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October 16, 2024: What if?

What if a day didn’t go as planned? Most of mine have gone as planned, so I don’t know why I fret so much. I bypass fretting by listening to maudlin music.

I like music in which there is a strong, stupid narrative. Twice on the radio now I’ve heard the song “Love is a Garage Sale.” This one is right up there with “Someone Left my Cake out in the Rain” and “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road.”

Such things make me laugh, and laughter supersedes fretting, at least momentarily.

Today I also heard on the radio that one way to deal with anxiety is to go see movies that incite fear. This way you project your fears and come out less fearful. This to me makes no sense at all. The best way, also, to deal with fear is to face it.


The one exception to this is on airplanes. The best you can do is hope for the best, but if you don’t believe in hope, just kiss your ass goodbye and wait and see what the outcome might be.

It was a good day today. It started out rainy but cleared up somewhat midmorning. The temperature is dropping – out come the heavy coats, the gloves, the thick wool socks. The leaves on the trees are now gone – well hey just two months until the winter solstice and this will come quickly.

I wonder if time is speeding up for everyone, or it’s just those of a certain age. I think that it could be speeding up for everyone – we now are all busy and have made short work of things that slow us down, like dial telephones, typewriters, gas pumps, and the like. Have labor and time saving devices done us any good? I think not. I think we should all ditch the cell phones.

I went swimming – I’m now really working out. And there is that reward, a plunge into the hot tub. The problem is that hot tub is not hot enough. I have to see if I can find the thermostat and do something about it.

I next went to physical therapy, my second time. Holly and I went over my exercises and then she showed me how to lift things, using a crate. I sort of knew this but now I really know this.

I went to distribute Leap into Literacy fliers today and lo and behold, I discovered yet another discrepancy, this one a typo. It said Bright Lights Book Prooject. I tried to rationalize my pinning up these fliers, telling myself that no one would notice. But in realizing that this is painfully evident, I stopped distributing and I returned to the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel and resumed sorting books. It was a peaceful, meditative, quiet, contemplative time. It’s fun, having people come in, but I most prefer being alone, particularly when I have a great deal to do.

And tomorrow I have a great deal to do.

Next: 282. 10/17/24: Life on Planet Earth

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