have reached that stage of life where my body temperature becomes somewhat erratic. It is most irritating at night, as I'm trying to sleep.I've learned to go to bed wearing layers. And if I get hot, I take something off until I'm comfy.Of course, inevitably, I get chilly but I don't put layers back on. I refuse to do that. Don't ask me why. Call it willfullness or capriciousness on my part. I don't know. But instead of putting clothes back on, I'll just huddle beneath the blankets until I go back to sleep.Getting older is weird.

Prayers

Who do you pray to?Whoever will listen.What do you pray for?Whatever I want.What if you don't get what you ask for?Then I don't get it.What if you do get what you ask for?Then the world changes.

Worse Ways to Spend Ones Time

This evening I finished reading Sir Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!
I've read it before, more than once, as with most of the Discworld books, but this time I reread it as a reaction to having watched the terrible BBC America show The Watch.  It's a fantasy show 'based' upon Sir Terry's books and focusing on the characters from the Ank-Morpork City Watch.  Sadly, the only thing the show has in common with the books, are names. Everything else is different and just bad. (You know something is Truly Awful when a word is not only italicized but italicized in BOLD.)
After watching The Watch I wanted to cleanse my mental palate. So I've reread Guards!Guards! and enjoyed it immensely. That's the nice thing about good books that bear up over time. When you return to them, as you inevitably do, reading them is like visiting with beloved old friends. It was nice to meet Captain Vimes, Sgt. Colon, Nobby, Carrot and Lady Sybil again for the first time. And I had completely forgotten about Lord Vetinari and the rats. (I don't believe Sir Terry ever did anything else with that in other books. Did he?)
The only problem is that, now I have the horrible urge to go and reread all the other Discworld books. Including the later ones where Sir Terry got a bit preachy and heavy-handed.
I suppose there are worse ways to spend ones time.

Nothing to see here...

 I have no idea what to write today so I shall not write anything. :P

The Girl in the Ashes

I built a shrine to you,to praise you,to raise you up,and you ignored it.Until I set it afire,catching your eye,your pyromaniac's heart.You wanted to know,"What will you do next?"But I just walked away,leaving you with nothingbut ashes.

Making the best of what I've got.

Today is Candlemass. Or Imbolc. Or St. Brigid's Day. Or the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.Or the Festival of Torches.Whatever you want to call it.At the moment, we're in a liminal space, the dreamtime between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Once upon a time, people would use the weather on this day to predict the coming of spring. If the day was clear and sunny, winter would linger. However, if the day was overcast and rainy, it meant that spring was on the way.If that's the case, then spring is definitely on the way for me.  It's been pissing down rain here all day. The back yard is drenched.No worries, though. I have sequestered myself in my bedroom with a bottle of Italian sparkling wine, some lit candles, fragrant incense and good music.So, even if the weather outside is crappy, the environment inside is quite lovely.I'm making the best of what I've got.I suppose there are worse lessons to take away from this particular day.

One step forward, two steps back.

I'm sitting here, watching Classic Doctor Who, and feeling like I'm twelve.  When I was twelve, Saturday nights usually consisted of soda, chips and watching Doctor Who and Blake's 7 on my local PBS channel. Back then, PBS didn't censor the shows. I saw my first boobs while watching Riley: Ace of Spies.  Nowadays, whoever's running my local PBS channel pixelates risque pictures in the background. The less said about how they edit some of the shows the better.To me, it seems stupid and wasteful. It costs money to edit content. Money that I'm sure could be put toward better things than protecting the ridiculous oversensitivies of a bunch of prudes. I could understand if the nudity and language were tasteless, but we're talking PBS here, not Cinemax.It just seems to me, lately, that, as our society takes a tentative step forward, we're then forced to take two steps back.It's all very frustrating.

Sleep like the proverbial dead...

 I think I'm coming down with a cold. And since you're supposed to feed a cold and starve a fever, I have bought a box of crackers and a bottle of wine and will feed my cold into the ground. Also, I have a nice scented candle burning and some incense, so my bedroom smells wonderfully relaxing, of coconut and lavender.  I imagine between the scents and the wine, I shall sleep like the proverbial dead tonight.

Gluttony

The chips were tempting.I have no one else to blame.The bag is empty.

Happiness

Happiness Is a bird in a cage,Built in the darkestChamber of The heart,Beating its wings,Desperate to escapeInto the light.