Hmm. That didn’t come out quite right, did it? Not quite as planned, either…. Oh, well….  So be it, anyway.

Hi, there. I’m back. Sort of. Are we confused yet?

Oh, good. Me, too. But, it’s okay, because at least I’m home to BE confused. Here, if and/or when I must spew, I know where to go, whether the need(must!) be mental, physical, or spiritual…. Each, as you know, of course, requires a different receptacle, all designed to prevent cross-contamination, of which none wish it so…. No, we all wish to keep them separate, in sturdy, attractive, thoroughly-tested nocturnal urns of great beauty, which I keep in numerous handy locations at home. (Doesn’t everyone?) In public, or on the road, as we’ve/I’ve been recently, one can’t always arrange matters so neatly, not ahead of need, anyway.

I wasn’t sure whether to go into moderate piles of detail, a lot of detail, or no details at all, at all, regarding my recent trip; there is certainly a LOT of stuff I need to process in my own mind about what occurred while I was gone. For the moment, since I’m still pretty effing tired from the rather extreme effort I had to expend to reach home, I’ll forgo any long diatribes, merely alluding to the entire episode as my Latest Slip/Slide/Ride Around the Learning Curve…. It has a nice, obscure, yet enticing ring to it, I think…. How ’bout y’all?….

Oh, don’t worry…. I don’t expect a lot of comments on that. Almost purely rhetorical, it was, so, relax. mates…. But, feel free, of course, to add one at the end, should you be so moved. No blockage encouraged here; we don’t even like the word. We like the word moved better. Speaking of which, if I DO decide to discuss the trip, you should find it in the ranting section, since I’ve already perused the news, observing nothing upon which I would comment, other than a lack of stuff on which to comment…. Ahem.

There. That will do. It will have to do, because that’s it for the intro…. In fact, look, it’s an old #4! Better duck, hang on, or go back to sleep….

Shall we Pearl?….

“When you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” — Bishop Desmond Tutu

Well, maybe that’s a little grim for a first day back; let’s try again, shall we?….

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” — George Bernard Shaw

Better…. Let’s do this….

“There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.” — Will Rogers

“Once, there was NO fun…  This was before MENU planning, FASHION statements or NAUTILUS equipment… Then, in 1985..  FUN was completely encoded in this tiny MICROCHIP…. It contains 14,768 vaguely amusing SIT-COM pilots!! We had to wait FOUR BILLION years but we finally got JERRY LEWIS, MTV and a large selection of creme-filled snack cakes!” — Zippy the Pinhead

There you go. Now we can get on with the small amount of detail I am allowed to share regarding my time away…. Who’s saying what’s allowed? Oh, no worries, I am…. Who here would care what THEY would allow? Hah! Give me a break…..

Sorry, cheap hack crap, I know. Let’s start again, or, over, or, something….

So, I went into this pub in Galway, where I proceeded to have pizza. Wait. It wasn’t a pub. Walked around the Spanish Arch FOREVER looking for a relatively quiet place for a bite, but, could not find any, it being the night prior to their local version of the Super Bowl, to wit: the Irish Football championships, with Galway playing Kilkenny for the premier league title, for the 8th year in a row (Galway having lost the previous 7 times….). Needless to say, the place was jumping, and, yes, finding a seat anywhere was a challenge.

It took so long, I apparently reached what I discovered was the very end of my rope. Feeling tired but normal, I ordered a second glass of wine after a decent pizza marguerita in an Italian restaurant (in a place called the Spanish Arch, in an Irish town, with a Romanian waitress and a Polish bartender….). I took one sip of that wine, then, stood up, & quickly retired/teleported myself to the nearest restroom, where I proceeded to toss the entire remaining contents of the day’s consumption into the commode, calling desperately for RALPH! With the help of relative strangers, I made it to a taxi, back to the B&B, and into bed, where I remained, essentially, for days….

So, without getting into too many details, other than to say, gee, thanks, doctors, you fuck heads…. I’ll just say this…. Trying to exist without perpetrating violence upon STUPID sheeple for 28 hours straight, while confined in a closed space, with intermittent, all-too-frequent, alternating chills, nausea, muscular twitching, severe stomach pain, and, periods of panicked anxiety, all enhanced by various painful joints, muscles, and/or every single molecule in my body on full alert…. but, don’t move around the cabin!….

Great fun…..

End of rant, and, end of complaints. It’s all getting better, little by little, as I rest, applying the missing pieces to the puzzle of why it happened…. which I do happen to know, and am dealing with in my own fashion…. I’m hoping another day or two of rest will do the trick; it will take that long just to get my internal clock right, I should think…. Ah, well, so much for the world traveler, eh?…. More later on all this, ffolkes….

“Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iv, 50

“Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms … but a *dying* culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Loss of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.” — Friday’s boss, Mr. Two-Canes Baldwin, from “Friday” by Robert A. Heinlein

“Most people would rather give than get affection.” — Aristotle

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” — Ovid

“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” — Maya Angelou

“To cheat oneself out of love is the most terrible deception; it is aneternal loss for which there is no reparation, either in time or in eternity.” — Soren Kierkegaard

“Always be a little kinder than necessary.” — James M. Barrie

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No, I don’t know what happened; all I know is I’ve been at this for hours, and it’s done…. Now to see if I can post it…. We’ll try again tomorrow, ffolkes, if I’ve regained some energy, or, have decided to give in to the demands of Fate. Hmm…. Not bloody likely, I think. We’ll see….