180225

So much, so many, so distended.... It's beyond my ability to think about how long it's been since the last post - yes, the total asshole has somehow managed to fool some of the people all of the time and is back in residence, this time armed to the rotten teeth with all branches of the goverment ridiculously listening and kootowing to his whims and fantasies, as he goes about his agenda of destroying this country. Perhaps enough rejection of stupidity will command the needed few required to halt his madness, but with the present state of corruption this commits to dream. Will this US of A survive this onslaught? Time will tell, but it doesn't look good.

And, let's give passing comment on my own travails - not travels, although I've had a few in the interim. But the list of turmoils and torments and afflictions seems more pressing - I haven't looked over the past posts, but if I haven't mentioned it, I have multiple myeloma, which is a cancer, and am being treated so far successfully. But, (it needs a spreadsheet) I've had a series of extended periods in the hospital for varied cataclysms to my health. First to mention is a bout of chicken pox - like the bone marrow transplant, I was a month in the hospital and it took a week before they knew that's what I had. Then they needed to outfit themselves in full hazmat togs.

Then, pneumonia. Another month. Several needed treatments, including drainage and horrific episodes, since I was bedridden, of diarrhea, and no response was ever quick enough to control it. Yeah, good times. Presently, I'm again in stir with a rather interesting if dastardly infection in my right foot. And, most of the time I'm just hanging around waiting for them to actually do something. Yeah, good times.

My other thoughts at this point - I return to that pensive realm as I continue to hope I last long enough to remember what my mother, who was prone to offbeat and quirky phrases and terms, called the sort of wonderfully clear, blue, and cloudless sky that we're quite enjoying today, after a bout of heavy snow and sleet. The only thing that comes to my mind and idiot memory is 'bombardier sky' which cannot possibly be correct. She was a Rhode Island native, and they already have strange and individual terms for many things, but she also had an as quirky mother, dear Elena, which might be where she happened upon calling a urination 'making a puddle'.

Anyway, like I said, I hope to have some sort of revelation about her love of the clear blue sky, and her distinct name for it.

090417

Holy teufel.... Time passed with miraculous speed, didn't it? What the hell have I been doing? Not that much, all things considered. Spending money. Still working, so I can still spend money. The old man finally kicked. The remaining family ( myself and two sisters) took his ashes back to the hunting grounds, New London, where he actually meant something to somebody, and now he's fertilizer in the rough off the eighteenth fairway at the golf course, helping keep the shrubs alive in back of the Thames Club, and feeding the crabs in the harbor. He's also upping the ante somewhere in Vegas, but I wasn't part of that trip. Most likely, any chance of a windfall from his estate has been usurped by his second family, and, why not? They took care of his incontinent carcass while it still had some biological activity. Myself, hard to say but honest, I'd said goodbye to him many years ago, as I realized he'd no longer have anything to elucidate either of our knowledges of each other. Should there be some sort of law that realizes dwindling capacity? Did the inuits really send their injured and old off on undestinated ice floes? Good idea, that? What's more immoral: charity or empathy? Now we have a selected occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania who embodies uselessness, greed, graft, and dishonesty. These are the new usanian standards. The example being shown is one of selfishness, mendacity, hubris, and pettiness. Oh boy.... I'd take the job of getting rid of the asshole, too, offered enough money- got more chance of success then winning the lottery, after all. It's truly amazing that millions of people think an idiot could do anything constructive. Too late to join any trip to Mars, but, please, let's go.

061814

Blimey, it's been a long time. Still working. Still living. The usual pains and tribulations. If we learn anything, it's that every day is another example of injustice, and that our attempts at any real justice are hampered by typical incompetence, sloth, and the relentless pursuit of the status quo. So, please vote for the last guy, whoever he or she is. The rest of 'em are cogs in the machine, especially here in Massachusetts.

We aren't allowed to see what's coming, but we shouldn't be allowed to not know what's happening, either.

111713

So many months. So many hours. So many things I'll never talk about. I suppose the main thing is I'm still walking around. Lots of others walking around, of course. Even lots of others, as I, walking with cancer, somewhat at bay. Hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep me walking. There's some consolation- I'm gainfully employed and doing some good in the world. I'm still an opinionated bastard, sure. Opinions don't get cancer. And even if they did, I'd make sure to keep mine alive.

080112

Long time away. Long roads taken. Diagnosed with multiple myeloma and underwent the full stem cell transplant procedure, which meant chemo and desperate days of pain and discomfort. We'll see how it all pans out- there is no cure, and many treatments only last months to years, and then you need more. I don't relish going through the transplant again, but if that's what it takes, that's what it takes.

012711

Oh boy. Oh yeah. Re-employed as an IT wage slave for the School Department, where the central system is benighted windoze and most of the elementary facilities are sainted Apple. Go figure. So, sure, Active Directory is everywhere, and it sucks in its usual fashion. But it does keep the µ$oft stockholm syndromed zombies happy, I guess, if it does munge things up in the productivity department. But then again, that's what windoze is known for, halting progress, ain't it?

Meanwhile, we've seen three snow days, just in this month alone, and the snowfall depths are moving up at a record pace. Nice job, there, global warming- adding more moisture to the air so that my car will remain unseen until April....

121510

Well, damned if I ain't back in the between swim of the great unwashed. Yeah, laid off again. Happens too damn often to too damn many of us. There's a nicely bitter perspective that nonetheless rings true- they don't really give a flying you know what about you, you as a person, you as a fellow human being, you as a committed element of the organization. Yea, verily, it was not all transcoded to 'Human Resources' for naught, now, was it? 'Personnel' actually has the word 'person' in it, so, hmmm, can't have that. Better that we adopt a philosophy of simply relegating our employees to patterns of spreadsheets and items on ledgers. And, once they're out the door, no need to look upon them further. Yeah, today's corporate joyride.

So, keeping those cards and letters flowing, and also keeping the budget in full view, something I really don't have any talent for- I'm more apt to not notice money, besides carefully marking out that repulsively unconstitutional slogan on the back of the bills....

And, before all this disaster, we had a great time in Rome, getting to mostly all the usual tourist haunts. Had a really funky hotel just off the federal building area near the Borghese. Comfortable little neighborhood area. Romans are immediately friendly folks, and most spoke english, but, you know, the stereotype is correct, you can simply speak with your hands for lots of things. Most singly interesting area we got to was the Trastevere.