My health-related sleep issues are making it difficult to blog. I find myself sleeping till noon and never being properly rested. It’s not even major health problems, just a cold and a canker sore.
Yesterday I had plans for something exciting, Seeing the Escher exhibit at Industry City. Shortly before I planned on leaving they called Dan who bought the tickets and told him they were closing because of the weather. I was too sleepy to travel to Brooklyn just to hang out. My excitement for the day was dinner. I made Buffalo wings with a baked potato and garlic bread. Buffalo wings have an excellent pleasure:preparation ratio.
I just got good news, my cataract surgery has been moved up to March 4! All that’s left after that is going to the optometrist and getting prescription reading glasses. After that I’m going to be doing a lot of reading and going to the movies. Two things I haven’t be able to do.
After writing that paragraph I fell asleep for an hour. Then I made breakfast and I’m now drinking my coffee. That should keep me going long enough to finish this. It would help if I knew what I was going to write. Here’s a good thing. I just checked my email for one that I had anxiety about. It was there and my anxiety was wasted. It was fine. It’s important that I remind myself of that. It’s a slow process but every step helps, and I am getting better.
One more weird health thing. Since I had this stupid cough and cold my other chronic problems have pretty much gone away. I have not had back or joint pain and I had only one day of bathroom issues. As the man on the cross said, “Always look on the bright side of life.”
I figured out what I’m going to write about, nothing, just like Seinfeld. I’m just going to mention things that have been bouncing around my brain of late. When I started blogging I said I would write about myself as it’s the thing I know best, so this is on program.
WFUV has a feature each weekday morning, The Question of the Day. The host, Corny O’Connell or whoever is sitting in for him gives the questions and the listeners send in songs that answer the question. I love it. My sister Alison and I have sing downs. We pick a topic and we have to name songs that fit it until one of us runs out of songs. The one that gives the last song wins. We have to sing them, at least come close. The QotD is the same deal but without the singing. Corny picks the songs to play, usually four of them. We have a Question of the Day group on Facebook where we can give our suggestions and discuss them. We’ve created a community. I’m the resident curmudgeon. I call foul when people miss the mark. My all-time favorite bad answer was when someone suggested Cesária Évora when the question asked for Latin music. Cesária is from Cape Verde Island off the coast of Africa. When I pointed that out instead of saying, “Whoops!” she tried to defend it as Portuguese is a Romance language. On Monday the topic was Presidents. One person suggested a great song, “Alexander Hamilton” from “Hamilton the Musical.” One problem. Hamilton was never president. Many of the other songs from the show mention Washington, Adams, or Jefferson, any of which would be fine. Did the person think Hamilton was president? Today’s question was who or what is your latest British musical discovery; either a new artist or new song. Someone suggested, “The Smiths” they disbanded in 1987. Has the person not heard any British music since then? My bigger question is, why does this bother me so much? It drives me to distraction. It’s just like when I was teaching and a student wouldn’t even know what a test question meant.
I’m very happy that Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is back from hiatus. Last week’s main segment was on Brexit. The most illuminating segment was talking to a British florist whose business risks being decimated by Brexit. He depends on an open market and friction free imports from the continent. The enlightening part is that he voted for Brexit without even thinking about how it would affect his business. I’m very much afraid that most people vote just like him; they don’t analyze they vote how they feel and politicians cater to this by making promises people want to hear without any thought to how to accomplish it. If your platform was “give all the children chocolate eclairs” people would support you without giving any thought of how it would work. Saddest of all, they don’t like politicians who go into details. In America “Build the Wall!” and “Break up the Banks!” resonate even though they don’t have any intellectual content. Their purpose is to signify which side you are taking, not how to make things better. I’ll just keep banging my head against the wall as I don’t know how to make people’s decision making better.
I better post this and go. I want to go to my PO Box and go food shopping.
Wise Madness 