Good morning, there, friend. How are you this fine Thursday? Doing all right? Make it through Wednesday? I hope so. I had a rough Wednesday. I made a dumb mistake at work, or, rather, discovered I had made one a while back. That sucked. I hate making mistakes at work. They remind you you’re not perfect and amazing and better than everyone else and who wants to feel that way. It brings me down for a good long while, making a mistake. I’ll probably continue to feel down about it today. Then, I discovered that I have some sort of wound on my knee. It’s hard to explain. It’s as if a new funny bone emerged, on the surface of my knee, and if I just tap it in a weird way, or kneel on it, even on carpet, or just sort of roll on it, it stings and hurts for like twenty minutes. It’s very close to where the bruise ended from my torn adductor muscles, so I feel like maybe it’s related? But I can’t imagine how? I’ve been gearing up to start going to PT because of the muscle rip, so I suppose this is just one more reminder to go, but, god, I don’t need another reminder about how my body is falling apart. Also I’m very tired of waking up and all my fingers being stiff and in pain what is up with that. Getting old sucks it’s not fun I am tired of it. Bring on Benjamin Button.
On top of all that they cancelled the Dead Can Dance show in New York that they’ve been postponing for, like, a year and a half now and I was really looking forward to that. In, like, another year. That makes me sad. I’m consoling myself by listening to Live from Théâtre St-Denis, Montreal, October 2nd, 2005. It is awesome. Dead Can Dance are awesome. Hopefully they reschedule.
Wow only four more of these GMHHAY’s to go until 500 that is pretty crazy.
Read this very interesting article about the state and local tax deduction — the SALT deduction — that Trump capped and how even though he did it for the wrong reasons, that a SALT cap was a good thing if you were a progressive. It was pretty compelling, I buy it.
Property taxes are a large non-federal tax bill for many American homeowners. And the largest benefits of the deduction go to homeowners with the highest property taxes: residents of middle-class and wealthy communities that impose higher taxes to fund local priorities like better schools.
Consequently, places that can afford those higher taxes end up with better schools. When the unlimited SALT deduction was in place, the federal government essentially gave up being paid taxes by the homeowners in wealthy neighborhoods so that those homeowners could fund those better schools.
I’d never really thought about it that way, but it makes perfect sense.
Took some pictures in the dark before bed last night, gotta say, the camera on this new phone is definitely even better than the old one in the pitch black:
Hrm yeah I don’t really feel up for writing this thing today. I suppose my bad mood from yesterday evening is carrying through a little bit, that is kind of sad. Last night I was telling Emma about how sometimes I go a little crazy doing the exact same thing, day after day. Not in some big, existential way, but in a little way, like when you think of a word and that word, that you use all the time, suddenly sounds like the weirdest word ever. Ted Lasso knows what I’m talking about:
Only I feel it these days with acts. My god I can’t believe I am cracking these eggs in the exact same way again. My god, how am I pulling this off. My god, how is this happening. Crack the egg on the counter edge, pull it in halves, dump it in the pan, raise egg to drop most of the whites into the pan, cup each drip with the other half of the egg till there’s no more drip, stack one half in the other half, repeat with the next egg. I’ve done this over 1,500 times during this pandemic. I used to be sloppy with my egg cracking, drips would get everywhere. Not any more, I got that shit down.
Yesterday I was thinking “man, I did this breakfast perfectly today.” The waffles were cut perfect, the eggs looked perfect, were cut perfectly, the banana was just the right amount of ripe. I was so proud of it.
Then I went on to make like six stupid mistakes with my lunch. I put the chopped basil in the walk at the beginning and not the end. I mean come on.
Most people it seems like are completely over this, they are out in the world again, at least occasionally. Even occasionally is enough to snap you out of this hypnosis, I think. Emma was like “but you brush your teeth every day, even if you’re not in lockdown” and I was explaining that even if you brush your teeth at a different sink, like, once a month, or even if there is just an idea that you might brush your teeth at a different sink, that’s enough to break the spell, to not make it seem like plaaaan plaaaan plaaan anymore. Semantic satiation they call it, it seems. Who knew.
And it gets to a point where you stop thinking everyone else else crazy for going out, but rather that you’re the crazy one.
But two more friends told me their kids god Covid yesterday, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
One of the landscapers came by yesterday and re-did our mulch for the fall. Emma has a whole system designed to have our very very goth much arrive just before she starts getting serious about the outdoor halloween decor, and I gotta say black mulch is just the best. So goth. Must pull on bangs.
Every day is halloween, etc. etc.
I gotta stop eating these Icebreakers mints it’s fucking ridiculous. Someone send The Mad Russian over ASAP. It’s amazing how I can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and get addicted to stupid mints after quitting nicotine. Curse addictive personalities, curse aging, curse this body, curse this head.
Also good ole uncle joe doesn’t want to use the filibuster to raise the debt limit. Joe Manchin is being his regular ole dick, Mitch McConnell is sitting smug and pretty watching the Dems continue to be idiots. It does not seem to be an obvious circumstance of the debt limit that the public will immediately blame the Republicans just because they did the last two times. Dems control all three branches, Dems need to get this shit done. Everyone seems very sanguine.
Okay okay I will just stop. Let’s do a mix. A moody and quiet one because what else are we going to listen to today at least we’re not listening to Disintegration on repeat. I love “Extra Ordinary” by Ultra Vivid Scene so much. I love the two-part chorus of “not quite like all the rest” and “but you are.” I love the play between extraordinary and extra-ordinary. It seems to be a song talking between two people but I consider it an internal dialogue. I remember so vividly when that song came out, summer of 1990. I was hanging out with these two older friends, I worshipped the ground they walked on, I was probably like their little pet, I thought we all had some beautiful friendship, turned out they were, quite reasonably, dating, and for some stupid reason that really upset me, not like I had a crush on the girl. It was super weird and melodramatic of me and embarrassing and 18 year-olds have so much emotion and it always adds a nice extra level of mortification when I listen to that song, god, I was such a drama queen and look here I am nearing fifty and I still am woooo!
I’ll be better tomorrow! Promise! Bye!