On occasion, I either put myself into a hole timing wise, have writers block, or just haven’t put the time and energy in to thinking about what I should write for my weekly offering. This week I am guilty of all three. You people pay good money for this little slice of heaven every Monday morning, and you deserve better. I will keep trying. For now, here’s a little stream of consciousness…
Not the Speaker of the House
The House GOP remains a clown-car, and heaven only knows how much damage the party is doing with voters. My GUESS is that the answer is…not much…as the more I think about modern American politics the more convinced I am that fewer and fewer people really give a damn. In a just world, this kind of incompetence would be punished, but we don’t live in a just world. There was talk early in the week about the Lunatic Fringe 8 offering to suffer whatever penalty their comrades thought appropriate if they just “came together” and supported Jim Jordan as the Speaker. The irony of this group, still with Kevin McCarthy’s entrails dripping from their mouths, looking for party kumbaya, was rich. I was almost wishing for a Jim Jordan speakership, so that the still-in-possession-of-their-self respect-caucus could make his life miserable. They instead chose to make it miserable up front and deny him the job. I have no idea how this turns out, and my patience for the circus is waning.
By the way, seven of the nine announced candidates for the Speakership voted to de-certify the results of the 2020 election.
Hallmark Christmas Movies
That’s right folks, it is that time of year again, and from what I can tell, it is going to be a blockbuster year for fans of true cinema. For the low-low price of $8.99 a month I subscribe to FrndlyTV which offers me prolly four separate channels (two Hallmark, one Lifetime and one Great American Christmas) that are pretty much all Christmas all the time. Because I keep to the traditional November 1 start of the Christmas season, I have to put up with haters who think things don’t start until after Thanksgiving. This is nonsense. Thanksgiving is the capstone event of the November portion of the Christmas season. Getting the movies started in the last week of October MAY BE a little bit of a head start, but who am I to argue?
Let’s be honest with each other folks. We’re kind of living in the age of suck. Wars breaking out. The stock market blows. Pete Davidson is famous. Sitting down by a warm fire to spend two hours watching attractive people in homey towns fall in love with Christmas as a backdrop is…well…a useful way to stay sane and grounded.
The Antique Store
Catherine and I went to an antique store yesterday, down the road a bit in Cambridge, MD. I am a big fan of antique stores, not kitschy collections of other people’s junk mind you, but honest to goodness antiques. Catherine has a wonderful eye and exceptional taste, and she’s filled our house with all manner of treasures, and watching her buy this stuff over the years has been an education. Our tastes are pretty well aligned, and by this time I think I know what things she will like (and dislike). The problem though, is that we’re running out of house. I looked at a few dressers and chests, and a few really caught my eye. But where to put them? Now, don’t go thinking that I have the kind of domestic juice that would enable me to buy one and put it somewhere. Not at all. These decisions are the domain of the Lady of the Manor, and so while I admired a few, I walked on past. The store itself is a wonder, a maze-like setup where one room leads to another and a trail of breadcrumbs seems appropriate. I also find myself drawn to very very very simple—almost primitive—kitchen tables. Not these gaudy things that are like a big hunk of tree with a polished surface. Eew. I like a simple, handmade table, old, really old. I like to think about where it has been, the conversations it has hosted, the problems solved there and the problems created there. Saw one yesterday that I really liked. But I only have one kitchen.
Acupuncture, You Say?
I have old man pains in various places, like where my right big toe meets my foot, my left foot arch, my right shoulder, and my right hand where the thumb meets my wrist. I take one or two Advils or Tylenols or aspirins or Alleves each day, and they do the trick for a little while, but not that long. I’ve factored these things in to my every day life, and stoically accept that things are unlikely to get better.
I don’t drink, I don’t gamble, I am not profligate with my money—but I will spend a penny on wellness/personal services. I get a monthly massage in town, and usually get an airport version if available at some other point. I get my hair cut in a place I have never seen another human with a Y-Chromosome, although I am told some do appear now and then. On a walk around the main block in town last week for a haircut or a massage (I can’t remember which one), I passed by a storefront advertising “Acupuncture”. I’ve noticed it a hundred times before and wondered about what went on behind the facade, but on this morning, the aforementioned pain where the right big toe meets the foot was talking to me. So when I got home, I looked up this little business online (thanks Google) and wrote a note to the proprietress, indicating these aches and pains and wondering if she had luck in the past with others complaining of the same. She called me soon thereafter and we set an appointment for this Saturday past.
I fancy myself a man of science and evidence and facts and the like, but I have a great respect for things beyond my ability to understand (see: Christianity). Alternative medicine falls into this category, especially those treatments that have stood the test of time. So it was only natural that I’d eventually get around to acupuncture. Truth be told, part of a regimen of physical therapy on the right shoulder recently included a bit of “dry needling” which the physical therapist was very insistent was NOT acupuncture, and which the acupuncturist agreed was not acupuncture. But on the business end of things, someone sticks a small needle into your body in order to relieve pain, and it worked along with the other aspects of physical therapy, so I figured I’d give acupuncture a try.
I showed up on time (natch) and my acupuncturist was sweeping the sidewalk outside her studio. She ushered me in warmly and we sat on couches at a ninety degree angle to each other while I first filled out some paperwork and then sat for a surprisingly thorough interview about my medical history and habits. I had read a piece online entitled “What To Expect When You Go For Your First Acupuncture Session” and the experience tracked along pretty closely with that prediction. We headed back to a small room with a padded table on it and I was instructed to lie flat on my back. The insertion of the inserted needles (maybe 20 altogether) made little or no sense to me, but were presumably placed on the basis of the areas I claimed to have pain. Three were placed on the outer rim of each ear. One in the middle of my forehead. Several in each hand and foot. Inserting the needles took maybe, three minutes, as she clearly had a plan in mind. When she was finished, she told me that she would return in 30 minutes, and that I should lie quietly or fall asleep, whatever I wished. She handed me a little cowbell that I was to ring if I needed assistance. Then she left the room.
There I was, listening to the soothing sounds of therapeutic Eastern music with a number of little needles in me. Most of them didn’t hurt at all going in, but two or three did, and she seemed to know that they would because she told me they would in advance. The one in my right index finger just below the nail was probably the most uncomfortable, but still wasn’t that bad. Unlike the dry needling experience which goes straight at the center of the pain where it is (and you FEEL it where it hurts), my session involved “distal acupuncture” where knee pain is targeted through the elbows and the like. It was really quite comfortable, and aside from fearing that if I fell asleep my hands would shift and drive needles an inch and a half into my skin, it was really quite pleasant. I did in fact, fall asleep, or at least into something like sleep where time passed and I was not conscious of thinking.
At the appointed time, she returned to the room and methodically removed each needle. I wondered if she ever forgot how many she put in. When she was complete, I asked her “what did you just do?” and talked about where my pain was and how she targeted it, she talked about “channels” and “Qi” (pronounced “chee”), and I listened intently. When she left the room I got up and went to put my shoes back on and realized that my right toe/foot didn’t hurt, and my left arch hurt less. I moved my right hand and shoulder around a bit and neither hurt as much as when I walked in (don’t worry, they didn’t hurt that much when I walked in).
It is now a day later and the pain relief continues. I’m pretty sure it won’t last the three weeks until my next session, but who am I to complain.
It sounds like you are having the kind of day I have been experiencing the past few weeks...
Your apology for lack of energy is accepted.
You have more energy than I.
GOP!!!
I think modern communication technology is in the process of destroying the two parties ability to control the system of selecting and supporting candidates. Sad. The clowns are now the ring masters.
Christmas Movies!!
We all need some mindless entertainment, esp in this era.
Antiques!
Does She Who Must Be Obeyed ascribe to the definition of antiques that says they must be made before about 1830; before the advent of the mass production factories?
Pain!
You have not yet experienced the painful joys of my age - 88. I have suffered from Peripheral Nueuropathy since 1997 resulting from a back operation. Over the years it has spread from the toes to the lower legs. I deal with it by self hypnosis. Telling myself to ignore it as I suffer no open wounds or broken bones. I live on doses of 3 Ibuprofen every 6 hours. Also helpful is to obey the demands of my SWMBO and stay active with projects. Glad you got some relief via acupuncture.