1103

 Thursday, November 3, 2022

In bed at 9:30, grouchy, up at 6:05, 3 or 4 pss, no vino.  Cool outside but a high of 72 expected.   A little neuropathy in toes on right foot again. Thoughts of Yeats' Vacillation.

Things said or done long years ago,

Or things I did not do or say

But thought that I might say or do,

Weigh me down, and not a day

But something is recalled,

My conscience or my vanity appalled.

My haunting poem.  Judgment Day a mirror.  Vicki Conte's dad, daily mass & communion, guilt, fear.

Posted on FB this morning

for marilyn m.

By: Charles Bukowski

slipping keenly into bright ashes,

target of vanilla tears

your sure body lit candles for men

on dark nights,

and now your night is darker

than the candle’s reach

and we will forget you, somewhat,

and it is not kind

but real bodies are nearer

and as the worms pant for your bones,

I would so like to tell you

that this happens to bears and elephants

to tyrants and heroes and ants

and frogs,

still, you brought us something,

some type of small victory,

and for this I say: good

and let us grieve no more; 

like a flower dried and thrown away,

we forget, we remember,

we wait.  child, child, child,

I raise my drink a full minute

and smile.

This is a poem that Bukowski wrote shortly after Marilyn Monroe's death. You can find it one of his best books of poetry called Burning in Water Drowning in Flame, Selected Poems 1955-1973

Thoughts of Marilyn Monroe, Janis Joplin, Sylvia Plath, Karen Carpenter

Our Town

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer's car stolen in Walker's Point

According to crime statistics provided by MPD, a record 10,480 vehicle thefts occurred in the city in 2021. As of Tuesday, there have been 7,017 vehicle thefts in 2022, which is down 21% year-to-date from 2021.

Pelosi Attacker an Illegal Immigrant - a Canadian!!!

Too good to be true - a Canadian illegal!  More proof, if any we needed, about the inherent criminality of Canadians coming to the United States.  Time to get serious about banning Canadians from our purple mountains and fruited plains.  And no surprise, he's from that hotbed of criminality British Columbia, home of crime-ridden Vancouver and sin city Victoria.  Time to close our borders to Canadians, and yes, that includes all those dangerous snowbirds down in Florida and Arizona.  Enough is enough!  Let them know we mean business!!!

Donald Hall, Essays After Eighty

Physical Malfitness:  Exercise hurts, as well it might, since by choice and for my pleasure, I didn't do it for eighty years. (Once in my 50s I walked four miles.)  . . . Exercise is boring.  Everything is boring that does not happen in a chair or bed.  Sculptors and painters and musicians live longer than writers, who exercise only their fingers with a pen or on a keyboard.   Sculptors chisel or weld or mold clay.  Painters work standing up.  They drink tons of cognac every night but return to physical activity the next morning.  A tuba player holds a weighty object and breaths deeply.  Even a harmonica requires more fitness than writing.

    People have tried to encourage my mobility. . . . I sit on my ass all day writing in longhand, which my helper types up.  Sometimes in a car I would pass Pancake Road, two miles away, and see a man walking his collie,  the dog stepping out on his forepaws, two wheels harnessed to his backside.  These days I no longer drive past Pancake Road or anywhere.  I push two wheels ahead of me instead of pulling two wheels behind me like the dog.  With my forepaws holding the handles of my four-wheeled roller, my 

buckling hindquarters slowly shove my carcass forward.  I drool as I walk, and now and then I sniff a tree.

    As I entered my mid-seventies, my legs weakened and it became treacherous to walk on uneven ground. [I hired a trainer.]  Twice a week we walked together around a wooden track for cardio.  We talked.  Then for another 15 minutes I attempted fitness and balance.  Balance was a major problem.  [The trainer] showed me how to get up when I fall down. 

Cable Confusion and Printer Woes

After some persisting problems with our internet service and with our cable service, both provided by Spectrum, formerly Time Warner, we switched to YouTubeTV.  When I called Spretrum to cancel the cable service and mentioned the problems with internet outages, the Spectrum rep named 'Asia', during a 38 minute conversation, informed me that she could get my combined Spectrum bill of $305 per month down to $235.32, and then down to $157.96,  along with the new, improved faster internet service and new modem and router to replace my current ones rented under our 'grandfather agreement,' whatever the means.  I agreed to try the new arrangement, able to cancel at any time and stick with YouTubeTV.  I installed the new modem and router yesterday, successfully, insofar as our computers and iPhones and iPads are connected with the internet and the televisions and landline telephone all work fine.  Plus I can access Spectrum cable tv via streaming on Samsun and Roku.  Ditto YouTubeTV.  The problem is I still can connect with our 'wireless' HP printer. We went through a log of trouble in my work area in the basement to move the modem and router away from the corner next to the cinder block foundation wall, and tried to connect with the new location.  No luck.  Tomorrow is another day, Scarlett.  And tomorrow Sarah flies into O'Hare and drives to Milwaukee, perhaps to save our day, one way or the other.  And, BTW, we were still billed the $305 on November 1, and Spectrum's email to me after I returned 3 cable boxes and the old modem/router says my new monthly rate is $191.18.  More calls necessary and may end up going with YouTubeTV, Spectrum internet (ATT fiber not available here), and Spectrum phone service.  Life didn't used to be this complicated (and costly.)

The Great George Booth Has Died.  Alas.