Oh, and, by the way, the quote from Ed Abbey? Brilliant, and, in many ways, if it is the only thing you take away with you from today’s post, you will not have been wasting your time…. Just sayin’, y’know?   ….

So, where was I, before my silly parenthetical mind hopped over a couple of dimensions, to take up a totally different subject, than that with which we began? Oh, hell, it doesn’t matter, anyway; this will get all twisted around if I try to justify any of it. That happens every time I forget….. with the new Tardis, I may never actually know, precisely, or, with any degree of confidence at all, just when I am…. Not where, when…. I could be writing this last week, or next week, or, in a previous life; I most likely, will, or did, or plan to, or well, you see the problem, right?…. Since the advent of the powers of a Time Lord. I’m having to learn a completely new and different way to both talk, and write, not to even mention think….

So, since it no longer matter at all where we started, I’ll just go on…..

“What’s the metric unit of pain? The Angstrom.” — Smart Bee

It took me about 10 seconds, but, once I got it, I just about FOMCL, because IWLSHICLCOMMO, y’know? Get it? Pain? Angst(rom)? (*** See below for acronym definitions…) Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Classic, and priceless, this almost killed me…. it’s just so ME!….. On this scale, I live at approximately 12 Å, ( “Å”, naturally, is the symbol for angstroms, an actual scientific scale, though normally applied to measure the brightness of light on the electromagnetic scale that describes the rainbow of colors that make up the light we see….), on a scale of 27 Å as maximum (think massive tooth impaction/infection, or, childbirth…. either wodl hit around 27 Å…), with daily forays into the twenties….

Probably, I’m running an average daily rate of about, oh, right now, factoring in the arthritis flare-up the last few days… about 18-20 Å….. As I type, that’s about where we are, which is just at the upper limit of what I can control, and still be able to type without whimpering piteously, as is the case when it goes past twenty….

All that said, people may wonder why I still have to write this blog every day, or, why I have to say so much, if it hurts so badly…. Well, that, to me, is simple…. and, can be expressed by three pieces of graphic art, that just happen to be in my archived files…. I suppose you could say that the following three entries comprise a statement of purpose that is as close as I’ll ever come to making up a mission, or vision statement….. with one caveat, which merely says this:

I’ve lived with, and played with, pain, all of my life one way or another; it is not something I will ever allow to completely dominate my decisions about how to live, or what I am capable of doing. Pain may be my enemy, but, it is an enemy whom I have long held at bay, consistently battling it to a draw, throughout all the years of my life; I don’t intend to allow that to change at this late date…. Giving in & letting it control my life is unacceptable….

Onward….

*** Acronyms from above:

“almost

FOMCL = Fell out of my chair laughing….

because,

IWLSHICLCOMMO = I was laughing so hard I completely lost control of my medulla oblongata….”

From January 29, 2013, as the intro to the intro:

At the age I’ve reached, one of the best lessons I learned, long ago, is/was the value of routine. Developing a routine of efficient activities to organize the start of the day  is one of the most important tools one can find and use in the work-a-day world. It allows one to get to work on time, with everything in hand that is necessary to the day, and with mind and body prepared for the tasks ahead, without undue stress or worry.

When this routine is disrupted, it can affect the tenor of the entire remainder of the day, like ripples in a pond spreading out from the point of impact, or a mathematical error in computing an orbit, an infinitesimal flaw that grows bigger with each new computation, at an alarming rate, faster with each passing nanosecond…..

I’m starting to believe that even Murphy is not immune to the power of schedules and routines. When I was younger, and still going to work daily, if I observed the details of my routine with enough concentrated attention, he seemed to stand back and not bother with me, waiting for other times to step in with his decidedly infantile sense of humor. If he was very, very clever, he sometimes could affect a small part of the routine, and cause a bit of uproar, but generally, I’d get so focused on carrying it out, he couldn’t get me to pay any attention to him, so, off he’d go, to find someone more vulnerable…..

All of which means that there is a hidden power, involved in the acting out of routine behaviors, carried out time after time until they are ingrained, a power of organization and will, that, somehow, is able to resist the oppositional power of chaos that Murphy so adeptly subjects us to whenever he can….

**Note from 2014: the above is here to supplement yesterday’s recounting of Murphy’s latest escapade here at gigoid’s house, at gigoid’s expense… Sorry, do I still sound pissed off? I guess I do…. Ah, well, I’ll get it out right now… & be done with it all….

When Murphy got me yesterday, and, to give him his due, he got me good, I had fallen into the mental trap, whose reasons for existing at all are connected to my own thought patterns, and the exercise of my will used to control those patterns, of taking the power of routine for granted; I placed too much credence on its ability to keep Murphy occupied elsewhere, if my own state of mind was not focused enough for it to work…. THIS is why I got caught yesterday with my pants not down, but, in danger of bursting into flame, so to speak, and to mix metaphors horrendously…. In short, I was a complacently oblivious Bozo, this time to my dismay, not my pride, or even bemused acceptance…

That said, since I now know how to avoid any repetition of such events, we can move on for the day, content this section served at least one or two socially acceptable purposes to good effect…. I’m going to continue my campaign to keep things lighter, and shorter, by going directly into an old school pearl, filled with good thought, advice on living, and general, all-around good stuff, as we call it here, when we can’t think of any good words, and the thesaurus is buried somewhere…. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m in a mood…. what kind of mood is, at this point, undetermined; being human, however, I’m sure I’m in one. The sign are all there, and clear…. This means, if I do as I intended, and try to write a fresh poem, it would probably reflect that mood…. Quite simply, at this juncture, I don’t trust my mood enough to allow that to happen; the results could conceivably cause me to cease writing altogether, and then where would my sanity be?

Nowhere, that’s where…. So, I’ll go for someone else’s work, and be done with it, knowing my mood will direct whatever choice I end up making…. I just hope it doesn’t explode, which has happened in the past, to our chagrin, not to mention surprised shock and awe…. Well, whatever it may end up as, try to enjoy it, okay? I DO generally go with classic, so, that may help…. We’ll see, I suppose…. Wish me luck…. Ah, thanks, that worked; here’s one of my favorite all time poems, by my all time favorite poetess, which will do just fine….

Well, all thing considered, that went well…. which it very possibly may not have done, given the usual state of affairs here in the morning…. Today the new Time Lord powers helped quite a bit, so, I guess I’m getting a little further along the learning curve on that…. It will do, since this one, even shortened as it may be, exceeds the average by a good portion…. Whatever, right? I’ll be going now…. See y’all tomorrow, most likely…. The odds on that are looking good….